Delegates demand support for Operation Black Vote

By Louise Nousratpour in Liverpool
Sunday April 25, 2010
The Morning Star

TUC black workers conference: The TUC black workers conference in Liverpool has called for action to mobilise the black and ethnic minority vote as a vital tool in defeating the fascist BNP at the ballot box.

Delegates said they were appalled by the BNP's electoral advances - both in Britain and the European Parliament - last year and attacked the BBC for allowing prime-time coverage of the party at taxpayers' expense.

The BBC sparked outrage last October after it invited BNP leader Nick Griffin, who is contesting a parliamentary seat in east London, to join its prestige Question Time panel.

Last Friday, the public broadcaster aired the BNP manifesto launch in Stoke-on-Trent, at which Mr Griffin claimed that "Britain is full - it's time to shut the doors" and remove all "bogus asylum-seekers and foreign criminals."

And the BNP election broadcast will go out all over England, Scotland and Wales on Monday.

Delegates stressed the importance of voting in the general election, reminding conference that the BNP electoral advance in the 2005 election was the result of voter apathy.

They called on trade unions to support Operation Black Vote's (OBV) campaign to mobilise the black vote against the fascists.

OBV has organised what is set to be the biggest political rally of this election, with more than 2,500 black and ethnic minority people are expected to attend Wednesday's event in London.

A recent OBV survey of the black electorate showed that, in the closely fought political race, the ethnic minority vote will hold the key to who wins the election.

Napo delegate Pauline Anderson said: "We no longer have the option of not voting because every vote lost is a vote for the BNP."

GMB speaker Warrinder Juss, while acknowledging people's frustration with politicians, stressed: "We must go out there and not only vote but vote Labour to keep both the Tories and the BNP out."

In an address to conference on Saturday, Runnymede Trust director Robert Berkeley argued that the most important tool to defeat racism and fascism was building "solidarity with our white working class."