No Platform for the BNP

Time and time again the question comes up as to why there should be no platform for the BNP. In this article, I will attempt to press the case for the argument why..

In order to understand the BNP more, and therefore be able to press the case for no platform, you must first go back to study the heritage of the BNP. It was created in 1982 by John Tyndell, following the collapse of the national front in the late 1970′s and their catastrophic failures in the 1979 general election. It is now headed by Nick Griffin, who back in the day, was himself, an orgoniser for the National front (NF).  The downfall of the NF can be connected strongly to their choosing to host a demonstration in Lewisham in 1977, which became known as the battle of Lewisham.  Some members of the NF had become angry at the fact that instead of building for a bi-election in Ladywood Birmingham, they instead chose to focus their attention on deliberatly provoking attention, knowing that marching through a predominatly ethnic area of London would cause a great deal of anger from the local communities. That,  along with the rise in the Conervative Party with Margret Thatcher at the helm caused a number of NF members to rejoin minstream politics. A further factor was the Anto nazi league’s approach, actively going out to pread the anti hate meggage which the NF used to gain votes. One of the key issues however, was the lack of unity within the party, whiched caussed the branching out of far white groups into different banner with much les political clout.

In relation to the BNP today, the evidence is clear tht Nick Griffin is a facist. in 1998, he was given a suspended jail sentance for inciting racial hatred, and has been on record claiming that the holocaust, the murdering of 6 million jews, never took place. He has also made attacks at Islam, most recently calling it a cancer, which is infecting this country. What is much more disturbing in many ways is the way that the BNP hve tried to repackage themselves as a mainstream political party. Nick Griffin is quoted as saying:

“Instead of presenting the party s the revelotionary alternative to the system, we must present them {The Electorate} a with an image of moderate reasonablenes… Of course we must teach the truth to the hardcore, but when it comes to influencing the public, forget about the racial difference, genetics, Zionism, historical revisionism and so on”

What Griffin was trying to do here, is known as the “Suits not Boots” shift of the BNP. He called for an end to the Three H’s: Hard Talk, hobbyism, and Hitler. He asked for his members not to go on the rampage in public, causing violence at football matches, showing off Hitler Worshiping antics, and an end to the openly racist ways of the party. However, the backbone of the party, the inner circle perhaps, and the group of people who, should the party ever win an election would make the laws, were still openly facist.

The change in the public image of the BNP is very similar to other Far Right groups across Europe, such as Front National in France, The National Democrats in Germany, and far right groups in Hungary. In all of these situations, we see the same pattern, in which if they make any political gains, they use it to justify marching on issues such as race equality and immigration. We all saw the shocking scenes of Neo Nazis parading in Hungary, and the English Defence Leagues demo in Birmingham was a direct result of the far rights confidence following the BNP’s euro election results. You can also make a direct correlation between the rise of fr right groups in certain areas, and the racist attacks that follow. It’s all down to confidence.

This is why we have to press the case for NO PLATFORM.

There is always the question that comes up over free speach, when discussing the no Platform issue. Some argue that just like with any other debate, political or not, the facists of the BNP should be debated with, and such debating should be sufficiant to defeat them.

However, the socialist view is that you simply can not allow the hateful messages to come out in the first place. As the BNP are NOT a legitimate political party, and the fact that their aim is to destroy the very democracy and multi-cultralness that we live in, they do not deserve to have their policies and issues to be debated in the same way you would with a normal political party.  They also want to use the respectbility of the public platform to spread their meages of hate, rather than to test out their ideas.

The reasons why we can not afford to take an approach where the BNP have a platform to spread their facist message is written in hitory, not from Nazi Germany, but from Fascist Italy in the 1920′s and the rise of Mussolini.

At the time, Mussolini organised armed squads of war veterans to terrorise the workers’ movement by breaking up meetings and murdering trade unionists, striking fear into workers and their families, whilst promoting a fascist message, and also at the same time attempting to portray themselves as a normal political party, therefore, being able to use the “Free Speech” arguement.  The government of the time had not had such issues to deal with in the past, and whilst the state as a whole did nothing, the government condemmed the actions of the attackers, whilst declaring that the facists were a legitimate party, and were therefore able to behave like one… This did nothing other and cause an increase in the violence, an militant workers’ movement growing stonger by the day, and then the Ruling class siezing power in 1922.

As soon as the facists seized power, they changed the landscape of the political climate after they abolished press freedom, suspended all democratic rights and went about expunging every trace of opposition, protest or criticism from their new “corporate state”. This is exactly the same as what happened in Nazi Germany just 10 years later, and show a trend in the way the facists use the arguement for “Freedom of Speech”  to attempt to seize control of the political system which could so easily shut them down…

We need to learn from the lessons of both the uprising of Facism, and how the lack of unity in the NF caused their own breakdown, when we orgonise to stop the fascists. We need to show unity, and a united front, as the nazis will pick up upon any internal splits, and use them to their own advantage. We need to press the message for no platform in our schools and colleges, our unions and workplaces, on our TV screens and our radio… And in our political system.  We need to remember at all times that the BNP are a FASCIST party, and are not politically legitimate. We need to remember that it is not their oponions, however much we object to them, but their ACTIONS. What it is the BNP do, that means that we have to give them no platform.. Even though the BNP may “claim” to have shed their racist image, we need to let people know that many facist parties have in the past, and will continue to make such a claim, in order to give them such the platform they need to grow, take control of our unions, our workplaces, and allow the racists to launch their vile hatred attacks upon others

NO PLATFORM. It’s the only way to stop the nazis….