Left Behind

Sorry I haven't posted for a while. I have been away for a bit & had some techinical probs.

Here is the report that many of you have been expecting, the sorry tale of the emergence of a fascist stronghold on the Essex/East London border. Most of you will now know that the BNP won an amazing 11 seats on Barking and Dagenham council. But it's worse than that, the fascists have also won seats in Redbridge, Epping Forest and in my home council of Havering.

Why has this happened? Well, of course issues like housing and general disgust at the sleazy government of Tony Blair play their part, but these are issues that are relevant right across London and not just in this area. The main reason is, put simply, that most white people in this part of the world are racist to some extent or another and some are very racist indeed.

If you listen to or watch the vox pops that have taken place around the area then you will know that race is the common theme. Some people try and weave things around issues such as housing and health but it is clear that race is the real issue. For example, one woman seemed convinced that the asian woman who worked at her local doctor's surgery would only allow asians to get an appointment!

Surprisingly, the Searchlight campaign in B & D did seem to work insofar as the Labour vote locally actually held up quite well. The only problem was that turnout almost doubled as thousands of people who wouldn't normally have voted came out specifically to vote for the BNP.

What can we do? In short, nothing. It would be nice if an active left could oppose the fascist but one simply does not exist in the area and I simply don't have the time and the energy to run around four different boroughs trying to create one. One idea might be to organise an American style "day without Immigrants" in the area. Then all the racists would have to make do with the putrid cockney cuisine of "pie and mash" as all the chippies, take aways and curry houses in the area closed down for the day.

Dan N