SOCIALIST UNITY

By Sonia Gable, from Searchlight
An attempt by the Equality Commission to imprison the British National Party leader Nick Griffin was adjourned today for two months.

Griffin and two former BNP officers, Simon Darby and Tanya Lumby, are accused of failing to remove potentially racist clauses from the party’s constitution. Although the party agreed in February to open membership to non-whites, the Commission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR) believes that the party still discriminates on racial grounds. (more…)

According to Searchlight:

Under pressure from a series of revelations by the British National Party’s former webmaster Simon Bennett and calls for new leadership by party activists and organisers stung by their disastrous election results, Nick Griffin has announced that he will step down as leader “by the end of 2013”.

His declaration, made to a meeting of the party’s Advisory Council and key organisers on 22 May, is unlikely to satisfy those who have been contributing to Bennett’s website trying to win support for a leadership challenge this year. Many will consider that three and a half years is too long for the party to stagnate under Griffin, and will be all too well aware of Griffin’s past form at wriggling out of awkward situations and commitments.

According to a statement on the BNP website, Griffin intends to concentrate on getting re-elected to the European Parliament in 2014. He then intends “to help the other European nationalist parties to achieve the level of sophistication which the BNP has been able to build up, because a victory for any one of these parties is a victory to all of us”.

In reality he is jumping before he is pushed, and hoping that this delayed departure might head off a more immediate challenge.

Follow the link to watch the video.

So what went wrong with Nick Griffin’s campaign?

Firstly, was it actually possible for someone so notorious to campaign effectively in Barking and Dagenham?

Instead of canvassing voters Mr Griffin ended up personally delivering thousands of leaflets, something that could just have easily been done by a supporter.

He was always on the move, walking fast, just passing by, accompanied by his security men and their two vehicles with blacked out windows.

Sometimes he was seen. Sometimes he wasn’t. But there was little face to face contact with voters, and the kind of gentle persuasion which can, and sometimes does, change many minds.

There were also no public meetings or speeches on street corners. Now of course this may have been a deliberate campaigning style. But what happened when Mr Griffin did stop to talk awhile? On an estate where there was already a strong BNP support this was possible, but this was pretty rare, and surely preaching to the converted.

Out and about in Barking

In Barking town centre Nick Griffin only had time to meet to a handful of voters before a group of black men turned up and began angry protests. He was spat on and then hustled away by his bodyguard and driver.

Later on, in nearby Ripple Road, Nick Griffin had only stopped to eat a salt beef bagel in a café when he was spotted by a youth on a bike who started hurling insults, and then fruit.

Quickly, two or three Asian men arrived and joined in with the insults as Mr Griffin was again hustled away into his vehicle with fruit raining down (shortly after this the fight in the video broke out).

There was also trouble a little later - and this on the final campaigning day of the campaign - when two black men approached and Mr Griffin’s security men warned them off. Again blows were exchanged. Nick Griffin’s security men said they weren’t bothered but it can be argued such scenes are not the best way to win elections.

The opposition groups

Then, there was the scale of the opposition mounted against Mr Griffin and the BNP in Barking and Dagenham.

The Labour Party campaign had been rebuilt from the ground up, and took in not only the most glossy election leaflets I have ever seen published (one Labour party campaign told me it was almost as tall as Margaret Hodge herself) but I’m told involved up to 50,000 voters being personally spoken to.

The anti-BNP Hope not Hate campaign was also out in force for several days of action, with hundreds of supporters sometimes delivering leaflets through doors explaining why voting BNP would be a very bad thing for the constituency.

Nick Griffin said this was all very unfair, and the law should be changed to allow a fair contest, but his allies in the “Solidarity union” hit back on the day before polling with their own anti-Margaret Hodge newspaper.

So, too much opposition, too much trouble, and too little talking to voters. And add to that those voters who had a major issue with the BNP policies…

Responding to the complete wipeout of BNP councillors in Barking and Dagenham, Margaret Hodge MP for Barking said:

“This is a great moment in history – a never to be forgotten moment for both the good people of Barking and Dagenham and for all of us in Britain. Our voters have been faced with a stark choice. They have overwhelmingly chosen to support democratic politics, built on tolerance, fairness and decency – not fascist politics built on division, prejudice and hatred. This vote is an important and clear victory for our values our respect for and solidarity with all, whatever their race, religion or background, our determination to always work in the interests of the many not the few, and our strong commitment to social mobility and equality. On behalf of all the people in Britain, we in Barking have not just beaten, but we have smashed the attempt by extremist outsiders to exploit people’s fears and concerns to foster evil national political ends. The message from Barking to the Nazi party is clear: Get out and stay out. You are not wanted here and your vile politics have no place in British democracy.”

Saima Ashraf, newly elected Labour councillor said:

“This a really great result. I’m so proud to be representing my community and defeating the fascist BNP in the process.”

And from the day before the poll, this very good video from Left Foot Forward, interviewing local activists.

Labour 51

BNP 0

see hope not hate

Responding to the news that the BNP has been wiped out from Barking and Dagenham council, Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union said:

“We are absolutely delighted. This is a huge victory for grassroots community organisation and solidarity, and a tribute to all those who have spent weeks and months campaigning in the borough.

“It shows what can be achieved when people from all backgrounds, races and religions come together with a positive message of hope.

“This is not the end of the campaign, it’s the beginning. Wherever the far right tries to spread its hate and poison in our communities, we must be there to stop them, and we have shown that we can.”

By Nick Lowles of Searchlight 

The BNP has been humiliated in Barking & Dagenham and Stoke-on-Trent and a huge thank you must go out to everyone who has got involved in the HOPE not hate campaign. We estimate that almost 1,000 people participated in the campaign in Barking & Dagenham over the last few months and 2-300 involved in our campaign in Stoke-on-Trent.

In the last ten days of the campaign alone we have distributed over 130,000 pieces of literature in Barking & Dagenham. There was material for pensioners, black and Asian voters, young voters, women voters and male voters who had been identified as opposing the BNP. We did attack leaflets, positive leaflets and polling day cards to turnout our anti-BNP voters. On Monday 385 people delivered 55,000 leaflets and even yesterday, on polling day, we had 175 people out knocking up the vote.

We played a major part in a highly successful campaign. The BNP is divided and defeated and the results in Barking & Dagenham and Stoke-on-Trent will have an impact on both the fascists and our own campaign in the months to come.

It’s been a great few months and it has been a pleasure to work alongside some really great people. You never know, we could well be having to do all this again in a few months.

ps, what has the HOPE not hate campaign meant for you? We are putting together some campaign stories for the next issue of Searchlight so drop me a line with your views: nick@hopenothate.org.uk

From Searchlight

The British National Party website remains moribund following a dispute between the party and its webmaster. Simon Bennett [pictured left from Kirklees Unity ] removed the website on Tuesday evening alleging “theft” by the party of his design work and content. Although he restored the site shortly afterwards, no new editorial content or user comments have been posted since.

He has also taken action to close the BNP’s Twitter feed and Facebook pages to the public.

In a longer statement Bennett complained he had been left to carry the can over a misconceived publicity stunt by Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, in which an image of a jar of Marmite was added to a version of the party’s election broadcast placed on the BNP website. Bennett was served an injunction by Unilever, while, he claims, “those that were responsible went to ground for four days leaving me to stew in my own fear and uncertainty”.

Bennett reveals that Jim Dowson was behind the misconceived attempt to generate publicity and funds and that Griffin and Dowson now expected him to “lie through my teeth in order to bail them out of a ridiculous hole they had dug themselves into”, something he refused to do.

He also confirmed what Searchlight has been saying for over a year, namely that Dowson has worked himself into a position in which he “owns” the BNP, claiming that Dowson is paid “£120,000+ per year … from your donations”.

Dowson had alternately threatened Bennett with violence and tried to bribe him in an attempt to gain control of the one part of the party outside his grasp, namely the website.

“Jim Dowson constantly makes references to his Loyalist ‘connections’ and ‘Irish murder gangs’ in the hope of intimidating people and just about everyone bar me is terrified of him and lives in fear of losing their income if they cross him or do not ‘put up and shut up’ or turn a blind eye and deaf ear.

“Unfortunately for him, I can earn more money outside of the party which renders that particular threat null and void. The physical threats of violence also back-fired on him as I refused to be intimidated, as did the bribes of ‘a slice of the pie’. Jim Dowson now controls just about every aspect of the party structure (including the recently acquired print services) and also the party’s finances with one exception. You’ve guessed it – the website!

“Jim has been at loggerheads with me for over a year and has tried every trick in the book to gain control of the website so he can bolt it onto his spam-machine without any idea of how websites work. I have always been against it as I feel it should be first and foremost a political tool, not a money making machine.”

Bennett also confirmed that Dowson had been encouraging supporters to reftrain from making donations via the website. “He has tried undermining it with his call centre staff informing callers not to donate or join online as the website was insecure and that their £100,000 telephone system was the only secure way to join or donate. He tried bribery and Nick also tried to convince me that I’d be better protected legally from copyright infringements if the website was made into a limited company. When presented with the financial implications and costs and also the lack of protection it actually offered and further presented with the idea of not infringing copyrights in the first place, he backed down.”

Bennett has promised only to keep the BNP website up until the election. Searchlight is following developments keenly. A full analysis will appear in the next issue of Searchlight.

More background here and here

The Daily Mirror must be congratulated for running an eight page insert yesterday against the BNP. We shouldn’t overlook what an achievement it is for the Searchlight team to have built this political relationship with the mass circulation tabloid; this hasn’t happened by accident, it is the product of the orientation of Hope Not Hate that the BNP can best be defeated by mobilising the mainstream opinion of the decent majority of people against the racist party, and has also taken some courage from the Daily Mirror and the celebrities who have put their names to it. Opposing the BNP is both more overtly political and edgy than most campaigns that celebs endorse.

The Hope Not Hate campaign in Barking and Dahenham has of course covered the whole borough, but in particuar has focussed on the five target wards where the BNP need to win extra seats to gain control of the council. Anti-fascists have spoken to people on every doorstep, and rung people through the telephone banks, and identified voters who will turn out today specificaly to vote against the BNP.

Today activists will be out on the knocker, getting out the anti-BNP vote.

Well, not the best timing. I am laid up in bed today with a stomach bug. So all my plans of going to Birmingham this weekend are cancelled, I even had to miss Swindon Town’s last home game this afternoon (but we still have the play-offs)

Did manage to go leafleting in Chippenham this morning for Hope Not Hate, where we encountered a BNP stall, with just two losers, Mike Simkins and Mike Howson on it. Howson is an incredibly emotionally immature person, and seemed quite put out by us being there.  Although we only leafleted for an hour, we shifted over 1000 tabloids in the street, and in addition persuaded several shops and pubs to take bundles. We had a good crowd of local activists out from Corsham, Bath, Wootton Bassett and Swindon. Our GMB branch was also supporting an anti-racist event in Salisbury today.

Also, the Tory candidate (Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones [pictured above], who very much reminds me of the Don Warrington character in Rising Damp, and seems hugely likeable), was riding up and down the high street on a horse.  I have to say that it wasn’t a very impressive nag, and the former Tory MP, James Gray, who has lost Chippenham due to boundary changes, is a superior judge of horse flesh. Sadly I left my camera at home, but the photo above is from the Guardian. Wilfred seemed pleased to see us there countering the BNP, and it was a great sign of how Britain has changed to see the Tory establishment out pressing the flesh for a black candidate.