BNP "FESTIVAL" FLOPS!
Marxist_Mike | 20.08.2002 11:12
THE British National Party's "Red, White & Blue" rally last weekend flopped in the face of Anti Nazi League protests. Fewer than 400 Nazis turned up for the Lancashire event - less than half the number predicted by BNP führer Nick Griffin. Some 100 Anti Nazi League protestors broke through the 5km exclusion zone imposed by the police and mounted a picket next to the rally site.
Last year's "Red, White & Blue" attracted 300 Nazis to Griffin's farm in north Wales. This year the BNP could only muster an attendance of 400 - despite being only 10 miles from Burnley, where 10,000 people voted BNP in last May's local elections. This is a major setback for the Nazis - they had hoped to capitalise on their electoral support and use their so-called "festival" to consolidate their base.
Griffin was visibly rattled during his "keynote" speech. The BNP leader lost his composure and delivered a garbled racist rant - at one point yelling: "Who is Stephen Lawrence anyway?" Griffin ended his speech begging his hardcore Nazi audience to "bring along one or two of your friends next time".
In his final rally, Griffin announced that the BNP is now "the only socialist party in Britain". This rhetoric mirrors Hitler's pronouncements in the 1920s and 1930s. Hitler's "national socialism" led directly to the gas chambers. But the fightback against the Nazis is working - as the poor BNP turnout their "festival" of race hatred demonstrates.
Last year's "Red, White & Blue" attracted 300 Nazis to Griffin's farm in north Wales. This year the BNP could only muster an attendance of 400 - despite being only 10 miles from Burnley, where 10,000 people voted BNP in last May's local elections. This is a major setback for the Nazis - they had hoped to capitalise on their electoral support and use their so-called "festival" to consolidate their base.
Griffin was visibly rattled during his "keynote" speech. The BNP leader lost his composure and delivered a garbled racist rant - at one point yelling: "Who is Stephen Lawrence anyway?" Griffin ended his speech begging his hardcore Nazi audience to "bring along one or two of your friends next time".
In his final rally, Griffin announced that the BNP is now "the only socialist party in Britain". This rhetoric mirrors Hitler's pronouncements in the 1920s and 1930s. Hitler's "national socialism" led directly to the gas chambers. But the fightback against the Nazis is working - as the poor BNP turnout their "festival" of race hatred demonstrates.
Marxist_Mike
Comments
Hide the following 12 comments
But let's not get complacent!
20.08.2002 12:02
But let's not get complacent!
Let's continue to fight the Nazi's wherever they rear there ugly heads,
but we also need to fight for refugees rights, against the scapegoating of immigtants, and go to places like Burnley to explain the alternative to New Labour, Tories and the BNP.
Everyone should support the Anti-Nazi carnival in the North of England (beginning of September).
AND DON'T FORGET TO BUILD ANTI-RACISM CAMPAIGNS, DEFENCE OF ASYLUM SEEKER CAMPAIGNS IN YOUR OWN COMMUNITIES, PLACE OF WORSHIP, WORKPLACE ETC.
Try to challenge racist arguments whenever they come up - amonst friends, at work, on the media etc. etc.
Get Organised!
And don't forget NF = No Fun, No Freedom, No Future.
If the BNP ever got into power you can kiss having a good time goodbye!
SMASH RACISM NOW!
ANTONIUS CLIFFUS JNR.
Religious now??
20.08.2002 12:24
Religion's as bad as fascism!!!
Organise in your community and workplace by all means, but fuck religion...
rednblack
It didn't flop
20.08.2002 14:57
It went ahead. There were hundreds of fascists and they greatly out-numbered the anti-fascists who could do little more than shout abuse from the side-lines. This is yet another example of the SWP/ANL brand of liberal "anti-fascism". If they didn't exist then the BNP would have to invent them.
The real fight against fascism is taking place in communities up and down the country. It means attacking not just the BNP and NF, but also the state and it's Labour minions. Anti-fascism has got to tackle why people are turning to the BNP. It needs a class-based alternative not a bunch of trots who use it as a tactic for recruitment.
anti-fa
It didn't flop
20.08.2002 14:59
It went ahead. There were hundreds of fascists and they greatly out-numbered the anti-fascists who could do little more than shout abuse from the side-lines. This is yet another example of the SWP/ANL brand of liberal "anti-fascism". If they didn't exist then the BNP would have to invent them.
The real fight against fascism is taking place in communities up and down the country. It means attacking not just the BNP and NF, but also the state and it's Labour minions. Anti-fascism has got to tackle why people are turning to the BNP. It needs a class-based alternative not a bunch of trots who use it as a tactic for recruitment.
anti-fa
"Religion's as bad as fascism!!!"
20.08.2002 15:01
This completely ignores that religion is, as Marx put it, the opium of the masses, and as such is part of the false consciousness that socialists transcend. If we are to help others transcend their false consciousness then we must take our arguments to the church as well. We must argue the similarities between Jesus's teachings and socialism: giving up private property, turning over the market stalls in the temple, do unto others as you would be done by.
in solidarity.
Marxist_Mike
put up / shut up
20.08.2002 16:52
It's easy to criticise; harder to offer a real alternative.
fed up
ANL fascists
20.08.2002 20:45
They not to keen on the ballot box.
If the BNP are so awful why does no one allow them a voice ?
Because you cannot go to the streets of Burnley or Bradford and tell them muslim Immigrants are wonderful, these communities have been ethnically cleansed by these immigrants.
Folk from nice white middle class backgrounds with nice white middle class neighbours cant come "up North" and tell us how wonderful immigrants are.......... we know the truth, we know the BBC and rest rest of the media suppress it, but if you won't talk about our problems reasonably you'll find that (like N.I.)the only people daring to stand for election will be the extremists.
Don't shout the BNP down or slag them off, bring 'em on the telly and have a reasoned debate. That's democracy.
P.S. Religion = fascism, no argument one truth aka ANL.
tricky
re: fed-up
20.08.2002 21:00
Additionally the Independent Working Class Association is working hard in many working class areas providing the kind of political alternative that they feel people are looking for when turning to the BNP. I may not agree with the tactics but the IWCA strategy is spot on and provides a lot for the rest of the Left to think about.
The ANL are a gift to the BNP, not to militant anti-fascism.
anti-fa
The other side of the spectrum
20.08.2002 21:22
And they were so embarrased by their chairmans key note speech that they stuck online for all to hear.
I'm not saying these figures are correct far from it but i just thought it would be interesting to see what they were saying about their own event.
Karic
splendid!
21.08.2002 16:46
How about a 'united front' of IMC and BNP, to smash the SWP/SA/ANaL once and for all?
speer
re: splendid
21.08.2002 20:29
So, smash the ANL/SWP and smash the BNP.
anti-fa
GET OUT OF MY COUNTRY, FASCIST SCUM !
22.08.2002 15:16
Britian is a NO GO AREA FOR NAZIS!
Peace/solidarity, TJA
Thomas J