Posts Tagged “fascism”

Who would have thought this man's party would ever have money problems?

UKIP, the acceptable face of far right politics in the UK, are possibly facing a financial disaster next month.

July is likely to see the judgement of the Supreme Court over the party’s refusal to forfeit over £350,000 of illegal donations. The Electoral Commission says it knows about at least 67 instances of the UKIP breaking the law on donations. Under electoral law, if a party is given over £200 it has to check if the donor is on the electoral register. UKIP failed to do this, despite loads of warnings from the commission.

The party got £367, 697 from these incidents. Most of the money came from a retired bookie and owner of a bathrobe company, Alan Brown, who was not on the register when he gave them several separate donations. In magistrates court, UKIP was ordered to pay back only part of the amount, but the electoral commission has escalated things to the Supreme Court in an attempt to get the full amount forfeited, in which case it would go to the treasury.

As well as this money itself, if UKIP loses the case then they would face millions in legal bills. It could effectively bankrupt the party.

Should we be happy about this? Absolutely we should, because UKIP are the hidden threat we face from the organised far right. Leftfield has reported before on UKIP as a potential seed from which an important party of the radical right could become a major force in British politics. The model for this would be far right racist, anti-Muslim Dutch politician Geert Wilders, who has just gained a big result in the Dutch general election.

Alan Brown hands over an illegal donation

Wilders is the darling of the English and Scottish Defence Leagues, who admire him for his stances such as banning the hijab from all public institutions, calling for the Koran to be banned whilst comparing it to ‘Mein Kampf’, and for the construction of prison camps for Muslims in the Netherlands.

Alan Lake, the shady businessman who bankrolled the rise of the EDL, has said publicly that he’s backing away from his street army of football casuals to focus on finding them a voice in the mainstream political process. He’s doing that by working with UKIP.

Read the rest of this entry »

Comments 8 Comments »

The last time we saw the Scottish Defence League – a few dozen thugs, football hooligans and out and out racists – all the way back in February, they were being bussed away by Lothian & Borders Polis, en route to being dumped in a field somewhere near Linlithgow. As the cavalcade of 500 cops and 40 SDL aboard a couple of doubledeckers swept by us, the hundreds of anti-fascists who’d been keeping them penned inside a pub all day said their farewells with chants of ‘The SDL are finished, the SDL are finished, na na na naaa’.

And for all intents and purposes, they were. Edinburgh was their second attempt at a demo, and an even bigger failure than their first ‘protest’ in Glasgow last November. After that, all they could scrape together in terms of a public assembly was a minuscule photo-op in Lockerbie, a ‘vigil’ that most of their own supporters were not even made aware of. More recently, however, they’ve threatened to arrive in Kilmarnock, penned in for Saturday 19 June.

However, over the past two days, the SDL have been plunged into yet another crisis. Their main organiser in Scotland, ‘Gusty’, has walked out on the “wank-stains” , “wankers” and “mouthy c*nts” that apparently make up a large element of the SDL’s support – a shocking new revelation of the far-right’s composition in itself! Clearly, there’s a huge amount of frustration within the SDL, particularly among their inner core, at their failure to replicate the EDL’s successes down south. There’s a number of reasons for this – the still relatively prevalent sectarianism within Scottish football that overrides any of the ‘casuals united against a common enemy’ pish that’s the backbone of the EDL. The SDL knows this, and, for all their rhetoric about just being  against ‘militant Islam’, have consistently tried to sidle up to organised loyalism. This too has failed, and the SDL have yet to make any signficant inroads into the Orange movement. However, perhaps most importantly, the SDL have been given no room in which to grow by anti-fascists. From day one, mass anti-fascist street mobilisations have effectively put a stop to any SDL aspirations of becoming a movement with any kind of momentum. Few, if any, EDL members will be making the trip up to Kilmarnock this weekend, given that those that did were less than happy with their SDL experience in Edinburgh.

This Saturday has the potential to be decisive in seeing off the SDL for good. The organisation is now leaderless, without direction, and lacking any solid base of support beyond a few keyboard warriors, has-been casuals and NF-wannabes. However, there is no room to be complacent in this. The SDL have effectively been handed over the town centre of Kilmarnock by East Ayrshire Council and the police – who’re denying the trade union led ‘Kilmarnock & Loudoun United‘ demo the right to assemble there. Meanwhile, the SDL are being allowed to hold what they claim is a 45 minute, peaceful static demonstration. If this works for them, they’ll keep doing it – in small and medium sized towns across Scotland. While their Glasgow demo in September has been thrown into disarray by their organiser leaving, others have mooted the possibility of demos in places including Perth, Alloa and Stirling.

The type of non-violent direct action that was so successfully used against the SDL in Edinburgh can now be used to finish them off forever. This is why we need anti-fascists from across Scotland  to come to Kilmarnock this Saturday and stop the SDL for good. No Pasaran!

ASSEMBLE 9.30AM AT KILMARNOCK CROSS, SAT 19 JUNE
Kilmarnock is 40 mins by train from Glasgow Central – trains at 0807, 0837 and 0912

Comments 9 Comments »

If you’re the kind of person who knows there’s a lot of problems in our society, and you’re looking for solutions for what to do about it, there’s a good chance you’ve found yourself here on our blog.

There’s also a good chance you might have come across something called the Zeitgeist Movement. If you have, and you’re attracted to the ideas they put forward, this article is our attempt to argue that Zeitgeist offers no real solutions to the economic and ecological crises that human civilisation is facing. In fact, quite the opposite: instead of explaining to people how we can change our society for the better, many of the ideas put forward in the Zeitgeist films have their origins in the far right and racist groups, and they’re ideas which are both crazy and useless.

The reason we’re doing this is because we know that Zeitgeist has been really influential on thousands of people who’ve seen it online, and because we think that is potentially really damaging to the attempts (which we’re part of) to build a mass movement capable of bringing fundamental change to the world. It deliberately tries to pitch itself as an appeal to people who have a basically left wing outlook, but the ideas it puts forward about our world as it is just now are not left wing at all.

Read the rest of this entry »

Comments 45 Comments »

North East Against Racism flying demo

Saturday 29 May was meant to be the day of the English Defence League’s ’secret’ protest. So secret, in fact, that its location was revealed months ago as Newcastle upon Tyne, giving anti-racists enough time to organise a whopping three separate anti-racist protests, all ostensibly setting out to ‘oppose’ the EDL.

The outcome was far from decisive. The EDL turnout was not nearly as high as anticipated, with most reports giving estimates of between 800 and 1000 at their demonstration. The day passed off relatively peacefully, with no arrests on either side, and there was no repeat of the widespread rioting and violence the EDL caused in both Stoke and Dudley in recent months.

Sections of the anti-fascist movement have been quick to declare the day as  a ‘huge success’  and a victory, with ‘anti-racists dominating the city’. This is simply not true. The fact is that the EDL were able to hold a police-sanctioned march through the city centre, ending at an outdoor rally with speakers and music, before they dispersed en masse to pubs around the city to continue their drunken, xenophobic chanting. This ability to openly organise and assemble in the streets, effectively unopposed, was a massive confidence boost for the EDL. What’s worse is that later on the EDL continued to maintain a large presence in the city – groups of young males in EDL hoodies and t-shirts were on virtually every street corner, and outside every pub, well into the evening.

The EDL demonstration

The anti-fascist response was marked by its disunity and poor turnout. North East Against Racism (NEAR), a grassroots organisation similar to the Glasgow and Edinburgh Anti-Fascist Alliances, assembled early on, with the intention of staying mobile, avoiding police ‘kettles’, and confronting the EDL. NEAR had spotters around the city, as well as at the service station of the outskirts of Newcastle where some of EDL were gathering. Having discerned that the EDL were beginning to assemble outside of the central railway station, we marched down to confront them. Skirting through backstreets to avoid police lines, we reached the group of around 100 EDL. A tense stand-off ensued, with police forming lines to attempt the separate us from the EDL. Tactically retreating, we marched back and forward a number of times to the station. However, the NEAR demo, although called with the best of intentions and tactics, faced two main problems. We numbered less than 100, severely limiting our ability to disrupt the EDL or challenge police direction. On top of this, the EDL were everywhere – this was two hours ahead of their official demonstration start time, and EDL supporters were spread out across the city. No sooner had we massed beside one group of EDL supporters than another would start appearing behind us. We retreated back to the Monument, where local trade unions were holding a rally against the EDL. Unfortunately, this gave the police an excuse to keep us there, and the NEAR mobilisation disintegrated.

So what did the labour movement response to fascism entail? A couple of lonely union banners, shit music, some woman dancing with a hula-hoop, a few speakers and a shockingly low turnout of no more than 150 is probably the best way of summing it up. Outright lies as well – one speaker applauded the police’s actions while informing the assembled turnout of embarrassed looking trade unionists, confused onlookers and obscure paper sellers that the EDL had been ‘denied the right to march in our city today’. Surrounding the union rally was huge lines of police, which only served to alienate the public from the event, and either way, did not stop a leading EDL member, Joel Titus, from swaggering his way through the crowd earlier in the day.

Meanwhile, as the EDL began to assemble in the city centre, Unite Against Fascism were massing on a quiet road a couple of miles away. What followed was a stage-managed display of militancy, with angry chanting and plenty of talk of ’smashing’ the EDL, before the 500 or so protestors marched into a pre-arranged tight police kettle within what was just about shouting distance of the EDL. If you shouted REALLY loudly, that is. Which they did of course, not that you could even see the EDL through the thick lines of police, parked riot vans and so on.

The word reached us that NEAR were regrouping in another part of the city. Rumours abounded that the EDL were going to descend on Fenham, a mixed area of the city with a significant Asian population, as they had in Stoke, where groups of EDL went on the rampage through a predominantly Muslim area of the city, smashing up shops and vehicles. Avoiding police detection, NEAR maintained a strong presence in Fenham for the rest of the day. Thankfully, this precautionary step remained as just that and there was a no show from the EDL. Nonetheless, with the UAF and TUC demonstrations both packed up and gone home, all that remained in the city centre from the events of earlier on was large numbers of boozed-up EDL members, as well as the accompanying heavy police presence. Fortunately on this occasion, the EDL kept up their non-violent, peaceful facade and the streets of Newcastle remained free from the scenes of destruction seen elsewhere.

EDL

EDL: a fun day out for all the family!

It’s uncertain where the anti-fascist movement in England, or the EDL, go from here. It is clear that UAF, particularly following their disasterous attempts at playing militant in Bolton which ended in their leading members’ arrest and a farcical push-and-shove contest with the police, have no interest in direct confrontation with the fascists. They will continue to maintain that marches to show the EDL that ‘they are not welcome’, while barely setting sight on them, is the best strategy to oppose them. The NEAR demo on the other hand had real potential, but sadly lacked numbers. A decisive point could have been attempting to occupy the space where the EDL were finishing their demonstration. While police stood idly around the edges, leading EDL members were setting up a PA system in the middle of the Biggmarket. Several of us were able to wander freely through – with more numbers we could have taken the street.

The future for the EDL is difficult to predict. Last year, many predicted that they would burn themselves out within a few months. This has evidently not been the case – they now have a solid base of support that they can mobilise anywhere in England, from Aylesbury to Newcastle. In the short term, they look set to be planning demonstrations over the summer – perhaps an attempt to capitalise on the upsurge of football-related patriotism that England’s involvement with the World Cup will generate – including extremely provacative demos in Bradford and Tower Hamlets in east London. In the long term, the EDL leadership are attempting to make inroads into UKIP – a party with which they share both overt Islamophobia and an obsession with Geert Wildeers. With the BNP in organisational and electoral disarray, could a new popular front of the radical right, backed up by a street army of football hooligans, be about to emerge?

The tactics we need to defeat the far-right have already been displayed twice in Scotland. Mass street mobilisations to directly confront and stop the fascists can and will be effective. But for this to truly happen, unity of the anti-fascist movement is essential. Unfortunately – and as we’ve gone into on several occasions before – the established organisations have no such interest in directly stopping the fascists. Until then, its up to organisations like GAFA and NEAR to do so, and NEAR should be commended for taking the initiative with their demo in Newcastle on Saturday. It’s just a shame that there wasn’t a bigger turnout.

Comments 12 Comments »

Earlier today I travelled down to Ayrshire to help local SSP members spread awareness of an important date for all anti-fascists in Scotland: Saturday the 19th of June. This is when the drunken far-right morons of the “Scottish Defence League” are planning on bringing their wee roadshow to Kilmarnock, under the guise of protesting against the building of a new Mosque in the town.

We were well-received by local people who are concerned at the prospect of neo-nazis descending upon their town. Today’s response showed that if the SDL do try to spread their Islamophobic bile in Kilmarnock, they will not be well received by the vast majority of people. Women and men of all age groups expressed concern at the Defence Leagues’ history of violence. There is a feeling that the last thing the place needs is idiots trying to stoke up racial tensions, when the real problems facing many people are unemployment and poverty – and the misery caused by these economic problems. Amusingly, one woman asked “huv ye no seen The Scheme?” adding that “things are bad enough here without nazis trying to stir up trouble”.

We were only able to run the stall for about an hour and a half, at which point we had handed out all of our 600 leaflets and sold all our copies of the Scottish Socialist Voice. I knew the SDL were unpopular, but I was taken aback by the full extent of people’s antipathy towards them! It is important that such revulsion is turned into action: we must take to the streets to stop them being allowed to run rampant for the day. The SSP, working alongside the recently-formed Scottish Anti-Fascist Alliance, will be helping to co-ordinate anti-racist mobilisations which will block the SDL’s attempts to take over the town.

As with previous demos, it is likely there will be more than one type of anti-fascist activity on the day. Full details will emerge in the next week or so, but my guess is that there will be a seperate ‘non-confrontational’ rally in defence of multiculturalism, which will be held in a different location from the fash’s gathering. At the same time, there will be a continuation of the tactic successfully employed to nullify the SDL on 2 previous occasions: direct action to prevent them from operating freely. This means physically occupying the space they would wish to claim as their own, and when you find out where they are, you get there to oppose them.

I was particularly glad to be able to speak to one local resident, who expressed concern that there could be riots because “two sides” would antagonise each other. He identified as being against racism and fascism but was worried about the potential for trouble and whether we’d make it worse by organising a counter-demo. My argument was that to do nothing would almost ensure that violence would occur, because when the Defence League have had free rein, they have chanted racist abuse, assaulted members of the public and committed acts of vandalism on Asian-owned businesses.

The only way to stop it is to stand up to it. In Glasgow last November and Edinburgh in January, we outnumbered them by ten-to-one, meaning they could not have their way and the police were forced to act, on both occasions busing them out of town. In Edinburgh, they didn’t even make it out of the pub. The guy expressed doubts about the police, but my take on it is that if our numbers are sufficient and we are determined, the cops are more or less forced to act. It is the best way to make sure major disturbances do not occur. I think I managed to talk him round.

Meanwhile, the English Defence League were on the march in Newcastle today. SSY member Liam T was down there chasin’ aboot efter thum. This BBC report makes it seem like a relatively quiet day. Good to see us represented down there. Liam’s report will follow soon. On a side note, the Apprentice Boys of Derry were also marching in The Toon today. It must’ve been a nice treat for them not to have been the most reactionary force in the city for a change.

Today also saw the EDL gracing the front page of the Guardian. There’s a fairly helpful article and video if you follow the link. Along with the recently-screened Young, British and Angry, the evidence is stacking up that – SHOCK HORROR – they’re not moderates concerned with preserving the British tradition of liberty after all, but are in fact the type of knuckle-draggers who have acted as the BNP’s base of support for yonks. Of course a simple bit of logic helps you realise there’s something fishy about the claim that they’re not against all Muslims (‘just the radicals/militants/extremists’ apparently), but then they don’t want a new Mosque… for anyone… in a town with no history of problems with radicals. Hmmm.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be down in Killie a bit more to help the local SSP and the new contacts we’ve made. If we put the work into organising this, it could be a really successful day and possibly signal the death-knell for the floundering SDL.

Keep Kilmarnock nazi-free!

¡No Pasarán!

Comments 23 Comments »

Remember the Scottish Defence League? Not very keen on Islam, quite like sitting in pubs, don’t want to surrender to the IRA, seem to always end up on a bus filled with riot cops… yeah, that lot. The ones we chased out from Glasgow in our thousands. Then Edinburgh.

Well, they’re claiming to be back. On top of a planned ‘official’ demonstration in Glasgow this September, when they’ve applied to the council for a march from Blytheswood Square to the cenotaph in George Square, they’ve announced their intention to hold a demo in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire next month, on Saturday 19 June.

Details are thin on the ground at the moment, and it remains to be seen whether this will turn out to be as much of a farce as their supposed ‘Lockerbie demo’, which turned out to be a carload of them driving in for an afternoon, somehow managing to escape the attention of the world’s media, anti-fascists, the police and indeed, local residents, taking a couple of pictures to prove they were there, then going home.

The SDL have however been mooting the possibility of a demo in Kilmarnock for a while, hoping to capitalise on a proposed new Muslim centre and Mosque in the town.

One thing is clear: if the SDL do go ahead with their demo in Kilmarnock, they will not go unopposed. As in Glasgow and Edinburgh, the SDL will be denied freedom of the streets, in their bid to intimidate minorities and spread division. They shall not pass.

Comments 7 Comments »

David Cameron’s wife keeps some of her campaign reading material handy – some great stuff about imposing immigration caps in there.

Comments 2 Comments »

Today we’re reviving a regular feature you used to see the in the classic (pre-blog, paper only) version of Leftfield.

“Who the Hell is…” brings you the low down on key folk who’ve tried to make a difference to the world in the past. Previous people we’ve profiled have included Delegate Zero/Subcommandante Marcos, and Che Guevara.

Today, we’re asking: Who the Hell is… Albert Einstein?

That might seem a bit of a redundant question, since he’s one of the most famous scientists to have ever lived. Everyone has heard of him, and his name is like another word for “really really clever.” What’s less well known (but shouldn’t surprise you considering how smart he was) is that he was a lifelong socialist.

In science, Einstein completely revolutionised the study of physics, with his theories of relativity, beginning of quantum mechanics and explanation of the wave-particle duality of light, to name just a few of his massive contributions. His work was so important he was to become a world wide celebrity decades before celebrities became as commonplace as today. He used his international fame tirelessly to fight for social justice and for the rights of people who had been wronged by racism, the capitalist system and right wing politics.

Read the rest of this entry »

Comments 4 Comments »

Blair Peach: Murdered by police for opposing racism

It’s taken 31 years, but the Metropolitan Police have finally published a secret internal report showing that police officers killed an anti-fascist protester in 1979.

Blair Peach, a 33 year old teacher originally from New Zealand, was on a demo against the National Front in Southall, London, where he was beaten to death by police officers. This has been covered up for decades.

The killing was carried out by members of the Special Patrol Group, which in 1987 was renamed the Territorial Support Group because of its notorious reputation. However, despite the name change, the violence has continued up to the present day, with the same unit being responsible for the death of Ian Tomlinson at the G20 protests last year.

The 1979 demo followed a provocative meeting held by the National Front in the middle of a predominantly Sikh community. It was attended by 2,500 cops, and serious violence ensued. Another protester, Clarence Baker of the reggae band Misty in Roots, was in a coma for 5 months following it. The internal investigation by the Met found that a group of SPG officers had knocked Blair Peach unconscious in a side street, and he died the next day of head injuries. Fourteen witnesses gave evidence that they had seen the attack. The report argues that he was probably killed by a blow from an unauthorised weapon, such as a lead weighted cosh or police radio.

The report narrowed down the officers responsible to six who arrived at the scene in a van. The report named a suspect thought to be responsible, but the name was redacted. The officers involved conspired to cover each others backs and hide the fact they were at the scene, refused to take part in ID parades, shaved off facial hair or grew it so they wouldn’t conform to witness descriptions, and dry cleaned their uniforms before they could be subjected to forensic investigation.

Blair Peach's partner, Celia Stubbs, who has mounted a 31 year fight for justice

The investigation also found a huge stash of unauthorised weapons in the SPG headquarters, including various illegal truncheons and knives, two crowbars, a whip, a 3 foot wooden stave, and a lead-weighted leather stick. An officer was discovered attempting to dispose of a metal cosh. Another officer was discovered to be a Nazi supporter.

The coroner involved in the death of Blair Peach, Dr. John Burton, carried out a propaganda campaign about the case, arguing before the inquest had even finished that there was no way an officer had killed him. He said witnesses’ evidence was “fabrication” because they were “totally committed members of the Socialist Workers’ Party”, and he said Sikh witnesses “did not have experience of the English system” to give reliable evidence. He also fought to try and prevent the inquest having a jury, claiming it would “be hijacked by the extreme left.” In 1980, the inquest returned a verdict of “misadventure”, and no police officers were held responsible.

Peach’s partner, Celia Stubbs, has campaigned for years for justice and a full public inquiry. Her fight finally met with some success last year when the Met agreed to publish the report, which was reviewed by the Crown Prosecution Service. However, the CPS advised that there was no reason to proceed with a prosecution now, and so the officers responsible will once again be able to get away with murder.

The names of the officers involved are blanked out by the report, however they have been established by campaigners by looking at supporting material. The inspector in charge of the vehicle was Alan Murray, who resigned from the force in protest at the internal report, and is today a lecturer in “corporate social responsibility” (!) at Sheffield Uni.

Throughout the 80s the SPG remained notorious for violence, their reputation being mocked on comedy programmes like ‘Not the Nine O’ Clock News’ and ‘The Young Ones.’ The Metropolitan Police Commissioner at the time, Sir David McNee, defended the actions of the SPG to a black journalist, saying:

“I understand the concern of your people. But if you keep off the streets of London and behave yourselves you won’t have the SPG to worry about.”

The duties of the SPG were transferred to the newly formed Territorial Support Group in 1987, but the violence continued. Some officers are ex-military personnel, and they have been accused by other police as looking for confrontations and violence. A few examples include:

Met Cops brought up to Edinburgh to police G8 protests in 2005 turn nasty

-In 1997 a man was beaten by officers from the TSG in what was described as an “outrageous display of brutality”, which only stopped when the man pretended to be unconscious. The man was charged with assault and threatening behaviour over the incident but was cleared after photographs of his injuries showed the officers had lied about the case under oath. After the man’s acquittal the officers went on trial accused of assault in 1999, but where later cleared.

-In 2003, six officers of the TSG performed what a judge called a “serious, gratuitous and prolonged” assault on a terrorist suspect, Babar Ahmed, an IT worker who was not subsequently charged with any offence. The officers involved had already been the subject of as many as 60 complaints about unwarranted assaults. A number of mail sacks containing these complaints were somehow lost. The accusations were investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission but they were found to be “unsubstantiated”. No charges were bought against the officers and five of the six were still members of the TSG in 2009. Babar Ahmed was later awarded £60,000 compensation, by the High Court, for the assault.

In 2004 Babar Ahmed was re-arrested after the US requested his extradition, claiming he was a supporter of terrorism, which he strenuously denies. If extradited, he will face life in a US Supermax prison. He currently holds the distinction of being the person held the longest ever without charge in the UK, as he has been in prison for 5 years.

-In 2005 a young Kurdish man recorded an officer on his mobile phone telling him “If you say one more fucking word, I’ll smash your fucking Arab face in” after he was stopped near Paddington Green police station. The officer was suspended but denied the charge.

-In 2007 several officers were prosecuted for racially aggravated assault, racial abuse and misconduct in public office, after a police van driver acted as a whistleblower to uncover their racial abuse of three men on a street near Paddington police station. The men were insulted, grabbed around the neck and had their testicles pulled. The police applied to have reporting of the trial restricted. One of the officers, a former Royal Marine who was also implicated in the case of Babar Ahmed, was last year cleared of all charges and returned to work at the TSG.

The most notorious case of TSG violence is of course last year’s killing of Ian Tomlinson, a newspaper vendor who was not even part of a protest. He died at the G20 protests after being hit and pushed to the ground by officers. Despite video evidence, over 1 year on no officer has been charged, and Ian Tomlinson’s family have seen no justice.

Footage obtained by the Guardian of the assault that caused the death of Ian Tomlinson

What all this reminds us is that the police are not a neutral force. There are situations in everyday life where many of us need the help of the police, but when it comes to politics, officers of units like the SPG/TSG (whose specific role includes policing demos) know which side they’re on. In London, the police have been shown time and again to be filled with violent racists. The stories above should give anyone who think arming police with tasers is a good idea second thoughts.

The death of Blair Peach is also a timely warning about the way we conduct the fight against the far right today. In the recent demos against the Scottish Defence League, some people, like SNP Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, celebrated the police doing the job of keeping the racists off the streets. But those of us who know the police can just as easily turn their force against us also know that we can’t rely on them to do our work for us. Keeping our streets and communities Nazi free is a job only anti-fascists can do reliably.

Dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson tells Blair Peach’s story

Comments No Comments »

The far right BNP are hated by socialists, anti-fascists and anyone that isn’t white, straight and mental.

But today it emerged they’ve made a powerful new enemy. The makers of Marmite have announced they are to sue the BNP, after they used the images of the spread in their party election broadcast.

As you can see below, the inclusion of Marmite in the broadcast is pretty bizarre and inexplicable. I can only guess the floating image of a Marmite jar was inserted on to the screen to evoke a sense of “Britishness.” It’s in a shot which also features Nick Griffin sitting at a desk in front of a picture of Winston Churchill (leading the to the astonishing outcome of Churchill not being the ugliest person on screen) and a display case of medals that Nick Griffin has never been awarded.

The broadcast hasn’t been on telly yet, and Marmite makers are trying to get an injunction to have their product removed before it is. It was previously up on the BNP site, but has been taken down. Marmite say they support no political party, and didn’t give permission to use its image.

A spokesman for Sandwich Fillings Against Fascism said: “We’re delighted that Marmite has taken this stand to stop the BNP spreading hate. We think their attempt to focus on bread and butter issues will not distract from their message of racism. We believe their chances in this election are toast. You’d have to be crackers to vote for the BNP.”

“Like Marmite on a slice of Mother’s Pride, we call on black and white to unite and fight.”

“While we applaud the stance taken by Marmite, we demand to know the position of other spreads on the rise of the far right. Are Nutella, Philadelphia and Vitalite  with them in their stand for a non racist democracy, or will they allow the fascist BNP to sandwich their spreads into their message of hate?”

Below you can see the offending broadcast. I’m sorry for embedding a fascist video here, but this actually has to be seen to be believed. Actually, seriously, why is there a picture of Marmite there? It makes no sense!

Comments 7 Comments »