British Nationalism "sleazy at the highest level"
Grudges die hard on the ever fractious far-right, where factional in-fighting and petty personal squabbles are a way of life.
Long after his departure from the BNP, former Humberside and Lincolnshire organiser Dr. David Michael continues to nurse grievances first aired at the time of his resignation. Michael has since washed up on the shores of the eccentric Sharon Ebanks's tiny New Nationalist Party, and supplies The Thunderbolt column to its website.
The latest Thunderbolt column, Five easy lessons for British Nationalists, begins with the easiest lesson of all - don't trust Nick Griffin!
We probably don't need a long-standing supporter of various racist organisations to tell us that, but there is something endearingly honest about David Michael - a kind of bemused outrage normally found in very young children just told there is no Father Christmas. Michael seems never to have got over his discovery that Nick Griffin and the BNP top brass work in decidedly mysterious ways.
Michael's 2002 resignation letter was addressed to "BNP national and regional leaders, key BNP activists in Hull and Grimsby" and made not a jot of difference to the BNP, despite containing numerous allegations against leading members of the organisation, including the ubiquitous Tony Lecomber (recently proscribed, as we report elsewhere).
Detailing how he found Humberside and Lincolnshire BNP "a tragic mess", Michael's resignation letter also speaks of "bitter feuding" between leading members Tony Braithwaite and John Brayshaw, then tells of how he (Michael) and others resurrected the unit into something like effectiveness - "Organized nationalism was flourishing in Hull for the first time in 60 years".
But this is the British National Party, and things are never so simple.
Michael claims that "Special Branch and its fellow travellers launched a two-pronged attack on us". The details given by Michael suggest nothing more than a routine information gathering exercise on the part of the Branch such as all small political groups - left and right - are subjected to. That, apparently, constitutes the first prong of the "attack". The second prong seems to have come from within the BNP itself.
According to Michael: "Mr John Brayshaw was undertaking a serious programme of destabilization against our resurgent unit. This consisted at first of petty actions, such as the refusal to release our local funds to East Midlands branch to help in their general election campaign, and petty gossip and tittle tattle, some of which got back to us by various means."
Michael recognises this "as an attempt by the Establishment to cause trouble".
Brayshaw is accused of "working on [Tony] Lecomber", who "was going to go into 'dirty tricks' mode" (no surprise there, then), and as a result Michael stepped down to save Lecomber the bother of forcing him out.
All of this was wrapped up in the tale of David Hannam and (yet again) missing BNP cash, which forms the first part of David Michael's "Five easy lessons..." Thunderbolt essay.
"A few years ago I had the dubious honour of being the Humberside and Lincolnshire organizer of the BNP," writes Michael. "In due course I handed over the job to a young fellow, one David Hannam, giving him my full support. I did not know him particularly well but he appeared keen and very active; ‘it seemed like a good idea at the time’ as the saying goes. Hannam subsequently went to live with the then local treasurer, Diane Bridgeman, who is now his wife. The relevance of this will soon become apparent."
Michael relates how he was told that money put aside for the payment of leaflets had not been paid to an aggrieved printer by Hannam and Bridgeman, and asks: "So what had happened to the money? To the hard-working members’ money?" Apparently, Michael was told, the dubious duo had used it to pay their telephone bill.
Incensed, Michael attempted to contact Nick Griffin. Unable to do so, "I telephoned Hannam. He confirmed that he had not paid for the leaflets. He had no coherent explanation. I told him that unless he returned the money to the party and resigned as organizer then I would complain to the police. I gave him a short deadline.... Hannam duly returned the loot and resigned from the position of local organizer. I subsequently received an email from Tony Lecomber, then BNP branch liaison officer, thanking me for my good offices in getting the money back."
But - again - this is, as we so often note, the British National Party, because then "strange things started to happen."
"The gentleman who was the regional organizer for the area at the time made it very clear that he was not happy with my line against Hannam and that he wanted him reinstated. He felt that Hannam had just made ‘a mistake’. I sent Nick Griffin an account of what had happened. It eventually became very clear that Griffin also wanted to accept Hannam’s account of the incident as ‘a mistake’.
"Now, consider this. Hannam had apparently used money intended for leaflets to pay a telephone account – nobody denied this to me when I pointed it out. It is rather difficult to see how this could be done by mistake. When threatened with police action if he didn’t resign as local organizer, Hannam resigned. If he had simply made an innocent mistake (rather than committing a crime) why would he do this? Surely he would only resign in response to such a threat if he knew that prosecution and a possible prison sentence for theft awaited him . . ."
Hannam and Bridgeman's story then changed: "They started putting it about that Hannam had decided that leaflets were a bad idea and a waste of money. The problem with that story, of course, is that not only does it conflict with the earlier version of the incident as ‘a mistake’ but it spectacularly fails to account for why the decision was taken AFTER the leaflets had been ordered and printed, or how the money for the leaflets ended up in Hannam’s personal account!"
These points were put to Griffin, says, Michael, but to no avail. It was then put to Michael that Griffin wanted the local elections contested in Hull, and Diane Bridgeman being the candidate, any action taken against Hannam might scotch that plan.
Michael wasted no time: "My response was swift and sure. It seemed obvious that Hannam had stolen money from the local party – from good, decent, fellow nationalists. Griffin was trying to cover up for him. I was not prepared to go along with such sleaze. How could I criticize the other parties, the Establishment, the system, for being rotten to the core when the leader of the BNP was behaving in a manner that was every bit as damnable? I promptly resigned from the BNP."
The words "sleaze", "Griffin" and "BNP" frequently being found in close proximity, usually in the same sentence, we can only wonder why it took so long for the penny to drop. But more surprises were to follow for David Michael:
"After several months had passed I was saddened to see that Hannam was reinstated as organizer of the local BNP. However, my sadness turned to amazement when I later learned that Hannam had been promoted to the position of deputy treasurer of the BNP. I could only assume that Griffin had permitted this because he wanted a loyal crook in the treasury – perhaps someone who could be trusted to keep dirty secrets."
"Am I telling the truth?" Michael plaintively asks. "I have made very serious allegations against the leader of a political party and against its deputy treasurer. I have accused the deputy treasurer of the BNP of apparently attempting to steal money – of apparently knowingly and deliberately misappropriating party funds for his own personal use. I have accused the chairman of the BNP of knowingly appointing someone who apparently attempted to steal money from his fellow nationalists to the position of deputy treasurer. If those allegations are false then let Mr Griffin or Mr Hannam sue me. In fact, I dare them to do so. Not only that but if they do not do so I assert that the electorate is entitled to wonder why not! (In fact I can tell the electorate what Griffin’s problem is. He knows that numerous emails and other documents were flying around any one of which could prove damning should it surface in court.)"
"How can one be loyal to men who steal from their comrades or who conspire to hide such treachery?" Michael demands. "Let the truth be told and let it be heard far and wide!"
And Sharon Ebanks is one person Michael can rely upon to ensure that the "truth" is indeed heard far and wide - she could barely wait to get the link to Michael's article up on Stormfront.
Michael notes Griffin's credentials as an alleged "moderate" (in far-right terms), but immediately returns to the attack: "But now here’s something strange. As various enemies ranging from the BBC to the Anti-Nazi League have pointed out, Mr Hannam served a prison sentence for putting out some politically incorrect leaflets in June 1999. Normally putting out politically incorrect leaflets would be praiseworthy. The problem is that in this case, the leaflets were so rabid that they made Heinrich Himmler look like the Pink Tooth Fairy in comparison. They tell us, inter alia: ‘Jews are in England unlawfully since the Edict of Expulsion of 1290 has never been repealed.’ (How Pat Richardson, the Jewish BNP councillor for Epping, would love that one if she knew about it! And what would Griffin’s poor little legal beagle, Lee Barnes, think?) It goes on to tell us ‘Now these illegal immigrants completely control our news and TV . . .’ and it continues in similar vein."
Michael is generous enough to pass this off as a "mistake" on Hannam's part, but "...it was the sort of ‘mistake’ that only a complete idiot would make. And only a complete idiot would appoint someone who makes that sort of ‘mistake’ to the position of deputy treasurer of something purporting to be a serious political party.
"Unless, of course, there is some reason why a thief and an idiot might come in handy occupying such a position . . ."
Well, we can only speculate, but this might be the time to draw your attention to certain "unsettling accounts" as provided by the BNP to the Electoral Commission, and dissected here by a disgruntled BNP member (unformatted text document). It makes for extremely interesting reading, and has certainly given many BNP members pause for thought before putting their hands in their pockets.
Tales of dodgy accounting are hardly new to the BNP. Elsewhere we note the case of Sharon Edwards, one-time deputy to Nick Griffin, who, along with husband Steve (West Midlands organiser) and - perhaps more importantly - BNP National Treasurer Mike Newlands, left in disgust after clashing with Griffin over financial irregularities.
Since their departure, Griffin (described by Sharon Ebanks as "a corrupt thief") has greatly strengthened his hold over the party, and there's no room in it for anybody who asks difficult questions - such as why did a "thief and an idiot" come to be Deputy Treasurer of the British National Party?
As David Michael is left to conclude: "British nationalism and white nationalism have become sleazy. Horribly sleazy. And they have become sleazy at the highest level."
Footnote: Ebanks's Stormfront thread linking to David Michael's article has been pulled. Now who would want to do that?
April 23, 2007
Escape from the Holocaust: The Secret life of Britain's Anne Frank
When her parents were sent to the Nazi concentration camps, a six-year-old from Newcastle was hidden away in Paris. Now she is retracing her path to freedom
The fragments of the story were there all along, bundled into a shoebox which lay, unopened, in a spare room at Suzanne Rappoport's apartment in Leeds. There were the postcards her father had sent, asking after her but providing no word of her mother; the studio photograph of the three of them taken a few weeks before they were separated; and the immaculate, handwritten note she had penned, aged no more than nine, telling how she longed to see them both again. "Je serai bien contente de revoir ma chere petite maman et mon cher petit papa," reads the letter. She never did.
Ms Rappoport was born of an immigrant British mother and has spent her entire adult life in England. But its defining event occurred on a warm August afternoon in German-occupied Paris, in 1942. The French police were collaborating with the Nazis in the round up of non-French Jews - those who had come to France but were not born there - for deportation. Among them were her parents, taken from their small flat at Belleville, in the attractive 20th arrondissement.
Ms Rappoport would have been taken, too, were it not for the courage and sheer audacity of the woman across the third floor landing, Mme Yvonne Collomb, who removed the child from the flat - even as French police waited for her parents to pack a case each - and then helped conceal her from the Nazis and their collaborators for over three years. Though other British Jews are known to have been among France's 30,000 Hidden Children, who escaped the Nazis in circumstances captured by Sebastian Faulks's novel Charlotte Gray, Ms Rappoport will become the first to tell her story this week, in a BBC Timewatch documentary which takes her back to the apartment block where, 65 years ago, she was concealed in a makeshift bed under her neighbour's kitchen table.
There would have been no story to tell had not Ms Rappoport's mother, Millie Spadik, whose own parents first arrived in Liverpool by passenger ship in the early 1900s to escape the Russian pogroms, decided to leave her home in Newcastle upon Tyne for France after an unhappy marriage. She settled in Paris where she had met Josek Rappoport, a Polish tailor, though she and her daughter returned to north-east England several times before the war. With Millie's income as a garment finisher supplementing Josek's salary, they enjoyed theatre and cinema and were able to indulge their daughter in her favourite treat - grenadine and lemonade with a straw at a café on Rue de Belleville. The last family photograph, taken at the Studio Jean Guy, marked their daughter's sixth birthday - 23 July 1942.
What occurred next remained firmly in the past until Ms Rappoport, now 70, concluded it was time to revisit it. Her decision to go back stemmed from a chance conversation about her parents with one of her neighbours in Leeds, Barbara Govan, whose Screenhouse Productions company has produced the Timewatch documentary, which airs on BBC2 on Friday. "I felt that I needed, while I still could, to find out what had happened to my parents - and to my grandparents, who were also taken that summer," Ms Rappoport said. "There were so many fragments of memory. That's how it must be with an experience like that."
She was at her father's shoulder, as he sat watching the pigeons in the sunshine through the window of their third-floor apartment, when they both heard the sound of the French policemen on the wooden staircase at 58 Rue de Belleville. The child was not immediately anxious: there had been a curfew for her that summer and the yellow star she and other Jewish children wore made her uncomfortable, but her parents had been assiduous about keeping the family's true predicament from her. It was as her parents locked the front door and quickly ushered her into the small family bedroom with them, bundling her under the bed, that it became clear something was seriously wrong. "Mother was sobbing, pacing backwards and forwards and tearing her hair out," Ms Rappoport recalled. "From under the bed, I saw clumps of it falling to the floor. She knew what was coming." After the front door was broken in, the Rappoports were ordered into their sparse little kitchen and were packing bags in front of the small Salamander stove, under the eye of the policemen, when Mme Collomb rushed in. "She said: 'What's my child doing in this apartment? I've been looking everywhere for her. She dragged me out by the arm before I could react," Ms Rappoport said. "She got away with it. The police left the building with my parents but never came looking for me."
Ms Rappoport now believes that her parents and their neighbour had rehearsed this script in readiness for the moment. "Mme Colomb had sent her daughter out to play at the Butte de Chaumont park that day," she said. "I also found my parents' sideboard in her apartment, and items like their Japanese tea set, which puzzled me. I now think it might have been their advance payment to her for the task she was prepared to undertake."
The days which followed brought the same bewildering existence which the two young Jewish brothers experience when hidden in an upstairs room in Charlotte Gray. Mme Collomb made her new child a bed under the kitchen table, protected from view by a long, thick chenille table cloth, and she occupied her with a pair of slippers made from old dusters. It was Suzanne's job to polish the floor with them. "I loved skating around the slippery kitchen on them," Ms Rappoport recalled. "She knew how to distract me."
But it soon became unsafe for a child, whose existence was well known, to be confined so close to home. Mme Collomb tapped into a network which was hiding children in rural France and sent her to the village of Mondoubleau in the Loire Valley, whose role in hiding children has been documented. It was here that the reality of her parents' absence and her own grim existence - with hours hidden from view in a cellar - began to dawn on her. Though she did not know it, those into whose care she had been entrusted did not share Mme Collomb's empathy. A letter, written from a family in Mondoubleau to Mme Collomb and recently recovered from the Leeds shoebox, reads: "Je regrette de vous mettre en embarras pour [Suzanne] mais je ne peux pas la garder. Je ne peux pas m'attacher a la maison pour un enfant." ("I'm sorry to put you in a difficult position over Suzanne but I can't look after her. I can't be stuck at home for a child.")
Suzanne was moved to a farmhouse in the Auvergne, where her yearning to see Ms Collomb, as well as her parents, was evident in an emotional a letter to Ms Collomb which concluded: "Je vais vous quittaient en vous embrasant de tout mon petit coeur."
Correspondence from southern Poland told Mme Collomb that the prospects for the child's parents were grim. Several postcards from Suzanne's father confirmed he was in the Auschwitz camp at Birkenau, where at least 1.1 million Jews and 75,000 Poles perished. His prisoner number - Birkenau 3776 - is at the top of the cards (translated into German at the camp) in which he reports: "I'm digging coal. I'm in good health. How is my child? Of my wife, I've heard nothing."
Young Suzanne, like dozens of France's hidden children, received no word of her parents' fate. She wept when a child, Fernandres, who had shared her predicament in the Auvergne, was suddenly taken home to Marseilles by her parents. Her years in hiding brought several close escapes - she was caught in the crossfire of a resistance attack on a German munitions train on one occasion - but eventually, after the war had ended, she returned to Mme Collomb, only to find herself within days on a ship to her maternal grandparents in Newcastle. "After everything, it wasn't what I wanted," she said. "I was returning to a strange country where I didn't speak the language. As soon as I was old enough, I left my family for London."
"Forget what happened," her grandparents told her, leaving her to reach her own conclusions about her parents' fate. And to this day, the precise details about them are unclear. Though Ms Rappoport has located them both at the Shoah Memorial in Paris, where 76,000 Jews deported from France are remembered, the dates and places of their deaths are still unknown. Discussions are currently under way in Europe on how to speed up the unlocking of a vast archive of Nazi documents, including an index of 17.5 million names, controlled by a commission on which 11 countries, including Britain, are represented. This may also reveal more about her paternal grandmother, who died at Auschwitz, and her grandfather, who died at a holding camp.
Mme Collomb's collection of evidence - passed to Ms Rappoport in 1969 when she went to France in search of documentation to assist her application for a British passport - has helped her to discover more than she hoped to learn and prompted her to ensure the Frenchwoman, who died in 1992, is remembered for her heroism. Yad Vashem, Israel's memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, has already agreed to name Mme Collomb as one of the Righteous Among the Nations, who saved Jewish lives during the Holocaust, and her name is also to be placed on France's Mur des Justes, which acknowledges those who defied the Nazis. It is now known that Mme Collomb saved others including a M. Hubermann, another neighbour, who hid in her broom cupboard.
The French government has awarded Ms Rappoport a small annual compensation - for which she must attend a Leeds police station each year to prove she is still alive. A class action suit co-ordinated in New York against the French railway, SNCF, for transporting her parents and many others continues - though a regional court verdict in their favour has recently been overturned.
"The police never came looking for me at Mme Collomb's house that day and whether I was on the arrest list is a mystery I shall never know the answer to," Ms Rappoport said. The horror that she was spared is perhaps best understood by the letters written by other Parisian children before they were herded away on trains, that summer. "My heart is heavy and I can't tell you all I am feeling," said 15-year-old Jacques Befelor before departing Paris on what was known as Convoy 15 to Auschwitz. "We are rushing to prepare for a long, sad journey and it drives us mad that we are to be separated. This is the end."
Independent
The fragments of the story were there all along, bundled into a shoebox which lay, unopened, in a spare room at Suzanne Rappoport's apartment in Leeds. There were the postcards her father had sent, asking after her but providing no word of her mother; the studio photograph of the three of them taken a few weeks before they were separated; and the immaculate, handwritten note she had penned, aged no more than nine, telling how she longed to see them both again. "Je serai bien contente de revoir ma chere petite maman et mon cher petit papa," reads the letter. She never did.
Ms Rappoport was born of an immigrant British mother and has spent her entire adult life in England. But its defining event occurred on a warm August afternoon in German-occupied Paris, in 1942. The French police were collaborating with the Nazis in the round up of non-French Jews - those who had come to France but were not born there - for deportation. Among them were her parents, taken from their small flat at Belleville, in the attractive 20th arrondissement.
Ms Rappoport would have been taken, too, were it not for the courage and sheer audacity of the woman across the third floor landing, Mme Yvonne Collomb, who removed the child from the flat - even as French police waited for her parents to pack a case each - and then helped conceal her from the Nazis and their collaborators for over three years. Though other British Jews are known to have been among France's 30,000 Hidden Children, who escaped the Nazis in circumstances captured by Sebastian Faulks's novel Charlotte Gray, Ms Rappoport will become the first to tell her story this week, in a BBC Timewatch documentary which takes her back to the apartment block where, 65 years ago, she was concealed in a makeshift bed under her neighbour's kitchen table.
There would have been no story to tell had not Ms Rappoport's mother, Millie Spadik, whose own parents first arrived in Liverpool by passenger ship in the early 1900s to escape the Russian pogroms, decided to leave her home in Newcastle upon Tyne for France after an unhappy marriage. She settled in Paris where she had met Josek Rappoport, a Polish tailor, though she and her daughter returned to north-east England several times before the war. With Millie's income as a garment finisher supplementing Josek's salary, they enjoyed theatre and cinema and were able to indulge their daughter in her favourite treat - grenadine and lemonade with a straw at a café on Rue de Belleville. The last family photograph, taken at the Studio Jean Guy, marked their daughter's sixth birthday - 23 July 1942.
What occurred next remained firmly in the past until Ms Rappoport, now 70, concluded it was time to revisit it. Her decision to go back stemmed from a chance conversation about her parents with one of her neighbours in Leeds, Barbara Govan, whose Screenhouse Productions company has produced the Timewatch documentary, which airs on BBC2 on Friday. "I felt that I needed, while I still could, to find out what had happened to my parents - and to my grandparents, who were also taken that summer," Ms Rappoport said. "There were so many fragments of memory. That's how it must be with an experience like that."
She was at her father's shoulder, as he sat watching the pigeons in the sunshine through the window of their third-floor apartment, when they both heard the sound of the French policemen on the wooden staircase at 58 Rue de Belleville. The child was not immediately anxious: there had been a curfew for her that summer and the yellow star she and other Jewish children wore made her uncomfortable, but her parents had been assiduous about keeping the family's true predicament from her. It was as her parents locked the front door and quickly ushered her into the small family bedroom with them, bundling her under the bed, that it became clear something was seriously wrong. "Mother was sobbing, pacing backwards and forwards and tearing her hair out," Ms Rappoport recalled. "From under the bed, I saw clumps of it falling to the floor. She knew what was coming." After the front door was broken in, the Rappoports were ordered into their sparse little kitchen and were packing bags in front of the small Salamander stove, under the eye of the policemen, when Mme Collomb rushed in. "She said: 'What's my child doing in this apartment? I've been looking everywhere for her. She dragged me out by the arm before I could react," Ms Rappoport said. "She got away with it. The police left the building with my parents but never came looking for me."
Ms Rappoport now believes that her parents and their neighbour had rehearsed this script in readiness for the moment. "Mme Colomb had sent her daughter out to play at the Butte de Chaumont park that day," she said. "I also found my parents' sideboard in her apartment, and items like their Japanese tea set, which puzzled me. I now think it might have been their advance payment to her for the task she was prepared to undertake."
The days which followed brought the same bewildering existence which the two young Jewish brothers experience when hidden in an upstairs room in Charlotte Gray. Mme Collomb made her new child a bed under the kitchen table, protected from view by a long, thick chenille table cloth, and she occupied her with a pair of slippers made from old dusters. It was Suzanne's job to polish the floor with them. "I loved skating around the slippery kitchen on them," Ms Rappoport recalled. "She knew how to distract me."
But it soon became unsafe for a child, whose existence was well known, to be confined so close to home. Mme Collomb tapped into a network which was hiding children in rural France and sent her to the village of Mondoubleau in the Loire Valley, whose role in hiding children has been documented. It was here that the reality of her parents' absence and her own grim existence - with hours hidden from view in a cellar - began to dawn on her. Though she did not know it, those into whose care she had been entrusted did not share Mme Collomb's empathy. A letter, written from a family in Mondoubleau to Mme Collomb and recently recovered from the Leeds shoebox, reads: "Je regrette de vous mettre en embarras pour [Suzanne] mais je ne peux pas la garder. Je ne peux pas m'attacher a la maison pour un enfant." ("I'm sorry to put you in a difficult position over Suzanne but I can't look after her. I can't be stuck at home for a child.")
Suzanne was moved to a farmhouse in the Auvergne, where her yearning to see Ms Collomb, as well as her parents, was evident in an emotional a letter to Ms Collomb which concluded: "Je vais vous quittaient en vous embrasant de tout mon petit coeur."
Correspondence from southern Poland told Mme Collomb that the prospects for the child's parents were grim. Several postcards from Suzanne's father confirmed he was in the Auschwitz camp at Birkenau, where at least 1.1 million Jews and 75,000 Poles perished. His prisoner number - Birkenau 3776 - is at the top of the cards (translated into German at the camp) in which he reports: "I'm digging coal. I'm in good health. How is my child? Of my wife, I've heard nothing."
Young Suzanne, like dozens of France's hidden children, received no word of her parents' fate. She wept when a child, Fernandres, who had shared her predicament in the Auvergne, was suddenly taken home to Marseilles by her parents. Her years in hiding brought several close escapes - she was caught in the crossfire of a resistance attack on a German munitions train on one occasion - but eventually, after the war had ended, she returned to Mme Collomb, only to find herself within days on a ship to her maternal grandparents in Newcastle. "After everything, it wasn't what I wanted," she said. "I was returning to a strange country where I didn't speak the language. As soon as I was old enough, I left my family for London."
"Forget what happened," her grandparents told her, leaving her to reach her own conclusions about her parents' fate. And to this day, the precise details about them are unclear. Though Ms Rappoport has located them both at the Shoah Memorial in Paris, where 76,000 Jews deported from France are remembered, the dates and places of their deaths are still unknown. Discussions are currently under way in Europe on how to speed up the unlocking of a vast archive of Nazi documents, including an index of 17.5 million names, controlled by a commission on which 11 countries, including Britain, are represented. This may also reveal more about her paternal grandmother, who died at Auschwitz, and her grandfather, who died at a holding camp.
Mme Collomb's collection of evidence - passed to Ms Rappoport in 1969 when she went to France in search of documentation to assist her application for a British passport - has helped her to discover more than she hoped to learn and prompted her to ensure the Frenchwoman, who died in 1992, is remembered for her heroism. Yad Vashem, Israel's memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, has already agreed to name Mme Collomb as one of the Righteous Among the Nations, who saved Jewish lives during the Holocaust, and her name is also to be placed on France's Mur des Justes, which acknowledges those who defied the Nazis. It is now known that Mme Collomb saved others including a M. Hubermann, another neighbour, who hid in her broom cupboard.
The French government has awarded Ms Rappoport a small annual compensation - for which she must attend a Leeds police station each year to prove she is still alive. A class action suit co-ordinated in New York against the French railway, SNCF, for transporting her parents and many others continues - though a regional court verdict in their favour has recently been overturned.
"The police never came looking for me at Mme Collomb's house that day and whether I was on the arrest list is a mystery I shall never know the answer to," Ms Rappoport said. The horror that she was spared is perhaps best understood by the letters written by other Parisian children before they were herded away on trains, that summer. "My heart is heavy and I can't tell you all I am feeling," said 15-year-old Jacques Befelor before departing Paris on what was known as Convoy 15 to Auschwitz. "We are rushing to prepare for a long, sad journey and it drives us mad that we are to be separated. This is the end."
Independent
Labels:
Anne Frank,
Charlotte Gray,
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Faulks,
immigrant,
Jews,
nazi,
Rappoport
April 22, 2007
White supremacists blame immigration and Asians for Virginia Tech tragedy
In the wake of the tragic shooting rampage at Virginia Tech, extremists and white supremacists and conspiracy-oriented Internet forums and Web sites have focused on the ethnicity of the killer in an attempt to blame Asians, immigrants and other minorities for the deaths and to spread a message of hate, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
"Extremists are using the Virginia Tech shootings to spread a message of hate against immigrants, particularly Asians," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "They are using the shooter's Asian ethnicity as an excuse to pile on hate against Asians, Blacks, Jews and immigrants. It is yet another example of how the neo-Nazis and haters are seeking to create an atmosphere of divisiveness around the immigration debate and to engender fear of minority groups living in America."
Some white supremacists groups have posted virulently anti-immigrant, racist and anti-Semitic videos on YouTube, the popular mainstream video sharing site, with deceptive titles such as "Virginia Tech Shooting Update" that make them appear as if they were legitimate news clips dealing with the aftermath of the shooting.
Some examples of the types of chatter taking place on extremist sites follow.
• Anti-Asian Rhetoric: Some of the terms used to describe Asians include: "cold, calculating and cruel" and "worthless dirtbags" who "have infected and overpopulated too many parts in America…" One poster on a white supremacist Internet forum wrote that Asians should "Stay in China!" Others refer to Asians with racially derogatory names such as "chop chop," "po chop," and "gook."
• Anti-Diversity Rhetoric: "This is one example of a tragedy that simply would not have happened in a WN [White Nationalist] country. That Asian man wouldn't have been here in the first place," reads a post on a white supremacist site. A post on another virulently anti-Semitic site read: "Guns don't kill people. Niggers, spics and gooks kill people."
• Anti-Semitic Rhetoric: Extremists are discussing the shootings in the context of a variety of anti-Semitic stereotypes, including Jewish control of the media and of the U.S. government, and a Jewish "conspiracy" to repeal the Second Amendment.
• Holocaust Denial Rhetoric: Several posts have engaged in Holocaust denial in referring to the slaying of Liviu Librescu, the Jewish professor and Holocaust survivor who was reportedly killed while attempting to protect his students, claiming that the Holocaust was a "hoax."
• Videos: In an attempt to spread their message of white supremacy and anti-Semitism, neo-Nazis associated with the Vanguard News Network have created over a dozen videos with titles including "Virginia Tech Shooting Update," and posting them on YouTube in an apparent attempt to deceive viewers into thinking they are getting legitimate news stories, when in fact the videos contain virulently racist, anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant messages.
• Protests at Funerals: The virulently anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church has plans to protest at the funerals of the victims, claiming the shooting was God's vengeance for homosexuality in America.
ADL
"Extremists are using the Virginia Tech shootings to spread a message of hate against immigrants, particularly Asians," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "They are using the shooter's Asian ethnicity as an excuse to pile on hate against Asians, Blacks, Jews and immigrants. It is yet another example of how the neo-Nazis and haters are seeking to create an atmosphere of divisiveness around the immigration debate and to engender fear of minority groups living in America."
Some white supremacists groups have posted virulently anti-immigrant, racist and anti-Semitic videos on YouTube, the popular mainstream video sharing site, with deceptive titles such as "Virginia Tech Shooting Update" that make them appear as if they were legitimate news clips dealing with the aftermath of the shooting.
Some examples of the types of chatter taking place on extremist sites follow.
• Anti-Asian Rhetoric: Some of the terms used to describe Asians include: "cold, calculating and cruel" and "worthless dirtbags" who "have infected and overpopulated too many parts in America…" One poster on a white supremacist Internet forum wrote that Asians should "Stay in China!" Others refer to Asians with racially derogatory names such as "chop chop," "po chop," and "gook."
• Anti-Diversity Rhetoric: "This is one example of a tragedy that simply would not have happened in a WN [White Nationalist] country. That Asian man wouldn't have been here in the first place," reads a post on a white supremacist site. A post on another virulently anti-Semitic site read: "Guns don't kill people. Niggers, spics and gooks kill people."
• Anti-Semitic Rhetoric: Extremists are discussing the shootings in the context of a variety of anti-Semitic stereotypes, including Jewish control of the media and of the U.S. government, and a Jewish "conspiracy" to repeal the Second Amendment.
• Holocaust Denial Rhetoric: Several posts have engaged in Holocaust denial in referring to the slaying of Liviu Librescu, the Jewish professor and Holocaust survivor who was reportedly killed while attempting to protect his students, claiming that the Holocaust was a "hoax."
• Videos: In an attempt to spread their message of white supremacy and anti-Semitism, neo-Nazis associated with the Vanguard News Network have created over a dozen videos with titles including "Virginia Tech Shooting Update," and posting them on YouTube in an apparent attempt to deceive viewers into thinking they are getting legitimate news stories, when in fact the videos contain virulently racist, anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant messages.
• Protests at Funerals: The virulently anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church has plans to protest at the funerals of the victims, claiming the shooting was God's vengeance for homosexuality in America.
ADL
Labels:
anti-semitic,
Asians,
extremists,
hate groups,
Holocaust,
immigrants,
neo-Nazis,
white supremacists
Christians told to vote against ‘racist BNP’
Christian leaders are advising people to use their vote to defeat British National Party (BNP) candidates in next week’s elections, the Evangelical Alliance has told Christian Today.
Christian leaders are advising people to use their vote to defeat British National Party (BNP) candidates in next week’s elections, the Evangelical Alliance has told Christian Today. They are encouraging people to use their vote so that other candidates are elected, and the BNP does not get seats through voter apathy.
“The BNP is trying to present itself as a respectable and non-racist party,” an Evangelical Alliance statement comments.
Party leader Nick Griffin said in a speech last November that he wants this country to be “free, Christian and British.”
But Christian leaders are urging voters not to be fooled by the BNP’s attempts to make itself presentable. Justin Thacker, Head of Public Theology at the Evangelical Alliance, said: “I don’t see how any Christian could ever support the BNP – its principles are entirely at odds with those of Jesus Christ. The BNP is a racist party, which doesn’t seem to realise the contradiction of using St George's day – which celebrates a Christian saint – to peddle its racist propaganda. This demonstrates just what a sham the party’s appeal to Christian values is. Other parties are just as concerned about the needs of the nation, and they do not use issues of community cohesion for racist ends.”
Rev Katei Kirby, Chief Executive of the African and Caribbean Evangelical Alliance, said: “The BNP may present its election message as ‘Christian’, but as it is based on the divisive and racist agenda inherent to that party, it is clearly out of step with the message of freedom and belonging that is central to the Christian faith. To halt the progress of these misleading messages and the parties that purport them, I urge Christians and those in wider society to exercise their right and vote against such parties in their local elections.”
Neil Jameson, of London Citizens, said: “London Citizens fully supports the position taken by the Evangelical Alliance. It is our experience of 10 years of organising in East London that it’s quite possible to work together for the common good across diversity without ever having to appeal to the racist card, which is played so obviously by the BNP in some of our most disadvantaged communities.”
Christian Today
Christian leaders are advising people to use their vote to defeat British National Party (BNP) candidates in next week’s elections, the Evangelical Alliance has told Christian Today. They are encouraging people to use their vote so that other candidates are elected, and the BNP does not get seats through voter apathy.
“The BNP is trying to present itself as a respectable and non-racist party,” an Evangelical Alliance statement comments.
Party leader Nick Griffin said in a speech last November that he wants this country to be “free, Christian and British.”
But Christian leaders are urging voters not to be fooled by the BNP’s attempts to make itself presentable. Justin Thacker, Head of Public Theology at the Evangelical Alliance, said: “I don’t see how any Christian could ever support the BNP – its principles are entirely at odds with those of Jesus Christ. The BNP is a racist party, which doesn’t seem to realise the contradiction of using St George's day – which celebrates a Christian saint – to peddle its racist propaganda. This demonstrates just what a sham the party’s appeal to Christian values is. Other parties are just as concerned about the needs of the nation, and they do not use issues of community cohesion for racist ends.”
Rev Katei Kirby, Chief Executive of the African and Caribbean Evangelical Alliance, said: “The BNP may present its election message as ‘Christian’, but as it is based on the divisive and racist agenda inherent to that party, it is clearly out of step with the message of freedom and belonging that is central to the Christian faith. To halt the progress of these misleading messages and the parties that purport them, I urge Christians and those in wider society to exercise their right and vote against such parties in their local elections.”
Neil Jameson, of London Citizens, said: “London Citizens fully supports the position taken by the Evangelical Alliance. It is our experience of 10 years of organising in East London that it’s quite possible to work together for the common good across diversity without ever having to appeal to the racist card, which is played so obviously by the BNP in some of our most disadvantaged communities.”
Christian Today
Labels:
apathy,
BNP,
Christian,
disadvantaged,
divisive,
Griffin,
propaganda,
racist
April 21, 2007
The BNP's secret agenda: just making money or civil/race war?
Back in 1999 the BNP used to produce a magazine named Patriot, then edited by Griffin-loyalist Tony Lecomber. The Spring issue carried an article by Nick Griffin entitled ‘BNP – Freedom Party!’ in which Griffin set out his plans for the ‘modernisation’ of the BNP, a process which involved the concealment of the party’s true agenda and presenting the public with an entirely fraudulent ‘image of moderate reasonableness’. The complete article can be read online here.
Though the party had managed to get a councillor elected (the execrable Derek Beacon) at Tower Hamlets in 1993, it had more or less stagnated since. This article was one of many that was to lead to Griffin’s victory over the founder and then-leader of the far-right party, John Tyndall, later in the year, resulting in him becoming the leader and allowing him to implement his proposed BNP ‘makeover’, a word that fits more aptly than you would at first think because clearly the ‘modernisation’ of the party is all cosmetic. Wipe off the make-up and you very quickly begin to see the same old fascist party underneath.
It was Griffin’s stated intention to put the boot-boy image that the BNP had behind it, presenting instead a clean image of a modern and acceptable mainstream party. The racism would still be there, just well-concealed. To a large extent, he has been successful. Certainly the fact that a voter intends to vote BNP no longer carries the social stigma that it used to just a few short years back – though this is really a consequence of changing societal attitudes rather than anything that Griffin or the party leadership has done. Nevertheless, the BNP’s makeover has made a difference to the public’s perception of it and its policies – but how much has it really changed?
Griffin’s contempt for the voters is apparent from the very first sentence, where he states: ‘The British people are incurably apathetic’. But his aim is for the party to appeal to those apathetic voters despite all the bad press it received in the past for its connections to the National Front, Combat 18, Blood and Honour and so on. The party, certainly back in 1999, was regarded as patently extreme, and this had to change. Griffin lays out the ground:
‘Let’s start with responsibility. Tony Lecomber’s review of The Failure of British Fascism in the last issue of Patriot included a frighteningly apt phrase in its description of the past efforts of British nationalism – "careless extremism". If we seriously want to be elected, the very first step is to look at the things we do, or condone, which make us unelectable, and then to strive to change them from now on, and to minimise the impact of past mistakes.’
So, he proposes that the BNP examine what puts people off about the party, with a view to changing things. But there’s also the problem of the membership. Referring to the unelectability of many members with violent and racist pasts, Griffin has this to say:
‘Of course people change and grow up, and some people who made such mistakes years ago have played, and will continue to play, very important roles in the BNP. But anyone who expects more than a marginalised minority to actually vote for such individuals is living in cloud-cuckoo land. This is not to call for a politically correct witch-hunt, or to advocate a softening of policies, but simply to point out that, if we really wish to be taken seriously, we have to offer to the public candidates for whom Mr. & Mrs. Average Briton can vote. Those people who have now bitterly regretted errors in their past can do one hundred and one things for the party, but standing as unusually vulnerable candidates in important elections should not be one of them. However much we expect our enemies in the media to try to beat us, it is only sensible and responsible to refrain from handing them sticks with which to do it.’
So the violent thugs can take a back seat while the suits can move to the front. Note the highlighted section that makes it clear that policies are not about to change. The fact that any apparent changes are only to fool the public is made very clear in this snippet:
‘As long as our own cadres understand the full implications of our struggle, then there is no need for us to do anything to give the public cause for concern. Rather, since we need their support in order to be able to turn impotent theory into practical reality, we must at all times present them with an image of moderate reasonableness.’
Thus the metamorphosis of the British National Party becomes clear. There is no metamorphosis – merely a mask that covers the old violent nazi party with a thin veneer of respectability.
‘This is so blindingly obvious that it shouldn’t even need saying, but there are still a few who confuse shouting hardline slogans with steady commitment to getting ourselves into a position in which we can put our principles into practice. Politics is always the art of the possible, so we must judge every policy by one simple criterion: Is it realistically possible that a decisive proportion of the British people will support it? If not, then to scale down our short-term ambitions to a point at which the answer becomes ‘yes’ is not a sell-out, but the only possible step closer to our eventual goal.’
What that ‘eventual goal’ is, is not made clear. Presumably, as the article was in Patriot, a magazine for BNP supporters, the reader was assumed to know. This reader however, finds the phrase extremely sinister. You don’t have to hang around BNP territory long to hear the phrases ‘civil war’, ‘race war’ and ‘revolution’ disturbingly often. At least often enough to feel that the phrase ‘final solution’ is just around the corner.
This aside, Griffin also uses this document to set out his plans for the business side of BNP activities. Much-failed businessman or not, he clearly sees the BNP membership as a source of funds – not simply via its sales of related goods but in other ways too. Thus, we read this:
‘In increasingly hard economic times, a group of people the size of the BNP and its support base can provide a significant assured market for a variety of small businesses.’
Here then we find the justification for such idiocies as Albion Life, the BNP’s disastrous life insurance arm that failed shortly after it started, the pointless skip hire and double-glazing websites, the Affordable cars fiasco, the bankrupt travel agency, the failed printing business, the internet radio station that never was, the surprisingly successful Trafalgar Club and the illegal but lucrative fund-raising Civil Liberty. In short, Griffin has found a source of funds in the BNP’s membership and he is determined to relieve it of as much cash as possible – whether to use for himself (barn conversions spring to mind), to support his pals in the BNP hierarchy or to fund the ephemeral ‘eventual goal’ is debatable but might be clearer after reading this passage:
‘Here too is a process which has already begun, but BNP teams such as the Media Monitoring Unit, the video unit, and initiatives such as the Land and People farming/environmental circle are only the start. Many, many more such semi~ autonomous BNP-linked operations will have to be created as we duplicate various functions of the old system and create the ‘state-within-a-state’ which is an essential part of the preparations for any cultural and political revolution.’
There’s that word ‘revolution’ again.
In many ways, Nick Griffin is a laughable character. He comes across as the Del Trotter of politics, always with one eye (no joke intended) on the main chance. If he wasn’t so dangerous, he’d be funny. But, unlike his peers in the mainstream parties, he has long been aware of the power of the internet and TV – though the two look likely to merge in the next couple of decades – so much so that eight years ago, he was preparing his troops to embrace this intertwining of the old and new media.
‘The way in which TV soap operas have become pseudo-families for millions of lonely TV watchers gives us a clue as to the power which could be wielded by an Internet TV station in a few years’ time.’
Indeed. A fact which seems to have been missed by all the other parties up to now and which is only just beginning to be addressed. Nevertheless, Griffin is not infallible. Far from it, in fact, as witnessed by the numerous business disasters with which he has been associated. Nor, despite the disasters, is he to be taken lightly. While he seems to find it difficult to separate the cause from the cash, hence; ‘the BNP is a holy crusade to save and rebuild all we hold dear, but it is also a business’, he also goes to great pains to make himself clear in this document. Thus we read:
‘What message and image should we be aiming to get across in those elections? For the public as a whole we must keep it simple and put things across in the least controversial way possible. Of course, we must teach the truth to the hardcore, for, like you, I do not intend to allow this movement to lose its way. But when it comes to influencing the public, forget about racial differences, genetics, Zionism, historical revisionism and so on – all ordinary people want to know is what we can do for them that the other parties can’t or won’t.’
The phrase that’s highlighted is, in my opinion, extremely disturbing and is really what this entire article is about. David Copeland, the Soho nailbomber, was heavily influenced by his time in the BNP, and his stated intention was to provoke a race war. Robert Cottage, currently awaiting retrial for possession of weapons and explosive chemicals, and a long-time BNP member and several times a candidate, claimed to be preparing for what he saw as an inevitable civil war. The disturbances that took place in Oldham, Burnley and Bradford back in 2001 were said to have been provoked and encouraged by the BNP and other extreme far-right groups. One wonders, reading this, if this is in some way allied to ‘the truth’ that Griffin insists must be taught to ‘the hardcore’. Certainly these events, and so many others, smack of Griffin’s worrying ‘holy crusade’.
It is a fact that last month Nick Griffin made an interesting remark as an aside in his blog about his speaking tour of East Anglia. Referring to the English Civil War, he said; ‘…in due course, it will of course have to be called the First English Civil War, in order to differentiate it from the one to come.’
Since the riots in 2001, there has been a growing belief that the BNP was working to a secret agenda as well as its public one. This document, written in 1999, seems to confirm that this is indeed the case.
Though the party had managed to get a councillor elected (the execrable Derek Beacon) at Tower Hamlets in 1993, it had more or less stagnated since. This article was one of many that was to lead to Griffin’s victory over the founder and then-leader of the far-right party, John Tyndall, later in the year, resulting in him becoming the leader and allowing him to implement his proposed BNP ‘makeover’, a word that fits more aptly than you would at first think because clearly the ‘modernisation’ of the party is all cosmetic. Wipe off the make-up and you very quickly begin to see the same old fascist party underneath.
It was Griffin’s stated intention to put the boot-boy image that the BNP had behind it, presenting instead a clean image of a modern and acceptable mainstream party. The racism would still be there, just well-concealed. To a large extent, he has been successful. Certainly the fact that a voter intends to vote BNP no longer carries the social stigma that it used to just a few short years back – though this is really a consequence of changing societal attitudes rather than anything that Griffin or the party leadership has done. Nevertheless, the BNP’s makeover has made a difference to the public’s perception of it and its policies – but how much has it really changed?
Griffin’s contempt for the voters is apparent from the very first sentence, where he states: ‘The British people are incurably apathetic’. But his aim is for the party to appeal to those apathetic voters despite all the bad press it received in the past for its connections to the National Front, Combat 18, Blood and Honour and so on. The party, certainly back in 1999, was regarded as patently extreme, and this had to change. Griffin lays out the ground:
‘Let’s start with responsibility. Tony Lecomber’s review of The Failure of British Fascism in the last issue of Patriot included a frighteningly apt phrase in its description of the past efforts of British nationalism – "careless extremism". If we seriously want to be elected, the very first step is to look at the things we do, or condone, which make us unelectable, and then to strive to change them from now on, and to minimise the impact of past mistakes.’
So, he proposes that the BNP examine what puts people off about the party, with a view to changing things. But there’s also the problem of the membership. Referring to the unelectability of many members with violent and racist pasts, Griffin has this to say:
‘Of course people change and grow up, and some people who made such mistakes years ago have played, and will continue to play, very important roles in the BNP. But anyone who expects more than a marginalised minority to actually vote for such individuals is living in cloud-cuckoo land. This is not to call for a politically correct witch-hunt, or to advocate a softening of policies, but simply to point out that, if we really wish to be taken seriously, we have to offer to the public candidates for whom Mr. & Mrs. Average Briton can vote. Those people who have now bitterly regretted errors in their past can do one hundred and one things for the party, but standing as unusually vulnerable candidates in important elections should not be one of them. However much we expect our enemies in the media to try to beat us, it is only sensible and responsible to refrain from handing them sticks with which to do it.’
So the violent thugs can take a back seat while the suits can move to the front. Note the highlighted section that makes it clear that policies are not about to change. The fact that any apparent changes are only to fool the public is made very clear in this snippet:
‘As long as our own cadres understand the full implications of our struggle, then there is no need for us to do anything to give the public cause for concern. Rather, since we need their support in order to be able to turn impotent theory into practical reality, we must at all times present them with an image of moderate reasonableness.’
Thus the metamorphosis of the British National Party becomes clear. There is no metamorphosis – merely a mask that covers the old violent nazi party with a thin veneer of respectability.
‘This is so blindingly obvious that it shouldn’t even need saying, but there are still a few who confuse shouting hardline slogans with steady commitment to getting ourselves into a position in which we can put our principles into practice. Politics is always the art of the possible, so we must judge every policy by one simple criterion: Is it realistically possible that a decisive proportion of the British people will support it? If not, then to scale down our short-term ambitions to a point at which the answer becomes ‘yes’ is not a sell-out, but the only possible step closer to our eventual goal.’
What that ‘eventual goal’ is, is not made clear. Presumably, as the article was in Patriot, a magazine for BNP supporters, the reader was assumed to know. This reader however, finds the phrase extremely sinister. You don’t have to hang around BNP territory long to hear the phrases ‘civil war’, ‘race war’ and ‘revolution’ disturbingly often. At least often enough to feel that the phrase ‘final solution’ is just around the corner.
This aside, Griffin also uses this document to set out his plans for the business side of BNP activities. Much-failed businessman or not, he clearly sees the BNP membership as a source of funds – not simply via its sales of related goods but in other ways too. Thus, we read this:
‘In increasingly hard economic times, a group of people the size of the BNP and its support base can provide a significant assured market for a variety of small businesses.’
Here then we find the justification for such idiocies as Albion Life, the BNP’s disastrous life insurance arm that failed shortly after it started, the pointless skip hire and double-glazing websites, the Affordable cars fiasco, the bankrupt travel agency, the failed printing business, the internet radio station that never was, the surprisingly successful Trafalgar Club and the illegal but lucrative fund-raising Civil Liberty. In short, Griffin has found a source of funds in the BNP’s membership and he is determined to relieve it of as much cash as possible – whether to use for himself (barn conversions spring to mind), to support his pals in the BNP hierarchy or to fund the ephemeral ‘eventual goal’ is debatable but might be clearer after reading this passage:
‘Here too is a process which has already begun, but BNP teams such as the Media Monitoring Unit, the video unit, and initiatives such as the Land and People farming/environmental circle are only the start. Many, many more such semi~ autonomous BNP-linked operations will have to be created as we duplicate various functions of the old system and create the ‘state-within-a-state’ which is an essential part of the preparations for any cultural and political revolution.’
There’s that word ‘revolution’ again.
In many ways, Nick Griffin is a laughable character. He comes across as the Del Trotter of politics, always with one eye (no joke intended) on the main chance. If he wasn’t so dangerous, he’d be funny. But, unlike his peers in the mainstream parties, he has long been aware of the power of the internet and TV – though the two look likely to merge in the next couple of decades – so much so that eight years ago, he was preparing his troops to embrace this intertwining of the old and new media.
‘The way in which TV soap operas have become pseudo-families for millions of lonely TV watchers gives us a clue as to the power which could be wielded by an Internet TV station in a few years’ time.’
Indeed. A fact which seems to have been missed by all the other parties up to now and which is only just beginning to be addressed. Nevertheless, Griffin is not infallible. Far from it, in fact, as witnessed by the numerous business disasters with which he has been associated. Nor, despite the disasters, is he to be taken lightly. While he seems to find it difficult to separate the cause from the cash, hence; ‘the BNP is a holy crusade to save and rebuild all we hold dear, but it is also a business’, he also goes to great pains to make himself clear in this document. Thus we read:
‘What message and image should we be aiming to get across in those elections? For the public as a whole we must keep it simple and put things across in the least controversial way possible. Of course, we must teach the truth to the hardcore, for, like you, I do not intend to allow this movement to lose its way. But when it comes to influencing the public, forget about racial differences, genetics, Zionism, historical revisionism and so on – all ordinary people want to know is what we can do for them that the other parties can’t or won’t.’
The phrase that’s highlighted is, in my opinion, extremely disturbing and is really what this entire article is about. David Copeland, the Soho nailbomber, was heavily influenced by his time in the BNP, and his stated intention was to provoke a race war. Robert Cottage, currently awaiting retrial for possession of weapons and explosive chemicals, and a long-time BNP member and several times a candidate, claimed to be preparing for what he saw as an inevitable civil war. The disturbances that took place in Oldham, Burnley and Bradford back in 2001 were said to have been provoked and encouraged by the BNP and other extreme far-right groups. One wonders, reading this, if this is in some way allied to ‘the truth’ that Griffin insists must be taught to ‘the hardcore’. Certainly these events, and so many others, smack of Griffin’s worrying ‘holy crusade’.
It is a fact that last month Nick Griffin made an interesting remark as an aside in his blog about his speaking tour of East Anglia. Referring to the English Civil War, he said; ‘…in due course, it will of course have to be called the First English Civil War, in order to differentiate it from the one to come.’
Since the riots in 2001, there has been a growing belief that the BNP was working to a secret agenda as well as its public one. This document, written in 1999, seems to confirm that this is indeed the case.
BNP candidate stands in York AND Edinburgh
The British National Party was today accused of "blatant opportunism" after it emerged its leading candidate in York was simultaneously seeking election to the Scottish Parliament.
Ian Dawson is standing in next month's City of York Council election for Acomb ward, where he says he will put local people first. He is one of nine BNP candidates in the city, but The Press has learned that, on the same day as he is trying to win a foothold in York, Mr Dawson is aiming to win a seat in Scotland, through the regional party list system.
In his campaign literature, Mr Dawson writes: "I will be a strong voice for local people." But, were he to win both seats, it would mean that at the same time as representing his 7,700 Acomb constituents on the council, he would also be representing about 550,000 Scottish voters, 210 miles away at Holyrood.
Ben Drake, of the York branch of Unite Against Fascism (UAF), said: "It shows the BNP's blatant opportunism. They have no real commitment to local people. They just want to exploit issues to build themselves up. All they will bring to our city is division and conflict."
Conservative agent John Galvin said: "They are not credible, and should be treated with contempt."
York Labour leader Dave Merrett said: "I think it's important people see through some of the more positive glosses to see the extremely unpleasant individuals and regime behind the BNP."
But Mr Dawson hit back, and claimed he could realistically do a good job in both authorities. He said: "I don't think it is a problem. I would proportion my time between both places if I was to win both. I will be going for both, and we will see what happens."
Mr Dawson said he was "not bothered" what UAF said, given they were not standing for election. He denied he would be unable to represent York residents from Scotland, or vice-versa, saying such claims were "complete and utter nonsense". He said: "Is Gordon Brown less committed to his Scottish constituency, just because he spends lots of time in London?"
Mr Dawson said his partner was Scottish, he loved the country, and spent a lot of time there. He said: "I am going to give as many people as possible a chance to vote BNP."
Standing for, or sitting on, two autonomous authorities is not illegal under electoral law.
Liberal Democrat leader Steve Galloway said: "How could anyone seek to represent two separate communities on two different Government bodies 200 miles apart? Fortunately, few York people are showing any signs of being duped by this gang of opportunists."
The Scottish voting system
Minority parties have more chance of success in Scotland, due to the proportional representation voting system.
For the Scottish Parliament, party lists of candidates are used to "top up" the constituency seats so if, for example, a party wins five per cent of the vote in a region, they get five per cent of the seats. This helped parties such as the Green Party and Scottish Socialist Party do well in the 2003 elections.
The BNP have always been less popular in Scotland than England.
The Press
Ian Dawson is standing in next month's City of York Council election for Acomb ward, where he says he will put local people first. He is one of nine BNP candidates in the city, but The Press has learned that, on the same day as he is trying to win a foothold in York, Mr Dawson is aiming to win a seat in Scotland, through the regional party list system.
In his campaign literature, Mr Dawson writes: "I will be a strong voice for local people." But, were he to win both seats, it would mean that at the same time as representing his 7,700 Acomb constituents on the council, he would also be representing about 550,000 Scottish voters, 210 miles away at Holyrood.
Ben Drake, of the York branch of Unite Against Fascism (UAF), said: "It shows the BNP's blatant opportunism. They have no real commitment to local people. They just want to exploit issues to build themselves up. All they will bring to our city is division and conflict."
Conservative agent John Galvin said: "They are not credible, and should be treated with contempt."
York Labour leader Dave Merrett said: "I think it's important people see through some of the more positive glosses to see the extremely unpleasant individuals and regime behind the BNP."
But Mr Dawson hit back, and claimed he could realistically do a good job in both authorities. He said: "I don't think it is a problem. I would proportion my time between both places if I was to win both. I will be going for both, and we will see what happens."
Mr Dawson said he was "not bothered" what UAF said, given they were not standing for election. He denied he would be unable to represent York residents from Scotland, or vice-versa, saying such claims were "complete and utter nonsense". He said: "Is Gordon Brown less committed to his Scottish constituency, just because he spends lots of time in London?"
Mr Dawson said his partner was Scottish, he loved the country, and spent a lot of time there. He said: "I am going to give as many people as possible a chance to vote BNP."
Standing for, or sitting on, two autonomous authorities is not illegal under electoral law.
Liberal Democrat leader Steve Galloway said: "How could anyone seek to represent two separate communities on two different Government bodies 200 miles apart? Fortunately, few York people are showing any signs of being duped by this gang of opportunists."
The Scottish voting system
Minority parties have more chance of success in Scotland, due to the proportional representation voting system.
For the Scottish Parliament, party lists of candidates are used to "top up" the constituency seats so if, for example, a party wins five per cent of the vote in a region, they get five per cent of the seats. This helped parties such as the Green Party and Scottish Socialist Party do well in the 2003 elections.
The BNP have always been less popular in Scotland than England.
The Press
Families refute BNP "help" claims
FAMILIES fighting to save their central Barrow homes are refuting the British National Party’s claim to have helped them out.
The far right organisation said it was the only party to support North Central residents in their battle against Barrow Borough Council’s home demolition plan.
It wants to win its first seat on the council on May 3.
But residents in Arthur Street — one of the streets threatened by the council’s clearance proposal — say they have had no help from the BNP.
Jason Bentley, 49, said: “I don’t recall them helping us out at all.
“The only person that has stood by us is Jim (Hamezeian, Peoples Party councillor).
“He has helped us out quite a lot, has Jim, speaking up for us at meetings and everything.”
Mr Bentley says he has no time for the BNP.
“They’re a bunch of racists,” he said. “Anything I get from them goes straight in the bin.”
Daisy Potter also said she had no help from the BNP. And Ann Hillman, 47, said: “They haven’t helped at all. I haven’t even seen any BNP.” Mrs Hillman said Cllr Hamezeian had helped them the most.
“He has steered us in the right direction,” she said. I don’t think we’d have known what to do if we hadn’t had his help.”
Cllr Hamezeian’s wife, Rosemarie Hamezeian, 54, is standing for the Peoples Party. Mrs Hamezeian said that, to her knowledge, from knocking on doors, the BNP had done nothing for the people of Central.
She said: “The Peoples Party has been working for the people of Central for a long time now on various issues but certainly on the regeneration of their homes.
“If elected, I’ll do everything I can to make sure their houses are not pulled down.”
But BNP candidate Mike Ashburner says the BNP does not regard the Peoples Party as a proper political party.
“They’re merely a mob of Marxist misfits,” he said.
And, Mr Ashburner maintains, neither he nor the party are racist.
Labour election agent Dave Pidduck said: “The Labour party has always been prepared to work with and listen to the residents and the residents’ associations.
“Unfortunately, opportunities to do that are being restricted by other groups who are working for their own ends.”
Cllr Pidduck described Labour’s Central ward candidate, Ann Thomson, as an excellent candidate and councillor who works hard to represent her residents.
Ollie Flitcroft, election campaign manager for the Tories, described their Central ward candidate Lucy Pearson, 22, as a bright young girl with lots of skills.
And on the homes issue, Cllr Flitcroft said: “The Conservative administration took time and effort to go and speak directly to the residents, to listen to their concerns, to what they had to say. And after long periods of discussion, the Conservative administration backed the residents in their wishes and I’m pleased to say we’re fully square behind them in what they want.”
North-west Evening Mail
The far right organisation said it was the only party to support North Central residents in their battle against Barrow Borough Council’s home demolition plan.
It wants to win its first seat on the council on May 3.
But residents in Arthur Street — one of the streets threatened by the council’s clearance proposal — say they have had no help from the BNP.
Jason Bentley, 49, said: “I don’t recall them helping us out at all.
“The only person that has stood by us is Jim (Hamezeian, Peoples Party councillor).
“He has helped us out quite a lot, has Jim, speaking up for us at meetings and everything.”
Mr Bentley says he has no time for the BNP.
“They’re a bunch of racists,” he said. “Anything I get from them goes straight in the bin.”
Daisy Potter also said she had no help from the BNP. And Ann Hillman, 47, said: “They haven’t helped at all. I haven’t even seen any BNP.” Mrs Hillman said Cllr Hamezeian had helped them the most.
“He has steered us in the right direction,” she said. I don’t think we’d have known what to do if we hadn’t had his help.”
Cllr Hamezeian’s wife, Rosemarie Hamezeian, 54, is standing for the Peoples Party. Mrs Hamezeian said that, to her knowledge, from knocking on doors, the BNP had done nothing for the people of Central.
She said: “The Peoples Party has been working for the people of Central for a long time now on various issues but certainly on the regeneration of their homes.
“If elected, I’ll do everything I can to make sure their houses are not pulled down.”
But BNP candidate Mike Ashburner says the BNP does not regard the Peoples Party as a proper political party.
“They’re merely a mob of Marxist misfits,” he said.
And, Mr Ashburner maintains, neither he nor the party are racist.
Labour election agent Dave Pidduck said: “The Labour party has always been prepared to work with and listen to the residents and the residents’ associations.
“Unfortunately, opportunities to do that are being restricted by other groups who are working for their own ends.”
Cllr Pidduck described Labour’s Central ward candidate, Ann Thomson, as an excellent candidate and councillor who works hard to represent her residents.
Ollie Flitcroft, election campaign manager for the Tories, described their Central ward candidate Lucy Pearson, 22, as a bright young girl with lots of skills.
And on the homes issue, Cllr Flitcroft said: “The Conservative administration took time and effort to go and speak directly to the residents, to listen to their concerns, to what they had to say. And after long periods of discussion, the Conservative administration backed the residents in their wishes and I’m pleased to say we’re fully square behind them in what they want.”
North-west Evening Mail
'Islamophobia's' roots in anti-black racism
Last week, Blogger Umar Lee posted a picture that ultimately proved to be a brilliant demonstration that “Islamophobes” (I really don’t like that term and prefer anti-Muslim bigot) are indeed the ideological inheritors of the racists that used to lynch blacks in the early twentieth century.
Umar posted a picture of a lynching with a gathering of racists around and wrote in the caption: “1950 Little Green Footballs Gathering”. This simple picture and a few words from Umar drew the ire of Charles Johnson, the moderator of Little Green Footballs - and anti-Muslim bigot and racist – as well as other anti-Muslim bloggers. These anti-Muslim bloggers posted links to the picture for their legions of readers to comment at Umar’s site. And did they ever!
Umar received a blizzard of hate mails and racist comments on his blog from these people. Many of these people called him a “raghead” and “nigger lover” (because he is a white convert) and other things that can not be reprinted on this forum because it was so despicable. Umar had successfully demonstrated that the people of these anti-Muslim blogs are certainly the ideological descendents of the KKK.
In the early twentieth century, the KKK used to use the exact same tactics as the current anti-Muslim bigots do on the masses. In those days, since there was no internet, the main medium of passing off hate was the church where the Pastor was often the Grand Wizard of the local chapter of the KKK.
The Grand Wizard/Pastor would relentlessly speak of the dangers of blacks and how they were inferior and never ever give an example of a good black person. They presented themselves as the victims of blacks who were all aiming rape their daughters and plotting to take over and subjugate them. That is why the victims of lynchings were usually black men, often accused of assaulting or raping whites. Others “committed suicide”
They dehumanized them with names such as “niggers” and “coons” that threatened the “racial purity” of whites. The ultimate aim was to dehumanize blacks to the point where killing them became morally acceptable. After giving hateful sermons and public speeches about this “looming danger”, the dehumanization began to sink in. Lynchings began soon after that.
Because blacks had been so dehumanized by these racists, a person like Emmitt Till could be beaten to death for simply whistling at a white woman. Several whites could get away with murder in spite of overwhelming evidence against them because the all white jurys would refuse to convict a white man for murdering a black man. And they would see all of this as morally correct and good.
In 1887, in Thibodaux, Louisiana, a mob of whites killed between 20 and 300 blacks.
A black newspaper described the scene:
“Six killed and five wounded” is that the daily papers here say, but from an eye witness to the whole transaction we learn that no less than thirty-five Negroes were killed outright. Lame men and blind women shot; children and hoary-headed grandsires ruthlessly swept down! The Negroes offered no resistance; they could not, as the killing was unexpected. Those of them not killed took to the woods, a majority of them finding refuge in this city”
After that, lynching died off for a short period until the 1915 release of the film “The Birth of a Nation” which played a vital role in the dehumanization of blacks. In this film a black militia pillages a white home and attempts to rape the women, but are rescued by Confederate soldiers. Later in the film a white man from the North went into the South along with his biracial protégé with the aim of empowering blacks via election fraud.
The film also depicts a murderous former slave named “Gus” who (what else) has designs on white women and crudely proposes to marry one. When she refuses, he chases her into the forest where she became trapped on a cliff. She leaps to her death to avoid letting herself be raped. In response, the “heroic” Ku Klux Klan hunts Gus down and lynches him.
Then the biracial protégé tries to (you guessed it) force yet another white woman to marry him. Disguised Klansmen discover her situation and leave to get reinforcements. The Klan, now at full strength, rides to her rescue and takes the opportunity to evict all of the evil blacks. Victorious, the Klansmen celebrate in the streets, and the film cuts to the next election where the Klan successfully disenfranchises black voters.
I know all of that sounds really silly, but that film was key in the dehumanization of blacks and was the most profitable film of all time (in today’s dollars grossing $300 million) until it was dethroned by Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937. They depicted blacks as uncontrollable animals and a secret plot with liberal whites to subjugate “good” whites.
In Lafayette, Indiana, a white man killed a black teenager after seeing that movie, the Klan grew stronger, and lynchings began again.
Anyone see the parallels? Who says that films are not powerful opinion makers?
I am not trying to be overdramatic here or say that those situations are the same as today or downplay the grizzly murders that took place during those tragic times, but I am illustrating the similarity in tactics and social vilification and showing where this has led in the past. It is also illustrative in that many of the anti-Muslim bigots are also anti-black racists as well. This shows that this vilification by these anti-Muslim bigots is a serious thing whether they realize it or not. I suspect they do.
Similar to the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, these anti-Muslim bigots are saying that all Muslims pose a danger to the society and that Muslims are hopelessly irrational and cannot be compromised with. We must be wiped out or leave our religion.
Similar to The Birth of a Nation’s “Gus”, these bigots put out films – albeit much more sophisticated - that vilify all Muslims and present a one sided, caricatured inhuman view of us.
Similar to the racists of the past, these modern racists and anti-Muslim bigots tell people of a sinister plot between liberal whites and Muslims to subjugate them.
As I wrote in an earlier article, part of what these bigots do with Muslims is relentlessly post news articles about violent Muslim behavior and/or misdeeds of individual Muslims, even when the perpetrator was obviously mentally ill, as “evidence” against all Muslims.
They give these examples of bad Muslim behavior and pass it off as the norm without EVER balancing it with news of good things that Muslims are doing. This series of bad news is meant to represent the normal everyday Muslim. They sarcastically write: “The religion of peace strikes again” as if to say that all of us are a part of this.
Every Muslim is described as a terrorist or terror supporter. Every repressive measure against Muslims is cheered on and any concession or incident of a Muslim getting justice or a new masjid being built is an example of “creeping dhimmitude”. A non-Muslim supporter of Muslim rights is a “dhimmi” and depicted similar to the way white liberals were depicted in “The Birth of a Nation”.
Therefore, like in “The Birth of a Nation” the message is that it is a moral duty to disenfranchise these out of control beasts.
Every Muslim is up to no good. Every Muslim is plotting something insidious. A Muslim is not human. Their blogs are very popular and unyielding. It is no wonder we see polls of growing anti-Muslim hatred.
Thinking back, I saw signs of this early in my life as I can remember - as a child - the racist reaction at my (99% white) school in Mississippi to the bombings in Libya. (No one should interpret this as support of Qathafi. I am only talking about the reaction)
In the aftermath, a lot of the children and even the teachers made racist anti-Arab jokes. I can also remember the discomfort the black children felt at this. We certainly weren’t on Qathafi’s side, but we didn’t like these racist jokes either because we knew these people didn’t like us either. The same kids that used to tease black children with “nigger lips” jokes were the ones that making these anti-Arab jokes.
So, I saw signs of this very early in my life and though - at the time - I was too young to understand the nuances, it nonetheless made me uncomfortable because I knew that these people were racist
All of this is why it was not surprising that the commentators from the anti-Muslim blogs use the racist terms such as “nigger” and “nigger lover” in addition to “raghead” and the like. They are the ideological descendents of the KKK.
I must also note that several news organizations have noted a rise in white nationalism since 9/11. I don’t find this to be surprising as I think that this is directly connected to the rise in anti-Muslim bigotry. You get one, you usually get the other. One is connected to the other like a two headed monster.
A white nationalist political party in the UK (the BNP) that “stands for the preservation of the national and ethnic character of the British people and is wholly opposed to any form of racial integration between British and non-European peoples” has made gains in local elections since 9/11 running on an anti-Muslim platform.
In their platform they say that they intend to oppose “ the endless wave of Islamics who are flocking to our shores to bring our island nations into the embrace of their barbaric desert religion.”
One of their leaders stated: “"We should be positioning ourselves to take advantage for our own political ends of the growing wave of public hostility to Islam currently being whipped up by the mass media.”
So after 9/11, they expanded their racist message to include Muslims. Are we seeing the connection yet?
As crazy and racist as these people are, they have made small yet consistent electoral gains since 9/11 and now have 53 councillors in local government. In 2004, one of their candidates gained over 51% of the vote in the local district.
The BNP is still working and constantly whipping up anti-Muslim hysteria everyday to work toward their insidious goals. Their counterparts are doing the same here, except here most of them veil their white nationalism and racism. But we should remember that the two usually come together.
After reading the sick and racist comments from the Little Green Footballers on Umar’s blog, I wanted to share this with everyone to let everyone know that it is important NOW more than ever to support Muslim institutions such as the Muslim Link and our masjids to make them stronger. We must educate and befriend our non-Muslim neighbors before these bigots mis-educate them. We must define ourselves before they define us as people like “Gus”
I don’t say this so that we can go wallow in victim-hood or to get involved in wacky conspiracy theories – many of the anti-Jewish conspiracy theories are put out by the far right racists and we should reject this. This is also not to say that Muslims do not do stupid things. But it is not fair to portray all of us as irrational medievalists. We should also know that there are Nathan Bedford Forrestts (founder of the KKK) out there and they are looking to turn hearts and minds against us.
As I write this, my children are sound asleep. They along with your children have done nothing to deserve to be treated like beasts. Let’s resolve to leave a strong and peaceful legacy for them.
The American Muslim (Edited article)
Umar posted a picture of a lynching with a gathering of racists around and wrote in the caption: “1950 Little Green Footballs Gathering”. This simple picture and a few words from Umar drew the ire of Charles Johnson, the moderator of Little Green Footballs - and anti-Muslim bigot and racist – as well as other anti-Muslim bloggers. These anti-Muslim bloggers posted links to the picture for their legions of readers to comment at Umar’s site. And did they ever!
Umar received a blizzard of hate mails and racist comments on his blog from these people. Many of these people called him a “raghead” and “nigger lover” (because he is a white convert) and other things that can not be reprinted on this forum because it was so despicable. Umar had successfully demonstrated that the people of these anti-Muslim blogs are certainly the ideological descendents of the KKK.
In the early twentieth century, the KKK used to use the exact same tactics as the current anti-Muslim bigots do on the masses. In those days, since there was no internet, the main medium of passing off hate was the church where the Pastor was often the Grand Wizard of the local chapter of the KKK.
The Grand Wizard/Pastor would relentlessly speak of the dangers of blacks and how they were inferior and never ever give an example of a good black person. They presented themselves as the victims of blacks who were all aiming rape their daughters and plotting to take over and subjugate them. That is why the victims of lynchings were usually black men, often accused of assaulting or raping whites. Others “committed suicide”
They dehumanized them with names such as “niggers” and “coons” that threatened the “racial purity” of whites. The ultimate aim was to dehumanize blacks to the point where killing them became morally acceptable. After giving hateful sermons and public speeches about this “looming danger”, the dehumanization began to sink in. Lynchings began soon after that.
Because blacks had been so dehumanized by these racists, a person like Emmitt Till could be beaten to death for simply whistling at a white woman. Several whites could get away with murder in spite of overwhelming evidence against them because the all white jurys would refuse to convict a white man for murdering a black man. And they would see all of this as morally correct and good.
In 1887, in Thibodaux, Louisiana, a mob of whites killed between 20 and 300 blacks.
A black newspaper described the scene:
“Six killed and five wounded” is that the daily papers here say, but from an eye witness to the whole transaction we learn that no less than thirty-five Negroes were killed outright. Lame men and blind women shot; children and hoary-headed grandsires ruthlessly swept down! The Negroes offered no resistance; they could not, as the killing was unexpected. Those of them not killed took to the woods, a majority of them finding refuge in this city”
After that, lynching died off for a short period until the 1915 release of the film “The Birth of a Nation” which played a vital role in the dehumanization of blacks. In this film a black militia pillages a white home and attempts to rape the women, but are rescued by Confederate soldiers. Later in the film a white man from the North went into the South along with his biracial protégé with the aim of empowering blacks via election fraud.
The film also depicts a murderous former slave named “Gus” who (what else) has designs on white women and crudely proposes to marry one. When she refuses, he chases her into the forest where she became trapped on a cliff. She leaps to her death to avoid letting herself be raped. In response, the “heroic” Ku Klux Klan hunts Gus down and lynches him.
Then the biracial protégé tries to (you guessed it) force yet another white woman to marry him. Disguised Klansmen discover her situation and leave to get reinforcements. The Klan, now at full strength, rides to her rescue and takes the opportunity to evict all of the evil blacks. Victorious, the Klansmen celebrate in the streets, and the film cuts to the next election where the Klan successfully disenfranchises black voters.
I know all of that sounds really silly, but that film was key in the dehumanization of blacks and was the most profitable film of all time (in today’s dollars grossing $300 million) until it was dethroned by Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937. They depicted blacks as uncontrollable animals and a secret plot with liberal whites to subjugate “good” whites.
In Lafayette, Indiana, a white man killed a black teenager after seeing that movie, the Klan grew stronger, and lynchings began again.
Anyone see the parallels? Who says that films are not powerful opinion makers?
I am not trying to be overdramatic here or say that those situations are the same as today or downplay the grizzly murders that took place during those tragic times, but I am illustrating the similarity in tactics and social vilification and showing where this has led in the past. It is also illustrative in that many of the anti-Muslim bigots are also anti-black racists as well. This shows that this vilification by these anti-Muslim bigots is a serious thing whether they realize it or not. I suspect they do.
Similar to the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, these anti-Muslim bigots are saying that all Muslims pose a danger to the society and that Muslims are hopelessly irrational and cannot be compromised with. We must be wiped out or leave our religion.
Similar to The Birth of a Nation’s “Gus”, these bigots put out films – albeit much more sophisticated - that vilify all Muslims and present a one sided, caricatured inhuman view of us.
Similar to the racists of the past, these modern racists and anti-Muslim bigots tell people of a sinister plot between liberal whites and Muslims to subjugate them.
As I wrote in an earlier article, part of what these bigots do with Muslims is relentlessly post news articles about violent Muslim behavior and/or misdeeds of individual Muslims, even when the perpetrator was obviously mentally ill, as “evidence” against all Muslims.
They give these examples of bad Muslim behavior and pass it off as the norm without EVER balancing it with news of good things that Muslims are doing. This series of bad news is meant to represent the normal everyday Muslim. They sarcastically write: “The religion of peace strikes again” as if to say that all of us are a part of this.
Every Muslim is described as a terrorist or terror supporter. Every repressive measure against Muslims is cheered on and any concession or incident of a Muslim getting justice or a new masjid being built is an example of “creeping dhimmitude”. A non-Muslim supporter of Muslim rights is a “dhimmi” and depicted similar to the way white liberals were depicted in “The Birth of a Nation”.
Therefore, like in “The Birth of a Nation” the message is that it is a moral duty to disenfranchise these out of control beasts.
Every Muslim is up to no good. Every Muslim is plotting something insidious. A Muslim is not human. Their blogs are very popular and unyielding. It is no wonder we see polls of growing anti-Muslim hatred.
Thinking back, I saw signs of this early in my life as I can remember - as a child - the racist reaction at my (99% white) school in Mississippi to the bombings in Libya. (No one should interpret this as support of Qathafi. I am only talking about the reaction)
In the aftermath, a lot of the children and even the teachers made racist anti-Arab jokes. I can also remember the discomfort the black children felt at this. We certainly weren’t on Qathafi’s side, but we didn’t like these racist jokes either because we knew these people didn’t like us either. The same kids that used to tease black children with “nigger lips” jokes were the ones that making these anti-Arab jokes.
So, I saw signs of this very early in my life and though - at the time - I was too young to understand the nuances, it nonetheless made me uncomfortable because I knew that these people were racist
All of this is why it was not surprising that the commentators from the anti-Muslim blogs use the racist terms such as “nigger” and “nigger lover” in addition to “raghead” and the like. They are the ideological descendents of the KKK.
I must also note that several news organizations have noted a rise in white nationalism since 9/11. I don’t find this to be surprising as I think that this is directly connected to the rise in anti-Muslim bigotry. You get one, you usually get the other. One is connected to the other like a two headed monster.
A white nationalist political party in the UK (the BNP) that “stands for the preservation of the national and ethnic character of the British people and is wholly opposed to any form of racial integration between British and non-European peoples” has made gains in local elections since 9/11 running on an anti-Muslim platform.
In their platform they say that they intend to oppose “ the endless wave of Islamics who are flocking to our shores to bring our island nations into the embrace of their barbaric desert religion.”
One of their leaders stated: “"We should be positioning ourselves to take advantage for our own political ends of the growing wave of public hostility to Islam currently being whipped up by the mass media.”
So after 9/11, they expanded their racist message to include Muslims. Are we seeing the connection yet?
As crazy and racist as these people are, they have made small yet consistent electoral gains since 9/11 and now have 53 councillors in local government. In 2004, one of their candidates gained over 51% of the vote in the local district.
The BNP is still working and constantly whipping up anti-Muslim hysteria everyday to work toward their insidious goals. Their counterparts are doing the same here, except here most of them veil their white nationalism and racism. But we should remember that the two usually come together.
After reading the sick and racist comments from the Little Green Footballers on Umar’s blog, I wanted to share this with everyone to let everyone know that it is important NOW more than ever to support Muslim institutions such as the Muslim Link and our masjids to make them stronger. We must educate and befriend our non-Muslim neighbors before these bigots mis-educate them. We must define ourselves before they define us as people like “Gus”
I don’t say this so that we can go wallow in victim-hood or to get involved in wacky conspiracy theories – many of the anti-Jewish conspiracy theories are put out by the far right racists and we should reject this. This is also not to say that Muslims do not do stupid things. But it is not fair to portray all of us as irrational medievalists. We should also know that there are Nathan Bedford Forrestts (founder of the KKK) out there and they are looking to turn hearts and minds against us.
As I write this, my children are sound asleep. They along with your children have done nothing to deserve to be treated like beasts. Let’s resolve to leave a strong and peaceful legacy for them.
The American Muslim (Edited article)
Labels:
anti-Muslim,
bigot,
Birth of a Nation,
BNP,
Emmitt Till,
KKK,
Muslims,
racists
I did not sign BNP election form, says black woman
The BNP look set to become involved in a fraud probe after a series of "dodgy" signatures for far-right election candidates were discovered.
One African-Caribbean woman in Birmingham told a Lib Dem councillor, Martin Mullaney, that she was furious at her name appearing on a BNP nomination form. The unnamed woman was contacted by Lib Dem investigators after they became suspicious over a number of names on papers submitted by BNP candidates to the council's electoral services department.
Her name appears on a form nominating BNP's Zane Patchell as a candidate for the Lozells and East Handsworth ward in Birmingham. The Jamaican-born woman was shown the signature purporting to be from her. She strongly denied that it is her signature.
Cllr Mullaney has identified at least five other residents of "ethnic background" whose names appear on BNP nomination forms which he believes are suspicious.
The names belong to a Hindu family, a Sikh and two Muslims. Aston resident Abid Hussain has told local reporters his father signed a form but was told it was a petition calling for improvements in the local area. In nearby Sandwell two local residents, Andrew Smith and his partner Lynn Marshall, have expressed shock that their names appear on the nomination forms of BNP candidate Scott Dale.
'I never signed for the BNP, and neither did Lynn” he said. 'I’m not a BNP supporter, I’m a staunch Labour man.' Local police are investigating.
Meanwhile in north Wales, BNP candidate Dallus Weaver has been cleared over claims he had forged a signature on his nomination paper before standing in Flintshire. The signature in question is said to belong to a policeman who is now under internal investigation. In May 2001, six BNP council candidates in Burnley were excluded after it was discovered that several of the people who were supposed to have signed the nomination papers denied doing so.
blink
One African-Caribbean woman in Birmingham told a Lib Dem councillor, Martin Mullaney, that she was furious at her name appearing on a BNP nomination form. The unnamed woman was contacted by Lib Dem investigators after they became suspicious over a number of names on papers submitted by BNP candidates to the council's electoral services department.
Her name appears on a form nominating BNP's Zane Patchell as a candidate for the Lozells and East Handsworth ward in Birmingham. The Jamaican-born woman was shown the signature purporting to be from her. She strongly denied that it is her signature.
Cllr Mullaney has identified at least five other residents of "ethnic background" whose names appear on BNP nomination forms which he believes are suspicious.
The names belong to a Hindu family, a Sikh and two Muslims. Aston resident Abid Hussain has told local reporters his father signed a form but was told it was a petition calling for improvements in the local area. In nearby Sandwell two local residents, Andrew Smith and his partner Lynn Marshall, have expressed shock that their names appear on the nomination forms of BNP candidate Scott Dale.
'I never signed for the BNP, and neither did Lynn” he said. 'I’m not a BNP supporter, I’m a staunch Labour man.' Local police are investigating.
Meanwhile in north Wales, BNP candidate Dallus Weaver has been cleared over claims he had forged a signature on his nomination paper before standing in Flintshire. The signature in question is said to belong to a policeman who is now under internal investigation. In May 2001, six BNP council candidates in Burnley were excluded after it was discovered that several of the people who were supposed to have signed the nomination papers denied doing so.
blink
Labels:
Birmingham,
BNP,
electoral fraud,
far-right,
Hindu,
Muslim,
nominations,
Sikh
April 20, 2007
BNP vicar "seeks asylum"
THE CHURCH and fascism do not normally mix, but one Reverend has clearly rejected the command to "love thy neighbour" in favour of racial hatred.
Former Conservative Party councillor Rev'd Robert West is standing for the British National Party for the first time after defecting to the neo-Nazis in protest at David Cameron's "A-list."
His candidature, in the east Midlands district of South Holland, is one of several eyeraising choices as council candidates made by Nick Griffin's party.
Rev'd West claimed his action was sparked by a desire to "seek "refuge from political correctness by applying for asylum with the British National Party - Britain's finest and most decent party - in our country's hour of need."
Ironically Rev'd West taught political philosophy and equal opportunities law at the universities of Nottingham and East Anglia, was also a member of the Lincolnshire Council for Racial Equality.
But, switching to the BNP, he claimed Cameron's A-list, an attempt to boost numbers of women and black candidates, was "discrimination of the worst kind."
The part time supply teacher is the only name publicly associated with the Christian Council of Britain, a front organisation set up by the BNP to "Christianise" its message.
The CCB attempted to forge links with Christian Voice at the height of the Jerry Springer - The Opera controversy, in a coalition of right-wing Christian fundamentalists.
Rev'd West, 53, has reportedly been spotted among BNP supporters outside Leeds Crown Court during the trial, on racial hatred charges, of BNP leader Nick Griffin and youth leader Mark Collett, who is also standing for election to his council in Yorkshire.
Rev'd West has set up his own church, based in a house in Holbeach, to preach "traditional bible beliefs" after leaving the Anglican church.
Black Information Link
Former Conservative Party councillor Rev'd Robert West is standing for the British National Party for the first time after defecting to the neo-Nazis in protest at David Cameron's "A-list."
His candidature, in the east Midlands district of South Holland, is one of several eyeraising choices as council candidates made by Nick Griffin's party.
Rev'd West claimed his action was sparked by a desire to "seek "refuge from political correctness by applying for asylum with the British National Party - Britain's finest and most decent party - in our country's hour of need."
Ironically Rev'd West taught political philosophy and equal opportunities law at the universities of Nottingham and East Anglia, was also a member of the Lincolnshire Council for Racial Equality.
But, switching to the BNP, he claimed Cameron's A-list, an attempt to boost numbers of women and black candidates, was "discrimination of the worst kind."
The part time supply teacher is the only name publicly associated with the Christian Council of Britain, a front organisation set up by the BNP to "Christianise" its message.
The CCB attempted to forge links with Christian Voice at the height of the Jerry Springer - The Opera controversy, in a coalition of right-wing Christian fundamentalists.
Rev'd West, 53, has reportedly been spotted among BNP supporters outside Leeds Crown Court during the trial, on racial hatred charges, of BNP leader Nick Griffin and youth leader Mark Collett, who is also standing for election to his council in Yorkshire.
Rev'd West has set up his own church, based in a house in Holbeach, to preach "traditional bible beliefs" after leaving the Anglican church.
Black Information Link
Blitz of LMHR/UAF events across the UK as BNP fascists stand 750 candidates
Click on image for full size
People across the country are holding LMHR events through April and into May, to tie in with Unite Against Fascism’s campaign to expose the BNP as fascists and racist liars in the run-up to May 3rd’s local council elections, taking place in a third of council seats.Events including gigs, rallies, mass leafletting, club nights, school & college events, film screenings and a university tour will help mobilise people around UAF’s Use Your Vote - Stop the Fascist BNP - campaign. On May 1st, LMHR & UAF are teaming up with the PCS trade union whose members - on a national strike that day - as part of PCS’s “Make Your Vote Count” anti-fascist campaign. Flat-bed trucks with PAs & LMHR-supporting bands playing on the back will go around major cities with UAF supporters leafletting at stop-off points along the way. See the map below for just some of the places events are taking place, and keep watching our Events section as well as the UAF website for up-to-date info.
UAF
LMHR
Review: RednBlack Collective's Anti Fascist Social
Friday April 13th@The Gregson
Coming in the middle of the city council election campaign trail, this gig gave local anti fascist activists a chance to take a break from the leafleting and to get together to have some fun! The political message however was not lost in the partying as Antifa, UAF, anarchist, and Palestine Solidarity information stalls were set up in the main hall, and the walls were decorated with “Don’t Vote BNP” posters and the familiar RBC red and black banner providing a backdrop to the bands and DJ. A projection of life under illegal occupation in the West Bank also ran on a continuous loop. Disturbing pictures of IDF army brutality were mixed with images of community resistance against the occupation and apartheid wall. Some of the media was kindly donated by a local activist who has just returned from Palestine working with the International Women’s Peace Organisation and Zaytoun.
The evening’s entertainment began with Chris Butler. He is no stranger to the North West, having previously supported Chumbawamba at The Platform and played the Blackpool Punk Festival. He describes his music as “protest folk” and delivered an accomplished traditional folk set, fused with DIY punk energy, and heartfelt lyrics. His set for this anti-fascist event wouldn’t have been complete without a rousing version of “Don’t Vote BNP” and Chris didn’t let us down. Singing this anti-fascist anthem with genuine conviction;
“If equality on you is lost,
If you deny the holocaust,
Civil rights you don't give a toss?
The BNP's for you.”
Taking songs from his recently released “Protest Folk Singer” CD, Chris also introduced several new numbers including, “Crash”, “Tony Says Good Luck” and “Welcome To Hell” “Tony Says Good Luck” was about Tony Blair's morale boosting visit to the troops in Basra just before Xmas last year. He signed a Challenger Tank with the message “Good Luck, Tony Blair.” It's about the stupidity of autographing a tank, explained Chris, and the fact there can't be much luck in store for the children of Basra with tanks in the area! “Welcome To Hell” combined a description a street celebrations after the death of Pinochet, and compared it to the imagined hell the souls of dictators like Saddam, and Pinochet deserve. Hopefully it won’t be too long before Margaret Thatcher will also be joining her friend in hell, and we can have our own celebration in Trafalgar Square!
Eastfield were the next act. Lead singer Jessi took to the stage predicting a disaster as it was Friday the 13th! He was expecting electrical fire, and the backdrops to burn down! Not daunted though Eastfield launched themselves into their first song “Mick Murphy”. As they blasted out their lyrics and three chord punk tunes it wasn’t long before people took to the dance floor. There was none of the predicted doom, but the on stage dancing by Jessi, Bambi, and Trina caused the stage to visibly move up and down. Not really surprising as it was held together with gaffer tape! Eastfield’s set combined their trade mark “urban rail punk” sound with catchy choruses, tuneful riffs, politics, tales of trainspotting, and a large slice of good humour. The set included the new songs “Train To The Top Of The World” and “Rugeley Crimestoppers” with the chorus that includes a vocal rendition of the national crimestoppers telephone number! ,
“Watch out there’s a grass about
Watch out there’s a snitch about….
What’s my number?
0 8 0 0 Treble 5 Treble 1”
In between these new numbers were some of their well known older songs including “Faredodging”, “Drive On Henry”, “Sharks Against Surfers” and “The Black Hole”. Sharks Against Surfers, Jessi explained, is Eastfield’s answer to Surfers Against Sewage, a campaign for clean, safe recreational water, free from effluents, toxic chemicals, and nuclear waste. A very worthy cause I'm sure you'd agree? But where do those surfers pee when they're out on the sea all day!!
“Beach life isn't cheap, it'll cost you an arm and a leg
in trendy clothes shops and in the open water
Tear down the blue flag and hoist up the black flag
To lead the surfers out to the slaughter”
Eastfield ended their set with “Another Boring Eastfield Song”. Jessi explained that “three chords are good, four chords bad” and that “all our songs sound the same!” In reality there’s absolutely nothing boring about Eastfield though! It’s a guaranteed fun night of DIY punk rock chaos!
Next on stage was agit-prop folk singer Tracey Curtis with a much awaited debut visit to Lancaster. She apologised to the dancers at the front that she wouldn’t be continuing in the same style as Eastfield, but invited them to sit close to the stage on the dance floor. In fitting with the theme of the evening Tracey opened with the excellent song “I Won’t Wear the Union Jack”
“I'd like to say I'm proud to be British but I'm not,
I love our rivers, love our coastline, what's left of our green,
but I won't wear the Union Jack or sing God Save The Queen.”
Tracey, who had previously played in pop-punk band Shelley’s Children began a solo career after her daughters had encouraged her to write “Nowhere Left To Play” in protest at a planned by-pass road that threatened to ruin their local riverside dens and rope swings. Within a couple of months of the resulting “By Pass Demo” CD, Tracey had recorded the acclaimed “If The Moon Could Talk” album. Following the recording Tracey has played loads of gigs at festivals, veggie cafes, folk clubs, pubs, and even a prison performance. She has also toured with Chumbawamba, Danbert Nobacon, and Atilla The Stockbroker. Last year she released “Picture Postcards”, another album that combines her fine vocals with a contemporary heartfelt message. The set at The Gregson covered a whole spectrum of political commentary on issues from desertion in the First World War to the death penalty, from George Bush and his wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to a song about a postcard from John Peel. Everyone present can’t help but to have been moved by “Where Are They Now?” a beautiful, moving song that paints the true reality of life for asylum seekers rather than the lies and scaremongering of New Labour, or the out right hatred of the BNP fascists.
“I remember feeling scared some days
when people told us we should go away.
At night I’d listen to my father cry
I’d wish for morning and I’d close my eyes.”
“If The Death Penalty Were An Olympic Sport,” Tracey explained, presents the sixty countries that recently have either imposed or carried out the death penalty as competitors in an Olympic event. Of course on the podium are those disgraceful abusers of human rights the USA (bronze), Iran (silver), and China taking the gold medal with well over a thousand executions last year. Thanks to Jessi who acted as a music stand holding up a list of all the other competitors! Tracey promised the songs would become happier, and the set included “The Vegan Police” a song for vegans everywhere except those “who raid their friend’s kitchen cupboards in the hope of exposing hidden foods containing animal products!” Throughout the gig the songs retained their messages about the strength of the human spirit, about fighting back, about friendships, about mutual aid and human cooperation. Tracey performed a song dedicated to one her daughters, “Rosa’s Happy Song”, full of happy endings, like George Bush sending himself into space! She was cheered to an encore. Ending with “I Used To Want To Be The Cat” a song about a childhood dread of the authoritarianism imposed at school, and a desire for freedom.
Bringing the night to a foot stomping conclusion was well known DJ Gez from the Acme Bass Company. A veteran of the bygone days of The Park Hotel, The Warehouse, Lancaster’s pirate radio station Phantom FM, and more recently Korners, and many outdoor free parties. Gez played out with a hard hitting drum and bass set which had the dance floor jumping, until the power was cut, and the lights came on at the end of the night!!
Local BNP city council candidate, Chris Hill, had threatened to attend this gig. I’m sure he wouldn’t have been impressed with his welcome, or the anti-fascist posters around the hall! The BNP are a whites only party based on hatred, racial segregation, and violence. Party leader Griffin describes how “when the crunch comes, power is the product of force and will, not of rational debate.” Adding that BNP racism (“rights for whites”) should be “defended with well directed boots and fists”. These divisive hate filled policies offer nothing for local people, and Chris Hill might have learnt a lesson that there is a growing opposition to his hate filled campaign. The human spirit; mutual aid; solidarity; black and white working together; these are the ideas and actions that makes us strong. This is the message that people took away from the night at The Gregson. We must now take this message not just back to the streets of Skerton West, but also to all our communities and workplaces. The BNP try to fill a void encouraged by the bankruptcy of New Labour. We don’t need to wait for elections to build an alternative to their wars, their hate, and their lies. We don’t need to wait for politicians of any variety, we can create something better ourselves today in the here and now.
Special thanks from RBC to: All the staff at The Gregson, and Jessi, Bambi, Trina, Oddo, Tracey Curtis, Chris Butler, Gez, Blanche, Alys, Ed, Gaz, Neil (Sounds Up), Antifa, Lancaster UAF, Anarchist Federation, Preston Solfed, Palestine Solidarity Movement, Lancaster Music Co-op, Virtual Lancaster website, Larry’s Records, Single Step, The Basement, Lune Valley G8 Inform, Libcom.org.
Review by RBC
Coming in the middle of the city council election campaign trail, this gig gave local anti fascist activists a chance to take a break from the leafleting and to get together to have some fun! The political message however was not lost in the partying as Antifa, UAF, anarchist, and Palestine Solidarity information stalls were set up in the main hall, and the walls were decorated with “Don’t Vote BNP” posters and the familiar RBC red and black banner providing a backdrop to the bands and DJ. A projection of life under illegal occupation in the West Bank also ran on a continuous loop. Disturbing pictures of IDF army brutality were mixed with images of community resistance against the occupation and apartheid wall. Some of the media was kindly donated by a local activist who has just returned from Palestine working with the International Women’s Peace Organisation and Zaytoun.
The evening’s entertainment began with Chris Butler. He is no stranger to the North West, having previously supported Chumbawamba at The Platform and played the Blackpool Punk Festival. He describes his music as “protest folk” and delivered an accomplished traditional folk set, fused with DIY punk energy, and heartfelt lyrics. His set for this anti-fascist event wouldn’t have been complete without a rousing version of “Don’t Vote BNP” and Chris didn’t let us down. Singing this anti-fascist anthem with genuine conviction;“If equality on you is lost,
If you deny the holocaust,
Civil rights you don't give a toss?
The BNP's for you.”
Taking songs from his recently released “Protest Folk Singer” CD, Chris also introduced several new numbers including, “Crash”, “Tony Says Good Luck” and “Welcome To Hell” “Tony Says Good Luck” was about Tony Blair's morale boosting visit to the troops in Basra just before Xmas last year. He signed a Challenger Tank with the message “Good Luck, Tony Blair.” It's about the stupidity of autographing a tank, explained Chris, and the fact there can't be much luck in store for the children of Basra with tanks in the area! “Welcome To Hell” combined a description a street celebrations after the death of Pinochet, and compared it to the imagined hell the souls of dictators like Saddam, and Pinochet deserve. Hopefully it won’t be too long before Margaret Thatcher will also be joining her friend in hell, and we can have our own celebration in Trafalgar Square!
Eastfield were the next act. Lead singer Jessi took to the stage predicting a disaster as it was Friday the 13th! He was expecting electrical fire, and the backdrops to burn down! Not daunted though Eastfield launched themselves into their first song “Mick Murphy”. As they blasted out their lyrics and three chord punk tunes it wasn’t long before people took to the dance floor. There was none of the predicted doom, but the on stage dancing by Jessi, Bambi, and Trina caused the stage to visibly move up and down. Not really surprising as it was held together with gaffer tape! Eastfield’s set combined their trade mark “urban rail punk” sound with catchy choruses, tuneful riffs, politics, tales of trainspotting, and a large slice of good humour. The set included the new songs “Train To The Top Of The World” and “Rugeley Crimestoppers” with the chorus that includes a vocal rendition of the national crimestoppers telephone number! ,“Watch out there’s a grass about
Watch out there’s a snitch about….
What’s my number?
0 8 0 0 Treble 5 Treble 1”
In between these new numbers were some of their well known older songs including “Faredodging”, “Drive On Henry”, “Sharks Against Surfers” and “The Black Hole”. Sharks Against Surfers, Jessi explained, is Eastfield’s answer to Surfers Against Sewage, a campaign for clean, safe recreational water, free from effluents, toxic chemicals, and nuclear waste. A very worthy cause I'm sure you'd agree? But where do those surfers pee when they're out on the sea all day!!
“Beach life isn't cheap, it'll cost you an arm and a leg
in trendy clothes shops and in the open water
Tear down the blue flag and hoist up the black flag
To lead the surfers out to the slaughter”
Eastfield ended their set with “Another Boring Eastfield Song”. Jessi explained that “three chords are good, four chords bad” and that “all our songs sound the same!” In reality there’s absolutely nothing boring about Eastfield though! It’s a guaranteed fun night of DIY punk rock chaos!
Next on stage was agit-prop folk singer Tracey Curtis with a much awaited debut visit to Lancaster. She apologised to the dancers at the front that she wouldn’t be continuing in the same style as Eastfield, but invited them to sit close to the stage on the dance floor. In fitting with the theme of the evening Tracey opened with the excellent song “I Won’t Wear the Union Jack”
“I'd like to say I'm proud to be British but I'm not,
I love our rivers, love our coastline, what's left of our green,
but I won't wear the Union Jack or sing God Save The Queen.”
Tracey, who had previously played in pop-punk band Shelley’s Children began a solo career after her daughters had encouraged her to write “Nowhere Left To Play” in protest at a planned by-pass road that threatened to ruin their local riverside dens and rope swings. Within a couple of months of the resulting “By Pass Demo” CD, Tracey had recorded the acclaimed “If The Moon Could Talk” album. Following the recording Tracey has played loads of gigs at festivals, veggie cafes, folk clubs, pubs, and even a prison performance. She has also toured with Chumbawamba, Danbert Nobacon, and Atilla The Stockbroker. Last year she released “Picture Postcards”, another album that combines her fine vocals with a contemporary heartfelt message. The set at The Gregson covered a whole spectrum of political commentary on issues from desertion in the First World War to the death penalty, from George Bush and his wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to a song about a postcard from John Peel. Everyone present can’t help but to have been moved by “Where Are They Now?” a beautiful, moving song that paints the true reality of life for asylum seekers rather than the lies and scaremongering of New Labour, or the out right hatred of the BNP fascists.“I remember feeling scared some days
when people told us we should go away.
At night I’d listen to my father cry
I’d wish for morning and I’d close my eyes.”
“If The Death Penalty Were An Olympic Sport,” Tracey explained, presents the sixty countries that recently have either imposed or carried out the death penalty as competitors in an Olympic event. Of course on the podium are those disgraceful abusers of human rights the USA (bronze), Iran (silver), and China taking the gold medal with well over a thousand executions last year. Thanks to Jessi who acted as a music stand holding up a list of all the other competitors! Tracey promised the songs would become happier, and the set included “The Vegan Police” a song for vegans everywhere except those “who raid their friend’s kitchen cupboards in the hope of exposing hidden foods containing animal products!” Throughout the gig the songs retained their messages about the strength of the human spirit, about fighting back, about friendships, about mutual aid and human cooperation. Tracey performed a song dedicated to one her daughters, “Rosa’s Happy Song”, full of happy endings, like George Bush sending himself into space! She was cheered to an encore. Ending with “I Used To Want To Be The Cat” a song about a childhood dread of the authoritarianism imposed at school, and a desire for freedom.
Bringing the night to a foot stomping conclusion was well known DJ Gez from the Acme Bass Company. A veteran of the bygone days of The Park Hotel, The Warehouse, Lancaster’s pirate radio station Phantom FM, and more recently Korners, and many outdoor free parties. Gez played out with a hard hitting drum and bass set which had the dance floor jumping, until the power was cut, and the lights came on at the end of the night!!
Local BNP city council candidate, Chris Hill, had threatened to attend this gig. I’m sure he wouldn’t have been impressed with his welcome, or the anti-fascist posters around the hall! The BNP are a whites only party based on hatred, racial segregation, and violence. Party leader Griffin describes how “when the crunch comes, power is the product of force and will, not of rational debate.” Adding that BNP racism (“rights for whites”) should be “defended with well directed boots and fists”. These divisive hate filled policies offer nothing for local people, and Chris Hill might have learnt a lesson that there is a growing opposition to his hate filled campaign. The human spirit; mutual aid; solidarity; black and white working together; these are the ideas and actions that makes us strong. This is the message that people took away from the night at The Gregson. We must now take this message not just back to the streets of Skerton West, but also to all our communities and workplaces. The BNP try to fill a void encouraged by the bankruptcy of New Labour. We don’t need to wait for elections to build an alternative to their wars, their hate, and their lies. We don’t need to wait for politicians of any variety, we can create something better ourselves today in the here and now.
Special thanks from RBC to: All the staff at The Gregson, and Jessi, Bambi, Trina, Oddo, Tracey Curtis, Chris Butler, Gez, Blanche, Alys, Ed, Gaz, Neil (Sounds Up), Antifa, Lancaster UAF, Anarchist Federation, Preston Solfed, Palestine Solidarity Movement, Lancaster Music Co-op, Virtual Lancaster website, Larry’s Records, Single Step, The Basement, Lune Valley G8 Inform, Libcom.org.
Review by RBC
Labels:
Chris Butler,
Eastfield,
Gez,
Gregson,
music,
RennBlack Collective,
Tracey Curtis
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