Swastika sprayed on wall at Community Base in Brighton

Arran Evans, convener of Brighton and Hove Stand Up to Racism, works at Community Base in Queens Road in Brighton.

The director of Sussex Interpreting Services spotted the Nazi symbol sprayed on the wall around the back of the Community Base building, opposite the entrance to the Brighthelm Centre, yesterday afternoon at about 2pm.

He said: "To see this appear is sickening, especially at this time when everyone is feeling more conscious of the importance of fighting racism. 

"In central Brighton it was going to be seen. We had to remove it quickly.

"We do not want fascists to have any influence on what goes up in our city."

Arran covered the swastika with Black Lives Matter posters straight away

Arran worked quickly to cover the graffiti with some Black Lives Matter posters, and the swastika was removed swiftly within an hour by staff at Community Base.

Arran said: "We've had a lot of Black Lives Matter posters up in the windows of Community Base since the protest two weeks ago.

"I work with a lot of BAME communities in my work and it's horrible to think the building was targeted.

"The thing about a swastika is you remember what happened in the Holocaust - they killed Jewish people, gypsies, disabled people, gay people. 

"That symbol is an attack on all of these communities, but particularly now with the Black Lives Matter movement, it is a vile symbol."

The racist graffiti follows a number of similar acts of vandalism this year in Brighton and Hove.

In January a swastika was sprayed onto a beach hut in Hove, and during the same month, on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, a vandal sprayed “Nazis R good” in the children's play area at Stoneham Park.

Arran said: "There is currently an attempt by a tiny fascist minority to generate a wider racist backlash against the Black Lives Matter movement, and so we must remain vigilant.

The swastika was removed within an hour after Arran spotted it yesterday afternoon

"When there was a spate of fascist swastika graffiti at the start of the year in our city, we organised a unity vigil on Hove sea front.

"The massive magnificent demonstration recently of some 15,000 people in Brighton for Black Lives Matter shows that anti-racists are the overwhelming majority in this city, and in the country in general. 

"There is no place for racist and fascist intimidation in our multicultural and multiracial city. 

"We need to continue to build a mass anti-racist movement in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter rebellion, to ensure that Brighton and Hove remains a city where refugees and migrants are welcomed and one where racism and fascism is defeated once and for all."