Occupy Bristol claims second camp was trashed by right-wing activists

A second Occupation camp in Bristol has been scrapped after two days because of an attack by a far right group, campaigners have claimed.

Eight tents were set up out outside the KPMG building near the Temple Meads roundabout on Thursday, as an offshoot of the main Occupy Bristol camp at College Green. But Occupy Bristol supporters have claimed on their website that website members of the English Defence League "trashed" the site on Saturday night.

The allegation came the day after Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg condemned the camp outside the Liberal Democrat run Bristol City Council building.

Mr Clegg, visiting Yate on Friday, said many people understood the frustration and anger over irresponsible bankers that led to the demonstrations in Bristol and elsewhere. But he said: "You don't make that point best by building a permanent encampment on College Green. It doesn't help the cause."

According to the Occupy Bristol website, protestors at the KPMG site were "threatened" on Saturday night. In a blog entry an anonymous member of the second camp said the attack happened at 7pm when they were "threatened to have my face bit off, by a male whom I presume was a member of Bristol's EDL firm."

The writer said a middle-aged woman handed over a note that read "people of Bristol eviction notice get off our green".

"It was obvious from early on who they were so I attempted to engage with them," the camp member said. "Nevertheless, I was told they have launched a campaign against Occupy Bristol. This wasn't news to me as it's been acknowledged by us for several weeks. Several Occupations around the country have had repeated problems with EDL members. However, ironically the harder the EDL try to defeat the Occupy movement, the stronger we grow in numbers, power and support."

Police in London arrested a large number of EDL supporters earlier this month because of fears they were going to attack the Occupy camp outside St Paul's Cathedral.

The blogger said Occupy Bristol did not have enough people to defend the second camp as well as the main camp on College Green so it has been temporarily disbanded. Luther Blissett, from the camp, told the Post yesterday the attack on the KPMG camp had not been reported to the police. He said he believed there had been three attackers, although he had not been at the site.

The College Green camp of about 60 tents is the biggest Occupy site outside London. The public open space belongs to Bristol Cathedral but is managed by the city council. Cathedral and council leaders have asked them to leave peacefully but the campaigners, who say they are protesting about the unfairness of modern society, intend to stay. They decided to set up a camp near KPMG because it was "a great strategic location" close to financial services companies including Royal Bank of Scotland/NatWest, HSBC, KPMG, Deloitte, Bank of Ireland, Osborne Clarke, Canada Life and QBE.

The Evening Post attempted to contact the EDL to respond to the allegations but was unable to last night. On its website though, a number of posts have been made claiming the group has "no interest" in Occupy protesters across the country.

A statement posted last week said: "Exactly what they're upset about, what they expect to achieve, and how they actually want things to be done differently, we're not quite sure. Whatever you may happen to think of the Occupy movement, it seems that their protest has been blown out of proportion."

Yate People

Pull the plug on Gilad Atzmon

Bradford TUC is joining up with the HOPE not hate campaign in calling on the Bradford-based Raise Your Banners organisation to withdraw its invitation to Gilad Atzmon who is due to perform at one of its events on 25 November.

Gilad Atzmon is an antisemite and flirts with Holocaust Denial and Holocaust Deniers. He was born in Israel but now lives in the UK and is a jazz musician.

This is just one of his many offensive comments about the Holocaust.

“When I was young and naïve I was also convinced that what they told us about our ‘collective’ Jewish past really happened. I believed it all, the Kingdom of David, Massada, and then the Holocaust: the soap, the lampshade, the death march, the six million.

As it happened, it took me many years to understand that the Holocaust, the core belief of the contemporary Jewish faith, was not at all an historical narrative for historical narratives do not need the protection of the law and politicians.”

“It took me many years to accept that the Holocaust narrative, in its current form, doesn’t make any historical sense. Here is just one little anecdote to elaborate on:

"If, for instance, the Nazis wanted the Jews out of their Reich (Judenrein - free of Jews), or even dead, as the Zionist narrative insists, how come they marched hundreds of thousands of them back into the Reich at the end of the war?”

“I am left puzzled here; if the Nazis ran a death factory in Auschwitz-Birkenau, why would the Jewish prisoners join them at the end of the war? Why didn’t the Jews wait for their Red liberators?”

Atzmon is also implicated in the distribution of the Holocaust denier Paul Eisen’s essay ‘The Holocaust Wars which he has described as a ‘great text’. This great text is notorious for its defence and espousal of amongst others Ernst Zundel, the convicted Holocaust denier. He has also been linked with Israel Shamir, another Holocaust denier, who has links to many white supremacist and Nazi groups. Indeed when Eisner’s document was originally posted it was on Shamir’s website, Atzmon described Shamir as a ‘unique and advanced thinker’.

We believe that Atzmon should be shunned by all decent people - just as we would shun David Irving and Nick Griffin. Just because Atzmon is Jewish does not mean that he cannot be either antisemitic or deny the Holocaust.

Bradford TUC voted unanimously to denounce Atzmon and his invitation to perform at the Raise Your Banners event. The TUC has written to the organisers in the hope that they will withdraw the invitation. Paul Meszaros, of Bradford TUC and HOPE not hate Yorkshire, said: "There is no way that Atzmon should play. The evidence against him is overwhelming.

"We are appalled at this decision and believe that this is a serious point of principle. Bradford TUC has long been at the fore of the anti-fascist movement in the area and it is in this tradition that we demand the withdrawal of Atzmon’s invitation."

Hope not Hate

Some extra info and contact number.

S

ome very important information regarding Holocaust denier Gilad Atzmon's so-called "radical jazz" concert which you might or might not be aware of. Almost all "Raise Your Banners Festival" events are happening at Kala Sangam, but this event happens at Bradford Cathedral (01274 777720). You need to speak to diocesan Bishop of Bradford Nick Baines, and if that doesn't work, make a direct appeal to the Church of England hierarchy. Giving a forthright anti-semite permission to play his concert at a cathedral would make disastrous headlines for the Church of England, if the media were to get hold of it.

http://www.visitbradford.com/thedms.asp?dms=13&feature=1256&venue=1570382

EDL splinter groups may target public sector strikers, unions warn

An EDL rally in London in August. Photograph: Mike Kemp/In Pictures/Corbis

EDL groups are broadening out their attacks to focus on leftwing organisations

Britain's biggest unions are warning of a threat of violence by far-right groups during national strike action this month, amid concern that fascist elements are increasingly intent on targeting striking public sector workers.

Unite, Unison and the TUC said they were taking the prospect of disruption by far-right supporters seriously, and had begun to liaise with police to assess any risk to pickets or those on protest marches. The development follows signs that splinter groups from the English Defence League are broadening their campaign from targeting Muslims to trade unionists and socialist organisations. Members of the EDL have recently been involved in attacks on anti-racist and anti-cuts protesters, as well as attempting to target the Occupy movement which has camped outside St Paul's Cathedral.

More than two million workers are expected to walk out on 30 November during a day of protest against public sector pension changes.

Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, the country's main public sector trade union, said: "We take any threat to our members' health and safety very seriously. As a matter of course, ahead of a major day of action, we work with the police to assess risks, and our many stewards work hard to keep people safe. The far right's latest attempt to stir up hate and fear is a disgrace."

Rob Johnston, the Midlands regional secretary for the TUC, said: "There is a concern, a general wariness, that the EDL are very active. There have been attacks on trade unionists. We need to put our heads together and think about how we deal with it."

Nine days ago an EDL faction attempted to attack the north-west headquarters of Unite, the UK's biggest trade union. Online messages from the EDL in Merseyside stated they were "patrolling for leftys [sic]". Those they finally identified turned out to be former council workers protesting after they lost their jobs when a contractor went bust. A march of female asylum seekers has also been recently targeted by EDL supporters in the city.

One EDL splinter group, the Infidels, has stated that it considers any leftwing or anti-cuts activists fair game. A north-east wing of the Infidels was recently blamed for attacking an Occupy Newcastle camp in which one protester was taken to hospital and others injured. A statement from the leader of the Infidels faction, John "Snowy" Shaw, states: "We have decided to put all our efforts into opposing everything you do regardless of the issue at hand, it's your organisations we oppose." He adds: "Every event you hold will be a potential target along with your meetings, fund raisers and social events."

On the same day as the Liverpool attack, police arrested 179 EDL members after intelligence they were planning to attack Occupy protesters camped outside St Paul's Cathedral. A Facebook page carried comments discussing attacking "lefties" at St Paul's and included death threats from one supporter.

Dr Matthew Goodwin, extremism expert and political lecturer at the University of Nottingham, said the far right in the UK was becoming increasingly confrontational. "Historically, trade unionists and the far right have been fiercely opposed to one another," he said. "Trade unionists view the modern far right as a continuation of interwar fascism, and so support anti-fascist campaigns and groups. Meanwhile, far-right extremists tend to view trade unionists as promoting multiculturalism and political correctness. While these disputes are ideological, they have often become incredibly personal.

"Over the past three years, the far right in Britain has become increasingly confrontational and provocative."

Bill Adams, TUC regional secretary of Yorkshire, said he was aware of a new far-right presence in his region – 300 members of the North East Infidels recently protested in Leeds city centre – and had been advised by police to avoid antagonising the far right. "They have said to watch what I say about the EDL, they have some info that they have my details." Last year prominent TUC member Alec McFadden was placed under police protection after threats from the Merseyside branch of the EDL who doctored a placard he was carrying criticising coalition cuts to make it read as if it were protesting against homecoming British troops.

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said the union movement would not be cowed by a group whose only concern was "spreading fear" instead of advancing the rights of working people. "Trade unionists stand against everything the EDL stands for," he said. "Trade unionists have fought long and hard for a fairer society, one with respect at its core. Ultra-rightwing groups care about nothing other than stoking hatred, which is why they have no place in our communities."

Other incidents this year that suggest that the EDL and its spin-offs are adopting an increasingly anti-leftwing agenda include attacks at anti-racist meetings in Brighton and Leeds and during a Labour party event held in Barking, east London, in May.

Observer

The beating of the BNP in Belfast

Marion Thomas has won her employment tribunal against the BNP. Surprisingly, after three days of public embarrassment and allegations the tribunal did not take the initially quoted six weeks to reach its decision. The tribunal concluded that Mrs Thomas was "automatically unfairly dismissed for non-compliance with the statutory dismissal procedure".

This tribunal was held earlier this month. It had two missing ingredients: the real protagonists. This case was always about Nick Griffin, the increasingly desperate and unpopular leader of the far-right BNP, and his one time financial crutch, guru and indeed ‘consigliere’, Jim Dowson. Both Griffin and his daughter Jennifer Matthys were criticised by the panel for failing to attend.

Instead, the employment tribunal at Killymead House, conveniently sandwiched between Belfast’s Republican Short Strand and Loyalist Donegal Pass, had to make do with second best. It’s a shame really, as this was the perfect geographical location for a no holds barred, all encompassing exploration of how the BNP crushed ideologies, shattered political ambitions and in no small way, descended into acrimonious tribal conflict and civil war.

Both the meteoric rise and the final devastating fall of the BNP were orchestrated here in Belfast in that fateful tie up between Griffin’s BNP and Jim Dowson. The basis of the unfair dismissal claim was as much a case of who is to blame for the failures, and who was to blame for the mountain of debt that has crippled the party. Taking on the BNP was Marion Thomas, Jim Dowson’s softly spoken sister in law. The nervous Scot was as good as on her own at the tribunal, once her nephew in law was quietly paid off before the hearing began on the first day.

Of course, Belfast can be a challenging place. It has an often intimidating geography for outsiders, even to those who purport undying love for the extreme fringes of Irish society. The tribunal panel commented on as much in its ruling but it was also quick to point out “this was, in truth, a banal and ordinary employment tribunal claim alleging unfair dismissal and non-payment of holiday pay, overtime, expenses and notice pay."

For those of us who squeezed into room ten, it was anything other than “banal”.

When having a call centre in Belfast worked for the BNP, it worked exceptionally well. Taking advantage of a low wage economy on an industrial estate in Dundonald, few people felt the desire to trawl across suburban east Belfast to poke around there. Prime and paramount for the BNP was secrecy. We did poke around however, and from almost the very moment we made it our business, we had almost two years of excellent non-stop exclusives detailing almost every squalid and shameful shenanigan going on inside the BNP’s call centre. Some of what we found out was too sensitive to print, some of it was just breathtakingly degenerate.

From the village of Comber where the BNP set themselves up in flats and homes and joined “Kick The Pope” bands and even toyed with the idea of moving the whole party machinery there, we reported how a lonely and insecure Jennifer Matthys (nee Griffin) plotted and schemed against her rivals, namely the Dowson family. We forensically investigated Jim Dowson’s financial dealings, his shady past and dubious political friends. We predicted an acrimonious parting and worked as hard as we could to facilitate one.

And so it came to pass that the very geography that the BNP courted became their undoing. They burnt their bridges in an unforgiving environment either by sheer arrogance, or just stupidity. The cost is not just £2500 for Marion Thomas but also whatever it cost for Nick Griffin to send seven BNP officials to Belfast on his behalf now his business arrangements have turned so sour.

Marion Thomas’s primary complaint was that she was unfairly dismissed and owed eight days holiday pay plus out of pocket expenses. The BNP argued that Thomas was only actually employed by the BNP for six months, excluding her from entitlement to both redundancy payments and any compensation. For good measure, the BNP admitted they would have dismissed her anyway. But just to confuse matters further they claimed that they also offered Thomas the opportunity to discuss a transfer to the “mainland” after the relationship between Griffin and Dowson broke down, which led to the inevitable closure of the Dundonald office. But Thomas had refused to travel to Britain to discuss any prospective move. She claimed she had not believed that the BNP would honour their pledge to pay reasonable expenses as she was already owed money by the party.

Neither side denied there was an absence of formal employment contracts and so, on this issue, it becomes apparent that with the disappointing absence of both Nick Griffin and Jim Dowson from the hearing, Thomas could only claim that Griffin, his daughter Jennifer Matthys and Jim Dowson all gave verbal employment assurances. The BNP’s legal representative could only claim that either Nick Griffin did not make such offers, or that Jim Dowson was not in the position to make such offers. The ins and outs of what date it was that Thomas actually began getting paid by the BNP and not by Dowson’s front company are, of course, not as interesting as what the BBC describes as the “secretive world” of the BNP.

It’s fair to say that no matter what extremism still exists in Northern Ireland, that the BNP was viewed locally as a most unwelcome addition. The case received uncomplimentary cross community coverage, including a front page on the Belfast Telegraph for two consecutive days. The revelations were sensational. “I was sacked by BNP after dispute with Griffin’s daughter”, led the Belfast Telegraph. Thomas, nicknamed the “matron” for her role in overseeing up to thirty employees at the Dundonald office during the 2009 European elections, admitted with some chagrin that she regarded herself as a junior to Jennifer Matthys once the leader’s daughter had moved to Northern Ireland. Thomas, who was never a member of the party also alleged that she was promoted to the BNP’s treasury team with a focus on ringing around creditors to try and make arrangements for the clearing of some initial £275,000 of debt. It was in this capacity that she says she felt obliged to report to Jim Dowson that Jennifer Matthys had “borrowed” some £900 from a BNP account after a mistake by her husband Angus Mathys who worked in the post room. Thomas claims that this money was set aside to pay creditors.

Thomas also repeated the claim that she made to the BBC’s Panorama programme that party treasurer Clive Jefferson demanded that invoices that were unpaid be stamped as “paid”. Jefferson who was in the tribunal room hurriedly approached the BNP’s legal advisor with a written note soon after. The Belfast Telegraph described the atmosphere in the tribunal as “charged” with the “imposing presence of several heavyweights of the BNP lining the back row”. The BNP did not appreciate having somebody from Searchlight recording the proceedings either.

For most of the three days there was a heavy focus on the bizarre and almost comical circumstances surrounding the alleged holding of Thomas against her will. As the split between Dowson and Griffin grew more and more acrimonious last year, Thomas alleged that she was asked to “mediate” between the two sides. In November of last year she met three BNP officials in the car park of Tescos in Comber twice on the same day. On both occasions large amounts of cash exchanged hands, £2500 in the first instance and then, later in the day, a further £5000. It would appear that the BNP was buying back its own membership details and computer server and while waiting for the equipment to arrive Thomas got into a van driven by former Yorkshire Regional Organiser Ian Kitchen with Clive Jefferson and Adam Walker. Thomas alleged that she was told she was not allowed to leave the van and that Jefferson in particular was “agitated”. Upon the arrival of the equipment, Thomas further alleged that Jefferson, the BNP’s treasurer, removed £200 from the £5000 as compensation for his “inconvenience”.

Of further inconvenience to the BNP would appear to be Dowson’s new political venture which Thomas described as a “Nationalist campaigning group”. Interestingly, the group was described by the BNP as a “commercial rival” and not a political rival. The intimation by the BNP appeared to be that Dowson still had access to the BNP’s membership files and was running his organisation with the BNP’s data. Thomas denied this and claimed that Dowson is in fact using the BNP membership list that was leaked on line in 2007. The BNP’s legal advisor said that the BNP has since made a series of “test calls” to the BNP’s old offices in Dundonald and alleged that Thomas was now answering the phones for their bitter “commercial rivals”. Thomas denied this. The Scottish accent she claims the BNP heard was in fact the voice of her sister Anne, Dowson’s wife.

The BNP were represented in Belfast by the mildly competent Patrick Harrington. The faux trade union leader is a former close comrade of Griffin from when they ran the NF together back in the 1980’s. Harrington struggled with some areas of the tribunal’s processes and had to be guided by the Vice president of the panel, Mr Noel Kelly. Harrington has something of a love-hate relationship with Belfast himself. He has been the constant focus for one newspaper there that has printed the allegations, rife in far-right circles, that Harrington holds Republican sympathies. While the rest of the BNP party had to be admonished for their constant whispering and disruptions on the first day, Harrington conducted his defence for the respondent (the BNP) with a modicum of professionalism even if it was slow, monotone and often judged irrelevant by Thomas’s solicitor. If anything, Harrington was revelling in some kind of role as the sadistic schoolmaster, trying to trip up the housewife who has taken to answering every question and counter accusation with “rubbish”. In the week leading up to the hearing the BNP had alleged that Thomas and Dowson were in fact lovers and not just brother and sister in law. When questioned abut her living arrangements, Thomas appeared ready to explode violently to a loaded question. Marion Thomas was being goaded.

On the second day, Harrington woke up to find his features prominent in the Belfast Telegraph. Arriving at the tribunal with his wife “Mish”, (Some of you may know her better by her stage name "Mish Bondage" or if it suits, “Frightening Fanny”!)

He became entangled in an exchange with two Irish trade unionists, one of whom was holding the flag of the International Brigades. Whether he has some kind of post traumatic disorder relating to his controversial days at the Polytechnic of North London or not, I do not know, but Harrington reacted very badly to being called a fascist and so began a lot of pushing and shoving before his wife Mish decided to physically launch herself at people wildly, apparently upset at her husband’s picture having been in the paper that morning.

Sackings and expulsions from the BNP are never straightforward and normally have a heavy hint of intimidation, humiliation or violence. Who can forget one former employee from the Belfast office who claimed that she was threatened with a shot gun, or how the leakers’ of the 2007 membership list had their house ransacked by the BNP’s security team?

In Belfast, the BNP had sent some of their “finest”. They sent men who were not immune to violence and who were in fact, quite adept at it. They also sent Angus Matthys, Nick Griffin’s son in law. How did Angus get to marry the prized daughter of the Fuhrer. Were other suitors too politically ambitious? Angus carried all of the boxes into the tribunal - and out again. When he worked at the offices of the BNP in Northern Ireland his main task appeared to be donning rubber gloves and poking through thousands of letters that contained, among other things, excrement and razor blades in the search for cash. He swept up, made tea and also went to the post office and the supermarket for teabags. He was not known as the “dynamo”. One source we had in the office at the time told us that Angus was called “Trigger”, but only when he was well out of ear shot, because anything he did hear went straight to Jenny and nobody wanted a forty minute ticking off from her!

Giving evidence on the second day, it was clear that Angus achieved a major victory in just getting dressed that day. He reminded me of Frank Spencer. Angus claimed that he and his wife had been “run off the road” in Cumbria (where they had fled to once they decided to leave Northern Ireland), and that, sadly, his wife felt too intimidated to come to Northern Ireland and that there was a court case pending. Of course, being the BNP and this being Northern Ireland, there would have to be an alleged paramilitary angle to it. Across town was also about to begin one of the largest trials of paramilitaries Northern Ireland had ever witnessed, the place is still awash with them. Angus could not remember much else about his time in Northern Ireland, not surprisingly, seems that he spent most of it cooped up in the BNP’s post room or a tiny flat above a service station in Comber.

Throughout the tribunal the BNP gave the impression that Nick Griffin was “out of the country” (I presume they meant England). While Angus was having some quite severe memory loss, Nick Griffin was on the way to Blackpool lamenting on twitter that he was stuck on the M6. Dowson was in Swansea himself, not fancying the glare of publicity in his adopted home town. It was more than apparent too that Griffin did not fancy hot-footing it to Belfast either. He’d tried all kinds of things to avoid coming back. The BNP’s legal advisor Harrington had warned, not two weeks before, that I would be “punished” should I dare mention that Nick Griffin was too scared. Oh well, poor Angus..

On the third and final day, sixty Trade Union activists picketed the tribunal. BNP treasurer Clive Jefferson claimed that the party operated in circumstances of “extreme stress and intimidation”. He denied allegations that he held Thomas against her will and that he also demanded she stamp invoices “paid” when they were not. Bizarrely, he claimed also that an “incendiary device” had been fired at the BNP as they entered Killymead House. Nick Griffin, on twitter, claimed it was a firework.

The media had come however, not to hear Clive “Rodney” Jefferson, not even Adam Walker. They wanted Mark Walker, Adam’s baby brother. The BNP’s European Researcher had sat through two days of the tribunal without a word. There had been some excitement in media land after the second day as news was reaching us that Walker had been banned from the classroom after a hearing in England that day. The Professional Conduct Committee heard that he had used school computers to send a vulnerable 16-year-old former pupil a sexually explicit message. He had used language understood to mean that he wanted to have sex with the girl.

Sadly, Mark did not turn up. He’d apparently had a “bereavement” overnight. The case fizzled out slightly. Ian Kitchen gave some light relief when asked about the alleged holding of Marion Thomas against her will. He became outraged. Kitchen had spent the previous two days chatting away at the back of the tribunal not just to the annoyance of the panel but it would seem also to his racial comrades there with him too. “I’m a family man” he protested and even the BNP members guffawed at that one. Four days later a local paper was to give some prominence to Kitchen’s links to “Granny Porn”.

For the BNP, its Northern Ireland experiment is over. I’d like to think we helped crush it. I know we did. We began by exposing the use of employment agencies by the party to recruit strangers to work on their sensitive documents, to the internal arguments between rivals, even to female escorts working out of their offices.

Marion Thomas, now a 49 year old housewife, described the “utter shame” at having the BNP on her CV. She was never a member. She worked for an advertising company that also did anti-abortion work that then took the BNP on for a client. Her claims for overtime, holiday pay and mobile phone expenses were dismissed.

In its decision the panel referred to some of the colourful testimony during the hearing.

"The tribunal heard allegations of blackmail, threats, cars being forced off the road, information being sought about political rivals, electoral malpractice, paramilitary involvement and that staple of Irish political life, the passing of money-filled envelopes in strange locations and in even stranger circumstances”.

The settlement Thomas will receive is made up of four week's pay, one week's notice pay, postage expenses incurred taking the case and £760 for the failure of Mr Griffin to provide a witness statement to the panel.

For the last two days, the BNP’s Simon Darby has been fighting off another Irish embarrassment which he is desperately trying to pass off as a joke to the journalists going to press with it. Steve Parkes, a BNP candidate at the recent elections wrote on his facebook page last week about going out to harass gypsies and as well as posting a “White Power” symbol on his profile and making disgusting references to black women.

I’m proud to say, we found and passed that on to the media here too.

Matthew Collins at Hope not Hate

Mr Angry

You would have thought Darren Lumb would be in a happier mood, especially as he has just been promoted to the position of BNP West Yorkshire organiser.

But it appears not. Poor old “Dazza” has been more than a bit grumpy of late.

We’ve just had a less than friendly blog response from Lumb, using the same email address that is used on his own blog. It seems he is less than happy with our article “Griffin's Dog Day Afternoon” (http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/blog/article/1483/griffins-dog-day-afternoon).

That article tells the tale of the “Combined ex-Forces” (CXF), a strange EDL off-shoot whose leader Michael Rafferty brags of having guns and snipers that they are willing to use against police officers. The story goes on to explain how Rafferty and his tin soldiers happily swelled the ranks at the recent BNP campsite/vigil held close to The Royal Albert Hall.

Lumb also camped out that day and was no doubt happy to see the bigger boys with their pretend military uniforms and shiny boots. We’ve included a photo of Darren trying to look menacing.

We would have thought that as Mr Lumb now holds such as important position within the BNP that his correspondence would have been a little more, polite?

To Hope not Hate

From Darren Lumb

“Listen you false pieces of shit, if you want to have a go anytime any place then so be it. but don't ever ever ever ever ever bring shame on our brave heroes, If you want to fight for the ''good cause'' then we will be happy to bring the fight to you, I’m sick and tired of your lies and propaganda, either come to the battleground or keep it SHUT.”

Lumb doesn’t just direct his bile at us. Prime Minister, David Cameron has also been a victim of his bile. This was left earlier today on David Cameron’s Facebook page.

“Oh cunt Im going to rip your fucking head off when I see you.. The one thing I don't like is traitors and Jews. Get ready wanker Im going to rip your arms and legs off..”

Recently we wrote how unemployed Lumb was convicted of using racially aggravated threatening or insulting words and behaviour after he called a petrol station worker “a black bastard” (http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/news/article/1946/bnp-organiser-convicted-for-racist-tirade) He also has previous convictions for assault and disorder.

Perhaps Darren has too much time on his hands? It’s possible that if Lumb got himself a job and stopped hanging around with pretend soldiers and washed up politicians his childish messages might come to an end.

Still, we’ll continue to judge Mr Griffin by the ongoing company he keeps.

Hope not Hate

Sacked BNP worker awarded damages for wrongful dismissal

A former British National Party worker has been awarded over £2,500 for wrongful dismissal by the right-wing party last year. Marion Thomas worked in the party's east Belfast office for over a year.

BNP leader Nick Griffin was named as the respondent in the case as the employment panel unanimously decided to award the damages. The ruling said that both the BNP and Mrs Thomas provided evidence that was "not credible" to the tribunal.

The 49-year-old Comber woman was dismissed by the party when the call centre she worked in closed in December 2010.

Mr Griffin and his daughter, Jennifer Matthys, who jointly managed the call centre, were criticised for not giving evidence to the tribunal.

The settlement Mrs Thomas received was made up of four week's pay, one week's notice pay, postage expenses incurred taking the case and £760 for the failure of Mr Griffin to provide a witness statement to the panel.

Mrs Thomas' claims for overtime, holiday pay and mobile phone expenses were dismissed.

The tribunal did hear evidence from five other members of the BNP during the three-day hearing. The three-strong panel heard how the call centre, which was leased to the BNP by Belfast businessman Jim Dowson, closed at the end of 2010 when the party found itself in serious debt.

In its decision the panel referred to some of the colourful testimony during the hearing.

"The tribunal heard allegations of blackmail, threats, cars being forced off the road, information being sought about political rivals, electoral malpractice, paramilitary involvement and that staple of Irish political life, the passing of money-filled envelopes in strange locations and in even stranger circumstances.

"However, this was, in truth, a banal and ordinary employment tribunal claim alleging unfair dismissal and non-payment of holiday pay, overtime, expenses and notice pay."

The tribunal concluded that Mrs Thomas was "automatically unfairly dismissed for non-compliance with the statutory dismissal procedure".

BBC

Sepp Blatter faces clamour to quit over racism row

Fifa president urged to step down after saying footballers suffering abuse on the pitch should 'shake hands' afterwards

Fifa president Sepp Blatter is facing a chorus of criticism as players, managers, politicians and anti-racism campaigners called on him to step down over his suggestion that racist abuse on the pitch could be settled with a handshake.

The sports minister, Hugh Robertson, and the chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, Gordon Taylor, urged Blatter to resign after he suggested there was no racism in football and that players subjected to abuse should say "this is a game" and shake hands afterwards. David Cameron backed Robertson's call for Blatter to resign, describing Blatter's claims that racism on the pitch is not a problem as "appalling", adding that there was "no time for complacency" when it came to stamping it out.

Rio Ferdinand launched a scathing attack on the Fifa boss via Twitter. The Manchester United defender said Blatter's comments were "so condescending it's almost laughable", and he criticised the world football governing body for trying to "clear up the Blatter comments with a pic of him posing with a black man".

Blatter's remarks in interviews with CNN and al-Jazeera this week were particularly incendiary given two high-profile ongoing Football Association inquiries into allegations of racism.

Liverpool's Luis Suárez was charged on Wednesday with racially abusing Manchester United's Patrice Evra. He denies it. England captain John Terry is the subject of an FA investigation and police inquiries into whether he racially abused Queens Park Rangers' Anton Ferdinand, Rio's brother. Terry denies the allegations.

Robertson called on Blatter to resign immediately. "This is the latest episode that calls into question whether this man should be the head of world football. For the sake of the game, he should go. We have been consistent in calls for improved governance at Fifa and this underlines the need for that once more. We must never be complacent in our efforts to tackle racism."

Ed Miliband, said: "I think Sepp Blatter's comments are a disgrace, frankly, and I think football needs new leadership. I don't think he has shown in the remarks he has made recently, or indeed his record, that he can provide that leadership for world football."

Blatter, Fifa president since 1998, has made various gaffes and has faced a serious crisis with corruption claims levelled at the organisation amid calls for wholesale reform.

Lord Herman Ouseley, chairman of the anti-racist campaign group Kick It Out, said: "To say Sepp Blatter's comments are unhelpful is an understatement. He has no understanding of what racism is, the ideology behind it, the damage it causes and how it subjugates one group of people as inferior."

But with only limited reporting of Blatter's comments in other countries, Fifa insiders said the furore was only likely to feed the president's belief that the British media was out to get him. This belief intensified in the runup to last year's World Cup vote, when Fifa was rocked by corruption claims, and again prior to his re-election in June.

Guardian

Christmas blues come early

It would seem that not just BNP party central is running out of funds. Having been bled dry by head office, a number of their local branches are pleading extreme poverty too. Some are just suffering from a total lack of interest..

Spare a thought for the North East region. There may be some snow up there this Christmas time, but not a lot of cheer to go with it. Having previously been the most infamous of all BNP branches (just nudging out Barking and Dagenham) for festive boozing and brawling, some idiot has forgotten to book this year's collective Yuletide yawn. And the natives are not happy..

Martin Vaughan normally organises the party for the North East but this year he has not bothered, due to "lack of interest". Some of us find that hard to believe. What with the Walker brothers being a constant source of local entertainment, I was certain that almost every local journalist and housewife would be positively queuing up. Apparently not, even the Regional Organiser already has somewhere else to go. Probably anywhere.

For some, this has spoiled Christmas beyond repair. Natasha Malley and her mum, for one. They might not get out much because according to Natasha's mum "a disco keeps everybodies (sic) interest in the party going". Yes it does, just by adding alcohol there is often a national newspaper interest in the region's shenanigans.

Don't even mention Christmas to Yorkshire BNP. What they need is an ideas man or woman with some urgency. Serial super-brain Danny Cooke has just launched an on-line appeal for postage stamps. He needs £38 worth of stamps so that he can post out an appeal for funds. Did he never hear the song that goes "There's a hole in the bucket"?

Still, any BNP members who do have a spare bit of cash floating around at the moment may want to pick themselves up a bit of political history. A certain motor car that was once the property of an MEP is up for grabs at a very reasonable price. That's right, Griffin's repossessed Skoda goes under the hammer on the 8th December. One very careless previous owner..

As is the case with almost every BNP humiliation, there often follows a rank hypocrisy. Pete Molloy of the BNP had himself photographed outside the sitting MP's office in Spennymoor, County Durham today. Little Pete was handing in a petition demanding 'Local jobs for local people'. Molloy, who has moved to the area from Liverpool is the prospective BNP candidate for the Tudhoe ward in Spennymoor, presumably at the expense of people who were born and bred there.

But never mind 'Local jobs for local people', how about the BNP actually paying the thousands of pounds it owes to British businesses? Let's not forget with Christmas approaching, that there are people on the dole because of how much money the BNP still has not paid their employers.




Hope not Hate

Less pocket money for Griffin?

Griffin: Will be getting less cake next time

Membership renewal time approaches for what is left of the dwindling BNP's membership. Most members are well aware of this already. They've been reminded by constant begging letters, phone calls and reminders from the party from almost the first day they joined.

Money and numbers remain the key to control of the party and if you cannot (yet) get the numbers to take full control, then the next best way to hurt your rival is to dent their finances.

BNP finances have never been too great so in a manoeuvre designed to both humiliate and decapitate the head of the party Nick Griffin, his leadership rival Andrew Brons has asked his supporters to not renew their memberships for next year.

In an article on the website of the Brons team, they describe Nick Griffin as slipping "Further Into Paranoid Delusion". This comes in response to allegations made by Griffin that the Brons camp are "police spies" and the removal of a link to the Brons website by the main BNP website.

Surprisingly, the Brons camp writes further that they cannot "afford to spend all the time navel gazing", which is exactly what they have been doing for months and months as the party slipped further into the wilderness and near oblivion.

In a move that could further cripple BNP finances, the Brons camp have now decided that members should stop "pouring their money down a black hole of incompetence", and instead should pay monies into an account "into which voluntary subs in lieu of party membership" will be held in trust until the "Griffin administration is removed".

Given that almost half of the BNP's voting membership is with the Brons camp, this represents another in a series growing potential disasters for Griffin. Previously Brons and his supporters were encouraging people to stay inside of the BNP.

It looks like things are finally picking up.

Hope not hate

English Defence League Openly Embrace White Supremacism

After their worst week since they were formed, the English Defence League's Facebook admin have turned to white supremacism in an effort to reinvigorate their flagging membership.

Last week saw the EDL threaten to attack Occupy LSX which resulted in 172 members being arrested to prevent violence on Armistice Day. They had gathered in a pub to get drunk near the cenotaph, abused the non-British staff, stole food from behind the counter and started fighting each other.

On the same day, whilst the rest of the country were paying their respects to the war dead, their Liverpool Division launched an attack at trade union Unite's offices in Liverpool.

The EDL managed make the headlines in all the national newspapers for all the wrong reasons, with the Sun describing them as Nazis.

The Times reported:

"Some of the staff aren't English and they were shouting at them, telling them to say 'England is better than where I'm from', and things like that," he said.

Another source at the pub said rowdy scenes broke out as supporters were removed from the venue.

"They did not want to go," he added. "They resisted to the point they were throwing stools at the police and bar staff. It was not an average working day. The EDL decided to use this as a base. They were not happy that a number of our bar staff were not English."

Essex Division leader Paul Pitt turned up to the pub with career Nazi, Eddie Stampton despite already being photographed with him and exposed when they turned up together for a fight with Muslims Against Crusades during the 9/11 memorial service in September.

With nothing left to loose after members have started drifting away, the EDL have decided to take a more hardline BNP/Stormfront/White Nationalist stance and issued the following statement on their Facebook page today.

In the last 66 years we as a nation, as a race have had our national identity stolen from us by politicians who have forced us to accept multiculturalism. They have and still are practicing cultural genocide on their own people, despite warnings that we will not accept it. They have forced us to accept the dilution of our heritage and history by the implementation of laws which will stop us from rising up, even if that’s just to voice an opinion.

Any action which has the aim or effect of depriving us of our integrity as distinct peoples, or of our cultural values or ethnic identities. Any form of population transfer which has the aim or effect of violating or undermining any of the rights of the native or indigenous people. Any form of assimilation or integration by other cultures or ways of life imposed on us by legislative, administrative or other measures is cultural genocide.
And unless we find our backbone and stand up to the ones who are committing crimes against the English people we shall continue to be subjected to slavery by a British elite aided by outside influences whose only intention is to destroy us from within and wipe us out as a race.

Some of the replies to this were very telling and go a long way to quash their claims that they are not racist and are onyl against Muslim extremists. It now seems that the mask has completely slipped.

Philip Endean I agree wholeheartedly with this, but you may be alienating EDL supporters who are not of the indigenous Anglo ethnic group. But again, well said, and said not often enough, good on you for having the guts to say it, but then it makes me wonder why the EDL distances itself so much from the BNP, who are your only real hope for cultural and genetic preservation?

Delbert Alexander Time for a new Oliver Cromwell :-)

Gerard Alderson well said couldnt of put it better im sick im sick of the whole immigration issue im not racist ive got family of differnt race but i say enough is enough been saying it for years now and still they flood in NSE

Susan Alexander It is so awful how they are consuming our heritage because of the do gooders of our society and communities. Same thing is on the move in Australia. They are like a fungus spreading across the world with no cure.

Pete Clemit Perfectly put admin .... anybody who disagrees with this should be hung for being a traitor!! Bout time the EDL and BNP stood side by side!!!

Mel Beasley I've said before, this is a war and the stakes are the survival of the British races. Nothing short of armed revolution can stop what is happening.

Alan Mfc "immigration invasion, islamisation of this country and don't help when our own women are knocking out colored babies and still sponge our benefits.. Country is fucked, but N.F.S.E!!"

Earlier on in the day this was posted which seems to suggest that the EDL wish to cut off food sources for Muslims. Here is how the Nazis implemeted their 'hunger plan' during the 1930's. Earler this year their leader Tommy Robinson was cavorting with French based Nazis Bloc Identitaire. Bloc Identitaire run soup kitchens for the homelesss but ensure there is pork in the soup so Muslims cannot eat it.

Dear Mr Cameron after 3 years of the 'no smoking ban' ten thousand pubs have disappeared... Just imagine what could disappear if you banned Halal meat?!
Something to consider!

695 people like this.

The response to this was predictable.

Tony Coady HA HA HA make them eat pork ! LOL

Christine Mccarthy We have to walk in places and ask if its halal and if it is walk back out. Thats the only way Muslims have forced places to sell it. We have to force it back out by standing up for what WE believe in. NSE!

Denise Benjaminson I say throw pigs blood around

Ryan Taylor want to stop it, don't support your asian takeaways, back to fish and chips for us all :P

Gil Liebersohn Muslem have proved the capacity to mince little girls to Kabbab, so Halal is not that high a priority, now is it?

Martin Frankland May I add if any one comes to my shop and tells me they are EDL I will give you a discount if you tell me you are Muslim then I haven't got anything for you.

Sarah van Santen Just the very thought and sight of their shops sickens me to the stomach!!

Dean Pascoe Halal? More like HaLOLMUSLIMSSUCK, eh? Eh?! EH?!

Jack Morton i do not want halhal meat ,and if i ever find that i have been given it without my knowledge , they will know of it ! it is cruel and barbaric , like everything that islam does . as for fish, i would not be surprised at anything that islamics do . they are savages . they are like the natives you see in king-kong films .those with bones on sticks rattling away . -- in fact worse , they put their evil beliefs in a book .

Vicky Snow Best status I've seen in ages lol xXx

Denise Hunt Halal meat is everywhere in this country - we just don't know it! That's why Tommy went on hunger strike - he was offended at being served Halal meat! Imagine them letting an Islam go on hunger strike - it would never happen - they'd be served Halal in the blink of an eye! Two-tiered system as we keep seeing!

We can only assume that Denise Hunt didn't get to hear that Lennon's hungerstrike lasted about twenty four hours and he hypocritically headed for a Halal Nandos upon his release.

Even the openly racist North West Infidels (no blacks, no jews) have noticed the turnaround with their admin commenting

Looks like the rats on the sinking ship that is the edl are deserting their tokens and the black and white shite to try save tommy's crumbling empire with their latest status. Bit late for anti multiculturalism pro indigenous statements now lads, so stop jumping on our band wagon, you've even called us nazis/racists for similar views. Lmao you top 2 ain't even indigenous to England or Britain neither is Kermit, Moore, your new Canadian Jewish div leader or any of ethnic minority in your ranks It's properly the best anti leadership statement ever hahaha

Their more hardcore members are leaving in droves, to join more far-right extremists, their less hard core are deciding that they do not want to turn up to a jolly day out and get mass arrested because of threats made by leadership, threats their leadership refuse take responsibility for. Many are happy with Sikhs and blacks amongst their ranks as it makes it look not so racist.

So that leaves Tommy and Kev between a rock and a hard place. Go more openly fascist and try and reunite the Infidels (even though they cannot stand Tommy) and get back to the good old days where a few thousand would turn up and get into a fight, or slowly die away as the less hardcore decide that they cannot be bothered with the 'Islamic threat' and halal.

Either way, as winter sets in things are looking bleak for the English Defence League.

Edl News

Thanks to NewsHound for the heads-up

EDL members fined over rooftop protest

A rooftop protest over the ban on the England football team having embroidered poppies on their shirts has cost two English Defence League members £3,000.

EDL leader Stephen Lennon and member Kevin Carroll flew to Switzerland last Tuesday and 24 hours later managed to get on to the roof of the FIFA headquarters in Zurich. They were demanding England players be allowed to wear poppies on their shirts for their friendly against Spain after the governing body ruled emblems were not allowed because the poppy was seen as a political emblem.

The compromise of allowing the teams to wear black armbands with poppies on was reached after interventions from Prince William and David Cameron. But Mr Lennon claims his protest was the tipping point.

“FIFA changed their mind after two hours of us being up on that roof,” he said. “Everyone’s saying it was David Cameron but it was us.”

The pair were arrested when they came down from the roof after four hours, and were fined £2,300 and had to pay £700 court costs.

“They said our reasons were just but obviously it was against the law,” said Mr Lennon. “They put us in a grimy prison for three days.”

Their spell behind bars meant the pair were not in London on Friday when 170 English Defence Members were arrested at a pub near the Cenotaph because police believed they were headed for the protest camp at St Paul’s Cathedral.

Mr Lennon said: “They dragged everyone out of the pub and held them for four hours. There was no trouble. The police said they were preventing a breach of the peace so they arrested everyone, men and women. But no-one was charged with anything, they were all just released after four hours.”

Luton Today

Far from growing, rightwing extremism in the UK may be on the wane

The far right is in chaos, and it's unlikely that both the BNP and EDL will survive for long

You report on new research from the thinktank Demos, where researchers "persuaded more than 10,000 followers of 14 parties and street organisations in 11 countries to fill in detailed questionnaires" ('We're at a crossroads in history: either we fight or hate and division will win', 7 November).

This tells us more than ever before about what motivates online engagement with far-right movements, including the BNP and English Defence League, in the UK. But this innovative method of research does not – indeed cannot – reveal anything about whether their support generally is growing.

You state that the "far right is on the rise across Europe". Whatever the situation in the rest of Europe, the far right is not on the rise in the UK. Both the BNP and EDL are in a state of chaotic collapse. The BNP is crippled with debt. The party denies that it uses funds available to Nick Griffin as an MEP for national party work, but some believe it could not function otherwise. The EDL is seen as a greater contemporary threat, but its influence may have peaked too.

You note that the EDL "struggles to muster more than a few hundred supporters for demonstrations" and it has shrunk online too. Hope Not Hate's monitoring shows that the EDL had more than 80,000 online supporters on Facebook before the massacre in Norway. After killer Anders Breivik's online engagement with the group led to its temporary suspension, the EDL has failed to rebuild this level of interest, which currently stands at 18,700. Many had joined with one click of the mouse – over 11,000 in one day when the EDL successfully exploited Anjem Choudary's idiotic poppy-burning stunt – but were not engaged enough to return.

Nick Griffin's BNP troubles are well known; the factional fight engulfing the EDL is not. This pits the EDL "Infidels" faction, strongest in the north, against EDL activists from the south and the Midlands. The Infidels hark back to the street fascism of the 1980s, working closely with the remnants of the National Front. This disrupts the EDL strategy of maintaining a moderate facade, claiming to oppose Islam without supporting racism or violence. A Newcastle meeting to resolve differences last month collapsed into a street fight.

It is unlikely that both the BNP and EDL will survive for long. Disaffected members of both the EDL and BNP are planning to form a new group from the wreckage, and hope to link up with the English Democrats and fringe elements of Ukip, though it is difficult to see how any new populist party could escape these poisonous roots.

None of this is cause for complacency. The chaotic failures of far-right movements does not mean that the grievances they exploit have gone away. As you report, the Demos research finds culture, not economics, has driven far-right populism. Mainstream parties must address issues of identity and belonging, as well as opportunity and economics. But there is no reason to gloomily accept that the extremists are winning.

Comment is free

Thanks to Zaahid for the heads-up