Wickford: Angry protesters confront the BNP

| Monday, 26 April 2004 Source: www.thisisessex.co.uk

Police kept anti-Nazi protesters and British National Party supporters apart during tense confrontations at a south Essex train station at the weekend.

Far-right skinheads and other racists gathered at Wickford station before moving on to a "family" rally at Crowsheath Farm, near Ramsden Heath, on Saturday morning.

They were met by an angry group of hundreds of protesters who chanted "scum, scum, scum", "black and white unite, fight the BNP", and "keep Wickford Nazi free, smash the BNP".

Tempers flared as the racists tried to goad protesters, who were kept from confronting the BNP by police.

The protesters were a mixture of concerned residents, councillors, MEPs, trade unionists, members of various peace movements and other political parties.

At one point they marched in a loop down Station Avenue, along the High Street and back to the station.

One of the protesters, Betty Davis, 76, of Love Close, Southend, said her father and grandfather helped stop Fascists marching through London's East End, during the famous Cable Street clashes in 1936.

She added: "You have always got to stop them. When you look back at the Holocaust, they came into power softly by pretending they were respectable. That's what they are doing now."

BNP spokesman Matt Single claimed the Crowsheath Farm rally was a friendly family event.

A police spokesman said: "There were no arrests. We have recorded the protest at the station as peaceful."