Yorkshire blog

You've been brilliant...!

posted by: Paul Meszaros | on: Tuesday, 2 June 2009, 15:55

With only two days to go in the Yorkshire campaign we just wanted to convey how fantastic our supporters have been.

Today is D-day and this morning's commuters were greeted by HNH volunteers at many bus and rail stations across the region. We've shifted thousands of leaflets today, and come teatime this will be repeated. The message of fighting fascism as previous generations did is really striking a chord with people.

This is just one example of countless campaigning activities that have happened over recent weeks and months. Apart from the Hope Not Hate bus and various days of action, we've been bowled over with offers to organise events and requests for leaflets. Faith groups, students, unions and others have been using their own networks on a grand scale. This has extended the reach of the Yorks campaign beyond where we've ever been before, and at last count about 750,000 leaflets have gone out in our region. And it's only Tuesday!

Thanks for everything you've done on this campaign. We're nearly there and the message is still the same. Use your vote - every single one we can raise against the BNP will count. And keep telling your friends, family and colleagues to do so. As they say, for evil to prevail all it takes is for good people to do nothing. Hope can win over hate because all you good people have done something.

Get your leafleting boots on!

posted by: Lorraine Fitzsimons | on: Tuesday, 7 April 2009, 15:26

Leafleting day of action - 11am, Sunday 19 April, Sheffield

If you're a more seasoned Hope Not Hate activist you'll have been itching to get out there and fill a few letterboxes. Normally by this time of year we've been out leafleting several times. Well now's your chance.

There's a by-election in East Ecclesfield, Sheffield on 30 April. So far, Sheffield has not been afflicted by BNP councillors, and we need to keep it that way. The whole of South Yorkshire has been a target area for much BNP activism and recruiting in recent months, and they'll have high hopes to make their first breakthrough in Sheffield.

The BNP have been using by-elections in Yorkshire to mount quick concerted campaigns, which brought them 9% of the vote in Harrogate and 23% only last week in Leeds. These are all steps along the way to testing their vote and building support for June.

Let's keep up the pressure. We've hundreds of activists signed up in Sheffield, more in South Yorkshire and still more in the unions, faith groups, students and more. Please support the leafleting day of action in Sheffield on 19 April.

Meet 11am, Trades & Labour Club, Duke Street, Sheffield S2 5QQ

Too busy to blog?

posted by: Lorraine Fitzsimons | on: Tuesday, 24 March 2009, 16:17

Apologies for the radio silence on these pages, we’ve been having a hectic time lately.

The Yorkshire & Humber campaign is building at a fast pace and our activists and supporters are key to this.

The early phase of the campaign has been very much about building networks and our activist base, raising awareness of the European elections and signing people up to help.

There’s many strands to this.

Recently we’ve been building some exciting work with faith groups which will really broaden our reach – the churches in particular are getting on board, we’ll be mobilising large numbers of Muslim voters from around the region, as well as working with Jewish communities.

The women’s leaflet got a great launch this month at the TUC women’s conference, but this has got a much wider appeal and is spurring many women to use their informal networks to spread the word.

Union

Friday is only a few weeks away and we’ll shortly be sending out the union toolkits and DVDs to many branches we’ve spoken at and worked with.

This month we spoke to a group of shop stewards at a large industrial workplace.

It really brought home how important trade unions are to the campaign, but also how much the BNP are active in workplaces and exploit worker concerns.

Our main intro leaflet has been circulated far and wide, and we keep having to get more printed.

This both mobilises new activists and spells out the main issues – if you can circulate these through your networks please get in touch.

We’ve been firming up lots of other campaign days around the region.

These will be concentrated in the final six weeks of the campaign, where we want to deliver over 300,000 leaflets to voters across Yorkshire & Humber.

One little snippet from last week was a call from someone who’d received a BNP leaflet through his door.

He requested 1,000 leaflets to deliver singlehandedly in his neighbourhood.

When I asked him how he’d heard about the campaign he told me he’d picked up our leaflet at his local theatre.

I’m sure it was one of the new activists who came to the dayschool who put them there!

Just goes to show how important each individual’s small interventions are – together we’re so much stronger.

Keep in touch!

hq@hopeyorks,org.uk

The BNP threat in Yorkshire

posted by: Lorraine Fitzsimons | on: Tuesday, 10 March 2009, 23:36

In the forthcoming European Elections on June 4th the BNP need poll as little as 11% of the vote to gain an MEP. This would be a disaster for our region and for all our communities. The amount of money and credibility that the BNP would gain if they won a seat could transform that organisation possibly making it a permanent feature of politics. The malign influence of their racist and divisive views would be magnified threatening civil society throughout the region.

We are committed to ensuring that we don't wake up on June 5th to this nightmare and are seeking to build alliances across the region with all people of different walks of life, faiths and beliefs. Our common goal is the defeat of the BNP.