November 30, 2011

Salem's Lot

20 Comment (s)
Nick Griffin, chairman of the BNP is off to Sweden in December it seems and it isn’t for a spot of Christmas shopping.

Griffin has been invited to speak at the annual Salem march on December 10th held near the Swedish capital Stockholm. The event is held every year in commemoration of Daniel Wretström, a 17-year-old skinhead who was beaten and stabbed to death in December 2000. Over the years it has brought together a whole menagerie of racists and Nazis from across Scandinavia and the rest of Europe. This year is no exception.

Let’s take a look at some of the more interesting characters sharing a platform with the BNP chairman.

Dan Eriksson


Eriksson’s involvement in far right politics goes back a number of years. He first hit the headlines when he along with a mob of violent Nazis attacked the Stockholm Gay Pride march held in 2003.

Following this he moved over to the violent “Info14” network run by Robert Vesterlund, who was linked to the murder of the trade union activist Björn Söderberg in 1999. Eriksson, who is a regular speaker at the Salem march, peppers his speeches with anti Semitic sentiment, once describing Holocaust Memorial Day as “The date which, for several years now, has made the most disgusting of sewer rats crawl out of their filthy holes, kneel to the star of hate and lick the blood splattered feet of the new world order”.

He doesn’t just direct his poison towards Jews however, describing immigrants in Sweden as a “black-brown, spice-stinking slew that should be sent packing”. Not surprisingly Dan Eriksson once described Adolf Hitler and the Nazis as a “Breath of fresh air”.

Daniel Carlsen


Hardline Neo Nazi, Carlsen was until this year a leading member of the Danish National Socialist Movement (DNSB). He left in February of this year to form his own political party “The Danish Party”.

Carlsen appears to like having his photo taken with a swastika flag and once told Swedish Newspapers in 2008 that he saw Adolf Hitler as “a great man” and although there were Jews who died because there was war, “the systematic extermination in gas chambers, I do not believe” Carlsen also has a violent past, having been arrested on a number of occasions for assault and violent disorder.

Magnus Söderman


Söderman was until recently the deputy leader of the Neo Nazi Swedish Resistance Movement (SMR) and also attempted to launch a Swedish section of the US white supremacist movement “The Aryan Nations” which the FBI has labelled a terrorist threat.

A regular visitor to the Salem march, Söderman spoke in 2003 where he concluded his speech by leading the crowd in chants of “Sieg Heil”. Also in 2003 Söderman was one of the speakers at the annual Rudolf Hess rally in Wunsiedel,Germany.

Ken McLellan

Providing “entertainment” to the Salem rally is Ken McLellan, singer with the notorious Nazi rock band “Brutal Attack”. McLellan is known to have a violent temper and in 1999 gave a fellow Nazi and former Nick Griffin lap dog Adrian Woods, a horrific beating at a pub in the Derbyshire.

Woods was formerly the leader of the “Surrey Border Front” as well as having stints in the NF and the BNP. He moved to the East Midlands in 1999 to start a new life after falling out with Griffin’s followers, and after a fight with McLellan, suffered a broken jaw and several broken ribs and was reported to have been rushed to intensive care.

The violence took place following an argument where Woods mocked McLellan for singing nationalist songs when he had fathered two children with a black woman.

With thanks to our colleagues at EXPO in Stockholm.

Hope not Hate


BFP links up with Australian far-right racists

2 Comment (s)
Having formalised its alliance with the English Defence League, the British Freedom Party is now keen to reinforce its international links. The BFP has posted an extended interview with Andrew J. Philips, chairman of the Australian Protectionist Party, who claims that the APP is a "sensible, moderate but uncompromising nationalist party". It is in fact a far-right group specialising in anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim propaganda.

The APP's politics can be judged by the fact that their website has reproduced material by the British National Party and featured a video of a speech by South African white supremacist Arthur Kemp, author of March of the Titans: a History of the White Race, at a time when Kemp was a leading figure in the BNP ("Another one of Arthur Kemp's excellent speeches…not to be missed").

You can understand why the BFP and APP might enjoy a warm relationship, because the two organisations certainly have a lot in common. The BFP's new chairman Paul Weston has written an article entitled "The ethnic cleansing of the English", which warns that due to "mass immigration" the "indigenous race" will be reduced to "ethnic minority status in their homeland within twenty years".

Could EDL leader Stephen Lennon have been aware of this article when he told EDL members that Weston "has charisma, can speak well, and is a jolly good bloke"? After all, Lennon recently assured his local paper that the EDL leadership's response to racists is that "we find out who they are and we kick them out". When Lennon joins the BFP next year will he be calling for the expulsion of Paul Weston?

Islamophobia Watch

Thanks to NewsHound for the heads-up

Racist abuse on Micah Richards' Twitter page probed

1 Comment (s)
Micah Richards plays right back for table-topping Manchester City
Police are investigating racist abuse directed at Manchester City player Micah Richards on Twitter.

Offensive comments were posted on the defender's official Twitter page. The abuse is thought to have been posted on Twitter by someone living in Lincolnshire. A police spokesman said it would "not tolerate racist comments".

The 23-year-old replied: "Love the racist abuse. Keep it coming." His account was unavailable on Tuesday.

On its Twitter page, Lincolnshire Police posted a warning to anyone who might be tempted to post abusive comments. It said "deleting comments does not work".

A spokesman for Manchester City said the club was aware that police were investigating the matter and did not want to comment further.

BBC

Thanks to B31 Antifascist for the heads-up

Attack of the EDL zombies

3 Comment (s)
Click on image if you're a masochist
Thanks to Paul for the image

Andrew Brons - Non-Attached Member

10 Comment (s)
On Monday afternoon I received a message from one of oldest and dearest mates saying that there is a BNP billboard at Heeley Bridge/Bottom a few minutes walk from where I live.
Now my mate is an old political hand and pretty sharp and somebody who I trust implicitly. Somebody who knows the difference between a poster and a big fuck off advertising billboard. I decided to have a wander down and take some pics. I might also have decided to have a few pints in the Sheaf View and Shakespeare on the way home.

The pics are not the best due to the location and my ineptitude with a camera but you should get the general gist.




Now there are several things that are puzzling about the above images and their content.

1 - Brons says he is a Non-Attatched MEP which suggests he has resigned the whip which I've not noticed before.
2 - The incredibly small BNP logo. It may be in the upper centre of the image but it's hardly noticeable (which may be the point)
3 - Ex NF leader with some utterly revolting views using what can only be considered concentration camp imagery.

Anyway, on the way back from a pub in Woodseats I got off the bus and saw this :-

November 29, 2011

Anders Breivik 'insane during massacre'

3 Comment (s)
Mass killer Anders Breivik will be sent to a psychiatric hospital and not prison after doctors decided he was insane when he murdered 77 people in a bomb and shooting rampage in Norway.

An evaluation ordered by an Oslo court found that Breivik was "psychotic" during the July 22 attacks - the country's worst peacetime massacre - which means he is not mentally fit to be sentenced to prison, prosecutors said.

The conclusions, which will be reviewed by a panel of forensic psychiatrists, contrasted with comments made by the head of that board after the attacks. Dr Tarjei Rygnestad at the time said it was unlikely that Breivik would be declared legally insane because the attacks were so carefully planned and executed.

"The conclusions of the forensic experts is that Anders Behring Breivik was insane," prosecutor Svein Holden said, adding Breivik was in a state of psychosis during the attacks.

In their report, the experts describe a man "who finds himself in his own delusional universe, where all his thoughts and acts are governed by these delusions," Mr Holden said. "They conclude that Anders Behring Breivik during a long period of time has developed the mental disorder of paranoid schizophrenia, which has changed him and made him into the person he is today."

In Norway, an insanity defence requires that a defendant be in a state of psychosis while committing the crime with which he or she is charged. That means the defendant has lost contact with reality to the point that he's no longer in control of his own actions.

The 243-page report will be reviewed by a panel from the Norwegian Board of Forensic Medicine, which could ask for additional information and add its own opinions. Dr Rygnestad, who heads that board, said his comments in July were based on "secondary information" and that a person's mental state can only be determined through in-depth analysis.

Independent

German police arrest suspect in neo-Nazi cell investigation

1 Comment (s)
Neo-Nazi suspect, 34, believed to have aided six murders and an attempted murder
German police have arrested a man they suspect of assisting in six murders and an attempted murder carried out by a neo-Nazi cell uncovered this month.

The case has highlighted Germany's failure to eradicate rightwing extremism.

Prosecutors said the 36-year-old suspect was arrested in Jena, a city in the eastern state of Thuringia, where the cell was based.

Investigators believe the cell, which called itself the Nationalist Socialist Underground, has killed eight Turks, a Greek and a 22-year-old policewoman since 2000. It is also suspected of carrying out two bomb attacks and 14 bank robberies across the country, prosecutors have said.

The case has dominated German headlines for weeks, and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has vowed to intensify the fight against the far right.

A statement by the federal prosecutor's office said the suspect was believed to have assisted in six murders and one attempted murder.

"He is suspected of acquiring a gun with ammunition for the group in 2001 or 2002 … and was aware the weapon could be used in a rightwing murder attempt," the statement said.

Investigators said the suspect had been active in rightwing extremist circles since 1995, and had known and financially supported three gang members.

"Due to his long-term contact with the group, which was living with false identities, he knew of their terrorist crimes," the statement said.

Prosecutors have said the Nationalist Socialist Underground cell was "motivated by xenophobic and subversive thinking" and that its goal was to kill citizens, mainly those with foreign roots, and carry out bombing attacks.

The Guardian

Two Nazi EDL Thugs in Portsmouth Courts in One Week!

5 Comment (s)
Hyland (left) and Silvester: racist EDL thugs
Two members of the far-right English Defence League have found themselves up in Portsmouth Courts in the same week for racially-aggravated harrassment and breach of bail conditions for violent assault

Jacob 'Jake' Hyland is one of the more active and extreme fascist members of Portsmouth EDL and the hilariously entitled ‘Pompey EDL Youth Division’. He has even been on the Portsmouth Anarchist blog under the name ‘pompeyagainstanarchists’ arguing that the EDL are not racist. The 18-year-old, of Mayridge, Fareham, been given a restraining order by Portsmouth Crown Court (15/11/11) for religiously-aggravated harassment after making abusive phone calls to Abbas Rahim at the Al Mahdi Centre in Fareham in October and November of last year.

Following the court appearance of baby-faced Nazi Jacob 'Jake' Hyland earlier in the week, a second Portsmouth member of the extremist EDL also had his day in court (or should that be YET another day in court, following his previous convictions?!) .

Blaise Silvester, 21, of Stubbington Avenue, North End, was given a two-month curfew and told to do 100 hours of unpaid work after attacking peace protesters at a demonstration outside the Jami Mosque in Victoria Road North, Southsea. A group of football hooligans, neo-nazi extremists and local youths formed to hurl racist abuse, bottles, bricks, fireworks and roofing slates at members of the peaceful Portsmouth muslim community and many others from the local area who had gathered to defend the Mosque.

Sentencing him in June, Judge Graham White said the 21-year-old could normally have gone to jail. But a mistake by the probation service meant the judge’s hands were tied and he had to hand Silvester a community order. Silvester was given a 12-month community order and told to do 100 hours of unpaid work in the community. He also had to wear an electronic tag and stay at home everyday from 9pm to 6am for two months. Silvester should have been offered rehabilitation by the probation service for a previous offence but because he wasn’t, the judge said he couldn’t jail him.

Rather than counting himself lucky and getting on with the unpaid work, Silvester breached the order. On one occasion he shouted and swore at the officer in charge and another time he failed to turn up, Portsmouth Crown Court heard.

Paulie at Indymedia

From toe-hold to no hold: football and the English Defence League

2 Comment (s)
Click on image for full-size
Jim Keoghan looks at the campaign to kick the English Defence League out of football

Since the English Defence League (EDL) first appeared in 2009, it has sought to make its presence felt among the country’s football fans. And although football might be a more tolerant sport than it once was, there remains a small element within the game that has responded to their overtures.

The majority of these supporters can be found among the ranks of the hooligan ‘firms’ that are still associated with some football clubs. These first emerged from the ‘casual’ sub-culture of the 1970s and 1980s as a way for fans who enjoyed post-match violence to organise themselves along team lines. Although these firms are much diminished today, some have survived, with several even enjoying continuity in membership.

According to Paul Jenkins, north west regional organiser for Unite Against Fascism (UAF), these fans represented a readymade army that the EDL could unite and organise: ‘Not all of the men in these firms – and it is just men – share the views of the EDL. But there’s enough that do for the EDL to have representation at several clubs. These are the people who are trying to bring racist and Islamophobic chants and language onto the terraces and who come out to protest and instigate violence on the streets with the EDL. At the moment you’re not talking about massive numbers, but the problem is that these people can be used to recruit other football supporters, something they are increasingly trying to do.’

What’s happening today has parallels with the 1970s and 1980s. Then it was the National Front (NF) organising among football supporters and managing to gain representation at several clubs, such as West Ham, Chelsea, Leeds and Millwall. Much of this representation was also drawn from the ranks of hooligan firms. Both the ‘Chelsea headhunters’ and the ‘Leeds United service crew’ possessed links with the NF.

Along with wider societal changes in attitudes towards race and religion, from the late 1980s onwards several factors combined to diminish the problems faced by the sport. The increasing prominence of ethnic minority players, the rise in the number of women, children and ethnic minority supporters attending games and a more aggressive approach by the police and the clubs in targeting hooligans (such as banning certain fans from a ground) all played a part in changing the face of the game. These have been complemented by a succession of anti-racist campaigns, such as Show Racism the Red Card and Let’s Kick Racism Out of Football, as well as anti-racism community work undertaken by the clubs themselves.

The EDL has also so far failed to make any significant impact among fans at England matches, despite this being an area where the far right has had a presence in the past. ‘I can honestly say that I have never seen any evidence of the EDL at England games over the last few years,’ says Mark Perryman of the England Supporters Club. ‘A lot of football hooligans are already banned from these games and few real fans would risk getting a banning order because of any suspected involvement with the EDL.’

The England team has also gone to great lengths to take a stand against racism – not least because they have been the targets of racist chanting and abuse at away games such as the recent Euro 2012 qualifier in Bulgaria. Both the manager Fabio Capello and captain John Terry made strong public statements on the subject before September’s game against Wales, where the team wore ‘Kick It Out’ armbands to stress their commitment to anti-racism.

But although the overall picture has improved, there remains inconsistency across the sport. In the lower divisions and in non-league football, a lack of adequate stewarding and enforcement of banning orders has meant that racism and religious intolerance remain more of a problem.

‘This is why the EDL has targeted clubs outside the top divisions,’ says national UAF organiser Paul Sillett. ‘In the lower leagues the EDL feels more confident in speaking out and organising.’

Worrying presence

While the EDL as yet is confined to the margins, the fact that it has been able to establish a presence at all is worrying. ‘They’ve got a toe-hold and a message that a lot of people give time to,’ says Paul Sillett. He believes that unlike the simplistic racist views of the NF in the past, elements of the EDL’s message today find an audience across a much wider swath of society.

‘The EDL portrays itself as a protest movement against militant Islam and excessive immigration, two perspectives that find sympathy among sections of our society,’ Sillet says. ‘There are plenty of football supporters, specifically young lads who like the appeal of being part of a gang and have an affinity with the patriotism that the EDL wrap themselves up in, who are going to be open to the superficially persuasive message that the EDL provide, specifically when they see aspects of it mirrored in the tabloids and echoed by certain leading politicians. These are people who might not consider themselves racist and would never use conventionally racist language but who nevertheless find the anti-Islam rhetoric of the EDL acceptable. This means that although the EDL might be confined to the hooligan fringes at the moment, it will not necessarily stay that way.’

According to Gav Sutherland from Show Racism the Red Card (SRRC), the rise of the EDL has to be taken seriously. ‘The increase in popularity of the EDL is having a big impact, particularly their targeting of young people. As an educational campaign that uses professional footballers to talk to young people about racist and religious intolerance, we will continue to do our best to tackle the myths and lies about Islam and Muslims that the EDL is trying to spread.’

These educational campaigns would be immeasurably aided if there were more British-Asian football role models. But there are only a handful of British-Asian professionals playing in England and they make up less than one in 100 young players in football academies.

At a club level, although many mirror the work undertaken by SRRC in their own communities, as yet there has been no specific action against the EDL, even among clubs where the EDL has been active. Instead, the strongest reaction is coming from the supporters themselves, who in the absence of any meaningful response from the teams they follow have decided to take matters into their own hands.

‘One of the most pleasing aspects of this is the way some existing casual firms have taken on the EDL,’ says Paul Sillett. He says that although the link between the far right and the hooligans is an established one, it’s not the whole story.

‘Back in the 1970s not all hooligans were racist. There were examples of mixed-race hooligan firms and examples of casuals that organised themselves against the NF, something that is also happening today. At West Ham their firm is active against the presence of the EDL.’

Fans fight back

Ordinary supporters are getting involved too. Across the country, fans are part of a growing grass-roots action against the far right. Bolton supporter Lindsay Bessells is one of many fans who joined with UAF last season in a concerted campaign to counter the presence of the EDL. ‘I’d begun seeing an increasing number of men at the Reebok stadium wearing EDL t-shirts and began to realise that this hooligan element in our fan base was partly responsible for the rallies that were happening locally, and for much of the violence that was associated with them. I felt that I had to get involved and do something to stop their influence spreading.’

By mobilising and engaging supporters the campaign has sought to mirror what the EDL has tried to do. But whereas the EDL has been appealing to a minority element within football, the anti-EDL campaign has been preaching to the majority, according to Linda Jones, who leafleted outside Bradford City’s ground.

‘We’ve leafleted a few times and now and then you might get people refusing to take one or telling you that they are sympathetic to the EDL but in general most fans support what we are doing. As in wider society, football fans as a whole are much more tolerant than they used to be. They recognise the EDL for what it is, just another incarnation of the far right – something that has no place in the modern game.’

This supporter-led action harks back to the late 1970s, when, in the absence of any action by the football authorities or the clubs, fans began to fight back against the influence of the far right themselves. This was often done in an organised way, with Anti-Nazi League groups being established by football fans at 20 or more British football grounds. And this more formal organisation is already evident today with the creation of anti-fascist organisations at clubs such as Leicester, Aston Villa and Tranmere.

‘Following the formation of the EDL we began to see the development of something worryingly reminiscent of the 1970s. It struck us that the best way to counter this was to organise properly, providing a better chance of countering the EDL’s propaganda,’ says Bidston Moss of the Tranmere Rovers Anti Fascist group (TRAF).

TRAF has already undertaken a mass leafleting of the ground and organised a number of anti-fascist social events in Birkenhead. The group has ambitious ideas for the future, with a possible outdoor festival and large evening events planned.

‘Our overall aim is to appeal to our supporters to resist sly right-wing “come-ons” from these far-right bigots,’ continues Bidston. ‘The EDL sing from the same hymn sheet as other far-right groups. Its demos are dominated by Nazi-saluting thugs and chants of “dirty Muslim bastards” and “we hate Pakis more than you” are evident whenever they congregate. This is the reality that football supporters need to understand – and it’s a message that more and more of us fans are beginning to spread.’

Red Pepper

November 28, 2011

Arrest over video of 'racist rant' on Croydon to Wimbledon tram

32 Comment (s)

A woman has been arrested after an online video apparently showed a woman abusing ethnic minority passengers on a packed south London tram.

The clip, viewed more than 10,600 times since being uploaded to YouTube on Sunday, shows a woman sitting with a child, shouting at fellow passengers. British Transport Police said a woman, 34, had been arrested on suspicion of a racially-aggravated offence.

The incident happened on the Croydon to Wimbledon Tramlink route. Police are yet to clarify exactly where or when the incident happened.

In the online clip, the woman confronts several passengers, saying: "You are not British". She then starts swearing. When one passenger asks her to mind her language, saying "there are little kids on the tram", the woman points to the child on her lap and says "I've got a little kid here".

The woman then says: "Go back to where you come from".

In the video she then starts shouting at the woman who asked her not to swear, before another passenger intervenes, saying: "I am English, what have you got to say to me?"

A British Transport Police spokesman said: "The video posted on YouTube and Twitter has been brought to our attention and our officers have launched an investigation. At present it is not entirely clear which tram stops the offence took place between and when it occurred. As a result, we need anyone who witnessed this incident, or with any information that could assist our investigation - including the identity of the woman - to contact us.

"We will not tolerate racism in any form on the rail network and will do everything in our power to locate the person responsible."

BBC

Thanks to the many, MANY people who send this in

How stupid is the EDL? (Part 563)

4 Comment (s)
Click on image for full-size
EDL splinter group, Derbyshire Infidels present a strong and intelligent argument about why people should join them...

Thanks to Everything EDL for yet another gem

November 27, 2011

Clarifying the story: a statement from the Dean of Bradford

2 Comment (s)
There have been a lot of claims and counter-claims about the position of the Dean of Bradford in the Atzmon affair so I thought it was best to ask the Dean himself to make the last word. This is a statement he sent me last night and I hope it clarifies his position and answers those people, for their own political reasons, who have accused me of lying and falsifying documents:

Statement from the Dean of Bradford 26 November 2011:

"Mr Gilad Atzmon has posted a statement of mine on his website (http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/hope-not-hate-is-caught-falsifying-documents-again.html) which he has used to accuse Mr Nick Lowles of falsifying documents and spreading lies. I do not support this accusation.

I want to make it clear that I do not regard Mr Lowles as a liar or someone who has falsified documents, and I apologise if in any way this impression has been given by me. I did not in my initial statement quoted on Mr Lowles' blog make a public call for Mr Atzmon's concert to be cancelled, and it was on this basis that I disagreed with the headline over my statement. However, I had indicated elsewhere in a mail seen by Mr Lowles that cancellation would be preferred, since (as I note in my statement quoted by Mr Atzmon) I would have had to have withdrawn the concert if it had been due to happen on church premises due to the controversy involved, and it is this indication which led Mr Lowles to write the headline as he did; although it did not represent my intention it was not an unreasonable action for him to take, and he was engaged in interpretation not falsification.

Mr Atzmon and his supporters believe in his sincerity, and those opposed to him do not. Assessing what Mr Atzmon actually believes is not easy owing to the contested nature of the evidence. What is uncontrovertible is the fact that a lot of people believe that he behaves in a way which is anti-Semitic, flirting with Holocaust denial, and racist: and this behaviour has caused a wide variety of groups to distance themselves from him. As a cathedral we believe in truth, peace and justice for Palestinians and Israelis, of whatever faith (or none); and we will continue to hold to that often uncomfortable position - a position which makes it impossible for us to offer a platform to Mr Atzmon."

Nick Lowles at Hope not hate

Thanks to NewsHound for the heads-up

More anti-Occupy threats from the EDL

11 Comment (s)
Liver Antifascists Twitter feed

EDL/BFP and the Leaked Phone Calls

10 Comment (s)
The English Defence League's alliance with the British Freedom Party is close to falling apart today after a telephone conference between senior BFP officials was leaked on the internet.

The EDL and the BFP have recently announced that they are forming an alliance together. The reasons are mainly thought to be the fact that the BFP need people to vote for them and the EDL need to go political in order to survive and lose their 'toxic' reputation, a reputation gained by the fact that many of their demonstrations end up in violence and their Facebook page and membership in general are overun with hard core racists who are more interested in targeting the Muslim community than Islamic extremists.

Simon Bennett (pictured, left), Lee Barnes, Peter Mullins and Gary Marshall were recorded discussing how they can use the English Defence League to their own advantage and Barnes instructs Bennet to keep hold of the EDL's membership database.

Click here to see the video

The leaked recording, which has turned into a massive embarrassment for BFP leadership and Simon Bennett is thought to have been recorded ten months ago when the they were first started talks with the EDL.

In a Facebook status update, an admin thought to be either Bennett or Weston, is currently undergoing a damage limitation exercise and claiming that the recorded conversation took place ten months ago. The update is full of conspiracy theories about leaked members addresses and a plot by the Muslim Defence League to murder him and gang rape his children. We are unaware of any complaints being made to the police about this.
In response to the recent audio file 'leaked' by the Muslim Extremist Hackers of the EDL Facebook page, British Freedom wish to clarify a few points:Simon Bennett, British Freedom Party

Firstly, the leaker of this ten month old Skype recording is an expelled member of British Freedom that has been waging a hate campaign against British Freedom ever since.

So much so that they have conspired with the BNP and the Muslim Defence League in order to release the name and address of the EDL webmaster to the Muslim Defence League and MAC in order to have him (and his young family) murdered. This can all be substantiated with facts and hard evidence if need be. These are the people (just some of them) that Simon Bennett traced via IP addresses cross referenced against other data that have threatened to have his children ‘gang raped’ and murdered.

Now, the fact that this 'leaked' Skype conference was recorded by these people in the first place ought to raise the question WHY it was recorded. The reason is obvious, they had every intention of releasing it at a time which they felt would cause British Freedom and the EDL the most damage.

Bearing in mind that this conversation was recorded over ten months ago and at an early stage of ‘negotiations’ between British Freedom and the EDL two questions have to be asked:

1. Why record it.
2. Why release it now.

The answer is of course obvious. To try in a desperate attempt to break the alliance the two groups have worked so damned hard to create. This ‘alliance’ was no spur of the moment idea. It was 18 months in the planning. A huge amount of discussion, planning, brain storming and thought went in to it.

If Skype conversations did not take place discussing the issues then you have cause for concern. Take another listen to the ‘leaked’ audio. Nothing untoward was said or discussed that either party would be afraid to repeat today.
The simple fact is this;

The opposition are terrified, absolutely mortified by the fact that a credible, non racist, non nazi political organisation in its embryonic stages is about to render all other party’s below the Lib-Dems null and void. It is in their interests (and that of Islamic Extremists) to ensure that this alliance fails.

Don’t be sucked in by this amateur attempt to derail us. The very fact they are trying so hard to do just that speaks volumes.
EDL members are naturally suspicious of the alliance and not all are happy with it. Simon Bennett is failing to win hearts and minds, mainly due to the stitch up of the British National Party when he took their website down the day before the last general election.

Yorkie Pudd

re the alliance with bfp ......all sounds dodgy as fuck to me @simon your a public figure? you sound like a spoilt brat mate ...eddy makes a good point " if you fall out with EDL, what are you going to do? What did you do when you fell out with the BNP?" ...and as for 30 quid to join your having a laugh ... i could go on but as it as been proved so many times there is no point ..are you sure your not related to weyman the cunt bennet?

Alan Furniss

if the bfp think im having anything to do with them after the way they chatted about edl members they,v gotta another thing coming id rather be natfront

Kevin Layzell ‎

The opposition are terrified? no ones terrified no ones heard of British freedom.
  • "credible" as a purely Facebook political group its very hard to be non credible as there's little you can do to make yourself non credible
  • "amateur attempt" this amateurs keep hacking the page.. they have brought down the EDL without even leaving their houses.
  • What evidence do you have that they conspired with the BNP (I highly doubt the BNP wants to see him and his family murdered)
  • " Simon Bennett traced via IP addresses" Simon Bennett seems good at tracking people down and handing out information... didn't he betray the BNP to try to bring them down? what a honourable fella.
  • why did it take 18 months for British freedom and EDL to form an alliance it doesn't seem like anything has changed?
Lee Collins

No no no no no! Don't you see? it gives us NO credibility. It makes us a laughing stock. If the EDL wanted to be more political it should have either formed a political party called the English Defence Party or had discussions with other parties, come to a decision an then those who didn't or couldn't support that party would leave. Having 'secret' discussions behind our backs to stitch up a deal with any political party just makes mugs of us all. And this is not a BNP vs BFP thing either. It could be UKIP it could be anyone. And stop saying we can vote for who we like! How can we vote for one party and belong to a movement which is actively helping another party

Chris Bangtidy Belsher

Tell you what Simon- how about you and this British Freedom Party get to fuck and when you get there you fuck off some more. You think that I've stood on the streets up and down this great country in freezing conditions, endured police giving me fuck and run the gauntlet of mad muslims throwing rocks and threatening to kill me just to be used to bolster some weak as fuck political parties numbers? You seriously think anyone is seriously going to vote for a party with no financial manifesto? no employment manifesto? Etc etc etc, you haven't got a clue.

Eddy Stevens

Simon, if you fall out with EDL, what are you going to do? What did you do when you fell out with the BNP? ANSWER: Took BNP website offline the day before a major election. I ask, would a genuine patriot have done that?

Yorkie Pudd

all sounds dodgy as fuck to me @simon your a public figure? you sound like a spoilt brat mate ...eddy makes a good point " if you fall out with EDL, what are you going to do? What did you do when you fell out with the BNP?" ...and as for 30 quid to join your having a laugh ... i could go on but as it as been proved so many times there is no point ..are you sure your not related to weyman bennet?

Chris Bangtidy Belsher

British Freedom Party- bit of an oxymoron really. You won't be getting my vote, you won't be getting my money and you'll definitely won't be getting my support. I'm EDL not BFP and if this so called freedom Party is made up of semi literate halfwits like Simon then they're doomed.

EDL News

BNP protest cancels school Christmas

5 Comment (s)
A school at the centre of a row over sex education has been forced to cancel its community Christmas fair – after it was targeted by members of the British National Party.

Grenoside Primary School in Sheffield is in the middle of consultation with parents over extending its sex education classes to younger pupils. The idea has caused concern to some parents.

The dispute was seized upon by the BNP after The Star’s original story was picked up by the national media. BNP members staged a demonstration outside the school, calling on staff and governors to drop their plans and then leafleting parents. The extreme right wing party then issued an ultimatum to the headteacher and chair of governors to change their policies in the next two weeks or face further action.

Headteacher Colin Fleetwood said the situation had spiraled out of control.

“It is incredibly disappointing and upsetting the BNP has chosen to interfere in our consultation process on sex and relationship education in this way,” he said. “Their actions are deplorable and the disruption they have made to the school’s consultation process is completely out of order. There is nothing we are doing here which warrants this. Parents don’t want them here and the school certainly doesn’t.”

Police were called after the demonstration and maintained a presence at the school for two days.

Mr Fleetwood said consultations would continue.

“In view of the current atmosphere we have decided it is sensible not to hold certain school events that would give these undesirable elements an opportunity for further demonstrations,” he said. “We don’t want the BNP anywhere near our school, so we have decided to cancel our annual community school fair. Instead we will hold an internal event just for parents and children.”

One mum said the BNP had intimidated staff, children and parents.

“Their actions have now resulted in ruining a special part of Christmas for local families,” she added.

The Star

Thanks to Zaahid for the heads-up

November 26, 2011

It’s The EDL & British Fluffies Love-In!

13 Comment (s)
Well, well, well, the EDL leadership have finally surrendered and admitted that their demos have been a complete waste of time and are now making a bid for political respectability by linking up with the fluffy fascist British Freedom. The recent demos have dwindled in numbers and many ‘members’ have left in disgust over the constant violence and overt racism of this ‘not racist, not violent, but violently racist’ peaceful protest movement.

The EDL have lost a lot of credibility in the last 6 months. After all their blether about ‘taking’ Tower Hamlets they were humiliated, massively outnumbered and unable to get to where they wanted to go – ‘we go where we want, when we want!’ Not really! The whole of Nottingham EDL were attacked and arrested and their pin-up, Joanne ‘Bus Stop Pole Dancer’ Dickens, fell off the coach and got a kick up the drainpipe. Their Birmingham demo attracted even less and ended up in a drunken brawl with a great many Facebook posters expressing disgust or resigning en masse. The Remembrance day round-up was even more embarrassing and disgraceful and since then Napoleon Lennon has desperately been looking for an out. Tiny Tom was lucky to not get sent down at his last court appearance for the Blackburn headbutt and he certainly wasn’t looking forward to another ‘hunger strike.’ Mrs. Tommy told him that he wasn’t to get into trouble anymore and his recent self-pitying video diary really took the Garibaldi! ‘Me Nan’s ill, me business is stuck, me assets are frozen and I’m having to sleep in the spare room with the unsold hoodies (still available! £10 discount!).’ So he needed a face-saving alternative and the very desperate and tiny British Fluffy Party offered him one: you bring in possible votes, we will give you an exit so you can concentrate on your ‘political career’ before rapidly fading out to ‘concentrate on the family.’

Many EDL are also bothered over Tommy being a prima donna and getting all that publicity: when Tommy is nicked, it’s demos outside the courthouse or prison and ‘Tommy Robinson Defence Fund’ collections (make all cheques payable to the EDL royal couple, Stella and Charlie). When the regular arse clowns are nicked, it’s tough luck boys, you’re on your own. And these cases are frequent let me tell you! Don’t take our word for it, check out the postings on the various court cases on Everything EDL:

Unbelievable.

So Tommy, all too aware of his waning popularity with the EDL and his wife, asked Mrs. Tommy if he could meet up with his chumleys for a ‘Way Backwards’ meeting somewhere in the Midlands on Saturday for an hour after teatime. There was a rumour buzzing about that he was going to stand-down as leader but he realised that this would lose him what little credibility he has left and instead he retained his position whilst offering his support to the British Fluffies. The meeting location was secret and consequently loads of EDL were wandering around confused in Brum which was probably a good thing as one who finally got there was less than impressed:
‘i was at the meeting i traveled a long way the meeting sarted very late was hold in public house so yes thats right by time meeting sarted several edl members had been drinking meeting was a shambles and not many members were even listing to busy having a dring there was very little respect couldlnt even hear quiestions and answers over drunken rabble (Sic!).'
Tommy also successfully ducked any questions over the Zionist connections and the Star of David flags. There is still discord in the EDL however and the North/South divide remains.

Fluffy Fascism

So who are the British Fluffies (BFP) then? Well, they are one of the smallest ones in the alphabetti spaghetti of the far right parties: so far we have BNP (Griffinites), BNP (Bronsites), UKIP, ED, NF, BPP, and the NPP. All are fairly interchangeable policy wise, operate on the cult of leadership principle and have too many Morecambe’s and not enough Wisdom. They all stand in the few places where votes are likely, in direct competition with each other, as the NF and BNP have always done, and split the far right vote. Despite calls for unity, it never happens.

The Fluffies were formed as yet another offshoot of the BNP and feature Simon Bennett, Peter Mullins, Peter Stafford and exUKIP Paul Weston. They have recently purged their leadership clique in a ‘Night of the Pen Knives’ and sidelined the likes of Batty Lee Barnes who has too much holocaust denial baggage and is mental anyway. He is now ‘writing a novel’ about a magic dog that talks. Bennett was the BNP webmeister who famously pulled the plug the day before the General Election and has since been reviled by a great many bitter Nazis. Peter Stafford was hounded out of Liverpool BNP for being gay and having a gay dad and so sought refuge amidst the Fluffies. I Googled Peter Mullins but just got a blank screen. As far as purging well-known Nazis the head Fluffies have operated with some political acumen. However, the Fluffies are now in cahoots with a violent football hooligan who has served time for assaulting a policeman and is under investigation for fraud. Nice one! Suddenly holocaust-denying, magic dog writers sound remarkably tame! This is clearly going to bite the Fluffies on the arse and it is only a matter of time before the usual recriminations start. The Fluffies have clearly been dazzled by the popular support of the EDL although they have come in a bit late as EDL numbers have never been so low and there are a great many EDLers who are unhappy over Tommy, Fluffy endorsement and the fact they are stalwart BNP voters. The EDL clearly haven’t read the Fluffies 20 Point Plan as one reads that they will ‘Ensure that a no class-A drugs policy is enforced.’ Some cheeky wee rascal on Urban75 said that ‘it’s a typo and they meant to say ‘Ensure that no class-A drugs policy is enforced.’ Naughty!

Factions

Apart from deserting members there are other splinter factions which include the 6 or so Liverpool EDL who are too incompetent to change their Facebook page and so are Infidels in all but name. They have been involved in scab activity such as attacking union offices and threatening people who were on strike. To make matters worse, Tiny Tommy’s PA Hel ‘Stomach Band’ Gower, who is 70, has fallen out with Paul Pitt in the Kent Division and they look seriously rocky. Other divisions have folded completely. Some of the more excitable elements have been threatening Occupy sites and attacked a pro-Palestinian group in Glasgow at the weekend. They have also been making noises about attacking workers’ organizations during the strike on November 30th! Scabs by any other name and acting like the fascists in the 1926 General Strike. Oh, and the Combined ExForces imploded rather publicly and spectacularly last week with the CO firing the 2nd in command and the 2nd in command firing the CO. The remaining 3 members are very confused indeed.

http://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/edl-watch.262722/page-198

Post 5928 onwards.

LinkConclusion

So, despite the initial bloom of romance will the Fluffy/EDL partnership flourish? Tommy has way too much ‘legal history’ to stand a chance in any election so this is clearly a way of backing out nobly whilst he can. The Fluffies have had the ‘Night of the Pen Knives’ and have ‘cleansed’ the ranks of those who were in ‘previously disreputable organizations.’ The EDL are split over those still enjoying the days out on the demos and the gradual realization that they have got smaller and smaller and the only media attention they get is wholly negative. We shall see...

Malatesta's Blog

November 25, 2011

British Freedom Party secretly discuss EDL

7 Comment (s)
This is an audio recording of Simon Bennett, Lee Barnes, Peter Mullins and Gary Marshall discussing how they can use the EDL. Listen how Barnes tells Bennett to keep hold of the data base he (Bennett) has on EDL members...

...And they thought they wiped this Skype conference off the web? Suckers!

Live Leak

Thanks to LeakMeister for the heads-up

Cambridge pub landlord sacked by his parents after disgusting racist rant

1 Comment (s)
The manager of The Salisbury Arms has been sacked by his parents after making despicable racist comments on Facebook.

The website EDL News - which prides itself on bringing people the news the “English Defence League will not bring you” - has published the Facebook postings of Ben ‘English’ Green, the manager of the Salisbury Arms in Tenison Road, Cambridge.

Following the online publication David and Angela Green, his parents and licensees of the popular pub, have made a statement on The Salisbury Arms’s Facebook page, saying their son has moved out of the pub where he is no longer welcome.

It reads: “Ben has been sacked with immediate effect as this sort of behaviour can not and will not be tolerated. The management of The Salisbury Arms would like to apologise unreservedly to anyone who was offended and upset by the stupid actions of this young person. He has let us down as employers and parents and he has put our business and reputation under threat. Once again we are so very sorry about this, he has already been moved out of The Salisbury Arms and is no longer welcome in the pub.”

A spokesman for the brewery branded Green’s Facebook page as “disgusting”. She said: “We find the views expressed by Ben Green on his personal Facebook page disgusting and they do not reflect either our own opinions or those of the licensees of The Salisbury Arms. These views cannot and will not be tolerated and we’re able to confirm that Mr Green has been sacked from his role as Manager of the pub and barred from the site.

“We are sorry for the undoubted offence his views have caused and will work with the licensees to restore the faith in the pub that he alone has sought to bring into disrepute and trust that the local community will be able to disassociate the unacceptable beliefs of one individual from the pub and everyone else associated with it.”

As reported by Cambridge First, the thriving pub was crowned the best cask ale pub in East Anglia in the Great British Pub awards in August.

Cambridge First

More on Ben Green at EDL News.

Thanks to NewsHound for the heads-up

The sickest of all opportunities

1 Comment (s)
Shameless: Griffin defiles the memories of men and women braver than him.
Nick Griffin cannot wait for the 400th British soldier to die in Afghanistan.

He's already asking for people to give thought to the sort of demonstration that his party of race haters, alcoholics, wannabe terrorists, potential paedophiles and wife beaters can hold when or if such an event happens.

Never one to miss an opportunity to "cash-in" on Britain’s military, it does not take long for people to see through the true sickness of Griffin and his party. Whether it is trying to make gain from homeless British ex-servicemen and women or even sending a party official to kow- tow to Japanese war criminals, the BNP just do not care about anything or anyone but themselves.

In particular they do not care about people like Lance Corporal Johnson Gideon Beharry of the 1st Battalion, Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment. Beharry was awarded the VC for bravery in Iraq, but in the BNP's eyes he was only awarded this because he was black. Then of course there are the Gurkhas, loyal and brave of the crown forces. The BNP calls them "mercenaries".

We are no fans of war, but we see no reason why Griffin and his party of race haters should continually try to cash in on the deaths of predominately working class men and women. If the 400th British serviceman or woman who dies in Afghanistan is black or Asian, or gay, what will Griffin do then? Ignore it?

Griffin and his close friend Simon "I am a little boring, perhaps" Darby are also trying to make some headway for their tiny party after a series of attacks on students in West Yorkshire. According to Darby, these attacks were carried out by black people in ski masks on white students, but the police are not telling anybody that they are racist attacks.

Just to correct Mr Darby, the attacks have been reported. They were however not reported by the victims as racial attacks, nor are the police treating them as a racist attacks. They are attacks on students, not that much different to the attacks on students the BNP likes to carry out when it gets the chance. These attacks are mindless, brainless, thuggery. As Simon well knows.

The police are looking at Simon's blog. I believe it's called incitement. Better they look for incitement because it is totally void of excitement.

Hope not hate

BNP threatens protest at headteacher's home over sex education proposals

27 Comment (s)
Far-right party orders Grenoside Community primary school in Sheffield to drop 'evil plans bordering on paedophilia' to extend syllabus to infant pupils

British National party activists have warned a primary school's headteacher and chair of governors that they will face demonstrations outside their homes if they do not drop plans to extend sex education lessons to children aged four.

A delegation from the far-right party picketed Grenoside Community primary school in Sheffield over proposals that would see children aged between four and six being taught about reproduction in mammals. Older children would be taught about the human body, including naming the sex organs, as well as receiving guidance on "good and bad touching".

BNP activists, who arrived as the school was preparing to close on Tuesday, demonstrated outside and handed in a letter warning the head: "We believe that your evil plans to introduce these children to sex at such a young age borders on paedophilia and that it is not acceptable."

The letter was copied to the school's chair of governors and Sheffield city council's executive director for children, young people and families. It warns: "We hope that you will see sense and we hope that no further action is needed, although we are ready to involve ourselves further on behalf of the silent majority if you insist on going further down your present road."

The BNP's leader, Nick Griffin, tweeted: "Small BNP team went to Grenoside Primary School, Sheffield today. Leaflets v plans for sex … lessons from age 4. Mental paedophiles behind sick plan must drop it or face demos at home too."

The school is consulting parents over changes that were originally scheduled for introduction in the spring or summer next year. The proposals will extend sex education to younger children.

The school's headteacher, Colin Fleetwood, said: "This is an attempt to teach a more systematic approach throughout the school. It's also more systematic about the science part of it."

He said that while a small number of parents did not want any sex education lessons in primary school, and others thought it was too early, the "vast majority" had been supportive of the changes.

For the youngest children, the lessons would involve being taught about baby animals, Fleetwood said. "It's mummy rabbits and daddy rabbits."

In response to the BNP demo, the school has sent a letter to parents saying the consultation will continue, and that the school's parents and governors will take a decision on the proposals.

Fleetwood said: "Obviously it's extremely unpleasant to have the BNP threatening to demonstrate, and receiving an ultimatum is not a pleasant thing. We're actually carrying out a very successful consultation with our parents, with a high level of engagement."

The Department for Education (DfE) recommends that all primary schools should have a sex and relationship education programme, but this guidance is not binding and it is up to schools to decide what to teach about reproduction and puberty beyond the science curriculum.

All children need to know about puberty before the onset of physical changes, the DfE says.

A DfE spokesman said: "Teachers have a right to do their jobs free from harassment, intimidation and abuse. The teaching of sex and relationships education in primary schools is a matter for schools and parents – it is not an issue for outside organisations to get involved in."

Guardian

Halifax EDL rally 'wanted men' CCTV released by police

3 Comment (s)
The police said any criminal offences would be robustly dealt with
CCTV images have been released of 10 men police want to speak to over public order offences which took place in West Yorkshire earlier this year.

Police are investigating disorder during an English Defence League (EDL) demonstration in Halifax on 9 July. So far six people have been arrested for public offences related to the disturbance. West Yorkshire Police are urging anyone who recognises the men or has information to contact the police.

Det Supt Dave Pervin from West Yorkshire Police's homicide and major inquiry team said: "Like any large scale operation it is not always possible to tackle every single incident at the time and this is where our follow up inquiries begin. Subsequent inquiries have revealed that some individuals were seen to be committing offences and were captured on CCTV. Someone must know who they are and where they live and we ask them to ring us so this investigation can begin to draw to a close."

Police said the 10 men they want to trace could be living in the Midlands and the north of England. Police estimated that about 450 people were on the EDL march, with about 70 taking part in a counter-protest by Unite Against Fascism.

BBC

Thanks to Zaahid for the heads-up

November 24, 2011

Does the new EDL/BFP merger mean the end for the BNP?

19 Comment (s)
As the EDL/BFP merger of fascists gathers pace, does it spell the end for the decaying carcass of the BNP?

The last week has been an interesting one for the far right. The EDL has merged (to a point) with the British Freedom Party. Whilst the idea of having a ‘street wing’ and a ‘political wing’ appeals to many EDL supporters, for some it is abhorrent. The far right blogs, discussion forums, and social networking sites have been a hotbed for debate and discussion about this issue over the last few days. Well, they start off that way, but the in a typically fascist fashion, people are blocked or thrown off forums for disagreeing.

The British Freedom Party is reporting that they are struggling to cope with sheer volume of membership applications they are receiving from EDL members. With the BNP’s plummeting membership, due to Nick Griffins idiocy, the watering down of their policies, and financial shenanigans, there really is a gap in the market for the BFP/EDL. I suspect that many BNP followers will now drift over to the BFP as they see numbers rising from EDL members having dual membership. Is it beyond the realms of possibility that in a year’s time it will be the BFP that is the leading far right group in the UK? With membership numbers going in polar opposite directions fast, the perilous financial situation at the BNP, as opposed to the very successful merchandise thievery by Robinson, anything is possible.

EDL members are viewing this as a direct challenge to the BNP, and therefore do not support it, whilst others are pleased because the see the BNP as finished, and are looking for something new.

One of the other big issues seems to be the concern that they will split the far right vote if the BNP and BFP stand in the same area. They should not be overly concerned with this, as they would only be splitting 1.8% two ways in each constituency.

Many are welcoming being part of a ‘legitimate’ political party whilst still being able to participate in their favourite pastime of getting full of ale and threatening people in the street. This is a pastime which the BNP have tried to move away from over the last decade.

I can imagine Fuhrer Griffin fuming at this. He has brought his party too close to the centre ground for most UK Nazi’s, and he may well pay with the death of his party. Or I may be wrong, and the BFP just turn out to be a flash in the pan. Either way, I will enjoy seeing them stabbing each other in the back as only fascists can.

As a side issue, have you noticed that as well as Pepsi, the BFP logo has striking similarities with that of the British Union of Fascists?

libcom

November 23, 2011

Dean of Bradford calls for Atzmon's invite to be withdrawn

37 Comment (s)
The Dean of Bradford has added his name to the growing chorus of outrage at the decision of Raise Your Banners to invite antisemite Gilad Atzmon to perform for them in Bradford on Friday. Atzmon flirts with Holocaust Denial, Holocaust Deniers and is an antisemite and as such should have no place on a progressive platform. This is not a question of Palestine and Israel, nor is it an attempt to stifle freedom of speech. It is simply us, as anti-racists, demanding that a racist and antisemite should not be given a platform. The fact that Atzmon, and his supporters in Raise Your Banners, use information obtained from the BNP to attack us should be reason enough to shun him.

Anyway, I will go into this in more detail later but for now I would like to post a comment sent to me by David Ison, the Dean of Bradford:
"The Cathedral authorities were completely unaware of the nature of this musician, and in any case did not invite him. Our premises were hired by Raise your Banners (who have been here before, uncontroversially) who booked for a concert but told us nothing of the nature of the concert of the performers. We were not aware of any issues with this until we were contacted a few weeks ago by the Council for Christians and Jews expressing concern about anti-Semitism in the Cathedral - a concern which we completely share, as the Cathedral is committed as a Christian organisation to truth, justice and equality.

"We do not countenance or give permission for any form of racism or fascism, including anti-Semitism, to be given hospitality at Bradford Cathedral. Having asked for more information about Gilad Atzmon, it has only been in the last few days that we have received clear evidence of the nature of his public statements. In the event, the concert in the Cathedral had already been cancelled due to poor ticket sales; but it seems to be taking place in a smaller venue in Kala Sangam which is not connected with the Cathedral and over which we have no control.

"I am writing to the authorities at Kala Sangam to ensure they are aware of the issues raised by hosting a concert with this musician."

David Ison

Dean of Bradford
Hope not Hate

It's that film again: EDL rejects the BNP

6 Comment (s)
Griffin blows his top after his efforts to suck up to and merge with the EDL (after calling them 'state assets', 'zionists' and 'grasses') blows up in his fat face.

Thanks to Anon for the link

November 22, 2011

Racist abuse made life hell on the pitch for ex-Carlisle Utd ace Dean Walling

2 Comment (s)
The rhythmic monkey chants reverberated around the ground. Every header won, every defensive clearance and every tackle was met with a torrent of sickening racist abuse spat at him by rival fans.

Dean Walling, left
Dean Walling was determined not to let the mindless yobs distract him during a game but often back at home, away from the braying mob, he would be left devastated. Then, the Carlisle United defender would feel rage at the vicious hate campaign he had been forced to endure for 90 minutes.

“Every single time it happened I was tearful. It always hurt,” said Walling. “Who likes being called a n****r? Who likes having monkey chants and nasty obscenities directed at them? I blocked it out when I was on the pitch but it always got to me afterwards. I would think about it when I got home and think why I should have to take that.

“I remember going to Blackpool, Burnley, Preston and Bolton and getting a really hard time from their fans. They were making ooh, ooh, ooh noises when I got the ball. The north west clubs were notorious. They did it to try to put me off my game. They were mindless yobs. I’m quite a sensitive person and deep down it used to hurt inside and it was even worse if my family were watching, but I had a strong enough personality to dismiss what they were doing and focus on my game.

“Even though I was being paid to play, I shouldn’t have had to put up with s*** like that for £10,000-a-year. There were rules for one person and rules for another. It’s OK for footballers to be racially abused and called every obscenity under the sun, but you can’t retaliate and shout back at the fans.

“The manager at the time Aidan McCaffery was a father-figure to me as he brought me to Carlisle and he believed in me. He would always put an arm around me after a game and said the abuse was a consequence of the society we were then living in.”

Like the iconic deckchair strip he wore with pride, Walling, probably the most popular Carlisle player in the last 20 years, perfectly encapsulated the spirit, mood and optimism of the club in the mid-nineties.

What fans who idolised him didn’t know was the anguish he felt when he faced racist abuse from rival supporters. His revelations will horrify Carlisle fans who took the defender to their hearts and it comes at a particularly sensitive time as racism has raised its ugly head once again at the highest level, leaving Walling feeling despair and disgust that it has still not been banished completely.

The FA is awaiting the outcome of a police inquiry before deciding whether to charge England captain John Terry who is alleged to have racially abused QPR defender Anton Ferdinand, Patrice Evra claims he suffered racist abuse from Luis Suárez during Manchester United’s recent 1-1 draw with Liverpool.

Chelsea have been forced to condemn more allegations of racism by their own fans following claims one of them called Daniel Sturridge a monkey during the 1-1 Champions League draw at Genk earlier this month. And there are strong calls for Fifa president Sepp Blatter to resign after he claimed football does not have problems with racism.

As a teenage ball boy at Leeds United, Walling was given a brutal introduction to the abuse black players face.

He said: “I’m a Leeds boy and a massive Leeds fan and I can remember being at the side of the pitch as a ball boy when the fans were booing and chanting obscenities at black players. Yet people were clapping me when I threw the ball back. As a kid it really affects you and you don’t want to go to a match. No matter what colour, creed or religion, hearing that kind of thing hurts. I continued as a ball boy because Leeds were my team and always will be.

“My late father told me to rise above it because I was in a privileged position of being able to play football for a living. He urged me not to let mindless people try to put me off my game.

“What I witnessed stood me in good stead in the future because it made me strong and determined. You are so focused on your performance when you’re on the pitch. It’s when your mind goes in other places that there is the risk it will affect your game.

“When I signed for Rochdale when I was 18, it was during the eighties when racism in football was at its worst. There weren’t that many black players compared to today’s game and no foreign black players. Viv Anderson, John Barnes and Luther Blissett were the most high-profile.”

Despite high-profile campaigns and a truly multicultural workplace, with a quarter of footballers from black or ethnic minority backgrounds, racism is still rife in football.

Walling, a 1997 Wembley hero whose spot-kick in the penalty shoot-out helped Carlisle lift the Auto Windscreens Shield for the first time in their history, believes football has come a long way but people are fooling themselves if racism has gone away.

The 42-year-old said: “There is racism in football and anyone who says there isn’t is kidding themselves. It is high on the agenda at the moment because of the John Terry situation and rightly so. The PFA Kick It Out campaign and the Show Racism The Red Card campaign have tried to highlight the issue and they have worked in changing perceptions. I fear we will never stamp racism out of football completely because there will always be some bigot who can’t keep their mouth shut. People need to realise the hurt it brings players.

“I don’t know why footballers should have to put up with that kind of behaviour when it wouldn’t be accepted in any other industry. I was doing my job just like a postman, a gas board official or a builder.”

The one place Walling always felt comfortable playing was Brunton Park. Even in tough times on the pitch, he never feared Blues fans would start hurling racist abuse at him.

He said: “To this day, I can’t understand why I’m so popular in Carlisle because all I did was try my best and yet the fans treat me like I’m a hero. I never, ever faced any racist abuse from Carlisle fans. The fans were fantastic to me and still have a very special place in my heart. Playing for Carlisle has always been the best part of my career as it is where I enjoyed my best football, but I was very nervous about moving up there.

“When I signed for Carlisle in 1991, the city wasn’t as cultural or as diverse as it is now as a result of having a university, but I needn’t have worried because the fans were brilliant to me. To me, it looked like there were probably only two or three black people around Carlisle – and two of them were me and my best mate Rod Thomas – but we never got any abuse.”

News and Star

BNP set for £40,000 taxpayer handout to fight Birmingham elections

10 Comment (s)
Far-right party the BNP could be handed £40,068 of taxpayers’ money to contest elections in Birmingham under controversial plans to be announced this week.

A report on funding is set to call for a cap on the money parties can receive from trade unions or businesses – with the cash replaced by a handout from taxpayers. The proposal, to be published by the Committee on Standards in Public Life, would mean parties got £3 for every vote they received.

Cash would be handed to parties to campaign in the next election, likely to be in 2015, based on the number of votes they received in 2010. It means the BNP would get £40,068 after gaining 13,356 votes in Birmingham last year, some of which could be spent on leaflets and other propaganda. Nationally, the BNP would get around £1.69 million, having gained 563,743 votes last time.

The party stood only in about half of the UK’s constituencies at the 2010 General Election and state funding could help them field candidates in every constituency across the country. It claims to be a party representing “indigenous British people”, meaning white people. In the 2010 election the BNP manifesto included a promise to introduce a system of “voluntary resettlement” in which “immigrants and their descendants are afforded the opportunity to return to their lands of ethnic origin”.

Liberal Democrats have been pushing for state funding of political parties, arguing that it would reduce the ability of big business and trade unions to influence Government policy by making donations. Around £100 million would be allocated to parties under the plans to be published each week, with the Tories and Labour Party gaining the most. But the proposals are set to be highly controversial.

Stourbridge MP Margot James (Con) said: “I’m absolutely opposed to any suggestion that funding for parties should be taken out of the public purse in the current economic climate.”

Birmingham Mail

Germany to compensate 'neo-Nazi' murder victims

0 Comment (s)
One alleged member of the neo-Nazi group,
Beate Zschaepe, blew up her flat before handing herself in
Germany has agreed to compensate families of victims of an alleged neo-Nazi cell accused of killing 10 people over a decade.

The parliament, chancellery and presidency also agreed to hold a national memorial service for the dead. The killings have long been known as the "kebab murders" because many of those killed ran snack shops. Detectives have charged a woman and arrested another person in connection with the case.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has called it a national disgrace, and questioned how the group could have slipped under the radar when it was known to the authorities. Among the alleged victims were nine immigrants - eight from Turkey and one from Greece - and a police officer.

Promising compensation, Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger told reporters: "I fear that at the end of the investigation, we will uncover more victims of xenophobia than we are aware of today. Even if financial help cannot undo the suffering, I will attempt to give the victims' families a sign of our solidarity with compensation from my budget."

The existence of the cell, linked to the National Socialist Underground group, emerged when two alleged members of the group killed themselves. The two men, Uwe Mundlos, 38, and Uwe Boenhardt, 34, were found dead earlier this month in a caravan in Eisenach in eastern Germany. They had left behind a DVD in which they admitted to the 10 killings.

Beate Zschaepe, 36, who had shared a house with the two men, has since been charged with membership of a terrorist organisation. She had handed herself in.

Germany's top prosecutor Harald Range said two other people are suspected of helping the group.

Detectives are reopening all unsolved cases stretching back to 1998 in which possible racist motives could have been involved. The alleged neo-Nazi cell is also suspected of carrying out a bomb attack in Cologne, in which 23 people were wounded, and a number of bank robberies.

The killings have reheated the debate in Germany as to whether to ban the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD). A previous attempt was rejected by the country's constitutional court in 2003.

BBC

Thanks to Zaahid for the heads-up

Atzmon Quotes From BNP Website To Attack Hope Not Hate

6 Comment (s)

Gilad Atzmon is a campaigning antisemite and a supporter and promulgator of Holocaust denial material. For this reason, Hope not Hate and Bradford TUC have said:

'We believe that Atzmon should be shunned by all decent people – just as we would shun David Irving and Nick Griffin.'

Atzmon is incensed.

He has penned a lying, self serving attack on Hope not Hate and Bradford TUC:

'This weekend, Bradford TUC (Trade Union Council) joined the Israeli lobby’s attempt to silence me. This sort of thing is no surprise since my book ‘The Wandering Who’ exposes the devastating continuum between Israel, Diaspora Sayanim, Anti-Zionist Zionists (AZZ) and the influential and varied communities of Shabbos Goyim(1). So, is it a coincidence that last Shabbos (Sabbath) eve Paul Meszaros Bradford TUC’s secretary and some of his fellow unionists got very busy indeed doing the Zionists’ bidding?'

Here’s part of Atzmon’s attack on Hope not Hate’s Nick Lowles:

Here is an extract from a recent expose of Nick Lowles:

“Until recently, as editor of Searchlight, Nick Lowles was very camera shy. Over the years, he also attempted to generate various false trails with regards to his true identity posing, at various times, as a member of the Union of Jewish Students, a trotskyite activist for a Workers’ Revolutionary Party splinter group keen on infiltrating the Labour Party and a supporter of the violent anarchist Anti-Fascist Action, whose members later planted bombs for the IRA in London. For those reasons, and his close association with the mainstream media, Lowles is distrusted amongst anarchist and other far-left activists who regard him as a tout.”

The inaccurate “expose” to which Gilad Atzmon links is that of an organisation called Civil Liberty:

'The civil rights organisation Liberty refused to represent the British National Party in 2003 when Barclays Bank closed down their bank accounts. As a result of this failure to defend the right of the BNP as a democratic and lawful political party to hold bank accounts in Britain and to operate as a lawful political party and abide by the accounting rules of the Electoral Commission, other bank accounts of Palestinian charities supporting victims of the conflict in Israel were also closed down. From this we learn that a failure by the civil rights organisation Liberty to defend the principle of a right to a bank account for the BNP and all other lawful political and charitable organisations with bank accounts in Britain resulted in the denial of that right to a bank account not just to the BNP, but other organisations the banks wanted to close down as well.'

If that sounds like the sort of thing a BNP front organisation would write: that’s because it is. From The Guardian:

'An investigation by the Guardian has revealed that the fundraising group Civil Liberty, which claims to be independent of any political party, is run by key BNP activists with all the money donated through its website going to the BNP’s regional headquarters in the north-east.

It has raised concerns that the party appears to be attempting to profit from anti-Islamic sentiment in the United States since the attacks of September 11 2001, by presenting itself as being at the forefront of a campaign to save the UK from being “overwhelmed” by Muslims.

Since 2001 it has been illegal for any political party to accept overseas donations of more than £200, and party officials breaking the law face a year’s imprisonment or a £5,000 fine. Both Civil Liberty and the BNP deny they are trying to bypass UK election law, insisting they are entirely separate organisations .

However, the Guardian has established a series of links, including an audio tape of the BNP chairman, Nick Griffin, speaking at a US conference organised by a former member of the Ku Klux Klan, in which he calls on sympathisers to support BNP members by giving money to Civil Liberty.

“Please throw money at the BNP, actually don’t throw money at the BNP. Quite seriously it’s against the law, but you can as my colleague will be telling you tomorrow, throw money at a group called Civil Liberty which helps members of the BNP and that is within the law.”'

The Guardian also found that:

· Civil Liberty was set up and is run by Kevin Scott, who until September was the BNP’s north-east regional organiser.

· Its PO box address is registered to Tyneside BNP at the home of Jonathan Keys, a former party candidate.

· The site’s domain name is registered at the home in Stirling of Steve Blake, the BNP’s website editor.

· The BNP’s head of administration, Kenny Smith, is named on the BNP website as the national treasurer of Civil Liberty and responds to emails sent to CL.

It is not clear how much money Civil Liberty has raised as its accounts are secret, but the American Friends of the British National party was estimated to have raised £80,000 to £100,000 for the BNP between 1998 and 2001 when it folded – money Mr Griffin said made a “significant contribution to the BNP’s [2001] general election campaign”.

Yesterday the BNP and Civil Liberty strenuously denied the allegations.

“Civil Liberty is completely independent of the party,” said BNP spokesman Phil Edwards. “The BNP receives absolutely no money at all from Civil Liberty and any allegation that [money is being diverted] to the BNP in order to circumvent election laws will be met by a libel writ.”

Civil Liberty regularly advertises in BNP publications and has appealed for funds on the BNP website. Mark Collett, who was last year acquitted with Mr Griffin on charges of inciting racial hatred, is alleged to have handed out Civil Liberty flyers at a far right event in the US. And at the BNP’s annual conference in November, senior BNP figures accused the leadership of using Civil Liberty to build a fighting fund they said was not declared to the Electoral Commission or the wider membership.

Mr Edwards said: “Civil Liberty is an organisation which was set up to assist nationalists fight legal cases and employment tribunals and other civil cases … The fact that it is Kevin Scott [who set up Civil Liberty] … why shouldn’t it be?”

Atzmon is coated, head to toe, in fascist mire.

UPDATE

Oh dear. Stupid Gilad Atzmon is now trying to hide the fact that he takes his information on anti-fascist campaigners from the British National Party, by rewriting the paragraph and removing the link.

Unfortunately for Atzmon, his fascist fanboys have already republished his article, with the BNP quote and link intact.

Here it is on the “Truthseeker“.

Here it is on the Nazi website, “Shoah“.

Here it is on the Pacific Free Press website.

Too late, you thick Nazi.

PS – I see Atzmon is now being carried by David Icke. Just about his level, I reckon.

Harry's Place

Thanks to NewsHound for the heads-up