By New Worker
Correspondent
HUNDREDS
of anti-fascists turned out in the cold and rain last Saturday outside Holborn
Tube Station in London to protest at the visit to Britain of Gabor Vona, leader
of the racist and fascist Jobbik party in Hungary.
He
had come, he claimed, to address Jobbik supporters among the Hungarian expat
community in London, as part of his election campaign. But there were rumours
that meeting members of the fascist British National Party and the Greek Golden
Dawn might also be on his agenda.
Jobbik
is accused of promoting strong anti-Semitic views and fuelling hatred against
Jewish and Roma communities. It has been described as the most powerful openly
fascist group in Europe.
Jobbik
have done well in Hungary on an explicitly anti-Jewish and anti-Roma ticket –
becoming the third biggest political party in Hungary.
A
Channel Four News report into a Jobbik rally in Budapest last year found a
paramilitary-style militia, organised with helmets, gas masks and vitriolic
language against Jewish and Roma minorities.
Neither
police nor anti-fascists knew the venue for Vona’s meeting but it did not take
long before people wearing T-shirts with fascistic slogans and carrying flags
with Hungarian nationalist insignia started to turn up around the Tube station.
The
anti-fascists reacted noisily and soon around 50 Jobbik supporters became
trapped inside the station, heavily guarded by police, as anti-fascists blocked
the station exits.
Among
the crowd were a number of Hungarian anti-fascists who had come to tell Vona to
“Takarodj” (clear off!) from London.
Labour
London Assembly Member Andrew Dismore told the anti-fascist rally of the real
nature of Jobbik and of efforts to get Vonar’s visit banned.
And
Weyman Bennett, joint leader of Unite Against Fascism, spoke at the outrage
felt by many that a person such as Vonar should be allowed to organise a rally
on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day.
There
was a long stand-off as other Jobbik supporters turned up on the opposite side
of High Holborn to see what was delaying their colleagues.
The
Jobbik organisers first had to delay the start of their meeting and then the
hotel where it was scheduled to happen withdrew the booking and told them to
leave.
Eventually
the police escorted them to conduct their meeting in the open air – in the cold
and rain near the tea-hut in Hyde Park.
Around
80 of them huddled round in a tight bunch encircling Vonar as he spoke without
an amplifier under a sea of umbrellas.
They
were heavily guarded by police but before long groups of anti-fascists arrived
and they were in full voice.
By
the time they finished their gathering Vona and his supporters were left in no
doubt that fascists and racists are not welcome in Britain.
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