the Fascist BNP

[Holden Caulfield]

emphasis is my own ~ Holden


Is the BNP Fascist? (http://maryportagainstracism.wordpress.com/whats-fascism/is-the-bnp-fascist/)
a rebuttal to claims that the BNP isn't a fascist party


For several years the BNP have been strenuously denying that they are not fascists at all. The legacy of World War II and the atrocities committed by the regimes in Germany, Italy and elsewhere means that there are few self-proclaimed fascist or Nazi groups anymore.

http://maryportagainstracism.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/buf-logo.thumbnail.png (http://maryportagainstracism.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/buf-logo.png)Unfortunately, Britain was not immune from fascist politics and there has existed a continuous fascist political tradition from the British Union of Fascists (BUF) in the 1930’s through to the British National Party today.


The BNP is a part of this tradition. The BNP was created as a split from the National Front and almost all the leaders of the BNP were active in the National Front including Nick Griffin, Martin Wingfield, Simon Darby and Mark Collett. Even the BNP founder John Tyndall was a prominent figure in the National Front during the 1970’s.
The National Front had been founded in 1967 by several smaller fascist and neo-Nazi groups who were the direct political descendants of the British Union of Fascists, the first notable fascist group in Britain.

These groups included the League of Empire Loyalists run by former leading BUF figure Arthur Chesterton, the Racial Preservation Society which was again led by former BUF members Alan Hancock and Ted Budden and the Greater Britain Movement, led by future BNP founder John Tyndall.

In addition to this, at an international level the BNP have consciously aligned themselves with other groups in the fascist and Nazi tradition both in Europe and America.

In America, the groups and individuals associated with the BNP and its leader Nick Griffin the neo-Nazi group the National Alliance, former KKK leaders David Duke and Don Black who runs the world’s largest white supremacist website Stormfront, though the British section on this website is run by BNP members.



http://maryportagainstracism.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/griffin-and-duke.jpg
BNP leader Nick Griffin with David Duke

In Europe, the BNP has maintained strong links with National Democratic Party in Germany, the successor organisation of the Nazi Party, as well as the Front National in France, a fascist group much admired by the BNP.
Some people, usually the BNP themselves, have argued that they can’t be a fascist group because their current manifesto is different to the policies and programme of fascist movements and governments in the 1930’s, such as Mussolini’s regime in Italy, but this argument doesn’t make sense.

Political ideologies aren’t static but change over time. For example, the current policies of the Conservative Party bear little relation to the Conservative Party manifesto in 1931 yet they are still conservatives.
We use the word ‘fascist’ in relation to the BNP not as a smear or an insult but as a factual description of the organisation and the political tradition it is a part of.

A further discussion on how the current politics of the BNP and how these relate to the fascist tradition will appear on this site in due course.

[Holden Caulfield]

What is Fascism? (http://maryportagainstracism.wordpress.com/whats-fascism/)


Defining exactly what fascism is has been a contentious issue for some decades and this has not been helped by the fact that the term ‘fascist’ is frequently used an insult.

The term was originally devised by the Italian dictator Mussolini from the Italian word ‘fascio’ meaning bundle or union, which represented strength. This isn’t a useful definition though.

While coming up with an exact definition of fascism has proved to be a problem there is widespread agreement of the common features of fascism as a political philosophy, regime, movement or a political party.



These features include:

Nationalism and the creation of national unity based on ethnicity or culture as fascist groups are feverently patriotic and nationalist.
Fear of and hostility towards things which are different. These can be as varied as socialists, liberals, Jews, ethnic and racial minorities, members of other religions and homosexuals. These groups are frequently held to be responsible for the nations problems.
Anti-communism as fascism has traditionally seen itself as the opposite of communism and tends to label a wide range of opponents as communists.
The creation of an authoritarian, powerful state which aims to be totalitarian as the state is seen to be superior the individual.
Corporatist economics as the economy is subordinated to the state.
Obsession with enemies and threats to the nation which are often exaggerated out of all proportion.
A preoccupation with the idea of the nation in decline or has been humiliated so rebirth and renewal is needed.
Militarism, the glorification of the military and war.
The crushing of independent working-class organisations such as trade unions.
This isn’t a complete list and there are disagreements about what should and shouldn’t be included but as a summary of a heated academic debate that’s gone on for decades we don’t think it’s a bad attempt at describing fascism.

[ls]

The fact that the BNP are racist can be deduced from their policies on immigration immediately without any foreknowledge of their past or any other associations.

"On current demographic trends, we, the native British people, will be an ethnic minority in our own country within sixty years."

We are left to assume what that means.

..

"the introduction of a system of voluntary resettlement whereby those immigrants who are legally here will be afforded the opportunity to return to their lands of ethnic origin assisted by a generous financial incentives both for individuals and for the countries in question."

This clarifies what that means.

It indicates a clear bias against non-native Britons. If they were running a balanced and honestly non-racist program, they would offer native Britons the opportunity to return to their real homeland(s) in Europe too such as Scandinavia and Germany.

There is no mention of this at all.

We can also assume by recent contradictions of BNP policies on 'homosexuality behind closed doors' that they do not follow (recently) their own Fascist principles.

From the 2007 BNP publication 'countering the smears' -> "but homosexuality should not be promoted or encouraged. The BNP supports the traditional ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ attitude to homosexuality and is opposed to the flaunting or celebrating of homosexuality which ‘civil partnerships’ represent." -> `BNP chief 'made gay porn film' - Telegraph`

[communard resolution]

National Democratic Party in Germany, the successor organisation of the Nazi Party

This is not really true. There are a lot of neo-Nazis in the NPD, but also all other sorts of nationalists, xenophobes, WNs, ultra-conservatives, and confused/disaffected social democrats. While the percentage of true-blue Nazis in the NPD may indeed be much higher than in the BNP, I think it would be pushing it to call them a direct successor organisation of the Nazi party.

If you're speaking in terms of personnel, I'm sure many ex-NSDAP members went on to join the NPD, but the same thing can be said about the centre-right Christian Democratic party that was elected into power after WW2. So by this logic, almost every party organisation in post-war West Germany would have been a successor organisation of the Nazi party.

I think too much energy is wasted on proving how members of this and that group are 'real' Nazis, as if only that made them the ultimate evil. Look what atrocities have been committed and are still being commited worldwide in the name of nationalism. Does it matter if the St. Petersburg skinhead who shoves a knife in a 9 year old Tajikistani girl's heart (this really happened) is a full-fledged Nazi or just a 'Russian nationalist'? Or how about the terrible war crimes committed in the Balkan conflict? The people who ordered and executed them weren't Nazis - just nationalists. What does it matter?

[communard resolution]

We can also assume by recent contradictions of BNP policies on 'homosexuality behind closed doors' that they do not follow (recently) their own Fascist principles.

There are and there have always been homosexual Fascists and neo-Fascists - some of them behind closed doors, others openly so. There are even examples of Fascists who stated that homosexuals make for better fascists.

[redSHARP]

There are even examples of Fascists who stated that homosexuals make for better fascists.


wait?! what?!!! which facist said that?

[ls]

There are and there have always been homosexual Fascists and neo-Fascists - some of them behind closed doors, others openly so. There are even examples of Fascists who stated that homosexuals make for better fascists.

I'm sure, but that doesn't change the fact that the BNP promote their Fascist principle of limiting homosexuality which they see as a social problem yet broke the rule that they set.

[Melbourne Lefty]

wait?! what?!!! which facist said that?


Rohm I think.

He Idealised ancient Sparta and shared the belief that it was a society based on homosexuality.

Since gay men have no family ties they make better soldiers and political activists since they can dedicate themselves totally to a cause, to a true fascist [not a warmed over conservative] this makes them more valuable than straight men.

Everyone knew that the nazis in Germany had many gay men in the SA, Hitler used the revulsion of conservatives against this trend as a weapon in his power struggle against Rohm and ultimately it was Hitlers excuse for killing him in the night of the long knives.

Or so I read, I cant find the article where this was laid out.

[Holden Caulfield]

He Idealised ancient Sparta and shared the belief that it was a society based on homosexuality.


In Thebes the elite unit was made up of gay couples, the idea being that a gay man will fight harder for the one he loves, will not abondon his partner is battle and surrender and that their morale will be better.

Or as stormfront says it they trained and equiped this elite band of warriors who were the pride of their army and almost defeated Alexander and Philip of Macedon, "the reason for it may have been to isolate out the gay troops from the regular troops and maybe create a "expendible" force" :confused:

Stormfront are fucking idiots who make things up and try to pass them off as facts, the sad thing is the other idiots on the site actually believe this shit and encourage such bullshittery (http://www.***************/forum/showthread.php?t=506191)

Theban Sacred Band (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_Band_of_Thebes)

[communard resolution]

He Idealised ancient Sparta and shared the belief that it was a society based on homosexuality.

Yes, and also Michel Kuhnen, West German leader of the neo-Nazi movement in the late 70s, 80s, and early 90s, as well as some of his closest men. Kuhnen replicated Roehm's statement by saying that "homosexuals make for better soldiers". Some time in the 80s, he published a text defending homosexuality in the movement as a private matter. This led to a split within the German neo-Nazi scene: some chose to support Kuhnen and his stance, others chose not to.

Japanese author Yukio Mishima, often referred to as a fascist, also envisioned a homosexual, all-male, warrior elite akin to the idealised Sparta. I don't have too much info on him, though, so I'll just leave you with the wiki entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukio_Mishima

The above are just examples of outspoken homosexuals who viewed their orientation as contributory to the fascist cause off the top of my head.

Of course, the percentage of homosexuals among male fascists is the same as in any other group of males. As for prominent fascists who more or less remained in the closet, the following example comes to mind:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicky_Crane

[Melbourne Lefty]

In Thebes the elite unit was made up of gay couples, the idea being that a gay man will fight harder for the one he loves, will not abondon his partner is battle and surrender and that their morale will be better.

Or as stormfront says it they trained and equiped this elite band of warriors who were the pride of their army and almost defeated Alexander and Philip of Macedon, "the reason for it may have been to isolate out the gay troops from the regular troops and maybe create a "expendible" force" http://www.revleft.com/vb/fascist-bnp-t99242/revleft/smilies/confused1.gif


Maybe it was Thebes. The person who wrote the article I read was a journalist so probably knew not a lot.

Dont let scumfronters rile you mate!

Truth is the best people the right have had in recent years in Europe have been gay. Pym Fortyn, Jorg Haider...

And if you believe the rumours Nick Griffin is Bi-Sexual.

Maybe Gay men DO make better politicians? I know there are plenty of good ones on our side.

[Holden Caulfield]

Dont let scumfronters rile you mate!

i dont they entertain me with their stupidity, and the fact nobody comments when the clearly 'make up' facts

[Melbourne Lefty]

i dont they entertain me with their stupidity, and the fact nobody comments when the clearly 'make up' facts

Probably because the rest of them dont know any better or are too scared to go against Scumfront policy.

[rednordman]

Sometimes i wonder exactly what the real motive is behind the BNP. To get to the position to have influence is probably impossible for a fascist party nowadays. I know that they have some local mps elected around the uk, but to be fair, i think that says more about the stagnation of british politics in general. There definitly is a fascist underbelly to them, but after thinking about it, they seem to be a party that plays on modern tensions and social paranoia before anything else.
When i speak to some people with rather extreme views on some things (the sort who you would think that would vote BNP) they general pick individual themes that have been put across, usually from the bnp. Fascism represents a whole movement. Ok, not a particularilly complex one, but one with its own structure and ideals. I sort of get the feeling that if the BNP was openly fascist than alot of people would be shocked and put off.
The thing that gets to me is that their main motive is simply to stir up and reintroduce old race and class prejudices. The main emphasis being on race. Its like they want to go back in time, but with things even worse.
The reason why i have mentioned this in my post is because when looking at things, What do they intend to do if they ever get power? sure they may have some plans and ideas, but in my opinion, their plans a bit vague. I mean Adolf Hitler wrote a book, founded a party, and then started to yap like a chiwawa infront of big crowds. The BNP seemed to have missed the first two (or made a half hearted attempt at them) and have tried to jump straight into all this shit-stiring and yapping (not so big crowds thankfully). Even if they did produce a manifesto with a bit more thought and depth to it, it still wouldnt be that worried at the prospect that they actually had a serious plan.
Mabey they are simply venomous in the sense that they just want racism to be 'socially acceptable' again (and as many have proved in posts prior-they definitly ARE racist). Or mabey this they are a tremour to an oncoming earthquake. I cannot tell. This is why my mind is constantly changing as to whether or not they are a serious facist threat, or just a white nationalist right-wing party dreaming of success that they will probably never get as people are not that stupid. Either way, i f**king dispise them for what its worth. There just racist agitators, the sorts of people who believe in a philosophy that 'racism is made up and doesnt exist'. But racism is just one part of the fascist machine, there are a few more things they need to do before it comes obvious though. Although we all know that at their hearts they are fascist, they will always duck and dive this claim. Worst thing is not every one sees it either.

[Melbourne Lefty]

The BNP will never win power.

What they can do, and what other parties like them HAVE done in other places, is chance the forms of the debate in issues like immigration.

If the BNP got 15% of the English [not british] vote at the next general election they would not win a single MP, but the Labour and Conservative parties would immediately begin racist campaigns against immigrants and immigration to win those voters back.

In France The LePen crowd led to increased deportations and greater discrimination. Britain today is probably far more vunerable to a political shock like that than France was in the 80s when the FN came into the scene.

Look at the "leaders" of the political parties in Britain today, can you really see them standing up to the BNPs voting base if that party takes a chunk of their voters? Or will they scramble around on hands and knees trying to grab those voters back with pathetic pleading and populist "dog whistle" racism?

If you add in the fact that if the BNP ever got 15% of the vote it would mean that a large chunk of the working class [where they usually get their vote from] had begun thinking in racial rather than class terms and I think that there is a serious issue here.

If a large chunk of working class people stop THINKING of themselves as working class then left wing politics, especially revolutionary left wing politics, is either dead or in very bad shape. Especially when you add in that as soon as their white neighbours start thinking of themselves in racial terms the Black and ethnic minority communities will do the same.

The BNPs leaders may talk about winning power, but they secretly know that they only have to win a signifigant % of the vote to achieve most of their aims and validate their position for years to come.

So opposing and understanding the appeal of small parties like the BNP and others elsewhere is essential, where groups like the neo-nazis in America can mostly be seen off with a good demo and law enforcement picking them up when they do stupid things, parties that try to push a populist racist line are far more dangerous. Especially when they get as much press as the BNP.