NAZI-GATE: LMHR ARTISTS WEIGH INTO BNP MEMBERS LIST DEBATE…ROUND UP OF COMMENT, QUOTES & LINKS HERE:
The media too often gives the fascist BNP too easy a ride, but the ramifications of the UK’s Nazis’ complete membership list being released to the world on the net have been almost entirely bad for them. The scale of feeling against the BNP has become apparent, with the small minority of public servants on the list facing the sack from their jobs and disgust and ridicule from colleagues and locals. Many people have been checking to see who their local fascists are thanks to some of the helpful maps and blogs that have been created, showing where BNP members live. We’ve collected together some of the best press and web resources that have picked up on the story, check them out below. The List *is* still available online; even if the legality of hosting it is open to question we would hazard a guess that a google search involving the words “bnp”, “list”, “co”, “uk”, and “members” might point interested parties in the right direction. The main thing for anti-fascists and anti-racists is to use this information to our advantage. We at LMHR want to make it clear we are NOT encouraging people to attack individual BNP members or their homes; what we DO want to see is mass campaigning to expose BNP members as Nazis, and for BNP members where possible to be removed from their jobs and kicked out of trade unions. The successors to Hitler and the Holocaust have no place in our society and people joining the BNP must do so with the full knowledge that they are a Nazi party with all that entails.
Musicians who support Love Music Hate Racism have come out in force to comment on the membership list leak. Including Maxi Jazz the lead vocalist of group Faithless who commented;
Maxi Jazz
“I’m aghast, but sadly not surprised, that supposedly intelligent people are still influenced by fear and propaganda. History is full of information about what happens when human beings discriminate against each other, misery is the ONLY result. It’s appalling however, that ‘professionals’ with power and influence over other members of society, especially children, are ignorant enough to hold these views, much less be paid up members of a party notorious for it’s extreme views and violence. Particularly as none of them seem to have had the courage to admit it…
Courage in these difficult times is what’s required from both leaders and our citizens and I’m afraid, appears singularly lacking in the BNP. Think on Britain.”
Jon “The Revend” McClure: “In recent years there has been massive furore that certain members of the Muslim community are associated with extreme organisations but actually it seems the BNP endemic within British society. These people should hang their heads in shame.”
Andy Nicholson with Jon McClure and Drew McConnell at the LMHR carnival earlier this year
Drew McConnell: “I think there’s something intrinsically wrong with the world if people working with children and dealing with police work and running essential parts of the country’s infrastructure are members of the British National Party. They should be sacked with immediate effect.”
Useful links:
BNP near Me?
This map plots members of the BNP, aggregated by their postcode data, based on the information leaked earlier this week. The data is broken down by each UK post-code area, complete with the total number of members within that area. The site does not disclose any personal information of those listed.
A postcode protest against the BNP
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/20/nicholas-blincoe-bnp-list
From the Guardian website’s comment is free section, Nicholas Blincoe discuses what the publication of the lists means to him. “Following the release of the members’ list, I want to stage displays of quiet disapproval to anyone listed who lives nearby”
Peter Brookes’ hilarious and very interesting cartoon sums up the hipocrisey of the fascist BNP. Featured in the Times newspaper (20/11/08)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/cartoon
The Independent’s John Rentoul asks “The Big Question: What does the leaked list of its 13,500 members reveal about the BNP?”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/the-big-question-what-does-the-leaked-list-of-its-13500-members-reveal-about-the-bnp-1026178.html
He concludeds with another question “So is membership of the BNP now acceptable?” and answers with some very interesting points.
BNP’s battle for respectability
The Guardian’s Haroon Siddique discusses the BNP’s changing tactics
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/nov/19/bnp-background
“Exclusive: inside the secret and sinister world of the BNP”, in December 2006 the Guardian’s Ian Cobain went under cover into the fascist party and found out the truth about the BNP.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/dec/21/thefarright.topstories3
The Daily Mirror argues: “Workers in responsible positions should not be involved with the BNP” http://www.mirror.co.uk/opinion/voiceofthemirror/2008/11/20/workers-in-responsible-positions-should-not-be-involved-with-the-bnp-115875-20910221/
The Socialist Worker Newspaper are calling for all to “Seize this opportunity to send the Nazi BNP packing” http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=16501
