In praise of Hope not hate Yorkshire

posted by: Nick Lowles | on: Wednesday, 4 August 2010, 09:59

It is easy to take things for granted and overlook what achievements made in this line of work. In a world of constant political battles, where one electoral and political struggle follows another in some never ending contest, it is easy to forget past successes. Often it is only when one is criticised that you stop and think.

This is where I found myself overnight. I flew to Sweden late last night to give a talk about HOPE not hate and while waiting for what seemed like ages for my lift I mulled over some of the criticism to our opposition of a counter-demo in Bradford. My first reaction was to be defensive, to answer the critics point by point and defend our corner. I then got annoyed, thinking that most of the most vocal opponents (and to be honest only a minority of people who have contacted me have been critical of our position) are good at talking but have done little in the fight against the BNP and EDL.

From there I became reflective, contrasting their inaction to the work we have done in Bradford and beyond.

In 2004 Bradford was one of the BNP's strongest areas. They had four councillors and came second in at least six other wards. Today, the situation is very different. The BNP is pegged back into one ward and even here they act semi-independently of the party. The BNP has collapsed in Keighley, once its real powerbase, and while the party stands candidates in local elections they have virtually no activists to do any real work.

The main reason for the BNP decline in the city is down to the work of HOPE not hate Yorkshire and in particular its organisers Lorraine and Paul. They have worked tirelessly to build grassroots resistance to the BNP, working with community groups, faith groups and the political parties to isolate and defeat the fascists.

Just look at the campaign being run now in Bradford. We are just a few hundred short of collecting 10,000 signatures within the city in support of a ban. That's about 5% of all adults in Bradford. This is no mean feat and is the product of hard work and good links in the community. Over 130 people have been involved in the campaign over the last few weeks, many joining us for the first time. We have held stalls in the city centre, stood outside (and inside) mosques and churches and even gone door to door speaking to local people.

The trade union movement is fully behind our campaign, so are all faith groups, the chamber of commerce and politicians across the political spectrum. Even the local newspaper is backing the campaign. This has only happened through hard work and good organising.

A few days ago Paul was worried that we wouldn't reach our 10,000 target. It was always going to be a hard task. But since then even he has been surprised by the range of people who downloaded petition sheets and have been collecting names on their own accord. One person even rang Paul to say that he had personally collected 500 names in a solidly white working class area. People, young and old, are getting involved, many reluctantly, simply because they are scared of what might happen if the EDL march.

HOPE not hate Yorkshire have done, and continue to do, a brilliant job. This is real community politics connecting with people where they are not perhaps where we would like them to be. Their campaign against the EDL is a continuation of this community-orientated approach.

I think we will succeed in stopping the EDL march but even if we don't we can hold our head up high and say we did everything we could to stop them. In the process we have built deeper and stronger relationships in the communities we have to engage with.