Campaigns – Anti Fascism / Anti-Racism

Goldsmiths has a proud history of standing up against racism and fascism. We are an incredibly diverse University which is one of the key reasons it makes for such a great place to study.

However the constant racism being whipped up by the British Government and press has allowed racist ideas to threaten this multiculturalism. Xenophobia against immigrants, vicious racism towards Muslims, and the growth of fascist organisations such as the British National Party and the English Defence League, make standing up to racism more important than ever.

At Goldsmiths we organise regular anti-racist meetings and events to defend our diversity and challenge the hysteria from the press: from Black History Month to film screenings educating and exposing people to the real Nazi character of the BNP.

Importantly we will continue to organise against the English Defence League wherever they march. The EDL are a new organisation, and are a mixture of white supremacists, the BNP, football hooligans and other racist thugs, who march on city centres and mosques, terrorising the local Asian and Black communities there. In a recent EDL march in Stoke, the thugs smashed through police lines and attacked Asian shops and assaulted people in the town centre who protested their behaviour. They have members in universities, including some in University of London colleges as well.

It is not all doom and gloom however. Hard work by anti-fascists (including students from Goldsmiths) meant the BNP were destroyed in the recent 2010 local and national elections in Barking and Dagenham. Large anti-fascist protests have out-numbered and stopped the EDL from rampaging against Muslims, from Bolton to Birmingham to Harrow in North London.

However the BNP and EDL have made it clear that they wish to “break into” universities so it is crucial to keep up the work on campus as well as locally.

We will be holding fortnightly committee meetings during termtime for those interested in helping to organise and campaign throughout the year. Information will be available soon, but until then you can contact James Haywood, Campaigns and Communications Officer, on j.haywood@gold.ac.uk