I LIVE AND BREATHE THE BNP!! School governor's vile boast (UK)

Primary school governor Debra Kent is facing the axe after The People unmasked her as a racist.

Kent - standing as an MP for the BNP - peddles her vile views on far-right websites.
She even brags: "I live and breathe the BNP!!!!" A People probe found mum-ofone Kent, 30, has branded Britain a "multicultural hellhole" and said immigrants act "like savages".
She is part of an online group called "Stop the ethnic cleansing of Britain", has joined a campaign to ban non-white British footballers and another calling for halal meat to be outlawed.

She supports a group named "If you don't like our country GET OUT" and another called "NO MORE MOSQUES".
And we can reveal she went to a British National Party rally where racists torched a gollywog.

Writing on Facebook, Kent later dubbed the rally "fab".
We launched our probe after parents at Latchford C of E Aided Primary School in Kent's hometown of Warrington, Cheshire, voiced alarm when she was chosen as BNP candidate for the new constituency of Fleetwood and Lancaster at the General Election.

Partner James Clayton will fight Blackpool North and Cleveleys.
Education chiefs pledged Kent will be booted out because by law school governors have a duty to work for racial harmony.
School head Jacqui Wightman said: "The views of the BNP go against all those we hold dear."

And Warrington education boss Pinaki Ghoshal said: "We would not support the continued presence of a BNP candidate on a school's board of governors."
Kent, who has a seven-year-old son, bragged: "I'm young, I'm successful, I'm a woman and I'm standing up for Christian values by standing as a BNP candidate. Get over it."

The People

Home Secretary powerless to stop English Defence League protests in Midlands (UK)

THE Home Secretary has admitted he is powerless to stop extremists who have wreaked havoc across the Midlands demonstrating in the region during Easter.

The English Defence League (EDL) plans to hold a rally this Saturday in Dudley to protest against plans for a new £18 million mosque .
Previous EDL marches, including ones in Birmingham, Stoke-on-Trent and Nottingham, have erupted into violent clashes between rival groups, including United Against Fascism (UAF).
Shoppers have been left horrified as yobs took over their city centres and several arrests were made by police.
And Alan Johnson has condemned extremists whose aim it is to divide communities
Yet he said there are no laws available to allow him to halt the incendiary group from demonstrating next Saturday.
“The police can in certain circumstance apply to me to stop a march, a demonstration that is physically moving along,” Mr Johnson told the Sunday Mercury.

“They have no such powers on static demonstrations if they are on public land.


“They have powers to ensure people can go about their daily business, powers to say make sure you are not in the middle of the road, but the power to stop it doesn’t exist.”

And he defended the right of all groups to demonstrate.
He said: “I deplore any attempt to cause disruption and disharmony in communities but because I disagree with the views of people demonstrating it doesn’t mean I should stop them.

“This is a democracy quite rightly the power of politicians to stop people demonstrating is limited.

“There are rules about what they can say, about inciting racial hatred, laws that we have introduced, but there is not a law that says because we don’t like their views we can ban their static demonstration.”

Dudley residents were warned to “prepare for the worst” when it was announced the EDL was planning to march in their town.
The council’s deputy leader Les Jones said: “It’s not particularly unexpected and so now we’ve just got to prepare for the worst case scenario.”
And council leaders from the three main political parties and UKIP signed a public notice calling on residents to stay away from the demonstration.
But supporters of the EDL, who are travelling from as far away as Bolton in Lancashire and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, have been arranging their plans through the group’s website.

One from wolves15 reads: “Can’t wait, been waitin for ages for one close to home that i can go to.”

Dudley Council originally turned down plans by the Dudley Muslim Association to build the mosque in 2007, after a petition opposing the scheme raised 22,000 signatures.
But the association took their fight to a public inquiry and now a government planning inspector has ruled in its favour, granting its appeal against the council’s refusal of outline planning permission in July 2008.

The Sunday mercury

DOZENS RALLY IN WARSAW TO PROTEST PLANS FOR MOSQUE (Poland)

Dozens of people are protesting plans by the country's Muslim community to build a second mosque in Warsaw. The protesters gathered Saturday at the mosque's construction site in the city's outskirts. They chanted "Radical Islam, no thanks" and held up banners saying "Stop the Radicals" and "Political Islam is threat to Europe." A tiny group of counter-protesters turned out carrying banners reading: "Warsaw is for everybody" and "Stop Islamophobia." Poland's Muslim population is tiny but growing. It includes not only Tatars, an ethnic group that settled in Poland centuries ago, but also a growing number of students and businessmen from Arab countries. So far Poland has been spared the tensions over Islam that Western Europe has experienced in recent years.

Associated Press

TORY MEPS SHAME LEADER OVER WOMEN AND GAY RIGHTS (uk)

David Cameron faced fresh embarrassment over Europe last night, after it emerged that Conservative MEPs have consistently voted against a string of measures to protect women's rights. Analysis of the record of 25 Tory members of the European Parliament this year shows they voted against, or abstained, eight times on issues relating to sexual equality, family-friendly working hours, maternity leave and reproductive health – often in clear defiance of official Conservative Party policy. The MEPs also failed to back an EU resolution expressing concern about homophobic attacks in Croatia, which is seeking EU membership. The disclosures come amid new pressure from Brussels on the Conservative leader after the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, called for a new EU treaty on closer European economic co-operation – a move that would force a Tory government to hold a referendum on Europe within months of taking office. To the annoyance of Eurosceptics in his party, Mr Cameron ruled out a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty last year, but promised a nationwide vote on future treaties. Labour has also committed to a referendum on a new treaty. Ms Merkel's intervention on Friday means that the difficult issue of Europe will loom sooner than anticipated for Mr Cameron, should he win the election. The Tory leader has found the stance of his MEPs, many of them hardline Eurosceptics, including the controversial critic of the NHS Daniel Hannan, difficult to balance with his promises of a socially progressive Conservative government. Last week, TV footage emerged of Mr Cameron's interview with Gay Times in which he appeared flustered over separate votes by Tory MEPs and Tory peers opposing gay rights. Now the IoS can reveal details of eight votes on women's rights and a further vote on homophobia in the European Parliament last month, compiled by the Liberal Democrats.


On 25 February, 22 out of 25 Tory MEPs voted against a resolution calling for the EU to become a party to the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women. The remaining three did not vote. On 10 February, seven measures on a report on equality for women in the EU saw the majority of Tory MEPs voting against or abstaining. The measures included giving better protection to women on maternity leave, backing women's easy access to contraception and abortion, and making men more aware of their responsibilities for sexual and reproductive health. Also on 10 February, one Tory MEP opposed, with 16 abstaining, a motion calling on the Croatian government to do more to crack down on homophobic attacks in the country. No Tory MEPs voted in favour. Fiona Hall, leader of the Liberal Democrats in Europe, said: "For the Tories to suggest that it is in women's interests to vote for them is downright cheek. We have looked at the voting record of Conservative MEPs and one thing is very clear: the Conservatives are a danger to women." A spokesman for Tory MEPs said: "We have repeatedly made it clear in the European Parliament that we fully support equality. However, we believe that it should be for sovereign nation states to legislate on social issues in their own countries, and not the EU. "Matters relating to reproductive rights are conscience issues and therefore members are given a free vote."

The Independant

Before you start mouthing off about Hitler, you'd better know your Nazis

A great item has appeared in the Guardian about Goodwins law and how it used falsely to counter any criticism of far right neo-Nazi beliefs.
Godwin's law states that "as an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1". This is both funny and true, like John Prescott having bulimia. Although, to be pedantic for a second, it applies to literally any comparison or topic of conversation: the probability approaching 1 just means it becomes more likely, so, as an online discussion grows longer, the probability of someone suggesting that I'm having an affair with Angelina Jolie approaches 1. Perhaps not very quickly, but it approaches it. In an infinite discussion, the notion is bound to come up. (I deny the rumours.) (How do these things get started!?)

Anyway, that's what my half-remembered A-level maths suggests to me. But they've probably changed the way they do maths since I was at school. Bloody national curriculum, it's like something the Nazis would have come up with.
But apart from being a statistical truism, Godwin's law is often used to trump irresponsible playing of the Nazi card. When person A compares something or someone they dislike to Hitler or the Nazis, person B cites Godwin's law to shut them up.
I can see why this is handy. A lot of amateur rhetoricians seem to confuse the terms "Nazi" and "nasty", or to have noticed that, in between bouts of warmongering and mass murder, Hitler also ate, drank, slept, laughed and oxygenated his blood. This exposes a vast number of people to being likened to him.

Gandhi was like Hitler because he too was hated by Churchill. Lord Adonis is like Hitler because he's also commissioned road-building. Harold Shipman is like Hitler because he's also a murderer. Co-presenter of Homes Under the Hammer, Lucy Alexander, is like Hitler because she also has opposable thumbs and is therefore much more like Hitler than, say, a toaster or Droitwich. And lacrosse is like Hitler in that I think they both only have one ball.
Nazi, Hitlerian, fascist and totalitarian references abound. I stumbled across three last Tuesday: the first was a photograph of a protester waving a Hitlerised caricature of BA chief executive Willie Walsh – by which I mean she'd taken a photo of him and drawn on a Charlie Chaplin moustache and hair a bit like mine. The amount of pen she'd used only served to demonstrate how unlike Hitler Walsh looked to start with. She'd also coloured his eyes in red for some reason. Maybe to suggest the sleepless nights that Walsh will currently be enduring, much like Hitler in the bunker days? I struggle to find anything else meaningful that the two men have in common, other than the professed enmity of the protester.

The second was Queen guitarist Brian May saying a proposed cull of badgers in west Wales, aimed at controlling bovine TB, "would be genocide". He didn't even say "like genocide". I disagree with, but concede the coherence of, the argument that animals, including badgers, should be accorded similar rights to humans. May goes further and suggests that they actually are humans. He said the cull would be like killing all ginger-haired people if it were found that that would eradicate smallpox. The flaws in this comparison centre around the words "all" and "people" being substituted for "some" and "badgers".
The third was a former member of the BNP saying that senior members of that party "have Nazi, Naziesque sympathies". This is where using Godwin's law as a corrective falls down – sometimes Nazi comparisons are well used. While the crimes of the BNP are incomparably smaller than those of the Nazi party, as thankfully is its degree of electoral success, its views are comparable and history suggests that it would be naive to assume that, were the BNP given the opportunity of power, its actions wouldn't also be.
The Godwin's law attitude is a well-meaning rule of thumb, designed to discourage abusive and hyperbolic remarks, but we mustn't be seduced into thinking that nothing really is like the Nazis any more – that that kind of evil has passed. When references to fascism and totalitarianism are accurate, just as when a responsible shepherd boy cries: "Wolf!", it's important to pay attention.

All of which just makes me angrier with irresponsible criers of "Hitler!", including both ends of the American political ZX Spectrum (by which I mean the far right and the nearly-as-far right). As many Americans go into a tailspin, coming to terms with the notion that poor people shouldn't be left to die of easily treatable diseases – even though, the USA being such a lovely meritocracy and everything, they must on some level deserve it (and, after all, what incentive is there to make something of your life if it's not the fear of an agonising, peritonitis-induced uninsured demise?) – there's been a frenzy of swastika-slinging.

It started relatively gently with Sarah Palin's dark allusion to almost eugenicist "death panels" being the inevitable consequence of state-sponsored healthcare, but now hysterical bloggers on both sides are labelling each other Nazis more often than they call themselves patriots. One particularly depressing website referred to the vandalism committed by opponents of the healthcare bill to five Democratic offices across the whole country as "Kristallnacht".

The internet is full of people desperate to be heard. Comparing things to Hitler is the online equivalent of shouting, and quoting Godwin's law is like refusing to listen to people who shout. By nature, I favour the latter camp and find most online shouting unpleasant and ignorant.

But sometimes people who shout are right and some circumstances warrant shouting. We mustn't ignore them all because of a law of probability. The wearying truth about the internet is that it requires readers to scrutinise the authorship, bias and reliability of everything they read more than ever before. So, to know if a Hitler comparison is apposite, you have to know more about Hitler than that he wasn't a nice guy.

The shortcuts to reliability that the old established more or less responsible media provided are being closed off. In the online future, we'll be on our own, in a whirl of conflicting assertion and opinion. It's going to be easy to be bamboozled and lied to. We're going to wish we'd spent more on education.

Written by David Mitchell in the The Guardian

Russia bans Hitler's 'Mein Kampf' over fears it fuels rise of far-Right

Adolf Hitler's book "Mein Kampf" has been banned in Russia in an attempt to combat the growing allure of far-Right politics.

Russian prosecutors on Friday banned the 1925 semi-autobiographical book, saying its outline of racial supremacy encouraged extremist and violent behaviour.

Despite including tracts that are both anti-Jewish and anti-Russian, it has become increasingly popular among Russia's far-Right groups.

Russian extremists have attacked migrant workers from poor nations in Central Asia and the Caucasus who come to Russia and often have menial jobs and squalid living conditions. African and Asian students and Russians who do not look Slavic have also been targeted.

At least 60 people were killed and 306 injured in hate attacks in Russia last year, according to Sova, a Moscow-based non-governmental organisation that tracks racist violence.
The ban was initiated after a regional office of the prosecutor sought new ways to combat extremism and found the book was being distributed in the Ufa region.
Hitler dictated the book to his aide Rudolf Hess while in prison in Bavaria after the failed Munich "Beer Hall" putsch of 1923. It sets out his doctrine of German racial supremacy and ambitions to annex huge areas of the Soviet Union.

"Mein Kampf" has been banned in Germany since the Second World War. In Germany, it is illegal to distribute it except in special circumstances, such as for academic research.
The Telegraph

Suspected far-right extremists set fire to politician's car (Germany)

Unknown perpetrators believed to be far-right extremists set fire to the car of a Berlin politician with Kurdish roots early on Friday morning, city authorities reported.

Evrim Baba, who has repeatedly taken a stand against far-right activity in her political career, is a member of the Berlin city parliament for the socialist Left party.

The politician said she believed the attack came from the neo-Nazi scene after recently receiving a number of threats. Several days ago a smelly liquid was also thrown inside the 39-year-old’s car, rendering it unusable.

City politicians from both Baba’s party and the centre-left Social Democrats condemned the attack.
Baba fled with her family from the Turkey's then military regime as an eight-year-old child and worked as an interpreter before becoming a member of the Berlin legislature in 1999.

She is the Left party’s speaker on women’s issues in the capital.
The fire attack on Baba’s car follows a similar crime in which two cars were burned outside conservative Berlin politician Robbin Juhnke’s home in the summer of 2009. In that case left-wing anarchists claimed responsibility
The Local De

Closet-Nazi´ in running for Austrian president

A far-right candidate for Austria´s presidential election has brought the country´s dark past to the surface once more.

A far-right candidate for Austria's presidential election has brought the country's dark past to the surface once more, after denouncing a law banning Nazi groups and Holocaust denial.

Barbara Rosenkranz, 51, a regional party leader for the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) who was nominated last week, looks to be the sole candidate to run against incumbent President Heinz Fischer, a Social Democrat, on April 25.

But her comments supporting the scrapping of Austria's tough prohibition law have renewed the debate about a Nazi heritage the small alpine country has never fully come to terms with.

Austrian leaders and the press already fear for the country's image abroad.

Under the 1947 Verbotsgesetz law, anyone who seeks to set up a Nazi organisation, propagates Nazi ideology or denies Nazi crimes can be jailed for up to 20 years.
But Rosenkranz, a mother of 10 and the wife of an outspoken figure in Austria's far-right scene, insists the law constitutes "an unnecessary restriction" and that, on the contrary, people should be allowed freedom of opinion.

In 2003, the European Court of Human Rights already allowed a journalist's description of her as a "closet-Nazi", noting that her attitude towards Nazism was ambiguous.

Such comments from a woman running for the country's highest office prompted scorching criticism from politicians of all colours, civil groups and the Catholic Church.

Rosenkranz's own supporters also did what they could to limit the damage.
"Somebody like this is not eligible for election," said Vienna's Archbishop Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, while the Jewish community described her as "an embarrassment for Austria."

"Rosenkranz challenges the Republic's anti-fascist foundation, that is unacceptable," added Social Democrat Defence Minister Norbert Darabos.
Meanwhile, Hans Dichand, publisher of the influential tabloid Kronen Zeitung, reversed his earlier position and urged Rosenkranz to "distance herself from all national-socialist ideas", just days after he had called on voters to support her.
The leader of the FPOe, Heinz-Christian Strache reacted Friday in a last-minute attempt at damage control.

"Nobody in our party is talking about scrapping the prohibition law", hed said.

"Nobody in the FPOe approves of anything relating to Nazism", he added. Rosenkranz's comments he said, "could have maybe been worded better."

While the Austrian president has a mostly ceremonial role and Fischer is widely expected to win a second term, Rosenkranz's candidacy has been seen as a test for the FPOe's party programme.

Strongly anti-EU and anti-immigrant, Rosenkranz also advocates strict family values and traditional gender roles.
This image took a beating when her local priest revealed she had left the Church years ago and that none of her 10 children -- who carry old German names like Mechthild, Hildrun, Arne or Sonnhild -- had been baptised.
She has also come under fire over her husband's connections with top figures in the Austrian and German far-right scene.
Horst Jakob Rosenkranz, who was once a member of the now banned neo-Nazi NPD party, still publishes a far-right newspaper called Fakten (Facts).

Barbara Rosenkranz has never distanced herself from his activities, but in an interview with the daily Die Presse published Sunday, she insisted: "I have never shown I was close to Nazism.

"Reports that I favour scrapping the prohibition law are false and misleading."

She nevertheless maintained: "Those parts (of the law) that deal with expressed opinions are in conflict with the basic right of freedom of opinion."
Commentators already fear the "horror scenario" of a far-right presidential win -- especially if turnout remains low as expected -- while anti-Semitic comments have already appeared in her support in online forums.

"Is that a foretaste of the elections campaign?" asked the Austrian weekly News.

BNP goes upmarket to target white middle class

The British National Party is attempting to cloak its image as a party of violent, racist thugs by appealing to middle-class voters at the general election.

Nick Griffin, the BNP's leader, has signalled a radical change in strategy for the forthcoming campaign after his widely derided performance last October on BBC1's Question Time, which draws a large middle-class audience. It will attempt to capitalise on disillusionment with both Labour and the Conservatives over the expenses and lobbying scandals.

The BNP's legal officer, Lee Barnes, in an article sent to activists, claims the BNP has "won over" the white working class and that it is now time to use "propaganda" to reach out to a wider circle of voters.

Yet the strategy remains targeted at white voters, with Mr Barnes telling activists they must appeal to the "white liberal middle class" and the "white Tory middle class".

The move is a sign that the court defeat inflicted by the Equality and Human Rights Commission over the BNP's ban on non-white members has forced the party to modify its election campaign strategy away from race to broader issues of class.
Yet critics described the plan as a cosmetic move to cover up its racist beliefs and showed that the BNP had gone as far as it could in picking up working-class votes.

Last week Robert Grierson, a barrister, was selected to stand as a candidate for the BNP in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, where the Conservatives have a majority of more than 12,000. After his selection Mr Grierson was forced to resign from St Philips Chambers in Birmingham where he has worked as a tax barrister for 10 years. "I felt I had to stand up and take the flak I will no doubt get. This shows that the BNP is not a party of skinheads and knuckle-draggers," he said.

But Sutton Coldfield's MP, the Tory frontbencher Andrew Mitchell, described his BNP opponent as "an extremist in a suit".
The BNP's top target seats remain the working-class constituencies of Stoke Central and Barking, and the strategy is unlikely to have a significant effect. Last year, however, a BNP candidate won a shock victory in a council seat in Sevenoaks, Kent, the heart of Middle England.

In his article, Mr Barnes dismissed the "smug, selfish, apathetic, politically correct parents" of middle-class voters, but said it was time to appeal to the next generation who are under 45. He claimed this group were suffering "racial discrimination" when applying for university places.

He wrote: "As a result of the Equality Commission case we must now refocus our propaganda on a new front – that of the Nationalist Classless Society and the creation of a meritocracy as opposed to the racist multi-cultural system. Even though we have failed to market ourselves properly to the White Working Class we have won them over.
"But we must now also reach out [to] the children of the White Liberal Middle Class and White Tory Middle Class and explain to them how mass immigration, New Labour and Cameron's Tories and multiculturalism have betrayed them."

The BNP is fielding 300 candidates at the general election, expected on 6 May, and more than 1,000 in the local elections on the same day.

A spokesman for Searchlight, the anti-fascist organisation, said: "This is an indication of Nick Griffin's desperation as he is unable to break through to the extent he had hoped following the European elections and he is casting around for a new strategy. This will inevitably increase divisions within the BNP which have already been created by his disastrous Question Time performance and his defeat at the hands of the Equality and Human Rights Commission."
The Independant

No time limit for Nazi convictions (UK)

It is part of society's obligation to the victims to make a serious effort to hold Nazi criminals such as Heinrich Boere to account

There no doubt are many people who wonder whether the conviction this past week in Germany of 88-year-old Heinrich Boere for Nazi crimes committed during the second world war serves any useful purpose. They can point to the fact that more than 60 years have passed since he committed his crimes and that he was not a mass murderer, the likes of those who helped run the death camps or served in the infamous Einsatzgruppen mobile killing units. But a closer look at his case will show why his prosecution and conviction in Aachen were, indeed, justified and the life sentence he received so important.

A resident of Maastricht, Netherlands, Boere, the son of a Dutch father and a German mother, volunteered to serve in the Waffen-SS shortly after the Nazis occupied Holland. After service on the eastern front he returned home, where he voluntarily joined Sonderkommando Feldmeijer, a unit whose primary function was the murder of members of the Dutch resistance and those opposed to the Nazis. In the course of Operation Silbertanne (silver fir tree), at least 54 individuals were killed, three of whom Boere admitted shooting to death – Fritz Bicknese, Teun de Groot and FW Kusters.
After the war, Boere escaped to Germany for fear of prosecution – and, in fact, was sentenced to death in absentia by a Dutch court in 1949 for the three murders. Holland asked for his extradition from Germany, but he was the beneficiary of the Fuhrererlass, a law promulgated by Hitler granting German citizenship to foreign Nazi collaborators. Since Germany refused in principle to extradite its citizens to stand trial in other countries, Boere had no reason to fear the Dutch court. He could, in theory, have been prosecuted in Germany, but for more than five decades that was not the case. In this respect, he was spared by the unofficial local prosecution policy on Nazi war criminals, which usually refrained from prosecuting individuals who were not officers, even if they had personally committed murder.
About two years ago, however, the state attorneys in Dortmund, headed by Ulrich Maas, announced that they would seek to prosecute Boere and they successfully contested a decision that he was not fit for trial. And thus, in November 2009, the Dutch executioner found himself in a German court facing the charges which he had escaped for more than 60 years.

Boere's conviction and life sentence are therefore more than justified, but they are also highly significant for several additional reasons. The first is that the Boere case is a precedent for Germany, where there are other instances of foreign Nazi collaborators who escaped from their countries of origin for fear of prosecution and who have hereto never faced legal action in Germany. The most famous of these cases are those of a Dutchman, Klaas Carl Faber, and a Dane, Søren Kam. The former, like Boere, served in Sonderkommando Feldmeijer and was sentenced to death in Holland in 1947 for the murder of at least 11 individuals. In 1952, he escaped from a Dutch prison to Germany, which has refused all requests for his extradition and has so far failed to bring him to justice. The latter, who is accused of murdering Carl Clemmensen, a Danish anti-Nazi newspaper editor, also escaped to Germany and was treated in the same manner. Thus Boere's conviction will hopefully serve as a precedent which will be applied in additional cases.

Several more personal factors specific to the Boere case add to its significance. The first is that he never expressed true regret for his crimes. On the contrary, at his trial, he said openly that he was very proud to have been accepted as a volunteer for the Waffen-SS and that during the war, at no time did he ever feel he had committed any crimes. His defence of coercion based on "superior orders" was totally rejected by the court. In that respect, it was the son of his victim Teun de Groot (the oldest of 12 children who has the same name as his father), who astutely remarked to reporters that if Boere had truly been sorry for the murders he committed, he should have returned to Holland to face justice and serve his punishment.
The presence in the courtroom in Aachen of children of Boere's victims was also an opportunity to learn first hand of the devastating impact of his crimes on the families of those murdered. And their insistence that he be tried despite his age reinforces the significance of justice, even when long delayed, as part of the obligations of society to the Nazis' victims to make a serious effort to hold Holocaust perpetrators accountable. This elementary truth and the successful result of the proceeding send a powerful message that the efforts to bring Nazi war criminals to justice are still very worthwhile and just as necessary today as they have been in previous generations.
The Guardian

ANTI-ROSENKRANZ 'SEA OF CANDLES' DRAWS 3,000 (Austria)

Around 3,000 people attended a "sea of candles" protest march against the Freedom Party’s (FPÖ) presidential candidate Barbara Rosenkranz in Vienna last night (Thurs), according to police. Rosenkranz has come under fire over failing to make clear her statements about Austria’s Nazi past and the existence of gas chambers at the Third Reich’s death camps. The ultra-conservative mother-of-ten accused press of "riding a campaign" against her as a person, and decided to declare under oath that she never doubted the existence of gas chambers earlier this month. She did so only two days after Kronen Zeitung publisher Hans Dichand called on her to do so in a comment. The newspaper backs her bid, and Dichand praised her a "courageous mother". Rosenkranz, who heads the FPÖ’s Lower Austrian department, then said she has always condemned the Nazi’s crimes. Ariel Muzicant, head of the Austrian Jewish Community (IKG), and TV entertainer Alfons Haider attended last night’s city centre gathering which was organised by an anti-Rosenkranz Facebook group. Analysts said the public debate over the politician’s controversial views has harmed the FPÖ’s standing. Polls have shown Rosenkranz has the potential to garner around ten per cent in the 25 April vote, while incumbent president Heinz Fischer is tipped for a landslide victory. Rudolf Gehring, head of the conservative anti-abortion party Die Christen (The Christians), announced yesterday he will also run for the post. The party, which is not represented in the federal parliament, reached 0.6 per cent in the 2008 general election.

Austrian Independant

INTERNATIONAL RIGHT-WINGERS GATHER FOR EU-WIDE MINARET BAN

Delegates from right-wing populist parties from across Europe are descending on Germany this weekend for a conference looking into the possibility of an EU-wide minaret ban. The hosts, an anti-Muslim German group, hope to use the gathering as a springboard to success in local elections.

What could be more European than a castle? The Continent is dotted with them, often menacingly perched on forested hilltops overlooking rivers or ancient trading routes -- important bastions necessary for the defense of what developed into Europe's long and rich cultural tradition. These days, of course, European castles tend to be little more than bucolic tourist attractions. But it is perhaps no accident that a small palace in western Germany's former industrial heart has been chosen to host a convention ostensibly aimed at defending European culture. The castle in question is the centuries-old Horst Palace, a Renaissance structure in the Ruhr Valley city of Gelsenkirchen. The gathering is called, pointedly, the Anti-Minaret Conference. This Saturday, politicians representing right-wing conservative parties from across Europe will descend on the Horst Palace to discuss the dangers of Islam. Delegates from the Belgian nationalists Vlaams Belang will be there as will politicians from Geert Wilders's Dutch Party for Freedom, Pia Kjaersgaard's Danish People's Party and the Front National of Jean-Marie Le Pen. Others from Sweden, Austria and Eastern Europe are also on the invite list.

'Symbols of Radical Islam'
The hosts are a relatively new group of German right-wing conservatives called Pro-NRW (an abbreviation of the German state North Rhine-Westphalia) and the goal of the conference is clear: to follow in Switzerland's footsteps and ban minarets across Europe. And they want to use a provision of the European Union's new Lisbon Treaty to do it. "I don't think that minarets are part of our heritage," conference attendee Filip Dewinter, floor leader for Vlaams Belang in the Flemish parliament, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "They are symbols of radical Islam. The question is whether Islam is a religion like Protestantism and Catholicism and for me it is not. It is a political system, it is a way of life and it is one that is not compatible with ours." Pro-NRW and the other right-wing parties were galvanized when Swiss voters last November passed a ban on the construction of new minarets in the country. Since then, the Swiss People's Party (SVP), which launched the referendum, have become the darlings of the European right. Indeed, the SVP has loaned their controversial campaign poster, which depicts missile-like minarets jutting out of a Swiss flag behind an ominous, niqab-wearing Muslim woman, to Pro-NRW for its campaign in Germany. And anti-minaret movements on the Swiss model have sprung up around Europe. Dewinter has recently taken a closer look at whether a provision in the new Lisbon Treaty allowing for citizens' initiatives could be used to push through a Europe-wide ban on the construction of minarets. On Saturday, delegates at the Anti-Minaret Conference will discuss whether to begin collecting the 1 million signatures such a path would require.

'A Very Powerful Weapon'
The hurdles to such a strategy are high. Even if the Lisbon Treaty provides for citizens' initiatives, the legal mechanism governing such a procedure has yet to be decided on. Indeed, with the European Commission first set to send its proposal for citizens' initiatives to the European Parliament for consideration next week, a final legal framework may not be complete before the end of the year, an EU spokesman said. Even then, such an initiative would only require the Commission to take a closer look at a given issue. Should the commissioners determine that an initiative falls under the jurisdiction of European nation-states or violates EU human rights guidelines, no further action would be taken. Nevertheless, Dewinter seems invigorated by the possibility of putting a minaret ban on the European agenda. "Brussels is afraid of such a referendum and they know it would be a very powerful weapon in the hands of right-wing conservative parties," he says. "The collection of the signatures will be a political campaign in itself." Still, the planners of this weekend's conference have greater ambitions than merely discussing the possibility of a European-wide minaret ban. Pro-NRW, an outgrowth of the anti-Muslim group Pro-Cologne, is seeking to establish a political foothold in Germany ahead of important state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia in May. The group is testing the waters to determine if the kind of populist, Islamophobia that groups in the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium and elsewhere have tapped into exists in Germany as well. "The Islamization of our cities is continuing and there is broad fear among the populace," Pro-NRW head Markus Beisicht told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "If we do well in the elections, 2.5 percent of the vote or better, we will become a new brand name in Germany. There is a huge vacuum between the (far-right extremist) NPD and the (center-left) Christian Democrats and we want to fill it."

'Attacking Its Weakest Victim'
There is some evidence that he is right. A SPIEGEL survey last December found that, were a minaret referendum held in Germany, 44 percent would vote in favor of a ban while 45 percent would not. On the other hand, the majority of Germany's 4-million strong Muslim population has Turkish roots and has tended not to produce the kind of radicalism that has thrown a negative light on Islam elsewhere in Europe. That, though, has not stopped Pro-NRW from depicting Muslims as being violence-prone and aggressive. In addition to Saturday's conference, the group is staging vigils in front of mosques throughout the region, beginning on Friday. A planned march is to end in front of the huge Merkez Mosque in Duisburg. Police, though, are bracing for counter-demonstrations, with leftist groups having indicated ahead of the conference that they planned to disrupt it. Local politicians are likewise unimpressed. North Rhine-Westphalia's interior minister, Ingo Wolf of the Free Democratic Party, has described the "Pro NRW" gathering as "dangerous for our democracy." Cloaked as a legitimate movement, he said the right-wing group was fomenting fear of foreigners with its "anti-democratic and xenophobic ideology." Sigmar Gabriel, the head of Germany's center-left Social Democrats, spent Friday touring mosques in the Ruhr region in order to counter the intolerant message sent by the anti-minaret meeting. "The truth is that anyone who wants to ban minarets and compares Islam with terrorism is motivated by xenophobia." Beisicht is careful to insist that he and his allies have nothing in common with neo-Nazis, and he even tries to strike a moderate tone on occasion. "Religious freedom also applies to Muslims," he says, before insisting that minarets were a symbol of aggression. Ahead of Saturday's conference, however, his European allies were not in such an accommodating mood. "Islam is a predator and it is attacking its weakest victim," Dewinter says. "Europe is that weakest victim. We have a problem with our demography; we have a problem with our identity; we are embracing multi-culturalism. We are very weak and Islam knows that -- and it is going on the attack."

spiegel

Jewish store owner defends Nazi soap sale (Canada)

Abraham Botines will be the first to tell you he has no idea if a bar of swastika-engraved soap he owns from the Nazi era is really made of human remains.

But the owner of an eclectic curiosity shop in a trendy Montreal neighbourhood makes no apologies about wanting to sell the item — a rarity that has caused a mini-storm in the Jewish community.
Botines, a Spanish-born Jew who has operated the quirky boutique since 1967, said Friday that no one in his family wants the soap or other controversial war-era items.
So the feisty store owner has decided, given his advanced age and weakening health, that it is time to sell the soap that he bought at top dollar from a retired Canadian soldier.

"I’m 73 and I was collecting things from the Holocaust and from World War II because I belong to that period," Botines said in an interview Friday in the cluttered shop.
"In my lifetime I got a lot of curiosity items — that is, things that are hard to find . . . and my things, my children, they don’t have any interest."
But Botines is adamant he’s selling a collectible item and not hateful ideology.
After reporters began descending on the store Friday morning, the controversial bar of soap was put aside.

Botines said it can now be seen only by serious collectors or those willing to pony up the starting asking price of $300.
"It’s my soap and I’m free to do anything I want with it," he said.
CBC initially reported the existence of the beige bar of soap alleged to be from Poland from about 1940.

Different Jewish groups have raised concerns about the sale of the Nazi-era soap purportedly made from Holocaust victims. They agree that selling the object is offensive.
B’nai Brith Canada sent a representative to the shop on Friday and said it would like Montreal police to investigate.
At best, Jewish community groups said the soap and other Nazi-era objects belong in a museum to be used as educational tools.
"The only appropriate place for such items is a museum where they’re serving a public education purpose," said Anita Bromberg, B’nai Brith’s legal counsel, from Toronto.
Botines said the items are historical and prove the Holocaust actually happened.

His son Ivan, who-co-owns the store, doesn’t like having the soap around but respects his father’s wishes.
"We’re not doing this to promote ideology," said Ivan Botines. "We want people to be conscious of this period, not to forget it."
Both father and son have been careful and have refused to sell items to neo-Nazis in the past.

In 2009, B’nai Brith had five complaints across Canada about the sale of controversial items on the Internet and in flea markets, No charges were laid.
It is not illegal to sell items bearing a swastika in Canada.

Bolton taxpayers’ £91,000 bill for rallies (UK)

Taxpayers face a bill of £91,000 for the protest rallies in Bolton last Saturday.

Town Hall bosses last night revealed the final cost to the town of preparing for and clearing up after the English Defence League and Unite Against Fascism rallies.
The figure — which is almost double what they thought it would cost—comes on top of the £300,000 in taxpayers’ money needed to police the demonstrations.
And, as reported in The Bolton News, economists believe the protest could have cost the business community as much as £3 million.
The council used the money to put up metal barriers around the Town Hall square to contain protesters.

Every child in the borough also received a letter urging them to avoid the town on the day of the protests.

There was then the huge cleanup operation following the rallies.
Bolton Council chief executive Sean Harriss said: “The preparation for the EDL and UAF demonstrations involved significant and extensive planning by the council.

“On the day, we were responsible for a variety of areas including the provision of the barriers, road closures and providing positive activities for young people.
“All the costs surrounding the demonstrations are being met from the council’s contingency budget, which has already been set aside for such events.”
Before the event, Town Hall chiefs estimated the cost to the taxpayer would be somewhere between £30,000 and £50,000.
About 150 council staff were on duty in a variety of roles, including stewarding, manning emergency control rooms, liaising with the community and street cleaning.
The authority spent £3,500 on the clear-up operation, with 52 staff spending more than four hours cleaning the streets of the town centre and ensuring it was business as usual on Sunday.
Police chiefs put 1,300 officers and staff on to the streets of Bolton for the event, costing hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Large numbers of police, including mounted officers and dog handlers, were needed to maintain order.

But the greatest cost came to businesses in Bolton which lost an estimated £3 million, as shoppers stayed at home.
Many stores rolled the shutters down for the day or boarded up their windows, as more than 3,500 protesters descended on Victoria Square.
Businesses that did remain open said they lost about 80 to 90 per cent of their takings.

This is lancashire

Cardiff fan sentenced for racist attack in London (UK)

A Cardiff City fan who attacked a fellow Bluebirds supporter in the mistaken belief he was English has been given a suspended prison sentence.

Probation officer Allan Robertson, 48, of Pontypridd, throttled Michael Bitti then punched him in the head.
He wrongly believed Mr Bitti, 42, was a rival Arsenal fan and started a row with him in a London pub toilet.
Robertson was sentenced to nine months, suspended for two years, at Blackfriars Crown Court.

He was also given a 12-month supervision order and banned from football matches for three years.
The married father-of-three had been found guilty of racially aggravated assault at a previous hearing.
Judge Deva Pillay said Robertson attacked insurance underwriter Mr Bitti without warning and without any provocation whatsoever.
"I have no doubt that you attacked him because you thought, wrongly as it turned out, he was an Arsenal supporter," said the judge.

"Having pushed him against the far wall of the toilet and having committed that initial assault you resumed that attack once one of your associates had entered the toilet and blocked the exit door.
"This was a cowardly attack upon an innocent man which resulted in injuries. So traumatised was Mr Bitti that he has not since attended an away game.
"I continue to fail to understand what madness possesses you and many others like you who normally live respectable and responsible lives to lose self control and responsibility, and descend into this kind of anarchical behaviour."
Robertson was also ordered to perform 100 hours unpaid work, and the judge added: "You know what that means, being a probation officer."

'Looking for trouble'
The court heard Robertson had resigned from his job and the case had left him facing financial ruin.
His wife and two of his grown-up daughters were in tears throughout the hearing.
The jury had been told Robertson was "charged up and looking for trouble" when he assaulted Mr Bitti at the Phibbers pub in Islington on 16 February last year.
Following the incident, Robertson went to the Emirates Stadium to watch Cardiff lose 4-0 to Arsenal in an FA Cup replay.
He was photographed at the stadium making obscene gestures and behaving like a thug, the jury was told.
Robertson had travelled to London on a coach of Cardiff fans, including his niece and sister.

Exploded in rage
He drank three cans of lager during the journey and went with a small group to the pub for a drink later in the afternoon.
Robertson was said to have taken offence when he heard Mr Bitti talking to his son about whether trouble would "kick off" in the pub.
He assumed Mr Bitti was a rival, asked him about his comments and exploded in rage.
The court was told Robertson swore and racially abused Mr Bitti for being English, and attacked him in front of his teenage son.

Mr Bitti was badly bruised on his hip and head.

Robertson, who had worked for the probation service for 17 years, said he only pushed Mr Bitti out of his way because he had felt threatened, and denied he had uttered a racial slur.

BBC News

Orange Order 'must distance itself from BNP candidate'

An assembly member has called on the Orange Order to distance itself from a member who is to stand as a BNP candidate in the general election.

Nick Baker, a district master of the Orange Order in Devon, is to contest Torridge and West Devon for the far right party.
The Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland has refused to comment on the issue.
However, Alliance MLA Anna Lo said: "I really think they should distance themselves from Nick Baker."

Describing the BNP as a "xenophobic, bigoted party", Ms Lo added "the Orange Order here should not want to have anything to do with his standing in this party".
"I certainly believe that they need to make it very clear that they have nothing to do with him and they don't support his views, they don't support him standing for the BNP for the next general election and the Orange Order here do not support racism," she said.
The order has said the issue was a matter for the Grand Lodge of England.
Its grand master, Ron Bather, told the Irish News newspaper: "As an institution we try not to interfere with the political views of any of our members.
"We're not a far-right organisation. We have members from all over the world but ore members are entitled to stand for whatever political organisation they so wish.
"It doesn't mean that the institution supports those views in any way."
On its website, the BNP describes Mr Baker as "a family man who is deeply concerned over the implications of economic decline and growing national debt which will burden generations yet to come.
"He is opposed to Britain's participation in the Afghanistan conflict and will campaign for the immediate withdrawal of our forces from that country."

Protester jailed for race attack in Luton (UK)

A 19-year-old man has been jailed for 16 months after he was found guilty of racially aggravated assault during a protest in Bedfordshire.

Kier McElroy hit an Asian man with a banner in a shop doorway in Chapel Street, Luton, on 24 May last year.
Jurors at Luton Crown Court found McElroy guilty of racially aggravated assault occasioning actual bodily harm on student Venkateswara Muppalla.
He had earlier admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

However, he denied he was racist.

He also pleaded guilty to a second charge of affray, which resulted from his actions that day when he said he was drunk.
The assaulted Asian man was cornered by a group of people marching in protest over an earlier demonstration by a group of Muslims at a parade by the Royal Anglian Regiment in Luton.

BBC News
 
The Times newspaper wrote a great item about this event in 2009. Inluding EDL's Paul Ray's involvment.
The item can be found Here

‘Racist’ London BNP chief threatened with suspension

The BNP's London campaign chief was today facing suspension as a councillor after launching a racist “tirade” against Nigerian church-goers.

Bob Bailey, 44, took an “antagonistic and offensive” tone when a black pastor applied for planning permission to convert Barking offices into a church.
A meeting in Barking town hall was in uproar when Mr Bailey said: “We don't want any more Nigerian churches in the borough.” The public gallery was packed with members of the Redeemed Christian Church of God.
He said he had visited the premises and told the planning committee meeting last July: “These people eat off the ground.” He added: “We don't want the amount of black children.” A rival councillor called him a “racist pig”.
Barking and Dagenham council's standards committee was meeting today to decide whether to suspend the leader of the 12-strong BNP opposition for up to six months.
A preliminary report by the council's monitoring officer found that Mr Bailey, a former Royal Marine, had brought the authority into disrepute, failed to treat others with respect and may have breached equality laws.

Mr Bailey, who was said by a doctor last year to have a “possible personality disorder” when he claimed that he was banned from driving because of “conspiracy against the indigenous people”, is responsible for the BNP's London campaign in the general election and borough elections.
Barking is the BNP's number one target seat as its national leader Nick Griffin is standing against the sitting Labour MP, Margaret Hodge.
The church, whose 400-strong congregation is predominantly Nigerian, was granted permission to convert offices into a place of worship, despite Mr Bailey voting against.
He was said to have breached planning laws by “closing his mind” and being “biased” against the application. He claimed there were already more than 20 Nigerian churches in the borough — the most in London and more than any other denomination.
The council report said: “Mr Bailey made a series of comments expressed in a derogatory tone. The comments were intended to, and did in fact, cause offence on racial grounds.”
Pastor Thomas Aderounmu, 55, of the Redeemed Church, said today the remarks would encourage ethnic minorities to vote against the BNP in May.
He said: “It was just derogatory statements. He was very specific on Nigeria. I don't know what Nigerians have done to him. It was very personal. Their actions will work against them.”

This Is London

'Orange Order in BNP link'

A LEADING member of the Orange Order is to stand for the BNP in the forthcoming election, it is reported.

Nick Blake, a district master of a Lodge in Devon, England, has been selected as a candidate for the far-right extremist party.
The news comes in the aftermath of the Grand Lodge in Ireland issuing a statement this week vocing its opposition to a planned visit to the UK by Pope Benedict XVI in September.
According to the Irish News, a spokesman for the Grand Lodge refused to comment on the development.
"It's a matter for the grand lodge of England and not a matter for the grand lodge of Ireland at all," he said.

"People stand for all sorts of political parties."
However, English Grand Master Ron Bather declined to disassociate himself from the Orangeman's political role.
"As an institution we try not to interfere with the political views of any of our members.

"We're not a far-right organisation. We have members from all over the world but our members are entitled to stand for whatever political organisation they so wish.

"It doesn't mean that the institution supports those views in any way."
Alliance MLA Anna Lo urged the Orange Order to take action against Mr Blake.
newsletter

MPs join forces in bid to fight the BNP at the polls

Three of Portsmouth's leading politicians have agreed to unite against the BNP at the general election.

While Mike Hancock, Sarah McCarthy-Fry and Flick Drummond may sit on opposing sides of the democratic divide, all have pledged to include anti-fascist messages on their election leaflets and communications.
The pact was made last night at a meeting of Portsmouth Unite Against Fascism at which 130 people pledged their opposition to BNP candidate Geoff Crompton, who will stand in Portsmouth South at the next election.
It was estimated by organiser Simon Magorian as the biggest ever Portsmouth anti-fascist rally.

He said: 'People of all ages and political opinions came. 'They know we can stop the fascists. I was at the Anti-Nazi League Portsmouth launch in 1977. This was bigger. It was the biggest ever.'
Mr Hancock and Ms McCarthy-Fry spoke, along with UAF national secretary Weyman Bennett and local group leaders.
Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for Portsmouth South Flick Drummond was in the audience, while Caroline Lucas, leader of the Green Party, sent apologies.
Ms McCarthy-Fry, Labour MP for Portsmouth North, said: 'We have weeks to debate party politics, but we're all united against the BNP.
'They pretend not to be racists, but very quickly their concern about crime turns into blaming it on asylum seekers.'
Mr Hancock, the Lib Dem Portsmouth South MP agreed: 'Its manifesto is about dividing communities. We stand together against them. We love our city - it's all about its diverse community.
'We will stand up for that, and for each other in the face of these bullies. We will all include clear messages on our communication that we oppose these fascists.'
Weyman Bennett said: 'The BNP is a fascist party attempting to win respectability. But we've already won an important battle.
'Its policies are racist but they fear to admit it in public. That's because people don't want to be associated with racism. Together, we can build on that.'
Lizzie Hug, 18, an art student from Portsmouth, said: 'The rise of the BNP scares me. Racist graffitti is springing up. We have to stand up against it. The UAF can make a difference and it's important people stand up to be counted.'
Paul Smitherman, 58, of Esslemont Road, Southsea, said: 'People here in Portsmouth look at who you are, not what colour your skin is. The BNP isn't a democratic party because they want to take away rights of people on the basis of what they look like. We have to take them on and show them their ideas are rubbish.
portsmouth