If so, are you willing to let us have a copy for future UAF leaflets or the website? No payment (we are saving funds for campaigning) but full attribution if requested.

The CCAR is a venerable organisation, now in its 31st year. Many of the firebrands who started it up are still involved but, not surprisingly, are now 31 years older and not quite as vigorous as they used to be. The Chair kept dropping hints about needing new blood in there and its a bit strange that, at 45, I will be looked on as one of the youngsters, as most of the others are over 70 now.

I had the same experience when I first joined the council as well…

Anyway, there was some discussion about how the UAF fits in with the CCAR. Some members understandably felt that as there is already one non-party political anti-racist campaigning organisation in the town there is no need to form another. I think that will all get sorted out at the Crawley-Horsham UAF inaugural meeting.

Personally I feel that there is a point to having two apparently similar organisations. Firstly there is the Horsham dimension, which the CCAR does not cover. I have had contact with a few people from there and one thing they have which we desperately need over here is youth. Something which covers both towns might enable us to get some help from relative youngsters in Horsham in getting our own youngsters involved.

Also, the CCAR actually does very little direct campaigning now. It does a lot of work supporting all sorts of initiatives, and building relationships between different parts of the community, especially in the Interfaith initiative which it has been instrumental in, and its membership has some of the nicest people you could hope to meet, and they throw a brilliant party every year where all the different groups get together.

The UAF is more of a direct action body, with a single aim: to work towards reducing the support of the BNP. Because it focuses on that single thing it can do it very well, and as part of a national body it will get lots of advantages from its network. All those pooled resources and information can make it a lot more effective than an isolated local organisation.

In the meantime, the CCAR should continue all the positive and constructive work it is doing. That is where its strength lies. I really think the two organisations can complement each other very well and should have a considerable overlap in membership.

It may well be that youngsters will be more tempted by a more action-oriented body. They might consider the work of the CCAR to be not intrinsically exciting and be more in tune with something a bit more militant. Certainly thats how I remember being in my late teens. It would be nice to think that some who join the UAF for its direct and well-defined narrow agenda will meet others and see what they are doing in the CCAR and the many other groups we all belong to and actually want to join them as they start settling down.

Well that is the argument I shall be making anyway.

I did learn tonight that we now have a firm date, time and venue for the Crawley & Horsham UAF meeting, which I shall be shamelessly promoting any minute now.

(Or will it be the Horsham & Crawley UAF? Perhaps that should be item 2 on the agenda)

It turns out that some CCAR people and other concerned citizens have met to discuss some co-ordinated action against the BNP in town, and they intend to meet again soon – on April 18th.

I am sure they would be only too happy for anyone who is at all interested to turn up – I will confirm the time and venue. It would be great to see some people who are not part of the usual political machinery turn up and get involved.

Talking of which, someone has organised to get a couple of thousand UAF/anti-fascist leaflets, but I don’t think they have decided exactly what to do with them yet (that is one of the objectives for the meeting, I believe). If anyone volunteered to take some to distribute in one of the areas where the BNP is standing I imagine they would be welcome to take some.

If all else fails, we will hand them out in the shopping parades in Furnace Green, Ifield, Southgate and West Green, like we did in the Town Centre before the general election – which was very well-received.

I wonder if the writer of that letter really does think that. Do they really believe that the (admittedly antisocial) actions of some travellers means that we should regard them as animals, as somehow less than human? Dehumanising any group of people just makes it easier to extend that attitude to others. Maurice Ogden’s poem The Hangman illustrates perfectly how the consequences of this can escalate (also echoed by Pastor Niemoller’s famous quotation:

“In Germany, the Nazis came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak for me.”

Anyway, still on the same theme, on Saturday night we went across to Maidenbower for the Crawley Campaign Against Racism’s annual multi-cultural party. We went last year when we were invited as Deputy Mayor & Mayoress and signed up and paid our subscriptions on the spot. This year was all the better for being able to go as a family and not have to wear a suit. There was entertainment from some local asian dance groups, a band of rappers and a couple of flamenco guitarists, followed by food provided by the local Sikhs then a disco which was mainly bhangra and bollywood.

We all had a good time and I was pleasantly surprised to see that the kids all enjoyed the food as it was nothing like the Indian food I do from a jar of cook-in sauce – it was a lot more authentic, stronger and vegetarian. Charlie went up for seconds and even took a bag home to have the next day.

The only real problem with this event is that it is dominated by the Hindu and Sikh communities and has hardly any presence from West Indians, African or Moslems, but it is a start. Another group conspicuous by its absence was the local Tory party…