Last week, the BNP triumphantly announced that they’d put up their first ever billboard in Scotland, in Aberdeen. This was the first of three planned in the North East - the area of the country where they’re concentrating most of their resources, particularly following the fall-out which has fractured the party in Glasgow.
Their candidate in Aberdeen is Susan Ross, a nurse and grandmother – clearly someone they’re hoping will give their racist politics a veil of respectability. Although she stands no chance of election – and probably won’t even save her deposit – they’ve previously stated that their tactic is to build up localised support in the hope of gaining a regional list seat in Holyrood next year.
SSY is pleased to learn that local anti-fascists reacted quickly to the BNP advert, despite violent threats from the party of ’round the clock security’ to protect it – we’ve more than one report of attacks by BNP thugs on anti-fascists attempting to get near the billboard.
Well done Aberdeen – No Pasaran!
SSY member Ewan Robertson will be contesting the Aberdeen North seat in the upcoming general election – read more about the campaign here:www.aberdeenssp.org
As I explained in a recent blog post, I decided to write to Osama Saeed and Anas Sarwar, to encourage them to take a stand against the BNP’s freedom to stir up racial hatred. Below is the text of an emailed letter I sent to anas@sarwar4glasgow.com and blog@osamasaeed.org
Dear fellow candidate,
First of all, allow me to congratulate you on being selected by your party to run as a candidate in Glasgow Central. It is shaping up to be a hard-fought contest and I am ready to fight as hard as anyone in delivering my party’s distinctive message of peace, justice and socialism. This election is particularly important because of its context – the worst economic crisis in living memory, sharply rising unemployment and the threat of swingeing cuts to public services, wages and pensions alike.
My reason for writing is one of concern for the future. Throughout history, candidates of the extreme Right have sought to utilise economic downturn and the misery it causes the majority of people, in order to divide the people; focusing blame not on those in power nor the system they uphold, but on minorities, organised workers and all those who they consider ‘deviant’.
In past times, Britain has witnessed periods of growth for fascists such as Mosley’s blackshirts in the 1930s/40s and the National Front in the 70s/80s. Their role has been to terrorise minorities including Jews, Blacks and Irish. Today’s manifestation of this scummy tradition is the British National Party, whose main role is to act on the anti-Muslim climate whipped up by reactionary sections of the mainstream press. Without wishing to overstate their importance, they do represent a serious danger which cannot be ignored.
Despite their attempts to rebrand themselves as a non-violent electoralist party, you only have to scratch the surface to discover their true character. Many of their members have been convicted for racially aggravated assaults. The ranks of their organisation, all the way up to the top level, are full with Nazi sympathisers and white supremacists. It is no coincidence that some of the racist English Defence League’s biggest and most violent recent gatherings have occurred in areas of BNP growth, e.g. Stoke (recently abolished elected Mayor for fear that the BNP would win it) and Bolton (part of Nick Griffin’s North-West England euro constituency). Wherever they are able to gain a foothold, there is an inevitable subsequent rise in attacks on non-white people, religious minorities, homosexuals and radicals.
I raise all this to support the idea that far from being a legitimate political outfit, they are a menace to any vestiges of democracy and a threat to the safety of many members of our society. It is not unreasonable to suggest that if they came to power, I could be discussing them with you within the confines of a concentration camp. The 1 million votes they received in May, alongside some crafty PR spin, has tricked some into allowing them access to public service broadcasting and a place in the official political sphere. This is a dangerous practice and one which we should not simply stand by and allow to happen.
In the coming campaign, we will likely be invited to participate in debates or forums where members of the public engage with the candidates. The BNP are yet to declare a candidate, but will probably do so as they will seek an opportunity to cause division in a multi-ethnic ward with 2 prominent Muslim candidates. They should not be allowed to exploit these opportunities to spread their bile. I am asking you to take a brave stand and pledge that you will not share a platform with a representative of the BNP. For those who are organising such events, the pledge that major parties are united in unwillingness to allow fascists to take part will deter them from inviting BNP representatives.
I would be grateful if you could reply, confirming your position on this matter.
Yours sincerely,
James Nesbitt
SSP Candidate, Glasgow Central
30/03/2010
UKIP are the most successful minor party in British electoral history. Despite having no MP’s, no official backing from any major newspaper, and only 70 councillors UKIP were able to beat the Lib Dems and come third in 2004’s European Elections. Last year they went further, coming second and beating the governing Labour Party. Today UKIP send as many MEP’s to Brussels as Labour do. This is a formiddable achievement for a party that was only founded in 1993.
Despite this fantastic growth, there has been very little discussion or criticism of UKIP on the Left. This is despite UKIP representing a “radical” right-wing constituency, with MEP’s further to the right than most Tory MP’s and who would attack the standard of living of working people quite dramatically if elected.
Most concern on the Left to radical right wing parties has been directed to the growth of the BNP, who picked up 2 MEP’s at the last European Election. UKIP is very obviously and clearly not the same kind of party as the BNP but there is definitely competition between both parties for the same anti-EU, anti-Immigration, nationalist vote. This vote isn’t homogeneous however and there are important differences. UKIP attract a wealthier, home counties right-wing vote, compared to the BNP who attract support from much poorer areas in English cities.
UKIP and the BNP also have differences in how they view society should be organised; UKIP are made up of Thatcherites who are too Eurosceptic for the Tory Party but still uphold the free market and libertarian values. The BNP in contrast support protectionism for British companies – this has led to some on the Tory nutter right to attack the BNP as “Left-wing”. Farage, UKIP’s former leader and best known public figure says the difference between them and the BNP is that they are the “do what you like party” and the BNP are the “hang em and flog em party”.
Parliament for the jocks you say? What ho, no, let them use the one behind me!
Of course the biggest and most fundamental difference between the two parties is that the BNP is still a neo-Nazi organisation pretending to be a populist right wing one, while UKIP is just a populist right-wing party. UKIP doesn’t believe in the racial supremacy fantasies of the BNP and has no problems with ethnic minorities as candidates or members. It’s for this reason that it would be unimaginable (and wrong) for UKIP to be no platformed the way the BNP is.
Despite these important differences however, UKIP deserves a lot more attention and criticism from the Left than it has got. It’s generally been ignored by the Left as it is not in any position to control the Government or Local councils and because its not a fascist organisation like the BNP. However UKIP may not always be the eccentric party of ex-Tory Daily Mail readers, able to attract a bit of a laugh now and again with some Bernard Manning style comments about women or attacking the EU President as a damp rag.
I likesh a shmoke and a pancake, but I don't likesh the Mushlimsh
UKIP have tried to justify their love in with Wilders on the basis that we need to have a discussion about “radical Islam”. Time and time again however Wilders has made clear that his problem is with Islam, and sees no difference between moderate and radical Muslims. Wilders today is the most successful far-Right politician in Europe, and has a real chance of becoming the next Prime Minister of the Netherlands.
Wilders has made it a demand for any coalition Government in which his Party for Freedom (PVV) takes part, that the hijab is banned from all public institutions; meaning any Muslim who wears the hijab will be banned from working in or using a library, swimming pool, school etc. Wilders does not even attempt to cover his attack on Muslims by saying its about secularism – he openly says Jewish skull caps and crucifixes will not be affected by this law, as they are a part of western culture.
People should remember that the hijab is not the burqa. Unlike the burqa, which is an extreme form of Islamic dress worn by a very small number of Muslims in Europe the Hijab is a far more modest headscarf little different from a nuns habit. The hijab is worn by a massive proportion of Muslim women – banning them from wearing it is a clear attack on their civil rights. There is no practical difference between someone who wears a hijab, a turban or skullcap in how they do their job or use public services. They have been singled out because they are Muslims.
How far UKIP will go down the PVV road remains to be seen, but it is clear that they are attempting to win support not just from attacking the EU but now from attacking Muslims. UKIP have become the first party in the UK to call for the banning of the Burka in all public places. This is further than even the BNP wants to go – they only want the burka banned in govt buildings. Whatever criticism can be made of the burka for it’s attacks on women’s rights it’s clear that if UKIP are cosying up with Wilders it is unlikely they are banning it to emancipate Muslim women.
UKIP also need to be dug up by the Left for their hypocrisy on the issues of democracy and accountability they claim to uphold. UKIP have won virtually all their support on their largely correct attacks on the European President and European Commission for being totally unaccountable and unelected – but they see no contradiction between these institutions and having an unelected Lord as leader! There is no attack on the House of Lords from UKIP on what it is, an undemocratic chamber which has the power to stop laws being made by a parliament with elected MP’s.
UKIP’s policy on Scotland also betrays their Tory roots – they call for the abolition of the Scottish Parliament, an act that would return Scotland to the bad old days of the 80’s where our votes were irrelevant, and the votes of middle England would decide who rules Scotland.
After all as bad as the EU parliament is, its done nothing like force the poll tax on Scotland using MP’s elected in England – but then again, that wouldn’t bother UKIP much seeing as they argue for a “flat tax”. A flat tax means that everyone pays the same amount of tax for their services regardless of their income, which was of course the exact same principle the poll tax used. They also call for a reduction in the rate of corporation tax, referring to Thatcher and Reagan’s UK and USA as a justification. This flat tax would also mean less funding for public services, cutting jobs and services in order to transfer even more wealth to the rich. This “freedom” for companies to do whatever they want is part of UKIP’s attack on the alleged “social democratic consensus” at Westminster.
Right now UKIP are unlikely to put into practice any of these policies. Both parties of the radical right in the UK, the BNP and UKIP have major barriers to growth. In the case of the BNP it’s their racism and neo-Nazi baggage. For UKIP its being identified as solely interested in Europe.
The PVV in the Netherlands shows that these barriers can be overcome however. If UKIP and the BNP dealt with these barriers by dumping Griffin and other neo-Nazis, paid more attention to domestic affairs and founded a new radical right party along the lines of the PVV there is little to stop them from emulating Wilders success. There is clearly a very large vote for opposing the EU, immigration, political correctness and for old school Tory values that Cameron has had to cede somewhat to take the centre ground.
Such a party of the radical right would pose a threat to Scotland’s democratic rights, working peoples status in the tax system, funding to public services and civil rights of Muslims in the UK. Remember that the next time you see Nigel Farage guffaw on Question Time and ask if anyone wants to go for a punt and a Pimms.
Two days ago, the Scottish section of the BNP put a statement up on their website, ‘exposing’ an ‘anti-BNP Scotland group’ which has pledged to ‘destroy the party in Scotland’.
Who could this mysterious organisation be – whose actions the BNP admit have lost them ‘thousands’ of votes? Unite Against Fascism? Antifa? The Thunderbirds?
Not quite – it’s actually three of their own leading (ex-)officials! Yep, great news everyone – the BNP have started destroying themselves from within. Although the post (which has since been taken down but has been cached by google here) doesn’t put names to the ‘trio of fools’ involved, comments underneath the article out them as Charlie Baillie, Max Dunbar and John Robertson. These are pretty much the core of BNP activism in Glasgow – when the BNP attempted street activity here last year during the European Elections, it was invariably these three that were out. Indeed, Baillie was the BNP’s number one candidate on the Scottish regional list for those elections, and was later the candidate for the Glasgow North East by-election, where they finished in fourth place and came within a few dozen votes of saving their deposit.
The reasons for Baillie and co’s departure aren’t very clear – it seems there’s egos and personal agendas coming into play, as well as the anti-Griffin sentiment which has been causing unrest within the party down south, which the recent court decision that forced them to open up membership to non-whites has only increased. The BNP’s Scottish leader is Aberdeen-based Gary Raikes, who has a reputation for being a bit of a useless twat. As well as owning “4 horses, 8 sheep, 5 dogs, 9 cats and 3 ferrets” and not having a favourite colour (true facts!), Raikes is a firm Griffinite, as is Walter Hamilton, now the Glasgow organiser and about their only senior member left in the city.
GARY RAIKES: definitely doesn't have a massive ego
The BNP had planned to stand twelve candidates in Scotland for the upcoming Westminster elections. With three of them now complete outcasts from the Scottish party and ‘refusing to stand’, they will only be contesting nine – one short of the minimum 10 seats required to get a televised broadcast! So not only will this fuck up their plans for the Westminster elections – it’ll also have seriously implications for the party in the Holyrood elections, which are only a year away. The BNP’s long term strategy in Scotland appears to rest on getting an MSP elected next year, and most likely on the Glasgow regional list, for which they wouldn’t require a massive increase from the 4.92% that Baillie took in the Glasgow North East by-election recently. Griffin himself has said that he believes the 6.5% or so that they’d need is a “do-able thing”.
But none of them counted on three of their leading members in Glasgow walking out. Their plans now lie in ruins. Long may this fine tradition of the far-right destroying themselves continue!
HI-VIS WANKERS: the people of glasgow tell dunbar (in hat) & baillie (centre) to get tae
Regular readers of this site will know of two attempts by the so-called “Scottish Defence League” to march in Glasgow in Edinburgh to demonstrate against Muslims in this country. On both occasions the SDL have been kettled, unable to march – and in Edinburgh unable to make even a token static protest. On both occasions democratic, grassroots and broad anti-fascist organisations have been formed, with SSY members working with different anti-fascist campaigners to physically stop the SDL from marching. These organisations have been responsive in nature, and have only formed in the cities where the SDL have planned to march – but it has left us with a network of anti-fascists, in Glasgow Anti-Fascist Alliance and Edinburgh Anti-Fascist Alliance.
This Saturday both groups will be coming together to have a national anti-fascist meeting to discuss the way forward for anti-fascists in Scotland. The SDL have been convincingly thrashed both times they have attempted to march or demonstrate but it is now clear the SDL are changing tactics and the anti-fascist alliances must respond to this. They have shut down their facebook, bebo groups etc and now are reliant on a hardcore of their members to come out and demonstrate. They have given up trying to publicly advertise their demonstrations and are now reliant on contacting those who have already been on previous demonstrations.
This in itself is a victory, as it severely stunts the possible growth of the SDL as an organisation but it also makes it harder for anti-fascists to combat them. After the Edinburgh disaster for the SDL, they announced they would be having a memorial event in Lockerbie on the 27th of March. Again this shows they have been thrown out of the cities in Scotland and marks a retreat for them. However instead of demonstrating on the 27th the SDL organised a demo last Saturday – this was entirely in secret, with no press coverage of any kind. Again, a blow considering the media coverage they obtained in both Edinburgh and Glasgow.
What it does raise though is the possibility of “lightning demos” – where the SDL contact a few dozen of their trusted members to organise a brief, static demo in major cities in Scotland – possibly outside key targets for them, such as Mosques or the Parliament. The anti-fascist movement needs to be able to respond to this effectively, particularly as the conditions will be very different from in the past in terms of policing etc.
We also need to discuss how we deal with other fascist organisations, such as the National Front. Long dormant across the UK – and in particular Scotland, where they never had anything like the base they had in England – they are now planning a “Kriss Donald memorial” later this month. The NF is trying to stoke up racial tension and exploit the tragic murder of a young boy for their own fantasies of racial war.
The biggest threat we need to face is not forces on the street however – its the established party of the far-right across the UK, the BNP. The BNP took 2 MEP’s last year, alongside their dozens of councillors and GLA seat. They are trying to make the break into political respectability, and with Griffins infamous appearance on Question Time are making some inroads. While the BNP have no councillors in Scotland, and have never picked much support north of the border its clear they are now trying to break on to the Scottish political scene. In the Glasgow North East by-election they came 4th, not far off beating the Tories and holding on to their deposit.
The BNP are now talking about standing in up to 12 seats across Scotland, which would be their largest set of candidates in any General Election in Scotland. While the BNP do not have any chance of winning the seats – and are very unlikely to hold their deposit in any of these seats either – these elections will be used to boost their profile for the 2011 Holyrood Elections. The BNP will be trying to get a PR seat by winning 5-6% across a region, most likely Glasgow.
At the moment this appears unlikely, particularly as Scottish Elections don’t give the BNP media coverage on the basis of their successes down south. What their strategy most likely will be is to boost their profile in national elections across Scotland in preparation for the 2012 council elections. All the BNP need here is 16 – 20% in one council ward to take a councillor. The BNP built their base in council halls in England, its logical they would use the same tactics up here – where they do not need to win a FPTP election.
The anti-fascist movement not only needs to deal with the far-right in their political organisations but with a wider acceptance of racist views in society in general. It’s now commonplace to hear migrants being blamed for taking jobs, and attacks on Muslims as being disloyal, terrorists etc. Most of the people who make these kind of comments would never vote BNP, but they can influence the major parties through voting for them to accept these ideas.
If the organisations, and more importantly the ideas of the far-right are going to be beaten anti-fascists have to evolve a strategy beyond “Don’t vote Nazi”. We need to flesh out, and campaign as for a strategy that undercuts why people are attracted to racist parties and ideas. That means uniting working people for positive demands around housing, education, employment and wages. SSY hopes that the national anti-fascist meeting this Saturday begins that process, and helps to build a national Scottish Anti-Fascist Alliance.
Saturday, March 13, 2010 6:30pm – 9:00pm upstairs in the Forest Cafe, 3 Bristo Place, Edinburgh
After being convincingly routed last month the SDL are talking about having another march, this time in Edinburgh on February 20th.
The last time the SDL marched they were outnumbered 1,500 to 80 and were unable to march anywhere. They spent the day cooped up in a bar, a totally different situation from other parts of the UK where the EDL ran riot, intimidating Muslims outside Mosques.
SSY is supporting a planning meeting this Wednesday, December the 9th at 7pm in the Meadow Bar on Buccleugh street. I’ll be speaking and giving a brief background on the EDL/SDL and we can discuss and plan openly and democratically how to no platform the fascists – the same way Glasgow Anti-Fascist Alliance did in the run up to the SDL’s Glasgow demo.
Almost two months of organising against the Scottish incarnation of the fascist English Defence League paid off yesterday – the SDL were outnumbered 50 to 1 by anti-fascist demonstrators, unable to march and spent most of the day kettled in a pub in Glasgow. Earlier fears of the SDL marching on Glasgow Central Mosque, attacking anti-war and pro-Palestine stalls on Buchanan St or assembling in George Square were unfounded thanks to the presence of well over a thousand anti-fascist demonstrators.
While the SDL spent their whole day stuck in the Cambridge Bar anti-fascist demonstrators had freedom to march all across Glasgow in what were effectively illegal marches. It was this presence which stopped the police from allowing the SDL any kind of demonstration in Glasgow, bar a pathetic 60 pace “march” outside the Cambridge Bar to police lines. The SDL themselves had to be taken out on double decker buses for their own safety.
Theres lots of things we could have done differently on the day – there was a split in the demo between those who wanted to stay at the Cambridge where the SDL were and those who went to Glasgow Green.
SSY members and GU Left Society members argued throughout the build up to this demo that we should have a mobilisation in the city centre early on in the day, as the SDL planned to demonstrate in the city centre well before the Scotland United rally. Having a rally away from the city centre and after the SDL were due to turn up therefore couldn’t be the only way to confront the SDL. At first UAF opposed the 10am kick off but later came round to supporting it.
The split in the demo between those who went to the Green and stayed at Cambridge is a lesson for any future demos the SDL or the far-right try to organise; many people did not stay at the Cambridge because the SDL presence there was tiny, and it was believed they would try to hold a larger rally later on in George Square. That made getting kettled outside the Cambridge an unattractive prospect, especially as there were rumours 100 SDL supporters would be coming in on the Trains at 12 to assemble in George Square.
As it happened the only SDL presence was in the Cambridge and in retrospect the demo could have stayed there for most if not all of the day. If part of the demo had to split off for speakers etc then in the future it should be somewhere much closer to the SDL – for example George Square.
Despite this the day was a resounding success, the SDL were totally unable to march or advertise themselves or their message. Just take a look at their comments on their Facebook group – http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&ref=search&gid=227558430152
The free march the EDL had in Luton was totally denied to the SDL.
SDL’s tiny “demo” kettled by the police
This wasn’t just down to a large anti-fascist mobilisation but a mobilisation which was committed to meeting in the city centre and confronting them – not simply going to the Green. SSY comrades played no small part in many of the meetings in the build up to this demo in arguing and promoting that city centre confrontation and we should be proud of our role in making sure the SDL had a bad day in Glasgow.
Special Guest Post Exclusive by Honorary SSY Member Jo Harvie….
So it’s the morning after Griffin got on Question Time. The Guardian and Independent have slammed the oxygen feed to the fascists, the Star has called him a nuttaaaah, and every single telly programme and radio phone-in, from GMTV to This Morning has discussed the merit of allowing ‘Dick’ to sweat, giggle and stutter through an hour of flagship political discussion.
There’s been a mixed bag of views shared. A few surprising celebrities have argued passionately that there should never have been a place for the BNP on a programme like Question Time. Everyone on Twitter loved Bonnie Greer’s intellectual wasting of Griffin’s idiotic view of history. All the panellists agree he looked stupid.
But from the people phoning in, there’s an overwhelming feeling that it was a sin for him, the poor kid who hadn’t done his homework being hounded by a whole gaggle of strict teachers. One phoner-upper to The Wright Stuff actually likened Griffin to “Joan of Arc tied to the stake”. Well, I suppose he insists he can trace his ancestors back to William the Conqueror, making him, by his own standards, French.
NIck Griffin is no victim. From the second it was announced that the BBC had invited him onto Question Time he couldn’t lose. He looked inarticulate. He looked nervous. The bloke who made the South Pole joke made him look a total tube. But he was there. He was on our tellies, sitting opposite the ‘political elite’ he purports to despise so much. He touched Bonnie Greer’s arm several times. I hope she’s burnt her jacket.
And again, and again, last night and across all channels this morning, it’s been repeated that none of the politicians could answer the question about ‘the problem of immigration’. Labour, LibDem and Tory argued it out last night about who it was who’d let too many people in, and who would let in less in the future.
The argument I’m hearing today is that the mainstream parties are ’scared’ to debate immigration. That’s nonsense, they talk about immigration all the time. It’s just that they’re all saying the same thing – ‘we have to find ways to stop people getting in’. Between them, they have shifted the language on immigration so far to the right that they’re all living next door to the BNP.
Let’s hear the other side for a change. Britain is not ‘full up’. If the UK’s population is rising slightly (Scotland’s, on the whole, is not) it’s because middle class people are living longer.
The number of people making a new application for asylum in the UK rose, very slightly, this year, after dropping over the last five years. Not because people are looking to live comfortably on our benefits – our government forces people to live in absolute poverty, on £35 a week, while they wait for a decision on their asylum claim – but because Western armies have clattered through their countries spreading terror and chaos. People seeking asylum come, overwhelmingly, from Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia.
Tory Baroness Warsi challenged Griffin’s use of the term ‘bogus asylum seeker’ – I think it’s the first time I’ve ever heard the term challenged on TV – because it’s an invented slur. There are no bogus asylum seekers, every human on the planet has the right to ask for sanctuary. Yet her party would still seek to limit the number of people to whom we offer that sanctuary, would send families back to the killing fields of Sudan and Somalia, to the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq.
They argued over the number of people who arrived from Eastern Europe. So what? People came, they worked, they paid taxes. And when rich white people screwed the whole world’s economy, lots of people went home to try to work and pay taxes there. Like the British young people who troop off to work their way round Australia, then come home when they’ve had enough adventure.
Britain’s unemployment rate is soaring – not because of Poles or Romanians or Somalians, or even Australians, who are in fact the most regular visa overstayers in the UK – but because of an economic system that bleeds every profit it can from working people of every race, then dumps them when it’s expedient.
Griffin is bleating today about his beating last night. And as very, very funny as it was – ‘he’s not in the violent Ku Klux Klan’, ‘I’m frightened of men kissing’ – until we get voices on Question Time who don’t just pay lip service to the bounties of immigration, ‘yay for curry and Dizzee Rascal!’, but who say clearly that all political parties must stop pushing fear of the other, and really tackle poverty, unemployment and exploitation of all people, then the fascists keep winning.
The Mock The Week team. Just out of shot, death camps.
Well, not exactly. BNP head honcho has been invited on to Question Time. It’s not unsurprising – the BNP got 6% of the vote, almost a million voters backing them and 2 MEP’s to the European Parliament. It was the first time a fascist party has won national representation.
Griffins like a Tyrannosaur, his vision is based on movement
The BNP may have been shut out of the media 10 years ago, as a fringe racist party increasingly they’re getting coverage above and beyond their vote.
After failing his joint honours in Sports Science and Art at Paisley tech, layabout student Hitler was invited on to Call My Bluff. 4 years later he started a war of annihilation on two fronts
BBC Radio had an hour long phone in in on the BNP during the Euro Elections, where callers were allowed to make racist attacks unchallenged – apart from the incompetent radio host who took a while to remember/be told Griffin had a conviction for inciting racial hatred.
Nick showing a cheeky bit of man boob here in a tight white t shirt.
Thats what people should remember in the “freedom of speech” debate – freedom of speech should not include freedom to incite violence or hate against someone, regardless of whether or not it’s been giving a Nazi PR job.
Nobody on the BBC would consider giving a spot on desert island discs to a radical Islamist preacher on the basis that their organisation was technically legal.
And the tabloid press didn’t defend the right of Islamic fundamentalists to march through London condemning the west on the basis of “freedom of speech”. Neither did they Iranian regimes disgusting Holocaust denial cartoons. In fact an Arab group is facing criminal charges for distributing a cartoon denying the Holocaust
And the reason for that is quite simple – most people in the UK don’t accept people who support blowing them up on tubes, discriminating against them on the basis of religion etc should have the freedom to organise to make that vision a reality.
So why should Black, Gay, Muslim etc people sit back and let people who want to deport, firebomb, and persecute them have their “freedom of speech”?
That’s still the aim of the BNP despite their “modernisation”. Griffin still says he wants to return the UK to it’s “white” status before WW2. He now argues he is against forcing blacks to leave by compulsion – the previous BNP policy – but says BNP policy now is “assisted repatriation”.
The fact is though that millions of Black and Asian people aren’t going to return to their “countries of origin” no matter how much they are paid. How many Scottish Catholics would go back to Ireland, rip up their connections to family and friends, and start again in a whole new country?
Imagine that suggestion for third generation Pakistanis – not only would they be moving to a country thats totally different from the UK, but where they would almost certainly have a lower standard of living than here.
The only way to return the UK to being 99% white is through intimidation and discrimination against ethnic minorities. No other method will achieve the goal of an all-white UK, and the BNP know it.
The BNP still want to ethnically cleanse the UK, they are just a lot more “New Labour” about selling themselves. If there’s one thing Socialists should watch wi Nick Griffin in it, it’s this you tube video where he outlines quite well the BNP strategy of rebranding themselves.
Griffin – talking to KKK members – outlines how he is interesting in “sellling the BNPs” ideas, not “selling them out”. He correctly argues that no one will back deporting all black people today, but in the future if their ideas hold sway this goal could be achieved later.
Some folk think that sticking Nick Griffin on Newsnight, Question Time etc will do harm to the BNP as their ideas can be challenged. But the reality is the BNP have had media coverage by the truckload and their balance sheet from it is overwhelmingly positive.
Griffin may be a racist, a fascist but he is also extremely able and articulate in phrasing his ideas and message in a sellable form. He has taken the far-right out of the back rooms of pubs and into the European Parliament.
He will be able to incite hatred against the Muslim population of the UK if he is allowed on Question Time. People who want to deny the freedom to exist free from fear of racist violence for millions of people in the UK shouldn’t have the freedom of the airwaves.
Of course denying the BNP airtime won’t stop them. It’s probably too late in many areas, where the BNP have substantial local support.
The BNP have to be beaten in their strongholds in England by Socialists campaigning for decent jobs, houses, education and freedom from crime for many of the people who currently vote BNP, and change the frame of the political debate so its the bankers who have stolen billions who face the heat, not immigrants and Muslims.
But where the BNP are weak, in Scotland for example, they should be confronted. That doesn’t mean bricking them, but it does mean using your right of freedom of speech to politely tell anyone who is going to take a BNP leaflet that one war against fascism should be enough.
It has today been revealed that recently elected British National Party MEP Nick Griffin has run into difficulties with taking his seat in the European Parliament.
The British National Party, known for “not being racist, honest”, had two of its members elected in the recent European elections. Andrew Brons, elected in the Yorkshire and Humber constituency, has already taken his seat despite initial problems finding which part of “foreign” the parliament was in.
Problems arose for Mr Griffin shortly after the election when he was required to travel to Brussels. Despite initial excitement over his election, the party leader has repeatedly said that he “doesn’t want to go” because he “won’t know anyone”. Even though he has been told that lots of people at the parliament would be new, Griffin has stuck to his guns and refuses to go. The mother of the “not racist”, Mrs Ethel Griffin (102), told us yesterday how it wasn’t the first time her son had acted in such a manner:
“He’s always been like this. I remember the first time he was supposed to go out with his friends to shout abuse at Asian families. He moaned all morning that it would be rubbish and that he didn’t want to go. Of course, when I finally managed to persuade him he had a whale of a time and needless to say he’s been at it nonstop since then!”
The European Parliament recognises that after each election many of its members will be new and possibly not familiar with their colleagues or their surroundings. For this reason the first session after elections begins by all members saying their name, their favourite food and an interesting fact about themselves. This is then translated into all of the EU’s 23 official languages and is followed by lemonade and Jaffa Cakes.
Even with these measures in place, Griffin still refuses to attend parliament. The British National Party has issued a statement saying that they are “doing all they can to resolve the situation and are not racist, honest”. Griffin himself refuses to comment and so an empty seat remains at Brussels for the foreseeable future.
As I explained in a 
Regular readers of this site will know of two attempts by the so-called “Scottish Defence League” to march in Glasgow in Edinburgh to demonstrate against Muslims in this country. On both occasions the SDL have been kettled, unable to march – and in Edinburgh unable to make even a token static protest. On both occasions democratic, grassroots and broad anti-fascist organisations have been formed, with SSY members working with different anti-fascist campaigners to physically stop the SDL from marching. These organisations have been responsive in nature, and have only formed in the cities where the SDL have planned to march – but it has left us with a network of anti-fascists, in 
Entries (RSS)