Labour dismisses BNP's haulage campaign

A campaign by the British National Party (BNP) to recruit lorry drivers as members has been dismissed by the Road Haulage Association (RHA) and the Labour Party. However the BNP claims its support is increasing due to a campaign that promotes British haulage and targets Continental firms which it believes are undercutting UK business with cheaper fuel costs.

Paul Golding, a London-based haulier and producer of the BNP campaign, says "there has been a very good response from drivers" since it started in early September. Golding has designed an A5 poster branded with a lorry and the caption 'enough is enough'. Up to 1,000 have been distributed by drivers and operators, and Golding predicts this number will increase substantially.

The RHA has dismissed the campaign for lacking substance. A spokeswoman for the RHA says: "It is interesting to note that the BNP makes no mention as to how it intends to protect British industries, how it intends to put British drivers first, or how it would pull Britain out of the European Union."

A spokesman for the Labour Party says it will be not be giving time to the BNP campaign.

In response to the campaign, the Department for Transport (DfT) has defended its work in protecting the interests of UK hauliers. A spokesman says it secured an agreement in June whereby European drivers could carry out no more than three domestic journeys within a week before departing the UK. This is subject to ratification by the European Parliament in the autumn.

At the time Rosie Winterton, Minister of Transport at the EU Transport Council, said: "This will ensure UK hauliers can continue to secure regular domestic work while foreign hauliers are limited to ad hoc work when they have delivered their international load."

RoadTransport

UKIP can stop BNP says Nigel Farage

The UK Independence Party last night claimed it was the only party that could stop the BNP from securing a North West seat in next year’s European elections.

Speaking at a reception in Liverpool, Nigel Farage, leader of UKIP, said the party would expose the “hypocrisy” of the three main European parties in their dealings with the European Union. He said the party was intending to make the next election a proxy referendum on the Lisbon treaty, which the government has steadfastly refused to allow the general public to vote on.

Mr Farage was in Liverpool to launch the campaign of Bootle’s Paul Nuttall, who has been selected by UKIP as their top North West candidate in next June’s poll. He will replace Lancaster University academic John Whittaker, who will stand down as UKIP’s North West Euro MP in June.

Mr Nuttall, 31, was recently made chairman of the party and formed UKIP’s south Sefton branch. He is a political adviser to the Ind/Dem Group in the European Parliament. He was formerly a history lecturer.

Although Mr Farage said the party would do a “very good job” of exposing the hypocrisy of the three main parties, he admitted there was a threat from the BNP.

“We are the only party that can stop them [from getting a seat].”

Liverpool Daily Post

BNP triumphs again (over one in 100 back them!)

This article was submitted by one of our readers, Iliacus. We welcome any contributions from our supporters (as long as those contributions conform to the law and are in reasonably good taste). Please send your articles to us via email.

There were eight by-elections on September 25th, and the BNP managed to contest...er, one of them, in the Hampstead Town ward of the London Borough of Camden. They came fifth...out of five. And they polled 29 votes (the winning Lib Dem got over 1200).

This represented 1.03056% of the vote; a truly dreadful result.

And in the other seven contests - in Chalfont St Giles, Plumstead, Stevenage, Minster (Kent), Sheerness, Alfriston (East Sussex) and Winchester - they failed to field a single candidate. Poor old Simon Darby. His "Quiet Revolution", his claimed breakthrough where the BNP is fielding more and more candidates, in increasingly varied areas, and with increasing support, is turning out to be a delusion. Like so much else in the world of far-right politics!

Austria in crisis as far right win 29% of vote

• Strache seen as further to right than mentor Haider
• Weakened main party faces coalition dilemma

He has been filmed in forests, carrying arms and wearing paramilitary fatigues in the company of banned German neo-Nazis. Islam, he says, is "the fascism of the 21st century". He was photographed apparently giving a three-fingered neo-Nazi salute - though he says he was ordering three beers.

He mocks gay people; wants a ministry for the deportation of immigrants; says "Vienna must not become Istanbul"; hopes to repeal laws banning Nazi revivalism, and is pushing for a constitutional ban on the building of minarets. Heinz-Christian Strache, a former dental technician, is the new star of Austrian politics and the new poster boy of Europe's extreme right.

"I was never a neo-Nazi, and never will be," Strache has insisted. But when he sued the Vienna news weekly Profil for defamation, the court ruled that Strache could fairly be said to display "an affinity to national-socialist thinking".

Strache, 39, led his Freedom party to 18% of the vote in an early general election on Sunday. His former boss and mentor-turned-rival, Jörg Haider, single-handedly steered his breakaway far-right Movement for Austria's Future to 11% - meaning that almost one in three Austrians who voted opted for the extreme right.

"A unique case among the western democracies," said Profil yesterday as Viennese liberals reeled from the results of an election that put the far right comfortably ahead of the mainstream conservatives of the Austrian People's party and neck-and-neck with the Social Democrats, who narrowly won the election.

It will be very difficult for any party to muster a parliamentary majority. The only options are for the Social Democrats to invite Strache into government, or to form another "grand coalition" with the Christian Democrats. Such a coalition collapsed in June after 18 months in office, and another attempt could fire a bigger protest vote for Strache next time.

The Freedom party last stunned Europe in 1999, when Haider led it to second place with 27% of the vote, and a place in government. On Sunday, under Strache, the combined far right did even better, while the big parties did much worse.

Strache has been heavily involved in extreme-right politics since his youth, when he was engaged to the daughter of one of the founders of the Austrian branch of Germany's neo-Nazi National Democratic party. He became a city councillor in Vienna in the early 1990s, imitating the populist techniques of Haider: snappy dressing, outrageous soundbites and populist tub-thumping; he was quick-witted and entertaining.

By 2005 the Austrian far right was at a low ebb. The leader quit, formed a breakaway party, and in effect retired to run the province of Carinthia - before staging a comeback on Sunday. But it was Strache who took over the Freedom party and led it to an improbable success, taking 15% of the vote in Vienna's 2005 local elections . In the following year's general election, he mustered 11%, and then 18% on Sunday.

He is widely seen as more aggressive and more rightwing than Haider, and likes to bash Brussels (an easy option in a country that registers just 28% support for the EU), inveigh against Islam, and take a loud and proud anti-immigration stand.

Strache calls himself a true patriot, declaring his ambition to be chancellor or interior minister. He hopes to fashion a coalition with Flemish separatists, France's National Front, Bulgarian extreme nationalists and anyone else who will join in a "European Patriotic party".

"Thirty percent for people who portray national socialism as innocuous," wrote the commentator Hans Rauscher yesterday, "Who crawl around in forests with neo-Nazi mates, who are surrounded by skinheads; who campaign against foreigners; make common cause with the European extreme right; toy with antisemitism; campaign against Muslims, and develop contacts with the Serbian Radical party whose leader, Vojislav Seselj, is in the dock at the war crimes tribunal in The Hague. Austria is tops in Europe again."

Guardian

Oh, Darrin!

Darrin Hodges is hardly the prettiest individual on the Australian far-Right. His appearance suggesting, as one of our colleagues has mooted, a close relationship with the rat family, we suspect that Darrin's fascist friends are given to making sudden embarrassed winces whenever the unlovely visage of the Sutherland Shire's least popular son pops up in the Australian media.

Darrin is something of a thinker - or so he would like to believe. And Darrin has a plan. A Very Cunnimg Plan.

At its most complicated, Darrin's Plan is to copy the BNP, lock, stock and lies.

That's it.

And so it is that - just like the BNP - Darrin has put his Jew-hating, anti-black credentials in his back pocket and now sports those of the born-again anti-Muslim persuasion, because - as the BNP and Darrin will have it - Moslems comprise a religion, not an ethnicity. And, if you're attacking a religion and not an ethnicity, how ever can you be called a racist?

Darrin is one of those far-Rightists who, having for years peddled the white supremacist line, has grown increasingly frustrated by the lack of any tangible success. On the factional and turbulent Australian far-Right scene this lack of success is hardly surprising, since - much as their British counterparts - Australian fascists seem to hate one another more than they hate anybody else.

Darrin's overarching hatred is for Australian Nazi and sometime Australia First Party big-wig Jim Saleam, who he refers to in one of his many incriminating but judiciously terminated blogs as "a criminal lunatic" and an "oily spiv". You'd never know that Darrin was once his loyal lieutenant. Darrin believes that racist hard-liner Saleam was in harness with Australia First leader Diane Teasdale, the pair conspiring to expel the newly-coined "moderate" on charges that certain of his internet postings did not reflect well on Australia First.

Disproving the hypersensitive Hodges's theory, shortly after his own expulsion Teasdale sent Saleam packing, and this latter pair now run rival versions of the same organisation. For his part, Darrin contented himself with denouncing the "Australia Faggot Party", basing his denunciation on the recollections of the AFP's John Drew, who recalled sharing a flat with a noisily sexually active homosexual in the 1960s.

Darrin spent many happy years posting on the Nazi Stormfront Down Under forum, as well as maintaining his multifarious blogs. He felt that the forged Protocols of the Elders of Zion were essential reading for all Nutzis, and opined: “I’m more interested in the purer form of fascism… and while I don’t subscribe to the whole ‘worship Hitler’ thing, his comments on multiculturalism and politics in general are still just as relevant today as they were 70 years ago”.

Not subscribing to "the whole 'Hitler worship' thing" is what marks you out as a moderate on the far-Right, even if you are "interested in the purer form of fascism" - whatever that is - and believe that "... he [Hitler] laid a foundation that we should build on".

Perhaps Darrin believes that the "purer form of fascism" is something close to anarchism?

Just a few weeks after Diane Teasdale tore up his Australia First membership card, the ubiquitous Darrin turned up with fifteen of his young male friends at Sydney Town Hall to protest against the APEC summit, taking place elsewhere in the city. Dressed in black clothing, and wearing dark glasses and scarves to obscure their faces, they carried, according to Antipodean anti-fascist @ndy Slackbastard, "three long banners — with slogans reading ‘Australia: Free Nation – Or Sheep Station?’, ‘Globalisation is Genocide’ and ‘Power to the People, Not Political Parties’ – which were joined together to form a three-sided bloc, within which those gathered assembled to form a ‘black bloc’. The group also distributed a leaflet, and claimed to belong to a group known as the ‘New Right’, one which — as other statements on the banners and on the leaflet stated — consists of ‘National Anarchists’ espousing a ‘Traditional-European Revolutionary’ philosophy".

Darrin's flirtation with "national" anarchism - and, along the way, a group of Tibetan monks - was short-lived as the moderate fascist-racist cast about for ideas - any ideas - that would bring salvation for the Australian lunatic fringe, and so he jumped aboard the brand spanking new Australian Protectionist Party, made up largely of expellees from Australia First. Darrin is now its New South Wales chairman.

From the beginning, the APP sought to jettison the political baggage carried by Australia First, claiming to represent a "new expression on an Australian Nationalist perspective". Exactly how "new" can be seen on Darrin the moderate's personal website, where the oversized rodent gives full vent to his vicious Islamophobia in post after predictable post, and in his statement to the Canberra Times that "if you're an Asian, you are an Asian" - and most emphatically not a white Australian, or any kind of Australian, for the matter of that.

Long an admirer of Nick Griffin, with whom he says he corresponds, Darrin has swallowed the Griffin = Success fairy-tale hook, line and sinker, saying: "The BNP is a successful nationalist party ... Griffin rescued the BNP from the murky depths of right-wing extremism", and: "We look to the BNP as it is one of, if not the most successful nationalist party in the anglosphere and see no reason why we cannot draw ideas from them."

Perhaps Darrin and his comrades took this drawing on the ideas of the BNP a little too literally, as an early disgruntled would-be member sourly informed Stormfront Down Under that the APP was a "scam ripping money off White Australians hoping to protect the future of this country and the heritage that is theirs".

Recently Darrin was presented with an opportunity to shine in council elections held in south Sydney's Sutherland Shire, which also happens to include Cronulla, the 2005 scene of vicious racial conflicts enthusiastically fanned by the Australian far-Right - almost certainly the origin of an anonymous text message received by hundreds of Australians exhorting whites to gather on Cronulla beach to attack the "wogs and lebs".

Extolling "traditional and family values" (while neglecting to mention that he was once contracted to maintain the servers of a company dealing in decidedly non-traditional adult products and pornographic material), and railing against the "Asianisation" of Sutherland Shire, Darrin found himself treading on some very stony ground, achieving a thumping 2% and last place, and thoroughly demoralising the go-ahead Australian Protectionist Party's tiny following. To add insult to injury, in a nearby division of Sutherland Shire, Darrin's former friends in Australia First obtained double the APP vote share, even though they also came last, with 4% of the vote.

Rather than send for the Flying Doctor to cure their ills, the APP has sent for the Flying Führer, as detailed elsewhere on this blog.

Exactly what Darrin and the APP brethren hope to learn at the feet of Nick Griffin isn't clear to us. They have already toned down their public expressions of racism, never mention The Jews, won't talk about the Holocaust, and rant against everybody's favourite punch-bag, the Muslims.

Maybe Darrin will come away thinking what a whizz it would be to set up a record label or a fake trade union? Perhaps Nick will impart the dark arts of BNP accounting to a spell-bound audience all dreaming of retiring as quickly as possible to their own pig farms in the Outback? Or he could do several sessions on the fine art of purging, for having so much experience in that regard.

Oh, Darrin!

The truth of it is that Nick hasn't taken the BNP anywhere - rather, as we have previously noticed (posts passim), what little success came the BNP's way happened despite Nick Griffin and his tantrums and his purges. Didn't you notice May's abysmal election results? Or those of the May before it? Hasn't it occurred to you that in a climate never more condusive to the electoral prospects of the BNP that Nick Griffin has signally failed to advance the party in the one arena that matters? Why do you think Nick got his redundancy package sorted out when he did - could it be because he knows his members will one day make contact with the reality of his sham "success" and turn him out?

Oh, deluded Darrin! Nick Griffin can only teach you how to fail - and since you already enjoy failure, frustration and factionalism in great and unending abundance, you really do have nothing at all to learn from the Flying Führer.

Czech Nazi Website Continues Despite Punishment

The Czech Nazi Internet magazine Posledni generace (Last Generation), for which two of its contributors were given prison sentences on Thursday [25 September], still works and does not seem likely to disappear from the Internet, the daily Lidove noviny (LN) writes today.

The web page is registered in the USA where a different law is valid. As a result, the police and courts cannot intervene against the web magazine that promoted hatred for Jews and denies the Holocaust, LN writes.

"The pages are registered in the USA. So is the server. There is a different approach to the freedom of speech and other laws in the USA," Pavel Hantak from the Centre for the Uncovering of Organized Crime told the paper.

"During investigation, we asked the US authorities to provide access to the page so that we could find out who from the Czech Republic takes part in it. We have never received any answer," Hantak said. "The situation is legally complex. We have no instrument with which to withdraw the webpage from the Internet."

Erik Sedlacek and Libor Budik were sentenced to three years and two years behind bars. The court found both men guilty of support for and promotion of movements aiming to suppress human rights and freedoms.

According to the court, the articles in the magazine contained hateful statements about Jews, called for their liquidation and openly questioned the Holocaust, and their authors followed the ideas of National Socialism.

Sedlacek and Budik are considered senior activists of the neo- Nazi scene in the Vysocina region.

RedOrbit

I'm fascist, says AC Milan's Christian Abbiati

One of Silvio Berlusconi's players at AC Milan has declared he is a fascist. Christian Abbiati, 31, an Italian international, said: "I am not ashamed to proclaim my political beliefs. I share [the] ideals of fascism, such as the fatherland and the values of the Catholic religion."

The goalkeeper's remarks, published today in Sportweek magazine, come amid debate over Italy's fascist past and rightwing present under the leadership of AC Milan's billionaire chairman.
The minority partner in Berlusconi's parliamentary alliance, the Freedom People, is a party spun out of the country's neo-fascist movement. Some members remain unabashed apologists for the dictatorship of Benito Mussolini.

The defence minister, Ignazio La Russa, sparked a row this month after he paid tribute to Italian soldiers who fought alongside German troops in the second world war. His comments came after the mayor of Rome, Gianno Alemanno, told a magazine he did not consider fascism an "absolute evil". Berlusconi dodged a question on his own views, replying: "I think only of working to resolve the problems of the Italian people."

Guardian

Give amnesty to illegal migrants, says senior Conservative

Illegal immigrants who have been living in the UK for seven years should be offered an amnesty which allows them to register as residents, pay taxes and earn citizenship, according to one of the Conservative Party's senior strategists.

Anthony Browne, who will take up his role as policy director with the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, next month, says the only humane and practical way to deal with Britain's illegally settled community is to offer immunity from deportation.

His intervention, which will be followed by a Policy Exchange think-tank pamphlet later this year, will reignite a Westminster debate and could stoke policy tensions between Mr Johnson and the Tory leader, David Cameron.

Writing in The Independent today, Mr Browne argues that granting an amnesty would be "far fairer, humane, better for society and more economically efficient" than the status quo. There are up to a million illegal immigrants in the UK and both Labour and the Tories have in the past ruled out an amnesty.

Independent

BNP candidate dubs Dewsbury 'slum'

Joe Barber (Joey Smith) sneering at Dewsbury

The BNP candidate for next month's Dewsbury East by-election has branded Dewsbury an 'enriched slum'.

Singer-songwriter Joe Barber made the comment on social networking website MySpace on September 8 after a visit to Melton in Leicestershire. Writing under his stage name of Joey Smith, Mr Barber said: "I was so taken aback by the warm hospitality that I am strongly considering moving here away from the 'enriched' slum of Dewsbury."

He added that the town used to be as pleasant as Melton but had declined over several decades.

Carl Morphett, spokesman for anti-fascist group Kirklees Unity, said: "It's what you expect from the BNP. They try to concoct this false impression that they love the town. People genuinely love Dewsbury and Joe Barber who doesn't come from the town obviously doesn't care for it. If he thinks Dewsbury is a slum, what hope have people got with a BNP councillor who has no regard for the town whatsoever?

"Dewsbury East has had a BNP councillor and it's obviously made no difference whatsoever if that's what Joe Barber is saying. I'd like to see a councillor who genuinely loves the town and cares for Dewsbury, not one who spends their time slagging it off."

Mr Barber, who lives in Soothill, Batley, said: "I stand by my comments. Dewsbury is a slum. There's empty buildings, big businesses leaving and I wouldn't walk through there at night but that's even more reason to stand and to do something about it. There's a lot of people considering moving away because of it but I think the answer is to stay and try to do something about it. Dewsbury has a great history and a proud heritage and it's a pity to see it go down the drain."

He added that if elected he would work to address the problems in Dewsbury, particularly in the town centre.

Dewsbury Reporter

Jaywick: Shanty town? Not us, say residents

Jaywick residents have rejected claims from a British National Party councillor that the village “resembles a shanty town”.

Peter Turpin, a councillor for the BNP in Epping Forest, wrote a blog in which he singled out Jaywick for criticism. He wrote: “There are parts of it you wouldn’t want to be at night and parts you certainly wouldn’t want to live.”

Dan Casey, a resident of Jaywick and a member of the Jaywick Forum and the Jaywick Residents’ Forum, said Mr Turpin’s comments were out of line. He said most Jaywick residents were proud to live in the area.

“The BNP is not for Jaywick, definitely not. I would never class it as a shanty town. We moved here five years ago, and we think it is wonderful. We are so happy with the involvement and what goes on. It is a great place to live,” he said.

In his blog, Mr Turpin wrote: “If there is anyone out there who does not think there is poverty in this country then take a trip down to Jaywick on a sunny day and have a look around. Some parts of this once-bustling seaside resort resembles a shanty town. Have a seat in one of the cafes in Meadow Way and observe. You will see it, you cannot miss it. There are parts of it you wouldn’t want to be at night and parts you certainly wouldn’t want to live.”

Mr Turpin has a caravan in the Jaywick area, and says he has been visiting the town since childhood.

He said: “I have been going there for quite a few years now. It seems to be getting worse. It is quite depressing to go there. They should have proper houses with gardens, and not live in holiday homes like that.”

He said the BNP was the only party that could turn around the area. Mr Turpin said the party did not currently have a candidate to stand for election in the area, but plans to focus on getting a BNP organiser for supporters in Clacton. He made his comments on an Epping Forest BNP blog last week.

Colchester and North Essex Gazette

Haider is back. Just don't mention the war

Last time he was in power, his nation became a pariah state. These days, Jörg Haider is more likely to praise the EU than the Nazis, although he and his party still hold controversial views about immigrants.

Jörg Haider believes he will hold the balance of
power after parliamentary elections this weekend

Jörg Haider, the far-right politician who turned Austria into an international pariah less than a decade ago because of his sympathetic views about Nazi Germany, is aiming for a surprise comeback in elections this weekend.

When he was part of the Austrian government in 1999 the rabble-rousing populist described Nazi SS veterans as "men of honour" and praised Hitler's employment policies, triggering European Union sanctions against Austria as a result.

Mr Haider, 58, has been mostly out of national politics ever since, but in Sunday's parliamentary elections he is hoping to return with a result that will leave him holding the balance of power, and maybe even offer him the chance of becoming head of state.

In an interview at the headquarters of his Alliance for the Future of Austria party in Vienna, Mr Haider told The Independent: "I want to run for the post of Chancellor of Austria – I am convinced that I can offer an alternative to those voters who have had enough of the failures of the outgoing grand coalition government."

Austria's grand coalition, comprising the conservative People's Party and the centre-left Social Democrats, collapsed in July after months of infighting. Neither of the two parties wants to form another alliance. Opinion polls published this week suggest that each will secure only around 25 per cent of the vote. The forecasts suggest that a further 25 per cent of votes will go to Austria's populist far-right bloc comprising the Freedom Party and Mr Haider's Alliance.

Mr Haider is banking on such a constellation leaving the far-right bloc as potential kingmakers. He says he is open to the idea of forming a coalition with either of the two main parties. And as a well-known figure in Austrian politics and a seasoned governor of the state of Carinthia, he sees himself as the ideal candidate for chancellor.

The veteran right-winger's praise for Hitler's employment policies and his attendance at a rally of SS veterans provoked widespread international criticism and charges that Austria had failed to learn the lessons of its Nazi past. Mr Haider says those days are now over but he added: "We are not going to let the outside world dictate to Austria how it should deal with the past."

Vienna is plastered with election billboards displaying colour photographs of a permanently tanned Mr Haider. He is shown wearing checked shirts and peasant costumes in an apparent appeal to Austrian country folk. "Let's roll up our sleeves and get on with the job – vote Jörg Haider – the original," proclaim the slogans. For his interview in the top-floor office of his Vienna HQ however, Mr Haider showed up in a figure-hugging white leather jacket and skin-tight trousers. He insisted that during his absence from Austria's national political scene he had become more reasonable and responsible. "Austria had reached a dead end with the grand coalition. We have lost out against chief industrial competitors in Germany and missed a chance," he explained. "I want to put Austria back in front," he added, listing a series of proposals for government funding for ailing medium-sized businesses. Mr Haider's confrontation with the EU also seemed to be over. Unlike his right-wing Freedom Party competitors who are advocating that Austria leave the EU, he wants his country to remain, although as a critical member.

His new-found enthusiasm may have something to do with the fact that Austria has benefited hugely from EU membership. In recent years the country has managed to expand its trade with eastern Europe. Unemployment is around 3 per cent and Austria now imports thousands of young German "guest workers" each year.

However despite the "responsible" rhetoric, it was clear that the governor of Carinthia continues to hold extreme views about immigrants. In the run-up to the election Mr Haider's Alliance had been conducting a controversial campaign in the southern city of Graz. It featured a large poster of an immigrant beggar woman clad in what appeared to be filthy clothes, sitting on a step in the centre of Graz. The slogan reminded voters that Mr Haider's party would "Clean up Graz". And alongside were posters, displaying the party's leading politicians sweeping the streets with brooms.

Mr Haider exploded at the suggestion that his poster was reminiscent of the anti-immigrant campaigning of the right-wing populist in next-door Switzerland, Christoph Blocher. "I know the British press, it is always on the look out for such negative extremism," he said. "Sarkozy, the President of France, used similar language after the riots in Paris. You cannot criticise us for using the same methods as the current president of the EU," he insisted, claiming that his campaign was designed at rooting out a "beggars' mafia" that had invaded part of Austria. Indeed, Mr Haider and his party see Austria threatened by a massive influx of criminals from eastern Europe.

Ironically, the biggest threat to his political re-emergence after this weekend is the leader of Austria's other right-wing organisation – the Freedom Party which Mr Haider left in 2005 following a split in the organisation, taking all of the Freedom Party's MPs with him.

Mr Haider's Alliance for the Future of Austria is the junior partner in the bloc. Polls suggest that most far-right votes, amounting to around 17 per cent, will go to the Freedom Party headed by Mr Haider's old protégé turned enemy, Heinz-Christian Strache. A 39-year-old former dental technician, Mr Strache has been running a virulently anti-foreigner campaign with slogans such as "Flights home for asylum cheats". He recently failed to win a court action against a magazine which accused him of having neo-Nazi contacts.

Mr Haider and Mr Strache have made it plain in the past that they consider themselves arch rivals and are said to dislike each other intensely. But Mr Haider has since indicated that he may have to work together with his enemy if he wants a taste of political power. "I will have to co-operate. He may not be my ideal candidate, but we will have to make compromises," he said.

Rise of the right The power of xenophobia

Galvanised by the issues of Third World immigration and Islam, right-wing parties are a force to be reckoned with across much of Europe today. Several of them have succeeded in rebranding themselves as traditional conservatives rather than quasi-Fascist.

In Norway the anti-immigrant Progress Party is now the largest in the land. Like other right-wing parties in Scandinavia, it has enjoyed surging support since the Islamic cartoon affair two years ago. In Switzerland, Christoph Blocher's Swiss People's Party won the general election last year after a campaign condemned as racist by UN monitors. In Poland the League of Polish Families, a member of the coalition government until a year ago, campaigns for the elimination of Jewish influence in business and the professions. The Vlaams Belang in Belgium is strongly anti-immigrant. Even in ultra-liberal Denmark, the nationalist and anti-immigrant Danish People's Party is now the third largest party. In Italy, Silvio Berlusconi's Party of Freedom is sandwiched in the ruling coalition by the anti-immigrant Northern League and the post-Fascist National Alliance.

Independent

Nazi suspect, Argentine immigrant tried in Serbia

Serbia’s war crimes prosecutors launched proceedings this week against a Hungarian citizen, who had immigrated to Argentina after World War II and returned to Hungary in 1996, on charges that he participated in mass killings of Jews and Serbs during Nazi occupation.

Prosecutors said they lodged a request for an investigation against Sandor Kepiro with the Belgrade war crimes court. The move is the first step toward an indictment and a trial. Prosecutors also urged the court to seek Kepiro’s extradition to Serbia.

The prosecutors’ statement said Kepiro, now 94, is suspected of acts of genocide during World War II. It says that he “in full awareness that of his own free will” he took part in the killings of at least 2,000 Jews and Serbs.

The worst killings took place during the so-called Great Raid of 1942, when about 800 Jews and 400 Serbs were rounded up, shot and drowned in the freezing Danube river in the northern city of Novi Sad, the statement said. The civilians were stripped naked and all their personal belongings were taken away, the statement added.

Last week, leading Nazi hunter Efraim Zuroff, head of the Israeli branch of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, visited Serbia and urged the authorities to seek extradition of Kepiro and two other WWII suspects.

War crimes prosecutors acknowledged in the statement that the initial probe against Kepiro was carried out with help from the Simon Wiesenthal Centre.

Hungarian authorities have launched an investigation against Kepiro upon requests from the Wiesenthal Centre, but he was never punished for his role in the killings in Serbia.

After World War II was over, Argentina, under the presidency of Juan Domingo Perón — the founder of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s Peronist party — became a haven for Jews but also for Nazi war criminals.

MercoPress

BNP use memorial of racism victim to promote party

Foreign language student Mohammed Al-Majed, 16, died just two days after being attacked by racist drunken youths in Hastings, East Sussex, on August 22. A group of baying brutes attacked Mohammed in a racist frenzy as he left Kebab Hut & Pizza USA Fried in Claremont, Hastings, with fellow students at a language school. He was called “Saddam Hussein” and “Osama Bin Laden” during the shocking attack.

The Qatari teen suffered from severe head injuries, as a result of falling and knocking his head on the pavement. But it was the attendance of the far-right party British National Party (BNP) at a memorial held for the murdered student that angered many.

Al-Majed’s family, friends, hundreds of shoppers, locals and political leaders alike gathered outside the Town Hall to observe a two-minute silence in memory of the lost student. They were joined by a BNP member sent to voice his views.

Chris Barnett, a BNP activist took photographs of the mourners, laid flowers and prayed. He also spoke to mourners about how the Government was to blame for the incident, not the attackers. At this point, Barnett took the liberty of informing a journalist that Al-Majed had been escorted to hospital via a taxi, not an ambulance, a claim utterly refuted by local health authorities.

Fellow campaigner, Nick Prince, used the sombre occasion to publicise the BNP’s credentials stating that if his right wing-party was in charge, the assailants would be given the death penalty, and strict curfews would be imposed on students visiting the town.

He further said, “We did send a representative to the two minutes silence…and on behalf of all of the members and supporters of the British National Party in Hastings and Rother, I wish to send our deepest sympathy to the family of Mohammad Al-Majed. We will continue to increase our presence in Hastings.”

Gerry Gable, publisher of anti-fascist magazine Searchlight told The Muslim News, “This is the latest piece of hypocrisy from a political party that abuses and maligns people of the Muslim faith day in day out.”

Owner of the takeaway where the trouble began, Remzi Tanriverdi, said jealousy was one motivation behind the attacks. “They are layabouts and are jealous of the money that these Arab kids have. The foreign students are polite people. They are shocked by what they find in England. Many from the Middle East do not have a drinking culture and they are not used to this violence. Now there must be a big question mark over the future of Hastings as a place to come and study,” he said.

Peter Henworth, a Nigerian student described the horrific events in details. “The white gang walked out of the kebab house and came up to me and Mohammed and said, ‘What’s your problem.’ We tried to move away, we didn’t want any grief. They were swearing and aggressive.”

As the youths began to push them backwards, Al-Majed and Henworth turned and ran. Al-Majed made his way towards a pub 50 yards away whilst Henworth raced over the road to the promenade. The gang chose to follow Al-Majed...

According to Henworth, “I kept on running and then, from the promenade, watched what was happening to Mohammed over on the other side of the road. The gang caught up with him and he fell to the ground. They kicked him again and again until he stopped moving altogether. I crossed over from the promenade and went back to the kebab house. When I got there the gang arrived leaving Mohammed where he was along the road. They went up to one of his friends; a 15-year-old boy from Saudi Arabia called Mojeb, and hit him over the head with a glass. He needed six stitches.”

Al-Majed was admitted to the local Conquest Hospital for his head injuries at 1am, on August 23.

By the time it became apparent that the teenager required treatment in a neurological hospital; there were no beds available at the local specialist unit. It took a total of 15 hours for Al-Majed to receive the proper, specialist treatment he required. His father, Abdullah, criticised the NHS for taking too long to find the teenager a bed. Mohammed Al-Majed died just 24 hours after being admitted to Kings College Hospital; however it is unclear whether more efficient treatment would’ve saved his life.

Speaking to The Times, Ahmed Othman, 16, Al-Majed’s friend and eye-witness said, “I won’t come back here again. Students don’t want to return to this area, especially Hastings. Here we have fights and we go home scared.”

Councillor Peter Pragnell tried to dispel accusations that Hastings is becoming lawless. He told The Muslim News, “Despite the mass hysteria, knee jerk reactions and downright inaccurate reporting from some sections of the media might suggest, we are not a violent town.”

However police confirmed that three other Arab students had been attacked in Hastings a fortnight before the attacks and Mohammed’s friend Sultan Al-Dossary, 15, said other foreign students studying at Hastings’ language schools had been abused in the street and were now too frightened to go out. In fact police stats revealed that over the past three years, there have been 41 attacks on foreign students.

In response to accusations that the police were not efficient enough, DCI Graham Pitt told The Muslim News, “When Mohammed fell to the ground, officers immediately offered assistance and placed him in a police van awaiting an ambulance, which took a matter of minutes to arrive. He was then taken to the Conquest Hospital.”

Three men, aged 17, 18 and 20, have been arrested and released on bail following the attack.

Muslim News

Croatia Fined Over England Abuse

The Croatian Football Federation has been fined almost £15,000 for fans' racist behaviour during a recent World Cup qualifying game against England.

Striker Emile Heskey was subjected to monkey chants

England striker Emile Heskey was subjected to monkey chants from a small section of the crowd in Zagreb after being booked during the 4-1 victory for Fabio Capello's side.

The Football Association asked Fifa to investigate the incident and the world governing body has now issued a fine.

A statement said: "Racism has no place in football. Fifa is determined to continue broadcasting this message around the globe and deploying all of the means at its disposal to eliminate this form of discrimination."

It is the second time in a matter of months Croatian fans have been found guilty of racist behaviour, with Fifa issuing a small fine during Euro 2008 following chants during their quarter-final against Turkey.

Fifa's disciplinary committee have now warned the CFF that further incidents could result in "more severe sanctions".

Sky News

Let's stop Nick Griffin's visit to Australia

The BNP has announced that its leader Nick Griffin intends to visit Australia in the “very near future” at the invitation of the miniscule far-right Australian Protectionist Party.

The APP is a tiny, minority party (led by a former BNP leading light) that seeks to drag Australia back to the dark ages of the “White Australia policy”, a policy that prohibited non-white immigration until 1973.

The proposed December visit by the leader of Britain’s premier racist party would help a tiny minority there in their attempts to drag Australia back into the dark ages of unapologetic imperialism and racism. It would also give Griffin the opportunity to act like some kind of spokesperson for ex-patriots, damaging Britain’s tolerant reputation while at the same time attempting to raise funds for his party’s coffers.

This year, the Australian parliament’s first order of business was to make an apology on behalf of the nation to the “stolen generation”, Aborigines who were removed from their families and ancestral lands to be “anglicised” (made to behave more like white people) for over one hundred years, until 1969. Only a tiny minority of Australians were opposed to this long overdue sentiment.

As a modern nation, Australia celebrates its new, modern and diverse culture with great pride. A visit by the BNP, a party notorious for sewing the seeds of intolerance, hate and mistrust, is likely to only be attractive and beneficial to the sort of Neanderthals who took pleasure from race-related rioting against Muslims in Cronulla New South Wales in 2006. Since those riots, described as a “pogrom” by some Australian journalists, the Australian far-right has gone to great lengths to recruit and galvanise support for their policies.

The BNP and its Australian supporters will attempt to use Griffin’s controversial visit to garner support to their campaign against the new Australia. In a time of sweeping economic turmoil, the APP will be hoping to learn from Griffin how to make local gains on the back of world-wide difficulties. This weekend (September 13th) the APP is standing in local elections as a litmus test for its policies.

Britain has strong historic, cultural and sporting ties with Australia. In 1998, Griffin was refused entry to the country as was Holocaust denier David Irving before him. The Australian government is being urged once more not to soil those positive ties by allowing Australia to take in another one of our criminal undesirables.

Jeremy Jones, a spokesman for Australia’s Jewish community said: ''A visit by Griffin ought to be a matter of concern for Australia's Muslim community, indeed by all communities here who have found that tolerance and engagement is a better path than division and hatred.''

To add your voice to the campaign, send a ‘He’s not fair dinkum’ postcard to the High Commissioner. Click here.

Hope not Hate

Police investigate 'racist rally'

Allegations of the chanting of racist slogans at a "scooter rally" in North Somerset are to be investigated by Avon and Somerset Police.

A video of the event at the Bungalow Inn, Redhill, on Saturday night shows some people wearing Nazi regalia. Chants including "seig heil, seig heil" can also be heard later on the tape. Both the licensee and manager deny seeing any Nazi regalia or hearing racist chanting. Both deny supporting Nazi politics.

The police spokesman said that they take any reported hate crime very seriously and would be working with the local authority licensing department about the approval of the event.

The pub said the booking was made in good faith for what they believed to be a scooter rally for 500 people. It is estimated that more than 800 turned up on Saturday night. It is believed many people at the event had travelled from Europe. Some had Nazi flags draped over their shoulders and were seen in the video laughing and joking.

A family that lived nearby were so frightened they left their home. Sarah Gooding said: "My daughter was petrified. We ran into the house and I burst into tears. I told my husband 'I don't feel safe we've got to go'. Our daughters were really really frightened."

Licensee Anne Carter said: "It was something we were totally unaware of and not happy to think it was happening on any part of our premises. Anything the police want to do we'll support them in anyway we can."

BBC

The British People’s Party’s Plans For 'Racial Holy War'

Behind the BPP's plans to return to 'street activism' with an 'anti Hip-Hop demo' in Leeds lie bizarre plans for their very own "Racial Holy War".

Kate McDermody (left), shortly before taking control of the BPP

The so-called ‘British People’s Party’, currently led by the odious Kate McDermody, has until recently been content to confine itself to the twilight world of British neo-Nazism. Elements of the party leadership though have long nursed fantasies about what McDermody (or ‘Dermody’ as she prefers to be called) terms “Racial Holy War”. Kevin Watmough, McDermody’s boyfriend, and still (despite all evidence to the contrary) supposed “National Organiser” of the BPP has been a cheer-leader of would-be Nazi terrorists for decades, but the BPP’s flirtation with outright terrorism has not gone well.

Earlier this year, Martyn Gilleard, the BPP’s ‘Goole Organiser’ was sentenced to 16 years for possession of nail-bombs and plans to blow up local mosques, along with nearly 40,000 images of the worst child pornography. While Gilleard, who earned the BPP the sobriquet the ‘British Paedophile Party’, was quickly dumped because of the bad publicity surrounding his child porn collection, the BPP were happy to support him in his plans to start the much talked about ‘RaHoWa’ (‘Racial Holy War.) Nor is Gilleard the only BPP member to go to jail on terrorism charges.

Watmough, who still (laughingly) sees himself as the leader of ‘Combat 18’, has long enjoyed rubbing shoulders with shaven-headed knuckle-draggers so thick that they’re happy to try and make his fantasies reality. Like Gilleard, they almost always end up in prison – unlike ‘Teflon Kev’ himself. Watmough’s, and the BPP’s latest flirtation has been with a small group of ageing would-be street warriors who currently call themselves the ‘Racial Volunteer Force’ and the ‘British Freedom Fighters’. The most recent claim to fame of this pseudo paramilitary outfit has been trying to turn over a street stall being run by some young women from the Manchester branch of the small Revolutionary Communist Group.

The alliance of the so-called ‘RVF’ and ‘’BFF’ (previously, and just as laughably, called the ‘Aryan Strike Force’) have also run the BPP’s ‘security’ at their most recent meetings. As yet, and despite claims that they have been “threatened by Reds”, this security operation remains entirely untested. Except, that is, by the police, who scooped half of the BPP’s ‘security’ detail up on drugs and weapons charges even before they made it to their last London soiree. Neither Watmough nor McDermody of course were nicked.

Having been lined up and searched by the cops, the BPP/RVF/BFF outfit seem to think they have really been in the trenches! Emboldened by this fantasy, McDermody, whose ‘White Nationalist’ profile is so thin she has to invent silly stories about being responsible for everything from the ‘Common Place’ (Leeds social centre) losing it’s drinks license to phone company ‘Orange’ changing its working practices, is now keen to start a ‘street war’.

In one of the many self-important and hate-filled rants on her fetid blog, McDermody rails against “alien faiths”, children being “brainwashed” about the Holocaust, homosexuality, and of course immigration. In Hitleresque terms, she raves on:

“We have long comprehended that this assault on our once-fine land is like a vociferous cancer, extending its tentacles of annihilation to strike at the heart of every proud man in this Country - this beast is a formidable, tenacious monster and it has been spewing its bile for way, way too long. However, you cannot vanquish such an adversary with benevolence, those tender ZOG promises have been proven the fairytale we all KNEW they were.

“This cancer can never be cured with sticking plaster and aspirin. Call it nazism, call it racism, call it pink-spots-on-your-toes if you like but I call it realisation , I call it fact and I call it the TRUTH! We have been systematically lied to for far too long by far too many people and this inherent state of docility was expected, however we have the antidote and it is called hope - that we can and WILL return this country to its rightful owners. This cancer needs a belligerent cure and we, the British People's Party are it. We are going to take back these streets for those whose heritage gives them claim to ownership, the indigenous White people. Stand by our side, shoulder to shoulder with your brothers and sisters and help us to fight this crusade to preserve YOUR Race and a future for our people.”

Despite McDermody’s bellicose bluster, we are sure that unlike some of her denser cannon-fodder, she is relying on neither being arrested, nor having to fight this ‘street war’ herself. Other fascists who have urged caution, more experienced activists with the scars to prove it, have been dismissed as “keyboard warriors” and even outright cowards, while McDermody’s own courage has extended to doing everything she can to ensure police protection for the BPP’s first street outing.

Sometime ago, McDermody began rambling about her plans to buy a black ‘rap’ CD and then complain about its content. Having researched the lyrics of a 15-year-old Ice T album, McDermody rang HMV in Leeds to see if it was in stock. Despite bellowing down the phone at them about how disgraceful it was that they had managed to locate this CD in their catalogue, McDermody then went into HMV to purchase the album. She then complained to the cops, who really must be becoming rather tired of her.

Having put Part 1 of her ‘master plan’ into action, McDermody then announced that she and the BPP, and whichever other sorry fascist idiots she manages to lure over to Leeds, would be holding a demo outside the HMV branch on Lands Lane in Leeds city centre on October 4th. When a counter demo was announced, and the cops told her that they couldn’t protect her that day, McDermody swiftly moved the demo to October 18th (‘coincidentally’ the same day as the London Anarchist Bookfair.)

McDermody though does not see herself as the Mary Whitehouse of the modern age. Her objections to this CD, and the BPP’s attempt to re-establish fascism back on the streets of Leeds (which was once its northern ‘hub’), are nothing more than a mechanism. Beneath a transparent veneer about consumer anger, McDermody’s real purpose is causing what she hopes will turn into a riot, something she thinks the BPP can make political capital from. Her blueprint for this is the Bradford riots of 2001.

While she is busy negotiating with the cops about what size banners the BPP may have and where they may stand, as well as applying for a number of marches through “immigrant” areas, McDermody, whose vicious neo-Nazism far exceeds her intelligence, has been stupid enough to announce her intentions on the fascist internet forum ‘Stormfront’. Sparring with 80’s fascist activist Joe Owens, who accuses her of not being up to the job, McDermody, posting under the farcical pseudonym ‘TruthTeller’ declares: “"I shall simply have a paper-sale if they ban me. The Leeds demo has necessitated hours with the Police to gain permission, not to mention a fully comprehensive dialogue of all proposed speeches, a copy of all banners and posters etc. Interestingly and rather relevant, the 2001 NF Bradford riots were banned but look what happened then. If we keep up the momentum and persistently apply to march, they will do the same now. I will apply every week if I have to."

Having already referred specifically to the 2001 Bradford riots, McDermody goes on to say: “We have to have the people who'll put in all the effort in CAUSING these riots that will cultivate a revolution of sorts. And then that is when the street action is needed.” She continues: “I will do whatever I believe it takes… My aim is simply to provoke a revolt and this will only be achieved through persistent presence on the streets or by applying for this. If we could have a 2001 Bradford week after week we'd get somewhere so let's do all we can as White Nationalists to try and achieve this…" McDermody’s plans, and those of the BPP, are thus made clear.

Monstrous McDermody may PRETEND she wants a riot, as a way of bigging herself up to her fellow Nazis. She may even THINK she wants a riot, after listening to the chuntering of other Leeds Nazis claiming to be responsible for starting the 2001 Bradford riots. The truth however, is that if it kicks off in Leeds, or anywhere else the BPP try to ‘take back the streets’, she and her fellow fascists will get the hiding of their lives. McDermody may think she was ‘blooded’ when she was subject to some very routine police attention in London, but she really has seen nothing yet, and neither herself nor witless Watmough could cope with the serious attention they seem intent on drawing in.

No fascist street presence can be tolerated in Leeds, and It is imperative that the BPP’s plans to cause racial conflict here and elsewhere are crushed. The fascists were systematically kicked off the streets of Leeds in the 80’s and 90’s and there can be no return to the days when they swaggered around virtually unopposed. We must come out onto the streets in unprecedented numbers to confront them, and show the neo-Nazis that their racist lies will not go unchallenged here, or anywhere else. Let’s make our voices heard.

SMASH THE BPP – NO NAZIS ON THE STREETS OF LEEDS!
SATURDAY 18TH OCTOBER, 11.00AM
HMV, LANDS LANE, LEEDS CITY CENTRE

Related Stories:

Link 1
Link 2
Link 3
Link 4
Link 5

Leaflet for the Leeds demo (pdf)
Poster for the Leeds demo (pdf)

Antifa

Far Right extremists flee anti-mosque rally in Germany

Militant anti-fascists rout the far-right in Cologne, Germany

A weekend gathering in Cologne of far-right European extremists ended in farce when the main rally was cancelled as the organisers fled for their own safety

Pro-Cologne, a group counting some of Europe's most prominent hardliners in its ranks, had intended to campaign against the construction of Germany's largest mosque, due to be completed in 2010 in the Ehrenfeld district of the city. The building has attracted controversy because of its size, aiming to cater for up to 4,000 worshippers under a dome 37m (121ft) high and two 55m minarets - although they are shorter than the twin 157m spires of the cathedral that dominates the skyline of Cologne.

Politicians invited to the protest included Filip Dewinter, head of the Belgian Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) party, Andreas Mölzer, an MEP from the Austrian Freedom Party, and Mario Borghezio, an MEP in the Italian Northern League. Two members of the British National Party were also in town, including Richard Barnbrook, its sole member of the London Assembly.

A press conference to launch the pan-European movement against “Islamification” descended into chaos when its secret location - on board a Rhine river cruiser - was leaked. Left-wing activists arrived en masse to disrupt the event and were so successful that only two Pro-Cologners made it on board before the captain cast off in panic and headed for open water

A Pro-Cologne spokesman said: “Stones, bricks and paintbombs were thrown and the panoramic windows of the Moby Dick were shattered.”

The group had then planned to tour the site of the mosque but this was stopped by the police on the ground that a busload of right-wing extremists cruising through a predominantly Muslim area might not be conducive to law and order.

So the only chance that Pro-Cologne had to make an impact was at its main rally on Saturday afternoon in the Heumarkt square. The organisers hoped for about 1,500 people. They had not reckoned on 40,000 screaming anti-fascists trying to break into the square to remonstrate with them.

With leading delegates stuck at the airport and the Heumarkt besieged, the rally was called off after only 45 minutes. The organisers began dismantling their microphones and stage, hoping that the security cordon would hold as police battled against the more violent protesters who were throwing paintbombs and snatching batons.

Although some of them were spirited away, many were penned in for several hours, unable even to get a beer as the bar owners in the square refused to serve them. Finally the BNP representatives got out, scuttling out the back of some of the buildings lining the Heumarkt, their attempts to present a united European front against Islamification in tatters.

“This was a victory for the democratic forces in this city,” Fritz Schramma, the Christian Democrat mayor, said. The city has a 120,000-strong Muslim community, part of the three million Muslims who make up about 4per cent of the German population.

Times Online

Drugs smear case shows weakness of UK laws

The Muslim News has criticised the weakness of recently passed British laws on religious incitement following the failure to prosecute the BNP over a leaflet which blames Muslims for the heroin trade.

“It just shows that incitement to religious hatred legislation is inadequate and the BNP members use the loophole to target Muslims.” said The Muslim News Editor, Ahmed J Versi.

“If the leaflets were targeted at other ethnic communities like the Jews and Black people then the perpetrators would have been charged for incitement. Muslims, in contrast, are free for all,” Versi said. “Such incitement language results in attacks against Muslims and mosques as the leaflets blame all Muslims for drug peddling.”

His criticism comes as Muslim police officers were demanding an explanation as to why the police had not provided adequate advice to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) which led to no action being taken over a leaflet, which was distributed by the BNP members since June to hundreds of addresses in parts of Lancashire, Cumbria and Yorkshire. It smears Muslims as being “almost exclusively responsible” for the heroin trade 95% of which it says comes from the Afghanistan and Pakistan region. It also suggested “naming and shaming” Muslims to tackle the problem. The National Association of Muslim Police (NAMP) said the CPS had effectively allowed the people in question to continue distributing the material.

In a statement to The Muslim News, Deputy Chief Constable for Lancashire Constabulary Mike Cunningham said: “Whilst we understand that this advice is based on established case law, we roundly condemn the contents of these leaflets and those distributing them” Cunningham said it was “inflammatory in nature” and that the police were “obviously concerned that their distribution in Lancashire could damage community cohesion.”

The Muslim News

BNP looks for cracks in the Potteries

Part of the BNP rabble listening to Nick Griffin talking crap

The British National Party has been rallying support in Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire

The far-right party has been emboldened by its recent successes in local elections - it has nine councillors in Stoke. But it has also been angered by the death of local BNP activist Keith Brown, who was killed by his Asian neighbour.

On Saturday the party handed out leaflets and held a rally to voice its belief that society ignores or plays down violence against whites by non-whites. Mr Brown's killer, Habib Khan, was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to eight years - but the party believes that had their roles been reversed, Mr Brown would now be serving life for murder.

The rally was on an industrial estate in the Fenton area, in a car park off a busy main road. About 300 people attended, at most - mainly tattooed males with shaved heads, but also young couples - some with babies - young women and a few quiet-looking pensioners. There were flag wavers, banner holders and placard carriers. Passing drivers were encouraged to honk their horns, and quite a few obliged.

From a "Truth Truck", speakers including BNP leader Nick Griffin addressed the crowd. Speaking over loud applause, Mr Griffin said they day's activities "tell the establishment in Stoke-on-Trent, and across the length and breadth of the country, that they can no longer brush the attacks on British people under the carpet, because the BNP will be there, not to cause trouble, but to cause a fuss".

Stoke-on-Trent is to hold a referendum in October to decide whether or not to retain its elected mayor. If it votes to keep it, then the BNP clearly fancies its chances.

"We have very, very good councillors and I have no doubt that we're the front runners for the elected mayor position, which is why Labour is trying to get rid of it," said Mr Griffin, speaking away from the rally in the Meir area.

He puts his party's rise in popularity in the city partly down to the "lazy and corrupt" Labour administration. But what does the wider community think?

Clearly, Stoke-on-Trent is a place ill at ease with itself. Ravaged by a huge drop in the core industries of mining, pottery and engineering, its proud heritage and identity, which made the Potteries a name familiar across the world for its skill in ceramics, is under threat. Many of its citizens appear worried about making a living and angry at the state of the city in which they live. Unemployment, cuts in health services and substandard housing are just some of the complaints on the street.

Meir resident Alan Hough, 62, angrily asks why the police cars parked nearby, clearly keeping an eye on the BNP leader, "aren't out catching criminals". Mr Hough says he has voted for Labour all his life, but says he will vote for the BNP in future.

"My father will be turning in his grave, he fought the fascists for six years," he says. "But Labour aren't doing their job, and that's why people are voting for the BNP, they're desperate. There's no alternative, people won't vote Tory and they're fed up with Labour."

But Labour MP for Stoke-on-Trent South, Rob Flello, says the claim that Labour has done nothing "flies in the face of reality".

"BNP politics are about setting communities against each other," he said. "We're trying to build communities, and strengthen them. We're trying to attract people to the city and bring jobs here. Having a BNP presence makes it seem as if it's a place torn by conflict, with community against community, and that's simply not the case."

There are no non-white people to be seen in Meir, so a taxi ride over to the Shelton area is necessary to find an Asian point of view. Standing outside the local mosque is Abu Kinza, 30. He thinks there are deep divisions within the city's communities, which are partly down to education.

"Stoke-on-Trent's nature is not as aware as other cities," he said. "Asians and whites don't mix. There is lots of racism and the Asian community does suffer. The BNP has support in this city because of a decline in Christian values. That makes people more materialistic and selfish and they don't care about their community. Also, people here aren't educated. Ask them if they've read a book in the last year, the last five years. A lot of them haven't. People from outside of the city say it's one of the worst areas to live in, that it's backwards and that the BNP are strong here. Its presence damages the city's reputation."

Elsewhere in the city a peace vigil was held in opposition to the BNP. It was organised by the group United Against Fascism, with speakers and a march. National campaigner Donna Guthrie said: "It went brilliantly, and hopefully will show the unity the people of Stoke-on-Trent have with each other, which goes against the grain of what the BNP wants to do."

BBC

Landlady bars BNP meeting

A pub advertised on a BNP website as a meeting place for individuals attending a party rally today says it has not given the group permission to use its premises.

The BNP posted instructions on its website for people who wanted to attend the rally, but who were not attached to any formal group or branch, to meet at the Station Arms pub in Meir. But pub managers say they knew nothing about it.

Licensee Patricia Towey and her husband Anthony said they had been to see the organisers of the BNP rally after learning that their pub was due to be used as a meeting place for activists.

Mr Towey said: "We have told them we are shutting the pub because we don't want them here. If they had informed us, we might have been able to come to some kind of arrangement."

The Sentinel

Not waving, just drowning...

This article was submitted by one of our readers, Iliacus. We welcome any contributions from our supporters (as long as those contributions conform to the law and are in reasonably good taste). Please send your articles to us via email.

September's flood (well, stream...well, brook) of by-elections moves on apace, with three contests on the 11th, and no fewer than five on the 18th.

The BNP's performance on the 11th can be summed up very easily. There was no performance. Like Solidarity at an Industrial Tribunal. Like Dickie Barnbrook at a London Brains Trust. Like Nick Griffin at a charitable function. They didn't show up! And so the voters of Harrogate, Guildford and Guisborough (North Yorkshire) were able to elect their representatives (two Lib Dems, one Conservative) without the distraction of the BNP sideshow. (Interestingly the Harrogate ward had suffered a BNP candidate in the recent past; more evidence of the "churn" which is so damaging to the party.)

On the 18th there were five contests: Leeds, two in Suffolk (one County Council, one District Council, in the same area), a seat in Pembrokeshire, and the Glasgow City Council ward vacated by the SNP victor in the recent Glasgow East parliamentary by-election.

The good people of Pembrokeshire and Suffolk were left alone by the BNP (interesting that their recruitment "success" at the Pembrokeshire Show, much trumpeted on the website, didn't result in their being able to field a candidate). Mr Darby's Quiet Revolution sleeps on...

The Leeds by-election was intriguing, being a ward held by the Greens with a substantial majority. They held the seat, but with a hugely reduced majority as the Lib Dems surged through to second place. The BNP finished fourth with 12.7% of the vote, just ahead of the Conservatives and with the Alliance 4 Green Socialism behind them. From our perspective a worrying result. For the BNP to take over 12% in a seat with a wide choice of alternatives, and at least two parties mounting energetic campaigns, indicates a troubling level of electoral support.

But Glasgow was, frankly, an absolute disaster for the BNP. In an alternative vote election (the sort-of PR system used in Scottish local government by-elections) they polled just 73 votes, one behind the "Solidarity - Tommy Sheridan" candidate. It amounted to 1.4% of the vote! I somehow doubt that their Glasgow campaign will get much prominence on the BNP website!

Finally, I need to mention a Town Council by-election in Evesham, which was "graced" by a BNP candidate, because this one might be featured by their website, and claimed as further evidence of the Quiet Revolution.

The BNP came third, and took 18.6% of the vote. So far, so bad. BUT, before we despair (and they rejoice, and anticipate multiple MEPs), consider the following:

1. There were only three candidates (so, to put it another way, they came last);
2. It was a Town Council by-election (i.e. an urban parish council), and neither the Lib Dems nor Labour bothered to contest the vacancy;
3. The turnout was a miserable 11% (which reflects the significance of the event), so the proportion of the electorate who felt sufficiently motivated to go out and vote BNP was...er...2.04%. Which is about the proportion who declare for the BNP in opinion polls, and certainly won't achieve electoral success, even in a European Election party list system.

Next Thursday (25th) sees eight by-elections, with the BNP fielding just one candidate - in a Hampstead ward of the London Borough of Camden where there is every indication that they will again fare dismally.

Across September in total there will have been 18 by-elections - the BNP will have contested just five. Mr Darby? Are you waving...or just drowning?

Race hate case pair appeal

Two men who fled to the United States after being found guilty of publishing race-hate articles on the Internet have launched appeals against their convictions.

Simon Sheppard, of Brook Street in Selby, and Stephen Whittle skipped bail and headed across the Atlantic in July after a jury at Leeds Crown Court convicted them of a series of race-related offences. The pair claimed political asylum, and have been held in a California prison for two months while US officials set a date for their immigration hearing.

Leeds Crown Court has since received papers from the pair's legal teams, applying for leave to appeal against their convictions.

Barrister Adrian Davies, who represented Sheppard during the trial, said the case would probably be heard at London's Court of Appeal if the pair are allowed to challenge the jury's verdicts.

Sheppard, 51, and Whittle, 42, were given bail by a judge on July 11, despite the jury having already returned guilty verdicts on some of the charges. They were due to return to court three days later while jurors deliberated over further charges, but failed to show up. It's believed the pair travelled from the UK to Ireland by ferry before taking a direct flight to Los Angeles. The pair claimed political asylum and were detained at Los Angeles Airport by the US Immigration Naturalisation Service.

Their case has been followed by extremist websites, and supporters have begun sending donations.

Sheppard was found guilty of 11 counts of publishing racially inflammatory written material. He's due to return to Leeds Crown Court on December 8. Whittle, of Avenham Lane in Preston, was convicted of five counts of publishing racially inflammatory written material.

Selby Times

Christians have moral duty to oppose BNP

The Bishop of Stafford has called on people of good will to stand up and speak out against the British National Party.

Speaking ahead of a national BNP rally being held in Stoke-on-Trent [today], the Rt Revd Gordon Mursell said: "The BNP are dangerous because they try to make us believe that all our problems are caused by foreigners. This is nonsense. The Potteries today face many challenges - we need more investment, better housing, and better public transport for a start. But these challenges have nothing to do with foreigners. They are caused by a lack of vision among our politicians who seem unable to work together for the good of the city and the region.

“The reason the BNP are dangerous is because they claim to be able to improve public services when their real agenda is to repatriate immigrants and encourage locals and incomers to hate one another. Christians in particular have a moral duty to oppose the BNP because the Bible explicitly commands us to love the stranger and reverence the alien. We need more outsiders, not less: more skilled workers, more nurses, more office cleaners, and above all more people who bring energy and vision and a willingness to work hard.

“Stoke City Football Club didn't get into the Premier League by hating foreigners. And if we want our city to be where it should be - in the premier league of British cities - we need to welcome everyone of goodwill and work together for the common good. The BNP are bad news."

The Bishop of Stafford has arranged for a church in the centre of Stoke to be open on Saturday morning for a prayer vigil for peace and reconciliation. Saint Mark’s Church in Broad Street, Shelton, Stoke on Trent, ST1 3BQ, will be open from 8.30am to 11.15am for a silent prayer vigil with short times of led prayers at 9.00, 10.00, and 11.00am.

At other times people will be able to pray at various prayer stations, focussing on different aspects of peace in the city of Stoke and world.

Diocese of Lichfield

How exciting. Somebody else joins the BNP.

In a coup to rival the last disastrous publicity coup it announced only to have it backfire on the party immediately to laughs all round, the BNP has announced the support of 'one of Britain’s top fashion models' as a supporter.

Yes, Essex girl Lauren McAvoy has publicly declared her support for the racist BNP - so hopefully she has suddenly reached the end of her short career.

Naturally the BNP is making much of this, claiming that Ms McAvoy has 'graced the cover of numerous magazines', though I defy anyone to name five, not including the Company magazine spread which was part of her prize for winning Britain’s Next Top Model in 2007.

We wondered why anyone with a promising career in front of them would want to associate themselves with the BNP, but then we spotted that her favourite activities included pole-dancing, leading us to wonder if she was talent-spotted by those well-known pole-dance aficionados Mark Collett and Dave Hannam - though it should be said that at 21, she's a fair bit too old for them.

Another favourite activity is, apparently, water sports. I assume she's referring to swimming, though with the likes of perverts such as Martin Reynolds about, who the hell knows?

Strangely, despite a diploma in civil engineering, McAvoy still appears to be up to the usual educational standards that we expect from the BNP. Her more or less moribund MySpace page breathlessly announces that she is 'excited about having a chinease with her wonderful girlies tonite'. One could make a nasty crack about the similarities between her and that other 'celebrity' BNP member Simone Clarke (now doomed to sit on the exec of the failed Solidarity union alongside the dreary Patrick Harrington) but had better not.

Actually, mention of Clarke reminds me that we'd better warn McAvoy about the ever more bizarre Dickie Barnbrook. Still desperate to do away with the continuing label of gay porn film director and star, he appears to be unable to resist sending women pictures of his todger, as Annika Tavilampi found out. At the time that Barnbrook was trying to bed Ms Tavilampi, he was supposedly engaged to Clarke and still married to his wife, a Metropolitan Police officer. Tavilampi described Barnbrook as a 'sleazebag' after he proposed to her at more or less the same time as he proposed to the BNP's dancing queen. He seems to fit right in with all the other sleazebags in the party as far as we can see.

Simone Clarke was at the height of her career when she joined the BNP. Ten minutes later, her career was dead and buried. We shall follow Ms McAvoy's career with considerable interest to see whether it goes the same way at the same speed.

BNP member may be struck off teaching register

Solidarity's Adam Walker: expecting detention from the General Teaching Council

A teacher and prominent British National party member could be struck from the teaching register after he was accused of posting racist comments to a website from his school laptop.

Adam Walker, who taught at Houghton Kepier sports college, a foundation school in Houghton-le-Spring, Tyne and Wear, has stood as a candidate for the BNP in local elections and is president of the party's closely affiliated trade union Solidarity. He is accused of expressing views "suggestive of racial and religious intolerance" in an online forum.

Walker resigned from his post at the school after the disciplinary action was taken. The allegations date back to spring 2007.

The comments he is accused of making have not been made public but will be closely scrutinised in the General Teaching Council hearing later this year.

Walker is currently attempting to have the GTC chairwoman, Judy Moorhouse, removed from the disciplinary hearing panel, claiming she is biased against him. He told the Times Educational Supplement that the case was being "driven by political spite", adding: "No other teacher at the school has had their internet use monitored in the way mine was. My real crime is political dissidence."

Christina McAnea, of Unison, said: "Schools should be centres of learning and tolerance, not breeding grounds for the poisonous views of the BNP."

Walker worked as a supply teacher at Teesdale school in Barnard Castle, County Durham, last year. He stood as a BNP candidate for Tudhoe in the Durham county council elections in May.

Guardian

Antisemitism and Islamophobia rising across Europe, survey finds

Antisemitism and Islamophobia are on the rise across Europe, according to a survey of global opinion released yesterday.

In contrast to the US and Britain where unfavourable opinion of Jews has been stable and low for several years at between 7 and 9%, the Pew Survey of Global Attitudes found that hostile attitudes to Jews were rising all across continental Europe from Russia and Poland in the east to Spain and France in the west. The survey found that suspicion of Muslims in Europe was considerably higher than hostility to Jews, but that the increase in antisemitism had taken place much more rapidly.

"Great Britain stands out as the only European country included in the survey where there has not been a substantial increase in antisemitic attitudes," the survey found.

Antisemitism has more than doubled in Spain over the past three years, with a rise from 21% to 46%, the survey of almost 25,000 people across 24 countries found, while more than one in three Poles and Russians also had unfavourable opinions of Jews. In the same period antisemitism in Germany and France also rose - from 21% to 25% in Germany and from 12% to 20% in France among those saying they had unfavourable opinions of Jews.

"Opinions of Muslims in almost all of these countries was were more negative than are views of Jews," analysts said. While Americans and Britons displayed the lowest levels of antisemitism, one in four in both countries were hostile to Muslims.

Such Islamophobia was lower than in the rest of Europe. More than half of Spaniards and half of Germans said that they did not like Muslims and the figures for Poland and France were 46% and 38% for those holding unfavourable opinions of Muslims.

People who were antisemitic were likely also to be Islamophobes. Prejudice was marked among older generations and appeared to be class based. People over 50 and of low education were more likely to be prejudiced.

Guardian

Right-wing activists cash in on the KOSB

Border army veterans will be shocked this week to learn that copies of a CD featuring the regimental pipes and drums of the King's Own Scottish Borderers are being sold to raise money for the right-wing British National Party.

An investigation by The Southern discovered the CD – entitled The Bluebells of Scotland – for sale on the website of the BNP's merchandising arm, called Excalibur, which sells items to raise funds for the party. As well as CDs, Excalibur sells a large catalogue of white supremacist literature, as well as everything from Union Jack bedspreads and Enoch Powell T-shirts to the replica Victoria Crosses that recently caused so much furore.

Regarding the CDs, the Excalibur website boasts: "In keeping with our purpose of encouraging and promoting British culture, Excalibur is today proud to announce the launch of a new range of music CDs. They have all been specially chosen to reflect the richness of European British culture." And it also goes on to state: "Excalibur is the merchandising arm of the British National Party. Our aim is to promote the survival of the British people by providing educational material and culturally-valuable items which will reinforce our claim to freedom and independence on our island."

The pipes and drums of the KOSB – now merged into the Royal Scots Borderers battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland – are also referred to by Excalibur as the 'Scottish Borders Military Band'.

Brigadier Allan Alstead, a former commanding officer of the KOSB and a regimental trustee, was disturbed to hear of the link with the BNP. He told TheSouthern: "I have a copy of The Bluebells of Scotland which I have had for many years and which I like very much, but how copies got into the hands of Excalibur I have no idea. Personally I would not wish to see the record being sold to aid the BNP. Certainly we would never regimentally ever sell records or anything else for that matter in aid of any political party. All money we generate is for charitable purposes and used to provide help for those in need.

Southern Reporter

Anti-racist peace vigil as BNP meet

Campaigners are urging people to attend an anti-racism vigil on Saturday. The Unite Against Fascism and Love Music Hate Racism protest event will involve speeches from trade union leaders and campaigners.

The organisers are hoping to attract support from hundreds of people. The event, which will coincide with a BNP rally, is also being supported by local organisations like North Staffordshire Campaign Against Racism and Fascism and Staffs University Students Union. The protest, titled a Peace and Unity Vigil, will be held at the North Staffordshire African Caribbean Association car park, in Cannon Street, Hanley, at 10am.

Weyman Bennett, joint secretary of Unite Against Fascism said: "We believe it is the intention of the BNP to whip up tension in the city long after Nick Griffin has retreated. We believe it is a mistake the BNP have been allowed access to Stoke-on-Trent this coming Saturday particularly with regard to leafleting on the streets. Our event will be a peaceful demonstration."

Later on Saturday, an anti-racism music festival called Jam It, will be held in Hanley Central Forest Park from 12pm to 7pm. Music acts SWAY, Skinnyman, Ghetto, and Jammer will all perform. Live graffiti demonstrations, inflatable laser quest and bouncy castles will also be laid on to entertain the crowds at the celebration event.

But the protest in the morning is specifically aimed at combating the BNP event which is being held somewhere in the city centre at the same time.

The locations and details of this BNP event will not be made public until Saturday morning. BNP councillor Michael Coleman said: "The plans are guarded because a lot of anti-BNP activities go on and we could be targeted. We want our rally to be a positive activity and so we are using all the right precautions so that rent a mobs from outside the city do not attack us. We have some people travelling in from outside the city and we do not want them to be faced with something violent. We have planned for about 500 people and if we had 1,500 we would not be able to cope with that. If there is any form of confrontation we will walk away. This will be a peaceful protest – that is how democracy works."

The BNP rally has been organised the wake of a highly contentious court decision. Habib Khan of Normacot, was jailed for eight years last month for the manslaughter of BNP activist Keith Brown.

A police spokesman confirmed officers are in talks with the BNP about their rally. He said: "We have met with members of the BNP on three occasions to discuss their planned campaign for September 20. "During these meetings we have discussed their legal obligations and will continue to meet with them in the approach to the day."

The Sentinel