The rise of the BNP - oh no...

[ScottishSocialist]

i live in britian, and as this country has mostly been a so called 'socialist' country, i am very worried by the rise of the BRITISH NATIONAL PARTY, in recent times labour and the tories have been getting more and more like each other, almost the same in fact. I am worried that a party like this is gaining more and more ground.

[mentalbunny]

Yes. scottishsocialist, I share your fears, especially as my dream, for lack of a better word, is to see people moving more to the left via the Lib Dems, but the BNP appears to be the antithesis of my hopes and dreams and it's really getting quite scary. We must take action and educate, try to get people to think of the world as a whole, not lots of different countries that could never be part of a whole. We are all humans, alll our blood is red, therefore we should be united under the red flag (oh my god, I keep coming up with stuff like this today! Most unlike me!).

[Socialsmo o Muerte]

Sharing your fears friends.

I live in Wales so our constituencies are pretty safe from those beasts. But my brother lives in Nottingham and a BNP candidate is running in his constituency with firm support. Dwon the road in Hull, as you know, the BNP candidate is already in power. I think the other is in Balckburn, or is it Burnley? It is dangerous.

My Dad immigrated here from Mauritius after seeing the attraction of the way of life here. Of course, we have seen many Indians, Pakistanis and Chinese immigrating here for the same reason. They then seel it to us, via the media, that immigration is a problem. No. Economic asylum is a problem, maybe. But immigration isn't.

We are straying to the right, but do you want my opinion...I don't think we need the BNP to keep straying further right. New Labour is, day by day, going further right and are adapting BNP ideology.

My Uncle from Mauritius is planning to visit us next month. But he cant conme here without an "invitation letter" from a British citizen i.e. my father. When has our country ever done this? One of the great things is the amount of cultures that this small island posesses. That will wane.

The BNP is dangerously on the rise, yes. But I think this fear that people have of it is hiding the fact that New Labour is fast becoming the BNP in a mask.

[hawarameen]

mentalbunny i share your dream the lib dems are the only hope of getting a remotely leftist party into a position of power.

Socialism... you live in wales? me too where?

[Socialsmo o Muerte]

Down south. In a town called Penarth. It is right next to Cardiff. You?

See Ron Davies!!! How funny was all that!

[Anonymous]

do what i do...
attack them,. insult them, threat them... they will go away... if they dont kill them...

it has worked so far with me :D

[Socialsmo o Muerte]

No. That is called not respecting people's political beliefs.

[Kez]

What bullshit, the LibDems are a bunch of tosspots

What we need to do is join the Labour Party, and shift it left, when we do this we can shift it as left as we want it to be.

Fuckin LibDems, pfft what a joke

BNP only on rise because uneducated people vote for them, and if we dont READ we cant educate others. We cant "use our brains" and somehow distract people from the BNP, me must use texts, articles and facts to fuck the BNP over, not fuckin opportunism.

Comrade Kamo

[Socialsmo o Muerte]

I'm afraid the main problem isn't that we don't read enough, "Comrade Kamo".

The things that the BNP are using the pull in the voters are fact. People are voting for the BNP based on fact. There IS too much "economic asylum". Too many people are coming to this country and raping taxpayer money when they don't need to. It is a fact. This is the BNP instrument. They play on this. You mention anything to the people about the spending on their taxes on things that aren't worthwhile and they hate it. And rightly so. Of course it's rightly so.

The problem arises when the media blow it up. Yes it's a problem, but not enough of a problem to vote in parties that are unorganised radicals who will use any power they get to irradicate any form of immigration at all as well as adopting all their extreme policies.

What people must do, "Comrade Kamo", is avoid the taboid press.

I agree with what you say about bringing Labour back to it's orignal form. However I don't think it is possible. It would be great to see a new generation of Tony Benn's and John Prescott's (minus the licking of Mr. Blair's backside). But it is too late for that.

The political situation is a bit messy at the moment. Who do we vote for? Leftist parties? No. We may be leftists, but no fool could bring themselves to vote for the least organised parties in the country who basically hate everything else rather than have their own policies and promote them. Like you said, LibDem's? Good joke. The next closest party? Yeh right, like we'd vote for Tories even if we wanted to with that leader. So who do we vote for? "New Labour"...that's what everyone thinks then. And who can blame them really?

It's a mess, and more of a mess than we are allowed to see.

[hawarameen]

Penarth??? never heard of it.

i live in a little area known as cyncoed in cardiff

j/k about the penarth bit i know it

look at my thread in practice, there is a march this saturday

[Ian]

Kamo your plan to join the Labour party and shift it left has failed in all its attempts be it in the English Labour Party or the Australian one, the reason? Both of these parties are reformist in nature and in practice.
From the 1930's until now people have been trying in in Australia and we have nothing but another conservative party, in England the founder of your party, Tony Cliff, I believe, was involved in the militant faction of the Labour party which acheived little results.
Both these parties are nationalist as well, not much hope in shifting them left.
The only option is to build a pluralist, marxist party, that is revolutionary in action. Infiltrating and reforming a dilapidated structure doesn't work as marxists know ever so well (ie. capitalism).

And if you are going to reply with the "We cannot afford to be sectarian to the interests of the working class in our countries, it is stupid" I will say in advance, I am gladly sectarian to the reformist policies of the Australian Labour Party.

[Sovietsky Souyuz]

can anybody explain what happend to the british communist party ?

[Socialsmo o Muerte]

Nothing. They still exist

[Sovietsky Souyuz]

good good, couldnt find 'em near me, the socialist alliance are about tho, you know what they're all about ?, even a bunch of reds gotta have some of their own ideas ...

[Ian]

The Socialist Alliance in Great Britain is a group that contains many parties, despite what Kamo says, they are not a sect as they are very inclusive, although they disagree with what kamo says.

[glasgowche81]

being a SSP member in Scotland, I would of course agree that any attempt to shift the Labour party back to the left is futile. Some point to the potential for doing this being the recent revolts over war in Iraq, but I ask people to recall, where were all these so-called 'rebels' when it came to the abolition of student grants, Private Finance Initiative etc. No opposition to privatisation any more - they actively encourage it.

This situation is more advanced in Scotland, where the labour party have been in control of local authorities for years and are seen as the establishment party. I would compare them to the Democrats in the United States to be honest.

Thatnkfully here in Scotland weve not had much trouble from the BNP, although like what ScottishSocialist said, it is concerning to see their progress in the north west of england. It helps up here though that we have a united left party in the SSP. The socialist alliance down there has LOADS of potential, but the main participant in it, the Socialist Workers Party, dont really want to develop it. They see it has a 'united front' where they will try and cherry pick what they see as the best activists and get them to join the SWP. In my opinion the socialist alliance should be a stepping stone towards a united left socialist party - which puts down roots in the working class areas that the BNP has been inultrating in the North West of England. This way, these fascists can be cut across and their development can be smothered at birth.

There are other factors of course - poverty, unemployment etc - however a united socialist party, as exists in Scotland, would go a long way to counteract the growth of the far right there.

BTW scottishsocialist, are you in the SSP? wharee u from?

[RedFear]

I agree, what the left has been missing for too long now is any true cohesion. Unfortunate as it is, this is where the BNP have been so successful, if you want to vote far right, you vote BNP, who does someone on the left vote for? even more so, if like in my area, there is no left candidate!
But the main reason for the BNPs rise is votes, is its ability to attract people, not known for having far right views.
The left has to learn how to get a collective message to the people of this country.
As strange as it may sound at this time, i honestly believe that people are ready to move more left, but our governments, politicians and media are taking us the other way. This country is fed up, the world is a depressing place at the moment and people are ready for a change, but we must do some serious work because as it stands groups like the BNP are leaving us behind