This Stop the Bnp - organisation is a marxistic-bolshevik one, and therefore I am 100 % sure it is linked with Pro-P@lestinian anti-Zionist groups too. I can smell it.But I will have to dig a bit further.
-That doesn't prove that the BNP isn't Nazi btw.-
In the meanwhile :
This article is absolutely non-compatible with JTF goals:
It stinks.
We're Islamophobes too:
http://www.stopthebnp.org.uk/index.php?location=election&link=Islamophobia02.htmBEATING THE BNP MEANS BEATING ISLAMOPHOBIA War drums are beating as the US and its allies look set to attack Iraq. The "war against terrorism" has entered a new phase. Accompanying the war campaign is a media led
demonisation of Islam, which has given a tremendous boost to organised racists in Britain and elsewhere. Its effects are far-reaching and have been a major contributor to the growth of support for the British National Party. By Steve Silver
Racism is the backbone of imperialismIt is generally accepted that imperialism is a bad thing, that to subjugate a nation to a foreign power is immoral. But in the heyday of Empire it was not seen like that. The rule of one nation by another nation was presented as part of a civilising mission, bringing industry, culture and enlightenment to "backward" peoples. Anti-racists today might see imperialism as the preserve of the jingoistic right, but they would be wrong, for historically it was strongly supported by many liberals and people in the labour and trade union movement.
In order to rape and pillage the world brute force was accompanied by an ideology that made it all seem acceptable back home in the mother country. And that was the role that racism played. Africans were portrayed as a people without civilisation or culture, Asians as weak and backward. Racism was the ideological backbone of imperialism: after all if these people are not quite the same as - not as good as - "white Europeans" then it follows that they do not deserve the same treatment. Without racism imperialism would never have flourished.
What was true yesterday is still true today. The current war-drive and the general surge in racism in Britain are inextricably connected. Just as the old imperialism needed racism, so it is the case with the new imperialism of today. Racism back home helps to mask the reality of what is really going on abroad. That is why the militarily imposed New World Order, in the form of the constant interference by the US in the affairs of other countries, is in truth little more than old world imperialism.
What's it got to with us?
The war against terrorism and potential war in Iraq has everything to do with anti-fascists for one simple reason. The racism that has been whipped up to oil the US and British war machine is the same racism that has given the BNP four councillors in the last year.
The BNP is doing well not solely because it has pursued new strategies, though that is part of the story. While there are some notable local exceptions, the BNP is not a well-organised national machine. The main reason that it is having some success is that the tabloid press has whipped up so much racism on the twin issues of Islamophobia and asylum seekers that the BNP - now seen as the brand name of organised racism - can clean up at election time. In places where the BNP is well organised it has obtained councillors but, more disturbingly, in places where it has done little or no work, it has often done well too. This gives credence to the view that many people are voting BNP because they find its racism compatible with their own and not because they have seen the organisation active at "community" level.
As anti-fascists we have to be clear that while we need to continue to confront and challenge the BNP, there is a powerful ideological challenge for us to win as well. That is the need to defeat the belief in the racist drivel that is being churned out by some of our daily newspapers. The biggest single contributor to the rise in racism today, and consequently the support for the BNP, is sections of the tabloid press.
Day in, day out, we are informed of "evil men" in mosques and "scrounging" asylum seekers. Day after day the drip, drip, of racist ideas enters our collective consciousness. While overt racism and discrimination is frowned upon and institutional racism condemned, racism as an ideology has enjoyed a mini-renaissance. With the assistance of the media, racism in Britain has achieved the ultimate goal of all ideologies: it has become "common-sense". People often consider themselves to be opposed to racism while actually being racist. It is a widely held "common-sense" view, courtesy of the gutter-press, that "I am not racist but ... something must be done about asylum seekers and Muslims".
So, in the build up to the elections this May and beyond, our task is as much an anti-racist one as an anti-fascist one. The BNP prints all manner of lies to back up people's already widely held racist beliefs. It is as important for us to refute these lies at a local level as it is to unmask the BNP for its nazism and criminality.
"Muslims" as code for Asians 
****Isn't it Asians a code-word for muslims ??***
Opposition to Islam has come to the fore as the major ideological gel for racism in Britain. Islamophobia has been a marvellous panacea for reactionaries in the US and Britain alike. For a decade after the collapse of the Soviet Union the right floundered around looking for an enemy. After all if the communist bogeyman was not pointing nuclear weapons at them anymore how could they justify the massive arms spending programme and funding of the intelligence services?
The answer was simple: Islamophobia became the new anti-communism and filled the vacuum. Islamic fundamentalism became the new enemy abroad and the enemy within. Having said that it would be wrong to think that Islamic fundamentalism is not a real threat - because it is - and certainly in countries outside Europe which have no history of fascism, it is nearest thing that exists to fascism. The medievalism of the Taleban regime in Afghanistan could well be described as clerical fascism. However, one would think that hunting for terrorists was a serious job that required discreet enquiries and penetration of networks rather than the large fanfare and brouhaha that we have seen over the past year.
(But the Islam here is always Peaceful....)
In Britain all the sabre rattling in the media against Islamic extremists has become sabre rattling against Muslims, and sabre rattling against Muslims in a British context means sabre rattling against Asian people. After all, the average racist does not know the difference between one Asian religion and another; the only thing they understand is skin colour. So, if you are dark skinned and you are not Afro-Caribbean then you are a Muslim and you are the enemy.
That is not to say that Afro-Caribbeans are not the enemy as well, because they are just as Jewish people are: they just aren't the main target right now.
****Using the Jewish Holocaust , to attack "racism" against Islamnazis***
For the moment the main target for racists in Britain is undoubtedly Asian people. We saw in the past 18 months or so in the northwest what that means in terms of an increase in racial attacks and general anti-Asian hostility. The summer of 2001 saw serious violent disorder organised by racists against Asians in Oldham and elsewhere. Then we had the attacks of 11 September 2001 that gave organised racists in Britain a shot in the arm like they have never received before.
Out of all the misery of 11 September and the possibility of war there is one organisation that has done very well, and that is the BNP. In fact the BNP was campaigning against Asian people on an anti-Muslim ticket long before 11 September. The reason it did this was so that it could circumvent race relations legislation that says that Muslims do not count as an ethnic group in British law.
In truth Muslims was simply a code word for Asians , or as BNP activists would put it at street level, "Pakis". For the BNP all this anti-Muslim veneer is in reality good old-fashioned 1970s style "Paki-bashing".
We enter 2003 with four BNP councillors and rampant anti-Muslim feeling whipped up by the media frenzy in the name of the "war against terrorism".************OOOOHHHHH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We're fighting the wrong enemy!! Islam is Good BNP is bad!!*********
We will not defeat either the BNP or racism overnight. However, if we can continue and extend the mass distribution of anti-racist and anti-BNP materials that began last year then we will see movement in the right direction, as the successful campaign to keep the BNP off Oldham council proved last year. It is within our power to tip the scales against racism so that anti-racism becomes "common sense"; and when that happens the BNP vote will collapse like a house of cards.
This article appeared in Searchlight Magazine January 2003.
Topic: REDWATCH (Read 5608 times)