A pause for thought

posted by: Nick Lowles | on: Wednesday, 10 December 2008, 07:44

Yesterday seemed to go at 100 mph as I rushed from meeting to meeting. First up was a gathering of a small working group to plan out some future work in Barking & Dagenham. I then managed to catch some lunch with our designer and over a bowl of chilli we mapped out a new online strategy. Meetings are great but they do seem to just generate more work but I guess it's for the good in the lunchtime. Then it was straight back into Parliament for a meeting with a number of MPs from areas where the BNP is particularly active.The attendence wasn't great but the upside was that we were able to talk more in depth about a few areas and agreed some joint work.

In the evening I spoke in Ilford at a meeting of the Redbridge and Epping Together Group. If one wanted to see an example of a good local group this is it. It is broadbased, firmly established in the local community, does year-round campaigning and - as was evident in May's local elections - is successful.

I returned home to two emails which are worth a mention. The first was a story about a Tajik man who was beheaded in an apparent racist attack in Russia. He was a totally innocent man who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Having been to Tajikistan this summer I saw the unbelieavle poverty in the country - a poverty that drives people overseas in search of work. He was a victim twice over.

According to one report this brings the number of racist murders in the country this year to 82 - a quite shocking total.

The second email was far more positive. It was from an activist from North Manchester Against Racism who attended our North West day school at the end of last month. She wrote to me thanking Searchlight for organising the event and explained how they were taking the campaign forward locally.

I have said it before and no doubt I will say it again. I am lucky because I get paid to do a job I love to do. There are many people out there who squeeze in anti-fascist campaigning where they can. They, in my opinion, are the real heroes of this struggle.