Up to 2,000 anti-fascist demonstrators turned out on the streets of west London today to protest outside the BBC Centre against BNP leader Nick Griffin being invited on to the BBC's flagship Question Time programme. The crowd was young, lively and multi-racial – a manifestation of the society that Griffin and his gang of Nazi thugs would like to see crushed.
The Unite Against Fascism demonstration spilled out into the road, bringing traffic to a standstill and delaying the start of the filming of Question Time. The size of protest led Griffin to refuse to use the main gate to the BBC. He was smuggled in through a back entrance instead. Across the country people held local anti-fascist protests at their BBC offices.
A rally in the streets at the London demo heard from speakers including Andrew Slaughter MP, Jeremy Corbyn MP and Jerry Dammers, founder of The Specials. Trade union leaders also backed the protest and spoke at the rally, including Jeremy Dear of the NUJ, Gerry Morrissey of Bectu, Christine Blower from the NUT, Steve Hart from Unite and Tony Kearns of the CWU – representing postal workers who started their strike today.
Unite Against Fascism called the demonstration as an expression of the widespread public anger at the BBC's decision to roll out the red carpet to Griffin. We do not accept the BBC's justifications for this decision. Griffin is a convicted racist and lifelong Nazi. The BBC's public duty to protect our multi-racial society should take precendence over its hunt for ratings and fake controversy.
Weyman Bennett, joint secretary of UAF, said: "Today's demonstration was a brilliant example of a fine tradition of mass mobilisation against the Nazis. This is the tradition that has defeated fascism in the past – the Blackshirts in the 1930s and the National Front in the 1970s. In contrast, giving platforms to the fascists simply boosts their profile, as happened to Jean-Marie Le Pen in France in the 1980s.
"We should remember that friends of David Copeland, the London nailbomber, said he was a normal person before he joined the BNP. How many more David Copelands have joined the BNP tonight as a result of the prestigious platform the BBC has granted to Griffin?
"Griffin's supporters – his army of racist thugs – will draw strength from his appearance, and they will use this confidence to get on to the streets and attack ethnic minorities. For make no mistake – it is black and Asian people who will pay the price for the BBC's disgraceful decision in the weeks and months to come."
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