Right-Wing Wins British Elections

BURNLEY, England (AP) - The anger that once exploded into riots in this ramshackle northern English town made itself felt again this week, more quietly but with equal power.

Voters put three far-right anti-immigration candidates from the British National Party on the city council, prompting outrage in the political mainstream and fear among many foreign-born residents.

David John Edwards, Carol Hughes and Terence Grogan took three of the Burnley Council's 45 seats, the extreme-right party's first electoral victories in nearly a decade.

They were the only successful candidates among 68 the BNP ran in local elections around England on Thursday. The Labor Party easily retained control of the council in Burnley, a town of about 90,000.

The small BNP victory — less than two weeks after an impressive showing in France by right-wing candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen _had no national significance in balloting for almost 6,000 seats on 174 English town councils.

The elections, which were followed as a barometer of public opinion but had no significance for national government, went well for Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites)'s Labor Party, which had feared public disenchantment over rising crime and failing services. Labor had some modest losses and the mainstream opposition Conservatives made modest gains, but not enough to signify that the Tories were making a comeback as a credible threat to Labor.

The BNP concentrated heavily on Burnley and a handful of similarly rundown former milltowns where unemployment and racial tensions run high.

Party leader Nick Griffin lauded the victories as a major step forward, saying Friday they marked the beginning of a right-wing resurgence.

"It's a tremendous breakthrough," he said after Grogan's win was announced. Griffin predicted "an explosion of growth, new membership, new branches and particularly come (elections) next May, hundreds of winnable seats."

Many disagreed, pointing to the BNP's dismal showing nationwide and arguing that Burnley voters had supported the party because they were dissatisfied with the status quo, not because they hated outsiders.

"They've got poverty problems, they've got drugs problems and if you turn around and say 'those people over there are the problem' some fools listen," said Terence McCabe, 29.

Shahid Malik, a Burnley Labor Party official, said mainstream parties had to counter such scapegoating.

"We've got to expose the BNP for the Nazis that they are so they aren't able to hoodwink the people as they did last night," he said.

The BNP, which advocates sending immigrants back to their countries of origin, sought to capitalize on the mistrust that burst into violence last summer

White and South Asian teens clashed in Burnley and several other northern towns, the country's worst racial violence in years, throwing bricks and firebombs and jarring the nerves of Britons who see their country as tolerant and harmonious.

The party's candidates told voters that the 7 percent of Burnley residents who are from minority groups received a disproportionate share of public resources, money that should be going to whites.

Mainstream leaders called the charge a lie, but voters in neighborhoods that supported the BNP repeated it again and again.

"The white people have voted because they want their share ... a fair share," said Kenneth Shapcott, who whooped and clapped when Grogan's victory was announced. "Burnley town council, by their racialism-in-reverse policies, are fully responsible."

Take your Islamist propaganda and tell it to their moon god. There was no neo-nazi march that set this off.

Last year the BNP held a protest outside the Park Avenue Hotel in Seaburn (Sunderland) which was shortly followed by the vicious beating of a refugee, bit of a coincidence wouldn't you say? In August 2001 the BNP leader Nick Griffin visited Glasgow. The BNP boasted in the July edition of its publication 'Identity' that the BNP is “spearheading a new campaign against asylum seeker placements in the Sighthill area”. Two weeks later there was the brutal racist murder of refugee Firsat Yildiz in Sighthill.

Prior to the Oldham and Burnley riots, racist gangs rampaged through Oldham and Burnley, attacking Asians and petrol bombing shops and restaurants. The riot in Bradford was caused by a leading member of Combat 18 throwing the first punch, while hurling racist abuse at a group of Asians. Combat 18 contains the most violent of Britain's fascists.

The role of the police

In 2001 the NF marches were banned in Oldham, Burnley and Bradford. On every occasion the NF defied the ban and the Police failed to stop them.

The Home Secretary had imposed a ban on the National Front marching in Oldham, and over 500 Greater Manchester police were drafted into the town - supposedly to enforce it. In spite of this, around seventy members of Combat 18, stray hooligans and assorted racist scum, were allowed to gather in local pubs with the obvious intention of marching into the town. We watched as around 40 thugs managed to march into the local shopping precinct. The police merely followed them at a distance. When challenged that this march was unlawful, they claimed they did not have enough officers to arrest them!

Following NF/C18 leafleting, a handful of racists attacked kids from Breeze Hill School. When called to defend the school kids, the police proceeded to attack them. A few weeks before, police let racist football "fans" and fascists rampage through Asian areas, smashing windows and shouting racist abuse. It is clear that since the Macpherson Report exposed the police as institutionally racist, nothing has changed.

Even after the Home Secretary had banned the NF/C18 from marching in Oldham, the police stood by and allowed forty members of C18 (a violent fascist organisation that counts murderers in its ranks) to march into the town centre on Saturday the 5th of May.

On May the 12th about 200 anti-Nazis and anti-racists gathered at the Civic Centre in Oldham. A further four to five hundred local Asian youths had come out onto the streets to defend their neighbourhoods. They were mindful of the previous Saturday when the police allowed racists (linked to the NF and C18) and football hooligans to march into housing areas, smashing windows and shouting racist abuse after the Oldham Athletic-Stoke City match. The Anti-Nazi League attempted to get into the town centre to stop the NF march, but were driven back by mounted police, who had somehow found the manpower to stop the ANL but not the NF, funny that. Meanwhile the NF leadership, which had called the original race hate march, were still on their way up the motorway. The police allowed the NF to demonstrate at the edge of the main shopping precinct despite the Home Office ban.

The role of the media

The NF were upstaged on their own "day of action" by C18, who marched fascists through Oldham with the aid of the police. Outrageously, BBC radio gave NF leader Terry Blackham repeated airtime throughout the day to allege that "thirty years of immigration" was the cause of Oldham's problems, while neglecting to mention his and the other NF members violent criminal pasts, or the role of the far-right generally in the incitement of the riots. Nick Griffin has also received copious airtime on the BBC despite the fact that the BNP have a relatively insignificant following and are self confessed racists.

Here are some quotes from British newspapers, not CNN, for you to consider. Regarding the role of the NF and C18 in facilitating the rioting:

Though the NF will almost certainly be refused permission to march in Bradford on Saturday, its members are unlikely to stay at home. It was banned from marching in Oldham but that did not prevent it rallying and triggering Britain's worst racial violence for two decades.
The Observer has learnt that the NF and the violent extremist group Combat 18 plan to rally in Bradford on Saturday - ban or no ban. They aim to follow their usual tactics, gathering in the city centre, drawing off police resources, while small groups carry out attacks on Asian estates in the hope of provoking retaliation. Links have been formed with football hooligans eager for trouble.
Such tactics are hard for the police to counter. 'There is a huge potential for disorder,' said a police source in the city.
The news comes as tensions were heightened further yesterday after the firebombing of an Asian house in the Lancashire town of Accrington. No one was injured in the attack on the family of seven, who were sleeping upstairs at the time. Police said the attack was racially motivated. A greengrocers shop in Burnley was also set alight.
There is also concern about the formation of a new racist group, in direct response to the recent riots, called the Order of White Knights. It is believed to be made up of a handful of hardened Combat 18 extremists. Members can join only if they have a long record of activity on the Far Right and have carried out racist attacks, making police infiltration difficult.

Another quote about the NF/C18 activities:

The city's liaison committee between ethnic minorities and the police praised West Yorkshire's strategy of high profile patrolling of the Mela, after rumours that the NF or British National Party would attempt to disrupt it. Racist leaflets were handed out at the gates of nearby Hanson high school the week before, but the two-day party in Peel Park proved the most successful yet.
"We've been assured by the police that they will again have more than enough officers on Saturday," said Barry Malik of the liaison committee, which also called for local people not to over-react to attempts at provocation. Eleven NF supporters were convicted of taunting Asians in Oldham three weeks ago, after a planned demonstration degenerated into abusive shouts at shopworkers outside a suburban pub.
The NF's national organiser, Terry Blackham, a 31-year-old former parliamentary election candidate, is on bail after denying charges of behaviour likely to cause a breach of the peace at the same incident. He has been involved in plans for an NF gathering outside Bradford's central police station, a protest now outlawed by the banning order. The home secretary agreed to Bradford council's request for the ban to maintain public order in the city, which saw a brief but violent outbreak of violence in April after rumours of a right-wing attack on Asian businesses in the Lidget Green area. Eight cars were burnt and a nurse seriously injured.

A quote on the NF and BNP's unofficial campaigning strategy:

He said the BNP and the NF had been increasing tension in Oldham every weekend since the end of April. "The BNP are not campaigning in the way traditional parties campaign, with reasoned literature. Their method is race hatred and they have had all the headlines.
"Their tactic is to heighten the tension, provoke a reaction and then withdraw. So all the media messages are then of Asians battling with the police. Then the BNP and NF say, 'We told you so'."
He said he and others had appealed to the Asian communities, 14 % of the town's population, not to respond to provocation. "We have told them they are playing into the hands of extremists by responding. By and large we have been successful. But on Saturday night those appeals fell on deaf ears."
Mr Hewitt said no one could have predicted the events of the weekend, although he had warned for several years of the build-up of racial tension. "The presence of the NF and the BNP in recent weeks seems to be a deliberate ploy to exploit our racial situation, and it has struck a chord of fear among all communities."

A quote on the Police opinion of the cause of the riots in Oldham:

There is an important qualifier to lodge from the outset: we do not know all the facts. There is, inevitably, dispute as to how the trouble in Oldham at the weekend started. Police reckon the culprits were a gang of white youths who attacked several Asian homes.

A quote on the NF's methods for destabilising asian communities:

Police arrested 14 people after racist remarks were shouted during a National Front demonstration in Oldham, Greater Manchester, yesterday.
Front members, who clashed with 40 Anti-Nazi League supporters holding a rival demonstration, handed out leaflets and shouted racist comments in the latest aftershock from Britain's worst race riots in 15 years.
Thirteen people were held for public order offences and one for being drunk and disorderly. But, aside from "minor skirmishes", there was little violence, a Greater Manchester Police spokesman said.
The National Front, which has staged regular demonstrations in Oldham before and after the rioting last month, was banned from holding a march on 12 May by Jack Straw, the former home secretary.
Muslim graves in the town's Greenacres cemetery were reported to have been desecrated last week, and a petrol bomb attack suspected to be racially motivated on Oldham's deputy mayor, Riaz Ahmad, added to tension.
A delegation from Oldham met David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, last week to explore new initiatives to improve racial harmony in the town, where the British National Party commanded 16 per cent of the general election vote.
Police patrols have been joined by interpreters in an attempt to combat a surge in the number of race attacks on Asian and other minority communities.

How the BNP exploited the riots for electoral success:

Capitalising on tensions that surfaced in the aftermath of the riots, the BNP campaigned hard in Oldham and Burnley, saving five deposits and winning more than a tenth of the vote in three constituencies. The extremists' greatest success came in Oldham West and Royton, where its leader, Nick Griffin, gained 6,552 votes - a 16% share of the poll.
In the other Oldham seat, Oldham East and Saddleworth, the BNP took 5,091 votes or 11% of the poll, reflecting its exploitation of racial tensions by running a "boycott Asian business" election campaign.
In nearby Burnley, the party gained 11.25% of the poll, with 4,151 votes. Race disturbances flared up in the Lancashire town later that month.

Of course you know all about the causes of the race riots in Oldham, Burnley and Bradford, you're an American who has read a few stories on CNN. I grew up in this area of England with the asian community and count many of them as close friends. I have been on the receiving end of the NF's provocation because I was with asians during the NF demonstrations.

Still think that the Muslims rioted for no reason? Of course you do, because you are just another Islamophobe who is trying to extend America's war on Muslim al-Qaeda terrorists to peaceful Muslim groups in the Western world. Ever considered joining the Ku Klux Klan?

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.