This week the BNP seems to have really outdone itself. Leving aside the susspension of their London Assembly member, Richard Barnbrook, for lying about murders which never occured in his borough, it has been a week of catastrophy for the British Nazi Party. On Wednesday Captain Mainwaring, Nick Griffin, took part in the party’s Merseyside re-launch, which saw them confined to isolated areas away from the City centre for fear of organised opposition against them should they venture close to the city. Clearly any BNP activity in the local area is a problem, but at least MCARF are aware of which areas need the heaviest focus in countering the BNP propaganda in the months up to the election. Griffin recorded a video berating the foreign ownership of Jaguar cars and the Halewood plant, which he claims has destroyed local industry, only for the organisation to announce the next day that it is to create 800 new jobs in Merseyside. Of course the loss of manufacturing jobs in the Midlands is a terrible price, paid by workers for the new model being made on Merseyside, but Griffin’s false concern for British Workers (which involves outsourcing the production of t-shirts to Honduras, despite the North-West’s textile industries being in need of the work) seems a little misplaced.
Last night it emerged that, despite their insistence that the ‘belt and braces’ image is a thing of the past, the BNP’s candidate for the forthcoming Heath Hayes East and Wimblebury ward council by-election is in fact an open member of the National Front, a supporter of the English Defence Leage and the British Freedom Fighters. Shaun Grimsley is an unreformed neo-nazi with links to the Blood and Honour organisation who can be seen in the picture as a supporter of Screwdriver (an openly Nazi band.) On his Facebook site he left the message “Hail The British Freedom Fighters, I am a Nazi HAHAHAHAHAHA 88 red scum”. (88 of course being the neo-nazi code for ‘Heil Hitler’) Grimsley is also close to Liam Pinkham, the thug who recently pleaded guilty to threatening to burn down the Women’s co-operative bookshop, News from Nowhere, in Liverpool City Centre. Pinkham is an active member of the BFF and was arrested at the BNP’s conference in Blackpool this summer after giving Hitler salutes. In a further connection to the Merseyside BNP Grimsley’s Midlands cell regularly plays host to a BFF activist (pictured below, more details tofollow), who the Merseyside BNP branch recently invited along to their poorly thought out decision to protest against Worker’s political representation at the 2009 TUC. No matter how much the BNP’s leadership try to distance themselves from fascists it appears that their grass roots openly engage with them, especially the Merseyside branch.
This is not surprising because it appears that the leadership also cannot avoid slipping Dr Stranglove style into thier repressed Nazism. In a poor attempt to distance themselves from the street thuggery of the English Defence league, which has BNP activists throughout its ranks (Chris Renton, for example, who set up the EDL’s website) Nick Griffin and his deputy, Simon Darby, recorded an audio message about the group. Initially the pair had claimed that the group was a state conspiracy to smear the BNP. Following the Daily Stars disgusting support for the hooligan organisation, whose members parade in paramilitary style ski masks, Griffin and Darby have, however, reverted to their favoured position of outright anti-semitism. Griffin states:
“Spelling it out in simple terms – you look at the owners at the Daily Express, the Daily Star and their interests. [...] This is a Zionist false flag operation, designed to create a real clash of civilisations right here on our streets between Islam and the rest of us.”
He concludes that the aim of these “Zionist” organisations is to create a race war in Britain and to have Israel Nuke Middle Eastern Muslim countries. Here we see Griffin relaxing into his comfort zone of traditional anti-Semitism. Any doubts that lingered about the failure of the BNP to reform should be completely discarded now. Griffin has shown that he is not in touch with issues relating to the working class and that they do not support the workers with their actions. They are openly racist, openly anti-Semitic and openly fascist.
A re-post from Truth Reason Liberty about Griffins ill-timed appearence on Merseyside.
Immediatly after writing my last article on the situation facing workers at Jaguar Land Rover, I had my attention drawn to the British National Party website. There, you can find footage of party leader and MEP Nick Griffin, speaking outside the Halewood plant on Tuesday.
In the video he points out, quite rightly, that the government's refusal to bail out productive industry after it has spent billions of pounds bailing out the banks is a scandal. He also, again correctly, draws attention the loss of jobs in the British car industry being down to many companies outsourcing production to factories in the third-world in order to save money. It is fair to say, then, that in this respect his analysis is right on the mark.
However, it is not uncommon for nationalists such as Griffin to make such insightful analyses of the current economic system, whilst twisting them to support their own agenda. When Griffin says that the government should "put British workers first," it is important to look closer into what he is saying and debunk the notion that the BNP in any way speak for the working class.
Despite what their rhetoric may suggest on the surface, the BNP are not in favour of a better deal for workers - even by the reformist and concilliatory standards of the main trade unions. No, what the party wants is for an exploitative international capitalist system to be replaced by a national capitalist system, which would in its turn be as exploitative. The difference, of course, is that the benefit will not be one for international capital, but for the British state. This state, under the BNP, would operate the same corporatist economic system envisioned by Mussolini in The Doctrine of Fascism, whereby "Fascism recognises the real needs which gave rise to socialism and trade-unionism, giving them due weight in the guild or corporative system in which diverent interests are coordinated and harmonised in the unity of the State."
This statement quite eloquently sums up the economics of the BNP, which hold to the far-right "third-position" between capitalism and communism. Third positionists in Britain, notably Griffin, were heavily influenced by Italian neo-fascist Roberto Fiore, as well as by the Catholic ideology of distributism. This is why an article in January for the BNP website absurdly tried to claim the worker cooperative as the vision of "British nationalists building on British distributists before them." In fact, the "third-position" is little more than state-capitalism with the occasional concept ripped off from libertarian socialism to appeal to the working class.
But the contempt shown by Griffin and the BNP for the people of the working class is everywhere. In May last year, Lancaster Unity compiled some choice examples;
The BNP is increasingly trying to orient itself as the sole representative of the white working-class. Whether or not it succeeds in doing this is another thing. But, deep down the BNP is riddled with anti-working class sentiment.
Like many racist/fascist parties, the BNP ideologically makes a connection between class and 'race': that that the white race is not just threatened externally by Jews, non-whites, and whites who marry non-whites but, that it is internally threatened by whites who 'genetically' don't make the grade. In other words, the white working-class due to their genetic inferiority (the reason why they cannot progress economically and culturally) threaten to bring the white race down from inside.
I was prompted to write this piece after I was incensed by a recent comment made by the Lee Barnes, the self-appointed 'Director' of the BNP's legal department, about how he sees the trials and tribulations of modern working class life in Britain as a source of amusement and personal entertainment. This is what Lee Barnes wrote:
"The other night when I was laying in bed all I heard at first was the screams from my neighbours having another drunken fight, then the sounds of a baseball bat smashing car windows in the car park. This happens most friday and saturday nights. To be honest its more entertaining than the TV, so I just lay back and listen to the chaos of modern working class lives"
'The Song of the Star Lark'
This sideswipe at the working-class is a recurring theme in BNP utterances. Thus, we read BNP councillor Simon Smith saying:
"White working class scum will be swept away by a future BNP government."
"I'm no apologist for white working class scum"
Also, we shouldn't forget BNP leader Nick Griffin's argument that people who live on housing estates are "scum". So, according to Nick Griffin working-class people are scum. Unfortunately, unlike Nick Griffin, we can't all be born with a silver-spoon in our mouths, raised on Suffolk farms, with a six-figure inheritance from granddaddy and a private-school education rounded off with a third-class degree from Cambridge.
Nick Griffin's former mentor, John Tyndall, the founder of the BNP, went further, stating that inherited wealth "increases the probability that assets come into the hands of those best fitted to use them by virtue of genetic advantage". John Tyndall, like Nick Griffin, also had the benefit of a six-figure inheritance. From John Tyndall's perspective the working-class are both undeserving of financial inheritance and incapable of leaving an inheritance. Tony Lecomber, then a senior BNP officer, articulated this reasoning when he said: "The rich are genetically superior to the poor" i.e. the upper classes are genetically superior to the working classes.
One is then not surprised to learn that BNP members posted on the website of the youth wing of the BNP jokes making fun of working-class people or 'chavs' as they call them. Similarly, I recently came across the Bebo profile of a BNP member/supporter called John Smith (his nickname is the enamouring 'The Michelin Man') who states under the section 'Pure Hatred for':
"I cannot stand chavs or gypsies or sluts and hoes as they fuck me off big time acting like hot shit"
The BNP hierarchy have even deployed the sub-text of class to dismiss any internal dissent. Currently, we are seeing BNP councillor Colin Auty from Kirklees attempt to challenge Nick Griffin for the leadership of the BNP. Some BNP members on the neo-nazi chat forum Stormfront dismiss Colin Auty's leadership challenge by contrasting Nick Griffin's 'education' against Colin Auty's lack of an 'education'. Therefore, we see the juxtaposition between "university-educated Nick Griffin" and "painter and decorator Colin Auty"; and, "capable and competent Nick Griffin" and "not so capable and perhaps incompetent Colin Auty". The sub-textual reading is obvious: how dare a working-class person, stupid and uneducated, challenge an 'educated' man.
The BNP's conception of the 'nation' is both oppositional and hierarchical. Oppositional because externally the BNP defines Britain in opposition to non-Whites and Jews i.e. its vision of Britain is exclusionary. Hierarchical because internally the BNP defines Britain in terms of a hierarchy of class with the white working-class at the bottom as an internal threat who can diminish the purity and strength of the white race from within i.e. its vision of Britain is again exclusionary because it comes from an upper/middle-class vision of Britain which is out of touch with and hostile to working-class life and culture. More recently, I noted that the Merseyside branch of the BNP's farcical protest against what they see as a gathering of "Anti British Communists [sic]" displayed their true attitude towards working people. Their constant attacks on the unions, on the sole basis that they refuse to divide the working class along racial lines, underline this point.
But what of "putting British workers first," as Griffin demanded outside the JLR factory in Halewood? Well, even that idea (on which the BNP claim a monopoly) goes up in smoke with the recent revelation that the t-shirts sold on the party's merchandise website Excalibur, are made in third-world sweatshops.
A spokesman for Excalibur said, "unfortunately we have been unable to change Britain’s climate and start our own cotton plantations. Hence cotton T-shirt come from where cotton can be grown." However, such an excuse is facile. The T-shirts were manufactured in Honduras, which hasn't grown cotton since the 1800s, and it should not need stating that garments do not require manufacture at the point where the cotton was grown. With Griffin's own North West constituency the home of 1,000 textile firms which employ 38,000 workers, it is clear that the BNP did not lack the ability to live up to their stated concern for the working class, just the will.
The BNP is, demonstrably, a fascist organisation with utter contempt for the working class. Though their leadership are able to polemicise quite eloquently about issues facing real people, the party has no will to live up to their words or to do anything but promote their own agenda and self-aggrandisement. The working class need to reject the distorted arguments and false promises of fascists in order to organise and fight for real change.
This Sunday saw a trickle of the BNP on the streets of Liverpool, as they tried to make their presence felt at a demonstration made by trade unionists against the policies of new labour. If they are, as they claim, a growing party why could they only attract six people? Surely at such an event they would want to make their voices heard? Their cry, as touted on their website, is that the TUC means Traitors Under Communism
How ironic that the BNP, who claim to be the party of the real British people, should choose to attack an organisation which has included the Trade Union Co-ordinating group, a coalition of eight Unions who are determined to tackle the issue of poverty, which has been ignored by the major parties. Pay freezes and public spending cuts will harm the poorest in society and especially low earners, any activity, such as that by the TUC, which seeks to find a better way, must be applauded. The BNP have proven that they are against both working class political representation and the allayment of poverty in Britain. Whilst some of us try to come up with a solution they simply add to the problem.
The TUC in Liverpool has addressed many of the issues which the country faces, including stemming the tide of racism, which the BNP seek to propagate. Gee Walker, whose son Anthony was murdered in a racist attack in Huyton, made a speech following a five minute silent vigil against racism and the BNPs election to the European parliament:
"My son and what happened to him is the result of extreme racism. I know that if he was white he would still be alive today. When hate destroyed my son's dream, our community in Liverpool, in the UK and indeed the world was outraged and shocked. We were left devastated and we still are. The positives are that, at that time, we all embraced cohesion and diversity in all its forms. It was a time when race, religion and class and even our own football teams, Everton and Liverpool, sat side by side comforting each other at Anthony's funeral. Unfortunately, that was short-lived and already a lot seems to have forgotten my Anthony already and they have resorted back to their own comfort zones."
The policies and actions of the BNP and their aligned groups the English Defence League, who contain BNP members and supporters, and the British Freedom Fighters, contributed to the atmosphere in which the brutal murder of Anthony could occur. They are currently trying to encourage violence and racial tensions in several areas of the UK through their marches and will be stopped by the British public who are begining to show outrage at these far-right extremists.
The events of Yesterday afternoon will do little to bring credibility to the British National Party. An association of football hooligans, known as the English Defence League, with very close ties to BNP, chose the evening of England’s football match with Slovenia to bring their motley crew of riled up thugs onto the streets of Birmingham. Police have made 90 arrests.
Angry thugs of the, BNP allingned, EDL
On the day it is estimated that around 250 people were involved in violence around Birmingham city centre which included bottle and brick throwing and racist chants of “No more Muslims.” Members of the rally have been filmed giving Nazi salutes, aping the salutes given by BNP members at the recent Red White and Blue festival. They also chanted the BNP slogan "We want our Country Back." Police herded groups of the EDL onto busses, where a number were arrested for throwing seats out of the Window and trying to set fire to one of the vehicles. Most the 90 arrests occurred on these buses.
EDL hooligan shows true colours
A number of groups including Hope not Hate had lobbied police and the council in order to get the event banned. Over 2,500 letters were sent to Birmingham constabulary and the home secretary in order to have the fascist rally banned. Strangely DCI Sue Southern of West Midlands Police is claiming today that the violence took them by surprise. The authorities knew in advance that this group was intent on stirring up tensions in the city and did not act to stop it.
Over the coming days fascists and anti-fascists will no doubt throw allegations of blame at each other for causing the violence. There are, however, two points which cannot be disputed. Firstly wherever the EDL parades violent activity inevitably follows. Secondly the group has close ties to the BNP and seeks to whip up racial tensions in Britain. There have been recent demos in Luton and Birmingham in which the group has caused violence. At these events, wherever arrests are made, the EDL/Casuals arrested always vastly outnumber the anti-fascists. In the case of Luton, groups of their masked thugs headed into predominantly Asian neighbourhood attacking people and properties. Hope not Hate recently organised a campaign to prevent the organisation from marching in the town for three months. A searchlight investigation recently revealed that the EDL’s leadership contained prominent BNP members who had been extremely active in a number of local branches. The website of the associated group, Casuals United, was started by Chris Renton, a BNP member. The number of people on the EDL marches who choose to wear masks and balaclavas no doubt hides the identity of a number of members and supporters of the BNP. With further extremist right-wing protests planned in London on Friday we must all be on guard.
It is clear that the EDL and Casuals United are little more than a bunch of racists thugs who are intent on bringing violence to the streets of Britain, which the BNP in turn hope to capitalise on. The success of similar groups of BNP associated thugs in bringing violence to the streets of Oldham in 2001 should be a warning to communities that it is only by standing together and not allowing their divisive tactics to cause tensions that these yobs can be stopped.
A WELL-KNOWN member of the British National Party has denied assaulting an anti-facist demonstrator on St George's Day. Peter Tierney, 52, is charged with assaulting a protestor in St John's Lane near St George's Hall on April 23 this year. He pleaded not guilty to the attack which allegedly left a man with a cut on the back of his head. The protestors were said to have been handing out leaflets protesting against the BNP earlier that day.
Tierney, wearing a black suit, wore his long brown hair in a ponytail and his six-inch beard in a plait as he stood in the dock at Liverpool magistrates' court yesterday. He pleaded not guilty to one charge of committing assault occasioning actual bodily harm. Demonstrators protesting against his party gathered outside the court building in Dale Street before the hearing. Several police officers stood outside the court. Tierney, of High Street, Hale Village, opted to have the matter dealt with at the crown court.The case will be committed to the crown court on October 29
When 12,000 names on the BNP contact list were leaked onto the internet in 2008, the party took no time to blame the leak on “leftists” in numerous pieces of propaganda. The party’s chairman Nick Griffin took also called in the police and investigations ensued. It soon came to light that the leak of the notoriously out of date list was not caused by BNP opponents at all. Rather it was leaked by disgruntled fascists who disagreed with their demagogue leader, Nick Griffin. Mathew Single and his wife Sadie Graham-Single were charged under the data protection and appeared in court this week. The two former members of the Fascist organisation rapidly split from the party. This week Mr Single was found guilty of the leak and fined £200, whilst his wife was acquitted.
The BNP’s handling of the leak shows that their propaganda seizes on what might be bad news stories and twists them to promote a culture of victimisation. Aside from the regular outright falsities which emanate from the BNP website this is a clever variety of propaganda which we should all be aware of. Recently BNP London Assembly member Richard Barnbrook has faced charges and suspension from the organisation because he falsely produced a youtube video claiming that White Londoners had been stabbed to death by Black and Asian youths. The claims were completely untrue and Barnbrook has attempted to avoid his fate by feigning illness. Last month Lancaster Unity published a story which showed that BNP had published outright lies about an Asian shopkeeper banning a woman from his store simply because her son was a soldier. This type of propaganda is differs because it takes actual events and uses them to create a portrayal in, which the BNP are made to look like victims or to attack the establishment with claims of a witch-hunt. Very often in such cases the BNP are found to have made much of the story up, but one thing is for sure – They are not to be trusted.
Nazi Salutes
Long time BNP member, John Jones, pleaded guilty this week of making a Nazi salute at protesters at the BNP’s ill-fated Red White and Blue festival in Condor, Derbyshire. Saville Davies, 25 and an un-named 17 year old youth were also charged but have pleaded not guilty. Jones was fined £71, with £60 costs and a £15 Government surcharge, the other two will appear in court in December. This incident shows, yet again, that the BNP have not changed. New and Old members alike remain racist to core. They have always been a neo-nazi party and they are incapable of reform because their ideology remains the same. The violence might be better hidden, but they will never represent the best interests of the people of Britain.
MCARF consists of all Merseyside anti-fascist groups and welcomes all to the fight against Fascism no matter what their political affiliation. We co-ordinate activity alongside national organisations and Trade Unions and our core aim is to ensure that Merseyside remains fascist free.
Visit this blog for details of our activities and exposures of local fascist activity.
Contact: MCARF. 4 st Anne Street, Birkenhead, Wirral. tel. 0151 666 1999 e.mail. merseyadvice@btconnect.com
Angry thugs of the, BNP allingned, EDL 
