Stop the Fascist BNP!Four years ago the British National Party came within a whisker of winning a seat in the European Parliament for the North West. Because the vote is on the basis of proportional representation they only need 8% of the vote across the region to achieve this. With the turnout predicted to be as low as 20% they could be elected with a tiny proportion of the potential vote.
Don’t be fooled by their respectable image. The BNP is a Nazi party: it is not just another right wing party with a particular ideology.
Their leader, and candidate in the North West, Nick Griffin was convicted of inciting racial hatred after a BNP magazine denied the Holocaust in which six million Jews and a total of over 15 million trade unionists, socialists, gypsies, Slavs, gay and disabled people were murdered by the Nazis’. During his trial he said “I am aware that the orthodox opinion is that six million Jews were gassed and cremated and turned into lamp shades. I have reached the conclusion that the extermination tale is a mixture of Allied wartime propaganda, extremely profitable lie and latter day witch-hysteria”.
If elected to the European Parliament he will sit in a Parliamentary group that includes the grand daughter of former Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and with members of Jean Marie Le Pen’s Front National. Le Pen who has been the guest of honour at BNP events is on record as describing the holocaust as a “mere detail of history”.
They don’t believe in democracy. Griffin argued in 1993 “the electors of Millwall backed what they perceived to be a strong, disciplined organisation with the ability to back their slogan of Rights for Whites with well directed boots and fists. When the crunch comes, power is the product of force and not rational debate”.
Although in recent years they have tried to pose as a legitimate political party this has not always been the case. Their founder John Tindall who Griffin replaced was quoted as saying “Many who feel that Hitler was right do not believe it is yet safe to state such views openly – but times will change”.
In an interview with BBC Radio 4, Griffin dismissed the notion that Black or Asian people could be British as a "politically correct fiction". He was defending the BNP's "Language and Concepts Discipline Manual" which tells the party's activists that Black and Asian Britons "do not exist" and should be referred to as "racial foreigners". The BNP manual also states that the organisation's "ultimate aim" is the "repatriation of the resident foreigners of the UK".
Do any of us really want such people to represent the North West in Europe?
The BNP build support by whipping up hatred against every minority just as Hitler targeted Jewish people in the 1930’s.But, like the Nazis’, if the BNP ever came to power they would strip every person of their rights and freedoms.
As the recession bites, as in the 1930’s, easy solutions and scapegoats will become more attractive to some people. Don’t let this happen!
A low turn out in the European elections could allow the fascist BNP to win a seat. PCS is not affiliated to any political party. We do however urge members to use their votes in the forthcoming European elections and vote for democratic candidates.
The PCS NW Regional Website can be viewed here.
