Energy in Cumbria

posted by: Nick L | on: Saturday, 13 December 2008, 17:55

It may have been wet and cold but there was certainly energy in the room in the Unison office in Cumbria this morning. A group of trade unionists who had recently been to Poland with the Sefton Holocaust Project were meeting up again to discuss the trip and future related activities. The visit to the concentration camps had left a strong impression on those who went and there was a clear determination to make the link with the fight against the BNP back home.

Listening to them talk about their trip did give me a chance to reflect on my own trip to Poland a couple of years ago. I do what I do in my life because I passionately hate racism and fascism but from time to time it is important to be reminded of the true horrors of what we are up against. I think it helped to visit Auschwitz when it was minus 9 and deep snow made the place even more dreary and desolate. What I remember most isn't the glasses or stacks of shoes but it was the vast expanse of the place. To think that Nick Griffin, who has long claimed that the Holocaust did not happen, might become an MEP certainly motivates me to work all that harder to stop him.

I gave a short address to the meeting about the HOPE not hate campaign and then there was a discussion about how we could engage trade union members more directly. Three HOPE not hate meetings were arranged for early in the New Year, two in areas where nothing had been organised before.

I'm trying to have a night off tonight, however, the break will be shortlived. Over the next couple of days we will be finalising our campaign plans for next year's elections. It might not be the normal way to ease our way into the festive period but we are determined to hit the ground running in the New Year.