August 18, 2010

BNP activist banned from party meeting

A veteran British National Party activist has been ordered not to attend a party meeting in Barking and Dagenham on Thursday at which new arrangements for running London BNP and future plans will be announced.

Bob Gertner, a former Croydon BNP organiser, received an email from Mark Walker of the BNP’s “political admin office” telling him that the special organisational meeting was “open only to members and supporters who wish to put recent disputes behind us and move on in a wholly positive fashion”.

Writing on behalf of Nick Griffin, who recently appointed himself the party’s acting London regional organiser, Walker continues: “You are one of a small number of individuals whose behaviour or alleged behaviour in recent weeks has led to a large number of people at present viewing you with suspicion. Whether or not this is justified, I therefore judge that your presence at this meeting would not be conducive either to its smooth running or to the moves for the private addressing of genuine concerns and to work towards reconciliation which will be made separately.”

Walker’s explanation is bizarre in that it bans a longstanding activist even if “suspicion” is unjustified and that it appears to suggest that Gertner’s concerns, which led to him supporting Eddy Butler’s challenge to Griffin’s dictatorial leadership of the fascist party and are shared by many, are not to be discussed in a members’ meeting.

Griffin took over as acting London organiser from Chris Roberts, another activist who fell out of favour after voicing concerns about the financial mismanagement in the party, the way Griffin constantly falls out with “hard working dedicated nationalists” and the influence in the party of non-members such as Patrick Harrington, a leader of the tiny Third Way party and a former comrade of Griffin in his National Front “political soldier” days. Roberts too supported Butler’s challenge.

Griffin’s only connection with London is that: “I pass by while on the way to Europe”, as he said on Twitter announcing that he was putting together “a great new London management team” and would be acting as their organiser “while they find their feet”.

Clearly Griffin was unable to identify a single Griffin loyalist in London willing and capable of organising the region, following several suspensions of activists and widespread disillusionment.

“Vital we organise now to maximise chances in 2012 gla election,” Griffin’s tweet continued, hoping party members would forget his statement after the BNP’s defeat in Barking and Dagenham in May, when he wrote off fighting elections in the capital saying that by the next general election London would be “completely unassailable” and “no longer part of Britain”.

Elsewhere the three BNP councillors who have turned independent have left the party with only 24 council seats compared with nearly 60 a year ago. Deidre Gates, who was the organiser of the party’s West Hertfordshire group, had actively supported Butler but resigned from the party on 17 August, not heeding Butler’s call to continue the fight from the inside. She was elected to Hertfordshire County Council last year, one of just three BNP county councillors, of whom only one now remains. Seamus Dunne, who sits on Three Rivers council in Hertfordshire, has resigned the BNP whip but remains in the party.

Sonia Gable at HOPE not hate

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fine ! Let the Nutzies fight amoungst them selves. Sooner or later one side or 'tother will advocate a "final solution" to deal with the disadents.

That gives me no problems whatsoever !

What is important is that we do not treat the anti Griffen brigade as heros.

They are nasty reactionaries, and no supporters of democracy. Let the Pro and Anti Mates of Cyclops meet the same fate - Oblivion !!!!

Old Sailor

Anonymous said...

"challenge to Griffin’s dictatorial leadership". The BNP operates on the fuhrerprinzip. If Griffin didn't act as a dictator he wouldn't be doing his job properly. Are the members so thick? That's what they signed up to. That's what they're getting.

boxer said...

The neo-Nazi EDL are holding a boxing fundariser this time in the circus tavern in purfleet where they used to hold pdc darts finals.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=146887841993230&index=1

It's worth contacting the venue to get this cancelled!

NewsHound said...

LATEST NEWS: NAZIS TO HOLD LONDON BOXING FUNDRAISER: -

https://london.indymedia.org/articles/5423

Anonymous said...

My money on, they will be meeting in the Cherry Tree Pub Wood Lane Dagenham.

The landlady stood for the bnp in recent local elections

tulip

Anonymous said...

They are not thick, he changed the rules at an EGM when only 300 were present.

stop the edl neo-Nazis said...

The EDL's self-loathing uncle tom of sikh extraction has been trying to divide and conquer by posting anti-Muslim hate lies on Sikh websites---

http://www.sikhsangat.com/index.php?/topic/54746-for-sikhs-who-want-to-know-more-about-the-english-defence-league-edl/page__st__50

Anonymous said...

We have seen this many times before, Griffin has a clear out of the people getting up his nose and just reappoints new people to take their place that are more compliant. Adolf Hitler would be proud.

cocka said...

The EDL are boasting on Facebook that Channel Four are going to be fash-friendly tomorrow night on the seven o clock news and allow one of the multiple Tommy Robinsons to speak.

There are several people in the EDL who go by the name Tommy Robinson. It's like A.N.Other in the old days of pre-agent football, when unregistered players didnt want their names revealed when on trial until they had signed deals.

Anonymous said...

"They are not thick, he changed the rules at an EGM when only 300 were present."

What about all the other powers he had before that? Choosing who does what in the BNP? That's a lot of power. And BNP members are thick. They wouldn't be members otherwise.