Cops protect Tyndall THE SUCCESSFUL Isle of Dogs election campaign shows the labour movement needs to get out on the streets if the BNP Nazis are to be isolated and defeated. Sadly this is lacking in Dagenham, where BNP leader John Tyndall is standing in the June 9 by-election.
On Saturday June 4 he was out canvassing, accompanied by thirty or so skin-head thugs.
Newham Monitoring Project had organised a protest but a very heavy police presence allowed Tyndall to peddle his Nazi filth unchallenged. DESPITE Derek Beackon losing his seat in Millwall during the recent council elections, it is quite clear that the fascist British Nationalist Party have extended their base of support in East London.
In Millwall ward Beackon actually increased his vote from the previous by-election, but in the neighbouring borough of Newham the BP received their highest percentage of the vote in the country. In Becton ward the BNP received 32 percent of the vote, losing by only 66 votes to Labour.
For months leading up to the elections, BNP supporters canvassed and leafleted selected areas in the south of the borough, capitalising on anger felt by local residents at ears of neglect and lack of decent housing and services.
Their racist explanation for local poverty and deprivation was undoubtedly assisted by the explicitly racist "Conservatives Against Labour's Unfair Ethnic Policies" (CALUEP) campaign. The Tories' low vote shows that by playing the race card they simply added to the support for the BNP.
The combined vote of the BNP and CALUEP, though, was greater than Labour's, showing the extent of the racist sentiment in the borough.
Mobilisation
The Labour electoral victory in Becton ward was almost certainly secured through the mobilisation of the anti-fascist vote, by the "Equal Rights For All" campaign co-ordinated by Newham Monitoring Project and Council Workers Against the Nazis, but drawing in forces from a whole number of local organisations.
To a lesser degree the work carried out by the Anti Nazi League also played an important role, and the joint activities of the two campaigns was an extremely positive step for the local antiracist movement.
A post-election meeting called by NMP drew together a number of organisations, all of whom expressed a commitment to continue campaigning over the next period, and developed a wide ranging strategy for fighting racism and fascism, building support throughout the local community, providing support networks for those facing the threat of racist thugs, and for fighting for better housing and resources for all.
The Newham Needs campaign, organised by the joint trade union committee of the local council unions, estimates that the borough is now being underfunded to the tune of £20 million, with the threatened loss of the £13 million "cushioning grant" next year.
The council must develop policies to improve local housing and services, to challenge the rise of racism and fascism, and to fight for a massive increase in funding from central government.
"THE LABOUR leadership regained the initiative yesterday in the debate over disaffected youth when it embraced the principle of a nationwide Citizens' Service SOCIALIST OUTLOOK No. 64, 11 June 1994, Page 3 Mously ignores. Instead of this whimpering, half-hearted attempt to appear bold without offending big business, Labour should map out a genuine programme of jobcreation through public spend-