BUILDING FOR THE CARNIVAL - OXFORD SHOWS THE WAY!
Oxford LMHR report.
We decided to keep up the momentum after the UAF organised protest against Griffin and Irving in Oxford last November by mobilising for the LMHR carnival. We want to build up a wider layer of contacts across Oxfordshire and start sowing the ground against attempts by the BNP to move into the smaller towns.
We invited local UAF contacts to help form a group and then approached local musicians for support - one person who is confined to home took the initiative and emailed as many as she could from local websites! The response was stunning.
In short time we had a venue, PA and sound system for free and more than enough bands and soloists for two gigs. We plan to use the funds raised to subsidise coaches from Oxford to the carnival, publicity and hopefully some funds to the carnival itself. To help create a buzz we asked bands to show their support by becoming friends on a myspace account we had opened to
contact an interested student. Now we have branched out to facebook which has given us contacts in local schools and colleges. The bands have been great, putting volunteers on their guest lists so they can do publicity stalls inside their events, as well as street stalls. Local
music magazines have been happy to report on us, as has the local daily. We are trying to organise photo shoots with visiting high profile musicians to keep us in the press. At events individuals are coming forward to help run more stalls - it is like a snowball going down a hill.
When we reach the date for the carnival we hope to have hundreds more people coming with us.
As the carnival needed funds urgently we also wrote to the local union branches, and urged the trades council to do the same. The CWU and UNISON health branches came up trumps due to our members in the unions asking for donations in meetings. These two unions alone gave £800 (£600 carnival, £200 local transport). We are still hoping for more. Our programme of
activity is listed on our website http://www.myspace.com/oxfordlmhr, but we have ideas for lunchtime events in schools, local unis hosting events, county festivals and more.
We are creating a stronger anti-racist current [in Oxforshire] and if we have to mobilise against the BNP in the future we will have a much bigger network.
