Rise Festival – London Left Receive Timely Slap Down
Posted on 17. Jun, 2008 by Richard Barnbrook in Latest News
Labour Party supporters and various other anti-British elements were given a timely reminder today that the days of public money being used to prop up their Marxist ideology have gone.
Last week I asked Boris Johnson to confirm how much money from the London Assembly was used to finance last year’s RISE festival. You will remember that last year’s event was nothing more than an orgy of anti-BNP rhetoric heightened by a desperation to prevent me from becoming elected onto the London Assembly.
Boris soon confirmed that this year alone no less than £300,000 of public money was being poured into the event. Impressed with the timely response I fired in the following communication last Friday.
I understand that the Mayor has agreed to proceed with the planning and preparation of the Rise: London United Festival to be held on Sunday 13thJuly at Finsbury Park and release GLA funding in relation to this. The net cost to the GLA of this event will be £300,000. With this in mind can you confirm if this festival will once again be a political ground with active campaigning against the British National Party as in previous years?
Obviously this event is being funded with public money and as it is being arranged by the GLA it would be totally unreasonable to campaign against a member.
Surprisingly, with the report in the Guardian this morning, it would seem that my efforts have not gone unnoticed and despite the fact I would much rather see the money go to London’s Air Ambulance service or Age concern, I might check out the festival myself. You can read, or should I say read between the lines, of the Guardian report below.
Rise has been held in London since 1996 and has become the biggest anti-racist music festival in Europe. It was supported by the previous mayor, Ken Livingstone, as well as by trade unions and the National Assembly Against Racism (NAAR).
But yesterday a spokeswoman for Johnson said this year’s event, on July 13, would no longer carry an anti-racist message: “Boris has made a commitment to go ahead with the Rise festival this year but wants to emphasise its cultural and community dimensions.” During his election campaign Johnson was forced to apologise for describing Africans as having “watermelon smiles” and writing of “piccaninnies”. He said his comments were taken out of context and he was committed to fighting racism.
But last night a spokesman for the NAAR called that claim into question. “The sincerity of Boris Johnson’s claimed commitment to opposing racism in his election campaign is shown to be false by the fact that one of his first decisions is to abandon Europe’s biggest anti-racist festival,” he said.
Johnson’s office said the mayor was “unequivocal that there is no place for racism or division in London”, adding: “Major festivals and events are an important way of bringing Londoners from diverse backgrounds together, to celebrate what we share in common and enjoy the rich cultural contribution of different communities.”
The Cuba Solidarity Campaign (CSC) has also been told that its annual Big Cuba Fiesta stage is barred from this year’s event.
The Greater London authority’s director of arts policy , Munira Mirza, told the group in a letter that “it is no longer appropriate to have overtly political organisations involved in the programme or in the community area”.
Rob Miller, CSC’s director, said: “It is outrageous that the new mayor of London has taken such a discriminatory position against Cuba Solidarity … We hope that this silly act of political censorship will even yet be overturned.”
