The Crawley UAF never really got off the ground.

During the run-up to last year’s elections there was some interest and plenty of volunteers to hand out leaflets, but afterwards it sort of fizzled out. There was a meeting at which nobody was willing to stand as a chair or any other office. A second meeting was arranged, but hardly anyone turned up.

Maybe part of the problem was that, even though it was/is a cross-party campaign, the people really pushing it were the same few people involved in most left-wing activities in town (CND, Respect, Defend Council Housing) and after the elections they have all concentrated on the council housing campaign and dropped the UAF – but nobody else has tried to continue with it.

I did chip in with a few quid towards costs, paid the hall hire for the inquorate meeting and donated the webspace from my Blueyonder broadband account, and others made some larger financial contributions, but we have had no involvement since. Indeed, there seems to be nothing to really be involved in.

The other night at a Labour meeting we heard about some of the BNP’s plans for Crawley, and how they are producing and delivering some quite nasty leaflets in the town, and after the meeting we were discussing what happened to the UAF and whether we can get it up and running.

I would be happy, and indeed proud, to see Labour party members showing some leadership in this instead of leaving it to the usual suspects of the SWP/WRP/Respect groups. Having said that, I would not want the UAF to be too closely associated with Labour so that anyone else is put off joining in – to be effective the campaign really does have to be cross-party with differences on other policies ignored for the sake of combating the blatantly racist policies of the BNP.

Is anyone else in Crawley interested in trying to make a go of it again?

By the way, these leaflets being produced by the BNP are particularly hateful. Worse than usual. The advice I have heard, and pass on here is that anyone getting one through their door should take it to the police.