Thursday 2 February saw the trial of leading BNP members Nick Griffin and Mark Collett halted. Having come to a verdict of not guilty on half of the charges to incitement of racial hatred, the jury could not decide on the other charges and so the judge dismissed the case with the possibility of a retrial.

As the pair left the Leeds Crown Court, escorted by their team of skinhead thugs and several police officers, they were met with shouts of “scum!” from the few antifascists who had been able to maintain a presence outside the court, but it was Griffin and the crowd of 50 or so fascist supporters who had the media’s attention, being given what amounted to free publicity for their racist politics.

Despite it being a depressing day for antifascism, the past few months have seen a great deal of work go into the two large and lively counterdemonstrations that took place against the BNP in Leeds.

On 2 November about 700 antifascists demonstrated outside the pre-trial hearing. Despite calling a national mobilisation on the same day, the BNP had only about 100 supporters, who were drowned out by the counterdemonstration. When the trial started on 16 January, another large counterdemo was organised, which brought the same numbers and loud opposition to the BNP as the previous demonstration.

The TUC mobilised heavily for the demonstrations, but on both occasions there were large numbers of young people including about 250 young students from local further education colleges, Leeds University and Leeds Metropolitan.

Leeds Workers Power were involved in building the demos both on and off the university campus. We organised a large public meeting with speakers from different antifascist organisations before the November demonstration, and spent several weeks leafleting students at the university, schools and colleges in Leeds. Throughout the work we emphasised with people the need for an antiracist and antifascist movement based in working class communities, and that while the counterdemonstrations were important, the trial was far from the be all and end all of campaigning.

There is no doubt that the verdict (or lack of it) was a confirmation of the justice system’s institutional racism. We only have to look back to 2001 when hundreds of Asian youth defended their communities from fascist provocations; some were arrested and given sentences of up to 10 years.

During the demonstrations at Leeds Crown Court leaders of Unite Against Fascism expressed their support for using the courts to challenge the BNP, with leading SWP member Weyman Bennett proclaiming “Lets turn BNP into HMP” in the rallies on 2 November and 16 January. If one positive thing has come out of this trial it is that events in Leeds have shown that we cannot rely on the state to fight our battles for us.

Workers Power does not fight for a policy of state bans, because we recognise that the state is not neutral in the class war.

Griffin and Collett were not found guilty, despite overwhelming evidence of their attempts to whip up a racist pogrom, because the courts and the police know that fascism provides the last line of defence against the revolutionary working class. Sure, British capitalism does not need fascism today. But it will not crush it because of it may need it tomorrow. That’s why workers, black and white, straight and gay, have to stop the fascist menace and not rely on the state.

As the large demonstrations outside the court showed, the antifascist movement is more than capable of co-ordinating action itself. Now we must organise large mobilisations and defend ourselves, and physically deny the fascists a platform from which to spew their filth, whenever they try. We must also support black and Asian communities defending themselves against racists and fascists.

Leeds antifascists, black and Asian workers know from bitter experience that the BNP uses its electoral campaigns to incite and launch vicious attacks on our communities. That’s why we should afford them no democratic rights. Historical experience also shows that the working class must not wait until fascism becomes strong enough to directly challenge for power before we organise to smash it.

Britain’s racist courts cannot deliver justice or defeat the BNP. Only a movement of the working class, including young people, black and Asian workers, organised to smash fascist groups and their politics wherever they try to build.