BNP gets ready to rumble

The gloves are well and truly off in the BNP’s leadership election battle.

The two heavyweights of British fascism, the MEPs’ Nick Griffin in the right corner and Andrew Brons also from the ultra right corner, have come out punching at each other and their corners are pretty feisty too.

On their mirrored BNP website, challenger Brons’s team has described the proposed amendments to the British National Party’s constitution as proposed by the Griffin corner as “a shocking and gross perversion”. For the first time in his charmed life as a BNP leader, Griffin knows he is well and truly up against a heavyweight challenger with the pedigree to deliver some quite cutting blows against his rocky leadership.

Having been involved in Nazi politics since the 1960’s, unlike Griffin’s predecessor John Tyndall who founded the BNP, Brons has managed to not be photographed wearing Nazi uniforms, so this time old Nick is up against a suited and presentable former politics lecturer who managed to put Griffin on his backside more than once when they last went head to head in the 1980’s when they were in the NF, and Brons grew tired of Griffin’s antics then too.

This contest appears to have finally brought the BNP to life. After a good couple of years of diminishing resources and returns for all of the begging letters and smears that Griffin and his team have invested in, Brons is somewhat of an ogre of considerable intellect in comparison to Griffin. With Brons is one Arthur Kemp, a south African who once worked for the South African security services there and another former trusted ally of Griffin.

Kemp points out that “the amendments which have now been distributed to members are NOT the proposals which were submitted online”.

The challengers to Griffin’s twelve years of rule have been calling for a totally new constitution, while Griffin is accused of trying to amend the constitution to ensure him five more years in power, which would take him up to a respectable early retirement age. Elections are currently fought and won by Griffin by virtue of an almost impossible list of hurdles set for challengers and their supporters to be able to even vote. Members at first agreed to these bizarre terms when it was suggested as a good way to stop black and ethnic minority members launching a coup against the party. Having suggested an entirely new constitution, Kemp has due reason to be bitter; the former web editor and ideological guru drafted the new constitution that was approved at a previous conference but never implemented. Now Griffin has called an EGM to make amendments to the old constitution further ensuring his tenure until such a time it seems likely, that his daughter can take over the role as party leader.

At the wedding of a Liverpool BNP sycophant recently, Griffin held court this very idea, convinced that it was what the vast majority of party members wanted.

But Brons is fighting back. In his corner are a weighty load of BNP members and former members, who have been expelled or suspended for not endorsing the idea that Griffin is God like and brilliant.

It looks like this going to rumble on for quite a while until the magical date of June 26th when I hope to be able to bring you an up to date blow by blow account of what is happening inside the BNP’s EGM when all of those still standing, will get to slug it out for the future of the BNP.

As I’m not an independent referee over this fight, I’m firmly in the Griffin corner. After a shaky start, his service to antifascism over the last two years have been commendable.

Thanks to Nick Lowles at HOPE not Hate / Searchlight

BNP leadership challenge fails

Eddy Butler has failed to obtain enough nominations to challenge Nick Griffin for the leadership of the British National Party this year. After several weeks of campaigning he says he collected 500 signatures from activists and officers around the country on his own forms, which the party does not recognise. He would have needed the support of 840 party members of at least two years’ standing.

Butler says he will not take legal action against the BNP over the unconstitutional rules that Griffin imposed for the challenge because “it would be very costly for us and for the party”. Butler is no doubt influenced by the fact that the BNP is insolvent and already has many unpaid legal bills, so even if he won he would be unable to recover his costs.

Urging his supporters to stay in the BNP, Butler writes: “Rather than get embroiled in legal action we will continue our battle to save our party from destruction at Griffin’s hands through other means”. He also hopes that his supporters will stay in their party positions if they can square it with their conscience.

Butler says that the requirement to obtain the support of 20% of long-standing members was “an impossibly high total”, which is why Griffin imposed it. He also claims that many members did not receive their nomination forms because the BNP’s membership database is “incompetently run” and that Griffin’s action in persuading two “stooges” to stand for the leadership as well complicated matters.

Griffin also used “political intimidation” by suspending many supporters of Butler. For that reason he has not handed in his forms as he does “not wish to compromise anyone”.

On the official forms, which members had to complete and send individually to the party’s official scrutineer, Andrew Brons MEP, Butler only obtained 214 signatures. The stooge candidates, Richard Barnbrook and Derek Adams, got 23 and four signatures respectively, while 971 people ticked the box indicating that they were satisfied with Griffin’s leadership.

The failure is testament to the fact that most BNP members do not go to party meetings or follow the various blogs that have exposed the gross mismanagement in the party and the way in which Griffin and his consiglieri, Jim Dowson, are using it as a cash generating machine for themselves. Griffin’s main interest now is in securing re-election to the European Parliament in 2014 so that he qualifies for a pension when he eventually leaves office.

Whether Griffin will allow any Butler supporters to remain in official party positions is unclear at this stage; likewise whether Butler’s supporters will want to stay in a party in which Griffin and Dowson are now even stronger than before.

Many activists, though not the bulk of the ordinary members, are now well aware that Dowson owns the BNP, that the party is insolvent and has been managed incompetently, and that Griffin never hesitates to lie blatantly to preserve his position. Many have already said that if Butler’s challenge fails they will leave, though most are undecided whether to join one of the tiny opponents of the BNP on the far right or to form a new party. Neither option is attractive for them.

Lee Barnes, the BNP’s former legal officer who resigned yesterday, can be expected to reveal more about what has been going on in the BNP, now that he has seen the truth about Dowson, whom he has described as the “Gollum” of the BNP and Griffin’s “cut price Rasputin”.

Most recently Barnes has described Arthur Kemp’s March of the Titans, a huge tome much praised by Griffin’s BNP, as “a regurgitated sub-SS handbook” and its author as a “Rhodesian Nazi terrorist” who “hates everyone and everything and believes everyone on the planet is below him”. According to Barnes, Kemp was known in the party as Napoleon. We look forward to further insights such as these.

Searchlight / HOPE not Hate by Sonia Gable

'BNP suspension is against party code of conduct'

Three British National Party (BNP) members from Cornwall have been suspended indefinitely for criticising leader Nick Griffin.

Parliamentary candidate James Fitton, who stood in the St Austell and Newquay constituency, has also accused the party of breaking its own constitution after he was suspended. Two other members, Peter Mullins, from Liskeard, the party's former regional organiser for the South West and Simon Bennett, from Camelford, who designed and maintained the BNP's website, have also been suspended.

In a letter from party bosses, Mr Fitton is said to have been suspended for a "serious breach of BNP code of conduct" but the letter does not state any specific reason – something Mr Fitton says is against the party's own constitution. He said: "Myself and two others in Cornwall have been suspended along with a member in Torbay and there's been members suspended in the East and West Midlands."

Section 9.9 of the BNP constitution states: "The individual member concerned should, as soon as practically possible thereafter, have in writing details of the alleged offence."

Mr Fitton also accuses the party of bending the rules to suit its own needs, after a member who joined in February became sub-region organiser for Devon and Cornwall in April. Party rules state that members are on probation for two years and are unable to attain any positions within the party during that time. All three members of the party have been vocal in their criticism of Nick Griffin in recent months and the party's attitude towards Cornish members.

Mr Bennett, a member for five years, has accused Mr Griffin of "entrenching himself" as the leader. "There's been a vast majority of members up for removal, there's a climate of fear. But the truth is more important," he said.

Mr Mullins said: "There is a pyramid structure within the party and at the apex is Nick Griffin. What he says happens. He doesn't do democracy and it's virtually a dictatorship. They've kissed goodbye to the whole of Cornwall and literally thrown us in the bin."

Both Mr Mullins and Mr Bennett recently attended a meeting in Leicestershire, where a vote was carried to support Eddy Butler, from Essex, as a potential challenger for the leadership.

Cornish Guardian

BNP faces legal threat amid new racism claims over redrafted constitution

Nick Griffin could be in in contempt of court for allegedly breaching court order to amend party rules

The British National party faces the prospect of renewed legal action from the government's equalities watchdog over allegations that it has failed to remove potentially racist clauses from its constitution. The court case could potentially see the BNP's leader, Nick Griffin, jailed or fined for contempt of court, or see party assets seized, lawyers believe.

It caps a miserable couple of weeks for the BNP. Griffin came third in the parliamentary vote for Barking, a constituency the BNP had targeted heavily, while his party lost all 12 of its seats on Barking and Dagenham council. That followed a disastrous election campaign in which the BNP website was taken down by its designer, the party's publicity director was arrested on suspicion of threatening to kill Griffin and a London candidate was caught on camera fighting in the street with a group of Asian teenagers.

The BNP constitution was challenged in court last year by the government's Equalities and Human Rights Commission. In March, Judge Paul Collins ruled that even after the BNP lifted a direct ban on non-white members, the revised document was indirectly discriminatory because it required applicants to oppose "any form of integration or assimilation of ... the indigenous British", something the EHRC argued could not be endorsed by those in mixed-race relationships.

The constitution additionally required new members to submit to a two-hour vetting visit at their home by a pair of BNP officials, a clause Collins ruled could be seen as intimidating for non-white applicants. He ordered both offending sections be removed.

Following the ruling, Griffin redrafted the BNP constitution, something the party's rules allow him to do without consulting members. However, copies of the new version – officially known as draft 12.2 – show that both clauses have not been removed but moved and slightly amended. The home interview clause returns in near-identical wording as the "annual visit criteria", without which new members cannot attend meetings or vote on party matters.

"This seems like a slightly hapless attempt to get round the injunction by moving the offending section to a different part of the constitution," said Paul Epstein QC from Cloisters Chambers in London, a specialist in discrimination law. "There seems to be no doubt that what they have done goes against the spirit of Judge Collins's ruling at the very least. They're taking a real risk of being found in contempt of court. This is particularly the case for Griffin, given this role he has in changing the constitution."

The section relating to the "indigenous British" remains in the new constitution, under the heading "Temporary amendment". Gavin Millar QC, a specialist in election and discrimination law from Doughty Street chambers, said this appeared to breach the court decision. "The ruling made it quite clear that the reference to 'indigenous British' was discriminatory and had to be removed but the BNP has included it, saying it is only being temporarily removed pending a successful appeal, at which point it will be reinstated. This is a clear breach," he said.

The home visit clause had been slightly reworded but "it is in substance the same", he said, adding: "The approach they have taken is both a civil and criminal breach of the order and I think in the end, unless the courts or the commission give up, which I don't think they will, the BNP and Griffin will in the end face contempt proceedings and possible imprisonment."

Any EHRC action will have to wait until a government is formed, as until then its activities remain constrained by Cabinet Office guidelines on the behaviour of public bodies during election campaigns. An EHRC spokesman said: "At the time of the court ruling, we said that the commission would monitor the BNP's compliance with the ruling. We are currently looking into this matter."

The EHRC is understood to have written to the BNP outlining its concerns about the new constitution and is awaiting a reply. The BNP did not respond to a request for comment.

Guardian

Griffin reopens BNP recruitment

British National Party leader Nick Griffin declared applications to join were being processed again despite a court order banning recruitment of new members

In a landmark ruling, Judge Paul Collins issued an injunction against the far-right group stating its constitution was illegal and ordering it to comply with equality laws. He said the party's membership rules meant it was "likely to commit unlawful acts". But Mr Griffin claimed he had now amended the constitution to comply with the law and membership had therefore reopened.

The 17-page judgment, delivered at the Central London County Court, found the BNP's clause that any members must agree to preserve the integrity of an "indigenous British" society was illegal and should be withdrawn. It ordered the removal of the pledge to oppose immigration into the UK and maintain Britons as the "overwhelming majority" racial group. As part of the injunction, the BNP will also have to abandon its "intimidatory" policy of sending officials to the homes of prospective new members.

Mr Griffin claimed he had used his authority to alter the wording of the constitution to remove the obligation on applicants to adhere to the principles of the party. He said: "Section 4, which deals with the requirements for membership and includes the demand that members support all the principles of the party, is not protected.

"I have, therefore, with immediate effect changed the section 4 requirements, as I am entitled to do, to comply with the court order. What this means is that people can apply to join the BNP without having to endorse and support the principles of the party." He said the amended version would be published online within 30 days.

"Membership applications are therefore now open and the 7,000-strong backlog will be processed in the order in which they applied," Mr Griffin added.

A spokesman for the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which brought the case against the BNP, said: "We will be monitoring the situation. They need to ensure they comply with the terms of the court order fully otherwise they will be in contempt."

PA

BNP membership rules still discriminatory, court rules

The British National Party's new membership rules are likely to discriminate against non-white people, a judge has ruled

The BNP voted to scrap its whites-only policy after a legal threat from the Equality and Human Rights Commission. A judge at Central London County Court has ruled the party's new constitution is still indirectly discriminatory. BNP leader Nick Griffin said the ruling was "appalling" but he had now made the changes demanded by the court.

Judge Paul Collins ordered the BNP to pay costs and said its membership list must remain "closed" until it complied with race relations laws. Delivering his ruling, he said: "I hold that the BNP are likely to commit unlawful acts of discrimination within section 1b Race Relations Act 1976 in the terms on which they are prepared to admit persons to membership under the 12th addition of their constitution."

BNP leader Nick Griffin said the party thought it had made the changes needed to comply with forthcoming equality legislation and was "amazed" by the ruling. He told the BBC News Channel: "I think it's appalling. The court have opened a huge can of worms here, they have given a government funded, a taxpayer-funded body the right to interfere with the aims and objectives of political parties.

"That's not just an attack on us. It's an attack potentially on any political party. It's a bad day for democracy from that point of view."

But he said the party had complied with the ruling and was now "open for business".

A spokeswoman for the Equality and Human Rights Commission said it "had to take this action" and was "not concerned with the political outflow" of the ruling. She added: "As long as they comply with the court order then that is fine but obviously we are going to be looking carefully at the new constitution when it is issued if we still think it is racist in any kind of way, we will either be bringing this matter back to the court, under contempt of court proceedings or we will be issuing new proceedings."

The constitution rejected by the court asked members to sign up to the BNP's principles, including a duty to oppose the promotion of any form of "integration or assimilation" that impacted on the "indigenous British", and a requirement to support the "maintenance and existence of the unity and integrity of the indigenous British".

It also stated that members have to agree to two party officials - one male and one female - visiting their home for up to two hours. A lawyer acting for the Equality and Human Rights Commission said this could be used to enable potential members to be intimidated, although there was no evidence it had been used in that way.

Mr Griffin said this was an "entirely normal" procedure to prevent the infiltration of people who wanted to sabotage the party and "find out what sort of people wanted to join the BNP". But he said it would now be scrapped to comply with the ruling, adding: "You don't have to agree to a home visit in order to be a member of the BNP."

He claimed there were 7,000 people on its membership waiting list, including a "handful" of people "from each of the main ethnic groups in Britain" including Sikhs, West Indians and "two Chinese ladies".

"We certainly won't put them to the front of the queue, that's for the Labour Party to put ethnic minorities to the front of the queue, we won't do that, but we will treat them fairly," he said.

Speaking earlier, he said if the party was forced to pay £60,000 in costs, it would have "some effect" on the general election campaign "but not a huge amount".

BBC

New BNP constitution 'discriminates indirectly'

The British National Party was accused today of “indirectly” discriminating against black and Asian people even though the party no longer bars them from joining

A new constitution allowing people of any ethnic origin to join the party obliged prospective members to support its principles, which meant the door was, in reality, only “pretty narrowly open” for “non-indigenous Britons”, London’s Central County Court heard.

But the BNP, which voted to amend its constitution last month after the Equality and Human Rights Commission took legal action over the far-right party’s whites-only membership policy, denied the allegations and said it had a “waiting list” of black and Asian people and would welcome more applications from ethnic minorities.

The party will have to wait to find out if its decision to scrap the previous policy went far enough to meet race relations laws. After hearing arguments from both sides, Judge Paul Collins said he would issue his judgment on the matter on Friday.

During a day of legal submissions, the court heard prospective members had to sign up to principles including a duty to oppose the promotion of any form of “integration or assimilation” that impacted on the “indigenous British” and a requirement to support the “maintenance and existence of the unity and integrity of the indigenous British”.

Robin Allen, QC, representing the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said: “That is something which we would submit is indirectly discriminatory. They will put persons who do not fall into the indigenous British category at a disadvantage.”

He argued the principles could be interpreted to oppose mixed marriages and could force people to deny their own identity.

“We simply say from the commission’s point of view we are statutorily obliged to encourage diversity and recognise diversity as part of the British state in its widest sense,” he said. “We’re indifferent as to the expression of views as long as they are lawful. It’s the condition of access that we take exception to.”

The new, twelfth version of the constitution also includes a measure that members have to agree to two BNP officials - one male and one female - visiting their home for up to two hours, the court heard. Mr Allen said this could be used to enable potential members to be intimidated, although there was no evidence it had been used in that way.

Gwynn Price Rowlands, for the BNP, told the hearing there were “significant numbers” of members who were mixed race or in mixed marriages, along with “several” Jewish members.

“They (the BNP) make it clear that they would welcome more applications from ethnic minorities,” he said.

Mr Rowlands told the court he “could not understand” how a black or Asian person supporting the concept of British nationalism could be discriminatory, adding the BNP was “simply putting their principles forward and allowing any ethnic minority member to join and support and espouse those principles”.

Hillingdon and Uxbridge Times

Beware: the BNP has never been more dangerous

If turkeys had the vote, it is theoretically possible that they would join a party that was strongly pro-Christmas. Possible, but unlikely

Yesterday, the BNP voted at an “extraordinary general meeting” in Essex to amend its constitution so black and Asian Britons can join its ranks. As Nick Griffin, the BNP's leader, told Sky News, this is likely to result in a “trickle, rather than a flood” of membership applications: and even a “trickle” may be pushing it.

The whole idea is, of course, innately hilarious: a party founded on the cultivation of intolerance and racial tension declaring that it has an open-door policy. In its 2005 manifesto, the BNP called for “voluntary resettlement” of immigrants and their descendants. So it wants you to leave the country but, before you do, invites you to join up and pay the membership fees (a standard rate of £30 pa, or £60 for the party's “gold” category, which presumably will entitle its new black and Asian members to a better class of dinghy when they are urged “to return to their lands of ethnic origin”).

Yet, even as we mock, we should be vigilant. The BNP is exploiting this constitutional change for all it is worth, both as evidence that it is being victimised and (the opposite claim) that it is voluntarily “modernising”. In truth, the new membership policy has been forced upon the party by the threat of legal action by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. On the BNP's website, there is currently a webcast by Griffin, complaining about the quango's attack on “this little party of ours”.

At the same time, the new membership policy fits neatly with his more general pursuit of incremental legitimacy. Like Sinn Fein-IRA with its “Armalite and ballot box” strategy, the BNP runs on twin tracks. Look at the so-called “security” at BNP gatherings if you doubt that the party still depends on a hardcore of skinhead brutes. At the same time, Griffin himself — a suit-wearing Cambridge graduate — has fought for years to bring the movement out of the Bierkeller and into mainstream political life.

This is why the election of two BNP candidates (Griffin and Andrew Brons) to the European Parliament last June was so depressing: it gave the party a claim to more serious media coverage, including Griffin's hugely contentious appearance on Question Time last November. The opening of the party's membership to non-whites is also part of this spurious process of “modernisation”: Clause Fourth Reich, so to speak.

Tony Blair had his Big Tent. Now Griffin will pretend that he has a Big Bunker, a rainbow coalition of prejudice. And it is certainly true that a plural society inevitably generates new tensions: where I live in east London, there is now a minor strain of hostility between second and third generation Afro-Caribbean Britons and newer arrivals from the enlarged EU: the working-class black community objects that it is being driven out of the service economy — cleaning, childcare — by Eastern European economic migrants who have undercut their wage-rates. In an age of globalisation and unprecedented population mobility, any complex urban society will generate such abrasions. And deplorable political movements such as the BNP will always be on hand to fan the flames and exploit the simmering anger.

As I wrote in November, Griffin and his gang are themselves refugees from reality, asylum seekers from the modern world. They choose to ignore the significant role that economic migration played (and will play again) in the years of non-inflationary growth. Worse, they seek to preserve something that never really existed: Britain is the historical product of nations and races coming together and commingling. Historically, this country has been a port rather than a fortress, a place of trade, exchange and racial interaction. Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, Normans, Huguenots, Jews, Afro-Caribbeans, Asians, Eastern Europeans: pluralism is the very essence of our island story. Some of my best friends are Jutes.

At the wonderful Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck concert at the O2 Centre last night, it occurred to me that Britain is the only country on earth that could take a black American musical form — the blues — adapt it to a new setting and, eventually, revive it in its very country of origin (as Clapton and many others did in the Sixties). The BNP has no grasp of the porousness and heterogeneity of true Britishness.

Yet, more than ever in its 28-year history, the party represents a clear and present danger. A matter of weeks from now, it will field a number of parliamentary candidates in the general election: most dangerously, Griffin himself in Barking. The seat is held by Labour's Margaret Hodge, defending a majority of almost 9,000.

Safe? By no means. Labour's own polling shows that the category of voter most easily described as “white van man” is warming alarmingly to the BNP: in seven out of 11 wards, more than 50 per cent of this tranche of voters — more than 70 per cent in some areas — think they might vote for Griffin. Ever willing to nurture the voters' anxieties and resentments, the BNP has prospered during the recession and exploited the collapse of trust in the political class. In Barking, it sees a real chance to pull off an extraordinary victory.

It is bad enough that the party is represented in town halls and at Strasbourg. But the election of Griffin as an MP would be much, much worse. For the Commons is not just another representative assembly. Never forget: in our unwritten constitution, the Queen-in-Parliament is sovereign. I don't know about you, but the thought of the BNP having a share in that sovereignty, however small, makes me sick to the stomach, and more determined than ever that the battle of Barking should not be lost. In the end, in spite of all its absurdities, the BNP's advance is no laughing matter.

London Evening Standard

BNP's constitutional change means nothing

Swiftly following on from the announcement that the BNP is changing its constitution to 'allow' non-whites to join the ranks of anti-semites, Islamophobics, nazis and racists in the party, a black face appeared in among the site members, claiming to be one Daniel Muranbuti.

Daniel included a brief note about himself:

'I am a young and laid-back kinda guy, I like reggae and poetry, and I fully support your aim to keep Britain British, now I know you ain’t racist and against my People. We’re all on the same side, and I just know it won’t be long before we can celebrate together like the Americans do with their black president.'

Fair enough. If Daniel (pictured, left) is stupid enough to join a notoriously racist party that's packed with nazis and has a leadership that almost entirely consists of ex-National Front activists, that's his problem. Or rather, it isn't. Because there's no such person as Daniel Muranbuti.

The picture that the mythical Daniel supplied is actually that of Oscar Grant, a young father who was killed by a police officer on a crowded BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) train returning from San Francisco after a New Year's Eve party.

Oscar died on January 1st 2009. He was shot in front of numerous witnesses, many of whom filmed the event on digital cameras and mobile phone cameras, and who had started recording because they believed BART officers were acting too aggressively.

One wonders at the mentality of someone who chooses a victim of murder as their avatar - until we remember that Oscar Grant was black and the BNP seems to applaud the violent deaths of or attacks on non-whites.

Regular readers may recall Lee Barnes, the BNP's unqualified and certifiably insane 'legal officer' posting a video of Rodney King on his blog, which he described as 'brilliant'. In the post from June 2009, he added, 'the beating of Rodney King still makes me laugh'.

King was attacked by police officers back in March 1991 and severely beaten. In fact he was rather more than severely beaten. A video of the event shows that he was tasered twice, received six kicks and the horrific total of fifty-six baton blows. He suffered a fractured facial bone, a broken right ankle and numerous bruises and lacerations. King later stated that he had also suffered '11 skull fractures, permanent brain damage, broken [bones and teeth], kidney damage [and] emotional and physical trauma'.

If this kind of nightmarish attack on an unarmed man can give Lee Barnes a good laugh, should we be surprised that a supporter chooses another victim of a similar and murderous attack to use as an avatar? No, of course not, because - changes to the constitution notwithstanding - the BNP always has been, is now and always will be a racist organisation that enjoys seeing the people it most despises suffer.

The BNP's constitutional change is as cosmetic and worthless as its change from boots to suits - a fact that is amply illustrated by the page of another BNP site member (below).

Anti-fascist assaulted outside BNP court case

Simon Assaf (centre) is dragged away by two of Griffin's group (Pic: Fil Kaler)

An anti-fascist was assaulted outside the central London county court on Thursday while protesting against Nazi British National Party (BNP) leader Nick Griffin. Griffin was in court because he had missed the deadline to scrap the fascist BNP’s “whites only” membership policy.

Two of Griffin’s group grabbed anti-fascist demonstrator Simon Assaf around the throat and head. His glasses were crushed into his face and he was left with cuts around his eyes. Simon was part of a protest organised by Unite Against Fascism outside the court.

Simon Assaf had to go to hospital to have cuts around his eyes attended to (Pic: Fil Kaler)

He told Socialist Worker, “We wanted to show our contempt for Griffin’s racist views. He came out of the court to make a statement to the press. I moved forward shouting ‘You dirty racist’. Some of Griffin’s group went for me. They tried to drag me away so that Griffin could speak to the press uninterrupted. But protesters managed to drown him out.”

Griffin scuttled away quickly by car.

Simon had to go to hospital to have the cuts around his eyes attended to. He added, “We did nothing wrong. Griffin has been found guilty of Holocaust denial and has been tried for inciting race hatred. The BNP thinks it can attack and injure people who are exercising their right to protest. If it does this in front of the press, I hate to think what it when no one is watching.”

The judge gave the BNP a further two weeks to amend its constitution before facing a possible court injunction.

Socialist Worker

BNP given last chance to make equality change to constitution

Far-right party told to address its entry criteria at extraordinary general meeting next month or face legal consequences

The British National party was warned tonight that it had one last chance to scrap its constitution or face legal action under equality laws. Its leader, Nick Griffin, was told at a Central London county court session that new rules must be agreed at an extraordinary general meeting to be held next month. The judgment saw BNP officials forced to rush out letters to members to alert them to the proposed changes.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission, which challenged the whites-only membership criteria last year, said the changes proposed still fell foul of equality laws. John Wadham of the EHRC said the amended version, which refers repeatedly to "indigenous British", displayed indirect discrimination as opposed to direct discrimination. "It is not that much of an improvement," he said.

Judge Paul Collins said: "I'm going to give the BNP an opportunity to have its EGM and take into account what has been said today and get it right. I do not think there will be another opportunity to get it right. This is it." He also ordered the BNP to pay the £12,500 in court costs relating to the adjourned session.

A BNP spokesman Simon Darby said the party would have to "emasculate its constitution and drop its policies and principles" to comply with the court's wishes. "This is a deadly serious attempt to put us out of business," said Darby.

Simon Assaf, 41, from Unite Against Fascism, said he was grabbed round the throat and kicked after shouting "dirty racist" at Griffin outside the court. Darby said BNP members had the right to protect themselves when attacked if the police failed to intervene.

Guardian

BNP must adapt membership rules or be crushed, says Nick Griffin

Party reacts after legal challenge to its policy of barring non-whites

The British National party leader, Nick Griffin, said today that the far right organisation should change its membership rules or face being "utterly crushed" in the courts.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission is taking the BNP to court over its constitution, which states that only "'Indigenous Caucasian' and defined 'ethnic groups' emanating from that race" are allowed to join. When proceedings were issued last month the party insisted it would fight the case. But Griffin, speaking after yesterday's hearing at the Central London county court was adjourned for seven weeks, appeared to back down, saying that the party should now change its membership rules.

"It is now crystal clear to all concerned that we simply do not have a choice but to change our membership policy," said Griffin. "Adapt or die is the only decision left to make, for failure to adapt would lead either to our being bled white through the courts or crushed by new criminal laws."

Griffin said the party would hold a series of debates over the coming weeks to discuss the matter and then stage a mass meeting for members where they would require a two-thirds majority to rewrite the constitution. The issue is likely to provoke a bitter debate in the party with leading members openly hostile to allowing non-white members.

In today's statement Griffin tried to appease potential opponents. "I have no doubt that it is possible to redraft our constitution so as to ensure we comply with the new law while at the same time holding true to our core principles and most important of all to our purpose – to secure a future for the true children of our islands."

Anti-racism campaigners warned today that even if the BNP changed its constitution it would make no difference to the party's core beliefs. "It is cosmetic window-dressing that does not alter fundamentally the BNP, which is a fascist and racist party," said Nick Lowles from the Hope not Hate campaign.

At yesterday's hearing, Judge Paul Collins ruled the party had 21 days to serve its evidence, with a further 14 days for the claimants to respond before the next one-day hearing, scheduled for 15 October.

The Guardian