January 2003 -- News archive -- Love Music Hate Racism

News archive - January 2003

LOTS MORE LMHR EVENTS ANNOUNCED
January 30, 2003, 05:38 PM

LMHR is taking off around the country ... LMHR gigs or clubnights are now in place in Eltham, Glasgow, Dewsbury, Halifax, Sunderland and Harrow. See the Gigs and Events guide for all the details.

ANL ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2003
January 22, 2003, 12:08 AM

This year's ANL Conference in Manchester on February 8th is a MUST for everybody who wants to get actively involved in resisting racism and the Nazis. The conference includes a panel session discussing Love Music Hate Racism, featuring Guy Garvey from top band Elbow, Chris from Rock Against Racism reggae heroes Misty in Roots, brilliant militant hip-hop heroine MC Hardkaur , plus LMHR activists and former RAR organisers .... in the evening there's a great LMHR gig at the Contact Theatre ... come along to a day of workshops, reports, ideas and discussion focusing on how we can combat fascism and racism in our communities and our workplaces.

More details here

BURNLEY LMHR CARNIVAL 2003
January 16, 2003, 01:32 AM

[THIS NEWS NOW OUT OF DATE - CHECK FURTHER UP THE PAGE FOR THE LATEST INFO]

All roads lead to Burnley on Sunday 27 April 2003! Make sure you come along on the day or why not get involved in helping to organise the carnival ...

Already confirmed:- Bassment Jaxx, Tim Westwood, Miss Black America, Skitz & Rodney P, Panjabi Hit Squad, Hardkaur, Antihero, Nicky Blackmarket

More about Burnley LMHR Carnival here

POLITICIANS, MEDIA & COPS TRY TO BLAME MUSIC FOR CRIME
January 14, 2003, 06:52 PM

The ignorant racist stereotypes have been coming thick and fast the last couple of weeks ....

Racism and Nazi activity is on the increase. You may or may not have heard about the murder of Oldham taxi-driver Israr Hussein, on 27 December.
(more info here)

Israr was murdered in a vile racist attack directly encouraged by the presence of the BNP in the town, whipping up race hatred. The scapegoating of asylum seekers by the government and the media has continued - and is set to get even worse with moral panics over the war on terrorism, Iraq, and crime being whipped up.

This week, government ministers and large sections of the media have disgracefully used the tragic deaths of Charlene Ellis and Letisha Shakespeare in Birmingham to make racist comments about garage and rap music, "Yardie" gangsters and "gun culture". (More about the attacks on our music on here soon)

To cap it all David Blunkett immediately introduced a visa requirement for Jamaicans to enter the UK.

Their message is clear - black people (and black music) and immigrants are responsible for what are supposedly Britain's biggest problems - guns, drugs, crime and terrorism. Why hasn't there been a massive press and government outcry over racist violence like Israr Hussein's murder in the same way?

The likes of the BNP are lapping all this up, claiming it proves their disgusting racist ideas are right. But all this is also making many many of us very angry, and even more determined to stand up to the racists and defend our multicultural society and our music and culture from these attacks.

That's why the Love Music Hate Racism campaign has to be stepped up now. If you're fed up with what's going on we urge you to get involved now and help us create a wave of positive, united, anti-racist music events to happen across the country.

It's easy to get involved. Putting on an event is easy! Why not contact local bands or DJs and book a venue for a LMHR gig or clubnight in your town? We can help with contacting artists or with advice and guidance on how to put on a successful music event.

We also need help with flyering and LMHR/ANL stalls - please get in touch if you fancy getting into top gigs and clubnights for free - in return for a bit of LMHR work of course.

'GIRLS ALOUD's CHERYL TWEEDY in nasty racist outburst
January 13, 2003, 03:15 PM

According to yesterday's Sunday Mirror Cheryl Tweedy, singer with number one pop act Girls Aloud was involved in an attack on a nightclub worker in Guildford at the weekend, during which she came out with some nasty racist abuse. Tweedy was arrested and spent the night in the cells and is now out on bail.

Tweedy - through her record company Polydor, who would stand to lose big wads of cash from such a scandal if proven true - has of course strongly denied the accusations. She implies that the badly-injured victim, SophieAmogbokpa, is simply lying for the Sunday Mirror's money. However, the club's head of security and general manager also both independently verified the racist nature of Tweedy's comments and said the racism was one of the reasons they called the police.

If what's being said is true then Tweedy should be sacked from the band immediately. As a member of one of the manufactured pop groups to come out of the hugely popular Popstars The Rivals show, spewing out this kind of racist rubbish is a disgraceful example to the many young fans they are held up as role models for. Racist abuse is racist abuse no matter how many black friends you claim to have.

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