> Print window < | > Close window < |
Author: Pete Lazenby | Date: December 2005
The British National Party’s campaign in Yorkshire descended into farce after a series of “national” events won dismal levels of support.
Since moving their sights across the Pennines from the North West four years ago Nick Griffin and the BNP have regularly predicted a “breakthrough” in Yorkshire after winning one seat on the Halifax-based Calderdale Council, next door to Burnley where the party enjoyed a brief electoral success before collapsing.
Two more seats followed on Calderdale but a highly effective campaign by anti-fascists has held the BNP to three seats there for the past two years. Griffin had boasted that by 2005 the BNP would control enough seats to be the deciding factor in Calderdale Council decision-making. Not so.
Elsewhere in West Yorkshire the BNP has four seats in neighbouring Bradford and one in Huddersfield-based Kirklees – a total of eight out of the 300-plus council seats of West Yorkshire. That’s after years of campaigning.
The BNP has also sought to exploit the issue of alleged “grooming” of young girls for abuse in the former textile town of Keighley in West Yorkshire. Griffin blamed men from the town’s significant Asian community for the problem, although the involvement of white men had been highlighted by West Yorkshire Chief Constable Colin Cramphorn. Griffin used the issue when he stood for Keighley in this year’s general election but failed to make an impact. As reported in Searchlight at the time the mother of one grooming victim bravely spoke out against the BNP for attempting to exploit a tragic matter for its own racist ends.
More recently the BNP decided to stage a national rally in Keighley in another attempt to divide the community. All BNP branches were to be mobilised on 5 November. Police banned the rally for fear of public disorder after anti-fascists also called a national mobilisation.
The BNP then called instead for its members to mobilise nationwide in support of Griffin and former BNP youth organiser Mark Collett when they appeared at Leeds Crown Court on charges of incitement on 2 November.
The mass mobilisation brought a measly 200 fascists to Leeds. Many wore poppies and made great show of doing so – a shameful abuse of the memory of those who died fighting fascism 60 years ago.
The BNP demonstration was dwarfed by the size of the counter demonstration called by Yorkshire and the Humber region of the Trades Union Congress and the Unite group.
Between 500 and 600 anti-fascists turned out. Early in the day, when the fascists numbered around 50 and the anti-fascists 70 or 80, a banner appeared at the top of the street outside the court, followed by 200 students from Leeds University who marched within feet of the crestfallen fascists to join the anti-fascist protest.
Griffin was pelted with eggs as he arrived at court, and there were protests after goons from his security squad manhandled press photographers out of his way.
At noon the anti-fascists marched off to Leeds’s traditional outdoor rallying point for trades union demonstrations, Victoria Gardens near Leeds town hall. It was a fine, colourful sight, with banners from trades unions including the public service unions PCS and Unison from Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool, Leeds NASUWT, North East region NASUWT, banners from Leeds, Keighley, Wakefield and Bradford Trades Councils, anti-fascist group banners and more.
The anti-fascist ranks were swelled by supporters who joined the rally during their lunch-break. There were some rousing speeches, after which the rally dispersed peacefully.
Meanwhile back at the Crown Court the dwindling ranks of the BNP were left with little to do except talk to themselves and hector the ranks of police keeping them from the court. Puzzled passers-by stared at the fascists penned in by metal barriers erected by police. It was zoo-like.
Inside the court three days were spent dealing with legal technicalities. A date for Griffin’s and Collett’s trial has provisionally been fixed for January.
Finally, with his national rally banned by the police and his supporters failing to materialise in anything like the numbers he wanted at court, Griffin called on the BNP branches to head for West Yorkshire on Saturday anyway, with the intention of doing a leaflet drop in undisclosed target areas.
Again it was not to be. A mere 50 fascists turned up and mounted a demonstration outside the head-quarters of West Yorkshire Police in Wakefield. The aim was to protest that the police had not done enough to tackle the “grooming” issue in Keighley – an outright lie, as groups with a genuine concern over the issue have been working closely with the police and arrests have been made and sentences passed, including prison. They have also won changes to regulations governing the way evidence can be collected, a significant breakthrough.
Two of the BNP’s thugs managed to get themselves arrested at the demonstration. All in all, November was not a happy month for the BNP in Yorkshire.
© Searchlight Magazine 2005