After Norway - think globally and act locally

I’m not sure if I mentioned sufficiently, whilst blogging a few weeks ago about UNISON Conference, what a pleasure it was to see the exhibition of banners made by my old friend (and former Lambeth UNISON Branch Secretary) Ed Hall, at the People’s History Museum in Manchester.

In pride of place stands the banner, pictured above, which Ed made, almost overnight for us in 1999 when we mobilised local people to protest against the bombings in Brixton, Brick Lane and Soho, which we now know were perpetrated by a criminal influenced by the hate politics of the far right.

In the awful shadow of the far worse events which took place in Norway, it is important that labour movement activists recognise that the politics of hate, the antithesis of the politics of labour, require our constant opposition.

Whatever the true nature of any relationship between the Norwegian killer and the thugs of the EDL, it is important that – as we send our condolences to Norway - we prevent the EDL spreading their hate-politics in Tower Hamlets on 3 September.