The
election of the first-ever fascist representatives to a major
parliament from Britain following the European Elections has sent a
shock wave through our society.
Almost one million people in the UK
voted for an openly racist party, which bans non-whites from membership, has called for an “all-white Britain”, and whose leader Nick Griffin has been convicted of Holocaust denial.
A racist and fascist political party, the British National Party, has
recorded record levels of electoral success for a fascist party in
Britain – with two MEPs and almost 60 local councillors.
Since
2002 we’ve staged six major outdoor festivals, and there have been more
than 700 LMHR events across every part of the country to date – most of
them organised locally by volunteers.
There were more LMHR
events in May 2009 – over 20 – than in any single month since the
campaign began in 2002. These included an Asian Dub Foundation tour, and a magnificent 2,500-strong multi-venue LMHR festival in Derby. In addition:
- A viral
LMHR TV ad was produced by Ridley Scott Films and Leo Burnett ad agency, which
received thousands of hits and will continue to be used throughout the
year with pans for screenings in cinemas and on music television. Check
out the video now by clicking this
LINK- Scores of LMHR-supporting bands reminded their fans – by email,
Facebook,
Myspace and
Twitter – to go out and use their vote.
- We staged a festival in Stoke (the BNP’s ‘Jewel In The Crown’) where artists such as
Kelley Rowland, Pete Doherty, Reverend & The Makers and
VV Brown (among others) entertained 20,000 people from across the country who came together to celebrate diversity. Watch the interview
Pete Doherty gave us at Stoke by clicking this
LINK- We recently returned from
Sziget Festival in Budapest (Europe’s biggest - 350,000+) where 60,000 people from across Europe came together to watch the
Love Music Hate Racism All-stars (comprising members of
Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly, Babyshambles, Sham 69, Bashy, Mpho Skeef, Kid British, King Blues) perform in support of ZARE - the newly-formed Hungarian LMHR equivalent. Watch the Allstars perform the Specials classic
GHOST TOWN and their version of AC/DC’s
BACK IN BLACK
Ghost Town Link
Back In Black Link-
We have been invited to have a presence at many festivals over the
summer, spreading the message, handing out leaflets and engaging with
music fans on a direct one-to-one basis, these festivals included
Standon Calling, Field Day, Underage Festival, 1234 Festival, Zimfest, Summer Sundaize, Ireland’s
Electric Picnic, Leicester’s
Belgrava Mela, Hull’s
Freedom Festival,
One Love Festival plus an UNTOLD number of gigs and music events. Check out Messages of support from the likes of
Little Boots, Hadouken, LoveFoxxx, Metronomy, The Big Pink, The Invisible, Tim Burgess, The Rakes and many, many more - click the
LINKWe are a proudly independent non-party-political campaign.
We are deliberately not a registered charity, since we want to retain
the freedom to call the BNP exactly what they are – Racists and
fascists. This coming year we intend to further raise awareness of the
necessity of people to use their votes. We intend to hold several large
scale events between now and May - when we predict the next General
Election will be held. It’s vital we increase our campaign and stop the
BNP gaining further power by default. We want to show that every vote can count and can help stop racism and division within our society.
LMHR manages to punch above our weight with regards to profile, we
appear a massive operation with the events we’ve pulled off,
unfortunately this is not the case: we are not a large
organisation at all – we have only a small handful of full-time
workers, and after that we are entirely volunteer run.
Our only income comes from donations and fundraisers held by local groups across the country.
We
are asking if you, your organisation, your company, your band would
consider making a financial contribution to help the Love Music Hate
Racism campaign to be an even bigger force for celebrating our
multicultural society and inspiring people across the country to
actively oppose racism and fascism.
a one-off donation, or a small sum each month will go DIRECTLY
into our campaigning work: our website, t-shirts, badges, posters and
leaflets, mailouts, and so on… everything that goes into sustaining a
network of music fans and anti-racists. For instance this year we need
a total redesign of our website, and we’d like to reach out to new and
existing supporters online and through social networking in a more
effective way.
If you are able to donate, you can copy and paste this link into your browser which will take you to the secure donation page :
http://bit.ly/fvwu9
Alternatively you can make cheques payable to “Love Music Hate Racism”
and send to LMHR, 1st Floor, 231 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London, SW1V
1EH. Or if you wish you can email us at info@lovemusichateracism.com,
or call the office on 020 7801 2781 to discuss other ways to donate to
or get involved with the cause.
Another possibility is donating your time or your skills - we are constantly on the lookout for volunteers, graphic designers, programmers, artists, photographers, writers, campaigners EVERYONE can help in some way, and it is the donations and help provided to us from YOU that keeps the campaign strong and vibrant, and such a force for positivity, tolerance and good.
Yours Sincerely,
The Love Music Hate Racism Team