LSMedia or Liverpool student media at liverpoolstudentmedia.com is a brand new website launched by the University of Liverpool's students to promote and support talented Liverpool student's creative written, visual or radio content.

On April 23rd the BNP exhibited the racism, xenophobia and violence that typifies their vile politics in Liverpool city centre.  Anti-fascists arrived at Church Street just after midday, as word got out that fifteen members of the fascist organisation were distributing their thinly disguised politics of hate and ignorance.

Together with thugs dispersed among the crowd, whose purpose was nothing but to intimidate anyone who opposed them, the BNP met the anti-fascists with unfounded slurs that only served to alienate them further.

Around twenty anti-fascists made sure that their messages were not going un-countered, making sure the public understood the true nature of the BNP. The reasons for anyone not to swallow their veneer of sincerity and respectability and why the BNP should not be tolerated on our streets, were proven once again by their actions later that afternoon. It wasn’t their henchmen however, who eventually took matters into their own fists, but an electoral candidate himself.

The BNP’s campaign for the European elections cannot seem to keep itself in check as regular stories emerge of the street-level intimidation that is part and parcel of their leafleting tactics. As antifascists quickly managed to suppress their activities on Church Street, the BNP decided to try a different spot and moved their stall to the gardens behind St. George’s Hall. The anti-fascists made their presence felt by conversation and interaction, rather than the whispered threats in ears employed by provocative BNP thugs, ensuring that the BNP were not able to spread their lies. Indeed, over the afternoon members of the public stuck up for the peaceful anti-BNP demonstrators.

Realising their futility the right-wing ‘activists’ moved on from the gardens, but were preceded by two anti-fascists making utterly sure their lies were not allowed unchallenged. Frustrated by their lack of free reign Peter Tierney unleashed a sickening attack on the two young men, splitting one’s head open with his camera tripod. The openly racist Steve Greenhalgh, candidate for the North West, employed the table he was carrying to join in the assault. A third member, as yet unidentified, embodied the fist and boot politics of the BNP, narrowly missing a serious blow to his victim’s head.

The handling of the situation by Merseyside Police proved almost as shocking. After ensuring no repeat attack would take place, and that the BNP had left the vicinity, three anti-fascists left the scene together in the opposite direction to the BNP. As they rounded a corner they saw the fascists talking to police, who had been called by a BNP member as the attack was taking place in an effort to be the first to speak to the police and so misguide them. Avoiding further confrontation, the anti-fascists walked past the group only to be followed by police who informed them that Peter Tierney (the perpetrator of the armed attack) had alleged assault against him. Showing no resistance, the student activist was handcuffed immediately and his version of events was treated without any seriousness for over half an hour. Due to the willful misguiding of the police, the falsely imprisoned ant-fascist spent nine hours in custody in the same police station as Tierney, while his friends and associates believed him to be elsewhere. As a consequence of this, upon his eventual release the student was followed by a car full of BNP activists issuing death threats.

It seems illogical that this story has not received significant press coverage even just in Liverpool, as fresh evidence of the casual reliance on violence that extends to the very top of the ‘party’. The Euro-Elections are a pivotal moment for the falsely regenerated nationalist BNP, after a decade trying to abuse the electoral system while never abandoning their fist and boot strategies. Typically, the results of the European elections on June 4th are set to be marginal, with low turnout placing the BNP horrendously close to representing us in Europe, where they will bolster themselves among the growing far-right. Students must exercise their vote to deny these fascists powers and money unprecedented for them. Make sure not to let fascists slip into power. Make sure your vote counts.