Leaflets

We have produced six leaflets so far – most recently a general introduction to our group, and previously on The Light‘s attitudes to women, promotion of the far right, consistent climate denial, transphobia and homophobia, and on antisemitism and Holocaust Denial.

This page features downloadable pdf files you can print, and images (with alt text), which you can download to share on social media – with the most recent leaflet listed first.

Contact us if these files don’t work for you for whatever reason – including if you’d like to add additional contact details for a different area of the country.

Leaflet #6: Why Community Solidarity Stroud District Exists

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Community Solidarity Stroud District exists to build community led solidarity in the Stroud district to oppose the hatred of minorities and oppressed people arising from false and harmful information. The group formed in January 2022 to challenge distribution of “The Light” paper in the area, following the paper’s publication of a defence of a man convicted of inciting racial hatred for broadcasting vile antisemitism. We have exposed and challenged further content in the “The Light” paper since, as well as using our freedom of speech to oppose events organised by “Stroud Info Hub”, “Stroud Freedom Group” or “The Beacon” featuring speakers with a background of antisemitism, climate denial, homophobia and transphobia and misogyny, and/or links with far right organisations. We also host annual Holocaust Memorial Day events, attend Stroud Pride, and work with other local organisations such as Stroud Against Racism and Stroud District Together with Refugees. We are a member of the Stroud Ceasefire Now Coalition. In October 2023, we held a public meeting exploring how our community can respond to the growth of conspiracies, the far right, and “The Light” paper, and we will organise more public meetings as we develop our work countering disinformation in future. You can read more about the group and our activities at: communitysolidaritystrouddistrict.org Contact us by email: contact@communitysolidaritystrouddistrict.org Side two: Learn More: Leaflets about the dodgy content in “The Light” paper: communitysolidaritystrouddistrict.org/leaflets Read speeches and watch footage from our public meeting (4/10/23) communitysolidaritystrouddistrict.org/2023/10/22/oct4meeting Follow us on Facebook: facebook.com/CommunitySolidarityStroudDistrict Watch videos on our Youtube channel – search for Community Solidarity Stroud District Key articles: How “The Light” promotes the far right: http://tinyurl.com/far-right-light Consistent denial of climate change in “The Light”: tinyurl.com/climate-denial-light “The Light” – sending women back to the dark ages: tinyurl.com/the-light-women How “The Light” promotes transphobia and homophobia: tinyurl.com/transphobia-light Don’t let conspiracy infl uencers pull you into their hateful rabbit hole: tinyurl.com/light-rabbit-hole Sign our statement asking people to stop distributing “The Light” locally: tinyurl.com/TheLightStatement

Leaflet #5: “The Light”: Sending women back to the dark ages

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“ THE LIGHT ”:SENDING WOMEN BACK TO THE DARK AGES “The Light” sets itself up as an alternative paper, but what is it really pushing? Over the last year, “The Light” has generally promoted: “traditional families”, men being “allowed to be men”, women having “lots of children” and “faith, fl ag and family”. It has also started promoting anti-abortion activists and the “rights of the unborn”, as well as defending men’s “domination and rage”. SO THAT’S WHAT IT PROMOTES AND DEFENDS. WHAT DOES IT ATTACK? In the last 6 months or so, “The Light” has published numerous articles opposing • “Gender equality” (compared to “evil”) • “Equality of opportunity” (which it compares to “the Spanish Inquisition and the Salem Witch trials”) • “Family law” (elided with “child abuse”) • Abortion and contraception (which it repeatedly equates with “eugenics”, a common Religious Right trope) • “The massive use of contraceptives” (“clearly unacceptable”) • “Sex education” (which it refers to as “taking control of our children”) • “Role reversal” in which women don’t accept traditional gender roles (behaviour which “The Light” says is “communism and insanity”) • And (my personal favourite…) strong female leads in films and TV (not only are all these strong female characters “miserable” and with “no personalities” but their existence in film is a “woke agenda” which wants to “destroy society”. Poor old Galadriel and Princess Leia! Who knew?!) AND WHAT DOES IT IGNORE? Notably, whilst it’s got space to fulminate about fictional characters, “The Light” doesn’t show much interest in the need for more childcare, better welfare benefits, employment rights for parents and carers, ending child poverty, or anything that would help those who still bear the brunt of responsibility for most caring – women – to do the job. As a woman, I’ve found that when I try to talk to any of the people handing out “The Light” on the High Street calmly, it’s fairly pointless. They don’t have answers beyond interrupting me to say that the BBC is as bad (hey, guys, two wrongs don’t make a right!), or shouting “Lies”, or “Sheep”, or something like that. But whether it’s on the role of women - or on racism, antisemitism, climate change, homophobia, transphobia, or a whole host of other things already highlighted by CSSD, “The Light”s content is not just right wing (many of its articles are actually quite similar to those in the Daily Mail, except much more poorly written). It is also, worryingly, deeply reactionary, and in places, frankly crypto-fascist. I don’t want it on our streets. And what I’ve learned lately is that calmly taking a copy and then ripping it up in front of them is most satisfying. Make sure you recycle! By a member of Community Solidarity Stroud District Follow this link for the full article: communitysolidaritystrouddistrict.org/articles Take a stand against “The Light”: tinyurl.com/TheLightStatement Join our Facebook Group: facebook.com/communitySolidarityStroudDistrict

Leaflet #4: “The Light” and the far right

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“ THE LIGHT ” AND THE FAR RIGHT Why do we say that “The Light” is a platform for the far right? “The Light” portrays itself as “above politics, neither of right nor left, just a defender of freedom”. However, it regularly contains articles by far right individuals and organizations, mixing this material with more innocent content. We are raising awareness of the far right authors and organisations. Who are these far right people and organisations? Anne Marie Waters has written for “The Light” several times. Until recently, she was leader of the ‘For Britain’ political party. In 2017, she sought to be leader of UKIP. Her views are so extreme that even Nigel Farage called her and her supporters “Nazis and racists”. Waters was a co-founder with Tommy Robinson of anti-Muslim street movement Pegida UK. “Lasha Darkmoon” also features in Issue 9 promoting Holocaust denial and describes it as “the number one heresy of our day”. The pen-name Lasha Darkmoon is also used by a frequent contributor to Nazi websites. Their bigotry and conspiracies cover antisemitism and racism towards Muslim people and non-white migrants. Niall McCrae, is a former lecturer involved in far right organisation Hearts of Oak, with Tommy Robinson, and a frequent contributor to “The Light”. Another contributor, Robin Tilbrook, was the founder of the far right “English Democrats” Party and the “Workers of England” union. If “The Light” publishes articles by these people, does it mean that they support their views? Darren Smith, the editor of “The Light”, described the For Britain Party as one that “wants to preserve its country’s traditions, borders and ancient values” (Interview with Anne Marie Waters Issue 9). He repeatedly downplays the far right connections of people writing in “The Light”. He is gaslighting the readership. The people handing out “The Light” in Stroud say they support peace and freedom. Are they supporters of the far right? The people who distribute the paper in Stroud have twice hosted a podcaster who promoted Holocaust denier Nicholas Kollerstrom. They have also held two events where Sandi Adams has spoken, despite being informed by us that she hosted a Holocaust denial documentary and other antisemitism on her website. Other people they have hosted include Jason Liosator, Mark Devlin and James Delingpole. In the article linked below we discuss their hateful views. Local “Light” supporters defended the violent attacks on refugees in Liverpool orchestrated by “Patriotic Alternative” – an article in issue 31 defended these. Hatred for asylum seekers and refugees is a frequent theme in the paper. They also defend and promote the activity of Alex Jones, a far right troll who for years harassed the families of the children murdered at Sandy Hook. They are knowingly actively supporting and promoting the far right. What can we do? Four things: • Inform yourself and your friends and colleagues by reading our article The Far Right and “The Light” at communitysolidaritystrouddistrict.org/articles • Follow our work: facebook.com/communitySolidarityStroudDistrict • Let your friends know what’s behind “The Light” and where it wants to lead them. • Join us in making clear our opposition to “The Light” being handed out in Stroud by signing our statement at tinyurl.com/TheLightStatement. – Provides a platform for far right ideas, organisations and individuals – Points to far right websites as reliable sources of information – Frequently attacks LGBT people, refugees and environmentalists Follow the link for the full article: communitysolidaritystrouddistrict.org/articles Take a stand against “The Light”: tinyurl.com/TheLightStatement Join our Facebook Group: facebook.com/communitySolidarityStroudDistrict

Leaflet #3: ‘The Light’: Promoting climate change denial and inaction

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If you care about climate change then reject The Light’s conspiracy theories You might think that The Light is only about opposition to vaccines and lockdowns, with a smattering of “natural therapies” and crank cures. But there is a bigger picture. The Light is part of a right-wing movement that aims aims to demobilise action against climate change. It echoes the worst excesses of Trump-speak, claiming that climate change is a “hoax” promoted by a “global elite” that is using the idea of ecological crisis to usher in a world government and restrict the freedom of the individual. It praises and platforms so-called “climate sceptics” and pours scorn on climate activists. Want evidence and examples? Check this out: https://tinyurl.com/consistentdenial Don’t be fooled - The Light and its supporters don’t care about the natural world, or about you. The overwhelming majority of the world’s climate scientists agree that “Human-induced climate change is causing dangerous and widespread disruption in nature and affecting the lives of billions of people around the world, despite efforts to reduce the risks. People and ecosystems least able to cope are being hardest hit.” But The Light has written about climate change in 16 of its 19 issues to date, almost always to say that it is a “hoax”, a “racket” and a “fraud”, and to denigrate even the weak and insufficient measures brought in by politicians as an unacceptable constraint on freedom. The Light is a vehicle for introducing vulnerable people to the ideas, personalities and organisations of the extreme right. Take a stand against The Light: tinyurl.com/TheLightStatement

Leaflet #2: ‘The Light’: Promoting transphobia and homophobia

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BIN ‘THE LIGHT’ – it promotes transphobia and homophobia Community Solidarity Stroud District stands against all forms of hate. We also understand that falsehoods used to ‘other’ people, based on gender and sexuality, hurt everyone by redirecting conversations away from the everyday misogyny and bigotry that is essential in propping up systems that oppress us all. In recent years, rhetoric rooted in ‘religious right’ claims from the USA in the 1970s and 1980s that centred on how gay men were supposedly ‘child molesters’ and ‘paedophiles’ who were out to ‘recruit children’ has been revived. Around the 2000s, when false claims were losing their effectiveness against gay and lesbian people, the religious right shifted their efforts toward instead targeting people of other non-heterosexual sexualities, and then trans people. This is happening to some extent in various media channels, including mainstream newspapers – but the free paper “The Light” is a particularly nasty QUEER-BASHING HATE-TABLOID. “The Light” has published articles by many people who are homophobic and transphobic. It also gives credence, through praise and through web links, to groups and people that promote hate and mistrust of anyone that falls outside of their blinkered ideology. “The Light” continues to equate gender non-conformance to paedophilia, views affirming parents as abusers, references surgical procedures for trans people using fictional statements. As just one example (see overleaf for more): in edition 23 it stated “As the month of July descends into a rainbow-festooned festival of the Globohomo Cult that shall no doubt see us all having to watch the unedifying spectacle of police officers twerking beside their re-branded, multicolour clown cars in cities across the nation, the question must surely be asked just how much longer can society stomach being force-fed this most degenerate form of diversity”. The issue also contained a cartoon of a parent asking their child “How was school?” and the child responding by vomiting a rainbow, to ram their anti-LGBTQ hatred home.
Bin "The Light" • Joan Ginsburg (issues 8, 19, 25) equates parents allowing children to express their gender outside of the binary to paedophilia. Says “puberty blockers usually lead to surgical transitioning with the result that young people are being maimed and sterilised before they have even had their first kiss”. This is, of course, statistically untrue, it is devoid of any fact. Ginsburg is a vocal supporter of the ‘Public Child Protection, Wales’ group which seeks to exert an authoritarian rule over children’s autonomy. It promotes an opt-out to unconditional love by accepting bigotry as a parenting style. Issue 33’s International News focuses on an Australian document supposed to show that it is illegal for parents to refuse gender-affirming care for their children. The documents actually says no such thing; it says that sending your child to a known conversion therapist out-of-district will be construed as… sending your child for conversion therapy. • There are regular links and advertising in “The Light”: Off-Guardian, UKColumn and Unity News Network – all media outlets that promote disinformation about trans people (as well as about anyone else outside of their politically and economically-privileged world). • Another favourite link of “The Light” is to the wonderfully titled TheRedPillRevolution.com. “The Light” enjoyed using this site via it’s writer Ben Hunt and his attempt to ‘man harder’ under the guise of a supposed fear of a ‘War on Masculinity’ in issue 31. Apparently, “gender is now being presented as a lifestyle choice”. It is sweet that this website pays homage to the red oestrogen pill used by trans women in the 90s referenced in the film the Matrix, written by two trans women as an allegory for transitioning. • Ben Hunt (again) in issue 32 describes a trans woman who was listed in ‘Women of the Year’ by USA Today as “Exhibit C: Richard (“Rachel”) Levine”. He argues that a blurring of gender lines is such a falsehood that we could lose the meaning of ‘adult’. “Can a child now be reimagined as an adult, say when it comes to sexual consent?”. Conflating gender diversity with paedophilia is a throwback to the commonly used vitriolic homophobia of the 1970s (and still prevails now, although less often). • Jose Hermosa, in issue 10, is linked under his article from theBL.com, where he also protests children’s TV “looking for the little ones to normalize these new sexual orientations that are destroying the morality of humanity”. • “The Light” is somewhat obsessed with sex and all its connotations, bringing it into many, many articles over its, so far, 45 issues. • Niall McCrae has a number of entries in “The Light”. He is an active member of the Bruges Group (and wrote a pamphlet for them that used the usual antisemitic tropes of The Great Replacement and Cultural Marxism). McCrae wrote Green in Tooth and Claw – a book that views same-sex attraction as subversive. He writes on several right-wing sites with scathing criticism of anything LGBTQ+. • Alex Jones, before McCrae’s Light popularity, was cherished for his attacks aimed at ‘mainstream’ media and his views on government-corporate takeovers but neglect to mention that Jones asserted that the government is creating gay people through “a chemical warfare operation”, or Jones’ threat to come after drag performers with torches “like the villagers in the night”. Finally… In something of a ‘self-own’ in issue 35, “The Light” describes the use of the word Inclusivity as mainstream media speak for “Collectivism; no individuality allowed”. “The Light” appears to have missed that the point is to accept all individuals. Yet “The Light”, time and again, clearly has a problem with anyone who falls outside of their accepted norms. Learn more: communitysolidaritystrouddistrict.org

Leaflet #1: “Say NO to ‘The Light’ newspaper”

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SAY NO to ‘THE LIGHT’ NEWSPAPER They spread antisemitism They are NO friends of freedom LEARN MORE ABOUT ‘THE LIGHT’: amplifystroud.com/the-light TAKE A STAND AGAINST THE LIGHT’S RACISM: tinyurl.com/TheLightStatement
“She was beautiful, my little sister. You cannot imagine how beautiful she was. They mustn’t have looked at her. If they had, they would never have killed her. They couldn’t have.” Charlotte Delbo, Auschwitz survivor In the recent controversies about how best to deal with covid, many opinions have emerged: mask or no mask? lockdown or no lockdown? pro-vaccine or anti-vaccine? ‘The Light’ newspaper, distributed through the Stroud Info Hub, has set itself up as a champion of freedom, but in doing so has brought on to the agenda much more sinister ‘freedoms’ than the right to speak out about the vaccine. In the November 2021 (Issue 15) edition of ‘The Light’, they sought to defend the racism of Graham Hart. He was convicted in August 2021 of Inciting Racial Hatred for broadcasting foul antisemitism, including denying the Holocaust, saying that Jews should be ‘wiped out’, making light of Auschwitz, and suggesting the diary of Anne Frank was a fraud. On 7th November 2020, Sandi Adams, a known antisemite and Holocaust denier, was invited by the Stroud organisers to address the ‘Freedom Rally’. Of the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis, 960,000 were murdered in the gas chambers in Auschwitz. Those who wish to deny or downplay the Holocaust are justifying and defending Hitler’s genocide. The danger of fascism will always remain so long as there are those who are prepared to lie about the horror that took place. ‘The Light’ is doing just that in its newspaper and on Facebook. Whatever we think of how to best deal with Covid, none of us should have anything to do with a paper that defends spreading racist hate, and we don’t want to see it on our streets. For further information please see links on the front of this leaflet