Love Music Hate Racism

The London Evening Standard is running a poll on it's website asking if the BNP should be allowed to be on the Facebook social networking site. Thousands of people have joined the UAF Facebook Group or signed the email petition, people from right across Britain and including many MPs and the President of the National Union of Students. We need to people to be aware of this poll and show their true support for getting the Fascists Off Facebook.

Following an even-m0re-than usual rambling rant by resident Time Out scribbler Michael Hodges - which carried an oblique pop at LMHR and indeed any musician daring to support a political cause - Guy Taylor wrote an excellent letter in response which got the London listings magazines. Read on to see Guy's spot-on reply....

Did you hear about the groups of tourists that descended on Notting Hill during the August bank holiday weekend to attend what they thought most likely to be something similar to a village fete - cake sales and tombolas - in fact what they thought would epitomise the blockbuster film, Notting Hill - in which may I add there is not a single black person? Anyway what they got was Notting Hill Carnival.

Love Music Hate Racism are loving the Toy Guns - one of the newest bands to get involved with the campaign and who recently played on the LMHR University tour and at our more recent Rock Against Racism gig at the Hackney Empire alongside Tom Robinson, Misty in Roots, and Drew Mcconnell. Toy Gun's double A side single is about to drop which features 'Nice One Jerry' - a track which the band say they were inspired to write after attending our annual conference in February where they heared a speech by Jerry Dammers in which he spoke about using your voice when it comes to fighting racism and fascism. The video itself features footage from the Toy Guns perfomance at the Hackney Empire and Love Music Hate Racism and Unite Against Fascism posters along with great imagery of multicultural Britain - they also talk about 'racist comments by the BNP', 'Nazi politicians' and 'a multicultural society'.

August 13th marks the 25th anniversary of the Battle of Lewisham – which was a decisive turning point in the fight against Nazis in Britain at the time. Over 10,000 locals from all different backgrounds – black and white, young and old joined together to confront the National Front (NF) who had planned to march through the racially mixed and culturally diverse area of Lewisham, South East London.

Echo and the Bunnymen, Little Man Tate and John Power (Cast/The La's) have been announced as headline acts for this summer's free Eclectica Music Festival in Victoria Square, St.Helens (midway between Liverpool and Manchester) on Saturday 11th August 2007. Offering a diverse combination of music genres, Eclectica is one of the North West's most exciting, innovative, and up-and-coming summer music festivals. The event is being run in association with St.Helens Council, Love Music Hate Racism and the Citadel Arts Centre.

Fri-Sun 10-12 August 2007 The Herdsman, 54 Widemarsh Street HEREFORD HR4 9HG. The first LMHR gig in Herefordshire takes place the 2nd weekend in August. Local music fans and bands, alarmed at the presence of two BNP candidates in recent local elections as well as the BNP's South African "webmaster" in the city, have put together a fantastic bill of talent aimed at both entertaining as well as rallying local people to the anti-fascist cause.

VENUE / VICTORIA PARK LONDON E9 TIME / NOON - 8PM, FRIDAY 10th AUGUST TICKET INFO / £20. TEL / 020 89865182. URLS: / UNDERAGEFESTIVALS.COM/, WWW.MYSPACE.COM/UNDERAGE_CLUB THERE WILL BE LMHR STALLS BANNERS AND BRANDING THERE TOO.... PLAYING: Blood Red Shoes || Cajun Dance Party || Crystal Castles || Errorplains Erol Alkan || Foals|| GoodBooks || I Was A Cub Scout || Jack Penate || Johnny Flynn || Kid Harpoon || Kitty, Daisy and Lewis || Late Of The Pier || Laura Marling || Lethal Bizzle || The Metros || Mumm Ra || Mystery Jets || Patrick Wolf || Poppy and the Jezebels || Pull In Emergency || Pull Tiger Tail || The Maccabees (dj set) || The Rumble Strips || The Teenagers || The Pigeon Decetives || The Young Knives||Tiny Dancers || Vincent Vincent and the Villians ||

***UPDATE**** Get the fascist BNP off Facebook - four more companies withdraw support and hundreds sign petition - please add your support by Friday. Unite Against Fascism's petition has already received support from hundreds of people via its facebook group and email. The petition supports the call by Unite Against Fascism, LMHR, the National Union of Students and others for the web-based social networking group Facebook to remove user pages that promote the BNP, stating that it is in contravention of their terms and conditions. This follows the decision by six major firms to withdraw their advertising from the site (First Direct, Vodafone, Virgin Media, the AA, Halifax and the Prudential). Virgin said it had to "protect its brand". The BNP's pages include inciteful images and comments against the Muslim community, racist cartoons, anti-immigration statements and a link to their website which contains racist, Islamophobic, homophobic material and other fascist propaganda.

Despite the evidence of the BNP's connections with terrorists and violent criminal, most recently shown by the jailing of a former BNP council candidate, Robert Cottage, for stockpiling explosive chemicals for use in a ‘race war’ it appears that the BNP will be allowed to gather in Denby this weekend for it "Red White and Blue" event.

Unite Against Fascism, LMHR and the National Union of Students are calling on the web-based social networking site Facebook to remove user pages that belong to the BNP, stating that it is in contravention of their terms and conditions. This follows the decision by Vodafone and First Direct to have adverts removed from the site which were posted on BNP group pages. These pages include inciteful images and comments against the Muslim community, racist cartoons, anti-immigration statements and a link to their website which contains racist, Islamophobic, homophobic material and other fascist propaganda. Sign up to the petition by visiting the UAF website