Peace loving anti-extremists provoked into
xenophobic violence by MILITANT ISLAMISTS!!111

Listening to Radio One at work the other day, I can’t really say I was expecting their lunchtime news to be Newsnight in terms of incisive political analysis and debate . If anything, it was a welcome 15 minute respite from listening to fucking Fearne ‘talent vacuum’ Cotton attempt to juggle inane phone ins, playing records AND being the most irritating person (ever) all at once.
But, I can’t really say I was expecting the news to feature what basically amounted to a 2 minute promotional spot for the English Defence League either.

The English Defence whaaat..? Oh, nothing to worry about… it’s just yr local friendly neighbourhood VIOLENT SKINHEAD FASCIST GROUP, that’s all, or as Radio One managed to put it… ‘the group who’s organisers say are peacefully demonstrating against militant Islam’.
The report went on to say how the group got permission to march through Birmingham City Centre on Saturday, but trouble ’started’ when they met anti-fascist protestors… many of whom ‘were young Muslims’. Before long, ‘men from boths sides were attacking the Police’, while shoppers looked on in horror.
Next comes a history of the EDL: set up following the incident where ‘Muslim extremists booed soldiers coming back from Afghanistan’, and an interview with one of the group’s organisers, named as Tommy: ‘blabla bla we’re not anti-islam we’re anti extremist innit cause muslims bombs immigrants TERRORISM ISLAM.’
He continues: ‘We’re against a small minority, the larger muslim community should actually be backing us in what we’re saying’ (!!!!)
What the fuck, Radio One? At no point did this piece mention the BNP, the EDL’s links to far-right football hooligan firms or in fact, racism. The closest we got was when we overheard the anti-fascist protestors shouting ‘Nazi Scum!’. And, according to the report, the protestors were ‘mostly Muslim’? And they obtained this information how? Because some of them looked Asian, basically?

EDL get a kicking from Birmingham youth

The EDL are fascist bigots, and it’s worrying that the mainstream media’s falling for their ‘anti-extremist’ facade and giving them coverage which certainly comes out more favourable than that given to their opposition.
The EDL claim not to be racist or linked to the BNP. The fact is, they are both, and most likely represent a new strategy from the party to reach out to disaffected white working class youth and football fans, and ramp up racial tension in certain areas – from which the BNP can gain electorally.  This Friday evening, the EDL are planning to descend on Harrow Mosque, one of London’s largest. And this is the group who claim that most Muslims should SUPPORT them?
At the moment, the EDL have not extended their reach beyond England and Wales. This doesn’t mean we in Scotland should be complacent though. In the run up to the Euro elections earlier in the year, we saw the BNP out on an almost daily basis across Scotland, the first time this has happened. However, the BNP in Scotland are, at the moment, a bunch of old men who by stepping outside probably represent a greater physical risk to themselves than anyone else. Nevertheless, any attempts by militant fascist organisations to set up in Scotland or take to the streets to spread their message of hate and division must be resisted and organised against: both by offering real, socialist solutions to counter their Nazi politics, and, where necessary, confronting them on the street to counter their Nazi posturing. The working class in East London united to beat Moseley’s Blackshirt fascists in the 1930s, and we can do it again.
NO PASARAN

extremists 4 anti-extremism

The Mock The Week team. Just out of shot, death camps.

Well, not exactly. BNP head honcho has been invited on to Question Time. It’s not unsurprising – the BNP got 6% of the vote, almost a million voters backing them and 2 MEP’s to the European Parliament. It was the first time a fascist party has won national representation.

Griffins like a Tyrannosaur, his vision is based on movement

The BNP may have been shut out of the media 10 years ago, as a fringe racist party increasingly they’re getting coverage above and beyond their vote.

After failing his joint honours in Sports Science and Art at Paisley tech, layabout student Hitler was invited on to Call My Bluff. 4 years later he started a war of annihilation on two fronts

BBC Radio had an hour long phone in in on the BNP during the Euro Elections, where callers were allowed to make racist attacks unchallenged – apart from the incompetent radio host who took a while to remember/be told Griffin had a conviction for inciting racial hatred.

Nick showing a cheeky bit of man boob here in a tight white t shirt.

Thats what people should remember in the “freedom of speech” debate – freedom of speech should not include freedom to incite violence or hate against someone, regardless of whether or not it’s been giving a Nazi PR job.

Nobody on the BBC would consider giving a spot on desert island discs to a radical Islamist preacher on the basis that their organisation was technically legal.

And the tabloid press didn’t defend the right of Islamic fundamentalists to march through London condemning the west on the basis of “freedom of speech”. Neither did they Iranian regimes disgusting Holocaust denial cartoons. In fact an Arab group is facing criminal charges for distributing a cartoon denying the Holocaust

And the reason for that is quite simple – most people in the UK don’t accept people who support blowing them up on tubes, discriminating against them on the basis of religion etc should have the freedom to organise to make that vision a reality.

So why should Black, Gay, Muslim etc people sit back and let people who want to deport, firebomb, and persecute them have their “freedom of speech”?

That’s still the aim of the BNP despite their “modernisation”. Griffin still says he wants to return the UK to it’s “white” status before WW2. He now argues he is against forcing blacks to leave by compulsion – the previous BNP policy – but says BNP policy now is “assisted repatriation”.

The fact is though that millions of Black and Asian people aren’t going to return to their “countries of origin” no matter how much they are paid. How many Scottish Catholics would go back to Ireland, rip up their connections to family and friends, and start again in a whole new country?

Imagine that suggestion for third generation Pakistanis – not only would they be moving to a country thats totally different from the UK, but where they would almost certainly have a lower standard of living than here.

The only way to return the UK to being 99% white is through intimidation and discrimination against ethnic minorities. No other method will achieve the goal of an all-white UK, and the BNP know it.

The BNP still want to ethnically cleanse the UK, they are just a lot more “New Labour” about selling themselves. If there’s one thing Socialists should watch wi Nick Griffin in it, it’s this you tube video where he outlines quite well the BNP strategy of rebranding themselves.

Griffin – talking to KKK members – outlines how he is interesting in “sellling the BNPs” ideas, not “selling them out”. He correctly argues that no one will back deporting all black people today, but in the future if their ideas hold sway this goal could be achieved later.

Some folk think that sticking Nick Griffin on Newsnight, Question Time etc will do harm to the BNP as their ideas can be challenged. But the reality is the BNP have had media coverage by the truckload and their balance sheet from it is overwhelmingly positive.

Griffin may be a racist, a fascist but he is also extremely able and articulate in phrasing his ideas and message in a sellable form. He has taken the far-right out of the back rooms of pubs and into the European Parliament.

He will be able to incite hatred against the Muslim population of the UK if he is allowed on Question Time. People who want to deny the freedom to exist free from fear of racist violence for millions of people in the UK shouldn’t have the freedom of the airwaves.

Of course denying the BNP airtime won’t stop them. It’s probably too late in many areas, where the BNP have substantial local support.

The BNP have to be beaten in their strongholds in England by Socialists campaigning for decent jobs, houses, education and freedom from crime for many of the people who currently vote BNP, and change the frame of the political debate so its the bankers who have stolen billions who face the heat, not immigrants and Muslims.

But where the BNP are weak, in Scotland for example, they should be confronted. That doesn’t mean bricking them, but it does mean using your right of freedom of speech to politely tell anyone who is going to take a BNP leaflet that one war against fascism should be enough.

Nick Griffin / Tony from Dinnerladies

It has today been revealed that recently elected British National Party MEP Nick Griffin has run into difficulties with taking his seat in the European Parliament.

The British National Party, known for “not being racist, honest”, had two of its members elected in the recent European elections. Andrew Brons, elected in the Yorkshire and Humber constituency, has already taken his seat despite initial problems finding which part of “foreign” the parliament was in.

Problems arose for Mr Griffin shortly after the election when he was required to travel to Brussels. Despite initial excitement over his election, the party leader has repeatedly said that he “doesn’t want to go” because he “won’t know anyone”. Even though he has been told that lots of people at the parliament would be new, Griffin has stuck to his guns and refuses to go. The mother of the “not racist”, Mrs Ethel Griffin (102), told us yesterday how it wasn’t the first time her son had acted in such a manner:

“He’s always been like this. I remember the first time he was supposed to go out with his friends to shout abuse at Asian families. He moaned all morning that it would be rubbish and that he didn’t want to go. Of course, when I finally managed to persuade him he had a whale of a time and needless to say he’s been at it nonstop since then!”

The European Parliament recognises that after each election many of its members will be new and possibly not familiar with their colleagues or their surroundings. For this reason the first session after elections begins by all members saying their name, their favourite food and an interesting fact about themselves. This is then translated into all of the EU’s 23 official languages and is followed by lemonade and Jaffa Cakes.

Even with these measures in place, Griffin still refuses to attend parliament. The British National Party has issued a statement saying that they are “doing all they can to resolve the situation and are not racist, honest”. Griffin himself refuses to comment and so an empty seat remains at Brussels for the foreseeable future.