Mar 27, 2024 4 min read Anti-racism

It's time for us all to take a stand against Nazism and the Far Right

Local anti-racist groups have warned that the planned Nazi meetings are not an isolated incident – and have invited everyone to a public meeting at 3pm on Saturday 30 March.

Saffiyah Khan stares down the leader of the English Defence League at a rally in 2017

by Fascist Free Stroud

THE MEETINGS which had been planned by Project Libertas to take place in Stroud to mark the anniversary of Hitler’s birth, appear to have now been called off by the organisers, according to an email sent to their mailing list.

But local anti-racist groups have warned that the planned Nazi meetings are not an isolated incident.

Project Libertas - operating primarily in and around Stroud - has hosted a series of events in Stroud in recent months, including inviting Katie Hopkins, James Delingpole, and other speakers with strongly anti-migrant and climate change denying views to the town.

Fascist Free Stroud have arranged a public meeting to discuss this on Saturday 30 March. The meeting will take place from 3-5pm in the Trinity Rooms (opposite the hospital) and will share ideas about how people can respond to the threat this latest incident has highlighted.

“We want to thank everyone who stood up to reject Nazism, including the 415 who signed our open letter in just a few days,” says Caroline Molloy of Community Solidarity Stroud District.

“Clearly, the apparent cancellation of these Nazi meetings is a win. But the danger of the far right hasn’t gone away. This is not an isolated incident,” she added.

In their email to their mailing list calling off the event, Project Libertas has tried to claim that it "wasn't their intention" to imply support for fascist and antisemitic views.

“Such claims are a sick joke,” said Roma Robinson of the Radical Youth Space for Education (RYSE). “The advert the organisers shared for the events was a disgusting collection of Jew-baiting images and text, including obviously antisemitic claims that Jews are seeking to ‘establish hegemony over the world’.”

Fascist Free Stroud

A coalition of anti-racist and community groups have come together under the banner, ‘Fascist Free Stroud’, including Community Solidarity Stroud District, Stroud Against Racism, the Radical Youth Space for Education (RYSE), and Stroud District Together With Refugees.

Says Freddie Janke of Stroud Against Racism

“People are struggling every day in our community, from rising bigotry, the cost of living crisis, the fallout from COVID, and a political system that isn’t meeting our needs.

Far right organisers are using these problems to prey upon our community, and scapegoating people who are blameless, as they have done throughout history.

“We need everyone to stand up against Nazism and the far right, and we hope many of amplify stroud's readers will join us at the meeting on Saturday afternoon (and at our social event in the same venue in the evening).”