BNP electoral rise halted by head-on anti-fascist campaigning

Trade union leaders, celebrities and community leaders respond to results

Anti-fascist campaigners today welcomed the failure of the BNP to win significantly more council seats, but warned against any complacency. They called on all anti-racists and democrats who oppose fascism to unite in a renewed effort to drive the BNP back. Despite standing more than double the number of candidates and anticipating a massive breakthrough, results so far show the BNP has only gained one net seat - from 49 to 50 seats.

The BNP lost eight of its nine council seats up for re-election - three in Burnley, and one in Calderdale, Stoke on Trent, Bradford, South Holland and Broxbourne. It gained three new seats in both Leicestershire and Stoke on Trent and one in Staffordshire, Bradford and Broxtowe.

In key BNP target areas such as Thurrock in Essex, Wakefield in Yorkshire and Dudley and Sandwell in the West Midlands amongst others, the BNP was blocked from winning seats. This was in large part due to campaigns that challenged head-on the BNP's racist lies about multiculturalism, immigrants, asylum seekers and Muslims and encouraged a vote instead for legitimate political parties.

The climate of heightened racism has allowed the BNP to win votes in a wider geographical area than ever before. Alarmingly, in Wales, the BNP polled high votes in some regions as a result of a particularly vicious campaign including a party political broadcast whipping up racism against migrants and refugees.

The BNP are anticipated to be defeated in Scotland. There was a cross-party campaign that was supported by trade unionists and community groups, to defend multiculturalism and challenge their targeting of asylum seekers and migrants.

Campaigners warned against complacency. The BNP will seek to advance onto the national political stage in the next couple of years. They will target the London assembly in 2008 and the 2009 European Parliamentary elections.

Ken Livingstone, Chair of Unite Against Fascism said:
The BNP is a criminal fascist organisation. The fact that they failed to make significant gains in these local elections shows that challenging their racism head on in concerted campaigning including all sections of society can make a difference. We must double our efforts to stop them being elected into the London Assembly next May. Challenging their racist lies and the political climate that has legitimised the BNP is essential to achieving this.

Brendan Barber , TUC General Secretary said:
"It looks like the BNP has failed to make the breakthrough that was feared and this is down in part to all the hard work undertaken by trade union members and anti-far right campaigners over the past few months. But one BNP councillor is a BNP councillor too many. We must continue to campaign against parties of the far right who seek to spread fear and intimidation and disrupt our many diverse communities across the UK ."

Richard Archer, Lead Singer of Hard-Fi said:
"The BNP have once again tried to use misinformation and distortion in an attempt to deceive the British public. Hard-Fi wish to state our continued opposition to the BNP and continued support for Love Music Hate Racism and the fight against racism and fascism."

Glyn Ford MEP said:
We have won this battle against the fascist BNP. The war against the poison of the BNP will to continue.

Dr. Abdul Bari, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain said:
The BNP is a racist, fascist organisation, which openly tries to whip up dangerous hostility towards Muslims for electoral gain. The MCB is proud to have worked with a diverse range of organisations in order to mobilise Muslim and non-Muslim voters across the country to vote against the BNP's policies of hatred and division. We pledge to redouble our efforts with Unite Against Fascism, and all fellow British people who value democracy, to ensure that fascism is defeated.

Grahame Smith, General Secretary of the Scottish TUC said:
"The people of Scotland have given a clear message today that they reject racism and fascism. The BNP and their vile politics of hatred, lies and misinformation, has not been allowed to infect Scottish politics".

Felicity Williams, Wales TUC General Secretary said:
"The Welsh electorate have sent a clear message to fascist groups and have resoundingly voted to keep the BNP out of national politics in Wales. It is a victory for democracy over extremists who peddle fear and suspicion and demonstrates that there is no place for them in Wales. The Wales TUC has been working with Assembly candidates across Wales to ensure that campaigning is free of any racial or religious prejudice, inviting them to commit to the development of Wales as a thriving, multi-faith, multi-cultural and multi-racial society.

Weyman Bennett, Joint National Secretary Unite Against Fascism said:
The BNP was halted by the thousands of anti fascist activist, trade unionists, and faith groups who fought against the lies of the Nazis. We cannot be complacent or rest on our laurels of victory. The fascist BNP stood on such a large geographical area to establish themselves in preparation for the euro elections. We now need a huge national campaign backed by local activity to make sure we continue to prevent the fascists from making a breakthrough.

Denis Fernando, Joint National Secretary of Unite Against Fascism said:
'This result shows that when the BNP is strongly opposed in a united broad campaign, it can be stopped. It has failed to make the breakthrough it craved in these elections, but along the way it has whipped up racism and division. It is no surprise that its largest vote in Wales was in Wrexham, where it ran a campaign attacking refugees and migrants, off the back of the riots of 2003 when asylum seekers were assaulted and racists were convicted for violence. The BNP's electoral failure this May must be used by all those who oppose fascism as a springboard to drive the fascist party back in the 2008 elections."

UAF

Election: The people versus the racists

Bishop urges voters to unseat BNP councillors

A senior Church of England bishop who has a number of British National Party (BNP) councillors in his diocese, has written in an anti-fascist magazine, urging Christians to vote against the party in the forthcoming local elections.

The comments from Rt Rev Nicholas Reade, Bishop of Blackburn, who was writing in 'Searchlight' magazine, make him the latest in a long line of church leaders and denominations to publicly urge votes against the BNP in the local elections next week.

In 2003 the BNP briefly became the official opposition in Burnley, which is in the Bishop's diocese. They now have just seven seats on the council. The bishop said that Lancashire voters should now completely reject the “poison of racial and religious hatred”.

“Sadly there are a small minority of candidates seeking election on the basis of politics that seek to divide,” the Bishop said. “They prefer the poison of racial and religious hatred to the challenge of co-operation. Christians and non-Christians, peoples of all faiths and none, should reject them.

"They should reject them by refusing to vote for them, by pointing out to others the true nature of their poisonous policies, and by turning out to vote for candidates who are committed to constructive co-operation.”

The Bishop also pointed out that the Church of England’s ‘parliament’, the General Synod, unanimously backed a motion from Lancashire that called on Christians to boycott racist parties. The motion was passed in 2005, in response to “the recent success of the British National Party in local elections in parts of Lancashire”.

“The national Church took notice of that warning, and said it must not happen again,” the Bishop said.

He added: “Of course, this is not just a Church matter. Just as I welcome opportunities to meet, discuss and work together with people from other faith communities, so the advantages of co-operation can be celebrated wherever people work together for good.

“I’m always encouraged when I find priests and politicians working co-operatively for the benefit of the communities they serve. I welcome the growing willingness among our local authorities to work in partnership with all the faith communities.”

Writing in a special pre-election newspaper produced by ‘Searchlight’, the anti-racist organisation, the Bishop said Christians regard racism as ‘sin’. “In the Christian community it’s the strongest word we can find. In terms of racism it means something not only off limits to people, but also to God.”

The Bishop said he was honoured to meet leaders of other faiths in Lancashire and to encourage discussions for honest debate and acceptance between the faith communities.

“Racism seeks to poison such acceptance,” he said. “In the Church of England in Lancashire we have taken a strong stand against it.”

Ekklesia

EU adopts measure outlawing Holocaust denial

The European Union approved legislation Thursday that would make denying the Holocaust punishable by jail sentences, but would also give countries across the 27-member bloc the option of not enforcing the law if such a prohibition did not exist in their own laws.

The draft law, which EU diplomats called a minimalist compromise, gained approval after six years of emotional negotiations, during which countries with vastly different legal cultures struggled to reconcile the protection of freedom of speech with protection of their citizens from racism and hate crimes.

The legislation calls for jail terms of as much as three years for "intentional conduct" that incites violence or hatred against a person's "race, color, religion, descent or national or ethnic origin." The same punishment would apply to those who incite violence by "denying or grossly trivializing crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes."

EU officials said that the law was notable for what it omitted.

Fearing that the legislation could be hijacked by groups trying to right historical wrongs, a majority of EU countries rejected a demand by the formerly communist Baltic countries that the law criminalize the denial of atrocities committed by Stalin during Soviet times. As a political gesture, however, Franco Frattini, the EU's justice commissioner, said the EU would organize public hearings on the "horrible crimes" of the Stalin era in the coming months.

The scope of the law also does not cover other historical events, like the massacre of Armenians during the First World War by Ottoman Turks, which Armenians call a genocide. Instead, the legislation recognized only genocides that fall under the statutes of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, like the mass killing of Jews during World War II and the massacre in Rwanda in 1994.

There will be no Europe-wide ban on the use of Nazi symbols, one of the original intentions of the law's drafters, which gained force two years ago after the release of photographs of Prince Harry of Britain wearing a swastika armband at a costume party.

EU officials involved in the drafting of the law, which needed unanimous approval, said consensus had been achieved by allowing national laws to take precedence. Britain, Sweden and Denmark, which have particularly libertarian traditions, pressed for wording that would avoid criminalizing debates about the Holocaust and would ensure that films and plays about the Holocaust, like Roberto Benigni's award-winning "Life is Beautiful" and Mel Brooks's musical "The Producers," were not censored.

The legislation also states that individual countries' constitutional protections of freedom of speech would be upheld, meaning, for example, that publishing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in Denmark, where freedom of speech is enshrined in the Constitution, is permitted under the law.

Denmark and Britain also pressed successfully for a provision to ensure that attacks on religions are covered only when they are of a xenophobic or racist nature.

Anti-racism groups said the law had been watered down to the point of rendering it toothless. Michael Privot, spokesman for the European Network Against Racism, said, for example, that a person publishing a pamphlet denying the Holocaust could do so with impunity in Britain, while still facing prosecution in France. "We have ended up with a lowest common denominator law," he said.

Laws against denying the Holocaust exist in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany and Spain, and in many cases the national legislation goes much further than the new EU rules. In a recent high-profile case, the British historian David Irving spent 13 months in jail in Austria for challenging the Holocaust before being released in December.

Two years ago, Luxembourg tried to use its EU presidency to push through Europe-wide anti-racism legislation, but it was blocked by the center-right government then in power in Italy on the grounds that it threatened freedom of speech. The proposed law was considered too politically difficult to pass until it was taken up by Germany, current holder of the EU's rotating presidency, which has called it a historical obligation and a moral imperative.

Friso Roscam Abbing, spokesman for Frattini, the EU's justice commissioner, said it was inevitable that the bill be diluted, given the need to reconcile so many different political and legal cultures. But he added: "We still think it is useful and sends a strong political signal that there is no safe haven in Europe for racism, anti-Semitism or Islam-phobia."

But Muslim leaders accused the EU of having double standards, arguing that it protects established Christian religions and outlaws anti-Semitism while doing nothing to defend Muslims against defamation.

International Herald Tribune

EU aims to criminalise Holocaust denial

Laws that make denying or trivialising the Holocaust a criminal offence punishable by jail sentences will be introduced across the European Union, according to a proposal expecting to win backing from ministers Thursday.

Offenders will face up to three years in jail under the proposed legislation, which will also apply to inciting violence against ethnic, religious or national groups.

Diplomats in Brussels voiced confidence on Tuesday that the controversial plan, which has been the subject of heated debate for six years, will be endorsed by member states. However, the Baltic countries and Poland are still holding out for an inclusion of “Stalinist crimes” alongside the Holocaust in the text – a move that is being resisted by the majority of other EU countries.

The latest draft, seen by the Financial Times, will make it mandatory for all Union member states to punish public incitement “to violence or hatred directed against a group of persons or a member of such a group defined by reference to race, colour, religion, descent or national or ethnic origin”.

They will also have to criminalise “publicly condoning, denying or grossly trivialising crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes” when such statements incite hatred or violence against minorities.

Diplomats stressed the provision had been carefully worded to include only denial of the Holocaust – the Nazi mass murder of Jews during the second world war – and the genocide in Rwanda in 1994.

They also stressed that the wording was designed to avoid criminalising comical plays or films about the Holocaust such as the Italian comedian Roberto Benigni’s prize-winning Life is Beautiful . The text expressly upholds countries’ constitutional traditions relating to the freedom of expression.

Holocaust denial is already a criminal offence in several European countries, including Germany and Austria. It is not a specific crime in Britain, though UK officials said it could already be tackled under existing legislation.

In an attempt to assuage Turkish fears, several EU diplomats said the provisions would not penalise the denial of mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman troops in the aftermath of the 1915 collapse of the Ottoman empire. Turkey strongly rejects claims that this episode amounted to genocide.

The proposal draws what is likely to be a controversial distinction between inciting violence against racial or ethnic groups and against religious groups. Attacks against Muslims, Jews or other faiths will only be penalised if they go on to incite violence against ethnic or racial groups, the draft text states.

Financial Times

Sickening racist response to assault on mother and baby

As BBC News Scotland reports a serious sexual assault on a refugee mother AND her baby son, habitues of the Nazi Stormfront website - hangout of BNP leaders and members - plumb new depths of bigotry and hatred.

From BBC News Scotland: "An asylum seeker and her baby were sexually assaulted as she took the child out in his pram, police said... Police believe the assault, which happened on the cycle path between Plean Street and Dyke Road, was racially-motivated. A group of about four men threw stones at the pair and kicked the woman. One man exposed himself and sexually assaulted the woman. He then assaulted the child and attempted to perform an indecent act on him." Full story here.

The Stormfront reaction?

The Iceni: I See the police are treating it as racial then...Lets see, no witnesses, and an asylum seeker.. might help with her claim, Trauma etc...Plus I doubt many White men would find an Algerian woman complete with headscarf particularly erotic unless they were drugged up..I might be wrong but I dont think we will see this story again...The police have to treat drivel like this as though its a crime of the century...

always white: I don't believe the story.

The Iceni: Me neither, they should treat all the Black on White rapes as racial if they treat this as one....Wouldn't that be a sight to behold...

The Oakleaf: To be honest, I couldn't care less. I doubt the perpetrators were white. ...

whiteandalive: Nor do I on this. This don't go on in London or anywhere else. I've never heard of Whites raping or sexually assaulting Black Women let alone a Muslim Algerian and her child. Its more like a story to get a nice council flat and British Citizenship.

Cliveyboy: I think it likely the police said the woman claimed or reported this, but the BBC, which is institutionally racist against White Males, reports it as fact.

de ecxidio: Our very own Duke 'rape' case, perhaps. More likely total BS, though. The timing is certainly suspect. Wonder who put her up to it? Like we can't guess.

People very like this are probably seeking election to YOUR local council. They wear suits and bright smiles and claim to be simple patriots. The truth of them is very different. Do you really want bigots just like this representing YOU and YOUR district?

Voice of reason

'The BNP has nothing to offer the people of Bolton'

The BNP has sparked outrage in Bolton by confirming it will field a candidate in next month's local elections. A candidate will stand in the Tonge with The Haulgh ward.

It is the first time the far-right British National Party has put forward a candidate in Bolton and the news has been greeted with dismay by politicians and campaigners against racism.

Bolton-west MP Ruth Kelly, who is Communities and Local Government Secretary, said: "I would urge everybody to stand up for decent, honourable community values and to vote against the BNP. In my opinion they spread poison and lies. It is down to every single one of us to stand up against that."

This year's local elections will be on Thursday, May 3.

In addition to its candidate in Bolton, the BNP is also fielding eight candidates in Bury. The chairman of the Bolton Against Racism campaign, Ian McHugh, said: "The BNP has nothing to offer the people of Bolton but race hatred and racism.

"The poor meeting attendance record of BNP councillors elsewhere in the region shows their lack of commitment to local democracy and their disregard for those they have been elected to serve. Boltonians have a long history of tolerance and working together to better the town and its citizens and we're confident they will turn their back on the racism and intolerance of the BNP."

Yaseer Ahmed, who lives in Daubhill and is on the national Commission for Racial Equality, urged everyone in the Tonge ward to turn out and use their vote to prevent the BNP getting a foothold.

The ward had a turnout of just 31.1 per cent of voters in the last council elections.

Mr Ahmed, who is also a member of the Bolton Council of Mosques, said: "There's no room for the BNP in Bolton. We should not give a platform to any group or people that would upset this town's diversity and harmony and end up promoting racial hatred and a lack of trust between communities and even neighbours."

Bolton's Labour council leader Cllr Cliff Morris said: "I'm disappointed they are fielding a candidate. We should be doing everything in our power to make sure they do not get any votes."

Cllr Frank White, a Tonge ward Labour member and the council's executive member for community cohesion, said: "I'm totally confident in the good sense of the people of Tonge to vote for one of the democratic parties."

AsianImage

No.10 website carries threats of violence against Muslims

THE EXTREME RIGHT have threatened violence against Muslims on Downing Street's website in a protest over a proposed Mosque.

The British National Party and other neo-Nazi groups are supporting a petition on No.10's website which warns, ominously, of "terrible violence and suffering" should the so-called mega mosque go ahead

This is certain to be taken as a warning that physical violence could be unleashed against Muslims unless the dissenters get their way and defeat plans to build a mosque on the Olympic site in Stratford, east London.

Yesterday the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, attacked another online poll being run at the same time, on the London Evening Standard's "thisislondon" website, which is also being pushed on the BNP's website.

Organised

Livingstone said the poll was "aimed at stirring up communal hatred by spreading entirely false statements about plans for a new mosque in East London."

The mayor accuses opponents of spreading false propaganda by claiming £100m of public money would be pumped into the mosque, when there are no plans to spend any public money on the project.

Livingstone said the false claims were "clearly designed to deliberately whip up communal hatred and contain content that is entirely untrue.They are clearly being spread in an organised way for unscrupulous political reasons".

He added: "There is no proposal to use any public money at all for such a mosque; there is no link between plans for a mosque and the Olympics; and, as widely reported, there are actually no plans for a mosque on the scale claimed in the email."

However the Downing Street petition, with its implicit threat of far-right attacks on Muslims, is potentially even more serious. Over 30,000 people had signed the petition this morning.

Blink is encouraging readers to complain to No.10 over the reference to "terrible violence and suffering" if the mosque is built. Please email webmaster@pmo.gov.uk and ask for these words to be removed or failing that, the whole petition taken off line.

Black Information Link

Truth is clear - BNP just want to stir up hatred

by Gordon Brown

I want to congratulate Searchlight and the Daily Mirror for organising this fantastic Hope Not Hate nationwide tour.

Celebrities including the Sugababes, actors from Coronation Street and The Bill, Amir Khan and Corinne Bailey Rae have rallied to support the campaign and stand against the bigotry and racism of the BNP.

More important, thousands of people in towns and cities right across Britain have backed the campaign too.

Just a few days ago 50,000 Searchlight newsletters were delivered in Sandwell in the West Midlands Black Country. Another 20,000 were put through doors in Dudley a few days earlier.

The story has been the same across the country - ordinary people from all races and religions, from all ages and backgrounds, coming together to celebrate what's best about modern Britain and tell people the truth about the BNP. And that truth is clear. The BNP are not a mainstream political party but a group of extremists trying to stir up division and hatred in those communities they are targeting.

WE all know there are problems in Britain. Our country is not perfect and we've still got a lot of work to do but the BNP don't have the answers. The vast majority of the British people know that support for the BNP is completely incompatible with the true nature of Britishness and the great British values of democracy and decency, freedom and fairness, tolerance and equality that the rest of us stand for.

Where we want to unite our country around the great British beliefs we all share of liberty for all, responsibility by all and fairness to all, the BNP want to divide our communities on the basis of the colour of your skin, where you were born or what you look like. They oppose any racial integration and even mixed marriages. They want to create a country where ethnic minorities are second under the law. They believe that people should be given preference in the jobs and housing market, and even in choice of schools on the basis of the colour of their skin, regardless of their ability, talents or contribution.

That is not what the vast majority of British people believe. We don't care what you look like or what colour you are - if you work hard and do your best, you can be part of our community. That's what matters to me. We're in it together and we work for each other. To me, that's what's best about Britain. That's what living in Britain is all about. And May 3 gives us all the opportunity to speak up for the great British values we all share, to make a stand against the BNP, to vote for hope - not hate.

Mirror

GMB activists join campaign to defeat BNP in forthcoming local elections in Sandwell

Election campaign against BNP in Sandwell part of a co-coordinated push nationally to defeat racism and fascism on our streets and council chambers as Hope not Hate Big Red Bus prepares to visit Manchester, Keighley, Bradford, Dewsbury, Leeds, the set of Emmerdale Farm, Newcastle, Sunderland and Glasgow.

Well over 200 people from three political parties, ten trade unions, MP's, including John Cruddas MP for Dagenham who is standing in the Deputy leadership contest, local councillors, and many others helped deliver over 45,000 tabloid newspapers to the local community in Sandwell yesterday 1st April 2007, along with leaflets promoting Hope over the politics of division and hatred of the BNP.

Over 40 GMB members took part in this activity, some for the first time. These members also helped deliver en mass thousands of Searchlight newspapers in the afternoon with Billy Bragg to every local household next to the BNP former stronghold The Lagoon pub in the Princess End, which until recently was run by Jamie Lloyd the local BNP councillor.

The event was part of the Hope not Hate tour that is currently touring the country in the big red bus celebrating modern Britain. This features entertainment by the local all nations steel band and the legendary folk singer and committed anti racist Billy Bragg. Hope not Hate Big Red Bus now prepares to visit Manchester, Keighley, Bradford & Dewsbury, Leeds & the set of Emmerdale Farm, Newcastle & Sunderland and Glasgow (see notes to editors for dates).

Mick Rix, GMB National Officer said: "GMB was proud and privileged to have helped and be a part of organising a hugely successful anti fascist - anti racist day of action, in Sandwell. Our members were accompanied by the Hope Not Hate big red bus, 45,000 tabloid newspapers were delivered in record time, by 2pm. A free show by the All Nations Steel Band was put on for the shoppers in the Market and at ASDA in West Bromwich, where again over three thousand newspapers, leaflets, balloons and badges were given out.

Leaflets were delivered to households near the BNP former stronghold, The Lagoon pub, which until recently was run by Jamie Lloyd the local BNP councilor. This was recently closed down on the advice of the police after many violent attacks took place there. Apparently Mr. Lloyd who was running the pub at the time refused to hand over CCTV evidence of these attacks in which it is alleged there was a shooting and in a separate

incident a machete attack. In their submission to the councils licensing committee the police concluded: "That Lloyd had little or no concern for the safety of his customers in general". Which raises further questions over the BNP claims to be a party of law and order.

The Lloyd family is no stranger to violence, Lloyd's sons have been continually in trouble with the police, and one is currently in prison serving a three year term. "

GMB