At last, common sense has prevailed.

Over the last few weeks, there have been a lot of statements, counter statements and accusations made against Hastings Unite Against Fascism and its stance on the BNP being allowed to speak at the "hustings" at Crown House, St. Leonards.

I would like, at this time, to put the record straight. At no time has Hastings UAF "blackmailed" or threatened anyone or any organisation who wished to attend, or hold any debate where the BNP were invited. A letter was sent to all those concerned, obviously not the BNP, asking them not to share a debating platform with them. The reasons were outlined in the letter, as to why this organisation should not be invited.  the final decision was left completely up to the organiser and its participants. It was also stated in the letter, that if the BNP did turn up, Hastings UAF would hold a peaceful protest outside the venue.

Tonight, on 25th March, a successful peaceful protest was held outside Crown House by Hastings UAF, Youth for Jobs and Hastings & District Trades Council. Supporters from Brighton UAF, Brighton & Sussex Universitys, Unison, GMB and PCS were also in attendance.  It was a noisy gathering, as most protests go but no windows were smashed, there was no rioting, no baton charges by the police and no arrests made. Those who chose to attend the meeting were not accosted, threatened, jostled or prevented from entry by protesters.

As HUAF understand it, the local FSB, earlier in the day, decided to withdraw their invitation to the BNP. HUAF were not aware of this, but still decided to go ahead with the protest. The only reason HUAF can think of for this change of heart, is that common sense prevailed. Whoever made that decision, whether it was made locally or nationally, has to be applauded, for this was the correct one.

There is no place in our town, society or country, for politics of hate, racial, islamaphobic or homophobic descrimination. We all have the right to live our lives, without the fear or terror, waged by a thoroughly obnoxious illegal "political" party and its accolytes due to their colour, creed or life choices.
 
A "political" party cannot be deemed legal if it descriminates against membership and tries to manipulate the legal and democratic process for that aim. A "legal" political party would not try to divert Euro MEP's expenses, to fund its its own party. I could go on and on but the list of this partys' discretions, over the years, is far too long to list here.

The time to stand up to the BNP and other extremist right-wing parties can only be achieved through direct action. Either by protests, as was proved tonight, or through the ballot box. If you do not wish to take to the streets you can still protest, by exercising your franchise.           
    

Why is it, whenever we come to a local and/or a General Election, the ugly face of racism rears its ugly head? Are we all so stupid that we have not learnt anything from the past 80 years? Or is it that WW2, Kosova and the Brixton riots just to name a few, mean absolutely nothing to us?
When picking up my weekly Hastings Observer this week, I read the banner headline, TAXI DRIVERS FACE RACE HATE ORDEAL. This particular article turned my stomach, not just because Aras Cassidy has been my taxi driver on a number of occasions when taking me to work, but because this does not seem to be just an isolated incident in Hastings. 
The only reason I can fathom for this trend seems to be the rise of the British National Party and the television propaganda that it has been receiving locally (Inside Out on BBC) recently. Admittedly, in any society you always get loonies, whether it be left or right of the political spectrum. There are also those people of all ages who are naturally stupid and gullible and pander to the BNP's rhetoric of racial hatred.
I now find that someone called Lord Brett McLean (who calls himself Lord of Hastings) is holding a political hustings meeting in the name of the FSB, Federation of Small Businesses (the only FSB I know of is the Russian Secret Service) on the 25th March at Crown House. He has invited all the main political partys to attend with the inclusion of the BNP. Now call me an old fool if you like but wouldn't giving an evil party such as the BNP a political platform not only give them the air of respectabilty they crave for but also show the ethnic minorities in Hastings that our MP and other PPC's that they do not care about them and are prepared to share the same debating platform with an extremely and thoroughly despicable "political" party. Answers on a postcard please Foster, Rudd and Perry.
The only way to treat these people is with the contempt they deserve and to "cold shoulder" them at every opportunity. Or better still, turn up at the Crown House on the 25th and show these Parliamentary Prospective Candidates that we do not want them to debate with or want the BNP in our town.