Union link-up

posted by: Nick Lowles | on: Friday, 13 March 2009, 11:47

I’m currently on the train heading back up to Manchester after a flying visit down to London. At 9am this morning we did a short video message with Unison General Secretary Dave Prentis, which will be sent out to his union’s activists next week. Dave made a clear denunciation of the BNP and the threat it posed to his members, as well as a really good endorsement of the HOPE not hate campaign.

Talking of unions, I spoke at length this morning with Lorraine, one of the Yorkshire HOPE not hate team. She had just returned from TUC women’s conference where she and the HnH campaign generally was really well received.

More good news on the union front came from a call I received this morning saying that the National Union of Mineworkers had agreed to a joint leaflet with the HOPE not hate campaign that will be distributed through former mining communities over the next couple of months. While the NUM only has a couple of thousand members it has a long and respected reach into many of the very areas which are now being targeted by the BNP. A joint leaflet would allow us to remind former mining communities of the despicable role played by the BNP during the 1984/5 strike.