HATE - Book Review

“I took the district line across London, squeezed into my little suit, with all of the other suits of Bengalis and Pakistanis. Sounds funny but racists never seem to notice other white people.”

Admittedly, I was a little sceptical about this book. Be it that Hate is an autobiography by ex-National-Front-administrator-turned-anti-fascist Matthew Collins, I had inkling that there was going to be an overly-apologetic and guilt-ridden feel to the writing, in an attempt to emphasise the author’s change of heart and alliance with the Searchlight organisation.

Although, expectedly, in odd areas there seems to be a swaying bias (“I’d fumbled and skirted around the issue when Searchlight asked me but now, having to think clearly, it’s obvious he was dangerous,” (pg.225)), thankfully, Collins refuses to dress up his involvement with the despicable NF throughout his younger years.

For the most part, his story intertwines his new-found beliefs with his old ones for some intriguing reading. His running commentary of violent confrontations with “Pakis” and blacks, and his developing hatred for minorities influenced by the thugs around him, is particularly shocking and brutally honest; as is his descriptions of the fascists preying upon the apathy of broken-down, working-class neighbourhoods that seemingly have no way forward.

Although most antifas are already aware that fascists are vicious psychopaths looking for someone to blame for their troubles, what’s perhaps most notable here is the differences between The BNP and NF, and the conflict between the two, which Collins touches upon with considerable insight. Though both organisations are equally as bad as one another, the author notes how The BNP disguise(d) its racism with pseudo-intellectual ideas on nationalism; while The NF was openly concerned with racism and anti-Semitism, and virtually disbanded as a result.

Whether The NF or BNP, Collins views the fascist organisation as an ensemble of violent, loudmouth, cocaine-snorting drunks, who are more concerned with instilling fear and anxiety within local communities than actual politics. His decisions to denounce The NF with cold, hard facts in the aftermath of the confrontations is convincing (“The National Front was only formed in 1967, how could it break into the political system that had only served two parties for hundreds of years?” (pg.38)) and serves as the main theme that fascism brings hope to no one.

Hearing that members meet with police and court disciplinary on a regular basis, and that their “masculine” actions are somehow democratic (“We were free to smoke and fart at will,” (pg.63)), may not come as a surprise or prove comfortable to all readers, but Hate is still a very commendable confession of one man who now seeks to make a positive difference within society.


(C) Andy Carrington 2011.

Fish supper and a dry sherry?

Trent: Not waving - saluting!

Invites have gone out for this year's BNP AGM. I'm pleased to inform one and all that I have my invite here in front of me, but it does cause such a dilemma.

I used to go to the BNP's Red, White & Blue festivals and report back on the drunken fights, threats and Nazi songs around the camp fire. Heavens, one year I even had to report how one of the BNP's councillors attacked another member with a broken glass.

It was never quite the highlight of my social calendar, but it got me out of the house and it caused no end of upset to the BNP knowing that I had been there. One year they even stopped proceedings to demand I stand up and reveal myself. I declined, obviously.

So this year, the question is whether I should risk it all by having one last sneaky look into the party's near defunct machinery. But there is another problem, too: I'm allowed to bring a guest with me!!

Normally on boring functions I take Matthew Collins with me. He tends to liven the event, sometimes I even just send him in my place. But to a BNP AGM I don't think that would get past even the BNP's radar. Plus, Matty has been to a few of his own. His book talks about them all Nazi saluting and brawling in the bar at York Hall in London in the early nineties so I don't see him as being much use in sitting quietly at the back munching on his meal deal from Boots the chemist-no matter how much he does like the sandwich combo.

No, for this year it has to be someone quite special. if I'm going to make a weekend of it at £50 per head including a buffet lunch and a gala dinner it will need to be someone who can sit quietly and not ask any questions during the advertised Q&A session. The BNP describe it as an opportunity to "hone your political skills" but everyone knows that asking questions is a sure fire way to get yourself thrown out of the party. And we wouldn't want that. Here's what normally happens when people ask difficult questions at BNP meetings.

I'll be interested particularly in the presentation by "Operation Fightback" currently led by Adam Walker, the BNP officer who is probably more likely to be presenting "giving my car back" given his latest legal difficulties. "Operation Fightback" is, according to the BNP a "counter-attack measures against the enemies of our country, our heritage and our people".

This presentation should be good as we also have the opportunity to meet "charismatic Carlos" the BNP's London candidate for the GLA. Carlos Cortiglia, who is Uruguayan (don't ask me!) spoke out in favour of Argentina during the Falklands war. Translated from an interview given in Spanish, Carlos once said "I am Argentine East, in other words, Uruguayan by birth, and I feel very emotionally linked to Argentina. In 1982 I volunteered to go to the Falkland Islands”. Should be fun...

Then there is the update from the BNP's "number one" MEP (i.e. the only one that still talks to them). That MEP, Nick Griffin, will give an update on the "fight to take Britain out of the EU". Maybe I should take a bookmaker with me? I'll be quids in if I bet that Griffin is out of the European Parliament long before this country is. Of course, I can't take the BNP's very own bookmaker Martin Wingfield, he seems to have also fallen from favour with the party too. Bad Martin, no Argentine corned beef for you!

The real treat will be for me and many others I'm sure, the presentation by "Resistance" the BNP's "militant youth wing" who seem to have a logo very similar to that of the EDL. What with Carlos being "charismatic", I'm sure Kieren Trent will be going all out to beat Carlos with his own presentation skills. Usually these involve Nazi saluting and long winded speeches against homosexuals. I know there will be some at the AGM wanting to have a word in his ear about his other "talents", particularly after his recent attempted foray into the world of Irish republicanism from where he was apparently given short shrift.

So there you have it. Dress down for the occasion and whatever you do, do not ask difficult questions. It's not the great "British" affair of yesterday as the BNP would like to have it, but that says more (thankfully) about Britain than it does about the BNP. This year's AGM is going to be less about talk (well it would be, wouldn't it), and more about "action".

The chances are it will be court action.

Hope not hate

How loyalists got out of step with fascism

Britain's far right groups welcomed links with Protestant paramilitaries, but Henry McDonald delves into a new book which reveals that this strange alliance eventually ended in betrayal.

Recalling his days selling race-hate literature in London's East End, Matthew Collins says: "We took the traditional Brick Lane Sunday drink with the BNP that day, watching strippers and eating a selection of mussels and whelks off the bar."

All they would have needed was a Cockney-style sing-song of Horst Wessel Lied and Deutschland Uber Alles around the old Joanna and that would have topped off a perfect National Socialist Sabbath for Matthew and his comrades.

The above memory isn't the only unintentionally hilarious anecdote contained within Collins' new book, Hate - a recollection of his time both in the National Front and the British National Party.

His evolution from the son of an Irish Catholic father to a fascist street fighter mouthing mantras of 'No Surrender to the IRA' is peppered with bizarre and often achingly funny passages, which in turn highlight how absurd, perverse and out of touch with reality most of his far right chums actually were back in the 1990s.

There are, however, more sinister segments of the book and they include his relationship with Ulster loyalists who had latched onto the NF and other neo-Nazi organisations in Britain.

Of these the most prominent is Eddie Whicker, a UDA member from Belfast who became somewhat of a personality on the London far right scene at the time Collins was an active fascist. Whicker was one of the most militant of the extreme right street thugs taking on leftists, some of whom marched in pro-IRA rallies in the UK capital and other British cities.

Reading Collins' fascinating memoir raised questions as to how useful, if at all, the various parties and groups on the far right were to the Ulster loyalist cause. The answer to that question, taking a long view of history, would be hardly at all. In fact, Hate confirms the analysis put forward by the likes of the late David Ervine that the far right's embrace of the loyalist cause was nothing short of embarrassing.

There can be no doubting the connections established from the early 1970s onwards between the NF, BNP and the more extreme Combat 18 to the two main loyalist paramilitary organisations. On a political and, dare one say social level, the disparate British far right were the only supporters of the Ulster loyalist cause in Britain.

Apart from their traditional allies in Scotland, particularly within the Orange Order and the Rangers football team's support base, loyalism's allies were few and far between.

While loyalists across the sea could feel very much at home in parts of Scotland's central belt or the Ayrshire coast, your average working class Ulster Protestant would feel a greater sense of isolation in English cities, particularly the multi-cultural/racial conurbations.

As Collins attests to in his book, the NF and other rival organisations at least provided a home for an Ulster loyalist away from home but still in touch with the cause.

Logistically, the efficacy of British neo-Nazi help for loyalist armed groups has been wildly exaggerated. There were a number of gun running plots such as the one involving Frank Portinari, an English UDA member of Italian Catholic extract in direct touch with 'C' Company and a friend of the UDA killer John White.

The important thing to remember about Portinari's gun smuggling operation was that it was soon busted by the security forces.

In reality the people who gained the most out of British fascism's embrace of loyalism were MI5 and Special Branch.

Charlie Sergeant, for instance, crops up several times in Collins' book as a prominent Combat 18 thug and strong supporter of Ulster loyalists. Yet after Sergeant was tried and convicted of stabbing a rival neo-Nazi to death it transpired he was also a police informant whose work included spying on any potential loyalist arms smuggling operations in the south-east of England.

The Ulster Volunteer Force did, of course, meet with the extreme neo-Nazi Belgian VMO in the early 1980s. The Flemish fascists were fascinated with the home-made engineering skills of Ulster loyalists who were manufacturing their own sub-machine guns. In return, the VMO promised to hand over plastic explosives, as long as the UVF attacked a Jewish target in Belfast. This suggestion convinced the UVF envoys sent to meet the pro-Hitler terrorists that they were dealing with nutcases. The UVF search for explosives switched to commercial, ideologically neutral arms dealers.

On a propaganda level the activities of a handful of loyalists in England like Whicker was undoubtedly damaging. It only projected and solidified the notion that the average loyalist was as much a bone-headed, shaven, beery-breathed bigot as their neo-Nazi buddies smashing up Brick Lane. The ceasefire, of course, and the emergence of Ervine, Billy Hutchinson and other articulate loyalist politicians, changed all that.

Observers of the far right will point to the career of Johnny Adair, who started his politico-paramilitary career in the NF. In retirement on the west coast of Scotland, Adair has admitted he always had his doubts about the English neo-Nazis, suspecting many of them of being "touts" or just terror-tourists not really serious about waging war on the republican movement.

It is worth remembering that throughout his life Adair maintained an enduring love for one English band who emerged out of the post-Punk era. The group was comprised of two brothers from a left-wing background who sang about racism in America's Deep South and who wrote socialist protest songs against Thatcherism and mass unemployment.

To this day Adair loves UB40. That's how serious the British neo-Nazis' favourite Ulster poster boy was about their message of racial purity and ethnic hatred.

Belfast Telegraph

EDL could carry out Breivik-style massacres if they are not monitored

The English Defence League will carry out a Norway-style massacre in Britain unless the Government cracks down on the racist organisation, ­according to an expert.

The far-right group should be monitored in the way terrorists are to prevent a mass killing on the scale of the atrocity carried out by Anders Breivik last month. That’s the frightening verdict of Matthew Collins, who has closely followed the EDL since they burst on to the scene in 2009. Collins, 39 – who was once a top dog in the BNP and National Front but is now an anti-fascist ­campaigner – reckons top members of the EDL are as dangerous as Hitler.

He said: “The Government needs to treat gangs of white, far-right ­extremists like they do groups of Muslim extremists. Their leader Tommy Robinson, the pint-sized Fuhrer, says himself that we’re probably five years away from a Breivik-style incident in this country. So when are we going to act to stop it? These people are dangerous and they are armed and they are ­being led by racist dickheads.

“Show me any EDL member who has anything to contribute to ­society. When I see Tommy Robinson I see Abu Hamza or Anjem Choudhary. They comment on things they don’t know anything about. What does Choudhary know about me? What does Robinson know about the way Muslims live their lives? Nothing. Extremism breeds ­extremism. And there should be a plague on both their houses.

“If we don’t get it right, it won’t be just foolish young Muslims planting bombs on Tubes. It will be foolish young white kids, because people like the EDL tell them nothing about the great things about this country but will focus only on their twisted version of ­Englishness.”

Right-wing ­extremist Breivik blew up an Oslo government building, killing eight people, ­before shooting dead 69 others at a youth camp. The gunman praised the EDL in his ­manifesto and claimed he had 600 EDL supporters as Facebook friends and had spoken with “tens of EDL members and leaders”.

Collins – who has written a book about his time as a fascist, called Hate – says police should ban an EDL march in East London next month. He reckons the protest in the predominantly Muslim area of ­Tower Hamlets will end in a riot. The campaigner – who works for the anti-racist organisation Hope Not Hate – said: “The Police ­cancelled the England football match and the Tottenham game ­because of fears of a riot. So why are they allowing the EDL to march in Tower Hamlets in ­September? They are not coming here to ­protest about radical Islam. They are here for a riot. We need to stop this hatred brewing on our streets before it’s too late.”

Hate, My Life In The British Far Right, is out now.

Daily Star

Thanks to NewsHound for the heads-up

Back from the Front: Inside the mind of a reformed UK far-right extremist

Matthew Collins is a leading anti-fascist campaigner - but in his youth he was at the heart of the National Front and the BNP. As his account of life in the far right is published, he talks to Ros Wynne-Jones about racism, rehabilitation and the Norway massacre

When Matthew Collins heard what was happening in Norway in the late afternoon of 22 July, he headed to the offices of his employer, Searchlight, the anti-fascist magazine. There, he and other staff sat up all night watching Twitter and the internet, talking quietly to their informants in Scandinavia.

It took time for a portrait of 32-year-old Anders Behring Breivik to emerge, but it was a picture Collins recognised clearly. For six years, Collins was himself at the heart of far-right groups in the UK: the south London organiser of the National Front (NF), a close confidant of the leadership and seen by some as a potential future leader of the party. He was also a volunteer at the British National Party's (BNP) head office and active on the streets with the violent neo-Nazi street fighters Combat 18, whose numbers one and eight stood for "A" and "H" after Adolf Hitler.

"Breivik's concerns were on a different scale to mine," Collins says. "His manifesto is obsessed with global issues. Mine were much closer to home, more about the end of my street than the world. But essentially they had the same aim – acts of violence that will lead to a civil race war."

Collins' remarkable journey to committed anti-fascist campaigner from a Mein Kampf-reading racist – not just a white working-class boy who shaved his head and flirted with far-right politics, but an active and violent Nazi – is told in his new book, Hate: My Life in the British Far Right. Introduced by Billy Bragg and endorsed by Dagenham MP Jon Cruddas, it is a timely riff on the past 25 years of the UK far right.

As well as being a tale of very British Nazism – a story of smoky pubs, drunken punch-ups, mindless hooliganism and paranoid conspiracy – it also offers a powerful insight into the Norway massacre.

For Collins, 39, even the emerging portrait of Breivik – who writes in his manifesto about "the absence of fatherhood" – sounds a deep echo. "Breivik's father left when he was one," he says. "It's a common thread in extreme-right terrorists, looking for family and security. It usually involves blaming modern society for the breakdown of the family. Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma bomber, and David Copeland, the Soho nailbomber, fit the same pattern. There is a shared sense of rejection."

Collins' own father left the family – with his teenage babysitter – when he was five years old. He looks up from his drink. "So, yes, I was one of those too," he says.

The National Front had the tough, violent, but often fatherly male figures Collins was looking for. "For me, there was always this search for male role models," he says. "We had excellent female role models who did all the cooking, cleaning, carpet fitting. But no men to look up to on our estate.

"The far right gave me a safe environment. There was lots of violence, but they elevated me. They took me into pubs at 15. I would be picked up from home in a car, taken to clubs. They taught me things. They treated me as if I was bright."

He shrugs. "The Labour Party never came knocking on our doors."

By 1987, at the age of 15, he was going door to door on mixed-race housing estates with a copy of the National Front newspaper The Flag in one hand "and a wheel brace in a plastic bag in the other". His favourite slogan was: "If you want a nigger neighbour, vote Labour." He shakes his head. "I'd only read one book – Mein Kampf – but that was more than most of them."

Most of all, being a Nazi gave Collins, one of Thatcher's children festering on a 1980s council estate without prospect of work or betterment, a feeling of intense power. "You would strike fear into people," he says. "You could feel how you physically intimidated someone."

His bitter hatred did not just extend to black and Asian people. The aim of a night's drinking would be to "smash glasses into the faces of anyone even remotely progressive, or with glasses or, worse still, a ponytail".

His bloody damascene moment is overwhelmed by shame. It came at a 1930s library building one summer evening in 1989, when the BNP disrupted a public meeting in Welling, Kent. In British fascist folklore, that night became known as the Battle of Welling and its "soldiers" were celebrated as heroes.

The truth, Collins says, is that a cowardly group of 40 or so fascists armed with hammers smashed up a room full of mainly women.

In his book he recalls "one man after the other laying into a small group of women, hitting them with chairs and hurling tables at them .... It was a bloody massacre. People were lying on the floor helpless, being stamped on, kicked and hit with objects picked off the walls and floor. A pregnant woman was locked in the toilet and the BNP were trying to kick their way in to get at her and her unborn baby."

Collins, a veteran of the far right at just 18, had taken part in violent attacks before, fighting men in pubs and on the football terraces. But the scene at Welling Library deeply challenged the nobility he associated with the far right's cause. "I couldn't see what freedom of speech and fighting for British democracy had to do with stamping on little old ladies' heads," he says. "It was real hatred. I began to see it was all about destroying people's lives. Violence was the only way they could affect change.

"I was standing in the library watching people getting their heads kicked in for attending a debate and discussion. I thought: I'm on the wrong side."

After Collins was hailed by his NF and BNP colleagues as a hero for the attack at Welling, he found himself in a phonebox calling Searchlight. One by one, he told the magazine the names of the people who had carried out the violence. A polite Geordie voice thanked him. "Everything sort of changed at the moment," he says. "But my intention wasn't to be a spy."

Over the next few months he rang Searchlight a handful of times. Some days, he became so confused he had to steady himself in front of the mirror with the words: "I am still a National Socialist, I am still a white Aryan, part of the master race."

Before long, Collins was passing secrets face-to-face that would lock away violent fascists and help cause the early 1990s far right to implode. Searchlight paid him in book tokens so he could educate himself.

His role as a mole led to direct threats to his life and a trip to Australia, hastily arranged by Special Branch, where he lived in hiding from 1993 to 2003. He came back to take part in Dead Man Walking, a BBC documentary that brought him back into the open.

In the eight years since his return he has worked full-time for Searchlight, where the deep friendships forged during his years as an informant are still very much in evidence. During that time, he has seen UK fascism turn full circle. By the late 1990s, the street fighters had begun to seek power through council chambers under the guise of outwardly democratic parties like the BNP. But with the collapse of the BNP following crushing defeat in the 2010 council elections, fascists are once more on the streets.

Searchlight has been voicing concerns for months about the English Defence League (EDL), the far-right street-protest movement Breivik enthused about in his manifesto. "This Government is not taking the EDL seriously," Collins says. "These are working-class people who have run out of hope and understanding. If it wasn't radical Islam it would be something else. Increasingly, they have been overrun by Nazis from the old BNP and NF seeing the opportunity to take street violence back to the old levels, seeking a civil race war, this time white Christians against Muslims."

Could the attacks in Norway happen here? Collins nods. "The EDL's leader Tommy Robinson says himself we are five years away from a Breivik in the UK. If a similar attack was to happen here I wouldn't be shocked."

How does Collins think the UK should deal with this returning threat? "The last thing we should do is to listen to their demands. But we do need to deal with the issues on which they thrive: identity, alienation, the emasculation of the white working class, job insecurity."

He shakes his head. "Everyone's talking at them and not to them. Reaching out to communities, that is such middle-class bollocks. We need to embed ourselves in communities, take on the lies, redress the inequalities that grate on people. And we have to discuss immigration properly without demonising asylum-seekers."

In Collins' story lies the hope that even committed fascists can change, but it is hard not to wonder what the group of women at Welling Library, battered with chairs and iron bars, make of his change of heart.

At his book launch last week, I found the community activist Dev Barrah getting his copy signed by Collins.

"I'll never forget Welling Library," Barrah says. "29th June 1989." He was the local campaigner who had called the public meeting against the BNP and hired the room. They'd been worried about an attack but there was a Tube strike and the men they'd asked to be stewards hadn't been able to make it.

"I remember him particularly well," Barrah says, indicating Collins. "He was the loudest of them, shouting 'BNP, BNP', smashing everything. People jumped from the first floor window they were so frightened, breaking arms and legs. They came with hammers and crowbars, beating up women. After a while, we managed to lock all the children and elderly in the loos and still they were attacking."

He's standing with Collins' book in his hand. What does he think of him now? "I believe people can change," Barrah says. He shrugs, a broad, generous smile crossing his face. "A bad person can be a good one, too."

As the two men shake hands, it seems a terrible sadness that Collins spent all those years looking in the wrong place for heroes.

'Hate: My Life in the British Far Right' is released on 11 August, published by Biteback (£14.99). To order a copy for the special price of £13.49 (free P&P) call Independent Books Direct on 08430 600 030, or visit www.independentbooksdirect.co.uk

Independent

HATE, My Life in the British Far Right by Matthew Collins

Ever wondered why people join fascist organisations? We are giving you the chance to find out. Our supporters have the opportunity to buy an advance copy of Hate – the story of Matthew Collins’ former life inside the National Front, BNP and Combat 18.

This excellent book is about a young man growing up on a council estate in south London in the 1980s. Disruptive at school, bored with life and alienated with a changing society around him, Collins was an angry young man drawn towards the race hate politics of the British far-right. They spoke his language, described a worldview he could understand and targeted opponents he could hate. Over the next few years he rose through the ranks of fascist groups. He became the Chairman of south London NF and a close confidant of the party leader; he then went on to volunteer at the BNP's HQ in Welling south London; and he was active on the streets with Combat 18.

Within these groups were individuals prepared to hurt and even kill to make their dreams a reality. Gradually, however, he began to realise that the hatred, patriotism and violence haunting him – from the playground to the pub to the ballot box – stemmed from his own demons. And so he only had one option – to change sides.

Hate is his compelling story. Order a copy here

“Hate is Matthew’s personal story, brilliantly told, incredibly funny and occasionally bawdy. It’s a stark reminder of waste, but also a skilful and agonising confrontation with life, class, poverty and identity. Reading it leaves a lump in the throat at times, because it will confront you and challenge your complacency.”
Jon Cruddas MP

Hate can be obtained from HOPE not hate for a special price of just £10 (plus p&p), a 33% saving on the publisher’s price. http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/shop/hate

Collins tells a story of a world that is depressingly common. Boredom, voiceless and increasingly angry, growing numbers of young men turn to the far right for answers. But it is also provides hope and optimism. Collins realised what he was doing was wrong, he switched sides to make amends and now he commits his life to trying to persuade others not to make the mistakes he did.

From Hate to HOPE – it is a book that is well worth a read
Thanks
Nick Lowles

Follow my blog at http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/blog/

BNP supporters call on Nick Griffin to quit as leader - plotters preparing to meet

Griffin tries to count the number of fingers he is holding up

Supporters of the British National Party have turned on Nick Griffin in the wake of their leader’s much-maligned performance on Question Time, and called for him to be replaced.

Divisions within the far-Right party were highlighted yesterday by a poll on a white extremist website that has strong links to the BNP: almost 30 per cent of respondents called on Mr Griffin to stand down as chairman.

The BNP leader has been the subject of various internal attacks since his nervous performance last week on the BBC’s much-vaunted political programme, which was watched by eight million viewers. Lee Barnes, the BNP’s legal officer, accused Mr Griffin of failing to “press the attack” during the debate, while a variety of far-Right bloggers have called for him to be replaced by other senior members of the party, such as Richard Barnbrook, its London Assembly member, or Simon Darby, its deputy leader.

Yesterday supporters expressed their anger on Stormfront, a nationalist forum with the logo “White Pride Worldwide”. In a poll of more than 100 members, 30 per cent said that Mr Griffin should be replaced. Scores more have used the website to criticise his appearance on the programme, labelling it “disastrous”.

One, writing as “Smith”, said: “The facts are thus: we aren’t winning, QT didn’t help, it just made us look stupid and the intelligent amongst us want Griffin replaced.”

Another, Doriot, said: “To me is seems pretty obvious that the party has gone as far as it can under his leadership.”

Supporters said that Mr Griffin, who has a conviction for inciting racial hatred, had shown that he was incapable of leading the party forward because of his past. Mr Griffin was widely derided for smirking during a discussion on the Holocaust. A variety of his comments, such as his description of Islam as a “wicked and vicious” faith, have been aired on the programme and in media reports.

A poster calling himself Stormdragon said: “The issue of past comments will always be used against him. It will be impossible to wipe away the endless tired quotes that the opposition role (sic) out every time he speaks.”

Another, RuthFinder, pointed out: “The baggage is a problem, but given the history of Nationalism (and let’s face it, some rather dubious characters linked to it along the way) what do you do about it? It will always be there.”

One Stormfront poster said that while Mr Griffin had been successful in gaining two European seats for the party, someone “who can engage with young people better and can perform better when challenged by the media” was needed.

The BNP has defended the performance, labelling Question Time “a witchhunt and a setup”, while Mr Griffin told The Times last week that he was “ganged up on” by other members of the panel. The attacks come amid discontent about the leaking last week of the party’s membership for the second time.

However, despite the anger, Mr Griffin still enjoys support among grassroot supporters and a leadership takeover is unlikely in the near future — not least because of a lack of contenders. Matthew Collins, from the anti-BNP organisation Searchlight, told The Times: “The party is so lacking in quality that Nick Griffin is the best they’ve got.”

Simon Darby, the deputy leader, and Martin Wingfield, former editor of the BNP’s monthly newspaper, Voice of Freedom, have been mooted as alternatives. However, both are being paid to be as an assistant in the European Parliament to Mr Griffin, and are not considered to have a high enough profile to take on the role. Other possibilities, such as Andrew Brons, the party’s other MEP, have not been members for long enough.

Times Online

BNP 'in plot to get rid of Nick Griffin'

Nick Griffin could face a fresh challenge as leader of the BNP after his performance on Question Time.

His critics within the party say he "fluffed" the chance to make the case for nationalism to the British people. They are set to hold a meeting in a plot to topple him. "We are determined to get rid of him," a BNP member told the Standard.

However, the location and timing of the gathering are being kept secret because of fears that Mr Griffin could seek to have members who attend expelled from the far-Right party. But it is understood to be being organised by people linked to the Reform Group of the BNP. They are said to be backing a new governing structure for the party, by a committee, possibly chaired by Chris Jackson.

A number have posted damning comments on fascist websites. One told the Standard: "A lot of people will still not know what nationalism is about. From that point of view he fluffed it."

Nearly a third of 100 people surveyed on Stormfront, a white extremist website, called on Mr Griffin to stand down after his BBC performance.

Evening Standard

Dirwasgiad a’r bygythiad Ffasgaidd

Plaid Cymru, the progressive Nationalist Party of Wales hosted a Searchlight Cymru fringe meeting at their spring conference, addressed by Matthew Collins [yesterday].

Searchlight Cymru (previously Wales Friends of Searchlight) enjoys cross-party support in Wales and, the day before, the main parties of Wales agreed once more to back an all-party anti-BNP campaign in the European election. The meeting began with the delegates wishing Matthew a happy birthday in Welsh though he was not willing to divulge his age to the fifty-strong audience!

The meeting was titled “Dirwasgiad a’r bygythiad Ffasgaidd” or for our non-Welsh speaking readers, “Recession and the Fascist Threat”. Plaid Cymru AM Nerys Evans chaired the meeting and called upon all parties of Wales to back the Searchlight Hope not Hate campaign. “We must recognise [the BNP] as a threat that is ever present, and we must remain eternally vigilante, whatever party we support in Wales.”

Martin Shipton of the NUJ, a man who has more than once exposed the BNP in Wales, spoke warmly of his own connections to Searchlight and our publisher Gerry Gable and called upon other journalists working in Wales not to be fooled into filling copy verbatim from BNP press releases.

“As journalists, we must investigate and expose the fascist nature of the BNP when and wherever possible,” he said.

Rob Griffiths, chair of Searchlight Cymru, called upon all those present to make 17 May a Wales against the BNP day. “We may have a good tradition of fighting fascism, but we are not inoculated at birth against it. It is an ever present threat here and they must be driven out.”

Days of action will now take place in Cardiff, Swansea, Wrexham and Newport, as Wales commits itself to remaining Nazi-free.

Hope not hate

Anger over BNP's 'white history month'

In the wake of publication of the BNP's membership list, Tim Lezard reports on the anger over the far right party's bid to promote 'white history month'

Teaching unions have attacked BNP plans to promote White History Month in schools, colleges and universities across England.

As the party reels from the leaking of its membership list, its youth and student wings have launched an alternative to Black History Month, saying: “This is our month, where we can be proud to be white and express it openly.” The campaign aims to counter 'white guilt trips in the national curriculum' by teaching children the 'truth' about slavery, colonialism and imperialism.

Matthew Collins from anti-fascist organisation Searchlight, said: “This odious campaign reveals the BNP’s true colours. Their views on history have always been selective – [BNP leader] Nick Griffin has denied the Holocaust ever happened. They also conveniently neglect to mention their own history, which is ridden with racism, fascism and violence.”

The BNP claims to have sent out thousands of leaflets to teaching establishments and to have emailed headteachers, university deans, student groups, campus groups, scouts and guide groups.

“The world would be a very different place if it wasn’t for the British Empire,” according to the literature.

“The only way the government can get British people to allow themselves to be dispossessed in their own homeland is to make them ashamed of themselves and their history. Never be embarrassed of the Empire or ashamed of it, no matter what your teachers say. Be proud of it. It was a time of great improvement and advancement in the world and it was all thanks to the British.”

As part of the month, the BNP is promoting 'The March of the Titans - a history of the white race', a tome that glorifies the Ku Klux Klan and praises Adolf Hitler for backing an anti-smoking drive, discouraging alcohol abuse and outlawing vivisection, whilst admitting "he will always be associated with an outburst of anti-Jewish sentiment".

The book then attempts to justify the Holocaust by saying: "No-one would question that the Jews, like everyone else in the Second World War, suffered great misfortune and were in particular subjected to unprecedented persecution and harassment on racial grounds. International Jewry had however publicly and openly declared war on Nazi Germany and the Nazis therefore regarded Jews as a hostile combatant group of special significance."

The campaign was condemned by University and College Union (UCU) General Secretary Sally Hunt, who said: "The BNP has no interest in the freedoms that UCU or the majority of people in this country believe in. The academic community is one that is built on diversity and tolerance. The BNP has no interest in sharing those values and preaches only hate and fear.”

The NUT’s Acting General Secretary Christine Blower, said: “The BNP's latest publication, like all of its literature, has no place in the school curriculum. A key purpose of education is to promote respect and equal opportunities. These values are in direct contradiction to BNP policies.”

The Guiding Association of Great Britain also condemned the initiative. A spokeswoman said: “One of the core values of Girlguiding UK is promoting equality and diversity and throughout our membership we build a respect and understanding of a range of cultures."

New Statesman

400 and not out - Searchlight celebrates its 400th edition (part two)

400 and still fighting - Nick Lowles looks at how Searchlight has changed in recent years

Searchlight magazine has evolved over the past 33 years and will no doubt do so again in the years to come. However the fundamentals will remain the same.

During the early 1990s Searchlight reflected the changing scene on the British far right. The traditional fascist parties, the National Front and British National Party, were small and politically irrelevant and much of our focus was on the extra-parliamentary right, especially the emergence of an anti-state and terrorist ideology that derived from the United States.

Issue 126: December 1985

Initially this was spread through a number of nazi book clubs but later it was crystallised through Combat 18 (C18), a violent nazi group that took its name from the first and eighth letters of the alphabet, 1 and 8 – AH – Adolf Hitler.

Searchlight followed the formation of C18, from its early days as a stewards’ group for the BNP to its attempted bombing campaigns in the late 1990s.

As always, Searchlight combined reportage with propaganda and we can take partial credit for C18’s demise in 1998, as the group descended into internal warfare and many of its leaders were imprisoned.

A particular success occurred in the 1996-8 period when a succession of Searchlight exclusives shut down the production of nazi music in this country. This cut off a very rich seam of money flowing into the movement, some of which went directly into funding terrorism.

It was also Searchlight, in March 1999, that broke the story of nazis serving in the British Army. This was just one of several stories that was taken up by the national press. It was Searchlight that first revealed that David Copeland, the London nailbomber who killed three people and injured hundreds more in 1999, was an active fascist.

Three investigations that really stick out for me were the three-part exclusive into attempts by British and European fascists to launch a race war in South Africa shortly before Nelson Mandela became President; the exposé that the BNP leader’s personal bodyguard was suspected of being a Liverpool gunman responsible for several murders; and a two-part story about human trafficking from North Africa.

All three stories were not without personal and organisational risk. Our investigation into the fascist mercenaries heading to South Africa caught the interest of South African intelligence and we spent several weeks dodging the attention of Cliff Saunders, one of the main apartheid intelligence operatives in Europe during the 1980s.

The revelations about gunman Joey Owens led the police to warn me personally that they had picked up intelligence that my life was in danger. The third story, the appalling tale of human misery and exploitation, led a journalist to put his life at risk in North Africa while posing as a people smuggler.

Issue 256: October 1996

However, the real heroes of our magazine are those who feed us the information in the first place. There have been dozens of people who have infiltrated nazi and racist organisations for Searchlight over the years, and many more who realised the errors of their ways and came to us with information. I would like to pay tribute to Matthew Collins, who provided information during the early C18 phase, and Darren Wells, whose inside information from within the leadership of C18 helped stop further disturbances in Oldham and at least one bombing campaign. Finally, I would like to mention Andy Sykes, whose role as Bradford BNP organiser helped oversee the demise of the party in that city. Both Collins and Sykes are now dedicating themselves to fighting fascism.

In more recent years Searchlight has taken on a more campaigning role and this has been reflected in the magazine. On the ground reports, campaigning tips and more strategic overviews are now commonplace in the magazine.

Searchlight is a terrific campaigner and the Daily Mirror’s delighted to work very closely with it to champion Hope not Hate. The rise of the far right and BNP underlines why Searchlight will be as important over the next 400 issues as it was in the last 400.
Richard Wallace, Editor, Daily Mirror

In 2006 the HOPE not hate campaign was launched and over the past two years our work has been supported by the Daily Mirror. Two national bus tours, campaign videos, localised leaflets and tabloid newspapers have all taken Searchlight’s expertise into the community.

The magazine has also changed. In 2007 we began producing a quarterly full-colour Extra and also raised several thousand pounds for our colleagues in Russia who are facing an unbelievably violent onslaught.

Issue 379: January 2007

In June 2008 Searchlight produced a seminal article about the future of anti-fascism. Entitled Where Now? it challenged many of the orthodoxies of traditional anti-fascist activity and called for a more localised strategy to defeating the BNP.

Nothing is static and Searchlight will continually change to adapt to the challenges we face. However, our basic approach will remain the same as those set out when Searchlight first appeared in 1975. Searchlight will remain dedicated to defeating fascism.

Searchlight

BNP wined and dined...by Army

Army chiefs provoked fury last night after they invited a senior BNP politician to a swish do at a school.

The far-right party’s Cllr Cathy Duffy was among local politicians asked to attend a drinks and buffet reception at the Ministry of Defence’s sixth form college. Two more officials from the racist British National Party joined Duffy at the Welbeck College event, hosted by the Army Presentation Team.

Enjoying free food and drink paid for by the taxpayer, the three extremists spent the evening mingling with military personnel. The invite to the VIP event in Loughborough, Leicestershire, came from Army chief Brigadier J E Richardson, Commander of 49 (East) Brigade.

Cllr Duffy posted a long blog about the night on her website. It read: “I was delighted to have been formally invited to attend a reception and briefing at Welbeck. The evening started with a drinks reception and concluded with a finger buffet and an opportunity to chat to military personnel.”

The blunder comes at a time when the armed forces are spending tens of thousands of pounds on recruiting more people from ethnic minorities.

Anti-racism campaigners attacked the move. Matthew Collins, of Searchlight, said: “The only war the BNP want is a race war. It’s like inviting the Nazis to dinner with Winston Churchill.”

Would-be Army, Navy or RAF officers study for A-levels at Welbeck before going on to full-time military training.

The Army last night said MoD rules mean it could not discriminate between political parties and had to invite all local councillors. And the event was held during school holidays, so no students were there.

A spokesman said: “The armed forces operate a policy of zero tolerance to all forms of discrimination.”

The Sun

BNP seeks anti-abortion Catholic votes

The British National Party is building an alliance with radical anti-abortion activists in an attempt to reach out to Catholics and secure their votes in future elections

Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, and one of his close deputies confirmed yesterday that they held private talks last week with the UK co-ordinator of Life League, an anti-abortion lobby group. Griffin and Mark Collet spent two days with James Dowson, an Ulster-based businessman and the main force behind Life League.

The meeting has outraged other anti-abortion campaigners. A number of them, who wanted to remain anonymous, contacted The Observer this weekend. One, who described himself as a 'mainstream anti-abortion and anti-racist', condemned the BNP.

Griffin claimed that amplifying the party's 'pro-life' policies would win it new votes among Catholics. 'There used to be a perception in Northern Ireland and Scotland that we were an Orange party. This is not so,' he said. The BNP, like Dowson, wanted to reach across the sectarian divide.

'If there is any plus for us in meeting Life League and highlighting our opposition to abortion, it is that it chimes with the feelings of many working-class Scottish Catholics,' the BNP leader said. His main candidate in Glasgow would be stressing the BNP's opposition to abortion in the forthcoming Scottish elections.

Dowson said the league had a 'moral duty to engage with anyone who will listen in order to promote our pro-life agenda'.

Matthew Collins of Searchlight, the anti-fascist magazine, said it was odd that the BNP 'welcomed Holocaust deniers' yet believed in the 'right to life of the unborn'.

Observer