The STUC was proud to support the anti-BNP campaigning during the Scottish Parliament and local government elections.
STUC promoted and attended Searchlight’s Hope not Hate tour in Glasgow on 6 April. Buchanan Street shoppers heard a strong anti-racist message from the Chancellor Gordon Brown MP, and from celebrity Jermaine Jackson. The following week Unite Against Fascism’s mobilising meeting, chaired by the STUC, brought together political parties, trade unions, students, faith groups and prominent anti racist campaigners, including Aamer Anwar, Robina Qureshi, and Sandra White, to warn of the dangers of the fascist BNP.
A swiftly convened demonstration outside BBC Scotland’s Queen Margaret Drive Headquarters on 13 April ensured BBC managers were in no doubt at the strength of feeling against their decision to broadcast the BNP election film. Trade unions, the NUS, political parties, local communities and the peace movement all came to make a stand against racism at the BBC. A delegation of the anti-racist campaigners, including the STUC, was invited in to speak to BBC managers, to underline the opposition to giving the BNP airtime.
The availability of Unite Against Fascism leaflets, along with campaign materials from UNISON, all assisted in getting the message to voters that the BNP are racist thugs and their politics must never be legitimised at the ballot box. Trade unions took bundles of the leaflets from the Unite stall at STUC Congress, and Glasgow politicians, including Pauline McNeill and Sandra White, lent their party workers to help distribute Unite materials. UNISON Scotland dedicated the Saturday before the election to campaigning against the fascists, with Unite supporting this action, in key towns and cities across Scotland.
We can never be complacent about the threat of racists. The BNP did not make any electoral inroads into Scotland, but hundreds, and, in some areas a couple of thousand voters, did support them. The fight still goes on, and with Unite Against Fascism, we will work to ensure that Scotland remains a BNP free zone.