Kirklees Unity Exposing the Far Right

Kirklees BNP member admits to terrorism charges

2009-11-27T09:57:00.003Z

The Bomb Disposal Team move into Terry Gavan's house in Batley

A member of the British National Party is facing a long spell in prison after admitting to keeping an arsenal of homemade weapons at his home.

Terence Gavan, 38, made and stockpiled 54 nail and ball-bearing bombs between May 1999 and May this year.

He also manufactured shotguns, pen guns and pistols at his home in Batley, West Yorkshire.

Gavan was also found in possession of ammunition, a manual on boobytraps, an improvised munitions handbook and a copy of the Anarchists’ Cookbook.

He admitted 22 charges, including six under the Terrorism Act, when he appeared at Woolwich Crown Court on 26 November 2009.

The Judge, Mr Justice Calvert-Smith QC, adjourned sentence until 15 January and remanded Gavan in custody.

Gavan was arrested at his home in Colbeck Terrace on 21 May following a West Yorkshire police operation.

He admitted four counts of making explosives and four counts of possessing explosives over a ten-year period.

They consisted of four improvised explosive devices (IEDs) incorporating ball-bearings, 21 IEDs with nails, two “victim-operated” IEDs with nails and a further 28 explosives classified as IEDs.

He also pleaded guilty three counts of manufacturing prohibited weapons, four counts of possession of prohibited weapons and one count of possession of ammunition without a certificate. In all, police found nine homemade or converted firearms at the property.

These were a .22 ME9 para air-cartridge pistol, an 8mm blank-cartridge, pistol, a home-made .22 rimfire single shotgun, two homemade .22 rimfire pen gun, a .22 single shot pistol.

There were also two homemade pistols and one homemade shotgun, fitted with silencers or sound moderators.

Between 31 December 2005 and 22 February this year Gavan reactivated a British Service No 4 Mark I rifle. Also found in his home were two Brocock revolver gas guns.

Gavan further admitted six charges of possession of documents containing information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, under section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

These were books with the titles Boobytraps, Improvised Weapons Manual and Guerilla Warfare and Special Forces Operations 1961, and two electronic PDF files including the Anarchists’ Cookbook volume 4.

No doubt the BNP will say Gavan was not and never has been a BNP member. However Searchlight has been monitoring this case for some time and we can reveal that Gavan not only was a BNP member, he also held gold membership.

Just to help the BNP administration team find details of their latest villain, we are reliably informed Terry Gavan has the membership number 130757

Hope not Hate

Pope Gives Audience to Croatian Fascist Musician

2009-11-24T18:52:00.005Z

.

Pope Benedict XVI has received Marko Perkovic “Thompson”, a far-right Croatian singer.

Thompson, whose performances use symbols of Croatia's pro-Nazi government during the Second World War, is not allowed to travel to Switzerland because of his inflammatory use of Ustaša regalia, and a concert in Austria also had to be cancelled after protests.

Amongst protests from numerous Jewish organisations, they have grounded bans from the Netherlands due to suspected fascism within their music. They have also drawn accusations of Neo Nazism, with their performances being constantly protested.

In response, Perković said, "I have nothing against the Jews, but neither did Jesus Christ, yet still they crucified Him". This statement caused an outcry in the Croatian media.

Thompson became popular with their 1991 hit song "Bojna Čavoglave", which was released during the Croatian War of Independence.The song depicts a battle involving a battalion of Croat soldiers from the Dalmatian rural hinterland. The song includes the "Za dom - Spremni!" slogan which was used by the Ustaše in World War II.

For Perkovic, it is a routine part of his performance: He shouts "Za dom - Spremni!" and his fans respond with the Nazi salute.

Photographs from their concerts show youths wearing the black caps of the Nazi-backed Ustasha regime that ruled Croatia, and which was responsible for sending tens of thousands of Serbs, gypsies and Jews to their deaths in concentration camps.

Perković has on numerous occasions expressed sympathies to the Ustaša movement , which ruled the Axis controlled Independent State of Croatia from 1941 to 1945.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center posted a letter to Croatian President Stipe Mesić in June 2007 and expressed "its sense of outrage and disgust in the wake of a massive show of fascist salutes, symbols and uniforms at Thompson’s concerts.
"They just don't seem to get it," said Efraim Zuroff, the Israel Director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, who called on the president to ban future concerts and help outlaw the use of extremist symbols and slogans.

Some press have accused Perković for publicly expressing controversial pro-Ustaše beliefs:

In 2002 he told the Jutarnji list newspaper

"There is nothing wrong with my voicing right-wing, Ustaše, beliefs."

And in 2004 he told the same newspaper

"Displaying Ustaše symbols in public should not be illegal."

Perkovic's public affairs manager, Albino Ursic has a large poster entitled "Final Solution" that adorns the wall of his office.

Pope Benedict XVI caused controversy in January 2009 for the rehabilitatation of British bishop Richard Williamson who denies that millions of Jews died in Nazi gas chambers.

Appeal after BNP Graffiti Appears Across Tamworth

2009-11-24T16:43:00.002Z

A recent spate of BNP graffiti is currently being investigated by police in Tamworth. The BNP slogan has been sprayed in several places around the town centre and Bolehall area over the last couple of weeks.

If you have any information about who is responsible for this graffiti you can call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

UPDATE – 24/11 – 3.30pm

The graffiti in the underpasses has now been cleaned returning the underpasses to their former state.

Tamworth Blog

Mussolini's brain 'stolen for sale on eBay'

2009-11-24T16:38:00.001Z

.

Benito Mussolini's granddaughter demanded a police investigation on Friday after the late Italian dictator's blood and brain were reportedly offered for sale on eBay, the online auction website.

Alessandra Mussolini, a right-wing MP, said she was outraged and upset when she heard reports that the remains of her grandfather were being sold online.

The initial asking price was 15,000 euros, or £13,000, but nobody had had a chance to bid, eBay said.

The online auctioneer does not permit the sale of body parts on its website and removed the listing hours after it was posted.

Miss Mussolini said the remains, which were reportedly contained in three glass vials, could have been stolen from a hospital in Milan where an autopsy was carried out on the dictator's body after he was killed and strung up by partisans at the end of the Second World War.

"I was advised this morning that pieces of my grandfather's brain and some of his blood were being sold on eBay for 15,000 euros.

"This is very serious, these are the kinds of things we have to guard against," the Right-wing politician and former showgirl said.

But the Policlinico hospital said the samples it took from Mussolini's body were destroyed in 1947, two years after his death.

After being shot alongside his young mistress, Claretta Petacci, Mussolini's body was dangled from a petrol station outside Milan in a grisly display of summary justice by anti-fascist partisans.

It was then taken to the hospital for an autopsy. The dictator's remains were not returned to his family until 1957, when they were interred in his birthplace, the northern Italian town of Predappio.

It has become a shrine to the fascist leader and does a roaring trade in Mussolini-themed souvenirs, from key rings with fascist insignia to imitation weapons and bottles of wine bearing Mussolini's glowering profile.

Telegraph

HOPE not hate leaflets help defeat BNP

2009-11-24T16:27:00.001Z

.

A Hope not hate weekend of action helped ensure a derisory result for a BNP candidate at a local election last week. Dave Owen, who was contesting a Doncaster council by-election in Rossington ward on 19 November, received only 101 votes, coming fifth with 4.3%.

Local Methodists, supported by members of Doncaster Racial Equality Council, distributed anti-BNP leaflets in the ward as part of the national HOPE not hate weekend of activity on 7-8 November. Activists reported a good reception from residents, who had no time for the BNP. They also leafleted extensively in Doncaster town centre and Bentley.

Owen, 59, who lives in Stainforth, has contested local elections for the BNP on several occasions and last June stood for mayor of Doncaster, coming fifth with 10.9%. The mayoral election was won by Peter Davies standing for the English Democrats, which opposes immigration, the EU and “political correctness” and wants to “put England First”. The English Democrats came second (to Labour) in Rossington and undoubtedly captured potential BNP votes – though that is not to minimise the importance of HOPE not hate’s activity.

Hope not hate

Prey for the BNP

2009-11-24T16:20:00.002Z

Fat Failure Nick Cass with Rajinder Singh

The Sikhs who join in the hatred of Muslims are deluded if they expect to avoid racial exclusion

Rajinder Singh, a British Sikh with an extreme dislike of Muslims, is, according to the BNP, "the kind of immigrant you want if you're going to have them". And if, as expected, the party members vote to allow ethnic minorities to join, Singh will be the first to be conferred this "honour".

Sikh organisations have dismissed him – and fellow BNP wannabe "Ammo Singh" (a pseudonym) – as unrepresentative, and it is easy to write them off as self-hating lunatics or pranksters. But to do so is to obscure the larger realities of how race, religion and hate operate.

What has been lost in the storm over Nick Griffin's BBC appearance and the debate over the freedom to voice hatred in the guise of "white rights" is that modern racism survives through a parasitical alliance of vicious groups and ideologies, each of which thinks it is superior to and more entitled to preservation and growth than the others. What they share is a commitment to delusions of absolute racial or religious grandeur and purity even as they compete for victim status.

The two Sikhs' hostility to Islam is strong enough for them to overlook the contempt in which the BNP ultimately holds all racial minorities. Communities in Britain with links to the Indian subcontinent have, over time, seceded from their rich shared heritage and the assertive "Asian" banner under which they fought successfully for their rights in the 1960s and 1970s. Dispersed into the sectarian religious identities of Sikh, Hindu and Muslim, they have all but forgotten how to mobilise together against the threat of an opportunistic ethnic majoritarianism that does not, ultimately, make fine distinctions among those it perceives as outsiders.

Generalising labels like "Asian" may have their drawbacks but, as Arun Kundnani of the Institute of Race Relations notes of Sunrise Radio's bizarre decision to drop "Asian" from its banner under sustained pressure from extremist groups like the World Hindu Council, the hope underlying such disaffiliation is that "racist whites could be persuaded to exclude Hindus and Sikhs from their hatred, and focus instead solely on Muslims". A 2006 Runnymede Trust survey claims that as many as 80% of Hindus and Sikhs in Britain wished to be seen as specifically distinct from Muslims. "Don't Freak, I'm a Sikh", urged T-shirts printed after the 7 July bombings.

Griffin's assertion that "many" Hindus and Sikhs support the BNP is a wild exaggeration. But we need to face up to the messy reality of a society where ethno-religious fragmentation and tensions between minority groups work to the advantage of majority chauvinism. Kundnani points out that as early as 2002 the BNP was able to persuade a tiny Sikh faction called the Shere-e-Punjab to participate in its anti-Muslim campaign. Even if such collaborators are a tiny fringe, minority communities need to be aware of the ways in which their participation in divisive categories and separatist communal warfare only strengthens the positions of the racists who seek to subordinate them entirely.

Anti-immigrant views among migrants are not new, but what extremisms also share is an exaggerated fear that other groups are numerically overwhelming theirs. When Sikh-Muslim gang fights broke out in Slough, the language used mimicked the defensive territorial language of the BNP. "Muslims run Slough," one gang member insisted at the time. "Why are Sikhs coming from outside?"

Ammo Singh told the BBC, which has made a habit of using fringe groups as representatives of entire communities, that Islam was planning to take over Britain through "a combination of immigration, high birth rate and conversion".

Rajinder Singh, like many Hindus and Sikhs, has invoked the 1947 partition of India, in which he lost his father, as the cause of his enmity towards Muslims. This selective emphasis conveniently obscures two facts. The first is that it was the British empire and its policies of divide and rule which culminated in the partition that was its last official act. The second is that all three communities are fully responsible for the horrific butchery, bloodletting and rape that followed. Rather than mourning the tragedy of partition, men like Rajinder Singh seek to re-enact it in Britain, once again under the aegis of British racial supremacism.

The time has come for us to recognise racial and religious hatred in all its manifestations for what it is and take a stand against it – alongside right-thinking whites – not only when it is directed at us, but also when it is undertaken in our name. The colour line hasn't disappeared yet, but the real struggle is between fascist hatreds and humane solidarity.

The Guardian

Taxpayers' £143k bill to protect BNP leader Nick Griffin during Question Time appearance

2009-11-24T16:14:00.002Z

.

Nick Griffin's disastrous appearance on Question Time landed taxpayers with a £143,000 security bill for protecting the BNP leader.

That's how much police spent dealing with angry protesters outside BBC Television Centre, closing roads and using a helicopter to keep the far-right boss safe.

Furious critics have demanded Beeb chiefs cough up the cash out of the £17.5million they pocketed in bonuses last year.

Labour MP Andy Slaughter, whose constituency covers TV Centre at White City, West London, said: "It was a decision by managers to put him on the programme so maybe they should put their money where their mouth is.

"People will be horrified to find out that so much public money has been spent giving a fascist party their best-ever publicity."

The decision to invite Griffin on to Question Time sparked a furious backlash.

Police had to draft in thousands of officers after anti-fascist groups called a demonstration. Diverting cops who should have been fighting crime in other areas cost £109,000 alone. Another £13,000 was spent on overtime pay for extra officers.

The helicopter, transport costs, barriers and sign posting road closures added a further £21,000 to the bill.

Bbc heads refused to say how much it spent on extra security for Griffin, claiming freedom of information laws didn't apply because staff may be put in danger.

But Mr Slaughter branded the notion "ludicrous".

He added: said: "If the police can tell you how much it cost why can't the BBC? They should come clean about how much money they have wasted."

Mr Slaughter had tried to persuade the BBC to film Question Time at another location where Griffin's appearance wouldn't cause as much disruption.

And he argued that allowing the racist BNP a platform in such a diverse area of the country was an insult to locals.

Before the show Beeb staff went around removing signs so any protesters who did break in would not be able to find senior managers' offices.

Griffin was humiliated when the audience and fellow panellists exposed and ridiculed his vile views. But he later presented himself as a victim in a bid to win sympathy.

The Mirror

388 officers from 6 forces policed Wrexham during far-right protest

2009-11-24T15:52:00.001Z

.

NEARLY 400 officers from six different police forces were on duty for a protest march in Wrexham the Leader has learned.

The cost to taxpayers of policing Saturday's event, which was organised by far-right group the Welsh Defence League has been described as a “very heavy cost for democracy.”

A total of 388 officers from North Wales and the neighbouring forces of Dyfed Powys, Gwent, Cheshire, Merseyside and Greater Manchester were on duty for the demonstration in the town centre, which resulted in four arrests for public order offences.

North Wales Police has not yet put a figure on the cost of the operation but has said that it is likely to be a “substantial”.

North Wales Conservative AM Mark Isherwood said: “It is unacceptable that these thugs and hooligans are exploiting liberal democracy to push their views across.

“It is because of them that we, the taxpayer, are having to pay for this.

“We do not want this waste of taxpayers’ money but we can’t criticise the police who have been forced to spend money they can’t afford, leaving less for all of us.

“We need to tackle the basis of the serious threat which are the fascists.”

North Wales Lib Dem AM, Eleanor Burnham, who lives in Wrexham, said: “This is likely to be a very heavy cost for democracy.

“Those who were in Wrexham on Saturday were extreme people with extreme views but, although I dislike what they had to say, I realise that the police had to ensure they had freedom of speech.

“However, it does bother me that we had to give them so much protection.”

The demonstration by an estimated 80 protesters, who came in from other parts of Wales and England, was organised by the Welsh Defence League, which claims to be against Muslim “extremism”.

North Wales’ temporary deputy chief constable for North Wales Police, Ian Shannon, said: “Although we are not yet able to give a final figure, clearly there has been a substantial financial cost to North Wales Police and the other organisations who worked with us.

“Public safety was our priority and a substantial and visible police operation was needed.

“Our response was considered and proportionate and we were able to deal with the protest in a controlled way.”

Protesters congregated outside the Elihu Yale pub in Regent Street before marching through the town.

Groups opposed to the Welsh Defence League organised a counter event at Queen’s Square, called Wrexham Communities Festival.

It featured a range of attractions and promoted the message that the town was against racists.

Police closed Regent Street for a period to make sure that two groups were kept apart.

Two people arrested for breaches of the peace were released without charge and another two people arrested for public order offences were given fixed penalty fines.

Wrexham AM Lesley Griffiths said: “The prime consideration for the police will have been public safety and upholding law and order at a crucial time for Wrexham town centre, just as the Christmas shopping period began.

“Given the experience of other towns and cities in which fascist protests have taken place in recent months, I am confident that North Wales Police took the right decision in relation to policing levels.

“Ultimately, of course, the chief constable would make his calculations on the numbers of police that should be deployed based on the intelligence he was receiving at the time.”

Wrexham Leader

EasyJet apologises for trivialising the Holocaust in in-flight magazine

2009-11-22T13:57:00.000Z

Berlin's Field of Stelae Holocaust Memorial which
commemorates the six million Jewish victims of Nazi genocide

EasyJet yesterday withdrew all copies of its in-flight magazine after it published pictures of designer-clad models posing in Berlin's Field of Stelae Holocaust Memorial which commemorates the six million Jewish victims of Nazi genocide. After Jewish campaigners accused the airline of 'trivialising the genocidal massacre of Jews', easyJet withdrew all copies - estimated at 250,000 - and issued a 'profuse apology'.

Labour MP Denis MacShane, who heads the European Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism, said: 'This is further evidence of the banalisation of anti-Semitism.'

The Field of Stelae Memorial is a 19,000 square metre site covered with 2,711 concrete slabs or 'stelae' arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field. It is designed to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason. It is run by the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, which said it does not permit commercial shoots and 'grants permission only to projects which are related to the memorial, the Holocaust or some aspect of commemoration'. The Foundation Memorial said it will be contacting the airline 'in order to clarify the circumstances of the photo shoot'.

A spokesman for easyJet said it 'profusely apologises to anyone who may be offended by the inappropriate fashion photo shoot at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin featured in this month's issue of the in-flight magazine.

'The magazine is produced by INK, an external publishing house, and easyJet were not aware of the images until they appeared in print. As a consequence we are now reviewing our relationship with the publisher and are withdrawing this month's issue from all flights.'

The airline said it was 'appalled by this insensitive and inconsiderate photo- shoot, the aim of which was to highlight some of Berlin's iconic landmarks and certainly no offence was meant'. The memorial, which cost £22million, was inaugurated on May 10, 2005, 60 years after the end of the Second World War.

Daily Mail

War veteran blasts Griffin for hijacking repatriation

2009-11-22T13:45:00.001Z

.

A DORSET war veteran has accused British National Party leader Nick Griffin of hijacking last week's repatriation of six soldiers killed in Afghanistan.

William Davis-Sellick, aged 75, was among a number of Devonshire and Dorset Regiment veterans who joined the grieving families of the soldiers to fly the regimental standard at the ceremony last Tuesday.

Five of the soldiers were those shot dead by an Afghan policeman they were training, while the sixth was killed in an explosion.

Mr Davis-Sellick and his comrades were incensed to see the BNP leader with a contingent of party members at the solemn occasion at Wootton Bassett. Mr Griffin said he was at the ceremony to pay his respects. But Mr Davis-Sellick, of Shaftesbury believes he was courting publicity.

He said: "I understand it was the first time he has ever been to one of these ceremonies. I think for him to be there on this occasion was totally wrong and it caused a lot of disruption. You could see that some people were very upset to see him there and there were some people who wanted to duff him up.

"The police were having to protect him. As an ex-serviceman I have spoken to quite a lot of other servicemen and they were not happy to see him there at the repatriation of our lads. He was just there to have his photograph taken."

Mr Davis-Sellick served as a cook in the Dorset Regiment in the early 1950s before its merger with the Devonshire Regiment, and was deployed to the Korean War. He is now an active member of the Gillingham branch of the Devonshire and Dorset Regimental Association, which has its main headquarters in Exeter.

He said: "We send as many men as we can muster to each repatriation service to fly our standards and they are very emotional occasions. To see the parents throwing flowers on the hearses is very hard. Although I was only a cook in the Army, I had some very good friends that I lost out there and these ceremonies bring those memories back."

Tony Coombes, secretary of the Gillingham branch, who spent his national service in the Dorset Regiment between 1955-57, said that crowds were unhappy with Mr Griffin's presence.

He said: "There were a lot of people in the crowd who were concerned by that gentleman's presence and found it somewhat disturbing. However, I would suppose he would say that it is his right to be there."

The Devon and Dorsets were amalgamated into the Rifles which was formed in 2007 and is the largest infantry regiment in the British Army. The Rifles has been hit hard by the recent upsurge in violence in Afghanistan. It has suffered 29 fatalities so far this year. The latest was killed by small arms fire on Sunday. On Monday this week, both Mr Davis-Sellick and Mr Coombes were again in Wootton Bassett with representatives of the Devonshire and Dorset Regimental Association to pay their respects as former Dorchester schoolboy Philip Allen, 20, of the 2nd Battalion the Rifles and Samuel Bassett, 20, of 4th Battalion the Rifles, who was from Plymouth.

This is Dorset

BNP bigot using stolen DC Comics artwork

2009-11-21T22:19:00.001Z

Artist Mark Simpson got a nasty surprise when he googled “Green Arrow”, the name of a left-leaning DC Comics hero for which Simpson supplied artwork in 2006, for there, right at the top of the listings, were links to the blog of bigotted BNP coward Paul Morris, who had ripped off not only the “Green Arrow” name but also Simpson’s distinctive artwork.

Simpson, usually known as Jock, was aghast to find his graphics adorning drunken ranter Morris’s blog and emailed the caravan-piss-up-againster to object.

Morris replied that “…the origins of the Green Arrow name had nothing to do with some pathetic socialist comic hero”.

Yeah, well, of course not. It’s all a co-incidence that right from the off, when Morris’s bilefull blog was first hosted by Blogger, that he used the Green Arrow name and ripped-off copyrighted Green Arrow artwork.

Simpson tweeted that Morris’s use of his images was “leaving a horrible taste in my mouth”, and said that he had informed DC Comics’ legal department – “heads are gonna roll”, he said. Shortly after that, Simpson added that “They’re going to take it down”, but nearly 24 hours later Morris continues to infringe DC Comics’ copyright.

Norfolk Unity

28 arrests at Spanish event attended by BNP's Griffin

2009-11-21T22:10:00.002Z

.

Spanish police Saturday detained 28 members of a far-right party who tried to disrupt an event held by a rival far-right group attended by British National Party leader Nick Griffin at a Madrid hotel.

The detained are all members of Spain's far-right Patriotic Socialist Movement and they were arrested after they attacked doormen at the hotel who were trying to prevent them from entering, a police spokesman said.

Four people were lightly injured in the scuffle but did not require medical care, he added.

The National Democracy Party which staged the event said it had requested police protection because of fears that far-left groups might try to disrupt it as has happened in the past.

It was not immediately clear why members of the Patriotic Socialist Movement tried to disrupt the event, which featured in addition to Griffin, the leader of Italian far-right party Forza Nuova, Roberto Fiore, and National Democracy leader Manuel Canduela.

In June Griffin and another BNP member won seats in the European Parliament elections, a first for the party which advocates the voluntary repatriation of immigrants. It has no seats in the national parliament.

Yahoo

Cash-strapped NPD uses 0900 phone lines to raise funds

2009-11-21T20:28:00.002Z

.

The neo-Nazi NPD party is resorting to prime-rate phone lines to raise money, using the same 0900-code system employed by sex phone services and quiz hotlines.

The Berlin party headquarters has two such numbers, Der Spiegel reported this weekend, enabling supporters to donate money anonymously just by picking up the phone.

Each call raises either €5 or €10, the magazine reported.

An attempt to enable those who want to give even more while maintaining their anonymity by adding a PayPal button to the NPD website has failed though.

The party, which is facing bankruptcy, followed other smaller parties such as the Christian Social Union, Free Democratic Party, The Left and the Greens by using the PayPal system to enable supporters to donate up to €500.

But a spokesman for PayPal said the company would be removing its service from the NPD as soon as possible, and donating the fees it had charged the party since the start of the month, to charity.

The Local

More intimidation tactics by Peter Tierney and Merseyside BNP

2009-11-21T19:36:00.002Z

Peter Tierney, owner of the Quiggins AttiQue in Aigburth and "super activist" for the BNP

Today, activists from Liverpool Antifascists delivered leaflets in Halewood. The event was an overall success, but once again Merseyside BNP revealed that they rely more on intimidation tactics than on politics to get their point across.

As we set off from the Summerfield on Hillfoot Avenue, there was a brief encounter with a BNP supporter. Mistaking the antifascists for the BNP, he had joined us and asked whether Peter Tierney would be turning up soon. One activist explained to him that he was in the wrong group, whilst grabbing the opportunity to offer him a leaflet and explain why the BNP were not the party for anybody genuinely concerned with the plight of the working class. Events later in the day suggested that an antifascist making a similar mistake would have gotten more than a leaflet.

Despite the gloomy weather, there was a good turnout of activists, who managed to cover a significant area and deliver 500 leaflets in the surrounding working class estates. The event was extremely succesful and, as with a leafleting session around the shops the previous week, the response from the public was an overwhelmingly positive one.

On the way back to the original meeting point, however, we encountered Peter and Andrew Tierney. The brothers, along with an unidentified third fascist, had been delivering leaflets of their own and were just about to leave in Peter’s Land Rover. When they recognised several of the antifascists, however, they were quick to grab their cameras and start taking pictures.

Within moments, they were circling around the tired group of leafleters, taking photos as close as they could and chasing around those who tried to turn their face away. Their clear aim was to intimidate and provoke a small group of passers-by (at this point, they had distributed all their material and had nothing on them to identify their allegiances) which included two women, one of them elderly. At one point Peter, still awaiting trial for assaulting an antifascist back in April, referred to one man as a “shithouse” for not rising to the provocation. His brother Andrew, whose photographs and videos have emerged on Redwatch and various other neo-Nazi hate sites, suggested instigating a third-party assault. “Let’s get some local lads in, nothing to do with us, of course,” were his exact words, after feigning gangster-status by declaring that the leafleters should leave because “this is our territory.”

However, Liverpool Antifascists held our ground. If we had left, we risked being followed, which left individuals particularly vulnerable once they had to part ways. And if we had arisen to the provocation, it looked as though more BNP supporters would have emerged from the nearby pub to support the Tierney brothers. Instead, we stayed where we were until the two thugs got bored, seeing they weren’t getting a rise, and scuttled off.

To those familiar with the BNP, or indeed the Tierneys, this incident will come as no surprise. It also serves as a timely reminder that the party remain, despite their propaganda line, violent goons willing to threaten and intimidate anybody who dares oppose their fascist politics.

We must make sure, no matter what, that these thugs are not allowed to gain ground in Liverpool, Knowsley, or elsewhere.

¡No Pasarán!

Liverpool Antifascists

Bishop of Leicester attacks BNP intolerance

2009-11-20T19:24:00.002Z

The Right Rev Tim Stevens, Bishop of Leicester

The Bishop of Leicester has attacked the BNP's intolerance after a party member claimed he was bullied by the Church.
David North said he was pressured into stepping down as a churchwarden at St Thomas of Canterbury Church in Frisby when his membership of the right-wing party came to light.

The Diocese of Leicester denied any bullying and said Mr North's views were simply challenged but the BNP has attacked the Church of England and claimed Mr North is a 'martyr'.

In response, The Right Rev Tim Stevens, Bishop of Leicester, said: "The Christian gospel is about all people being equal in the eyes of God regardless of wealth, status, intelligence colour or creed.

"The Christian Church will therefore find itself opposed to any ideology that seeks to separate or divide communities, especially on the basis of colour.

"The BNP explicitly espouses policies and agendas which include the deportation of immigrants on the grounds of colour and is accordingly in direct confrontation with the teachings of Jesus Christ in the Gospels.

"It is not acceptable for the BNP to claim to be a Christian party. It is therefore very difficult to see how any individual could be, at the same time, a credible representative of the Christian Church and the BNP."

Mr North is the father of Asfordby Parish Councillor James North who was defeated in his bid to become a BNP county councillor earlier this year.

Mr North said: "After 60 years service to my church at Frisby, I feel very let down to be asked to resign as churchwarden of some 15 years in two stints, having done nothing illegal whatsoever, only to be asked to resign because I'm a member of the BNP.

"As far as I can tell, I have done nothing wrong. To be asked to resign reasonably forcefully after 60 years' service - it hurts."

But a spokeswoman from the Diocese said it was a moral issue and had nothing to do with a legal one.

Melton Times

No Barking for Barnbrook

2009-11-20T18:08:00.001Z

(Click on image to see image full-size)

Holocaust denier says he’s ‘unbroken’ after prison

2009-11-20T18:01:00.002Z

Dr. Fredrick Toben

SYDNEY, Australia (JTA) -- A Holocaust denier released from an Australian jail after publishing material offensive to Jews says he is "unbroken" and "unrepentant."

Dr. Fredrick Toben, the founder of the Adelaide Institute, emerged from three months in a South Australia prison on Nov. 12.

The Federal Court had found him in breach of a 2002 court order to remove all offensive material from his institute’s Web site.

Toben's site this week carried a message saying that he is “unbroken and unrepentant,” and appears “refreshed and relaxed” after his “little holiday.”

The site features three links to video clips on YouTube during which Toben, 65, vows to continue his work “demolishing the Holocaust.” It also carries a banner saying that “The days are numbered for the greatest lie in the history of mankind.”

Toben also spent two months in Wandsworth Prison last year as German authorities tried unsuccessfully to extradite him on a European Arrest Warrant for publishing Holocaust denial material -- a crime in Germany. Toben was arrested at Heathrow Airport on his way to Dubai from America.

He had spent several months in prison in Germany in 1999 for denying the Holocaust.

JTA

FA attacks BNP race rant video about Wembley

2009-11-20T17:23:00.002Z

Roger Phillips : Racist Scum Behind The Video

The Football Association today demanded that a BNP promotional video featuring Wembley stadium be removed from the internet.

The film uses the home of English football as a backdrop for a diatribe about immigrants in London. The venue was chosen to illustrate the far-Right party's view that the "iconic" neighbourhood had been "colonised" by black and Asian people in recent decades.

Barry Gardiner, MP for the Brent North constituency, called the film "vile" and condemned the BNP for suggesting ethnic minority residents were "not British".

The five-minute YouTube video, called The True Face Of Immigration, can be viewed by clicking on a link displayed near the top of the BNP website's homepage. So far more than 140,000 people have watched it.

An unidentified presenter, who says he represents BNP South Wales, boasts that he has set out to prove party leader Nick Griffin's recent claim that "London is no longer a city for the British". Standing in front of Wembley's landmark arch, he says: "Wembley stadium is iconic, the heart of British football ... What we're about to show you is a Wembley that you're not likely to recognise. What you're about to see is horrific."

The film takes viewers on a drive along Wembley High Road, with the camera focusing on dozens of people of African and Asian descent.

The presenter mocks one man's clothes as "pyjamas", and adds: "I feel like I'm abroad on holidays ... Look at this. This is just total colonisation."

An FA spokesman said: "The FA condemns the comments made in the video and immediately contacted the relevant authorities for it to be removed."

A Sikh man could become the BNP's first non-white member. Rajinder Singh, who once provided a character reference for Nick Griffin during his racial hatred trial, has been sympathetic towards the party for much of the past decade. The BNP will be forced to drop its ban on non-white members.

This is London

Antifa Takes On Nationalists In Russian Youth's Civil War

2009-11-20T17:12:00.003Z

Ivan Khutorskoi at an Antifa meeting in October

He was a former punk rocker called "the Bonebreaker." He was known for organizing underground bare-knuckle boxing matches. And he was one of Russia's most high-profile antiracism activists.

Ivan Khutorskoi had survived a few attacks by militant nationalists -- once with a knife, once with a razor, and once with a screwdriver. But the burly 26-year-old's luck ran out on November 16 when he was shot dead in the stairwell of his apartment on the outskirts of Moscow.

A day later, Khutorskoi's allies in Russia's growing antifascist movement, known as "Antifa," struck back.

Scores of Antifa activists descended on the headquarters of the pro-Kremlin youth group Young Russia -- which Antifa members say has ties to extreme nationalists. The activists smashed windows with metal rods, threw stones and garbage, and clashed with Young Russia members.

Observers say they expect the violent struggle between Antifa activists and militant nationalist youths to escalate:

"This isn't a game. What is going on between Nazis and Antifa is a full-fledged war," Ilya Yashin, a youth leader with Solidarity, the anti-Kremlin group whose founders include Garry Kasparov, tells RFE/RL's Russian Service.

"At this time it is like a partisan war with guerrillas fighting in an urban jungle. But it is a real war nonetheless."

This emerging war, analysts say, pits two highly politicized and increasingly militant youth camps, each with starkly different visions of Russia's future, against each other.

The nationalist groups, whose ranks number in the tens of thousands, say they want a "Russia for Russians" and have long been targeting foreigners, ethnic minorities, and antiracism activists with brutal -- and often lethal -- attacks.

The Antifa activists, whose numbers are considerably smaller, have a more cosmopolitan vision for their country and have forged ties with antifascist activists abroad.

In the past they employed a defensive strategy, simply seeking to protect minorities from attacks.

But as their ranks have grown, they have increasingly become targets themselves.

"A few years ago, they couldn't even fight. Now no antifascist leader can feel safe when they enter their apartment block. Any one of them can get a bullet in the head or suffer a blow with a metal pipe," Yashin says.

But recently, Antifa began taking the fight to their enemy, staging their own attacks against known nationalists.

And that is a prospect that has disturbed some veteran human rights activists, who agree with Antifa's antiracism agenda and message -- but not their recent turn toward violence.

On November 19, a group of human rights luminaries -- including Lyudmila Alekseyeva of the Moscow Helsinki Group, Aleksandr Cherkasov of Memorial, Lev Ponomaryov of For Human Rights, and the liberal clergyman Gleb Yakunin -- issued an appeal to Antifa "not to succumb to provocations, to renounce violence, and not to become a bargaining chip in a dirty game."

They warned that violent retaliations against nationalists would "not stop the terror" from militant nationalists, but instead would "give law enforcement authorities a pretext for new repressions," which may have been "the goal of provocateurs."

"There are many other ways for them to show that they are against racism. I personally don't like fighting the battle this way," Alekseyeva tells RFE/RL's Russian Service, referring to the attack on Young Russia's headquarters.

"This doesn't mean that we will stop supporting the antifascist activists. But we will not support acts like this."

Antifa activists say the nationalists have been violently attacking them for years, and have the tacit support of law enforcement and many in Russia's political leadership. In such circumstances, Antifa members say, they have no choice but to defend themselves.

The assault on Young Russia's headquarters, they say, was aimed at the group's leader, State Duma Deputy Maksim Mishchenko, a member of the dominant United Russia faction who sits on the Duma's Youth Affairs Committee. The activists say Mishchenko has ties to the radical ultranationalist group Russky Obraz, which they say was behind Khutorskoi's killing.

"This was the correct thing to do. It was a warning. Antifascists simply came to express their dissatisfaction that State Duma Deputy Maksim Mishchenko is supporting Russky Obraz," an Antifa activist who refused to give his name told RFE/RL's Russian Service.

Mishchenko admits that he and Young Russia have had ties with Russky Obraz in the past -- including a joint trip to Serbia and Kosovo and cooperation on legislation on illegal immigration and economic crimes -- but denies giving the group any explicit support:

"The accusations that we are their patrons are simply silly. It's nonsense," Mishchenko said.

A spokesman for Russky Obraz, Yevgeny Valayev, told the Associated Press that the group had cooperated with Mishchenko on several initiatives, including an ultranationalist march in Moscow early this month.

There are no precise figures on how many antifascist activists there are in Russia. Experts at the Moscow-based Sova Center, which monitors hate crimes, say their numbers are growing but are still far shy of the tens of thousands who belong to militant nationalist organizations.

And the Antifa activists are becoming increasingly politicized.

"These aren't just punks who go to concerts. They are socialized and politicized. The antifascist movement simply can't make peace with the fact that Nazism is growing," Ponomaryov says.

Khutorskoi is scheduled to be buried on November 21, but his friends and family are keeping the details quiet out of fear that the funeral could draw attacks from nationalist groups.

A social worker by profession, Khutorskoi provided security for Antifa events. He also sometimes guarded human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov.

He was not present, however, at Markelov's press conference in January, after which the lawyer was shot dead, together with "Novaya gazeta" journalist Anastasia Baburova. Earlier this month, police arrested two militant nationalists in connection with the killings.

Ponomaryov says Russia's rulers, who have often turned a blind eye to ethnic violence and have tacitly encouraged nationalism and xenophobia in pro-Kremlin youth groups, bear a lot of responsibility for the current state of affairs.

"If the authorities would oppose the resurrection of Nazism, then this standoff would not be so aggressive," Ponomaryov says.

"The less the authorities deal with this problem, the more that pro-Kremlin groups like Young Russia will use nationalism and xenophobia to gain support. And the more antifascist groups fighting against this will feel threatened, because they are alone."

RFE

I left group after stabbing, admits trial man

2009-11-20T16:17:00.006Z

Will Browning

A JERSEYMAN accused of plotting to spread Neo-Nazi propaganda admitted to a London jury yesterday that he was a former member of extremist group Combat 18.

However, William Browning (39), a former Les Quennevais School pupil, claimed that he was ‘just putting two fingers up to the establishment’.

He said that he had left Combat 18 after a friend was stabbed to death in an internal feud because he felt that the group had ‘lost the moral high ground’.

Mr Browning is in the dock alongside his old schoolfriend, St Helier tattoo artist Jon Denny-Mallen (40), at Southwark Crown Court. They are both accused of trying to incite racial hatred by importing racist hard rock CDs from Poland into Jersey. The albums, by band No Remorse, were a product of the so-called blood and honour rock scene and promoted anti-semitism in their lyrics, it is claimed.

Mr Browning, who has addresses in Deptford and Almorah Crescent, St Helier, and Mr Denny-Mallen, of St Martin, both deny one charge of conspiracy to distribute material with intent to stir up racial hatred between 1 January and 13 July 2006. The trial continues.

This is Jersey

.

I am not a racist says Island tattooist

Jon Denny-Mallen

A JERSEY tattooist accused of plotting to spread neo-Nazi propaganda yesterday insisted that he was not racist.

Jon Denny-Mallen (40) told jurors at Southwark Crown Court in London that he did not hold extreme right-wing views.

Mr Denny-Mallen is on trial alongside his old school friend William Browning (39), a self-confessed former member of the racist group Combat 18 and a former Les Quennevais pupil.

Both men are accused of one charge of conspiracy to distribute material with intent to stir up racial hatred between 1 January and 13 July 2006.

Mr Browning, who has addresses in John Silkin Lane, Deptford, and Almorah Crescent, St Helier, and Mr Denny-Mallen, of St Martin, deny the charge.

It is alleged that Mr Denny-Mallen was caught red-handed with CDs by far-right blood and honour punk bands promoting racial hatred.

This is Jersey

BNP targeted Asian peer

2009-11-19T16:36:00.002Z

.

The British National Party mixed up two members of the House of Lords during a hate campaign waged on the internet, it has been revealed.

Lord Patel of Blackburn (Lab) told peers of his experiences with the ultra-nationalist group during the debate on the Queen's Speech yesterday.

"I am myself a great lover of the internet and all that it brings, although I did have some problems of my own last year when I came into conflict with a number of supporters of a certain party recently represented on Question Time," he told the House.

Lord Patel said he had refused to meet with BNP and "found myself the subject of an intense and somewhat vulgar internet campaign".

"I remember, over the whole weekend, reading pages and pages of internet blogs calling me any number of names and epitaphs, none of which I can repeat here," he said.

"The culmination of this was on the Sunday evening, at the height of this small trouble, when I came across a front-page piece all about me - where I was born, what school I went to, what jobs and roles I have had over the years.

"Becoming slightly unnerved, I continued to the end of this long document, and I suppose that I was somewhat relieved to find that my detractors had not done their homework as well as I had thought.

"In their final attempt to disgrace me, they had published a picture of me.

"However, when I scrolled down to look at the picture, I saw that it was not a picture of me.

"It was a picture of my friend from the crossbenches, the noble Lord, Lord Patel.

"Well, I thought that it was easy to mistake one name for another.

"But perhaps they had gone a tad too far by suggesting that all peers look the same."

Lord Patel said he hoped his namesake, renowned physician Lord Patel of Dunkeld in Perth and Kinross, "did not suffer any difficulties from this".

He then drew attention to the murders of four gay men in London and "a dramatic increase in homophobic attacks".

"This kind of hate crime, which is deplored by the vast majority of people, must not be allowed to continue," he said.

"We have to turn our backs on those who seek to drive division and hatred between us and who would see our great country turn in on itself and away from the universal rights that so many have fought for and lost their lives defending."

Epolitix

BNP barred from holding meetings at Moonrakers

2009-11-19T14:00:00.002Z

THE British National Party has been forced out of its regular meeting place after the licensees of a Swindon pub realised they had been taking private bookings from the extremist group for more than four years.

Landlords Nick and Debbie Sharpe, who have run the Moonrakers in Cricklade Road, since 2005, were ‘horrified’ to learn they had been renting out their private function room, the Crossways Suite, to the far-right party. But since discovering the group, which has always paid three months in advance in cash, was holding monthly meetings at the pub, the couple told them they were no longer welcome.

The BNP held its last meeting at the pub three months ago before members were refused further bookings, including for a meeting last Monday.

The meetings were kept so low-key that even brewery boss James Arkell did not know what was happening at the pub until Monday.

John Walker, press and media officer for the BNP, said he was disgusted by the pub’s reaction.

“I find it hard to believe that the pub landlords have not known it was hiring out the venue to the BNP for four years.

“I am sick and tired of this approach people have that the BNP is not allowed to carry on as a normal political party. If they don’t want our business then we shall just go elsewhere and I would urge all BNP members and voters to do the same.”

Swindon Advertiser

Ennis hits back at BNP for leader's attack on legend Holmes

2009-11-19T09:11:00.002Z

.

Sheffield's golden girl Jessica Ennis has spoken of her disdain for the far-right British National Party.

World champion Ennis, whose father Vinnie is Jamaican, said: "When my dad moved to England it was a really difficult time, and I feel lucky that I'm part of this generation and not his. Still, I couldn't believe it when (BNP chairman) Nick Griffin was on (TV's) Question Time.

"I remember hearing what the BNP said about Kelly Holmes (claiming the double gold medallist was "not fully British"]. What she achieved was absolutely amazing and I don't think anyone should have the right to diminish that in the way the BNP do" she said in a magazine interview.

Sheffield Star

I got a boot in ballots but I helped stop BNP

2009-11-19T09:00:00.002Z

Charlie Baillie

I GOT my bum well and truly kicked at the polling station - but at least I helped stop the BNP.

In last Thursday's Glasgow North East by-election I managed to earn just 258 votes.

If they'd gone to the British Nationalist Party's Charlie Baillie, he would have got his deposit back and soared into third place ahead of the Tories for the first time ever in Scottish politics.

As a nation we're better than that.

Now I know why people voted for them. They are sick of our money-grabbing politicians and our open door immigration policy, and I spent enough time in Glasgow North East to feel that anger.

And watching the highly-educated BNP leader Nick Griffin on Question Time you'd be forgiven for thinking they were worthy of a protest vote.

But the reality is a whole lot uglier.

In the early hours of Friday morning during the count at Glasgow's SECC, I got to see that horrible, nasty side for myself.

Candidate Baillie was constantly surrounded by burly knuckle-draggers, who didn't even let him go to the bog by himself.

The big flashpoint came during Baillie's gloating speech when he was heckled from the crowd by a Rasta pal of mine called Graham Campbell.

BNP goons soon surrounded Graham and branded him a coward. Why? Because he was apparently being "backed up by his friends in the media".

Graham rightly told them: "These guys aren't going to do anything - so do what you want to do."

The so-called hardmen soon scurried off, showing who the real cowards were.

Graham is the chairman of the African and Caribbean Network - and has a thicker Glaswegian accent than me.

And that's the point. He's a Scot with as much right to live here as I do, but because of the colour of his skin the BNP want to send him 'back home'.

Well it wouldn't cost much for his bus fare back to Sighthill, where he's also the chairman of the Community Council!

Then there was the wee ball of poison proudly sporting her BNP rosette, who kept creeping up on me to spout racist drivel about the Glasgow airport bombers.

For your information hen, Bilal Abdullah and Kafeel Ahmed weren't 'P***s' as you kept claiming.

It's that sort of ignorance which breeds fear and fuels the likes of the BNP.

So, I may not have been everyone's cup of tea as a would-be MP, but I still believe Scotland is not racist at heart.

We all deserve better than the BNP.

The Scottish Sun

Nick Griffin still to make formal complaint over Question Time

2009-11-18T08:47:00.001Z

.

BBC has received no official objection four weeks after BNP leader made controversial appearance on politics show

Nick Griffin: said he was treated unfairly on Question Time. Photograph: BBC

Almost a month after he vowed to make a complaint to the BBC about his controversial appearance on Question Time, BNP leader Nick Griffin has still to make an official objection.

Despite Griffin vowing to lodge a complaint at what he claimed was the "unfair" way the Question Time programme was produced, the BBC has not received a formal complaint.

After he appeared on the BBC's flagship current affairs show in October, Griffin claimed he was treated unfairly by the panel and audience and complained that the show, filmed at Television Centre in London, was broadcast from a city which had changed beyond all recognition because of what he called uncontrolled immigration. "That was not a genuine Question Time; that was a lynch mob," he told Sky News.

A BNP spokesman also said at the time that it planned to put in "a freedom of information request to the BBC and programme-makers to ask about the process of changing the format of the whole programme". "[We want to know] why they felt they had to break with the usual format," the spokesman added.

However, BBC sources confirmed that the corporation has still not received an official objection from Griffin.

"There has still not been a complaint by him or the BNP and we are not aware of any freedom of information requests by him either," said one.

A BNP spokesman said he did not know what Griffin's plans were regarding any complaint: "I'm not sure. There are so many things going on at the moment, it may be that Nick's not done it yet."

The Guardian