antisemitism – Community Solidarity Stroud District

Nazi meetings cancelled – our statement

On Tuesday 19th March we learned that some people were trying to put on two Nazi meetings in Stroud, one to mark the “135th anniversary of Hitler’s birth”, and one to promote an antisemitic conspiracy theory used by Hitler to justify killing millions of Jews.

Shocked and horrified by this, local anti-racist groups took action, responding particularly to the distress felt by local Jewish people.

On Monday 25th the Nazi meeting organisers emailed their mailing list to say that they have cancelled the event.

No to Nazis in Stroud

Nazi meetings are being organised by Project Libertas to happen in Stroud on April 19th and 20th. This is not satire, this is a nightmare reality. Two meetings attacking Jews are being held in Stroud. It is shocking and unacceptable. This webpage provides an open letter for people interested in to working to stop Nazi meetings and to challenge any organising that promotes Nazi lies and ideology in Stroud – which people can add their names to in order to register their opposition and to sign up for updates.

Video and text of speeches made at our 2024 Holocaust Memorial Day event

On Sunday 28th January, Community Solidarity Stroud District held a series of events to mark Holocaust Memorial Day. On this page you can find videos and text of speeches made at the different events.

The Far Right in The Light

The Light isn’t a simple far right publication – it’s not the case that every article is from the far right. Yet, the Light often provides space for, points to, and includes adverts from far right individuals or organisations. The paper effectively functions as public relations / advertising for the far right. It does this by concealing the far right nature of organisations and individuals, and mixing their content with other content. By reaching audiences that would normally reject the far right, it appears to be providing a useful recruitment tool.

We want to make sure people are aware of the background of the people and organisations being promoted. We want to stop them from being sucked into working with these groups.

Remember the Beacon? Still a Gateway to extreme right wing ideas

Remember The Beacon – the shop that once served as HQ for the anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists in Stroud? You might remember the window displays minimising and trivialising the coronavirus, described as ‘dangerous and completely wrong on all levels‘ by a local GP. Or the poster introducing the people of Stroud to the writings ofContinue reading “Remember the Beacon? Still a Gateway to extreme right wing ideas”

How have local people responded since we started to raise our concerns about distribution of The Light ‘newspaper’ in Stroud district?

On 29th January, a group now known as Community Solidarity Stroud District started leafleting about a publication regularly distributed on Stroud High St, in Dursley, and occasionally in other parts of the district – including through door to door posting through people’s letterboxes. Our leaflets pointed to a lengthy article “Why are people in StroudContinue reading “How have local people responded since we started to raise our concerns about distribution of The Light ‘newspaper’ in Stroud district?”

Why are people in Stroud handing out a paper that defends Holocaust denial and antisemitism?

This article is about a piece in The Light’s November 2021 issue regarding an online radio host, Graham Hart (69), who has been jailed for 32 months after pleading guilty to eight counts of making a “programme in service with intent or likely to stir up racial hatred”. We explain why we feel that to defend someone like Hart and minimise the harm their words and actions cause – as the article in The Light does – is to promote hatred. To invite people to empathise with an antisemite and to downplay the harm their words and calls to action can cause is to promote antisemitism.