Posted on 01/13/2007 2:39:40 PM PST by Pharmboy
In this file photo Simone Clarke (L) adjusts her ballet
shoe ribbons as she stands beside a guard before at
Buckingham Palace in London, December 14, 2004.
Protestors staged a noisy protest on Friday outside a
London theater where Clarke is performing. The English
National Ballet's principal dancer was named
in a newspaper last month as a member of the
British National Party (BNP), a minority anti-
immigration party. (Ben Gurr/The Times/Pool/Reuters)
Around 50 protesters shouting the slogan "Ballet not bigotry!" staged a noisy protest on Friday outside a London theater where a ballerina and member of a far-right British political party was performing.
The demonstration outside the Coliseum threatened to upset the genteel world of pirouettes and arabesques as Simone Clarke prepared to play the lead in the romantic classic "Giselle."
The performance itself was briefly interrupted by a handful of protesters in the audience, but they were quickly bundled out of the auditorium and the show continued.
The English National Ballet's principal dancer was named in a newspaper last month as a member of the British National Party (BNP), a minority anti-immigration party.
Campaign group Unite Against Fascism called for Clarke, 36, to stand down, saying she has been used to "promote and prettify extreme right-wing politics."
"There is no place for fascist ideas in the arts," said Donna Guthrie, 36, a campaigner for the group. "We're calling on her to resign from the party or leave the company."
Thirty police lined the street outside the theater as ballet-goers arrived for the afternoon show. Most patrons expressed support for Clarke, calling the protest undemocratic.
"They talk about their freedom, but what about ours?," said secretary June Mitchell, 58. "She shouldn't stand down because of her political beliefs."
But one patron returned her 20 pound ($39) ticket to the box office in protest at Clarke's membership of the party.
"I couldn't go in there and clap and enjoy the performance, knowing that she is a member of a fascist organization," said Judy Chan, 62. "I'd rather lose the money."
With the approach of curtain-up, protesters drifted away, leaving fewer than 20 outside.
NO REGRETS
Clarke has refused to back down.
"I will be known as the BNP ballerina. I think that will stick with me for life," she told the Mail on Sunday newspaper. "I would rather it wasn't like that but I don't regret anything. I will stay a member.
"I have been labeled a racist and a fascist because I have a view on immigration -- and I mean mass immigration -- but isn't that something that a lot of people worry about?"
She said her partner Yat Sen-Chang, a dancer with Chinese-Cuban roots, had urged her to join the party. Clarke could not immediately be reached for comment.
Immigration has become one of Britain's key political issues, with mainstream parties pledging to tighten the borders. Political opponents say the BNP is racist. Opposition Conservative leader David Cameron has said its members "thrive on hate."
BNP member Richard Barnbrook was outside the theater, where he was greeted with shouts of "racist dog" and "Nazi scum."
"There's no reason why she should be ousted," he said. "She supports a legitimate political party."
The English National Ballet said it "fully supports the democratic right of people to mount a legal protest."
"Any personal view expressed by one of our employees should not be considered as endorsed by the company," it said.
(Additional reporting by Mike Collett-White)
BNP = Aryan Nations?
I don't think that's anywhere near accurate. Why don't you back up this slander with some facts?
From the BNP "humour" section. It would be funnier if it weren't more than half true.
And btw, it is tiresome in the extreme to hear 'Fascist' used everywhere as a mindless political cussword.
"I don't like anti-immigration folks here in the US.."
I can't help but notice how you conveniently omit the word "illegal".
And yes, they do sound a bit like Pat Buchanan without the Jew-hatred...
Yep...that's the way I see them, but the late Mr. Tyndall, the guy who started the party, certainly was a neo-Nazi. The modern BNP has distanced themselves from him.
In the last few years, under the leadership of a Cambridge graduate, Nick Griffin, the BNP has striven to present an electorally viable face. But Tyndall, who did little to dispel the view of it as a neo-nazi organisation, was a constant thorn in the side of the movement as it attempted to convince the public that it had moved away from its roots.
In the run-up to the local elections last year Tyndall was banned from speaking at a meeting and told by the new leadership: "The many photographs of you in neo-nazi uniform ... are a public relations handicap for the party."
Although he was expelled from the BNP twice, first in 2003 after criticising the new leadership and again earlier this year, Tyndall always remained an important figure. A spokesman for the BNP yesterday described him as a "great fellow who knew exactly what our movement was about" and an "excellent chap with a keen analytical mind".
Pharmboy - "neo-nazi uniform". Sounds fascist and racist to me.
Tyndall was a neo-Nazi--as I said in a post above--no doubt; the BNP is, however, trying to move away from that and get into the mainstream. There is no rhetoric on their current site that comes CLOSE to the Aryan Nation.
A spokesman for the BNP yesterday described him as a "great fellow who knew exactly what our movement was about" and an "excellent chap with a keen analytical mind".
Referring to the neo-nazi Tyndall, founder of BNP.
A spokesman for the BNP yesterday described him as a "great fellow who knew exactly what our movement was about" and an "excellent chap with a keen analytical mind".
A slip of the mask?
Perhaps part of their strategy. Consider Griffen, Tyndall's BNP successor:
In 1997 he told an undercover journalist that he had updated Richard Verrall's Holocaust denial book Did Six Million Really Die?. He also described his former MP, Alex Carlile, QC, who had reported The Rune to the police, as "this bloody Jew... whose only claim is that his grandparents died in the Holocaust."
In the same year he wrote a pamphlet, "Who Are The Mindbenders", which alleged that a cabal of Jews controlled the British media, "providing us with an endless diet of pro-multiracial, pro-homosexual, anti-British trash."
In his defence during his 1998 prosecution (see below), Griffin said: "I am well aware that the orthodox opinion is that six million Jews were gassed and cremated and turned into lampshades. Orthodox opinion also once held that the world is flat ... I have reached the conclusion that the 'extermination' tale is a mixture of Allied wartime propaganda, extremely profitable lie, and latter witch-hysteria."
His more recent public stance in this area is illustrated by the section "It's all a Zionist scam" in his 2005 article "Dealing with Peak Oil Criticisms". The BNP currently has a Jewish councillor, Patricia Richardson, and has stated that it has Jewish members.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Griffin#Anti-Semitism_and_holocaust_denial
Jewish members, though...
I agree that too many avoid challenging the "Islam Is Peace" dogma. Especially secular intellectuals don't want confrontation with fragile Muslims and nutball Islam.
"Any port in the storm" explains part of the appeal of BNP to those who despair of the educated elites waking up to the threat.
But the "whites only" requirement for membership necessarily excludes allies, some of whom speak Arabic.
That's all I had to read. They may not be frothing at the mouth, but if this is their platform, that's the minimum line for fascist, as far as I'm concerned. Hoplite is right.
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| Well there you go then. No need to look any further. |
In the post-war attempt to quash fascism, Europe is unwittingly encouraging it.
Hmmm...if one is against affirmative action, one is a fascist? I don't think so...
It isn't their position, it's why. And this is the last time I will respond to you as you defend this bunch. My silence should not be taken for assent but contempt.
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