The Squire with a rock solid pedigree

Steve Squire BNP candidate for Bush Hill Park in Enfield

The BNP is contesting a by-election in Bush Hill Park in Enfield, north London on 28 July 2011. Its candidate, Steve Squire, comes with what Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, believes to be a rock solid pedigree though it is one that is unlikely to appeal to prospective voters. During a recent argument with party members who were criticising Squire, Griffin defended his place-man from criticism by stating proudly that Squire’s grandfather had been a member of Mosley’s jackbooted British Union of Fascists (BUF) while his father had been imprisoned in the 1970s under the Race Relations Act.

Griffin must have believed that this political genealogy was a recommendation, because he appointed Squire as his deputy London organiser when he briefly took over as London organiser himself last year. Shortly afterwards Griffin handed over the keys to the kingdom to Squire who now runs the BNP in Britain’s capital city.

Despite his recent elevation Squire is clearly unpopular with many of his colleagues in London, who don’t appear to have rushed to help him out. A photograph on the BNP website accompanying the launch of his campaign contains hardly any BNP activists from Enfield, the majority being bussed in from Croydon or at least that faction of the branch still loyal to Griffin.

Squire’s campaign team included Dave Clarke, who has a conviction for assaulting two female anti-fascist campaigners and in 2006 was investigated for electoral fraud after using a false address on his nomination papers.

The London BNP organiser is clearly surrounding himself with the crème-de-la-crème of the BNP as he embarks on his doomed quest to convince the electorate of this Enfield ward that he is fit for elected office.

This is not the first time that Squire has stood for the BNP. In 2010 he contested Enfield Lock ward, polling 447 votes (6.3%) and coming bottom of the poll, tenth out of ten. Doubtless he will fare little better in Bush Hill Park. It is unlikely that his inevitable defeat will diminish his prestige in the eyes of Griffin, who is by now getting used to his candidates being trounced at the ballot box.

Hope not hate

Is a storm brewing in Europe?

Click on image for full-size

On platform one at Bolton train station in England a mob of about 100 men punch the air in unison as a chant - "Muslim bombers, off our streets!'' - goes up. Their voices echo loudly, and as more men suddenly appear, startled passengers move aside. The protesters wave St George's Cross flags - the red and white English national emblem - and raise placards. Some wear balaclavas, others black-hooded tops. There is an air of menace.

These are some of the most violent football hooligans in Britain and today they have joined in an unprecedented show of strength. Standing shoulder to shoulder are notorious gangs such as Cardiff City's Soul Crew, Bolton Wanderers' Cuckoo Boys and Luton Town's Men In Gear: a remarkable gathering given that on a match day these men would be fighting each other. But today they are not here for football; it is politics that has drawn them. Their destination is Manchester to support a protest by the newly formed English Defence League.

The police are here in force, too. "Take that mask off," barks a sergeant to one young man. The man does so immediately but retorts: "Why are they allowed to wear burqas in public but we're not allowed to cover our faces?" The sergeant snaps back: ''Just do what you're told."

A man with a West Country accent standing next to me says: "It's always the fxxxxx' same these days. One rule for them and another for us. I'm sick of this fxxxxx' country." He draws on a cigarette before flicking it to the ground in disgust. He starts to complain again, but when the public address system announces the arrival of the train to Manchester Piccadilly, he raises his hands above his head and starts another football favourite: "Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the waves ..."

His companions join in singing, and as the train comes to a halt beside the platform the crowd surges forward. The carriages are almost full, so the men pack into aisles followed by police speaking into radios. A group of young men drinking beer at a table eye the protesters warily, but one protester wearing a baseball cap notices their fear and reassures them. "It's all right lads, nothing to worry about. We're protesting against radical Islam. Come and join us," he says, and as the train draws nearer to Manchester, the singing starts again. "Eng-e-land, Eng-e-land, Eng-e-land ..." the men sing rowdily. The English Defence League is in town.

A ready-made army?

The league seemed to spring from nowhere in 2009, but since its formation the far-right movement has held major protests in nearly all of Britain's cities. Although it claims to be a peaceful group, violence has erupted at most league demonstrations, with its supporters fighting on the streets against police, Muslim youths and a group called Unite Against Fascism, an umbrella organisation consisting mainly of students and trade unionists and formed in 2003 to oppose the far-right. During the fighting hundreds of people have been arrested, weapons have been seized and city centres have been brought to a standstill.

Britain has not witnessed such street violence for many years and there are growing fears that the league - despite its official multiracial stance - has become a ready-made army for neo-Nazis who for years have operated underground and that tensions will erupt resulting in major disorder.

All mainstream political parties in Britain have criticised the league, including John Denham, the former communities secretary, who compared the group to Oswald Mosley's Union of British Fascists, which ran amok in London during the 1930s.

Tinderbox northern towns such as Bradford and Oldham - which witnessed race riots in 2001 - have been among the league's targets this year and a countrywide police team set up to combat domestic extremism, the National Extremism Tactical Co-ordination Unit, has been investigating the movement.

I had met members of the league for the first time in a derelict building in Luton, near London, three weeks before the Manchester rally. They had agreed to talk on the condition that I did not identify them. Eleven men turned up. All wore balaclavas and most had black league hoodies with ''Luton Division'' on the back. A man using the pseudonym Tommy Robinson did most of the talking and explained the movement's background.

"For more than a decade now, there's been tension in Luton between Muslim youths and whites. We all get on fine - black, white, Indian, Chinese - everyone does, in fact, apart from some Muslim youths who've become extremely radicalised since the first Gulf War. Preachers of hate such as Anjem Choudary have been recruiting for radical Islamist groups in Luton for years. Our government does nothing, so we decided we'd start protesting against radical Islam, and it grew from there," he said.

With Islam Europe's fastest-growing religion - Muslim populations are projected to expand rapidly in coming decades - the group's fear that traditional British culture is under threat have been exacerbated.

Robinson could barely conceal his anger as he described radical Muslims protesting as the Royal Anglican regiment paraded through the town on its return from Afghanistan in May 2009. Following the incident, he and others set up a group called United People of Luton. After linking up with a Birmingham-based group called British Citizens Against Muslim Extremists and a group calling itself Casuals United, they realised there was potential for a national movement. Robinson said members wore balaclavas to protect their identities because league members had been targeted by Muslim extremists.

But although the league publicly espouses peaceful protest, there is growing concern over its secrecy and quasi-paramilitary appearance - as well as some of its membership. According to the international anti-fascist magazine Searchlight, far-right British National Party activists and other fascist extremists are at the core of the league. The publication's allegations have been backed by a former league member called Paul Ray who claimed that the group had been hijacked by the anti-immigration British National Party.

Then there is Casuals United. The group came to the fore about the time the English Defence League was formed. An unprecedented alliance of football hooligans, it was the brainchild of Jeff Marsh, a member of Cardiff City's Soul Crew who has been convicted three times for violent offences. This included a two-year jail sentence for stabbing Manchester United fans. Marsh has now taken a back seat, so the public face of Casuals United is fellow Welshman and Soul Crew member Mickey Smith.

Casuals United makes full use of modern communications and uses social networking websites such as Facebook to organise the 50 or so gangs that have been recruiting members around Britain. Other neo-Nazi groups, including the British People's Party and the British Freedom Fighters, have also participated in league protests, despite their opposition to the league's multiracial position.

A 'perfect storm'?

The high command of the league is much more astute than its foot soldiers, however, and distances itself from violence. In a Covent Garden pub I meet a computer expert from London called Alan Lake who runs a website called Four Freedoms. Last summer he contacted the league and offered to fund and advise the movement.

His aim, he says, is to unite the "thinkers" and those prepared to take to the streets. He describes this marriage as "the perfect storm coming together," adding that street violence is not desirable but perhaps inevitable. "There are issues when you are dealing with football thugs - but what can we do?"

He strongly criticises fascist organisations, however, and says that one of his conditions for backing the movement is that it does not associate with far-right groups. "There are different groups infiltrating and trying to cause rifts by one means or another, or trying to waylay the organisation to different agendas. The intention is to exclude those groups and individuals."

But while some league leaders may oppose fascism, there are others who seem to have no problem with extremism. At league protests in Swansea, Wales, skinheads chanted British National Party slogans and raised Nazi salutes. In Northern Ireland, according to Searchlight, loyalists have started an Ulster Defence League, backed by the former paramilitary group the Ulster Defence Association, while in Scotland, the hooligan Inter City Firm attached to Rangers football club helped set up a Scottish Defence League.

At an EDL protest in the city of Leicester, the movement's supporters pelted police officers with bottles, cans, bricks and coins resulting in 17 arrests. One police officer suffered a broken leg.

The EDL protest garnered the largest police deployment in Leicestershire since the miners' strike 25 years ago. Police deployed 1,400 officers from 12 forces to deal with around 1,000 EDL supporters and a counter demo of around 700 anti-fascists.

During the demo, the International Arts Centre Fabrika had to be evacuated, with journalists and staff making their escape through the back entrance as EDL protesters attempted to break into the building and smashed windows. The Leicester Mercury, a local newspaper, reported that there were also confrontations between the protesters and a group of Asian and black men in the Humberstone Road area, near St Matthew's, with pockets of fighting.

What is concerning many people in Britain is that the movement is becoming more organised and stronger and feeding off growing Islamaphobia. With its anti-Islam stance, the EDL has been gaining support from abroad. Pamela Gellar, the woman leading the protest against the Islamic centre near Ground Zero in New York, has backed the movement and EDL members were welcomed when they flew to the US to oppose the Muslim community's plans on the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

Leader Robinson was refused entry at JFK airport, however, and taken into custody and flown straight back to the UK.

Support has also come from Europe and on October 30, the EDL joined forces with the newly formed French and Dutch Defence Leagues at an event in Amsterdam. The meeting, organised by the European Freedom Initiative, was promoted as a demonstration for freedom and in opposition to Sharia. It was planned to coincide with the end of Dutch politician Geert Wilders' trial for hate speech and inciting racism.

The fears are, however, that European cities could soon be witnessing the widespread violence being experienced in Britain.

al-Jazeera

Thanks to NewsHound for the heads-up

A Sikh joins the BNP – and another Sikh writes this…

Rajinder Singh, 78, has announced his support for the BNP

Following the big-girls’-blouses of the BNP being forced in law to accept members from ethnic minorities, the idiotic Sikh-born Rajinder Singh from West Punjab is up for joining the full-fatty version of the British Union of Fascists, saying that people are naturally racist.

I must have missed the turkeys voting for Christmas a couple of months ago. Anyway, my friend Hardeep Singh, who is press secretary for the Network of Sikh Organisations UK writes to me and I thought I’d offer what he has to say on Rajinder as a personal view. It’s particularly interesting, I think, that Islamophobia among Sikhs can make them sympathetic to neo-fascists in the BNP – my enemy’s enemy and all that. I haven’t tidied up Hardeep’s open letter, because I think it should be read as he wrote it; it’s a magnificent Sikh insight into racial hatred. Here it is, with many thanks to Hardeep

A Lapsed Sikh & the BNP: A Personal View by Hardeep Singh

When someone mentions the British National Party, I can’t help but construct ghastly images of frog marching skinheads with scowling faces performing the Nazi salute to all the ‘darkies.’ Albeit now just figments of my imagination – these images were on the contrary, once a stark reality for my parents & grandparents and many of their generation who moved to West London in the 1960’s, from the leafy villages of rural Panjab. They lived through the Southall riots where Sikhs along with others formed a vanguard against aggressive ‘Paki -bashers’ of the National Front, (the BNP parent movement), it was during these tumultuous events in 1979 that Blair Peach was tragically killed.

As a British Sikh, my closest encounter with a ‘skin-head’ with a swastika festooned on his forehead was on a bendy London bus. On politely paying my fare to the driver on entry (the full seventy pence worth), my detractor loudly uttered the unforgettable words “Rag heads got more of a cockney accent than I have!” Fortunately for me he was just the commentator type, not a fully fledged head-butting storm trooper.

That’s why it’s difficult to fathom the penchant Mr. Singh, a man born into the Sikh faith, has for becoming the first non Caucasian member of the BNP, if the BNP decide to change their membership requirements and acquiesce to the EHRC demands for an amended constitution.

The communications and campaigns officer Martin Wingfield has endorsed Mr. Singh and called the party to “adapt and survive and give the brave and loyal Rajinder Singh the honour of becoming the first ethnic minority member”.

Mr. Singh has inadvertently become a political pawn utilised in explicit rebranding by the sharp suited fascist brigade, he may also emerge symbolic of a seismic shift in British politics based on the fear of radical Islamism held by both white non-turban wearing and in his case strategic Panjabi turban wearing Brits. Could this be part of a pseudo-reality whereby Mr. Griffin is a likened by Mr. Singh to Bruce Willis and will for better or worse save a bedevilled Britain from Islamism, with nothing but a dirty vest? Or is it more like a fatal attraction and will Singh’s infatuation for the far right all end up in tears and symbiotic failure?

Born in West Punjab in 1931, Rajinder Singh witnessed the violence of Indian partition firsthand. Millions of Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims were killed during partition, his father among them, murdered when Singh was only 15. He lays the blame squarely with Muslims. The memories of partition (which Singh refers to) are a synapse transmission away from many who lived to tell the tale, Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs. There was butchery on all sides along with acts of great humanity shown by fellow human being to his brethren, be it Sikh, Hindu or Muslim.

Although it is understandable why someone like Rajinder Singh has such a perspective considering the loss of his father during partition, it’s not justifiable from a moral standing and equally from a Sikh perspective. The importance of this, I cannot stress enough…

My grandfather survived partition in one of the ‘death trains’, he was a commissioned officer in the British Army, a proud Sikh infantryman with what I would describe a touch of swagger. His experience of brutal massacre did not lead him to a deep-seated hatred of adherents of Islam, because this would have been inconsistent with Sikh teachings. My grandfather took the example of another Sikh who suffered immense personal tragedy at the hands of Muslims, the tenth and last human spiritual leader of the Sikhs Guru Gobind Singh, some 300 years ago.

Inspite of loosing his father at the age of nine (Guru Tegh Bahadur was executed at the behest of the Emperor Aurungzeb for standing up against the forced conversion of the Hindu Holy men in Kashmir) and his four sons, two of whom were bricked alive and two whom died in battle against Mogul aggression, Guru Gobind Singh did not use any of these examples to vilify, demonise or tarnish any of the adherents of Islam.

In fact, Guru Gobind Singh actively promoted the notion of desiring the wellbeing and happiness of the entire human race without any kind of distinction or bias regarding people’s individual religious affiliations or ethnic background for that matter. He explicitly promoted the teaching that people should “view the whole of humanity as one race”

It is in the spirit of true Sikh teachings, that stories like those of Dr. Anarkali Kaur Honaryar bring a smile to the face of many worldwide, rather than a general ambivalence to the controversial Mr. Singh. She is a 25 year old from Afghanistan and was chosen by Radio Free Europe’s Afghan chapter as their “Person of the year”. The award has made her a household name in the Afghan Capital Kabul.

Since the ‘Talibinisation’ of Afghanistan in the early 1990’s the numbers of Sikhs which was estimated to be 50,000 has dwindled to around a 3,000, Sikhs have been reported to be kidnapped and held hostage by Taliban affiliates as well as forced in some instances to pay the jizya (tax imposed on non-Muslims). Inspite of the appalling treatment of minority groups including her very own community, heroines like Dr. Anarkali Kaur Honaryar, A Sikh – continues to work for the Afghan Human Rights Commission (which she joined in 2006), fighting for amongst others the rights of Muslim women in Afghan society. Many of her relatives chose to move to avoid the hostilities and emigrate to safer part of the world such as Canada, Europe & India.

I think we should spend far more time celebrating heroes and heroines of this ilk and much less time on the strategic turban wearing Mr. Singh and his reprehensible grandstanding with Mr. Griffin’s party. Perhaps he should be reminded that it wasn’t that long ago that Mr. Griffin was talking about the voluntary repatriation of Sikhs to India so that ‘West London, wouldn’t be so crowded at rush hour’.

If he chooses to join the ranks of the far right, he will do so at the disgust of the vast majority of Sikhs across Britain. He is lapsed not only in his appearance, but more importantly in his love affair with an organisation that totally rejects Sikh teachings on the equality of all human beings.

Hardeep Singh is is a freelance journalist & broadcaster & the Press Secretary for the Network of Sikh Organisations, UK.

Telegraph

Blackshirt women's children live with shame

Children of Blackshirt women, who joined Oswald Mosley's pro-Nazi British Union of Fascists, often feel that they have had to live with the burden of the guilt and shame caused by their mother's fascist sympathies

When I was 11, I was taken by my mother to visit her birthplace in Kennington, London. As we walked around my mother showed me where the air-raid shelters were during the war, but then she began telling me about the Blackshirt meetings. At 11 it did not mean much to me but it has played on my mind ever since.

I decided to reopen the case of how the Blackshirts attempted to recruit my mother. It led me to question how many British women supported Hitler during the war, and what was their fate?

"I could have ended up in prison," my mother said. And many of these women did.

Now aged 88, my mother told me about the ink factory she worked in as a young girl.

"At first I was packing ink, it was horrible. There I met Primrose, nobody liked her, but she invited me home. I met her family and I fell for it - they were trying to get me to be a Blackshirt."

In documentaries about the Blackshirts, the pictures I have seen are only of men, marching in the streets in their paramilitary uniforms. I knew about the daughters of the aristocracy, like Diana Mitford who married Oswald Mosley, but I had not realised that young girls, like my own mother, could have been sucked in too. But speaking to the historian Julie Gottlieb (author of Feminine Fascism) I was surprised to learn that the first fascist political organisation in Britain was actually founded by a woman.

"It was called the fascisti, then changed its name to the British Fascists and it was founded... in 1923, by a Miss Rotha Lintorn-Orman," she told me.

Until then the most prominent political movement for women had been the Suffragettes. One of the most influential Suffragettes was Norah Elam, who was in charge of propaganda and imprisoned for making inflammatory speeches on women's suffrage. Sent to Holloway prison in 1914, she shared a cell with Emmeline Pankhurst, leader of the British Suffragettes. But Norah Elam was imprisoned again during World War II, this time with Diana Mosley, wife of the fascist leader.

Like me, Norah's granddaughter and great-granddaughter Angela and Susan McPherson have been on a quest to find out more about their family's history. They knew little about the colourful past of their granny Norah.

"It was a bit of a shock," they told me. A bit of a shock indeed.

But women like my mother were not interested in politics, as Norah Elam was, so was it the comradeship or merely the appeal of the smart uniform that was the attraction? Julie Gottlieb described the Blackshirt uniform as "a great marketing tool, and an incredible draw particularly for the youth. Some historians call this period the battle of the shirts".

The party grew and even children were recruited to support Hitler's ideology. Diana Bailey, as a young girl in Bognor Regis, remembers her mother and father in their Blackshirt uniforms.

"We were told to paint slogans on the walls with 'Britain Awake' and 'Perish the Jews'. I was nine years old," she said.

Francis Beckett's mother Anne was also a young working woman, like my mother. Anne was sent along to Mosley's headquarters by the Pitman's Shorthand temp agency to work as a secretary.

"She wanted to be an actress but she made what she said was a dreadful mistake, she learnt shorthand. Pitman's sent her to Black House, HQ for the Blackshirts. She found it exciting. She was never a racist but worked amongst racists," Francis Beckett said.

It was at fascist headquarters that Anne joined the Blackshirts and met and later married one of the Blackshirt elite, John Beckett, Francis's father. John was sent to prison with Oswald Mosley during the war - and his family spent the rest of their lives living hand to mouth. A former Labour MP, John Beckett should have taken his place in the post-war Attlee government. Instead, he worked as a night watchman for Securicor.

Seeing how easily Francis's mother had become a Blackshirt, I asked my mother if something similar had happened to her, with her factory workmate Primrose and her fascist family.

"They were talking about these meetings - I thought they had got me there for a reason. They were talking about Mosley, so after this I left, and later gave in my notice at the ink factory," she said.

So after all these years I can stop imagining my mother sitting in the rows of a mass meeting, 'zieg heiling' their leader and being hauled off to Holloway Prison. But in talking to these families I can see how life could so easily have been very different for my family.

Diana Bailey continues to live with the consequences of her parents' actions - and says she will never lose her feelings of guilt.

"When Richard Dimbleby went into Belsen I felt the guilt of the whole of the world, I felt utterly responsible for what happened in those camps, because I did write 'Perish the Jews' on walls, it is something I will never get over."

* Mother Was a Blackshirt will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Monday 4 January at 1100 GMT.

BBC

Griffin’s words bring an echo of Mosley’s claims

Oswald Mosley with members of the British Union of Fascists

It's a pub now. On the corner of Wood Street and St Mary Street. On its walls, photographs and posters to remind us that once this was the Prince of Wales Theatre, that some of the country’s greatest actors strutted its stage.

But nothing to tell us that 75 years ago, the man who saw himself as Britain’s saviour stood upon that stage to bring his message to Cardiff. Dictators were on the rise in Europe – and Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley hoped to join them.

His followers shared his dream, and took to the streets. Nothing new then when members of the self-styled Welsh Defence League marched through Swansea last month giving Nazi salutes as they protested about “Muslim extremism”. This and growing BNP recruitment put that word “fascism” back into the headlines, though now Muslims and asylum seekers are used to stoke the fires of hatred.

Today’s “saviour” Nick Griffin is no Oswald Mosley. Here was an electrifying orator who had been a member of both Conservative and Labour parties, his admirers claiming he could have become leader of either, maybe Prime Minister, such was his magnetism.

But he was flawed. And impatient. In 1931, he formed the New Party and Nye Bevan was among his admirers. But Nye warned Mosley that it could end up as a fascist party and he was right. In 1932, it became the British Union of Fascists, the Blackshirts, branches opening up in Cardiff and Newport, Swansea and the Valleys. Then on a night in 1934, Mosley himself came to Cardiff, to tell 1,000 citizens in what was then The Playhouse who the enemy was.

He looked down at his audience. There should be more of them, he said, “but Jewish interests in Cardiff are allied against the fascists and prevented us obtaining a big hall”. Blackshirts patrolled the theatre as Mosley claimed that his was a movement “of great spiritual appeal, so the Welsh character can express itself through fascism”.

He was not anti-semitic “but we will not allow a minority to organise against the state. I advise the Jews not to organise as they are doing today”. Then a warning so eerily reminiscent of Griffin’s approach to the minorities of today: “They should choose between Britain and Jewry.”

More than 3,000 heard those same words in Swansea where Mosley assured them that “Government by fascism would mean a dictatorship in the modern sense of the word – control by a government which has been given the power to overcome problems, but not a dictatorship meaning tyranny”. The Daily Mail agreed, trumpeting “Hurrah For The Blackshirts”.

Hitler had not yet unleashed the horrors that would bring the Holocaust. But then came another reminder of Mosley’s real target: “No Jew need fear anything from Fascism – if he puts the interests of Great Britain first.” Remind you of Nick Griffin? Only the targets have changed.

Hundreds protested in the streets around Swansea’s Grand Theatre and there were some scuffles, but the huge police presence swiftly controlled them, bringing the Echo headline “Tactful Police Restore Order in Street”.

In 1934, there was 60% unemployment in the Rhondda, two million jobless in Britain, fertile ground thought Mosley for recruits. Merthyr supplied him with some, ex-communists who turned to fascism as the only solution.

“We looked at Italy,” said one, “and felt that Mussolini was doing a good job. He made fascism very attractive.”

Even Winston Churchill spoke admiringly of Il Duce. Some Blackshirts went to a “school for speakers” in London then returned to spread the message. Among the instructors, William Joyce, later known as Lord Haw Haw, who came to Cardiff to rally the troops.

Mosley used to stay at the Queen’s Hotel – now just a pub on Westgate Street – where he would sit, recalled one old Blackshirt, “smoking a penny pipe”. He seemed, he added, “a nice bloke, not a Man of Destiny”.

Years later, Annie Powell, who would become Britain’s first communist mayor, spoke of the fascists coming to her beloved Rhondda in 1936. “We swore that not even one Welsh sheep would hear Mosley’s message,” she said. They didn’t. When Mosley’s men set up stage on a patch of grass just off Pandy Square, they were driven away by hundreds of miners, Tonypandy and the Rhondda from then on a no-go area for Mosley’s men.

The Spanish Civil war began that year. Some of those miners went off to fight fascism in Spain, and never came back.

With news of Hitler’s persecution of Germany’s Jews, support for the man who targeted our own Jews dwindled. In 1939, he was interned but was back after the war with his Union Movement. Though rejected again by the British people, he waited, an exile in France until his death in 1980, for the Call. It never came.

Now another generation of Fascists waits...

Wales Online

Rise of UK far right could lead to poll violence

A resident walks past a burnt-out car on Waterloo Road
in Oldham after riots between police and youths May 27, 2001

A resurgence of far right groups is likely to fuel abuse, violence and even riots in the run-up to Britain's next parliamentary elections, community relations experts warn.

In the last few months, Britain has seen disturbances in London and in Birmingham, with police coming under attack after far right protesters clashed with Muslims and anti-fascist groups. So far the trouble has been minor, with few serious injuries or major damage. But mainstream politicians are worried.

Following trouble outside a mosque in north London, Communities Secretary John Denham warned that far right extremists were using the same tactics as fascist groups before World War Two to provoke British Muslims. Denham likened the disorder at the mosque to that employed by the black-shirted supporters of the British Union of Fascists who generated fear and violence when they marched though Jewish areas of London's east end in the 1930s.

Community relations experts fear the situation could deteriorate as Britain heads towards an election due by next June, even raising fears of a repeat of race riots that engulfed towns across northern England in 2001.

"We have got a much bigger and more determined far right than in 2001, which has been emboldened by recent successes," said Professor Ted Cantle, who led the government review into the 2001 riots, Britain's worst disturbances in recent times.

"Clearly any community can be provoked and the far right is taking more action, and some of its provocation is nastier and more sophisticated. The provocation is serious and it could lead to some forms of disorder," Cantle, Executive Chairman of the Institute of Community Cohesion, set up by the government following the London bombings in 2005, told Reuters.

The far right is certainly more popular and high profile than it has been for decades. This summer saw the British National Party (BNP) enjoy its greatest success at the ballot box, winning two seats for the European Parliament.

Although the BNP remains at the fringes of British politics, other extreme groups, such as The English Defence League (EDL) and Casuals United have sprung up promising more direct action. They emerged after a small group of Muslim militants staged a protest in Luton in March against soldiers returning from Iraq.

While the government sees building better relations with the Muslim community as essential following the 2005 London suicide attacks by four British Islamists, the right-wing groups accuse ministers of pandering to militants.

"The government and police need to decide whether they want to carry on turning a blind eye to killers in our midst, a small minority, or whether they want to listen to the concerns of the ignored majority, and deal with the Jihadists before widespread disorder breaks out," the Casuals Utd website says.

Critics dismiss the groups as being a small number of racist, former soccer hooligans. But Muhammad Abul Kalam, spokesman for the police advisory body the Muslim Safety Forum (MSF), said there was great concern at the groups' impact.

"There is a genuine fear that their message is becoming more acceptable to mainstream British indigenous people because of various reasons, including the economic downturn," he said.

He agreed the rise of the far right combined with tensions generated by the elections could be an explosive combination, leading to serious public disorder.

"It happened in London in Harrow," he told Reuters, saying Muslims were being incited to react both by the far right and anti-fascist organisations.

"There are certain hot-headed Muslims out there looking to protect their community in a criminal way who want to engage in street fights and demonstrations, and hurl bottles and bricks, and we want to contain that."

Earlier this year, a senior counter terrorism officer told an MSF meeting that police feared right-wing extremists could be planning a "spectacular" attack. The National Extremism Tactical Coordination Unit, which monitors such issues, said at the moment there was no specific intelligence to suggest extremists were planning any campaign of violence, or to generate trouble before the polls.

But a spokesman added: "Whenever people have strongly held views and express them, there is always going to be risk of public disorder."

The MSF said in recent months there had been increased reports of attacks on mosques, and Cantle said individual racial hate crimes -- such as Muslim women being abused, having their headscarves pulled off, or more serious incidents -- would rise.

"Where they (far right groups) are putting out their propaganda, because of elections or because of particular campaigns, then it will stir up hatred and we do see an increase in hate crimes," he said. "We may not see a repeat of 2001 where communities go out on to the street and take part in wholesale disturbances and riots, but that doesn't mean that they're not having an effect. The tensions do get greatly increased around elections."

The next flashpoint is expected on October 10 in Manchester, when the EDL holds a march and the Unite Against Fascist organisation stages a counter protest.

"Inevitably if there is any violence and it involves young Muslims that's going to be headline news," said Kalam. "We don't need, and don't want that."

Reuters

Minister warns of 1930s-style fascists on Britain's streets

'Parallels' between rightwing groups planning protests in Muslim neighbourhoods and Oswald Mosley's incendiary marches

A cabinet minister last night raised the spectre of a return to 1930s fascism, warning of "parallels" bertween rightwing groups planning protests in Muslim neighbourhoods and Oswald Mosley's incendiary marches through Jewish areas of east London in the 1930s.

Announcing a government drive to address issues alienating white, working-class people at risk of being "exploited" by the far-right, John Denham, the secretary of state for communities and local government, singled out protests being organised by the English Defence League.

The group, has organised a number of protests in recent months which have turned violent. It is to hold events in Manchester, Leeds, London and Bristol in the coming weeks. Yesterday small groups of EDL supporters gathered for a protest outside a mosque in Harrow, north-west London. They were confronted by at least 1,000 anti-fascist protesters. Police arrested 10 people after clashes, nine of them for allegedly possessing weapons. No injuries were reported.

"I think the English Defence League and other organisations are not actually large numbers of people," Denham said. "They clearly though have among them people who know exactly what they're doing. If you look at the types of demonstrations they've organised … it looks pretty clear that it's a tactic designed to provoke and get a response, and hopefully create violence."

He pointed to historical "parallels" with Mosley's events. "You could go back to the 1930s if you wanted to – Cable Street and all of those types of things. The tactic of trying to provoke a response in the hope of causing wider violence and mayhem is long established on the far-right and among extremist groups."

The so-called Battle of Cable Street occurred in October 1936, when Mosley, the leader of the British Union of Fascists, attempted to lead his supporters through a Jewish area of the East End of London, leading to violent clashes.

EDL's supporters include known far-right activists and football hooligans, filmed at recent protests chanting racist slogans and making Nazi salutes. Next week senior police officers from across the country will meet to share intelligence on the EDL, amid fears that a volatile mix of extreme rightwing activists, and counter-protests from leftwing groups and locals, could result in serious disorder.

The National Public Order Intelligence Unit monitors extremists, and is producing an intelligence briefing on the group's activities ahead of the meeting, to be chaired by West Midlands Police's Assistant Chief Constable Sharon Rowe. She policed the EDL's last two protests in Birmingham, which resulted in pitched battles with local youths and 125 arrests, and which were marked by an "escalation in criminality". "If the EDL come back to this city in future I've got more of an evidence case, and intelligence to arrest them a lot earlier, to prevent a breach of the peace," she said.

Today the EDL gathered outside the Harrow mosque to mark the anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

In the past month, the home secretary, Alan Johnson, has twice used public order legislation to restrict far-right marches. On one occasion, in Luton, his "banning order" resulted in a three-month prohibition of all marches in the town.

Denham praised the home secretary's action, but said there was a need for a broader strategy from government to "undercut issues that racists try to exploit". Ministers would in the coming weeks unveil a government-funded programme targeted at mainly white, working-class communities, he said.

"You need to be prepared to let people's real underlying fears and concerns come out, but address them frankly and openly," he said. He gave the example of perceptions of unfair allocation of council housing and new jobs, and said there could be changes at street level to allow local people to "influence and shape" how resources are distributed in their area.

Guardian

Vidal Sassoon: Anti-fascist warrior-hairdresser

Vidal Sassoon, the hairdresser, has recounted his early days as a foot-soldier for an underground anti-fascist group dedicated to wiping out Sir Oswald Mosley's far-Right movement after the Second World War.

Sassoon was a teenage member of the 43 Group, an organisation formed in 1946 by Jewish ex-servicemen who returned from the frontline only to discover that Mosley, the leader of the British Union of Fascists and an admirer of Adolf Hitler, was spreading his message of hatred on the streets of London.

The story is told in a BBC Radio 4 documentary, Archive Hour: A Rage In Dalston, to be broadcast on Saturday, April 19, at 8pm.

Mosley and his wife, Diana, one of the Mitford sisters, were interned during the war and released in 1943. His supporters continued to regard him as a hero and urged him to resume his political activities after the war, holding a series of public meetings in his name at which they spouted anti-Semitic propaganda.

The 43 Group was dedicated to breaking up meetings of these "Mosleyites", through violent means if necessary, and a 17-year-old Sassoon was an enthusiastic street-fighter.

The hairdresser, now 80, grew up in the East End and was a trainee at a London salon when he joined up. He told the programme how he once turned up to work with a black eye after a night of fighting.

"I'll never forget one morning I walked in and I had a hell of a bruise - it had been a difficult night the night before - and a client said to me, 'Good God, Vidal, what happened to your face?' And I said, 'Oh, nothing, madam, I just fell over a hairpin'."

Sassoon said of his fellow 43 Group members: "I was 17, these were all ex-servicemen at least five or six years older than me, and many of them won medals. I was a private."

Armed with knives and razor blades, the group fought pitched battles with Mosley supporters - many confrontations taking place in Ridley Road, Hackney, east London, which had a large Jewish community. The group disbanded in 1950.

Telegraph

Max Mosley faces calls to quit as Formula One chief after ‘Nazi’ orgy

Max Mosley, one of the most powerful men in world sport, was under pressure to resign as boss of Formula One’s governing body last night after he was exposed enjoying a Nazi-style orgy with five prostitutes.

Jewish groups condemned the behaviour of Mosley, 67, whose father, Sir Oswald, was the leader of the British Union of Fascists and a friend of Adolf Hitler.

Mr Mosley was caught on video by the News of the World with five women in an underground “torture chamber” in Chelsea, where he spent several hours allegedly indulging in sado-masochistic sex. The Oxford-educated former barrister, who is president of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), reenacted a concentration camp scene in which he played the role of both guard and inmate.

Speaking in German and brandishing a leather whip, he beat the women after allowing himself to be subjected to a humiliating inspection for lice and an interrogation in chains.

Mr Mosley, a close confidant of Bernie Ecclestone, who holds the commercial rights to Formula One, paid £2,500 cash for the sex services, the Sunday newspaper claimed.

His antics stunned Jewish leaders and motorsport insiders. “This is sick and depraved,” Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said. “For anyone to be in such a position of influence and power beggars belief. I am absolutely appalled.”

Stephen Smith, director of the Holocaust Centre, said: “As Mr Mosley has condemned the racism in motor sport he should live up to the standards he sets. This is an insult to millions of victims, survivors and their families. He should apologise. He should resign from the sport.”

Sir Stirling Moss, the former world champion racing driver whose father was Jewish, said: “I don’t see how he can continue. I hope he can, frankly, because I think he’s very good at what he does. I suppose what goes on behind closed doors is his business but when a thing comes out like this . . . it’s an absolute shocker.”

Mr Mosley, whose two years in Germany as a young teenager gave him fluency in the language, has helped to turn Formula One into a multi-billion-pound business since he became FIA president in 1993. The FIA is a nonprofit association that represents the interests of motoring organisations and car users worldwide.

Mr Ecclestone said that he was shocked by the allegations but did not expect Mr Mosley’s position to be affected. “I’ve known him an awful long time. If somebody had told me this without the evidence I would have found it difficult to believe,” he said. “Assuming it’s all true, what people do privately is up to them. I don’t honestly believe [it] affects the sport in any way. Knowing Max it might be all a bit of a joke. You know, it’s one of those things where he’s sort of taking the p***, rather than anything against Jewish people.”

Mr Mosley, who lives in Monaco, is understood to be pursuing legal action against the News of The World for breach of privacy. His spokesman said: “This is a matter between Mr Mosley and the newspaper in question and the FIA has no comment.”

Martin Brundle, the driver-turned-pundit who was recently the subject of a libel action brought by Mr Mosley, said: “It’s not appropriate behaviour for the head of any global body such as the FIA.”

Mr Mosley, who once harboured ambitions to be a parliamentary candidate for the Conservative Party, is known for being eccentric and outspoken. Nicknamed “Mad Max” by some in motorsport, he once said he didn’t mind flak because he came from a family used to getting it all the time. Hitler was present at the wedding of his father, Oswald, and mother, Diana, which took place in Joseph Goebbels’s drawing room. They were interned in Holloway and Brixton prisons for their Fascist connections.

Most recently, Mr Mosley stood up against racism in Formula One by giving warning of immediate sanctions if there was a repeat of the abuse against Lewis Hamilton, the only black driver on the circuit, in Barcelona during testing this season.

The wit and wisdom of Max Mosley

He goes around dressed up as a Thirties music hall man. He’s a certified halfwit”
On Sir Jackie Stewart (a dyslexic)

There was always a certain amount of trouble until I came into motor racing. ‘Mosley, he must be some relation of Alf Mosley, the coachbuilder'. And I thought to myself, ‘I’ve found a world where they don’t know about Oswald Mosley’. And it has always been a bit like that in motor racing: nobody gives a darn”
On being the son of Sir Oswald Mosley

There is always somebody new. If it wasn’t him it would be one of the other new stars . . . There is a tendency to exaggerate the importance of Hamilton”
On British motor racing star Lewis Hamilton

Times Online

Former KKK boss invited to address Madrid and Valencia fascists

Spanish police fear violent clashes in the run-up to next Tuesday's 20th November anniversary of the death of former fascist dictator, Francisco Franco, in 1975. A serving Spanish soldier and self-confessed neonazi has been jailed for the murder of a 16 year old anti-fascist protester in a riot at a Metro station in Madrid last Sunday, and the regional government of Madrid has authorised four demonstrations convoked by various extreme right-wing organisations over the coming days.

Next Saturday, the Falange will pay tribute to former party leader, Primo de Rivera, at the 'Homage to José Antonio, murdered by the socialists in 1936'. On Sunday, the National Confederation of Ex-Combatants will gather, and on the 20th November itself, the National Front will get together at the Valle de los Caídos while the Falange will meet up in Alcalá de Henares.

Permission for a demonstration organised by the Anti-Fascist Confederation on the 24th November has been denied.

According to a report on the 20minutos website, former Klu Klux Klan leader, David Duke (57) [an old chum of Nick Griffin], will be addressing a rally jointly organised by the Centre for National Democratic Studies and the radical National Democracy party at 5pm at an undisclosed location in Madrid city-centre next Sunday. This will be followed, either on the 23rd or 25th November with an appearance in Valencia at an event organised by the National Alliance.

thinkSpain

Historian finds a fascist link to Broughton synagogue

A Prestwich historian has revealed that a strictly orthodox synagogue in Northumberland Street, Higher Broughton, was once the regional HQ of the British Union of Fascists.

Dr Yaakov Wise, Hon Research Fellow at the Centre for Jewish Studies at Manchester University, made the startling discovery whilst studying 1930s newspapers, Home Office Records and MI5 files for his doctorate. He claims British Union of Fascist's (BUF) founder Sir Oswald Mosley even considered moving his national headquarters from Chelsea to Northumberland Street where the Machzikei Hadas Synagogue now stands.

Dr Wise said: "It's an amazing paradox that this important Jewish institution was once a hotbed of anti-Semitic hatred."

He said Mosley attended the opening ceremony of the BUF Northern HQ in the Spring of 1934. A photo, now in archives at the Central Library, Manchester. shows Mosley with an honour guard of Blackshirts, mirroring the poses of fellow fascists Hitler and Mussolini.

According to Dr Wise, many of Mosley's followers were not ideologists but Lancashire cotton workers who, due to the Depression, had lost their jobs. Dr Wise has records from 1936-7 of Blackshirts from around the country arriving at Victoria Station and marching down Bury New Road to the Northumberland Street HQ. There was also a rally at Belle Vue in 1936. These rallies attracted protesters from the young Communists, Socialists and Jews and the ensuing skirmishes were quelled by police. This activity mirrored the better known Cable Street anti-fascist riots in the East End of London. Mosley also spoke at the Athenaeum Club in Bury, which now houses Bury Education Offices.

The organisation was made illegal in 1937 and in 1938, furniture importer and wholesaler Abraham Jacob Pfeffer bought the building in Higher Broughton. It was established as a synagogue the following year. The original 1870's merchant's villa was demolished in the 1950s and the current building dates from 1959.

Prestwich and Whitfield Guide