The BNP dissidents grind into action...

The dissidents who have resigned or been sacked from their positions within the BNP have finally started to discuss where they go from here. None too soon really because, as several people have commented on the dissident blog Enough is Enough, the momentum was clearly slowing despite Nick Griffin himself giving the rebels all the help he could by posting his increasingly-lunatic ramblings on the BNP's website and throwing unfounded and unlikely accusations at all and sundry.

One surprise immediately shows itself on reading the report of the planning meeting the group had last weekend, and that is that they do not appear to be responsible for the new Alas Smith and Graham blog - a much more aggressive anti-Griffin site than Enough is Enough - or at least the EiE mob aren't owning up to Alas at the moment.

Griffin ought to be worried about a couple of the planned actions the group are planning to undertake, particularly this one;

'Every single individual expelled in recent weeks is determined to have their own membership reinstated through formal grievance procedures, acknowledging that this may involve costly legal action.'

Readers may recall that the founder of the BNP John Tyndall ended up taking the court route to gain his reinstatement to the membership following his expulsion by Nick Griffin. The resulting case and win cost the party thousands.

If the rebel's plans are enacted quickly enough, they could spell disaster for the BNP - in fact, they could lead to bankruptcy for the party, which has been on the edge of the financial precipice for a number of years, thanks largely to the enormous wage bill (which far exceeds the campaigning budget) and the party's habit of subsidising the business interests of the two jesters in King Nick's court, Mark Collett (£70,000 for invisible printing equipment a few years back) and Dave Hannam (£50,000 for setting up the disastrous Great White Records just a couple of years ago).

The new name for the group - intended to be an internal organisation acting within the BNP - is to be Voice of Change, though whether any positive change will come of its inception is debatable when we take a look at the most fundamental changes it hopes to make.

The first action is to get all the eight expelled members back in place as, at the very least, ordinary party members. Frankly we don't see this ever happening. Manufactured or not, the party will state that Graham, Smith, Blake et al brought the party into disrepute by starting up the EiE blog to attack fellow members, and that they have the evidence to 'prove' that the rebel leadership hacked into email accounts of other members for their own nefarious purposes. The veracity of the accusation is irrelevant - if this ever gets to open court, the media will have a field day and what little credibility the BNP has will collapse under the weight of the multiple accusations and counter-accusations.

'...the extraordinary sequence of events of the past few months can only lead a rational observer to conclude that Mr. Griffin is now unfit for that position. The internal management of the Party has been revealed to be fundamentally flawed and repeated calls for change have been ignored by the leader. Thus the only possible course of action to save the Party and secure a future for our people is to launch a leadership challenge.'

Nick Griffin has manipulated the challenge process so successfully that it is now virtually impossible to challenge him for the leadership of the party and, even if one was made, the conditions are set by Griffin solely to his advantage. Last year's ludicrous attempt at a challenge by the North West's Chris Jackson showed what a farce the whole process is and how, using the party's rules, deliberately and cynically doomed to failure.

Though the rebels state clearly that, in their opinion, Nick Griffin is, after 'the extraordinary sequence of events of the past few months' unfit for the position of party leader, they seem to be carefully avoiding the fact that they have been ignoring his activities since they themselves were placed in positions of trust within the party. Membership money has clearly been siphoned off for years, immorality (Martin Reynolds' threesomes, Hannam and Collett's Blackpool diversion etc) has been rife, incompetence has become something of an art within the party and mismanagement, witch hunts, unconstitutional expulsions and a leadership that has become a tyranny all appear to have only become apparent to Graham and co in the past few months. Unlikely, to say the least.

We, in common with all anti-fascists, are only too pleased to see the dissident group regaining momentum as its increasing activity is bound to stir up more trouble for Griffin and his acolytes in the party but we refuse to believe that Graham and her gang are suddenly taking the moral high ground in any way. Rather, they are exploiting a situation that they can barely control for their own ends; in effect, regaining the initiative - though whether it'll take them as far as they want is doubtful. Whether this ultimately matters as the current fractures in the party open wider is open to debate - after all, the fascist BNP is the fascist BNP whether it's run by a Graham-led cabal or Griffin and his current band of thieves, liars and perverts.

One thing is sure. Griffin will have to take decisive action very swiftly indeed. One wonders what form that action will take as his desperation to hold his personal feifdom grows. We've already seen a barrage of lies and fake evidence posted up on the BNP's website and informants leaking fake information to the police that they 'believed' there was a firearm at Graham's home, prompting a raid on the home she shares with her partner Matt Single. We can expect a good deal more of this nonsense - and perhaps a lot worse - as the battle for control of the BNP hots up.