National Front rally breaks records!

Click on image for full-size

Meanwhile, in Newcastle, Shane Calvert's National Front rally has attracted an astonishing EIGHT people!

Cheers to Everything EDL for the pic.

No waking the dead in Preston

Fifty seven hard line racists gathered in Preston last weekend to commemorate the life of John Tyndall, the Nazi uniform wearing founder of the British National Party.

It was the sixth time that a collection of Nazis and Anti-Semites no longer welcomed or favoured in Nick Griffin’s new version of the party, have gathered to remember their mentor.

Tyndall was the eloquent writer of such immortal lines as “the Jew is like a maggot feeding off the corpse of the write race”. He died in 2005 while facing charges of behaviour likely to incite racial hatred, surprisingly.

In the dock with Tyndall back then was Nick Griffin (who Tyndall was also fighting a legal case against and who had become his sworn enemy) and Mark Collett, Griffin’s dynamic sure-to-be life long friend who only last week went onto the BBC’s Panorama programme to besmirch the very memory of their love-in.

The only thing that truly held all of those present in the same room was their burning hatred of Nick Griffin, and not any long term admiration of the fallen “Führer".

The meeting was organised by Mark Cotterill who has no real history of ever being much of a fan of Tyndall when he was actually alive. During the eighties and early 90’s Cotterill was instead a senior member of the Flag faction of the NF. They were anti-Tyndall’s BNP and vehemently and often violently, anti-Nick Griffin’s “Political Soldier” National Front. Confused? You should be.

Cotterill later moved to America to front-up the American Friends of the BNP a source of funding for the BNP once Nick Griffin took it over. That new found friendship didn’t last long and Cotterill soon found himself back in England and deciding to support the then displaced Tyndall.

Paul Ballard, a veteran Croydon based fascist made his way to Preston for this knees up. Ballard’s been in and out of the BNP over the years when he’s not been teaching English as a second language to “Johnny Foreigner”. In a rather non-illustrious career on the far-right, Ballard’s been everything from a hard line Nazi to a moderate and even occasionally, a Griffinite “radical”. He was even (another) co-defendant of Griffin’s during another race hate trial during the 90’s over editing something that Griffin had written. [Not well enough?-Ed)

Ballard was last seen in public sulking at a BNP meeting in Dagenham where the BNP had to vote to allow non-white members into the party back in February 2010.

Chastising Ballard on that fateful day in 2010 was none other than Richard Edmonds. Out of all of those present in Preston, Edmonds is probably the true heir to Tyndall’s legacy. He followed Tyndall in and out of the old NF, the New National Front and even into and then out of the BNP. And then back again.

Edmonds even ran the BNP and edited Tyndall’s long-running record of boredom, Spearhead during one occasion when Tyndall found himself again in prison in the 1980's and the BNP had a membership of some 400.

Back in February 2010, Edmonds upset a few old-timers when he used his lofty position as Tyndall's spokeperson on earth and gave Tyndall’s beyond-the-grave blessing to allow non-white members into the BNP. It seemed to have been mostly out of pragmatism or expediency because he was later filmed denigrating white people he assumed were “race mixers” because they did not like BNP literature being posted through their doors. Such obedience to Griffin back then not only helped Edmonds onto the BNP’s Advisory Council but also earned him the soubriquet “veteran Nationalist” from the party, which in their vernacular means “Old Nazi”.

Edmonds was back to being an “old Nazi” when he announced he was standing against Griffin to be party leader earlier this year and positively labelled a “crank” by Herr Griffin when he finally left the BNP earlier this month to rejoin the National Front. One can only assume that Ballard (bizarrely nicknamed Trotsky by his admirers), and Edmonds sorted out their little squabble in time for the long journey to Preston. As ever, Edmonds made a vicious and racist speech that mentioned all the usual favourites, Jews, blacks, Asians, Nick Griffin..

But they were not alone. If the BNP and NF are not cranky enough for you, the British People's Party sent a speaker along. This meant that a dog somewhere was without it's master. This tiny Yorkshire based sect are perhaps better known for administering the Redwatch website and producing homicidal paedophiles that keep bombs under their child’s bed.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7469180.stm

The BPP’s Dave Jones, who enjoys nothing more than dressing up in historical costume himself, spoke of the wonderful work he has done in the village of Todmorden where he comes last in almost every election. Jones distributes a local leaflet with stunning regularity warning mostly, of the dangers of the local school/church/pub/bus stop/phone box being turned into a Mosque. Jones managed to waffle on long enough to earn the ire of most people, but did earn himself a small ripple of applause when he announced that he has been working very closely with the NF of late. This must have given Edmonds a bit of a migraine!

Most people were there however not to dig up old stories about “JT”, but to hear the BNP’s other MEP Andrew Brons, announce the launch of a new party. Brons, as he has consistently on this subject of late, disappointed. He didn’t even turn up. I was not surprised.

Brons and Tyndall go far back, further back than even Edmonds goes. In the mid 1960’s Brons was a member of the National Socialist Movement, a bitter rival to Tyndall’s Greater Britain Movement. To mention that there were two tiny Nazi sects around at the time would mean dragging up the history of the two group's competing leaders (Tyndall and Colin Jordon). So, here goes; having competed for the hand in marriage and become engaged to perfume heiress and all round naughty Nazi Françoise Dior in the sixties, poor old Tyndall got sent to prison and while in there and no doubt enjoying the pleasures of reading Mein kampf, his friend and mentor Jordan ran off with and eventually married Dior!

Later, Brons was to take over the leadership of the National Front in 1980 when Tyndall jumped before being pushed out of that party for being too public with his Nazism. So there was actually, no love lost between those two, ever.

Of course, Brons later had a fall out with Nick Griffin when they were in the National Front and Griffin wanted Brons removed from his job!

So, Brons and Griffin may have become friends again for a while and have now fallen out (again), but going to a memorial for Tyndall was obviously just too much, even for Brons. So instead of turning up, Brons sent along a letter in which the former politics lecturer pointed out that Tyndall had never been to university and also that they had often had differences of opinion!

There was no new party announced by Brons, and it still does not look likely there will be. He’s preparing himself for his own faction’s BNP conference this weekend which will be pretty much the same crowd that were at John Tyndall sixth annual wake.

In their game, friends become enemies and then friends again, even when you’re dead.



Thanks to Matthew Collins at HOPE not Hate

Man or a mouse?

BNP MEP Andrew Brons is coming under intense pressure to leave the party and form an alternative. Brons has been considering his options for the past nine months but so far he has failed to make a move. He first toyed with splitting from the BNP back in the spring in the aftermath of poor election results but he hesitated too long and missed his chance. He then challenged Griffin for the party leadership, half expecting to be thrown out of the party or to be given the excuse of obvious electoral fraud to walk away. Again he bottled it.

As Brons has dithered others have walked away. Jim Dowson and Paul Golding went off to form Britain First and then Eddy Butler and Chris Beverley joined the English Democrats. More recently Richard Edmonds and the bulk of Croydon BNP have gone over to the National Front.

Now, in the aftermath of the Panorama programme, he is once again under pressure to leave and form an alternative.

Our guess is that he will continue to pontificate and the opportunity will pass him by. And in the meantime the BNP, under Griffin's leadership, will continue its slow death.

Hope not Hate

Edmonds heads out the front door

One of the last remaining founder members of the BNP has quit the party to rejoin the miniscule and almost moribund National Front. Richard Edmonds returns to the NF after leaving them in acrimonious circumstances to help form the British National Party over thirty years ago.

Seventy year old Edmonds, a former school teacher, is one of Britain’s most notorious and hard line Holocaust deniers and one of a number of people now deserting the Andrew Brons faction in the BNP after Brons was narrowly defeated by Nick Griffin in the recent leadership elections. Edmonds had stood aside to allow Brons to challenge to Griffin, and is believed to have grown impatient as the Brons camp dithered over forming a new party.

Edmonds made his reputation as a notorious and controversial orator during the 1980’s when as the right hand man of then BNP leader John Tyndall, the BNP fermented racial hatred and an openly Nazi party saw a number of people including Tyndall, imprisoned under the race relations act. Edmonds also financed the opening of the BNP’s controversial head office in Welling south London and the distribution of the hate sheet Holocaust News that poured scorn on not just the Holocaust, but also the memory and testimonies of victims of the Nazi regime.

In 1993 Edmonds was jailed for a racist attack in Tower Hamlets, east London, when a black man walking with a white woman had the audacity to walk past Edmonds and a group of BNP supporters who had been attending a violent BNP mobilization in the area.

A long time opponent of Nick Griffin, Edmonds had initially been suspended from the party not long after Nick Griffin assumed the leadership of the BNP in 1999. After Tyndall’s death in 2005 Edmonds found his way back into the BNP and even found himself on the party’s advisory committee, described as a “veteran nationalist” which would appear to be BNP vernacular for ‘unreconstructed neo-Nazi on his best behaviour’. Despite his history, Edmonds was one of the “veteran nationalists” who conceded that legally there was little point in the party resisting the legal obligation to allow party membership to non-whites.

In a difficult week for the BNP’s leader, the departure of Edmonds may prove to be one bright spot. Edmonds had over the last year slipped comfortably back into the anti-Griffin camp as a self appointed spokesperson for keeping alive the memory of his mentor and former master John Tyndall. Tyndall died while facing the courts alongside Griffin on charges of inciting racial hatred while at the same time, fighting a battle to be readmitted back into the party he had founded.

With Edmonds goes the bulk of the Croydon branch of the BNP. Once one of the largest and most active BNP branches in the country, it was through Croydon BNP that Nick Griffin made his entry into the BNP. The Croydon branch of the BNP is a potent mix of former NF hardliners who moved into the BNP in the early nineties, former NF “political soldiers” who followed Griffin into the BNP and other long term racists and fascists. The Croydon far-right scene has long been susceptible to the charms of far-right radicals and extremists, from as far back to before even the NF was formed. A large chunk of those moving into the NF appear to be either suspended or ex-BNP members. The branch had been acting independently of the BNP for some time.

On hearing that Edmonds had finally jumped ship, Nick Griffin tweeted "Good that old hardcore cranks leaving with baggage. Shocking they time it to help the BBC though.” It must have been a really bad week of “timing” as far as Griffin is concerned. The party has been rocked by among other things, the death of its former treasurer only a few days from the potential nuclear meltdown for the party that is the Panorama programme on the BBC.

How the NF will accommodate the rabid actions and demands of über-activists like Edmonds and co remains to be seen. They do not even produce a regular mass circulation newspaper or leaflets.

Edmonds and Brons will no doubt have plenty to talk about at the John Tyndall memorial meeting later this month.

Thanks to Matthew Collins at HOPE not Hate

Jail for child-cruelty bully

A man who smashed a young boy’s head into a dinner plate and shot another with an air rifle has been jailed for 12 months.

Gareth Meanock (pictured, left), who is an avid National Front supporter, subjected the two lads to almost seven years of cruelty. The far right-wing backer was described as a bully in court and Judge Bernard Lever called him an unremorseful man for his violent actions.

One of the boys, now 16 years of age and who cannot be named for legal reason, is damaged according to his father.

He told the Chronicle after sentencing at Manchester Minshull Street Court on Friday: “Meanock’s arrogance was there until the end and he showed no remorse whatsoever. My son is still badly affected by what happened, but he is trying to get his life back on track. I honestly did not think he was going to go to prison at one stage. It’s just a relief he has.”

Meanock, who now lives in Blackpool, was convicted by a trial jury of two counts of child cruelty in July, who unanimously found him guilty. The court also heard how one of the boys was shot at by Meanock with an air rifle once and after missing, he shot him again.

Meanock, who regularly moved house with his wife, lived at a range of addresses in the Oldham area, including Longfellow Crescent, London Road, Lees Road and Kipling Road. It is believed Meanock, who can be seen on social networking site, Facebook, holding a poster to “vote NF”, was first verbally abusive before his behaviour escalated into violence.

Meanock, who does not work due to knee problems, denied any wrongdoing. Eventually one of the children bravely spoke out and the police became involved.

Judge Lever said: “You have not admitted any of it and you have showed no remorse to this regime of cruelty.”

Oldham Evening Chronicle

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.

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

Book Review: Hate by Matthew Collins

Hate is the captivating and witty autobiography of reformed fascist turned Searchlight mole Matthew Collins.

Collins was a full-time activist and administrator for the National Front for several years at the turn of the 1990s and his experience spans the disintegration of the NF and the rise of the British National Party. It is an engrossing chronicle of confrontation between the left and right and examines Collins’ relationship with prominent fascists including Ian Anderson, Richard Edmonds, Eddie Whicker, Tony Lecomber and Combat 18 leader Charlie Sargent.

The book – crude, brutal and savagely funny – charts Collins’ involvement with the National Front in his late teens through to his work as an informant with the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight. Collins was the principle source of Andy Bell’s World In Action documentary and was forced into hiding for 10 years in Australia before returning to the UK to work full-time as an anti-fascist campaigner.

Although Collins was never a fascist leader and his flirtation with the far right was relatively brief, he does provide a fascinating insight into the tactics and psychology of British Nazism. The right’s ability to mobilise coalitions of thugs – including violent fascists, barbaric football hooligans and brutish Loyalists – is truly chilling, but Collins also demonstrates the inherent contradictions and weakness of the movement.

The awkward alliance of various groups and factions is saturated with egotism and paranoia whilst deluded ideological warhorses – such as Anderson and Edmonds – rely on the muscle and numbers provided by football hooligans to further their political ends. Hooligan firms might echo the racist bile of the NF and the BNP, but they’re not interested in building a ‘movement’ or selling papers, they just want a ruck with some Reds. Collins’ terrifying description of a number of violent encounters with the left helps illustrate this implicit conflict.

Another highlight is the fascinating story of Mr X – a former Trotskyite turned Sun journalist who becomes increasingly cosy with leading British Nazis and violent Ulster Loyalists – which illustrates the incestuous relationships between the far right of the Conservative Party and the fascist movement. Until the emergence of some embarrassing photographs, Mr X plays an increasingly pivotal role in the National Front as he offers them access to the political establishment and writes for a number of NF publications.

Unlike similar accounts – such as Ray Hill’s The Other Face of Terror – there is no epiphany or eureka moment which converts Collins to fighting fascism. Rather it is a gradual disillusionment with the increasingly well-organised and escalating violence. This gradualism mirrors Collins’ first interaction with the National Front and his hesitant and wary engagement of Searchlight.

Although the primary focus is on the National Front, as a historical document charting the rise of the BNP – detailing its violent, Nazi and anti-parliamentary origins – the book is truly significant. Much of what Collins says is hardly revelatory, but it is an important resource to demonstrate the true colours of the BNP when many of its supporters – and even members – are ignorant of the reality.

Hate does not provide a blueprint for fighting fascism, but it does show how the far right attracts working-class people damaged by the system and encourages them to express their anger at other members of society. It shows how fascists exploit some of the most vulnerable people in society – young working-class men with limited prospects – and gives them a sense of belonging, worth and comradeship. The most important lesson of Collins’ book is that as long as the mainstream political establishment continues to restrict employment opportunities and housing prospects for the inner-city youth, the far right will continue to be a frightening menace. As a first-hand account of this menace – and for anyone concerned about the rise of the far right and the emergence of the EDL – this is a must read.

Click here to buy Hate from Hope Not Hate with all proceeds going to Searchlight or you can buy it from The Guardian Bookshop

Thanks to Eyes on Power

EDIT - I'm sorry that we cannot publish the various guesses that people have sent through regarding the ID of Mr X. Legally it's a bit dodgy, well a lot dodgy really.

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/

Keep fascists out of Wales

This article was submitted by one of our readers, Daniel P. We welcome any contributions from our supporters (as long as those contributions conform to the law and are in reasonably good taste). Please send your articles to us via email.

Elections to the National Assembly for Wales are due to take place on Thursday May 5th and the far-right British National Party will be seeking once again to gain a foothold in mainstream Welsh politics, as they have already done in English local councils and in the European Parliament. The party will attempt to exploit public anxieties in regards to the economic crisis caused by the failure of capitalism and the Coalition's cuts and privatisation agenda, to irrationally blame scapegoats such as asylum-seekers, migrants and Muslims for our problems.

The BNP's efforts to present a more respectable face in the search for electoral credibility have begun to pay off in Wales in recent years; the party aims to capitalise on the decline of industrial areas, as well as growing disenchantment with corrupt mainstream political parties. Whilst the BNP did not put up candidates in Wales in the 1997 elections, only one stood in 2001 and two in 2005, last year they stood nineteen candidates - averaging 1,215 votes per seat. This is not enough to win a seat in Parliament or in the National Assembly, but the Assembly has 20 regional 'top-up' seats, which aggregates votes over a large area and increases the chances of the BNP winning a seat.

At the previous Assembly elections in 2007, the BNP won 9,986 votes in the North Wales region, (5.1%) putting it within 2,580 votes (0.6%) of winning a seat. A fascist voice in Cardiff Bay would be a massively divisive blow to our multicultural society. There is an urgent need for everyone who is concerned about this threat, to join anti-fascist campaigns such as Hope Not Hate & Unite Against Fascism all-out to expose the rotten BNP for what they are, and stop them in our Assembly.

It is amazing that within three years of the end of the Second World War a fascist stood in London's East End although he was soundly defeated. But for a quarter of a century after the war a long economic boom, rising living standards and little unemployment gave no ground for any far-right revival.

The return of economic crises and higher unemployment in the 1970s encouraged several fascist splinter groups to unite to form the now notorious National Front; their racism was mainly aimed at immigrants from the West Indies and their children, but they also terrorised gay & lesbian people, the disabled & Jews. Some of these immigrants were ex-servicemen who stayed in Britain after the war - others had been encouraged to come and settle by ministers such as Enoch Powell in order to fill jobs in the 1950s. The NF had some initial success with 17,500 members at its peak but were defeated by the growth of a huge anti-fascist movement able to attract over 100,000 people to Rock against Racism gigs and counter-demonstrations organised by the Anti Nazi League, the precursor of today's UAF. The ANL exposed the violence of the NF skinheads and the Nazi past of the NF leadership; eventually due to public internal rifts & strong opposition, they were effectively disbanded.

One of the splinter groups that emerged out of the NF was the British National Party, founded in 1982 by John Tyndall, a well-known anti-semite and Holocaust denier. It made little headway until 1993 when a leading BNP member Derek Beacon won a council seat on the Isle Of Dogs in London's East End. This was the same year young student Stephen Lawrence was brutally murdered by cowardly racists in south-east London, the third such murder following the establishment of the BNP head office in the area.

A united campaign swept Beacon out of office in 1994 - the BNP continued to stagnate during the remainder of the decade. The party's next success was in May 2002, winning three council seats, and in May 2003 a further thirteen; Griffin claims that it was due to his taking over the BNP, but there is much more to it than this arrogant overblown claim. Griffin and other BNP leaders had realised that they could not escape from the extremist ghetto as long as their Nazi image persisted. He learned from the success of Front National in France to present a respectable image by distancing his party from the boot boys and Nazi paraphernalia. Cosmetic changes in policy were made - for example forced repatriation of non-whites were replaced by so-called 'voluntary' repatriation. Not that this means Griffin had changed his views from when he was a young NF organiser, of course. After all it was only in 1998 that he was convicted of inciting racial hatred and received a two-year suspended sentence for publishing anti-semitic & Holocaust denial literature.

In 1998 the media began whipping up anti-immigrant hysteria about asylum seekers being given luxury accommodation at public expense, and Britain being 'flooded' by migrants. This was of course all nonsense - in reality asylum seekers were not permitted to work & claimed minimal benefits. This racist media campaign won some 100,000 votes in the 1999 Euro elections regardless. Another set of events were to benefit the BNP even more. In January 2001 the Oldham Chronicle reported police claims that there had been a significant rise in race attacks on white men by Asians. The beating of a white pensioner was highlighted as a racist attack, although his son profusely denied that it was a race issue.False claims were made that white areas received less government money than Asian areas. As the racial tensions were whipped up, the BNP and NF began attempting marches - one of which was to spark the Oldham riots as Asian youths defended their communities.

In the June general election Griffin had 16% of the vote in Oldham - the highest ever for a fascist party. In the 2002 May council elections this series of events enabled the BNP to win three seats in Burnley and over a fifth of the vote in nineteen other council seats. Over the next few years the BNP continued to pick up councillors in England, at one point reaching over 50. In Barking, east London, and in Stoke they reached double figures and had hopes of taking control; but the icing on the cake was winning two seats in the 2009 European Parliament elections, which coincided with the expenses scandal which disgraced all three mainstream parties. Griffin won in North West England and Andrew Brons, the one-time chair of the defunct NF, in Yorkshire and Humberside. Both scraped in on a low poll but nevertheless it gave them a great boost. It allowed sections of the media including the BBC to treat them as mainstream politicians. It also brought considerable financial prosperity in terms of salaries and expenses. Unfortunately for them though, it also brought them to their peak.

They did not stay long at the top. Wild claims were made that Griffin would win the Barking seat at the general election, that the BNP would take over Barking and Stoke councils. They put up a record 339 candidates spending £170,000 on deposits, nearly all of which were subsequently lost The election results were a disaster; there had been a brilliant campaign by anti-fascists to oppose them wherever they went, which contributed to this downfall. Thousands of Hope Not Hate and Unite Against Fascism attended the constituency every week. Griffin was humiliated in Barking and they lost every councillor up for election. At the same time he squandered tens of thousands of pounds more fighting the Equality and Human Rights Commission desperately attempting to maintain what amounted to a virulent 'whites-only' policy.

Unsurprisingly, much of the membership was upset - calls were made for Griffin's resignation but he only promised to step down in 2013. In theory the BNP constitution allows a challenge to the leader this year but fascists are hardly big on democracy. Ordinary BNP members do not automatically have a vote in internal elections - you have to become an activist then pass certain tests. Then if you want to stand, hundreds of signatures are needed from voting members. Not surprisingly, none of those who tried to stand against Griffin succeeded and all have now either been expelled or left. A series of BNP councillors have resigned recently in protest at Griffin's poor leadership.

So is it over for the British National Party? It could be - but let's make sure. In the last elections in Wales, they were able to enter paper candidates who did not work in the constituency but still pick up an average 1,215 votes per candidate. The BNP cannot possibly win any seats using this method, but if they stand on the regional list - which adds seven or eight constituencies together and uses a proportional representation system - they can come a lot closer; that is how the MEP seats were won in 2009.

Let's not allow the Assembly elections to give the BNP and their English/Welsh Defence League street thug allies a lifeline. We need to ensure that voters know what they really stand for and discuss this with anyone who is tempted to vote BNP in protest. Please use your vote to keep the fascists out of Wales; the future of democracy is in your hands.

EDL support NF rally in Newcastle

The National Front held its annual St George's Day rally in Newcastle on the 23rd of April. The English Defence League showed up to join their friends, but anti-cuts and anti-fascists did not let them take control of the City Centre.

23 April 2011, St George's Day, and Newcastle (upon Tyne) starts the day with the Lord Mayor raising the St George's Cross (England's flag) at the Civic Centre, followed by a parade through the City Centre by the 5th Battalion Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, who also have Honorary Freedom of the City.

Unfortunately, I did not get to see the positive start to the day. As I arrived at around quarter to midday there was a sea of St George's Flag - it was the National Front holding their annual St George's Day rally in Newcastle. "Great," I thought "this isn't going to do St George's Day any PR favours." Why would the openly neo-Nazi National Front celebrate a Middle-Eastern man who is associated with England's good values?

Surely if St George was living in England today then the NF would be calling for his repatriation?

Imagine Monument as a square. On the North (facing Waterstones) and East is the National Front, on the South is a festival celebrating England to 'reclaim St George's Day' (progressive patriotism?) and on the West are the left-wing stalls, including Amnesty International and Coalition of Resistance, as well as Fight Racism, Fight Imperialism.

An interesting mix of groups likely to cause some shouting. The National Front kept trying to make their way towards the left-wing stalls, but a heavy police presence stopped them. Then, just as Coalition of Resistance were about to send people off for the planned UKuncut action, a group chanting "E-E-EDL" came from the South West of Monument (Also Known As Grainger Street).

What were the English Defence League, a group that claims not to be racist and doesn't like being likened to the BNP and NF, doing at a NF rally? Like they have done in previous weeks, the EDL targeted the anti-cuts stalls. It has been reported that under a month ago one EDL member commented that he didn't mind bankers getting large bonuses, as long as they were white.

The Police were swift to act, and quickly formed a line between the English Defence League, anti-cuts, lefties and in turn anti-fascists, and the National Front. A shouting match between the EDL and anti-fascists quickly kicked off, with support from their friends in the NF. The video footage, which you can watch at the bottom of this page, shows all of this. You can see that the EDL turned up angry and had just come out to cause trouble.

There was a much happier feeling on the anti-fascist side, as we chanted and even danced a little bit to the celebration of multiculturalism event starting off behind us, playing such songs as "Everybody Needs Somebody" and spreading messages of tolerance. The feeling on the EDL and NF sides seemed to be that of pure hate. They certainly weren't letting of a positive vibe.

After over an hour's stand off, the NF hurdled off together, leaving behind a few EDL members.

St George's Day should be a celebration of this great country of England and all of its good values, not the rotten racism which peaked during the 80s. The St George's Flag is ours. It's not copyrighted to the NF or EDL.

A FRFI activist started off on the megaphone, shouting about how nationalism breads intolerance and that St George's Day should not be celebrated. That sort of message turns people towards the EDL in fear of their losing their identity. Progressive Patriotism must be welcomed on the left so that particularly working class people do not feel like racism is a legitimate alternative.

On a happier note for anti-fascists, even those who do not celebrate St George's Day, the EDL's Facebook page was taken down today.

Northern Indymedia

NF imitating the BNP?

Much to our amusement the wheels also appear to have come off the National Front election campaign this morning.

We reported yesterday that the NF had announced it would stand candidates across England and Scotland. The NF was very pleased with itself. Not for long, however.

Following the close of nominations it quickly became apparent that the NF had actually failed to get its nomination papers into Birmingham council in time and was therefore ineligible to stand any candidates in the city. This is the first time that anyone at Searchlight can remember the NF not standing in Birmingham.

Only the day before, the NF website had announced six candidates in Birmingham, in Kingstanding, New Oscott, Quinton, Shard End, Sheldon and South Yardley. The website was hastily amended in an attempt to hide the truth of the party’s incompetence.

Whoever runs it does not appear to have told the NF’s press officer Tom Linden. When Searchlight phoned him earlier, Linden had absolutely no knowledge that Birmingham NF had fumbled the ball. Indeed he thought Birmingham NF was standing nine candidates not six. The left hand clearly does not know what the right hand is doing. When we rang back for further comment Linden had turned his phone off.

It would seem that it is not just BNP candidates who are doing a disappearing act.

Thanks to Hope not Hate

The final countdown...

Nick step down now!

A tired and rather bloated Nick Griffin has looked better; as a fresh-faced fascist in the 1980s he projected a suave, revolutionary image as he and other middle class and university educated young men took control and strangled the life out of the moribund and predominantly working class National Front.

The years of ideological neglect which saw the once mighty NF falter into little more than a spent Hitler-admiring political sect, were swept away with the ascent of the Cambridge graduate. He used long words and waved strange flags, he excited and enthused as much as he shocked and confused his followers. In his own words, you were viewed as old if you were in your thirties. He then lost control of the NF, dumped it and walked away, not long afterwards being declared a bankrupt. An incident with a shotgun robbed him of his eye.

Nearly twenty years on from the death of his “Political Soldier” NF, Griffin must be experiencing déjà vu. For the second time in his unillustrious career, Griffin is watching another party he led turn in on itself and more disturbingly for Griffin, against him again.

The British National Party and Griffin in particular are now in serious trouble. The party has gone from extreme and bullish to bellicose, lazy and confused in just over a year. The rot had set in well before last year’s electoral humiliations.

The problems had been evident since the moment Griffin took over the leadership in 1999. Each time there was discourse or a popular uprising, political conditions were such for Griffin and the BNP that he could simply paper over the cracks as the party’s members clung onto their wild political dreams.

The party under Griffin has had no fewer than four serious splits – splits that each time dented the party. Even Eddy Butler, Griffin’s most formidable and experienced opponent to date, admits that despite his fears and doubts about Griffin’s behaviour it “seemed stupid” for him to take a stand on principle “when the BNP seemed politically to be taking the correct course”. Even if, as Butler claims further, when the BNP made its first electoral gains in 2002 “Nick Griffin copied word for word my discourse”.

Of course, Griffin has never been alone when it has come to driving his political ambitions into the wilderness. His trip up the revolutionary and religious garden path in the 1980s was inspired and facilitated by Italian fascists wanted for questioning over terrorist acts, who turned his Conservative head towards dead Eastern European demigods, Colonel Gaddafi, stupidity and a temporary political suicide.

It’s either a lack of confidence in spite of his arrogance or perhaps extremely poor judgement in others that has ensured Griffin has never sunk alone. The younger and impressionable Patrick Harrington acted as Griffin’s “wingman” during their NF days, even obligingly photographing Griffin standing in front of a portrait of their political hero Colonel Gaddafi while on a begging mission to Tripoli. Harrington then took the picture to the London magazine Time Out, exposing the NF’s leadership to an uncomfortable scrutiny that has followed them everywhere since then. Since the pair ran the NF into the ground, Harrington has borne the brunt of the venom directed at the two by former members and observers, while Griffin has made a thousand public apologies and self-criticisms for his few years of revolutionary weakness, even backing a violent street approach when joining the BNP in the mid nineties, to stave off the party’s modernisers at the time.

Harrington appears to have developed no such weakness for popularity contests, and since joining Griffin on the BNP’s European payroll and as leader of the BNP’s trade union front Solidarity, has seemingly continued a destructive and controversial course that Griffin so warmed to. Others have fallen by the wayside; Dr Mark Deavin, formerly of the UK Independence Party and a close friend of David Irving, jumped ship when exposed as Griffin’s right-hand man by the Cook Report in an exposé screened in 1997 exposing Griffin’s plan to take over the party. The NF’s Wayne Ashcroft also deserted Griffin after he too was exposed. His job was supposed to be the delivery of the rump of what was left of the NF, a party that remained ferociously anti-Griffin.

While the old guard put up a formidable fight to stop Griffin sweeping to power in the BNP’s first ever leadership contest in 1999, they were crushed by a campaign orchestrated to humiliate them and destroy their own political careers and aspirations by ridicule, populism and modernisation.

Griffin’s eventual running mate for wresting control of the BNP was the convicted bomber Tony Lecomber, a man who had also reinvented himself after a period of terrorism, street thuggery and imprisonment. Lecomber had used the second chance given to him by the party to get himself close enough to John Tyndall, who was then the BNP leader, to be in a prime position when the time came to deliver the fatal and personal blows to Tyndall’s leadership.

A steady growth and the capture of several council seats around the country from 2002 onwards allowed Griffin the sort of leeway Butler speaks of. Scandals involving extensions to his family home and the sale of second hand cars in the party’s publications caused large rifts, large enough even to see off some deputy leaders, but Griffin’s real weakness has been to surround himself during his 12-year tenure with people of either dubious morals or personality defects.

Lecomber later fell by the wayside after Griffin’s former bodyguard exposed what is alleged to have been a plot orchestrated by Lecomber to hire him for politically motivated murders. The bodyguard, an alleged gangland hitman, fell by the wayside himself and suffered too from the party’s desire to purge not people of questionable values and lifestyle, but those expressing dissent in what they felt was the defence of the party over Griffin’s personal interests.

The closer people get to Griffin, the more obvious it seems that it is their own judgement call over whether they protect the interests of the party or adhere to the cult of Griffin’s personality. By keeping and promoting people with behavioural, political or lifestyle skeletons in their cupboards, Griffin is able to keep a lid on dissenters and the competition firmly at bay. But the past 12 months has seen this all collapse like a house of cards.

The Belfast operation, a call centre staffed by the family of both Griffin and its owner Jim Dowson, drew national and international attention to the way that Griffin’s BNP did business. Dowson, an evangelical anti-abortionist with an ego almost as big as Griffin’s, had a record for screwing money out of people by any means necessary and an arrogance that demanded he was obeyed and was always right. Initially Griffin promoted Dowson to run almost every operation in the party, from funding to staffing and even some aspects of campaigning. When Dowson spoke, party members and employees had to dance to his tune. The large sums of cash funnelled into the party were far more important than the constant noise of disquiet emanating from within the party over the business practices, which often bordered on plain harassment.

Griffin’s election to the European Parliament in 2009, his tenth year as leader, quelled an internal revolt. Dowson took a huge amount of the credit, the success of Griffin and Andrew Brons in getting elected to Europe was due to the large amount of money Dowson had raised and the professional looking operation he ran for the party. The dissent in the party immediately quietened down, but it was perhaps to be the last great political celebration of Griffin’s leadership. Dowson paid the piper and now the man described as Griffin’s consigliere, a term for a Mafia adviser, was calling the tune and being referred to as the party’s owner.

Searchlight threw a large amount of resources into investigating the call centre and Dowson in particular. Over painstaking hours investigating Dowson’s financial dealings, we uncovered a paper trail that began with the exposé of the truth behind who actually owned the BNP’s “Truth Truck”, a long wheelbase vehicle the party never actually owned, despite claiming they had bought it. We also exposed – at great pain to the BNP’s cautious membership – that call centre workers were in fact not dedicated ideological fanatics like themselves but were in fact hired help from a Belfast employment agency.

Working out of Belfast we began to turn the screw on the BNP as far away as in Brussels. We uncovered a series of plush properties that the BNP were leasing, as well as funding and property scams and, most surprising of all, that at the peak of the BNP’s activity there, no fewer than four staff members were passing or had passed information about the BNP’s internal affairs to various newspapers.

As Dowson grew increasingly unpopular with the BNP’s members, Griffin more and more relied upon him. Dowson had heated clashes with staff members who eventually sued, costing the party large sums of money. The party ran up huge debts and legal bills, as Dowson also gave disastrously damaging legal advice over the Marmite election broadcast.

As the BNP prepared for the 2010 elections, the lack of money began to kick in. Membership renewals began to tail off and there was a recruitment freeze to contend with, resulting from the legal action by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. Internally, the BNP was saying that it could take not only the Barking parliamentary seat but bizarrely another two seats, as well as full control of Barking and Dagenham council. To ensure this, Griffin believed that he had to spearhead the campaign personally, choosing for himself the plum Barking seat and putting out of joint the nose of the party’s London Assembly member Richard Barnbrook.

In the absence of either dissent or reason, senior party sycophants believed that all this was actually possible. Large debts were run up in preparation for an enormous campaign and, as creditors closed on the party, new credit accounts were opened. Belfast, on Dowson’s own doorstep, appeared to have a number of businesses grateful for the BNP’s trade.

The first high profile person to break ranks was Mark Collett, the party’s director of publicity and former Griffin protégé. For a while he had been lined up as Griffin’s possible successor and had even dated Griffin’s daughter, Jennifer. Collett, another one with shadows hanging over him, became the victim of a bizarre invented story that he had attempted to have Griffin and Dowson murdered.

On 8 May 2010, Griffin was telling the media that “London is finished” and that he was only there (at the election count in Barking and Dagenham) to “pick up the bodies”. While Griffin faced the hostile and jubilant media Butler and Barnbrook found a small room in the same building as the count and began to plot. The splits began almost immediately.

2010 ended for Griffin with his daughter fleeing Belfast and the BNP shut out of their office by Dowson. Their former staff there are currently part of a class action, together with other former employees and creditors, to obtain monies owed to them. The current coterie surrounding Griffin is a collection of people with dubious personal characteristics and political baggage as is always the way. It consists of disgraced former school teachers, alleged drug dealers, pornographers and swingers. At their head is the returned Patrick Harrington, as unpopular as ever and not even a party member. Harrington is alleged by BNP rebels to be an IRA supporting sadomasochism fan.

Griffin and Harrington have responded to the resignations and turmoil with legal letters, expulsions and a further purging of members who refuse to toe the Griffin line. Dowson credits Harrington with driving him out of the party. Harrington responds to most criticisms by issuing legal letters.

Griffin is facing a further election meltdown this May. Defending 11 council seats, he finds himself with more BNP stalwarts without membership than with. The dissenters are advising people not to stand for the party and are now calling on those who left the party as far back as in the 1990s to join them in reconciliation.

The mood in the party is black. Stalinesque summonses to appear before disciplinary committees arrive randomly and unrelentingly in party organisers’ post. Members are banned even from reading anti-Griffin websites or being in the same room as rebels. Two large meetings in the past month in Yorkshire and the North East have ended with paid-up members publicly calling for Griffin to stand down. In response, those individuals receive summonses to attend further disciplinary meetings. Former high flyers such as Nick Cass and Chris Beverley are the latest to have been suspended; others follow daily.

Last week, the first manifestation of the long list of Griffin and BNP debts turned up on the Griffin family’s door. Four large men from Belfast arrived demanding monies from Griffin’s parents. Some people will not be so easily brushed away.

Hope not Hate

'National Front' attack on home

An Indian couple living in the Waterside area of the city have been targeted in a late night racist attack.

The couple, who asked not to be named, awoke to find ‘NF’ and ‘Out’ daubed on their front door, black paint poured over their car and three of its tyres slashed. The incident took place in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Speaking about the attack the householder also revealed that, on occasions, the family car has had stones thrown at it as they drove through the estate.

On the latest incident, she said: “My husband awoke to find the ‘NF Out’ sign painted on the kitchen window to the front of out home. When he went outside to investigate, he saw they had also slashed three tyres on the car. I’m very scared as my husband and I work opposite shifts. I can’t even walk home from work on my own anymore. I just don’t feel safe here anymore. We are already looking into moving out of the area.”

The woman, who moved to the area 18 months ago, was full of praise for her neighbours following the attack.

“The neighbours helped us remove the paint and clean the windows and the PSNI have been very helpful following the attack” she said. “The crime prevention officer was very kind to us. To be honest, the neighbours have been good to us and the car is perfect now.”

Police confirmed they were investigating damage caused to the house and car. A spokeperson said: “The incident is being treated as racially motivated and police would appeal for anyone who was in the area and saw suspicious activity to contact Strand Road police station.”

The telephone number to call with any information is 0845 600 8000. Alternatively information can be passed on anonymously through the 'Crimestoppers' charity on freephone 0800555111.

Londonderry Sentinel

Open Letter to Doncaster Mayor Peter Davies

This open letter is currently being circulated amongst trade unionists and citizens of Doncaster, as a response to the actions of the Doncaster Mayor Peter Davies. The petition below will be added to the physical petition and presented to the Mayor at the Mansion House.

Petition: Open Letter to Peter Davies

Mayor Davies,

STOP ATTACKING EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES

Since your election you have denied many times that you are racist, homophobic and sexist. You argue that you are against something called ‘political correctness’, and say you will get rid of ‘non-jobs’ in Doncaster. We the undersigned believe that your attack on ‘political correctness’ is nothing more than a smoke screen to undermine the equalities agenda that enables people who suffer discrimination to effectively challenge it. We totally disagree with your claim that your elimination of groups dedicated to helping those who suffer discrimination such as the Multi Racial Partnership will bring social cohesion. Your policies will trivialise discrimination and allow intolerance and bigotry to grow.

You proudly boast that you will axe translation services in Doncaster, as if this service is unnecessary and ‘politically correct’. You fail to understand that people in Doncaster who do not have English as a first language must have some help if they are to integrate into the community, find work, housing, learn about British law and become citizens. Scrapping translation services isolates the people who are most likely to suffer discrimination, increases and institutionalises intolerance and increases division, not cohesion. Your decision to withdraw funding from Doncaster Pride merely comforted homophobic bigots and gave offense to the LGBT community. What is wrong with saying that Doncaster actively celebrates diversity? We demand that you commit to the funding of Doncaster Pride and thereby commit to promoting tolerance and diversity.

You argue that women and ethnic minorities do not need special groups to defend their rights because we all have equal entitlement to our rights already. You fail to understand that the various bodies you attack were brought into existence because these groups were being denied their rights. The denial of rights based on racist, sexist or homophobic prejudice divides our community and destroys social cohesion. That is precisely why the Multi Racial Partnership was set up. You have said we do not need special groups because the police are there to deal with illegal racist acts, but the police themselves say they are too busy to deal with this on their own.

In a recent debate about crime in Doncaster the police officer on the panel emphasised the value of breaking down the perception of the police as a racist institution so that those who suffer attacks will feel more confident about coming forward. The police, it would appear, are being ‘politically correct’ to the advantage of their work and Doncaster.

You have also claimed that you will be ‘looking to see if Doncaster council bans the use of any specific words by staff’ (Daily Mail, 10/08/09). There have to be some limits as to the language DMBC staff will use – what will they be? Will people be able to use words regardless of whether others find them offensive? The Macpherson Report (1999) that called the Metropolitan Police ‘institutionally racist’ showed clearly that officers with racist attitudes used racist language. Words like ‘paki’ and ‘nigger’ were common. The same police force failed to find the killers of Black student Stephen Lawrence. Offensive language should be prohibited and the victims should be supported by DMBC, not trivialised as ‘politically correct’.

You fail to understand that once we start changing the equalities agenda that the overwhelming majority of professionals support, it will be difficult to stop. The racist, homophobic and sexist bigots have already started to interpret your policies as an endorsement of their repugnant views. Prejudice can lead to violence. Do you want innocent blood on your hands?

You say you are not a bigot, but your policies and comments are encouraging bigotry. You have company. The fascist British National Party and the National Front are also keen on attacking ‘political correctness’. You have to acknowledge that at some point the attack on political correctness does become racist, homophobic and sexist. It seems to us that you want to court popularity by going for the politically correct phantoms of the gutter press, with their stories about banning the use of ‘manholes’ and ‘blackboards’. But the equalities agenda is a vital part of the fabric of our public services and we will not see it destroyed. The jobs you want to axe will increase the unemployment blighting our town, and increase racism, sexism, homophobia and social division.

Sign the petition

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 councillor set to stand against council

A BNP councillor will stand against a policy to promote equality within Markyate Parish Council at a council meeting tonight.

Simon Deacon, BNP councillor and former leading National Front activist, called the Equal Opportunities Policy a waste of time and vowed not to support it.

Speaking before the meeting he said: "I'm totally against it. Why do we have to have all this bureaucracy? "People come here with work permits and they are supposed to be put on an equal footing. Therefore somebody goes for a job and those other people who have been here for a matter of months can apply for the same job - that is what the Equal Opportunities Policy is all about. It is unfair.

"I have gone against things before with the council - that is democracy, that is politics. "I have to do what I think is right. I am sorry if that offends others but I have to go with my gut instinct and go with what I believe in, otherwise I'm a hypocrite."

But campaigners argue Deacon should resign from the council if he does not agree with the policy. Jon Berry, of Three Counties Unite Against Facism, said: "He purports to be a representative of the community and it is absolutely clear that he regards some members of the community more important than others."

This is Hertfordshire

Halloween horror of graffiti vandals

Spray-can vandals spent Halloween night defacing a largely Jewish area.

Walls, fences and street signs in several roads in Radlett, Hertfordshire, were daubed with antisemitic graffiti. On the worst-affected road, The Drive, swastikas and slogans including “Fuck the Jews”, “I hate Jews” and “Die Packies [sic]” were painted on the Tarmac and pavements. The letters NF, BNP and KKK were also daubed and eggs were thrown at one house.

A 71-year-old man, who lives nearby but asked not to be named, said the graffiti had reduced him to tears. “I’m not Jewish, but I lived through the war and couldn’t understand then how man could do that to another man. Now I feel things haven’t changed. I’m appalled. It’s a close community here and we are all united over this.”

A 41-year-old mother-of-four, who also requested anonymity, said she believed those responsible came from outside Radlett “and targeted the area specifically because there are many Jewish people”.

She added: “It’s frightening because I have children and it’s not a good feeling when someone hates you. These weren’t brave people. They did it in the middle of the night and then ran.”

Other residents echoed their sentiments.

PC Suzan Loughran, a hate-crimes officer from Hertfordshire police, wrote to people who complained acknowledging that “the damage was clearly antisemitic and offensive and caused distress to many people”. She said CCTV images would be examined and a can retrieved at the scene would be tested for fingerprints.

Chief Inspector Mark Hunter said: “We are taking every course of action to trace those responsible. I want to reassure residents that incidents of this nature are rare in Hertfordshire. But they will not be tolerated.”

Jewish Chronicle

Solidarity update - BNP's Nick Griffin heavily criticised for interference

Much information has been received by Lancaster UAF over the past week, the bulk of it concerning the Solidarity disaster, its unconstitutional and possibly illegal Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) and the bizarre and very probably fraudulent election that led to putting Patrick Harrington and the BNP firmly in control of the breakaway Solidarity - the one we'll refer to as Solidarity B.

First things first. If you've not been following the Solidarity fiasco, you're going to be easily confused, in which case you should check out some of our previous posts from June 22nd, June 25th, June 26th, July 5th, July 11th and July 17th.

It has been announced (and repeated ad nauseum) that the support for an EGM was overwhelming, with an excess of the two-thirds membership requirement voting in favour. We've now received five emails from members who have all reported that they never received a ballot paper at all, clearly indicating that there are one or two porkies being told. Based on past experience, we would suggest that the Griffin/Harrington camp are the liars.

The postal ballot itself was described as a 'nonsense', a 'farce' and a 'sham ballot' by a poster on the Stormfront nazi forum who said;

'The "voting paper" that i received was a nonsense. there was no number to the slip and no way of proving who was sending in the slip, and who would count them and how. It was a farce reminiscent of a Zimbabwean election...'

Indeed it was. There was no independent officer to oversee the process, nobody except Griffin and Harrington to send out the ballots, no tellers to count the votes, no indication of how many voted for, against or abstained, nor was there any proof that any ballot papers had been sent out at all.

All the information we have received indicates that the EGM was attended by just fifteen to twenty members - at least we assume they were all members - and a number of heavies, presumably to keep out the riff-raff like the rightful President and Vice-President of Solidarity, Clive Potter and Tim Hawke.

From this fifteen to twenty in attendance, seven were chosen to represent the Executive Committee and one, Graham Williamson, was clearly put in post as the union's public relations guru - despite the fact that he has no experience of public relations at all. More on Williamson here. Near as dammit half of those who attended then, went along in the sure and certain knowledge that they would be voted into a position of some authority - assuming we concede that the Solidarity B union has any authority at all, which we don't.

Whether you like them or loathe them, unions are rightly famed for one single thing - their strict adherence to the rules of the union, or the Constitution. The Constitution of any union is sacrosanct and no member or officer would consider breaking any part of it or bypassing it. A change in a union's Constitution will only be carried out (generally) at the Annual General Meeting.

Part of the problem with Solidarity B is that there is already a Solidarity union (Solidarity A) in place complete with a properly drawn-up and agreed Constitution. Harrington deciding, for whatever reason, that Solidarity A is not for him, and running off and forming Solidarity B, is, whatever way you care to look at it, entirely unconstitutional.

Disregarding all the convoluted facts and outright lies that have been told about the Solidarity split, the simple fact is that it was reported that Tim Hawke and Clive Potter had problems with Patrick Harrington's version of the accounts. It's worth remembering that that is what started the whole Solidarity fiasco off. Harrington then promptly denied the bona-fide President and Vice-President of Solidarity access to the Paypal account which holds the union's funds (in other words, the member's fees that were paid to the properly constituted Solidarity), and denied them access to the membership list and the union website.

With Nick Griffin's collaboration, he hastily presented his version of events and the wheels were put in motion for an entirely unconstitutional EGM. He also announced (again with the BNP's help) the establishment of three new Solidarity (B) websites, announcing repeatedly that they were the proper sites to visit. You'll note that Griffin and the BNP is prominent in this mess but only on Harrington's side. So much for the BNP's belief in fair play and (excuse my laughter) democratic values.

Just my opinion but all this has a distinct taste of cover-up and, rather more importantly, fraud.

Since Harrington's rapid departure from Solidarity A, the internet has been awash with lies and misinformation about Hawke and Potter. They did nothing to present the union as professional, they did nothing at all, they didn't want to see a membership campaign, they didn't want a stall at the BNP's Red, White and Blue event, that they were 'State-controlled', that they were part of a 'far-left' plot etc etc. Anything, in fact, to discredit them in the eyes of the membership - repeated by Harrington and the BNP in the clear hope that if it's repeated often enough, it'll be believed.

Though we're reluctant as a rule to credit anyone on the far-right with any decency at all, Potter and Hawke have generally maintained a dignified silence throughout this disaster, quietly working in the background maintaining their union and sticking to the Constitution rigorously. Having said that, we believe that Solidarity - both versions - should be barred from becoming a bona-fide trade union when they are patently not a trade union, simply a support group for so-called nationalists run by a combination of the NF, the ITP and the BNP - all of them arguably fascist groups.

Following, as far as we can see, the proper procedure, Potter and Hawke eventually expelled Harrington. The letter of expulson is enlightening and well worth a read;

'With reference to an Extraordinary Executive Meeting held on the 8th July 2007 I inform you that you have been instantly expelled from the Union due to gross, unacceptable behaviour in your refusal to accept your suspension dated 3rd of June 2007.

Your refusal to accept an investigation of your irregular behaviour regarding union funds, and still refusing to comply with the Official Union Executive in these concerns is no longer sustainable.

Also the other main reasons for expulsion from the union are as followed:

1. Hijacking the unions website and claiming you were illegally suspended from your office – which is false. In this matter you can refer to the Union Constitution on the following
Section 1 (b), Section 7 (a), Section 8 (a) (b), Section 12 (c) – specifically.
Section 12 (e) – specifically.
Section 14 (a) – specifically unless you appeal – no executive member is subject to the same rules as its members.
Section 15 (a) – your refusal to accept an investigation by the Executive through their nomination of a Special Auditor on this matter.
Section 19 (d) – your long-term refusal to submit the books to the Unions Head Office.

2. Bringing the Unions Governing Body and the Union into Gross Disrepute by working with the BNP leadership to undermine their independence and hijacking the unions website by their abuse of relationship of this union in this matter.

3. Manipulation of Account with regards to your apparent transfer of £700 from the main HSBC Solidarity Account to a Business account, many days after you were notified of your suspension.

4. Stating on Union Accounts that their was a loan to a member of £150 which is not true as the loan was given to the union, not the other way round.

You have gone to extreme lengths to circumscribe being investigated by this union, to such a degree that you issue publicly gross malicious and false lies, concerning the actions of this governing body in your suspension. You falsely claim that we are duped, by several Marxists, and we look forward to you naming such ghosts. These malicious and false lies will be in due course answered at an appropriate time.

This union’s Executive in the position of President and Vice-President take great umbrage to the false use of our Names in your illegal use of the unions website and request you stop this at once. In any serious professional union the processes of its governing body and its relationship with members, is clearly defined, in its constitution, which ours also reflects in this matter. You have totally disrupted and attempted to destroy this good order and discipline of the union in such matters and brought it into Gross Disrepute. On these grounds alone let alone other serious charges, no serious professional union could allow such a destructive personality, which you are, to exist within its body in any capacity. On this ground alone you are immediately expelled from this union on these charges.

Please note that you have SEVEN days from the date of receipt of this letter to appeal and present any claims that you believe is illegal in your expulsion on these grounds.'

Assuming points 3 and 4 to be correct, these seem to me (as a person with no formal legal training but with a reasonable sense of right and wrong) to be criminal in nature and one wonders whether this has yet been passed on to the police. Rumour has us believe that it has but, if not, we have to ask ourselves why not?

There are now two unions claiming the name Solidarity. There are people who will join one simply because they loathe the people involved in the other. Griffin, in yet another attempt to deflect any well-deserved humiliation at his unwarranted interference, will try to persuade the BNP membership to switch to the Harrington/BNP coalition Solidarity, then will claim the takeover as a huge success leaving many members less than happy. One Stormfront poster expressed his disatisfaction with Nick Griffin's unwanted interference thus;

'...no leader should be free of criticism and I must say that criticism here is well-deserved. He has made a very flawed judgement and a crucial error in regards to assisting the hi-jacking of this Solidarity Union. By allying himself with an old National Front comrade over his own members and destroying any concept of decency, truth, right and constitution then he has sadly behaved dishonorably and unlawfully. He has given his enemies, both on the Right and on the Left, the ammunition that they need. He is now a damaged man who has shown his weakness and ineptude and his failure of leadership. This is very sad for someone like myself who truly believed and followed Nick Griffin, who still admires his achievements and his talents, but has seen his followers betrayed.'

The Solidarity fiasco started off as something of a joke which has descended rapidly into a farce. Considering the union has only existed for roughly a year and a half, its short life has been plagued with chaos (as is relatively normal for anything involving the BNP) and the only sensible thing to do is to put it out of its misery. Consequently, we would like people to write to the Certifications Officer, asking for an investigation of the union(s) and the appalling mess in which it seems to have got itself. A decent investigation by an outside body might uncover a lot more than just interference from Nick Griffin and co. It wouldn't hurt to send a copy or separate letter/email to the TUC, the Trade and Industry Secretary (now the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform) and your local MP too. Addresses below. It's time to shut this rubbish down before ordinary people start getting sucked into it because someone tells them Solidarity is a great union. It isn't. It's crap and it needs to go.

David Taylor
Certification Office for Trade Unions and Employers' Associations
Brandon House, 180 Borough High Street, London SE1 1LW
Tel: 020 7210 3734
Fax: 020 7210 3612
CERT@certoffice.org

Trades Union Congress
Congress House
Great Russell Street
London
WC1B 3LS
Tel: 020 7636 4030
Fax: 020 7636 0632
No email? Shameful.

Rt Hon John Hutton MP
Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
22 Hartington Street, Barrow in Furness, Cumbria LA14 5SL
Telephone: 01229 431204
Fax: 01229 432016
huttonj@parliament.uk

You can find out who your local MP is and write to him/her here.