After the Greek debt crisis, Europe may be headed for its next nightmare

As if the economic ramifications of a full-blown Greek default were not terrifying enough, the political consequences could be far worse. A chaotic eurozone breakup would cause irreparable damage to the European integration project, the central pillar of Europe’s political stability since World War II. It would destabilize not only the highly indebted European periphery, but also core countries such as France and Germany, which have both been the architects of that project.

The nightmare scenario would also be a 1930s-style victory for political extremism. Fascism, Nazism and communism were children of a backlash against globalization that had been building since the end of the 19th century, feeding on the anxieties of groups that felt disenfranchised and threatened by expanding market forces and cosmopolitan elites.

Free trade and the gold standard had required downplaying domestic priorities such as social reform, nation-building, and cultural reassertion. Economic crisis and the failure of international cooperation undermined not only globalization, but also the elites that upheld the existing order.

As my Harvard colleague Jeff Frieden has written, this paved the path for two distinct forms of extremism. Faced with the choice between equity and economic integration, communists chose radical social reform and economic self-sufficiency. Faced with the choice between national assertion and globalism, fascists, Nazis and nationalists chose nation-building.

Fortunately, fascism, communism and other forms of autocratic ideologies are passé today. But similar tensions between economic integration and local politics have long been simmering. Europe’s single market has taken shape much faster than Europe’s political community has; economic integration has leaped ahead of political integration.

The result is that mounting concerns about the erosion of economic security, social stability and cultural identity could not be handled through mainstream political channels. National political structures became too constrained to offer effective remedies, while European institutions still remain too weak to command allegiance.

It is the extreme right that has benefited most from the centrists’ failure. In Finland, the heretofore unknown True Finn party capitalized on the resentment around eurozone bailouts to finish a close third in April’s general election. In the Netherlands, Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom wields enough power to play kingmaker; without its support, the minority liberal government would likely collapse. In France, the National Front, which finished second in the 2002 presidential election, has been revitalized under Marine Le Pen.

Nor is the backlash confined to eurozone members. Elsewhere in Scandinavia, the Sweden Democrats, a party with neo-Nazi roots, entered parliament last year with nearly 6 percent of the popular vote. In Britain, one recent poll indicated that as many as two-thirds of Conservatives want Britain to leave the European Union.

Political movements of the extreme right have traditionally fed on anti-immigration sentiment. But the Greek, Irish, Portuguese and other bailouts, together with the euro’s troubles, have given them fresh ammunition. Their Euro-skepticism certainly appears to be vindicated by events. When Marine Le Pen was recently asked if she would unilaterally withdraw from the euro, she replied confidently, “When I am president, in a few months’ time, the eurozone probably won’t exist.”

As in the 1930s, the failure of international cooperation has compounded centrist politicians’ inability to respond adequately to their domestic constituents’ economic, social, and cultural demands. The European project and the eurozone have set the terms of debate to such an extent that, with the eurozone in tatters, these elites’ legitimacy will receive an even more serious blow than it already has.

Europe’s centrist politicians have committed themselves to a strategy of “more Europe” that is too rapid to ease local anxieties, yet not rapid enough to create a real Europe-wide political community. They have stuck for far too long to an intermediate path that is unstable and beset by tensions. By holding on to a vision of Europe that has proven unviable, Europe’s centrist elites are endangering the idea of a unified Europe itself.

Economically, the least bad option is to ensure that the inevitable defaults and departures from the eurozone are carried out in as orderly and coordinated a fashion as possible. Politically, too, a similar reality check is needed. What the current crisis demands is an explicit reorientation away from external financial obligations and austerity to domestic preoccupations and aspirations. Just as healthy domestic economies are the best guarantor of an open world economy, healthy domestic polities are the best guarantor of a stable international order.

The challenge is to develop a new political narrative emphasizing national interests and values without overtones of nativism and xenophobia. If centrist elites do not prove themselves up to the task, those of the far right will gladly fill the vacuum, minus the moderation.

That is why outgoing Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou had the right idea with his aborted call for a referendum. That move was a belated attempt to recognize the primacy of domestic politics, even if investors viewed it, in the words of a Financial Times editor, as “playing with fire.” Scrapping the referendum simply postpones the day of reckoning and raises the ultimate costs to be paid by Greece’s new leadership.

Today, the question is no longer whether politics will become more populist and less internationalist; it is whether the consequences of that shift can be managed without turning ugly. In Europe’s politics, as in its economics, it seems there are no good options – only less bad ones.

Dani Rodrik, Professor of International Political Economy at Harvard University, is the author of “The Globalization Paradox: Democracy and the Future of the World Economy.” THE DAILY STAR publishes this commentary in collaboration with Project Syndicate © (www.project-syndicate.org).

(Lebanon) Daily Star

UKIP: the BNP in suits?

This article was submitted by one of our readers, Roddy Newman. 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.

Many BNP voters are now turning to UKIP, because they do not like what they have heard about the BNP's fascism, and because they are unaware that leading UKIP figures themselveshave fascist links, which were discussed by then Labour MEP Richard Corbett in this article (PDF download) about UKIP. The fascist links include an unofficial pact between the BNP and UKIP which the BNP has now admitted to the existence of.

Richard Corbett's article also pointed out that the UKIP leadership refused to condemn a letter bomb campaign against MEP's from other parties, and said they could understand the reasons for the campaign.

Furthermore, since Corbett's 2004 article, UKIP MEP Geoffrey Bloom, who is a climate change denier, has praised the French Secret Service's 1985 terrorist bombing of the Greenpeace "Rainbow Warrior" ship, as this BBC News article reveals:

As leading UKIP figures have fascist links, and think terrorism is OK, it is clear that UKIP is not a normal democratic political party. In other Western European countries it would be viewed in the same light as their far-right parties in fact, as the BNP are so extreme by the standards of other Western European nations, that their far-right politicians refused to form a formal group with the BNP in the European Parliament, because they said they would be badly damaged in the eyes of their countries' voters if they did. For example, Belgium's Flemish Appeal was badly damaged after their then deputy leader questioned the size of the Holocaust.

By contrast, as Britain has, overall, by far the lowest quality newspapers in Western Europe, because so many British people prefer reading celebrity gossip to reading about news, Nick Griffin's past Holocaust denial has not been as big a political issue, and many BNP voters have as a result taken until recently to find out that the BNP is a fascist party which pretends not to be.

So, as many BNP voters are now turning to UKIP, anti-fascist activists ought to be aware that the fascism linked, pro-terrorism UKIP could become the main party of British fascism in the future, and that the far more fascism-linked, and far more pro-terrorism BNP could become a much smaller fringe party like today's NF.

I showed in this 2009 article, "The BNP and terrorism", that the BNP have more terrorist links than possibly any other fascist party on the planet, and showed in another 2009 article, that the BNP leader was an admirer of a now dead American fascist party leader who openly advocated killing all of the world's billions of non-white people and Jews, and machine-gunning feminists and anti-racists. Not even UKIP can compete with the BNP in the terrorism and fascism stakes.

The Reality of Right-Wing Nationalism Hits Norway

75 years ago this October, my grandfather, the son of Jewish immigrants to London's poor East End, took to the streets with thousands of others to stop the ultra-nationalist British Union of Fascists from marching through a largely Jewish area.
The event turned into a pitched battle, with Oswald Mosley's fascists and the Metropolitan Police on one side, and locals, Jews, Irish, socialists and communists on the other. The fight (which became known as the Battle of Cable Street) ended with victory for the anti-fascist side, with the fascists and police beaten off the streets.

Following the Holocaust, Fascism became a dirty word, but Nationalists have continually tried to detoxify their brand and reinstate themselves into the mainstream. Mosley returned in the 1950s, this time labelling black immigrants, rather than Jews and Irish, as the main "threat" to the "British way of life". In the late-60s, Conservative MP Enoch Powell became famous for predicting that mass immigration would lead to "rivers of blood". Through the 70s, right-wing nationalism and street-thuggery rose in the form of the National Front, but the movement was resisted on the streets, and finally dissolved in the early-80s as a new, multicultural music scene brought young black and white people together socially. By the 90s, nationalism seemed to be a thing of the past, but the 9/11 attacks gave the racist right a chance to re-brand as an anti-Islam force. Nearly ten years on, and we can see that the "Islam is a threat" message has worked its way from fascist meeting rooms into the political mainstream-right in Europe and the US.

Gradually, the anti-Islam message has morphed back into a more traditional anti-immigration message, being amplified by the right-wing tabloid press here (and Fox News in the US). The nationalist, anti-immigration message isn't easy to sell; it relies on persuading people that the past (or rather, an imaginary, idyllic past) is being replaced by a more dangerous future as immigrants join their society. Prior to 9/11 it seemed that the Western World had moved beyond irrational fear of foreigners, and that society's liberal tendencies had prevailed; but we soon learned that race hate and xenophobia weren't far beneath the surface; that US and European society had changed less since the 1940s than we'd convinced ourselves.

When the drum of fear and hate is being pounded consistently, the infection will naturally spread. For most fear-infected morons, the outlet of Twitter or a blog is enough. But it's inevitable that angry or mentally-disturbed individuals like Anders Behring Breivik will become infected too, and violence will follow, as it did last Friday in Norway. Breivik's choice of target, the mainstream, liberal Norwegian Labour Party, was a natural one for anyone understanding the history of European nationalism. He chose a multicultural youth camp, something designed to ease racial tensions in Norway, but also proof (in Breivik's confused world view) that evil forces were trying to dilute Norway's racial and cultural past into something new and alien.

Whether Breivik acted alone, it can be stated with certainty that he was influenced by master-manipulators of the nationalist movement. It's already been established from his own blog (English translation provided by @Dilmunite) that he admired the far-right English Defence League; according to many EDL Facebook posts, Breivik had many EDL Facebook friends, and attended an EDL rally in the UK in 2010. I'd recommend following @BanTheEDL and @EverythingEDL on Twitter for a collection of evidence linking group members with Breivik.

Another key Breivik influencer was someone I've often mentioned: Pamela Geller, a self-appointed "defender" of America against "creeping Islamification". Pamela spent the weekend tweeting new myths distancing herself from the terrorist, for her army of moron followers to disseminate.

In my Twitter feed, I've long watched morons large and small disseminate misinformation about Islam, Muslims and immigration. Their purpose was to spread enough hatred widely enough that sooner or later someone would take action, and set a chain of violence underway. It looks as though they found a new disciple (though not their first - right-wing terror plots have long been of concern, especially in the US), and no doubt other "white heroes" are watching and contemplating whether to follow Breivik's example (as was clearly his intention).

Western governments now need to decide whether Islamaphobic lies and smears equate to hate speech, and whether to prosecute the most virulent of these liars. The shock following the Norway attacks will quickly pass, and lack of action against armchair-nationalist morons by governments will result in more confidence in the nationalist movements, and inevitably more violence.

Many thanks to Moron Watch for this article.

BNP "delighted" with North East job losses

Italian migrant and BNP spokesman Giuseppe de Santis has said that fellow members of the racist party will be "delighted" to know that eight jobs are under threat at the Northern Echo newspaper, owned by Newsquest.

The jobs under threat include those of two sub editors, a reporter, an assistant editor, a production editor, a website assistant, a librarian and a graphic designer. The National Union of Journalists is opposing the proposed job losses.

Writing on the BNP's London Patriot website, De Santis ranted "these journalists don’t deserve any pity or support" and said "they back perverts like Pete Tatchell who want to have sex with 12-year-old boys".

De Santis also said that BNP members "are entitled to jump with joy whenever any of those unwashed marxists get fired" and that "Maybe the problem is that the number of journalists sacked is not high enough".

Weirdly, the Italian De Santis' joy at British workers losing their jobs is to be found next to a slew of articles posted on the London "Patriot" website by Carlos Cortiglia, a Uruguayan migrant who in 1982 volunteered to go to "las Islas Malvinas" to fight British troops and ensure that British Falkland Islanders remained under the heel of the Galtieri junta's jackboot.

Unsurprisingly, De Santis' article was reposted to the BNP North East "Patriot" blog run by the Walker brothers, presumably because the Northern Echo job losses warmed the cockles of their hearts. The Walker brothers of course are both heavily involved in the fake "Solidarity" micro-union (which, like the BNP, has yet to submit its 2009 returns, due in June). Representing the BNP on a recent trip to Japan, Solidarity president Adam Walker was widely quoted as saying "these people were doing what they thought was right at the time" in reference to his visit to a cemetary that included the graves of Japanese war criminals.

As has frequently been remarked, there doesn't seem to be too much too British about the BNP.

While the BNP's Uruguayans, Italians and fake trade unionists celebrate the loss of eight British workers' jobs, Lancaster Unity sends fraternal greetings to the real trade unionists of all races currently fighting for their livelihoods at Newsquest.

BNP members to be barred from teaching

Headteachers are to be given the power to dismiss teachers who are members of the BNP or other groups which have an "extremist tenor".

The pledge by the education secretary, Michael Gove, follows the case of a BNP activist who used a school laptop to post comments describing some immigrants as "filth". Gove said he would allow school heads and governing bodies to sack teachers for membership of the far-right party. Members of the BNP are barred from working as police or prison officers.

The minister told the Guardian: "I don't believe that membership of the BNP is compatible with being a teacher. One of the things I plan to do is to allow headteachers and governing bodies the powers and confidence to be able to dismiss teachers engaging in extremist activity.

"I would extend that to membership of other groups which have an extremist tenor. I cannot see how membership of the British National party can co-exist with shaping young minds."

The crackdown was welcomed by the NASUWT teaching union, which has called for a ban. Its general secretary, Chris Keates, said: "I hope this is something Michael Gove takes forward as quickly as possible. It is an important part of safeguarding the interests of young people."

Adam Walker, a BNP member and teacher at a school near Sunderland, was cleared of racial and religious intolerance by a disciplinary panel in June this year. He wrote in an online forum that Britain was a "dumping ground for the filth of the third world". But while the panel said the comments were troubling, it was not satisfied that they showed intolerance.

Delivering the General Teaching Council's verdict, the chair, Angela Stones, said: "A negative comment about immigration to the UK of itself need not be indicative of racist views or racial intolerance, since the race of immigrants is extremely varied."

The GTC, the profession's watchdog, was abolished a week later. In a Commons statement, Gove cited the decision made on the Walker case as "quite wrong".

The previous government ruled out banning BNP members from teaching after an independent inquiry into racism in schools decided it would be disproportionate. Maurice Smith, a former chief inspector of schools, said a ban would be "taking a very large sledgehammer to crack a minuscule nut". He also described it as a "profound political act".

The review found that in the past seven years four teachers and two governors had been publicly identified as members of racist organisations, and that only nine incidents of teachers making racist remarks or possessing racist material had been subject to GTC disciplinary sanction.

Critics say this review over-emphasised the number of incidents, rather than their potential impact on a classroom. Keates said: "It's not an issue of scale. That was our biggest criticism of Maurice Smith's report. T the issue is one of making sure that a clear message goes out that membership of the BNP and other extremist groups is incompatible with being a teacher."

Gove outlined plans to ban the BNP from classrooms in an interview in which he also said he would not oppose parents and teachers if they rejected his traditionalist views on the curriculum.

At this year's Conservative party conference, Gove said historian Simon Schama would advise on an overhaul of the history curriculum to ensure that no pupil leaves school without learning "narrative British history". English teaching will also be reformed to ensure that canonical writers such as Pope, Shelley, Dryden, Dickens and Hardy are at the heart of the curriculum.

He said he believed there was an "unfulfilled appetite" for a more classical education. But he insisted teachers could steer their own course. "The idea of the reforms I'm about to bring about is that if the professional wisdom of teachers takes them in a different direction, and the common sense of parents takes that direction, I won't stand in their way."

The Guardian

Weekend reports - BNP chased out of Glasgow, "gutless" Griffin flees Liverpool

BNP & SDL chased out of Glasgow


Saturday 18 September saw a hugely successful day of anti-fascist direct action against the racist thugs of the BNP and the Scottish Defence League – both of whom attempted to carry out public activity in Glasgow on the day.

September 18 was originally the day the SDL were planning to hold a march from Blytheswood Square to the Cenotaph in George Square. With this route being denied by the council – who offered them a static protest instead – the SDL announced that the march was cancelled and re-applied for one in the east end of the city in November.

In light of the events of last weekend, however, when the EDL descended on Oldham in a secret ‘flash mob’ protest, local anti-fascists began to suspect that something similar could be afoot in Glasgow. This was compounded when both the main SDL forum was taken offline, and their facebook page announced that they would be holding a ’social gathering’ in a city centre pub on the day. Acting on these fears, activists from the Scottish Anti-Fascist Alliance decided to keep an eye on the city centre over the course of the day, posting scouts at different locations where it was believed the SDL might show up.

However, it soon turned out that the SDL were not the only group of far-right thugs in town that day. At 1pm, a number of BNP activists were spotted in George Square, setting up a stall and posing for photos with their ‘Support our Troops’ banner. They left soon after, but quickly set up again on Buchanan Street. Anti-fascists from across the city quickly mobilised, and by 1.30 there was a small gathering around the stall, preventing the BNP from engaging with the public. Ten minutes later, a larger group of anti-fascist arrived. Within seconds, the stall was smashed up and the BNP material was scattered and destroyed. The 5-6 BNP members were forced to stand beside the ruins of their stall waiting for the police to show up, which they did – about 15 minutes later.


After a humiliating half hour of being chanted at by a now large group of passers-by and anti-fascists, the BNP were driven away in a police van for their own safety. A total victory for anti-fascists and, judging from the response from the public, a reaffirmation that Glasgow will not stand for the bigotry and racism of the BNP. This was the first BNP activity in the city centre for almost a year, and apparently the ‘launch of their new campaign’. We don’t think they’ll be back any time soon.

But believe it or not, this was just the beginning of a day of successful direct action against fascism. At 3pm, members of the Scottish Defence League began gathering in The Goose pub on Union Street, next to Central Station. Upon being approached by anti-fascists, they informed them that they’d be going to George Square at 5.30pm, apparently with the intention of assembling at the Cenotaph. Clearly, they were after a confrontation – regardless, though, this doesn’t change the issue at hand: fascist gatherings need to be opposed.

By 5.30pm, small groups of anti-fascists and local youth were assembled around the square. When the 15 or so SDL supporters showed up, a brief confrontation ensued. The crowd of around 100 anti-racists ensured that the SDL did not reach the Cenotaph, while a few fists were thrown in both directions, although it’s understood that no anti-fascists suffered injuries. A large number of police then stepped in and pushed the SDL to one corner of the square, where they were held for a period then removed. The BBC are reporting that a 14 year old was arrested – as far as we know this was for punching an SDL member in the face. One SDL supporter was also lifted for a ‘racist breach of the peace’.

Overall, a massive victory for anti-fascists: two groups of racists thrown off the streets. We didn’t rely on the police, and we didn’t rely on the council or Home Secretary to ban them either. The numbers of anti-fascists weren’t massive, but were swelled by passers by and young people who didn’t want the SDL or the BNP on our streets either. A reassuring confirmation that Glasgow is not a safe space for fascists to engage in public activity.

Scottish Socialist Youth


Spontaneous antifascist protest sends BNP packing in Liverpool


Today (Saturday), members of the British National Party – including Nick Griffin – held a stall in Liverpool City Centre. They were, perhaps, hoping to show that they stood tall after their trouncing at the General and local elections. Instead, what it showed was the strength of antifascist sentiment in Liverpool.

Within minutes of the BNP setting up shop in town, word got out. The BNP were on Church Street and texts and phone calls went out across the city warning people and asking for them to turn out in opposition. I was walking the dog at the time, and so and hour elapsed between the time I was first told and the time I reached the crowds. And yes, I do mean crowds.

Nick Griffin had been there, but he fled with his minders the second opposition showed up. As Peter Tatchell opined when he confronted him, the BNP chairman is a gutless coward.

But the local branch of the BNP stayed behind in Griffin’s stead, offering the members of the public a “petition” (PDF) to “Bring Our Boys Home” from Afghanistan. But as Griffin admits on the BNP website, this is not a petition that will be presented to anybody, or even a serious effort to raise the issue of the war in Afghanistan.

Although they will be “under the banner of “Support Our Troops — Bring Our Boys Home”” their true purpose is “the biggest co-ordinated nationalist recruitment campaign ever run outside of an election period.” Hence who signatories “authorise the British National Party to contact” them or send “future promotional, electoral and fund-raising material.”

As I have argued before, the BNP are not an anti-war party. In fact, their 2010 election manifesto explicitly stated that they opposed the Iraq war only on the grounds that “there were no strategic or commercial interests to defend” and “the same applies to the current war in Afghanistan.”

Hence, if a BNP felt there were British strategic or commercial interests at stake (as Blair did in those two wars), then they would have no moral qualms about sending “Our Boys” to die. For the BNP, imperialism’s only bad when you’re not in the seat of command.Which is why the banner of the Stop the War Coalition could be found in the group opposing the BNP.

Unfortunately, their ruse was fooling a lot of people, the anti-war message drawing people away from the fact that this was a fascist recruitment drive, as they planned. Hence why opposition was vital.

Very quickly, a sizeable crowd had gathered, and the BNP found themselves closed off from public view by a semi-circle of very loud antifascists, some bearing banners and signs from various groups. This, in turn, drew members of the public – most notably young teenagers – into the impromptu demo.

While the police held the main demo back from the BNP, some antifascists took the opportunity to talk to people. The general public were receptive to the idea that the BNP were an anti-working class party, offering division at a time when we are facing huge attacks from those in power, and that any pretensions to the contrary (including on the war) were political opportunism.

That their (pre-recorded) chants echoed the Tory party line with calls to “Smash the TUC” certainly didn’t help the fascists’ case.

Arguing the point with the BNP themselves, for those listening in rather than with hope of converting die-hard BNPers, also went in our favour. People can tell the difference between a valid argument and rhetoric, and what Peter Tierney and his friends offered was certainly the latter.

With the rain pouring down, and some people who had arrived earlier on having to leave for other commitments, still the antifascist crowd continued to grow. The BNP struggled to pass out their leaflets or to get many people to sign their petition-cum-covert-recruitment-form. But still they tried to fight a war of attrition, making a show of themselves for a full six-and-a-half hours.

Ultimately, however, over 100 antifascists and local people watched and jeered as the fascists packed their gear into two cars and drove off, protected by a flank of police. No doubt they will try and sell it differently, but for British nationalism this was undoubtedly a failure.

Elsewhere, the BNP’s dissident faction claims that “four teams of two” were “out in Liverpool, Sefton and Knowsley, handing out BNP literature to commuters and the General public.” However, even on the basis of their own piss-poor website all they can prove is that Steve Greenhalgh appeared outside Orrell Park Station and Bootle Strand to give letters to … err, nobody!

But they, like the Griffinites, are promising to be out every Saturday for the next few weeks. On which note, the promise from Liverpool Antifascists is that we will be watching when you turn up again.

Liverpool Antifascists

A waiting game?

Several days on from the BNP "Reform Group" conference, from which much was expected by grass roots Reform supporters, it seems that not much has changed at all.

Following an apparently divine "gala dinner" at a Rotherham hotel, the reformers largely rehashed what they have been rehashing for the better part of four months. Speaker after speaker had little new to say, and even Richard Edmonds, endlessly fiddling with his ubiquitous bits of paper, could only repeat that which has been said a hundred times before - basically that the BNP is bust.

What was conspicuous by its absence was any idea of how the reformers are to move themselves out of the rut in which they have been stuck ever since Eddy Butler meekly accepted his failure in the Griffin-devised and rigged leadership nomination process.

The only real fruit of the reformers' weekend of restatement and repetition to come to light so far is an almost meaningless "Proposed Mission Statement and Objectives" that could be adopted by almost every extreme-right party that ever was. Unfortunately, the reformers are not a political party but a faction within one. The "Proposed Mission Statement and Objectives" has no relevance at all to the struggle in which they are engaged - or allegedly engaged, - which is primarily to topple Nick Griffin.

How this is to be done - if it can be done at all - remains stubbornly opaque. However, if the reformers' accusations of financial wrong-doing at the top of the BNP are true then they cannot seriously expect that Nick Griffin will ever permit any leadership challenge to go ahead if that challenge had even the remotest chance of success. It would either be quashed or effectively deconstitutionalised (to mint a word). Griffin has already mooted the possibility of raising the number of nomination signatures required to 25% of the voting membership.

Quite simply, if there is fraud at the heart of the BNP then its alleged instigator is hardly likely to hand over the accounting books that could see him go to gaol. That will never happen and the reformers must know it.

And if they know it, then the "Proposed Mission Statement and Objectives" take on a very different hue.

They have every appearance of being the founding principles of a new right-wing party, and it is very likely that whichever personalities among the reformers pushed them at the weekend conference intend that this is exactly what they become.

It is known that leading reformer Peter Mullins is among those who believe that the BNP cannot be redeemed and, with its impossible debts, is hardly worth saving. He is clearly sympathetic to the view that a new party is the Reform Group's best and probably only option. How that would sit in the Tyndallite heart of BNP founder member Richard Edmonds, incongruously allied with many who would show him the door tomorrow, is unclear. What is certain is that those of the dominant "moderate" nationalist and minority Tyndallite/hardline strands, no matter how united they may be against Nicholas Griffin, will not for very long enjoy harmony once the object of their antipathy has been removed or left behind.

No matter how often the protestation is made that things are going on "behind the scenes", sooner or later the all too apparent lack of visible and constructive activity will lead to loss of interest, which is evidently beginning to afflict the reformers. To hold a "gala dinner" and a conference at which nothing much at all happened and no real plans were announced was something of a folly, rather like hyping up a sales force and then sending them out into the world without an idea of what it is they are expected to sell.

Is the Reform Group clinging on to the BNP to maximise its numbers when the time comes to break away, or do enough of them remain convinced that a leadership challenge next summer can be mounted successfully? Or are they, as some Griffinites assert, remaining in situ to keep the BNP paralysed over much of the country - which is effectively the case at the moment - for reasons either spiteful or sinister, depending on the level of paranoia afflicting those making the assertion?

Nobody seems any the wiser.

If the Reform Group gives any appearance at all of doing well then the fact that the mainstream BNP is doing so badly probably accounts for it. As we have noted previously, such BNP activity as there is seems to be concentrated in the Griffin-controlled (via Clive Jefferson) north west, and to involve very small numbers of people (often the same people).

The BNP claims that 60 people attended a meeting in Bolton addressed by Nick Griffin on the same day as the Reform Group conference, a dubious figure not supported by video and audio evidence. Later the BNP attempted to pass the meeting off as a quite ordinary branch gathering, failing to mention the feverish 'phone calls, text messages and emails that had gone out in a desperate effort to increase attendance.

And of course there were the derisory 60-ish who, in answer to a national call to arms, turned up outside the High Court to support Griffin, Simon Darby and Tanya Lumby, all allegedly in danger of going to gaol. That turnout alone tells us what a parlous state the BNP is in and how corroded support for Griffin is - but never fear, the badly over-worked BNP excuse machine was soon in action and some members seemed to believe, in all seriousness, that Bob Crow had deliberately timed the London Tube strike to scotch the plans of BNP members who would otherwise have arrived outside the High Court in their thousands to support their beloved leader.

The reformers received a much needed fillip on Thursday when veteran racist and wiggist John Bean, editor of the currently missing Identity magazine, permitted Eddy Butler to publish the contents of a letter sent by Bean to Griffin on August 28th calling upon Griffin to stand down as party leader.

Bean, who only joined the BNP following the overthrow of John Tyndall, is at 83 possibly the longest serving active British fascist still alive. He later clarified his position, saying that Griffin should remain as BNP chairman, but as part of an elected executive committee - an idea rejected as unrealistic by Butler.

Butler is hopeful that Bean's intervention will prove a "real breakthrough", since "I know that other people, who still retain senior positions in the party fully support John’s stance."

Griffin himself has taken no further action against the suspended reformers, who continue to await their tribunals. I am told by a seasoned anti-fascist that Griffin is terribly unsure of those who surround him, and fears that precipitate action will set in train a further breaking of ranks that would prove fatal, especially if Andrew Brons were to be provoked enough to publicly endorse the reformers. Butler, who is on the best of terms with Brons (he is employed by Brons, after all), and who continues to enjoy friendly relations with many apparent Griffin loyalists, may well be playing a waiting game, fairly certain that as funds dry up, debts mount, votes evaporate and patience with the Griffin-Dowson nexus drains away, the last remants of meaningful support for Griffin will crumble, John Bean's letter to Griffin being the first tangible sign that the process is underway.

On Saturday the BNP begins its Griffin devised “Support Our Troops, Bring Our Boys Home” campaign, which, allegedly, the "Establishment" fears. Equally allegedly "90 units" of the BNP will be taking part - note that: not 90 branches or 90 groups (which the BNP no longer has), but 90 conveniently undefined "units". The campaign has less to do with bringing the troops home than it does with giving an illusion of widespread BNP activity to help shore up Griffin's grass roots support. There will be glowing reports, photographs, ridiculous claims of huge public support and large numbers of new members signed up.

Since the BNP made no headway at all using the same theme during the general election it seems almost perverse that Nick Griffin should expend time and precious resources staging a re-run when the stand out issues of the day are those of swingeing government cuts and an attendant looming huge rise in unemployment. Griffin appears determined to miss another obvious political boat.

So, while the Reform half of the BNP does whatever it is the reformers are, or are not doing, the mainstream half intends to waste its time bothering the public with a cock-eyed campaign that has no real purpose beyond that of demonstrating the sterling leadership qualities of Nicholas Griffin to his shrinking band of followers.

Or so he hopes.

English Soccer Hooligans at Ground Zero

Among the non-New Yorkers who traveled to Lower Manhattan on Saturday to protest the neighborhood’s decision to allow an Islamic community center to be built were seven men who came from England bearing flags with slogans and the cross of St. George — a symbol of their nation and of the Crusades.

Those flags are often seen at soccer stadiums, when ultranationalist fans of England’s soccer team gather to cheer (and to fight fans of other nations), but they have been cropping up regularly at anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim protests in English cities over the past year.

That is because the men are members of a the English Defense League, formed last year to counter what the men see as the threat posed to their national identity by immigrants to England and British-born Muslims who are neither white nor Christian.

As the British anti-fascist group Hope Not Hate explained last month, the E.D.L. is led by a former member of the British National Party, whose leader has made common cause with the Ku Klux Klan, and has “mushroomed from a coalition of former football hooligans into an enormous street army with the propensity for large-scale disorder and city center confrontations with the police.”

After spending months working undercover on an 11-minute documentary about the group, Matthew Taylor reported, “A Guardian investigation has identified a number of known right-wing extremists who are taking an interest in the movement — from convicted football hooligans to members of violent right-wing splinter groups.”

The fact that the E.D.L. channels the rage of hardcore soccer fans into racist demonstrations against foreigners and Muslims in England is no secret. A post on the group’s Web site described the scene before a rally in London last month:

More and more lads started to arrive at the pub, Pompey, Southampton, West Ham, Arsenal, Tottenham, Millwall, Chelsea, Brentford, QPR all drinking together, a bit of banter, but no hassle whatsoever. Top lads all there for their country.

The group’s official statements make much of the fact that their membership includes a number of Jewish, Iranian and gay activists and deny charges that it promotes a fascist or racist ideology. The E.D.L. report on the same rally said:

The ‘fascists’ from the various patriot groups are now stood, football rivalries forgotten, side by side with Jews and Iranians, proving once again that these movements are not racial, they are ideological. Islam is not a race, it is a religion. A religion that promotes violence against nonbelievers this induces certain Muslims into a rabid frenzy, these Muslims must be challenged wherever they raise their evil heads.

At the rally on Sept. 11 in New York, the group’s banners and T-shirts carried the Israeli flag along with the cross of St. George.

In a report on the group, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz asked, “What are Israeli flags and Jewish activists doing at demonstrations sponsored by the English Defence League?” The newspaper answered the question this way: “Call it a struggle against a common foe: Islam. Or a journey into the heart of darkness. Or perhaps further proof that Europe is starting to lose its mind again.”


Despite the protestations that the group’s members are not racist, The Guardian’s undercover investigator encountered a very different reality. Mr. Taylor reported:

[A]t each demonstration I attended while making an undercover film for the Guardian’s investigative film unit, Guardian Films, I was confronted by casual — often brutal — racism, a widespread hatred of Muslims and often the threat of violence.

It was only possible to film some of the most alarming scenes with a hidden camera. Inside a pub in Stoke in January about 3,000 E.D.L. supporters gathered for the first demonstration of the year. They had spent the past four hours drinking. The balcony around the top of the cavernous pub was draped in flags bearing the names of different football clubs — Wolves, Newcastle, Aston Villa — and the chants, “We all hate Muslims,” and “Muslim bombers off our streets,” filled the air. The atmosphere was tense, and not just because of the growing anti-Islamic rhetoric. The pub was packed with rival football gangs from across the Midlands and the north of England. Twice, fighting broke out as old rivalries failed to be subdued by the new enemy — Islam. “They’re just kids,” said one man. “That is not what we are here for today.”

As we moved outside for the E.D.L. protest — during which supporters became involved in violent clashes with the police — a woman asked me for a donation to support the “heroes coming back injured from Afghanistan.” I put a pound in the bucket.

“Thanks love,” she said. “They go over there and fight for this country and then come back to be faced with these Pakis everywhere.”

The woman also used another racial slur, using language we cannot repeat here.

This clip from a BBC documentary on the group includes footage of some members denying that they are racist, and other making racial slurs during a rally in London in support of the anti-immigrant Dutch politician Geert Wilders last year:


Other Guardian video reports on E.D.L. rallies in London and Bradford in recent months illustrate that it is not hard to hear similarly racist, anti-immigrant sentiments from members of the group.

Their approach to Islam is similarly aggressive. Here is how members of the group who did not make the trip to New York marked the Sept. 11 anniversary in London — by burning pages of the Koran and chanting, as they have at other rallies this year in Britain, “Allah is a pedo’!” (Note: This video, like that of other E.D.L. rallies, includes strong language and racial slurs.)


On Sunday, Robert Booth reported in The Guardian that the group’s leader was denied entry to the United States when he landed in New York last week. Other members of the group — which has clashed with British police this summer — claimed that they were subject to harassment by the authorities in New York.

One of the E.D.L. leaders, Ronnie Burgess — described by The Daily Mail as a 31-year-old bodyguard from Liverpool — wrote in a poorly spelled entry on his Facebook page from New York:

its all fun and games here fedral agents have turned are rooms over last ngt while we were out…. hotel are saying they know nothing but the fact is are rooms have been turned over

One of the organizers of the Sept. 11 rally in Lower Manhattan, the blogger Pamela Geller, has defended the group in the past, writing in February, before it was reported that the E.D.L. is led by a former member of the British National Party:

I share the E.D.L.’s goals…. We need to encourage rational, reasonable groups that oppose the Islamisation of the West and not leave it solely to fringe groups like the B.N.P., whose growth has sparked because of their opposition to the encroaching Islamization of the U.K. (their racial position is reprehensible).

Like Ms. Geller, the E.D.L. has strongly supported Geert Wilders. Mr. Wilders also traveled to New York from Europe for the rally on Sept. 11 and began his remarks by leading the crowd in chanting, “No mosque here!”

New York Times

The BNP Leadership Challenge, by ‘Malatesta’

This article (slightly amended for publication) was submitted by one of our anarchist readers, ‘Malatesta’, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Lancaster Unity or its contributors. 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.

“Meanwhile things are hotting up in the BNP all right,
Conspiracies on the internet, knives in the night.”

The BNP leadership contest is coming to a head shortly with Nick Griffin under considerable pressure from several angles. The pro-Griffin web presence such as the official BNP site, the lubricious Green Arrow and VNN UK continue to smear and deny in equal measure whilst the YourBNP, EnoughIsEnough, the NWN forum, the splinter RealNationalistsOnline and Stormfront websites back Eddie Butler or are just against Griffin. Fringe forum British Democracy has witnessed some interestingly rancorous comments being slung across the great divide as well.

Butler (or Bitler) is the only real challenger although there are a couple of other hopeful mugs lurking in the wings. The problem is in finding candidates who do not have the political baggage of holocaust denial and stupid public statements or criminal records. Butler is not without support but as a recent Griffin stooge he still attracts the animosity of many anti-Griffinites. The anti-Butlerite smears started after he fell out with Griffin and the alleged pictures of him at a Belgian brothel were spread around. Anyone monitoring the fascist websites will recognise the pattern: former golden boy falls foul of Nicklops and is subject to online harassment, lies and sometimes truths. The BNP has always attracted nutcases, deviants, criminals and fantasists so it is not difficult to unearth some tasty dirt on most key players.

With typical sleight of (under)hand, Griffin has been shiftily moving the goalposts as to how to qualify as a challenger. Recently he re-wrote the constitution so that any candidate has to secure the support of 20% rather than the previous 5% of the members who are eligible to vote following 2 years membership. However, many BNP members sign up in a fit of racist pique then let their membership lapse after a year, so maintaining a solid core of supporters is difficult. Whoever wins, and Griffin has drawn on all available resources to maintain his position as petty Führer, the schism in the BNP will be difficult to heal.

If Griffin wins then, as his online attack dogs have stated, those who have been listed as Butler supporters will be purged in a typical ‘Night Of The Penknives'. Griffin has been busy suspending those members who speak most loudly against him, as the recent purges in Liverpool BNP and elsewhere bears out. Adding into the pot all those who have defected in disgust over his autocratic leadership style, the Far-Right is far from united. (It does seem somewhat ironic that a fascist party membership complains about dictatorship though.) It seems no one is safe from expulsion: who would have thought this time last year that Nazi boy Mark Collett would be given the jackboot?

There are a great many ‘patriots’ who have left or who have never even been members all shouting from the sidelines but also many members in the BNP who are vehemently against Griffin’s jobs-for-the-boys mentality, the lateness and legitimacy of the party accounts, and the rather spectral influence of one Jim Dowson who is controlling much of the cash and information on the membership. The political direction Griffin has forced the BNP to follow in an effort to retain electoral credibility in the wake of the expensive Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) case over their membership rules, proved to be a watering down of racial politics for a reduced vote return. The current popularity of the English Defence League is partly due to the moribund state of the BNP, mired in infighting, corruption allegations and suffering from diminished political credibility.

Griffin has long been criticised for his nepotism: important posts are given to those he favours rather than those who can actually do the job, and also to people who aren’t even members, such as at the Belfast call centre run by Jim Dowson. This is one of the reasons the accounts are in such a state: he has given the job to those who have few or no accounting skills and little understanding of the legalities surrounding party expenditure and funding. Batty Boy Lee Barnes’ position as legal advisor is a typically ridiculous choice.

Staff members have complained about not being paid or paid late, and branches have been unable to meet printing bills and other costs or repay loans. What is also interesting, according to online sources, is that Griffin does not have anything registered in his name so should the BNP collapse and the leader end up being held financially accountable he will have nothing that can be sequestered. He could feasibly safely move on and create another party from the remnants while remaining an MEP.

Griffin has been criticised for his centralism and for wrecking previously strong BNP areas. In Stoke during the recent election, popular local councillor Alby Walker was removed as candidate in favour of non-local Simon Darby; Griffin took the Barking MP campaign off Richard Barnbrook substituting himself as candidate with hilarious results; and he has allegedly ‘confiscated’ the funds from East Midlands BNP. All of which indicates political gangsterism in the foulest degree.

Bitler's main focus of attack is the money. The EHRC membership rules case was widely seen as a pointless, an expensive forgone conclusion, and the incredible Marmite blunder will no doubt lead to more financial repercussions. The accounts have consistently been delivered late to the Elections Committee resulting in fines, and there is a lack of transparency as to how much money there is and how it is being spent. This, along with his increasingly frequent begging letters – a recent one asked for as little as 50p! – is a grave source of concern for the membership.

Given the paranoid nature of Far-Right politics, conspiracy theories are regularly hatched as to why Griffin has made such tactical errors. The online fascists often make accusations of people being ‘wrong ’uns’ and ‘state assets’ but Griffin has long been suspected by some of being compromised. The ongoing rumours of an alleged homosexual relationship with ex-NF Martin Webster is seen as a source of possible blackmail, but if you want to know about Nazis, read what the Nazis say.

On the RealNationalistsOnline forum, in the Politics & Activism section, is a thread entitled 'Nick Griffin: The Trojan Horse Amongst Us', which offers up a few interesting theories as to how and why he has been doing what he does best, i.e., wrecking the beloved BNP. To save your valuable time, the article - for once fairly coherent - mentions that MI5’s favoured recruiting ground has been Cambridge University, to which Griffin went up in the late 1970s, and says that MI5 infiltrated the BNP after the Combat 18 escapade. They conjecture that the secret state could be maintaining the BNP as a safety valve while also monitoring the membership, and point out that despite long-standing accusations of fraud, neither Griffin or the party have ever been subject to official investigation. Given that Griffin's inexplicably inept tactics have been driving the BNP relentlessly into the brick wall of political oblivion you can see why they find the theory attractive.

Not wanting to be embarrassed in the future by making predictions, I am not going to put my money on either Griffin or Butler coming out on top, but it has been an interesting year so far for BNP watchers with Stoke, Barking, Question Time, the EDL and EHRC, Marmite and now the leadership challenge. What we can safely say is that for the moment the BNP is imploding and whatever the outcome there is potential for a massive split in the BNP but also the possibility of a new fascist party rising from the remnants.

As usual, the BNP's worst enemy is - itself.

‘Malatesta’

Geert Wilders to spread his anti-Muslim movement west

An anti-Muslim populist in the Netherlands is forming an international alliance to spread his message across the west in an attempt to ban immigration from Islamic countries, among other goals.

Geert Wilders, leader of the Freedom party, told the Associated Press that he would launch the movement late this year, initially in five countries: the US, Canada, Britain, France and Germany.

"The message, 'stop Islam, defend freedom', is a message that's not only important for the Netherlands but for the whole free Western world," Wilders said at the Dutch parliament.

Among the group's aims will be outlawing immigration from Islamic countries to the west and a ban on Islamic sharia law. Starting as a grassroots movement, he hopes it eventually will produce its own lawmakers or influence other legislators.

Ayhan Tonca, a prominent spokesman for Dutch Muslims, said he feared Wilders message would fall on fertile ground in much of Europe, where anti-Islam sentiment has been swelling for years.

"So long as things are going badly with the economy, a lot of people always need a scapegoat," Tonca said. "At the moment, that is the Muslims in western Europe." Tonca called on "well-meaning people in Europe to oppose this."

Known for his bleached-blond mop of hair, Wilders is a shrewd politician who has won awards in the Netherlands for his debating skills and regularly stands up for gay and women's rights.

But he rose to local and then international prominence with his firebrand anti-Islam rhetoric that has led to him being charged under Dutch anti-hate speech laws and banned from visiting Britain until a court there ordered that he be allowed into the country.

Wilders said he hopes to position the alliance between traditional conservative parties and far-right wing groups, saying that in Britain there is "an enormous gap" between the ruling Conservative party and the far-right BNP: "The BNP is a party that, whatever you think of it, it's not my party I think it's a racist party," he said.

Wilders, who calls Islam a "fascist" religion, has won increasing support the Netherlands in recent years even while he has been subjected to round-the-clock protection because of death threats.

His Freedom party won the biggest gains in a national election last month, coming third with 24 seats in the 150-seat parliament, up from the nine before the election.

However, mainstream parties will not form a coalition with Wilders, leaving him on the margins of Dutch politics for the next parliamentary term.

Wilders is due to stand trial in October on hate speech charges stemming from his short internet film Fitna, which denounced the Qur'an as a a fascist book that inspires terrorism. The film aroused anti-Dutch protests around the Muslim world, and he was banned for several months from entering Britain.

But he is unrepentant and said he now wants to take his message outside the Netherlands. "The fight for freedom and (against) Islamisation as I see it is a worldwide phenomenon and problem to be solved," he said.

Wilders declined to name any of the other founders of the organisation he is calling the Geert Wilders International Freedom Alliance. He has been criticised for running his party as a one-man show.

Guardian

BNP leader Nick Griffin grooms his daughter to replace him

BNP leader Nick Griffin is grooming his eldest daughter to take over when he quits.

Party insiders say Griffin has quietly boosted 24-year-old Jennifer’s role, giving her huge influence over membership and finance. But they believe Griffin has no intention of relinquishing his vice-like grip on the party he has led since 1999 – despite his pledge to step down by 2013.

They expect him to copy his 82-year-old French Fascist ally Jean Marie Le Pen, who has ensured his daughter Marine is in pole position to replace him as head of France’s National Front.

Last year Jennifer was appointed a director of Adlorries, a company that controls a substantial proportion of the BNP finances, under her married name Jennifer Matthys. She was also given a crucial role as party membership secretary, working in the BNP’s main call centre in Belfast, where she lives.

Jennifer, who was leader of the BNP’s youth wing as a teenager, has been at her father’s side at important party events. Earlier this month she was used as the public face of the party in a promotional film.

Griffin’s manoeuvring risks sparking further revolt among the party faithful, who have openly questioned his leadership since the BNP was humiliated in May’s national and local elections.

Simon Bennett, the former BNP webmaster who quit his job on the eve of the election in a row over alleged corruption and incompetence, said: “He knows his days are numbered and installing his daughter is the perfect Plan B. She would be the nominal leader but he would be the real power behind the throne.”

Mirror

Football fan banned after hurling abuse at Muslims

A self-proclaimed "right- wing extremist" has been given a football banning order for making Nazi salutes and shouting a torrent of racist abuse at Muslim cub scouts after a Bristol Rovers match.

A court heard Martyn Howlett was walking down Muller Road in Horfield after watching Rovers play Norwich City with his family and friends when he made his shocking outburst. Bristol Magistrates' Court was told that the 43-year-old gestured at a British National Party badge he was wearing as he abused a group of Asian children having a picnic outside the 1st Bristol Muslim Scout group's headquarters.

Waving his arms in a Nazi salute and pointing to his badge, he shouted: "It's BNP, racist, fascism and Hitler", before launching into a foul-mouthed tirade in front of the frightened children. The court heard he then directed abuse at a young girl wearing a head scarf.

Prosecuting, Michael Hartnell said: "He was making hand gestures towards the children, and said they were out to blow something up. The children were scared and extremely concerned for their safety."

When asked what was wrong by Scout leader Sohail Javaid, Howlett repeatedly said: "This is our country, get out."

After police arrived, he said: "What is wrong with doing this? I am a right-wing extremist and I hate blacks."

The court heard Howlett, whose father Colin was the voice of Bristol Rovers on Radio Bristol for almost 30 years, had drunk about four-and-a-half pints of beer before the incident on May 1. On May 24 he was given a two-year conditional discharge after pleading guilty to committing racially aggravated disorderly behaviour.

Mr Hartnell told the court that Howlett, a Bristol Rovers season ticket holder for 37 years, had received a caution in 2008 for similar behaviour. Howlett, 43, who lives in Muller Road, Eastville, defended himself in court.

Magistrates gave Howlett a three-year football ban, which prohibits him from entering an area 750m around the Memorial Stadium on Rovers match days for three hours before kick-off and two hours afterwards. He is also banned from going to any football match in England or Wales, must surrender his passport to police before England away games, and not to travel to any towns or cities where Bristol Rovers or England are playing.

Bristol Evening Post

Angry Bennett blows lid on "Laurel and Hardy" BNP leadership

Tensions between BNP webmaster Simon Bennett and the BNP leadership exploded into open hostility yesterday when Bennett - a Nick Griffin loyalist! - briefly pulled the plug on the BNP website before restoring it in response (according to one of his friends) to a flood of calls and emails from BNP members.

Bennett replaced the BNP site with the following message:

The services to this website have been suspended.

It is with regret that I have been forced to pull this website due to several attempts of theft today with regards to design work and content owned by myself.

It is no secret that I have been in dispute with some elements of the management of the party for sometime now, but had hoped to resolve these issues amicably and AFTER the elections.

However, due to several attempts to steal my work today and combined with the recent deliberate copyright infringement I feel I have been left with no alternative to this action and feel wholly justified in doing so.

The background of my dispute with the party can be read here: (link to Bennett's personal website)

Later, posting on the British Democracy Forum, Bennett said:

It was my intention to speak out AFTER the election. However, there was little chance of me being around for much longer than 24 hours after Nick's 'industry experts' made several botched attempts to steal my legally owned designs and work, as opposed to reaching an amicable and fair solution. Rather than pay for my work, they chose to steal it. Blame THEM for the timing, not me!

The website was reinstated upon request from decent people who would have been affected by this (the members). It will remain online until after the election. I have stated on numerous occasions that the party can have the website, domain and their legally owned aspects of it at any time and without cost - they have only to ask. The parts I own were made available to them for a fee. Instead, they started downloading them behind my back and tried to lock me out.

Again, blame that on the incompetence of the leadership, not me!

Bennett confirmed suspicions that the BNP's unauthorised use of the Marmite logo on the web version of the party's general election broadcast was a clumsy attempt on the part of Nick Griffin and Jim Dowson to gain cheap publicity in the run up to election day. According to Bennett, "This whole thing was a very deliberate copyright infringement designed to create publicity and a fund raising opportunity."

On the back of that open provoking of one of the world's richest companies, Griffin began a campaign of lies and vilification against Unilever, claiming that the "Hate party" depicted in recent Marmite television adverts was based on the BNP - when it was self-evidently based on the widely known fact that consumers either love or hate the concoction. The begging letters quickly followed, and the BNP membership swallowed the deception.

The BNP webmaster's problem was that as the "Marmite" broadcast appeared on the BNP website his was the name in the frame when Unilever, owner of the brand, took out an injunction for copyright infringement. According to Bennett:

The case against Nick was "as a representative of the party" and Nick often brags that he has no assets in his own name to be sued for. Also, the BNP is an 'Unincorporated Association, so to my knowledge, those facing the financial costs were myself directly and/or the party members.

Bennett also says: "What's worse, is that I believe I was deliberately put in the frame and left to carry the responsibility whilst those that were responsible went to ground for four days leaving me to stew in my own fear and uncertainty."

He added:

Nick Griffin and Jim Dowson deliberately set out to pick this fight with Unilever - not me. I advised strongly against it. Nick proceeded to goad Unilever into action when Unilever wanted a quick settlement and seemed happy with an undertaking not to do it again. That wasn't enough for Nick, he wanted a public fight and a media circus...

Later attempts by Griffin and Dowson to pass the "Marmite" broadcast off as a spoof backfired, and Bennett claims he was expected to go to court and "lie through my teeth":

By now, Unilever's lawyers had their teeth in and they were not going to let go. The excuse Jim Dowson gave for this whole sorry affair was that "a third party joker" had uploaded the video, yet this was clearly contradicted by Nick and Jim Dowson in the evidence Unilever's lawyers had obtained for themselves via conversations from Nick and Jim.

Essentially, I was up the proverbial creek and expected by our Chairman and Jim "The Industry Expert" Dowson to go to court and lie through my teeth in order to bail them out of a ridiculous hole they had dug themselves into.

In a long and angry exposition of the BNP leadership's role in the "Marmite" disaster, Simon Bennett gives much incidental information, revealing that during the saga "website traffic hardly increased at all, the online donations and membership applications remained almost non-existent and the real broadcast bought no more traffic to the website than the 2009 EU broadcast."

He also stated that there "are a shocking amount of highly questionable shenanigans going on at BNP HQ including threats of violence against good people such as myself and the loss of jobs/contracts/positions if we don't 'Play ball'."

Later, on the BDF forum, Bennett said that he would never have pulled the plug on the BNP website "if it were not for idiotic, erratic, desperate and immoral behavior of the leadership to remove me BEFORE the elections".

Unfortunately, Bennett remains loyal to the BNP, even if it has shown itself to be anything but loyal to him, and we have little sympathy with a man who kept his silence while knowing of the many wrongs and shady dealings of the BNP leadership, and spoke out only when he, personally, was affected.

Below follows the full text of Bennett's statement as it appeared briefly on his own website. Our copy is the rendering which appears on the Vote No To The BNP website.

----------------------------

Marmite-Gate: The Truth behind the Spin.

This will do doubt come as a shock to many of those that read this, particularly those who really don’t want to hear it. However, I have a duty to the members and my conscience, but most of all – to my wife and children to tell the truth behind the spin. The timing of this is also a tragic shame, but I had no say in this matter, its planning, execution or its timing, as you will soon see. So please don’t fall for the old “He must be a red, planted to mess up the election” chestnut. If anyone sabotaged this election, it was Jim Dowson.


Judge that for yourselves by reading on…

This whole thing was a very deliberate copyright infringement designed to create publicity and a fund raising opportunity. What’s worse, is that I believe I was deliberately put in the frame and left to carry the responsibility whilst those that were responsible went to ground for four days leaving me to stew in my own fear and uncertainty.

The publicity Nick and Jim were (and still are) hoping for means nothing. What IS important is the NETT BENEFIT of that publicity, and I can show that the nett benefit was next to nothing. The website traffic hardly increased at all, the online donations and membership applications remained almost non-existent and the real broadcast bought no more traffic to the website than the 2009 EU broadcast. In actual fact, the most successful publicity the party has had in my time was without question – Question Time.

Jim Dowson and Nick Griffin will have you believe that this stunt and the repercussions were all finely tuned, worked out and that everything was all under control. The truth is that they had no idea of the severity of the situation. I was served the injunction as a named defendant and the case against me for copyright infringement appeared cut and dry. If I failed to comply with the injunction I could have faced prison. Even if I complied with the injunction I was facing a massive fine and all the legal costs and associated court fees.

The only legal representation provided to me was from the party’s legal advisor on the day she realised things had gone wrong, and she was in a state of panic advising me only to deny everything. Unilever’s own lawyers make reference to how panicky and stressed she was. The case against Nick was “as a representative of the party” and Nick often brags that he has no assets in his own name to be sued for. Also, the BNP is an ‘Unincorporated Association, so to my knowledge, those facing the financial costs were myself directly and / or the party members.

Furthermore, in the judge’s transcript it is stated that the case against me personally is solid as the broadcast was posted under my name.

Nick Griffin and Jim Dowson deliberately set out to pick this fight with Unilever – not me. I advised strongly against it. Nick proceeded to goad Unilever into action when Unilever wanted a quick settlement and seemed happy with an undertaking not to do it again. That wasn’t enough for Nick, he wanted a public fight and a media circus (one that I was never given a choice in). I did not want to run the gauntlet of TV cameras and publicity for the sake of my children and wife, but I was never consulted or asked. It was the “Nick Griffin Show” – fighting the evil capitalist empire single handed in order to save the nation on our behalf, and he was not passing up the opportunity of more publicity and victimhood status. He picked this fight, not me, and certainly not Unilever.

The problem is that you will pay for it now, as could I, if not with my liberty, freedom or possible bankruptcy, but now certainly with my position as your webmaster. What a result this fight has achieved! A bloody disaster. But then it had disaster written all over it from the outset, but the £120,000 p.a. ‘Industry Expert’ knew better.

By now, Unilever’s lawyers had their teeth in and they were not going to let go. The excuse Jim Dowson gave for this whole sorry affair was that “a third party joker” had uploaded the video, yet this was clearly contradicted by Nick and Jim Dowson in the evidence Unilever’s lawyers had obtained for themselves via conversations from Nick and Jim.

Essentially, I was up the proverbial creek and expected by our Chairman and Jim “The Industry Expert” Dowson to go to court and lie through my teeth in order to bail them out of a ridiculous hole they had dug themselves into. I had warned them not to proceed, but both were insistent that this is a brilliant publicity stunt deliberately designed to create publicity (and ultimately generate funds) as was proven by the immediate fund raising appeal sent out that day. They were under the impression that it would be a breeze and that Unilever’s lawyers would issue an injunction and writ for copyright infringement and then immediately back off once Nick threatened to eat a jar of Marmite on live TV. How pathetic and desperate. Perhaps if the whole thing was done legally and executed by real experts and not Laurel and Hardy, it may have worked to our political advantage.

After a weekend of worrying myself sick, with my wife in bits and to use Nick’s own words – Unilever’s lawyers crawling all over ME like a rash, I took the only sensible and legal option available. To tell the truth. I was not prepared to spend five years in prison for perjury just to protect the financial interests of fools. To be honest, the truth is long overdue anyway as there are a shocking amount of highly questionable shenanigans going on at BNP HQ including threats of violence against good people such as myself and the loss of jobs / contracts /positions if we don’t ‘Play ball’.

In short, with one of the idiots responsible for this expensive little caper laying low and sunning himself in Spain with the £120,000+ per year he is paid from your donations to pull stunts like this, and with the others laying low, I decided to protect myself and family and not carry the can for their sheer greed and incompetence or rely on their incompetent advice or inabilities, so I told Unilever’s lawyers the truth. Lying to the Royal High Courts of Justice was never an option for me.

Jim Dowson constantly makes references to his Loyalist ‘connections’ and ‘Irish murder gangs’ in the hope of intimidating people and just about everyone bar me is terrified of him and lives in fear of losing their income if they cross him or do not ‘put up and shut up’ or turn a blind eye and deaf ear.

Unfortunately for him, I can earn more money outside of the party which renders that particular threat null and void. The physical threats of violence also back-fired on him as I refused to be intimidated, as did the bribes of ‘a slice of the pie’. Jim Dowson now controls just about every aspect of the party structure (including the recently acquired print services) and also the party’s finances with one exception. You’ve guessed it – the website!

Jim has been at loggerheads with me for over a year and has tried every trick in the book to gain control of the website so he can bolt it onto his spam-machine without any idea of how websites work. I have always been against it as I feel it should be first and foremost a political tool, not a money making machine.

He has tried undermining it with his call centre staff informing callers not to donate or join online as the website was insecure and that their £100,000 telephone system was the only secure way to join or donate. He tried bribery and Nick also tried to convince me that I’d be better protected legally from copyright infringements if the website was made into a limited company. When presented with the financial implications and costs and also the lack of protection it actually offered and further presented with the idea of not infringing copyrights in the first place, he backed down.

So, here we are today…

A deliberate copyright infringement mysteriously posted IN MY NAME! Wow, isn’t that a coincidence? On Tuesday this week (27th) I had Nick on my case again insisting that in order to properly ‘protect me’ in future he and Jim will set the website up as a limited company after the election and I should remain just a little anonymous monkey in the background doing all the monkey work whilst they take the very noble burden of risk (and potential profit of course). Naturally, after this scare I’m bound to agree, surely?

Just imagine it… All your web donations and membership fees not just now being carved up in commission between Paul Golding, Jim Dowson, Jenny Griffin and possibly several others, all of whom do virtually or absolutely nothing to generate the funds, but now you may well have to pay legal fees, chartered accountancy fees, salaries and possibly vehicle costs, travel, stationery and no-end of other ‘legitimate’ Ltd. Company’s business expenditure!

Here’s a better idea. Stop acting like amateurs and stop blatantly breaking the law for financial gain with no political advancement. That way I could continue to develop the website at the minimal fee I charge, and apart from every man and his dog taking a ’slice of the pie’, the rest at least goes directly to its intended destination. Furthermore, the website can be developed freely by a decent, honest and experienced web developer and not under the control and dictatorship of a catering-salesman with as much experience in web development as I have in rocket science!

You’re the members and this is YOUR party, YOUR website and I worked for YOU, not Nick, not Jim, not Gerry Gable, not MI5, CI5, MFI or anyone else . Let the smear stories commence. This will probably all be blamed on me being a red, a mole, a spy, a state asset, or work-overload, lack of vitamins, health, state of mind, paranoia, poor diet or just plain old mental instability. Please, let me assure you all that I am none of the above or suffering from any of the above quoted inflictions. If I was it must be highly contagious, as this party has lost so many good people for the above afflictions. Funny that isn’t it? It’s always everyone else being a mole that’s the problem- never Nick’s own incompetence!

Jim Dowson has a history of copyright infringement and is not by any means an “industry expert” in any field whatsoever that I can find, as can be seen by googling his name or the Pro Life League or Precious Life UK. His only industry experience is as a ‘catering salesman’. Many other marketing and fund-raising business ventures he has been involved in have ended up dissolved without ever filing accounts. With a history like that, it doesn’t bode well for the future of the party really. Many of his wild claims of success can be proven as bare faced lies. He has a severe habit of exaggerating figures and then contradicting himself later on. His incompetence is almost as astounding as his arrogance. This I’m afraid to say, is the man in whom our Chairman has invested the future of our party and hopes for our country.

I tried to raise my concerns about Jim Dowson, his past and his continual bad practices and mistakes with the Chairman over a year ago. Myself, Peter Mullins and Mike Howson were subjected to what was a court style hearing in which we were told in no uncertain terms to mind our own business and if anyone picks a fight with Jim they pick a fight with him (Nick Griffin). Unfortunately, the fight was already well under way. Mike Howson, it should be pointed out, has stated since that his “guts turned to water” that day. He has been Jim Dowson’s poodle ever since and with the exception of myself, just about anyone who has ever dared to cross swords with Jim have been removed from their positions, sacked or expelled. We cannot afford to lose any more good quality people only to be replaced by buffoons, morons, yes-men or those too afraid to stand up for what is right and proper.

Both Nick and Jim (and a few other gullible fools) will continuously point to the massive success and growth of the party over the “Dowson Era”, but you need to look a little closer and analyse this claim or even break it down completely. Firstly, to make such a claim is a complete smack in the face for all the decent and honest activists and members that have worked their fingers to the bone and walked the streets until their feet were blistered. It also suggests that my work over the last two and half years, and our army of blogger’s efforts have provided little or no gain.

The simple fact is this; In the current political climate, and with mainstream parties in disarray over immigration, the expenses scandal, global warming scams, economic disaster and a new influx of members from a new and fresh professional website with no-end of social networking you could rightly expect natural rapid growth. The growth to which Jim refers has very little, if anything to do with anything he has implemented whatsoever. All Jim has done is arrive in the right place at the right time and spot an opportunity to fleece money from good people by preying on their hopes and fears. Let’s be honest here, a trained monkey could write a more professional fund raising appeal than the current “1980 Readers Digest” style begging letter we currently all have to cringe over and suffer.

Then we need to question where the money raised is being spent or invested. The vast majority of the “Admin Infrastructure” to which Jim claims to have expertly set-up is nothing more than a basic requirement to any business or organisation and one of which almost anyone with half a brain or business experience would recognise and implement easily, cost effectively and securely. The current way in which this infrastructure is organised relies on and is driven by financial gain, greed and a competitive commission based environment. Just the sort of environment I would expect from any sales-based organisation. This party is now being driven by money – not politics or ideology. This is fundamentally wrong and will prove to be our failure. Of course we need funds to survive, but when our motivations, aspirations and hopes are driven by or dictated by finances, then we are on a collision course with failure.

In the “Real World” of business, turnover means nothing, what matters is profit. Profit stems growth, product development, training and staff development. Ten million pounds of turnover is worthless if our expenditure is eleven million, as are all the offices Jim cares to open in order to impress the sheeple. Jim constantly crows about how much money we turn over, yet fails to address the profit margin, where that profit (which does not exist) is spent, and where it is invested. We are told and expected to believe that all the party finances are funnelled through Jim’s shady business as no-one will deal with the party. This is a nonsense and nothing more than a smokescreen designed to stop inquisitive people questioning or looking deeper into the whole set-up.

If Nick thinks he has secured any party assets or property that has been purchased and held in the name of Jim Dowson’s Adlorries Ltd by appointing his daughter as a director, then I am sorry to point out that he may just have had the wool well and truly pulled over his eyes. Jenny is a director indeed, but has no share capital whatsoever and therefore has no claim to the company’s assets, finances or profits.

This party needs a clean-up if it is EVER to be taken seriously as a political force. I’ve started the ball rolling, it is now in the hands of the good, honest members that have the courage to face up to the facts and reality of what we are faced with. It is also up to the senior members and Advisory Council to stand up and be counted. Failure to face these issues now – and head on, will result in colossal and terminal failure. It is also in the hands of Nick Griffin to do the right thing and allow this party to develop on a solid base built on integrity, skill and transparency.

I think I can assume the Chairman will no longer be requiring my services, so all that is left for me to say is that it has been an absolute honour and a pleasure working with and for the decent and honest members, but an absolute chore, no, nightmare, working with Nick Griffin and Jim Dowson.

Coming Soon on www.SimonBennett.co.uk/Twitter & Facebook:

Jim Dowson and the £10,000 party laptops – you paid for – (£3,499 RRP) – that were also available for free with a mobile phone dongle!

The website donation thermometer appeal for the £22k Truth Truck (book value £8k) that actually raised over £80k.

The website DDoS attack that become ‘The World’s Biggest Cyber Attack known to the Universe’ and which needed more industry experts than NASA to resolve. Funded to the tune of £ thousands by the members. Actual cost: £750 to a 19 year old genius that lives at home with his parents!

Jim Dowson’s fixation with and history of infringing copyrights and breaking the data protections act.

The Jim Dowson £21,000 ’state of the art’ database system paid for by you. Also available from PC World for £156 inc VAT. Superior and FREE database systems were offered by me but were rejected for no logical reasons.

The phone bugging, spyware software, key loggers and paranoia that infects the leadership.

and lots, LOTS more…

Everything I claim in this post can be supported by evidence. I leave you with these tasters to bring you up to speed with Jim “The Industry Expert” Dowson;

From www.123people.co.uk

An Observer investigation today raises serious concerns about the operations of the LifeLeague, the militant anti-abortion group that has hijacked Britain’s pro-life debate.

The concerns come as it emerges that a rival pro-life organisation is considering legal action against the group’s founder, James Dowson, for alleged breach of copyright.

Dowson, 43, is the public face of the league. He regularly appears on television to pronounce abortion a sin. With his hard-hitting campaigns and highly provocative tactics, such as publishing the home addresses of abortion clinic staff, he ensures the league is often in the headlines. This weekend its members are out in strength, joining other pro-life organisations at demonstrations to mark the 40th anniversary of the Abortion Act.

Little is known about Dowson. It is reported that he lives in Scotland and is a Protestant minister. Neither, it transpires, is strictly true. Dowson has never been ordained as a minister. And although he claims to live in Glasgow, he spends most of his time in Northern Ireland where land registry records show he owns a buy-to-let property in Comber, a small town in County Down. Dowson, his wife, Anne, and their son, James, 20, who bought a title and calls himself the Laird of Glencairn, actually live at another address in County Down, a four-bedroom semi in Ballygowan. Dowson also has a house in Cumbernauld, Glasgow, where he owns a mission hall.

The LifeLeague’s website pledges to spend donations ‘wisely’ but tracing where the money goes is difficult. Documents at Companies House show Dowson originally set up the league as a private company but it remains dormant and has never filed meaningful accounts. Instead it is run as a society, which means it only has to share its accounts with its members. ‘We do not publish our accounts as that would play into the hands of the pro-abortionists,’ Dowson said.

Nor is it clear where the league is based. Its offices are usually listed at a service address in Piccadilly, London. But the reality is Dowson operates out of an office in east Belfast where he is also involved in a support network for victims of the Troubles.

It has been alleged that Dowson, who has a tattoo bearing the words ‘Abronhill Protestant Boys Flute Band’, produced music cassettes during the 1990s promoting the loyalist cause. ‘I was in a flute band,’ said Dowson, a former member of the hardline Protestant group, the Loyal Orange Lodge of Scotland. ‘But then so were thousands of other people. My enemies have stretched this to suggest I supported the paramilitaries. It’s utter nonsense.’

Dowson has addressed a far-right conference in London and last year he invited Nick Griffin, head of the British National Party, to Belfast. ‘We invited all the parties to Belfast to explain their position on abortion,’ he said. Dowson denies he is a far-right sympathiser. ‘I refuse nobody,’ he said. ‘I am a Christian Socialist. I find the whole of the right-wing utterly ridiculous.’

Despite the league’s claims that it is a large-scale organisation with thousands of members, most of its work is carried out by Dowson, his sister-in-law, Marion, and his wife.

The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, another pro-life group, is considering legal action against Dowson for allegedly using some of its literature in league campaigns. ‘There is a dispute between us relating to intellectual property and it is in the hands of the lawyers,’ said John Smeaton, SPUC’s director. The Christian Institute also has concerns the LifeLeague has used its literature. Dowson denies the claims.

Daily Telegraph April 2nd 2006:

James Dowson does not concern himself with moral qualms. The consequences of his inflammatory comments, he believes, are not something with which he should be unduly bothered.

His stance, he says, is unequivocal: “I don’t suggest – or ever condone – violence. I advocate nothing that is out with the law. I most certainly do not urge people to send abusive letters or emails to these people.” (But he’s pretty prolific with the abusive emails himself).

The events of the past week, in which Mr Dowson and his UK Life League have been criticised in the media, have buoyed his belief that the end justifies the means. “We have got column inches, our enemies are running scared,” he says.

Mr Dowson sees it all as a triumph. He makes no bones about it: the name of the game is publicity. Yes, he happily acknowledges, as a Glasgow Protestant he once belonged to the Orange Order and, yes, he has two convictions (now spent) for breach of the peace.

In the next few weeks, he also hopes to have a fleet of lorries on the road across the country, which he will use to picket abortion clinics. (One of which he “sold” to the BNP.)

Final Message to Nick:

Do not send your ‘heavies’ or ageing goon-squad to my door (as is standard practice) as I possess no party property or assets, and you know it. If you do, they will be broadcast live on video to several high profile websites. I will post the SQL dump of your website to you, as I am legally obliged to do. I will also release the domain to the TAG of your choice whenever you provide it to me. That is the end of my legal obligation to you as I have always made clear.

----------------------------------

On the BDF forum, Bennett later made this interesting post:

Evidence from the server company alerting me to the illegal downloading of the entire [BNP] site:

I noticed this though which is rather odd:

> May 4 16:25:20 ace1 pure-ftpd: (arthur@bnp.org.uk@78.144.166.95) [NOTICE] /home/bnpmain/public_html//wp-content/uploads/alby-walker-nick-griffin-300x186.jpg downloaded (17677
> bytes, 1281.57KB/sec)
> May 4 16:25:22 ace1 pure-ftpd: (arthur@bnp.org.uk@78.144.166.95) [NOTICE] /home/bnpmain/public_html//wp-content/uploads/alby-walker-nick-griffin.jpg downloaded (34945 bytes, 4
> 3638.63KB/sec)
> May 4 16:25:24 ace1 pure-ftpd: (arthur@bnp.org.uk@78.144.166.95) [NOTICE] /home/bnpmain/public_html//wp-content/uploads/aleqm5gb8vbh5cpl1xg4axqhh0zs4aftbw.jpg downloaded (1585
> 6 bytes, 966.32KB/sec)
> May 4 16:25:26 ace1 pure-ftpd: (arthur@bnp.org.uk@78.144.166.95) [NOTICE] /home/bnpmain/public_html//wp-content/uploads/aleqm5gb8vbh5cpl1xg4axqhh0zs4aftbw.thumbnail.jpg downloa
> ded (3679 bytes, 314.96KB/sec)
> May 4 16:25:27 ace1 pure-ftpd: (arthur@bnp.org.uk@78.144.166.95) [NOTICE] /home/bnpmain/public_html//wp-content/uploads/ali-north-wales-150x150.jpg downloaded (6758 bytes, 355
> .62KB/sec)

It appears someone logged in as 'arthur' is downloading a copy of the whole site from a UK IP address; I hope that's okay?