BNP out of Devon!

According to the Express & Echo, the BNP recently held a 'secret meeting' of up to 100 people in Broadclyst, near Exeter. The meeting was organised by one Colin Fribbens, a Parish Councillor who runs a local youth group. The meeting has caused a storm of controversy, with letters flying in to the Echo, mostly from BNP supporters, and local parents removing their kids from the youth group. A couple have also complained to the local authority about being intimidated by BNP canvassers in Broadclyst.

Some of the letters in support of the BNP have been ridiculous, and it seems there are a lot of people being taken in by the BNP's propaganda, accepting it at face value. These people need to be educated as to the nature of the BNP as an organisation, as this is a Party whose leading members nationally have a combined total running to well over 100 convictions for a huge range of offences including gun and knife crime, explosives offences, violent assaults, racist assaults, domestic violence and armed robbery. The BNP is not only a racist and certainly formerly an openly fascist organisation, it is also chock full of thugs, and racist and violent attacks generally increase where there is BNP activity.

One woman- Jane Holmes of Exeter, writes she has "Fear of a terrorist bomb attack" in Exeter, as if the BNP will somehow protect her from this. She seems unaware that the London Nail Bomber, David Copeland, was a member of the BNP and even acted as a Steward at some of their meetings. He carried out a 13 day bombing campaign across London in 1999, the bombs killed three, including a pregnant woman, and injured 129, four of whom lost limbs. No warnings were given. I was in Brixton High Street in 1999 when the bomb there detonated and witnessed the carnage first hand. I have seen the violence at rallies and marches organised by the BNP, and have met the victims of vicious racist attacks conducted by BNP thugs. When asked his motivation for carrying out the bombings against Black & Bengali Communities, Copeland replied "Because I don't like them, I want them out of this country, I'm a national socialist, Nazi, whatever you want to call me, I believe in the master race."

Another woman who attended the meeting, Vicky O'Hara, from Ottery St Mary, says that they are all 'nice people'. She would do well to understand the nature of the organisation she and her husband are getting involved with. The BNP's annual 'Red, White and Blue Festival' has been held at a number of locations, and features performances from skinhead bands and attracts crowds of football hooligans sporting swastika tattoos and giving Nazi salutes. There has been violence associated with every event.

The BNP have sought, in the last decade, to bury these truths about their nature, and to apply a thin veneer of respectability to their activities. They have dropped marches and rallies and abandoned (at least openly) their paramilitary activities. But they are still a Party of hate, and they offer no solutions for the people of Devon. Look at their dismal record where they have been elected to Councils: in Burnley two Councillors were convicted for violent offences and one resigned stating: "I keep asking myself how could I have been so stupid as to have anything to do with them." In Blackburn a Councillor left the BNP after complaining about the drug dealers and football hooligans who dominated his local BNP branch. He also criticised the Burnley BNP councillors as useless. No BNP Councillor has successfully moved a motion to assist local people in any way on any Council on which they are represented, and their attendance records are dismal.

We have to combat the growing number of people in Devon getting conned into believing the BNP's lies and half truths, revealing to them the truth about the Party they are joining, so that they understand what they are getting themselves into. I don't believe most of these individuals clearly understand the nature of the beast, and consider the BNP as a political alternative, as Socialists we have to fight back with ideas, offering a far more clear and appealing alternative for the people of Devon.

Article by SB, a Socialist Party member in Tiverton.