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Liverpool Indymedia

The BNP's 'RWB' Organizer Gets An Early Call

The Balti Kings | 17.02.2009 15:21 | Anti-racism | Liverpool

It may be over 6 months since the fascist British National Party held their most recent 'Red, White & Blue' rally, but it's not been forgotten.

In 2007 the fascist British National Party moved their annual ‘Red, White & Blue’ shindig to the small village of Codnor in Derbyshire. The event was held on private land owned by BNP member Alan Warner, but was unwelcome by his neighbours. The BNP ignored their objections, and Warner’s neighbours were forced to endure the spectacle of a fascist rally in their previously quiet village. During the event, and for over a month afterwards, villagers had to contend with gangs of drunken thugs loudly singing Nazi drinking songs, swaggering round their village sieg-heiling. They had to put up with BNP scum using their gardens as toilets, vomiting in the hedgerows, and making noise at all hours of the day and night.

In 2008, and again despite widespread local opposition, the ‘RWB’ returned to Codnor. This time though, Antifa mobilised to oppose it. The threat of militant action by antifascists caused the police to oppose the BNP’s drinks licence for the event, and led to strict conditions being opposed upon the event.The mobilisation also meant that this year the fascists were ‘confined to camp’, but the village was swamped by a huge police operation, as the cops sought to protect the BNP from militant antifascists. Over 30 people were arrested opposing the event.

Antifa has caused the BNP, and Alan Warner, to think twice about holding their fascist rally in Derbyshire again, but they have not abandoned the event altogether. This year it looks as if Essex will be unlucky enough to host the BNP, and local people can expect to have to endure what the villagers of Codnor had to contend with.

David Shapcott lives in a quiet cul-de-sac on the edge of Burnley. The only busy period of the day is the school-run, when local parents drop off or collect their young children from the local school. It is Shapcott who organises the BNP’s annual rally. While he lives in peace and quiet, he brings mayhem to the lives of others, and helps to stir up hatred against the ethnic minorities he probably rarely even sees.

No doubt Shapcott generally sleeps soundly in his bed at 6 The Spinney. There are no thugs goose-stepping up and down his street or singing ‘The Horst Vessel’. In the early hours of this morning (Tuesday 17th February) however, Shapcott was given a very small taste of what those unfortunate enough to live near a ‘RWB’ site have to contend with – as were those who currently have him as a neighbour. At around 2.30am the peace of The Spinney was shattered by the activation of a dozen personal attack alarms deposited close to Shapcott’s house. The devices are loud, long-lasting, and would have been very difficult to locate and silence.

Posters put up on The Spinney and on surrounding streets read as follows:

“SORRY TO WAKE YOU UP!

“At least you’ve not been woken to the sound of Nazi drinking songs, the noise of people having sex on your front lawn, or groups of drunken yobs using your garden as a toilet.

“For the past 2 years the people of the small village of Codnor in Derbyshire have had to put up with this, and worse, for weeks at a time – Thanks to your fascist neighbour, David Shapcott of 6 The Spinney, who organises the British National Party’s annual ‘Red, White, & Blue’ rally.

“They don’t want him and his fascist thugs back. Nor do others want the BNP in their backyards. Do you?”

David Shapcott may not be quite as unpopular on The Spiiney today as he is in the village of Codnor, but his neighbours may now have an idea of who he is and what he is responsible for. Who knows what will happen on The Spinney next.

It may be more than 6 months since the last ‘RWB’, but Antifa have not forgotten.

The Balti Kings
- Homepage: http://www.antifa.org.uk

Comments

Hide the following 17 comments

Well done Antifa...

17.02.2009 15:52

...keep up the good work.

Rudeboy


Trying not to laugh

17.02.2009 17:58

Next week antifa colours in the road sign, and lets down the bike tyres of local residents.
They will be informed they have been a target of antifa militant action because they have nothing to do with the BNP, and have not a clue what the RWB is.
Antifa have warned local residents they have better not leave their garden gnomes out alone at night,
When the RWB goes ahead as per usual this year, antifa will call it a great victory for the people.

David


a joke

17.02.2009 18:15

This article reads like something out of the USSR in the 70s
Thats probably why it smacks of misinformation designed to use the village for their own ends.

clown


Own goal

17.02.2009 18:39

You may well have galvanized support for this tool and indeed given him the opportunity to use your action to show his neighbours how reasonable his is and how unreasonable you are, with the old Freedom of speech line.

By all means take it to his doorstep but leave his neighbours alone FFS

Combat combat 18


you'll never please everyone

17.02.2009 21:50

IMO a great action that got the point across, brought attention to the situation and as a bonus annoyed a fascist.
However it appears that IM readers view the action as either '"not militant enough' or 'too militant'. If we take this into account antifa should have stormed his house and raized it -non violently- alerted the village to the situation without being obtrusive or noticable and informed as many people as possible to get them on side, ideally without actually giving them any information.

On the whole i think this action navigated the pitfalls of all the opinions above very well.

sigh


Next time just leaflet or somit, potential allies are now probably pissed off

17.02.2009 22:20

is this really a antifa action?, I thought antifa was far smarter than this. By all means lets crack down on nazis, but lets not piss off the nighbours.
There were discrete safe ways of blocking the 2008 RWB planned for & arranged last year by locals that could have been done safely of we had all worked together & not risked 30 activists+ giving the BNP PR opportunity.
Instead of working together on the demo with other organisers Antifa"leaders" acted almost unilaterally doing a action very indiscretely that did annoy key local supporters. Just as SWP turned up & acted undemocratically& unilaterally by not working with the stewards there& tried to take over the demo that many stewards & organisers had spent many months on, screaming whose streets our streets smash the BNP repeatedly at confused locals.
This did put spokesperople for the demo in a awkward position whatever they said to the media.
Despite this the largest orgnised opposition to RWB was relatively successful, lets not make the same mistakes again. Already local police will probably have to build a case against us as this action was likely reported, giving any rightwingers in their ranks an excuse to push against us.
This action could almost have been made up for the BNP PR department, yes it takes abit more time to do a leaflet & hand it out, but actions like this action create alot more work & stress for all of us.

Jacky


Alarmist

18.02.2009 00:54

These attack/rape alarms are great, cheap devices for actions. They have been used previously on anti-military actions without any similiar criticism here. I find it especially pleasing to have the gits set them off themselves - they generally have cords that when pulled set off the siren and it is fairly easy to get people to pull on string.
Sure, it is a soft option but unless anyone here did anything stronger against this git then you have no reason to criticise. I think that should be a general guide for IM posts, unless you have done something better to the same target then you should bite your tongue before criticising any act.

The git is still walking the streets today, okay, but everyone in his home town will be pointing to him saying 'that is the fascist who woke up his street today'. It's only a slap in the face but it'll make him realise he is vunerable. So, good job.

Actually, a wider point prompted by a recent local assault, these devices should be carried by every woman by default. They seriously only cost a couple of quid and could save your life. And anyone who hears one should react by converging on the noise with some sort of weapon in your hand. They sound quite different to other sorts of alarms, and for every false alarm or activist misuse it could be your mother under attack. We can't rely on our judiciary protecting our women.

Danny


I'm not losing any sleep over it

18.02.2009 00:59

My guess is that Shapcott's middle-class neighbours on the Spinney already know full well who he is. Maybe the fact this action will make them wake up a bit!

You should copy this to Leeds-Bradford IM - there's a slightly better class of poster there!!

Luke Smith


How stupid anti fascists get, never surprises

18.02.2009 08:19

Oh I see, the fight against the BNP has now taken on the middle classes as the enemy as well?
All middle classes are now deemed BNP supporters?
Got to give it us anti fascists, we sure are good at tactics. Smash the BNP and the middle class banners?

I can see the support flying in as we take on several million new enemies.
Slight problem with this tactic, anyone who has been on any anti fascist demo will know a large section of those on the demo would fall under the middle class ''enemy''.
Including those who regard themselves as militant anti fascists.

With all these millions of new enemies, it's going to get very lonely being an anti fascist. Know doubt, being more and more portrayed as a bunch of tiny nutters representing nobody, who are reduced to talking to themselves achieving nothing, as the BNP pick up more and more support.

James


EXCELLENT

18.02.2009 09:39

Fantastic direct militant action ! A great step foward in the struggle against the fash!!!!

Gerry Gable £££


Good action

18.02.2009 15:02

I agree that people should try not to criticise others actions where possible and am sure a lot of the posts were made by fash trolls.

However though I think this was a great action I do have a concern with the action, will activists using attack alarms make people ignore real attack alarms? Of course using them in a business park/industrial area reduces this risk but this was residential.

ARC


@ARC

18.02.2009 20:10

"will activists using attack alarms make people ignore real attack alarms?"

Apart from my own acts at factories, designed purely to distract and annoy workers, this is the first I've heard of someone doing something similar so I don't think it is a great risk, not yet at least. The ubiquitous car-alarm is partly to blame for apathy and even then people react out of annoyance rather than concern. The main problem with alarms is that people today only pretend to care about community while constantly acting to protect only themselves. Civil servants who do home visits are trained to shout 'Fire' when attacked, rather than 'Help' 'Rape' or 'Murder' because strangers react against the threat of fire - a threat to themselves - much more than any other cry for help. Sad but true.

Danny


"fuck you hippies" ?,welldone2 alarmers, but things like this can backfire,many

18.02.2009 21:49

people think were too soft on the hardcore fascist BNP organisers sometimes& that if they cant be diagnosed with antisocial behaviour disorder & got proffessional help they should be they should be locked up least, thats my opinion anyway.
We have to do actions like thesecarefully& on actions like Heanor we need to work together. Do you want slobbering congrats??, maybe the neighbours were middle class tossers, maybe they are "middleclass"antifascists,maybe they are working class fascist hippies"made good", too many maybe's.
Does anyone hear know wether the guy who grassed the girl at Huddersfielf uni who was attacked by bnp supporters was a worker or rep at the students union or not??
Respect to Antifa, please lets be careful

Jacky


nice one! ignore the trolls and whiners here

19.02.2009 00:06

This tactic has been used a lot by animal rights activists. Rape alarms tossed onto the roof to fall in the gutter are very difficult to locate and remove.

Ignore the neo-nazi trolls and armchair liberal whiners here who criticize, sounds like an excellent action, and let's hope there are many more to come.

@non


Is anyone who slightly disagrees with self selected antifas action

19.02.2009 04:23

a troll or a liberal??lets use our noodles for goodness sake

Jacky


Well done and keep up the good work

19.02.2009 15:42

The thing is Jacky, it'd be easier to stomach criticisms of antifascist actions if they were made by people who were actually doing anything else to combat organised fascism. People moan from the sidelineswhen antifascists use militant direct action, yet they still moan when antifascists use picketing and leaflets. In this case the people concerned could have just put Shapcott's windows through. Instead they used imagination to draw attention to his role as organizer of the RWB. And still there are people moaning. Some of the people posting on this thread really ought to get out more, like the antifascists responsible for this action.

Black and Red


Wot a Load of Bolox

22.08.2009 23:35

Do you people actually believe that people will listen to the crap you come out with.If you would have had any support from your article the few to stoned to go near Codnor and see for themselves that it is the unwashed shite that call themselves antifascists who cause mayhem to Codnor and its inhabitants.Did you go this year,there were people coming out with cups of tea for the BNP then asking where they can join.So from the BNP can I just say a big thank you.In the space of an hour you probably attracted 20-30 new fully paid up members
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

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