Anger as BNP targets town with racist video

LOCAL politicians have slammed a disturbing British National Party (BNP) video that is using Horley as a focal point to win support.

The notorious far-right party has been blasted for “frightening people with factually incorrect information” by posting a four-minute film on video sharing site YouTube.

They say it exploits serious issues surrounding the Horley Master Plan in an attempt to justify its bigoted policies, with the film itself featuring shocking racist terminology.

And Councillor Mike Miller, ward councillor for Horley West, condemned the video as “a load of rubbish”.

He disputed the party’s claims that 1,500 homes would be constructed in the northwest sector of the plan, and 1,100 homes in the north-east sector.

Mr Miller said the actual figures are 1,400 and 700 respectively, with an additional 500 homes to be built on brownfield sites within Horley.

And he added the party’s views on race were “best ignored”.

A BNP activist unashamedly uses the phrase “white-flight” in the film, an inflammatory term used to describe the migration of Caucasians from multi-ethnic inner-city areas.

Mr Miller said: “I’m not in favour of right-wing parties like them.

“They want to eradicate anything but the English and we don’t live in that sort of world and that sort of society.”

Town councillor Mike George condemned the BNP, led by Nick Griffin, for “mischief-making” and playing the “race card”.

He said: “The Master Plan is controversial on the issues of planning and flooding.The race card has not entered into any of the discussions that we have had.

“It’s purely speculation on their part as to who are going to fill the houses.”

And Mr George, chairman of the Court Lodge Residents’ Association, also accused the party of political opportunism.

He said: “They are a bit late in the day. The plan has now been fully discussed, it has been consulted on, so it is a bit late for them to say this is an issue they are concerned about.

“I would say: ‘Why now, and why Horley?’.”

Mr George’s accusations of opportunism appear justified, with the BNP only now adopting the pretence of concern about building on floodplain and green-belt land, despite the Master Plan having been in the pipeline since 1994.

Instead, the film provides a disturbing insight into the party’s bigotry, with activist Steve Horne claiming much of the development in Horley will house so-called “white-flight”.

He says: “Undoubtedly some of the people in Horley will live here,or move here.

“But I believe most of the people who are going to live here will come from London, what’s known as white flight – people that aren’t happy with what’s going on in London at the moment and want to escape to the countryside.

“It’s towns like Horley that have to suffer this in the long term.”

When consulted about the video, Simon Darby, press officer for the BNP,was disarmingly honest about the party’s racist stance, saying that “people liked to live among themselves”.

He said: “With more and more people coming in and more and more people wanting to get out and live in semi-sub-urban areas, there’s really no escape from liberal multi-culturalism.

“Whereas people used to think they could live in a nice area and send their children to a predominantly white school, that sadly is no longer the case.”

BNP thrives on hatred

THE revelation that the British National Party (BNP) has identified Horley as its new outpost in the south east comes when local anger towards over-development is at an all-time high. Residents are no longer content to sit back and see their wide open spaces turned into massive developments and are prepared to fight any new plans for extra housing. The BNP has obviously witnessed this growing anger and now believes it can garner support in this crucial region by criticising Labour’s plans for more housing in the south east. Despite the moderate talk, residents will hopefully be able to realise what the BNP really stands for and always has: a extremist right-wing party which thrives on racial prejudice and hatred. When the BNP ran for a seat in the Merstham ward in local elections last May, it once again pushed policies which were important to local residents, including affordable housing, welfare and employment. Story continues ADVERTISEMENT Its candidate, Peter Phillips, got thrashed and ended any the likelihood of the BNP posing any future threat in that area. Ultimately,the same should happen in Horley. While Labour’s plan for more housing in the south east may be controversial ,it is still much more preferable than a party which thrives on hate.

http://icsurreyonline.icnetwork.co.uk

Electors’ fury as councillor joins the BNP

A ROW erupted yesterday after it emerged a community councillor co-opted as an independent had officially joined the far right British National Party.

Patrick Pattison, 55, was co-opted without an election to fill a vacancy on the Llysfaen community council last November to represent the troubled Peulwys housing estate.

But his move to the BNP sparked fury because electors were not given a chance to have their say.

Yesterday leader of the Conservatives in the Assembly Nick Bourne said voters had a right to expect to choose their representatives wherever possible in a ballot.

He added: “If BNP supporters stood in elections as councillors inevitably they would be beaten by all the other established political parties.

“I would like to see that happen because I hate their message of bigotry and racial hatred and there is no place for the BNP in the political life of a civilised society.”

Welsh secretary Peter Hain said he was concerned that unelected, if co-opted, community councillors could defect to the BNP without voters having a say.

“They are a poisonous racist party which has got to be confronted and it is important that the Labour Party will be leading this drive against the BNP and on a cross-party basis.

“There is something fundamentally dishonest about people who have got co-opted as independents then hood-winking communities.”

The community councillor at Llysfaen, near Colwyn Bay, said he was facing the threat of expulsion from the local authority after complaints about his conduct when he joined the far-right party.

Self-employed mechanic Mr Pattison said yesterday he had already been banned by Conwy council from a community house on the estate.

It followed a row with housing officials and the police when he was refused access to a meeting over social problems.

He is also forbidden to approach housing staff of the council for the duration of the six month ban, he said.

The outspoken resident, who quit UKIP claiming a lack of support, denied his attitude with the authorities was intimidating.

He insisted he just wanted to represent ordinary, decent tenants over drugs, crime and anti-social behaviour.

Mr Pattison said yesterday: “They didn’t want me on in the first place because they think I am a troublemaker.

“From day one they have closed ranks against me.”

He claimed objections had also been raised at the council about him wearing his mechanic’s overalls to meetings, and to his girl friend attending to take notes because he is dyslexic.

“I am one of those people who speaks his mind,” he said: “The community council are trying to kick me off because I speak to the press.

“They are victimising me because I’m trying to get this estate up and running and I’ve got the support of tenants and residents.

Yesterday the BNP confirmed he had become the fourth sitting community councillor in North East Wales to join the political party.

Clerk to Llysfaen community council Kate Keane said she was unaware Mr Pattison had joined the BNP.

The council had an annual budget of £9,000 and represented the views of its area on matters such as planning.

She said: “We are only a small community council. It is not a political council and never has been.”

She declined to comment on a recent confidential meeting of the council.

Conwy county council failed to respond to questions about Mr Pattison’s position.

http://www.dailypost.co.uk

Walkout over Nazi taunts

HUNDREDS of workers building one of Wales’ biggest engineering projects downed tools last night because one was allegedly taunted with Nazi salutes.

An estimated 300 people at the coastal terminal for the trans-Wales liquefied natural gas (LNG) pipeline, near Milford Haven, took action in support of worker Omar Mohammed.

Mr Mohammed’s colleagues stopped work at the South Hook site on Thursday, with some walking off site yesterday, after claims that management repeatedly failed to act on his allegations of racial harassment.

It has been alleged that two workers made Nazi salutes at him, spoke to him in a mock German accent and pointed a hammer at him as if it were a gun.

Union leaders yesterday said fellow workers had been left “aggrieved” at a perceived lack of action from the two men’s employer, Taylor Woodrow.

The Western Mail understands the two have been suspended on full pay pending inquiries.

“For nine days I went through the proper channels,” Mr Mohammed, 65, from Cardiff, said yesterday.

“We had meeting after meeting. There were two witnesses to the incident, a superintendent and an apprentice. The three of us have made statements but the management say we have no evidence.

“I have spent nine days trying to get justice.

“I was going to have to go off work with stress but the men downed tools and marched on the offices of CB&I [Chicago Bridge & Iron Company – the construction giants overseeing the project].

“The men are totally disgusted.”

His colleagues at Shaw’s UK, who are among those subcontracted by US firm CB&I, said yesterday that most of Shaw’s workers employed on site had joined in the action.

However, a site spokesman said other subcontractors were still working.

One of Mr Mohammed’s workmates, who asked not to be named, said, “One of our workmates has been racially abused. There have been Nazi slurs and slights made to him. He is 65 years old and he has taken this to heart. It has upset him terribly.

“We don’t know why people are doing it to him and we are currently banging our heads against a wall trying to get something done about it.”

GMB regional organiser Alun Rappell, who was called to the site early yesterday morning, said his biggest criticism was the delay in adequate action being taken.

“Our member was born in the UK, like his father and grandfather before him. He has put up with abuse in the past but some of the gestures used really upset him and clearly he had the support of his workers,” said Mr Rappell.

“This is not about pay or any other issues. They believe an injustice has been done.

“I was requested to attend at 7am. The men had ‘cabined up’ over a racist incident that took place on site.

“I left the site after the matter was looked at and two individuals were suspended pending a full investigation.

“We decided quite clearly that the people responsible should be removed off site.

“I will be going down again next week. The incidents took place nine days ago and the member felt aggrieved that nothing seemed to be happening.

“His own company, Shaw’s UK, is blameless.”

The GMB’s suggestion that 300 workers were involved in the action was disputed by a site spokesman, who claimed the figure was far lower.

Workers were expected to return to the site today. More than 2,000 people are currently working on site at the South Hook LNG terminal, which will be the biggest of its kind in Europe when completed in early 2008. It is expected to provide up to 20% of Britain’s liquefied natural gas.

Gas will be shipped there from Qatar and will be transported along a 190-mile long pipeline through South and Mid Wales to Gloucestershire, where it will join the National Grid’s main network.

The terminal will be served by a fleet of 14 “cruise-ship-sized” Korean-built ships, currently under construction, each of which will make the 15-day journey from Qatar to Pembrokeshire. One will arrive about every two days, each capable of carrying up to 265,000 cubic metres of gas.

The controversial terminal and pipeline projects have been the subject of vehement opposition from environmental pressure groups, with the National Grid serving an eviction order on activists who tried to stop drilling at Pen Pont, near Brecon, in June.

In February, 13 people were arrested after breaking into the terminal and chaining themselves to a section of pipe and in November, protesters set up camp at one of the pipeline’s construction sites at Trebanos in the Swansea Valley.

A spokesman for South Hook LNG said, “I can confirm that industrial action has been taken by a number of employees of one of the sub-contractors on the South Hook site. It is not our policy to comment on such matters via the media.”

http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk

‘Barmy’ Barnes’s Blog Backfires

Thanks to Lancaster UAF

Lee Barnes, the BNP’s “Legal Eagle” may be the Nutzis very own version of haemorrhoids. But we’re a little concerned he may be losing his grip. Or as one Stormfronter wrote today, “[Bagel]Barnes has gone totally bonkers”

Were he actually a member of the BNP instead of we presume, a Griffinite sycophant and hanger-on, Barnes would surely rival Mark Collet as the least liked party member; a real pain in the arse, no less.

There’s something about Barnes you see, that riles the Nutzis in the BNP (and indeed all of the other satellite shysters,) because far from being a Devils Advocate that introduces political debate for the politically dead to wrangle with, Barnes inflicts upon the far-right views that are (even) to them mostly repulsive.

Barnes is billed by his small army of followers (his mum and dad mainly) as some sort of radical free-thinking, far-right modernist. He bills his blog as “a synthesis of the best of history with the needs of the future.” Get you, ducky!

His views are to say the least, controversial among the Nutzis and he’s been “at it” again on his latest entry, not by being the “free-thinker” modernist he would like himself to be seen as, but more like the egotistical sociopath we presumed that he is.

“As many people will know over the last couple of years there have been many
malcontents, scum, idiots and lunatics who have been attacking me on every
forum and website run by assorted reds, state security services and uniform
fetishists”, he writes in his latest entry. Doesn’t Barnes realise that is the BNP in its entirety?

And so, it may be Barnes’s normal, liberal demeanour that makes his detractors write such things about him as being “gay, Jewish and had been molested by at university by a gang of lecherous ethnic immigrant university students.” Well, there couldn’t be two of them, could there?

But he doesn’t stop there. He feels he’s been accused by BNP members of among other things, “being behind their fridge doors nibbling their cheeses.” Has he been to Barking, then?

Barnes is pissed off. So one must wonder, why does he persist if it is clearly vexing him so?

Fishes in ponds, comes to mind for a start. Barnes is a vain example of an attention seeking, incongruous BNP “associate.” Partly, it’s his apparent “love” of Israel and admonishment of Holocaust deniers that gets up the noses of most of the “malcontents, scum, idiots and lunatics” of the BNP, but he’s also forgetting that in the Leadership Cult business, if you want to be loved in spite of your vanity, you must at least make an attempt at embodying what the serfs believe in.

Griffin’s done it; he’s been a street soldier, a hard liner, a radical etc, etc.

Barnes pretends to be at a loss as to why he is disliked, but by the same token switches from giving the impression he does not seem to care to becoming increasingly hot under the collar about the conspiracy against him!

He’s furious it seems, that his Wikipedia entry was edited. He has got the conspiracy bit alright, but that was merely edited and taken down because he was deemed not important enough to warrant a page. If he would just blame the Jews for this, then he’d be back up on there in a flash.

Lee wants to be loved, so he’s started swiping at all the others at the very bottom of the movement. Why, he thinks, should he have to swim with them? For instance he asks, why does “the dimmest nationalist scum on the planet still queue up to lick the mans (sic) boots……..

“This a man who admitted he was a thief and liar who used nationalists money donated to him to pay for lapdancers and gambling in casinos.” No not Nick Griffin, but the American David Duke, Griffin’s friend.

Or, why do they (BNP members) still just pay attention to a person “regarded as deviant freaks known only for their perversions and not their politics.”?

No, not Dicky Barnbrook, but another old mate of Griffin’s; Martin Webster.

The list of people he feels more in need of contempt than himself is endless. It includes of course an attack on “Sharon Ebanks, Britains (sic) premiere Half Black Nazi” too, but at least she has Keith “Steptoe” Axon. Poor Lee Barnes has it seems, no-one.

So then Lee names a list of his achievements, included in this is an attack on the far-right lawyer Adrian Davis who, according to Barnes took on “a libel case for Jay Lee that resulted in him having to drop his right to claim damages from the ASLEF union for unlawful expulsion ( a case which I won in the Employment Tribunal ) with the net result that the only winner was Adrian Davis who got his legal fees.”

[Actually, what happened there was even better than just poor old Jay Lee losing his case: The whole episode gave Trade Unions the right to expel BNP members, by a ruling of the European courts, Mr Barnes. It over turned the unfair expulsion.]

Or Davis’s “taking on the Chris and Barry Roberts case against Searchlight which resulted in them having to pay £150,000 in costs and having to sell their houses. The only winner was Adrian davis (sic) who got his legal fees.”

Really? Is professional jealousy perhaps, causing loose lips?

It’s (his blog) an interesting insight into the mind of Barnes. One that makes one think that he is fast losing grip on reality.

All perhaps is not lost for Lee, permanently. As he writes: “The issue of UFO’s is not one that the establishment politicians willever (sic) address or look at in a political manner even though the issue of UFO’s is of direct National Security interest.

I have seen UFO’s twice so far. Once in broad daylight I was walking with my family on a local beach called Upnor in Medway in the early Eighties when I was about 14 and as I gazed up at the top of the tree line of the woods adjacent to the beach I saw a dull grey silver disc rise up and fly over the local woods. It was about six foot long and about six foot wide and rose up into the sky then disappeared back below the skyline as soon as I sighted it. The movement was deliberate and controlled.”

He could be onto a winner here (if he can some how blame the Jews for this) but with the way he’s carrying on at the moment, he’ll be just another one of those many nutters that the BNP deny any responsibility/knowledge of.

Should this happen, Barnes should call David Icke for advice. If he can just throw in a few Lizards and Jews with his UFO’s, at least someone somewhere will listen to him.

Protest against David Irving meeting in Coventry

Protest against David Irving meeting in Coventry tomorrow

Tomorrow night (Friday 21 September), with the help of the British National Party, David Irving, the notorious Holocaust denier and liar, is booked to speak at the Royal Warwicks Club in Coventry.

The following night he intends to speak in Windsor, where he now lives.

Since his release from prison in Austria late last year Irving has gone back to his old ways, addressing a large audience of antisemites in Hungary, before moving on to a book fair in Poland, from where he was expelled.

Back in the UK, Irving has so far spoken at a small meeting in Rugby and popped up in John Sweeney’s Panorama programme, Weekend Nazis, signing his books for admiring men dressed up in SS uniforms.

The promise of an invitation to speak to the European Society at St Andrews University rapidly evaporated after the university “raised concerns” about “security and use of their property”.

However Irving boasts that he still has another invitation to participate in a debate at a so-far-unnamed university on 23 November.

Searchlight calls on people to protest against Irving being allowed to spread his poison in Coventry, a city that was badly bombed by the Nazis during the Second World War.

Phone the Royal Warwicks Club on 024 7622 0425 to tell the management what you think of the club giving space to this man and his Nazi supporters (though don’t be rude to club staff who had no say in the booking and probably object just as much as you do).

If you want to protest outside, go to the Royal Warwicks Club, Tower Street, Coventry CV1 1JS. Doors open at 7pm.

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David Irving to speak at a university near you?

David Irving is to speak in a university debate on 23 November on “free speech”. However the Holocaust denial writer, who was recently barred permanently from entering Austria, was careful not to reveal which student union had been so misguided as to ask him.

Students and university staff are asked to let us know about any debates booked for 23 November, or thereabouts, that might be the one hosting Irving so that we can take steps to prevent this blatant misuse of academic freedom to promote his Nazi agenda.

Irving was released from an Austrian prison last December after serving part of a three-year term for denying the Holocaust. Since then he has been active promoting Holocaust denial in Hungary, where he addressed a far-right rally on 15 March 2007. He fared less well in Poland where he was expelled from the 52nd Warsaw International Book Fair because his writings contravened Polish law.

The reason for Irving’s caution over his debating engagement was clear from his correspondence, reproduced on his website, with Andrew Mackenzie, president of the European Society at the University of St Andrews. Mackenzie had asked Irving to suggest dates on which he could come and speak about “the holocaust and Adolf Hitler”, but rapidly withdrew the invitation after the university “raised concerns” about “security and use of their property”.

Later this week Irving is due to speak at two public meetings – Coventry on 21 September and the following evening in Windsor, where moved into a large house earlier this month. His subject will be “who dug the grave of the British Empire – Hitler or Churchill”. Strict security is to be observed with “rights of admission strictly reserved”. Those wishing to attend are warned to bring “satisfactory ID”.

This is certainly a step up for Irving who has recently been seen hawking his books from a tent in a field at a Second World War re-enactment event in Kent, where middle-aged men got the opportunity to dress up as SS members. The event attracted all shades of extremist opinion including a number of members of Belgian Blood and Honour.

http://www.stopthebnp.org.uk/

ACTION CALL ON FAR-RIGHT BNP

The spectre of far-right politics taking hold in the county needs to be tackled with a campaign of communication and engagement, Llanelli AM Helen Mary Jones has said.The Plaid politician has spoken out against the BNP with next year’s Carmarthenshire Council elections looming.

She has warned against the “vile politics of ignorance” following the example of a Swansea Council by-election in July.

The BNP won 226 of the 2,080 votes cast in Llansamlet. However, Labour held onto the seat, having secured 769 votes.

“As we see from the Llansamlet results, the BNP intends to fight elections in South and West Wales,” said Ms Jones.

“As politicians, it is our responsibility to talk to the voters and point out the facts in response to the lies peddled by right-wing parties such as the BNP.

“We must persuade people to go to the polling stations and vote. If people are apathetic and don’t, it could let right-wing parties into power.

“In May, 50 per cent of the electorate turned out to vote in the Assembly elections – now we have to talk to the other half,” she added.

“I have seen examples of some of the leaflets distributed by far- right political groups, and they use the politics of fear to create tension and division in our society.

“The vile politics of ignorance should be fought every step of the way.”

http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk

More great videos from our favourite You Tuber

Solidarity with anti-fascists in Russia

“International support is vital and valued” explains St Petersburg anti-fascist activist Bruno Garmson

It is not easy being an anti-fascist in Russia at the moment. We are under constant attack from racists and fascists and we receive little or no protection from the authorities. Several of our activists have been murdered in recent years and even when the attackers are caught they often walk free with suspended sentences.

The rapid decline of Russia’s fledgling democracy, marked by gross violations of human rights during the government’s Chechen campaigns, the granting by parliament of unprecedented powers to the secret service, the abolition of elected executives (governors, mayors etc), the introduction of censorship and political show-trials and murders have changed the political atmosphere. This has enabled nazis and their extreme-rightist allies to stage campaigns as well as using nationalism as an alibi to commit murders, many of which go unpunished.

Outside Russia, this is not always easy to grasp.

In the heroic stories about the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 against the Nazis that flicker almost nightly on Russian television screens, it is nowadays hard to find any other motives described than “defending the motherland”.

Unfortunately, there are few eyewitnesses left who can describe the genuine anti-fascist enthusiasm they felt for the Republican cause in the Spanish Civil War or spell out the common conviction, held during the Second World War, that the Nazis intended to enslave and exterminate Russian citizens as subhumans and explain how, therefore, the anti-fascist struggle was above all a battle of humanity against fascist barbarism.

Today’s Russian nazis use official nationalist myths about the war both as proof of Russia’s superiority and as an example of how the Stalin regime misled the whole Russian people, sacrificing millions of soldiers and civilians against Hitler’s anti-Bolshevik crusade to “liberate” the Russians. Ignorance about Soviet history, lack of a proper analysis of the theory and practice of fascism and the reduction of the term “anti-fascism” to mean simply a nationalistic fight against the enemies of Russia make it difficult to oppose such obvious lies.

Real anti-fascism, challenging nationalism and facing down nazism, is a risky course of action. Such “dissident” behaviour is viewed as “suspicious opposition” to the policies of President Vladimir Putin and the state. Any person displaying such behaviour is regarded as an “extremist”, like the nazis. Openly opposing fascism means being targeted by the violent gangs of nazis who patrol the streets of Russia’s cities looking for victims to attack in broad daylight.

Young anti-fascists have started to fight back. The courageous stance of young Russian anti-fascists against the growing street violence by nazi gangs is often the subject of court proceedings, which have proved inconsistent. The outcome of trials of nazi killers tends to depend on what charges are brought by the public prosecutors: almost always hooliganism (violently disrupting public order) or being involved in hooliganism.

There is no real pressure from the Kremlin or Duma (parliament) on public prosecutors to use hate crime charges and there is a widespread practice of negotiation between judges, prosecutors and defence lawyers to achieve cooperation in trials. Finally and crucially, there is a lack of pressure from anti-fascists who, because there is no deeply rooted democratic culture, rarely get involved with investigations or court proceedings.

Here in St Petersburg, anti-fascists have actively helped the public prosecutors as expert witnesses since the early 1990s and have run some successful campaigns. The nazis reacted by murdering Nikolai Girenko in 2004, then the most visible anti-fascist specialist supporting the public prosecutors in cases against fascists.

Now a younger generation of anti-fascists is emerging to oppose the nazis in the courts and on the streets. Their battles are essential – the alternative is capitulation – but expensive. It costs a great deal of money to participate in court proceedings even when the lawyers act pro bono. In the case against the murderers of Timur Kacharava, anti-fascist funding enabled his family and friends to help put away his killers.

In Russia, there are no big trade unions, labour movements or long-standing anti-racist structures with democratic anti-fascist traditions that we can turn to for help. As a result, we depend on ourselves and the anti-fascist movement internationally.

Support from our brothers, sisters, comrades and friends abroad is ever more vital and valued.

ANTI-FASCISTS are under attack in Russia. Intimidation, terror and murder by a new generation of neo-nazis are daily occurrences. The wave of violence reached a peak this summer when film of the cold-blooded fascist assassination of two people was posted on the internet.

That this is occurring in a country that lost many millions of people toHitler’s Nazis in the Second World War is even more shocking.

Murdered by nazis: Professor Nikolai Girenko

The facts speak for themselves.

• 122 people have been murdered by racists and fascists in the past two and a half years.
• There are an estimated 70,000 skinheads in Russia today.
• Anti-fascists are being systematically attacked and even murdered.
• The perpetrators are often charged only with “hooliganism”.

President Putin has promised to stamp out rightwing extremism but has done little. Anti-fascists are not only few in number but are politically isolated in the face of an enemy that whips up hatred and brutality against immigrants and national, ethnic, religious and sexual minorities. Merely “looking anti-fascist” means being targeted by the nazis who patrol parts of most Russian cities looking for victims. In St Petersburg and Moscow, nazis gather intelligence to track down anti-fascists, and attack and, in some cases murder them.

Earlier anti-fascist campaigns against the public use of fascist symbols and the sale of racist propaganda achieved some success but the nazis reacted by murdering Professor Nikolai Girenko, one of the most highprofile anti-fascist specialists who had supported these campaigns, at his St Petersburg home.

The authorities talk proudly of the war against Hitler but do so now from a nationalist standpoint. The nazis claim to be defending “Russian identity” and “the interests of the Russian nation” and the toleration of violent nazi gangs stems from the fact that Russian nationalism is touted, even officially, as a remedy for the continuing feelings of defeat resulting from the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Anti-fascists in Russia now desperately need financial and material assistance but cannot generate this themselves. With funds, they can produce leaflets, organise campaigns and pay for lawyers. They can also build up a more organised, modern, computer-linked infrastructure to create proper networks of resistance.

This can only come about through the international solidarity of progressive people, and all anti-fascists and anti-racists outside Russia.

Donate to the Russian Human Rights Solidarity Fund Please send donations to: Russian Human Rights Solidarity Campaign, c/o Searchlight, PO Box 1576, Ilford, Essex IG5 0NG Or pay directly into our account at: Russian Human Rights Solidarity CampaignBranch Sort Code: 40-03-36 Account Number: 41284479

Or donate through PayPal

Antifa-Net – The International Antifascist Network for Research and Action was founded in January 2004. It has member groups in Germany, The Netherlands, Austria, Norway, Denmark, France, Sweden, Poland, Russia and the USA. Searchlight is its British representative.

http://www.searchlightmagazine.com/index.php?link=RussiaSolidarity

Sunderland BNP Organiser quits

Ian Leadbitter, Sunderland BNP organiser, has now quit the British National Party.

He announced this yesterday in the letters page of the Sunderland Echo and cited “differences” with others as the reason for going.

Leadbitter,who is a taxi driver,fell foul of the local authorities in 2006 after upsetting autistic children that he had been transporting.

He also abused several members of school staff.

He was subsequently banned from taking the children to school.

See:
http://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/Radio-row-costs-cabbie-school.1943261.jp

East German police face neo-Nazi inquiry

A PARLIAMENTARY inquiry has been launched in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt into allegations that police failed to deal effectively with neo-Nazi attacks.

A spate of crimes, including racially-motivated assaults, has left some politicians worried about their region’s reputation.

Last month, a group of Indians were attacked in the small town of Muegeln in the neighbouring state of Saxony and in June, police in Saxony-Anhalt came under fire over their response to an attack on a troupe of actors.

The inquiry will focus on the police leadership in the city of Dessau-Rosslau. Several newspapers have quoted an officer there as advocating “turning a blind eye” to right-wing crimes.

Far-right violence is on the rise in Germany. Last year, it reached its highest level since reunification in 1990.

Groups who work with crime victims have long said that the country’s right-wing culture is institutionalised and criticise police and prosecutors for being slow to bring cases to court.

“We must follow up every suspicion that civil servants or police officers are not fighting right-wing extremism and crimes properly,” Gudrun Tiedge, a Left Party representative in the Saxony-Anhalt parliament, said yesterday.

The investigation, expected to take about 18 months, will look at six cases, including reports of police in one town refusing to record race crimes against asylum seekers from Burkina Faso.

It will also examine the attack on the 14 actors in June in Halberstadt. Officers failed to arrest a suspect who returned to the scene while the victims were being questioned.

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com