The national Unite Against Fascism/LMHR conference on Saturday 21st February was highly successful, attracting well over 500 delegates and a broad range of guest speakers and organisations, including Italian partisan and concentration camp survivor Enio Odino, Glyn Ford MEP, former London mayor and UAF chair Ken Livingstone, and Stoke mayor Mark Meredith. People left the event with a real sense of determination to prevent the BNP making gains in this June’s European elections.

More than 100 delegates attended the LMHR section of the conference in which more than 20 delegates spoke from the floor about how they had responded to BNP activity in their area by setting up LMHR gigs to spread the anti-fascist message, as well as holding protests and demonstrations against the BNP – joining panel speakers like Sam Duckworth aka Get Cape Wear Cape Fly and Jon McClure from Reverend & The Makers and Mongrel.

First-time delegate Sophia, part of large group of students and activists from Leeds, said:
“I arrived at the UAF/LMHR conference with my eyes wide shut not quite knowing what to expect and quite ignorant to the current situation with the BNP. I left feeling incredibly informed, inspired and wanting to galvanise others…and had plenty of fun on the way. The LMHR session opened my eyes as to the work being done by others in raising awareness of the racism around us and was surprisingly reassuring after we were informed of the increasing support for the BNP across the country earlier in the day. Incredibly glad I was around to be part of this event.”

For photos of the conference, see the LMHR flickr site – http://tinyurl.com/cenbas