"Love Music Hate Racism" Belfast 6 March

What are your politics mate? LMHR is a SWP front surely.

As far as I know LMHR is pretty much a franchise - anybody can put one on.

So you are attempting to knock an anti rascist event simply because there could have been a connection with the SWP?

I didn't attack it, but it should be noted by anyone going that LMHR is an Anti-NAZI league project, and the ANL are widely known to be an SWP front. I said "surely" because this is recieved wisdom rather than something I have citations or personal experience proving, so I wanted to leave it a bit open.

It may well still be worth supporting, depending on the local situation, but if you're going to interact with a front it helps to know who they're a front for.

I was genuinely interested in the poster's politics, and I'm not the sort to judge people on them too much. I've met some Leninists who were fantastic people and good comrades, and it's active engagement not insult hurling that (a) allows us to work together and (b) makes them more likely to turn to anarchism if/when they notice the deficiencies in their party's strategy.

Where the ANL (anti-nazi league), now called the UAF (unite against facsism) are converned, i dont think describing it as 'anti racist' is entirely accurate. i am not doubting the people who work within the groups sincerity to the cause of anti racism, but the tactic of cross class collaboration, and encouraging 'unity' with tory and labour mps, is counterproductive. how can we solve racism by joining forces with the people who help propagate it?

We played this gig and a number of Anti Racist Shows around Belfast. And this argument comes up again and again, and is crippling any cohesive response to the real issue that Belfast is now serving as a hub for racist and proto-fascist groups to organise and spread their support base.

Historically, because of the troubles, Belfast has never been a favoured destination for those seeking a better and more peaceful life, but now with peace it is. There has been a massive and tangible increase in the amount of foreign migrant workers in the last 5 years, particularly from the Philippines, Eastern Europe, China and Portugal. These workers are filling essential places particularly in the food and Health-care sectors, and supporting whole areas that were previously threatened with severe problems from understaffing.

On the whole the people have responded well but, particularly loyalist paramilitary bodies whose existance and support have always depended on promoting fear of other groups, have found that they can turn that fear towards these migrants and exploit it for political gain.

There have been long historic links between the likes of C18 and the UDA going back before there even was a sizeable immigrant population in the North of Ireland. These guys have been planning their tactics for a long time, and are now putting it into action.

One of the criticism that has been seen in the local media concerns the use of terminology. The first gig we staged was entitled "Feck the Fascists" and this was criticised for using outdated and value-laden terms to amplify a situation that really exists as an issue of personal prejudice and that racism in the workplace and community was the real issue at hand.

This ignored the fact that actual groups such as the White Nationalist Party which is basically a blatant Neo-Nazi group were organising attacks and drumming up political support for their cause.

We say: "Nazi's, F*ck them all"