BNP Membership Leak 2.0
IMCista | 21.10.2009 11:50 | Analysis | Anti-racism | Migration
On 20th October 2009 a list containing personal details of BNP members was leaked for the second time by the whistleblowing website Wikileaks. According to Wikileaks the latest data reflects the state of the party membership as of April 2009. An analysis of the data alludes to the successes and failures of the antifascist movement within the UK.
The claims of a 'surge' in BNP membership since the European elections appear to be false. The figures show a unique paid annual membership of 11,811 which is significantly less than the 14,000 recently claimed by the BNP. The list leaked in November 2008 showed a membership of 12,802 names although this list was widely regarded to include non-members who had shown an interest in the party.
Wikileaks state that a total of 35,000 memberships appear on the list, but after this number reached 33,000, 100,000 has been added to all subsequent membership ID numbers. "It has the effect of making the BNP look larger to new recruits and those they talk to, since the numbers on their membership cards are all over 133,000" say Wikileaks. This was a tactic originally adopted by the German nazi party after 1919 who added 500 to every member's number to exaggerate the party's strength, and was regarded as a key propaganda tactic to increase support.
The number of lapsed memberships also appear to be significantly high which indicates the party is poor at retaining committed support. A member of the state-funded antifascist group 'Searchlight' stated "people join the party because they're angry, agitated or curious, but they leave in equal numbers out of the bottom". However most BNP supporters are unlikely to join a political party so the figures exhibit a skewed representation of the current landscape of fascism in the UK.
Related Articles: BNP Threatens Free Media | Keep Question Time Nazi Free | No to the BNP! No to the Racist Labour Government! | Secret BBC Location
WikiLeaks.org
Griffin originally threatened that 'those who are responsible for the latest attack will be tracked down and exposed', but is on the backfoot now claiming the list is a 'forgery'. This claim will be of tactical use to the BNP as it will serve as a de facto response to anyone who wishes to raise questions about the list. Clearly the corporate media furore over the list will have died down by the time the truth comes out. However the BNP themselves could face criminal prosecution since organisations have an obligation to take reasonable steps to secure personal data, if proven genuine this would be the third occasion on which they have failed to do so.
The purported growth and shrinkage of the party's influence in different areas is interesting. The BNP have seemingly increased membership in some economically hard hit towns and in areas where they have had active campaigns such as Leicestershire. Likewise the list suggests they had a significant fall in support in Leeds, Keighly, and other areas throughout Yorkshire; areas heavily targeted by antifascist activism. "This is to be celebrated and proves that antifascist tactics in those areas has worked and should be emulated by antifascist groups in similar areas" stated an antifascist activist who wishes to remain anonymous.
On Thursday antifascist activists intend to disrupt and hold the BBC Question Time programme under siege to deny Griffin a platform to promote the BNP's race hatred. If the programme goes ahead then the leak could potentially provide fuel for tough questioning. Griffin could be questioned over the alleged inflation of membership numbers, their failure to comply with race discrimination legislation, links to the EDL, and an alliance with an overtly racist party in Hungary. However, this seems unlikely when taking into account Craig Murray's view that there is an "astonishing right wing bias on the panel", and now the BBC have stated their committment to vet the Question Time audience for 'antifascist protestors', whilst allowing BNP supporters access to the floor. Whilst the programme is likely to provide primetime photo opportunities for mainstream politicians and through the roof ratings for the BBC, it is unlikely to provide much comfort for the black, asian, chinese, jewish, refugee, migrant, gay, transgender, and disabled people who would be adversely affected by the rise of fascism in the UK.
Meanwhile, former military chiefs have warned that the armed forces are in danger of being hijacked by far-right groups. Whether this is a side effect of the BNP's success targeting their most obvious demographic, or if this is endemic of a more sinister trend is yet to be established. The BNP's links with the jackbooted fascist Jobbik party of Hungary are rarely questioned. The Jobbik party successfully infiltrated the trade union of Hungarian police officers to further the persecution of Roma people, creating a definition of 'gyspy crime' as a pretext. Evidence of widespread abuse of Muslim civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan by British military personnel has already come to light, any growth in fascist support throughout the military could potentially further this trend as well as increasing racial tensions domestically.
What is certain is that the BNP have successfully capitalised on the government's 'war on terror' propaganda, and tapped into the jingoistic support for imperialism in Iraq and Afghanistan drummed up by the state and corporate media. Jack Straw's appearance on Question Time as the Labour opponent of Griffin is of particular irony. Despite the cries of foul play from mainstream political parties against the BNP, they have all played a role in laying fertile ground for the rise of fascism, and it is up to us to oppose it on all it's fronts.
IMCista
Comments
Hide the following 13 comments
Good article
21.10.2009 16:39
635ista
Face it - the BNP does have some real public support
21.10.2009 23:37
The failure of the mainstream political parties to address this problem has left a gap which the racist BNP have filled with glee
The BBC are 100% right to allow racist scumbags on since they now have been proved to have real support amongst some of the British people.
Indymedia should know that media is for discussing the difficult topics and thrashing them out, not for censoring them
victimised for my views yet again
@ victimised
22.10.2009 06:49
The BNP haven't been capitalizing on the open border policy, they've been capitalising on the portray of immigrants as sub human, illegal, scavengers by the elite!
and you are not victimised for your opinions, your victimised because you are stupid enough to express them here on a radical left/human right website. you are not victimised, you don't even know what that means. being victimised is not getting a job because of your race/birthplace/sex or whatever, being victimised in not being allowed to be with your lover because he/she is of a different nationality, being victimised is being beaten in a back ally because of the colour of your skin, being victimised is getting raped and spat of because you are not white, english, aristocrat. whatever...
you are not being victimised, you are just being stupid.
boo hoo
f**k the bnp and the votes they rode in on
22.10.2009 09:45
So there's always been racists supporting racists in this country.
It doesn't matter if they turn up on BBC or CBBC...They will get taken out, either through argument, or by force. When the time comes, I'm up for the latter...........
Let Nick Griffin have his five minutes and we can gather and organise and make this war even more real and mainstream....let them show their heads, and we'll hack them off.........how's that for some BNP hatred?
They are coming to Notts on December the 5th, and i for one will be there with projectiles at the ready.
And I'd like some "left" activists to answer this question: should we form voters unions, to act against fascism in the councils and bring anarchists and libertarians into the councils, even if it goes against main anarchist principles?
anti-nazi
Crap analysis
22.10.2009 16:38
"The claims of a 'surge' in BNP membership since the European elections appear to be false"
Non sequitur watch
More votes than the left...
22.10.2009 17:32
It's a lot more than all the Left parties got put together (if you exclude the Greens as a Left party). They also got more votes in the London mayoral election than the SWP's candidate and the SWP is generally agreed to be the most prominent Left party.
Something to think about.
Something to think about
something for the weekend
22.10.2009 18:51
Most people here ask people not to vote, and so something for you to think about is that fewer than half the British electorate vote for our 'elected representatives'. It shows this government and their elections are illegitimate.
You might think this an extreme opinion, but look at elections in Afghanistan. In many districts, a few hundred people voted in constituencies of hundreds of thousands. That is proof that we would all accept that those were invalid elections. So why can't we see that same principle in our domestic pseudo-elections?
One of the good folk I've met through IM just informed me that it is no longer legal to put the words 'None of the above' in a British ballot paper. Can you imagine why that is a law? We are being legally prevented from offering alternative types of democracy - we are a transparently puppet regime as surely as the Afghans. We've consistently failed to 'export Democracy', it's maybe time we started importing it.
Danny
non sequitur
22.10.2009 20:31
"The claims of a 'surge' in BNP membership since the European elections appear to be false"
Well spotted :)
I think saying "The claims of a 'surge' in BNP membership since the beginning of the financial crisis appear to be false" makes more sense.
Rest of the article is darn good if you don't mind me saying :)
radix
something to think about
22.10.2009 20:45
Whilst I too would urge people not to vote and give credence to the current parliamentary 'democracy' we live in, I couldn't help point out that the green party are pretty far left, and that the swp don't stand candidates despite calling themselves a party.
troll spotter
SWP, but not as SWP
22.10.2009 22:09
Observer
A different analysis here
25.10.2009 13:19
Class Crisis
How certain are we this is genuine?
28.10.2009 01:25
Sorry to be paranoid but anyone anonymous can claim anything on the internet.
It will be great if it is the addresses of more fascists and their sympathisers but I would be cautious at first.
anti-fascist
just do it
29.12.2009 20:44
steveis scum antifa
e-mail: swellbelly@hotmail.co.uk