Racist BNP sets sights on Ireland

THE RACIST British National Party have their sights set on Ireland, Sunday World can reveal.

The controversial party have been building links with right-wing extremists across the island and even offered money and training to supporters living here.

A group of Irish BNP activists from the UK have been looking to make contact with the recently formed Irish National Party.
One BNP member even spent a frantic three-day trip to Dublin desperately trying to find the INP leadership this week.
However, we can reveal that since Sunday World exposed INP leaders David Barrett and Ollie Allen as Nazis, the pair have abandoned their planned anti-immigration party.

BNP activist, Paul Ryan, revealed that his party are desperate to get a foothold in Ireland and already have a network of contacts across the country.
While trying to make contact with the INP, Ryan inadvertently revealed his plans to our undercover reporter.

He explained that party Deputy Chairman, Simon Darby, spends much of his time traveling to the North, where former orange man, Jim Dowson, runs the party’s call centre.
“Darby is very interested in getting a group going in Ireland that we can work together with,” Ryan declared.

“I can get loads of people to join you from Irish community as well as our people living in Dublin.”

“In the past the BNP had a problem with Irish people but there is a group of us now who support the party and they are very open to the idea of a similar party in Ireland.”

Ryan offered the party money and advice on security as well as issuing an invitation to attend the BNP’s annual red, white and blue festival, which draws in far right groups from across Europe.
He ranted about the threats posed to Ireland and the UK by Muslims and mass immigration.

“I promise you that I can help you out as a party, financially with fundraising and to give you advice,” he added.

“We are as determined as yourselves. Frank O’Brien (BNP election candidate) from the BNP is good friend of mine and he is of Irish descent, I want to put him in touch with the INP.”

“We are in touch with Swedish groups and want to get a network across Europe of nationalist parties.”

BNP leading member Darby recently commented that he would be “overjoyed if an Irish National Party was set up and we would do all we could to help it.”
His comment came just weeks before the Irish National Party publicly announced their existence.

A leaked email from BNP Solihull Councillor, George Morgan, to the INP pledged support for the group.

“As a fellow nationalist I believe that, regardless of whether we are of Celtic, or Anglo Saxon stock, we face the same basic threats to our heritage, culture, identity and ultimately our future,” the Cllr declared.

“I further believe that as nationalists we must fight these threats on a united front, albeit different peoples but with a common ancestry.

“I would suggest that in the first instance you contact the regional organiser for the West Midlands.”

Following a recent Sunday World exposé the emergent Irish National Party were exposed as an anti-Semitic far-right thugs.
The group’s website was taken down within days and anti-Semitic party leader, paediatric nurse, David Barrett, has been keeping a low profile.
The party was unable to meet with the BNP to get vital funding and training as the BNP’s contact was intercepted by this paper.
However, a new website was hastily launched this week to replace the INP’s failed project – the London registered Irishnationalparty.com site is believed to be linked to British attempts to gain a foothold in Irish politics.
The BNP say their plan for Ireland is to “end the conflict” by making the North and South part of the United Kingdom.

BNP have links to Irish pro-life group, Youth Defence through their main fundraiser, Jim Dowson.

Dowson runs the BNP’s Belfast call centre and is believed to be bankrolling the BNP, providing hundreds of thousands in funding, according to recently leaked accounts for the party.
The former Orange Man has links to the loyalist murderer Michael Stone and has been described as a “rent-a-cause extremist”.
He formed Precious Life Scotland, later the UK Life League in 1999, and has been in regular contact with Youth Defence since

Sunday World

Joint statement condemns BNP 'race hate'

COUNCILLORS, religious leaders and union representatives have joined together to condemn the British National Party.

A joint statement by 44 people accuses the party, which is contesting Lewisham’s mayoral election, of stirring up race hate.

Along with other mayoral candidates, signatories also include the Bishop of Woolwich the Rt Rev Christopher Chessun and Archdeacon of Lewisham Christine Hardman.

Representatives from Unison, the National Union of Teachers and students’ unions have also signed.
The statement says: "As representatives of many political opinions and parties in Lewisham, we affirm the values of unity, tolerance and mutual respect, which have always helped people from different backgrounds to live together.
"We are deeply concerned at the activity of racist and fascist groups such as the British National Party, which use people’s fears to stir up race hate, which their candidacy in the Lewisham mayoral election will seek to do.
"We also reject their demonisation of Muslims, and their claim to speak for Christians, as an affront to all our religions and beliefs and a danger to the unity of the whole community.

"In the next few months the people of Lewisham will choose their mayor who will lead Lewisham Council in all its policies at the town hall.

"We believe that a high turnout of voters will minimise the impact of candidates on extremist platforms in our borough.

"So we urge the overwhelming majority to turn out and vote, and give a clear signal that messages of race hatred and division are not welcome here."

Chairman of the Lewisham Anti-Racist Action group Councillor Jarman Parmar, who organised the statement, said: "Fascists were stopped in Cable Street in 1936 and at Lewisham in 1977, by myself and many others. They must be stopped today."

Tess Culnane, who has previously run for the National Front and has spoken at a meeting of the far-right British People’s Party, is standing as the BNP candidate.

News Shopper is awaiting a comment from Ms Culnane.
News Shopper

Hope Not Hate 2010: BNP leader Nick Griffin on the gravy train

A year after the BNP's Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons were elected to the European Parliament on an "antisleaze" ticket, the pair stand accused of exploiting expense allowances.

The Daily Mirror can reveal that much of the party leadership is on the EU payroll, including a personal bodyguard.
Last June Nick Griffin's website claimed the "BNP is going to set a higher standard in politics when our two MEPs-elect, Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons, take their seats in the European Parliament on July 17".

But unlike Labour, the Conservatives, the Lib Dems, the Greens and UKIP, they have not even submitted quarterly accounts.
Bnp leader Griffin, who represents Britain's North West region, has filed partial accounts. Brons, elected to represent Yorkshire, has not filed any. There is no obligation to do so but it is common practice to submit accounts in the interests of transparency.

Yesterday Hope not Hate launched a petition calling for an investigation - amid fears the two could be misusing taxpayers' money to fund their general election campaign.
Campaign co-ordinator Nick Lowles said: "There have been thousands of letters to the EU Anti-Fraud Office and the President of the EU.

PROMISE
"There is no legal obligation to submit quarterly accounts but every other UK political party is doing so. We now call on the BNP to prove they are not taking taxpayers for a ride."
In addition to their £84,000-a-year salary, MEPs are entitled to spend £220,000 annually on administrative and constituency support. But it appears the BNP may be using this money to bankroll its leadership.

Griffin's website records that he employs Tina Wingfield and her husband Martin, plus Clive Jefferson, part-time. Andrew Brons also employs Martin Wingfield and the BNP candidate in Morley and Outwood, West Yorks, Chris Beverley.
Also on the EU payroll is Griffin's bodyguard. Others believed to be funded by the taxpayer include Eddy Butler, the party's head of elections.
He lives in Essex, far from Griffin's and Brons' constituencies but close to where Griffin is standing in the general election as candidate for Barking.
Griffin's MEP region includes the Cumbrian towns and villages hit by floods last November. But he failed to visit the stricken areas until last month.
In the days after the devastation, he instead visited his target seat in East London and travelled to Spain as a guest speaker at a rally to commemorate the 1975 death of the fascist dictator General Franco.

Hosted by the tiny far-right National Democratic Party, the event was also attended by Griffin's political mentor Roberto Fiore, the convicted former leader of the terrorist Armed Revolutionary Nuclei, involved in the 1980 bomb massacre at a Bologna rail station.
Griffin did find time to criticise the Government's £1million in aid to Cumbria, saying he would offer "the most appropriate assistance I can".
Seven weeks ago he offered a £1,000 donation to Cumbria. Eddy Butler, who is running Griffin's general election campaign, bizarrely declared "the terrible damage caused by Cumbrian floods was the result of global capitalism".

Griffin's constituents have seen little of him since his election in June.

His most high-profile statements so far have been on foreign affairs.

He condemned the Government for sending aid to earthquake-devastated Haiti and said: "Sending aid to rioting ingrates while our own people die is stinking, elite hypocrisy."

He attended the Copenhagen talks on climate change but called it an "elite scam".

In a Channel 4 interview he described Islam as a "cancer" that should be removed from Europe.

ABANDON
Labour MEP Arlene McCarthy, who also represents the North West, said: "Less than 12 months after he was elected to represent us he is set to abandon the region and is seeking to subsidise his salary by standing to become the MP for Barking.
"Griffin claims to be elected on an anti-sleaze ticket yet there are some question marks over the use of public money which he needs to answer.
"His accounts don't appear to be reviewed or signed off by an independent accountant.
"If BNP staff are now being paid by the European Parliament, are they working for the BNP or are they working for their constituents?" Asked to respond, BNP communications officer Paul Golding, a councillor in Sevenoaks, Kent, said: "I'm very sorry, we don't deal with the Daily Mirror."

Deputy press officer John Walker referred us to the party's website and added: "We don't have to justify ourselves to anyone."
Today the Daily Mirror launches the Hope not Hate campaign for 2010 - our annual celebration of modern, diverse Britain.
Backed by a coalition of celebrities, trade unions and tens of thousands of ordinary people, our campaign to combat racism in politics is now in its fourth year.
Over the coming weeks we will bring you inspiring stories of hope and courage from all over the country.

But first we turn the spotlight on the organisation whose ideas foul Britain - the hate-fuelled British National Party.

On the Europe payroll

JOHN WALKER
Deputy press spokesman. Lives in Wales. Standing in Alyn & Deeside

MARTIN WINGFIELD
Communication officer for leaders. Standing in Workington, Cumbria.

TINA WINGFIELD
Runs Griffin's office. Standing in Salford, Greater Manchester, against Hazel Blears.

CHRIS BEVERLEY
Yorkshire organiser and candidate in Morley & Outwood, top target in Yorks.

CLIVE JEFFERSON
North West organiser. Standing in Copeland, Cumbria, in the election.

MARTIN REYNOLDS
Griffin's personal minder.

To add your voice to the petition, go to action.hopenothate.org.uk/fraud www.mirror.co.uk/hopenothate
Original item Daily Mirror
 
Here's a great fan made video in support of the Hope Not Hate campaign.

South Africa commemorates Sharpeville Massacre of 1960

Yesterday was International anti-Racism Day.
March 21'st was chosen as it was on this day in 1960 that Sixty-Nine people died in the Sharpeville Massacre in Apartheid South Africa.

South Africans have marked the 50th anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre, a turning point in the nation's liberation struggle.

Sixty-nine people died on 21 March 1960 when police gunned down unarmed people protesting against apartheid laws.
The dead were honoured as part of Human Rights Day, with church services, the laying of wreaths, and a speech by Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe.
Critics say people in the township still face poor living conditions.
People gathered at the Roman Catholic church in Sharpeville, and laid wreaths at the cemetery on the graves of those killed in the massacre.
Mr Motlanthe spoke to survivors and relatives of the victims at the Garden of Remembrance.

Later addressing a crowd of about 5,000, he said: "We say never, never and never again will a government arrogate itself powers of torture, arbitrary imprisonment of opponents and the killing of demonstrators."

"In the same breath, we state that our democratic government undertakes to never ignore the plight of the poor, those without shelter, those without means to an education and those suffering from abuse and neglect," he was quoted by the Associated Press as saying.

Defining moment
The Sharpeville Massacre is remembered as one of the bloodiest moments of the liberation struggle, the BBC's Karen Allen reports from Johannesburg.

Fifty years ago, South African police opened fire on demonstrators in Sharpeville township, 50km (30 miles) south of Johannesburg. Sixty-nine people died and at least 180 were injured - many shot in the back as they were trying to flee the scene.
They had gathered outside the police station to protest against pass laws, which required all blacks to carry identity documents - known as pass books - at all times.

No police were ever convicted over the killings.

The Sharpeville massacre led to the banning of the African National Congress (ANC) and its rival liberation movement, the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), and signalled the start of the underground armed resistance in South Africa.
Today, many in the township are disappointed that the ANC has failed to improve their lives since it came to power, our correspondent says.
Many of the shops in Sharpeville have closed down, unemployment persists and there is a sense among some residents that basic public services are inadequate.

"Our lives started changing with Nelson Mandela's release, but people are still financially struggling and finance is still in white people's hands," Abram Mofokeng told Associated Press news agency.

He was 21 when the massacre took place.

In recent weeks the ANC has faced protests from other communities in South Africa, who fear that cronyism and corruption have overshadowed the party's agenda.

BBC News

Former Stoke-on-Trent BNP man criticises party (UK)

A former leader of the British National Party (BNP) in Stoke-on-Trent has criticised his old party as he prepares to fight it in the general election.

Alby Walker said "there's a vein of Holocaust denying within the BNP".
Mr Walker will stand as an independent parliamentary candidate in Stoke-on-Trent Central and face the BNP's national deputy leader, Simon Darby.
Mr Darby said the chances of Mr Walker becoming an independent MP for Stoke-on-Trent "are zero".
Mr Darby said: "It should be obvious to everybody that this is somebody who's a bit disillusioned with the party, as many people within other parties become disillusioned, struck out for themselves and want to become an independent candidate."
Mr Walker told the BBC's Politics Show in the West Midlands: "There's a vein of Holocaust denying within the BNP that I cannot identify myself with.
"They've still got senior members of the BNP who will be candidates in the general election that have Nazi, Nazi-esque sympathies."
Mr Walker had been in the BNP for eight years and was leader of the group of nine BNP councillors on Stoke-on-Trent City Council until he quit in January.

BBC News

UNESCO AND FC BARCALONA ARE LAUNCHING A CAMPAIGN AGAINST RACISM

UNESCO and FC Barcelona will launch a campaign against racism within the agreement between the two institutions in November 2007. The starting point of the campaign will kick off at next Wednesday's game 24th at the Nou Camp between Barca and Osasuna, during which a series of messages will be disseminated against racism, explained a statement from UNESCO. Later this year, several events are planned such as a public hearing in which the players of Barcelona will "add their voices to those who reject racism".

A previous cooperative project titled Youth, voices against racism, was conducted in 2008-2009 in collaboration with the European Parliament and the International Coalition of Cities against Racism, youths aged from 15 to 18 participated in the design and preparation of local policies and activities against racism. Many of these proposals are going to be implemented in this new campaign, which launches on the eve of The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, commemorated on March 21. In this framework, the UNESCO headquarters in Paris is now the scene of a youth symposium on racism and racial discrimination, at which is discussed, among other things, how to combat these phenomena. At the end of the symposium the opening of an exhibition of some thirty photographs of Rosa Luxemburg school of Aubervilliers, on the outskirts of Paris, is planned which shows a variety of relationships between people of different backgrounds "when they have gone beyond stereotypes and prejudice".
barcelonare porter

JEWS SAY HATE CRIMES AND ANTI-ISRAEL RAGE ARE DRIVING SOME OF THEM OUT OF THEIR SWEDISH CITY

Marcus Eilenberg is a Swedish Jew whose family roots in Malmo go back to the 19th century. His paternal grandparents were Holocaust survivors who found shelter in this southern Swedish city in 1945. His wife's parents fled to Sweden from communist Poland in the 1960s. Now the 32-year-old law firm associate feels the welcome for Jews is running out, and he is moving to Israel with his wife and two children in May. He says he knows at least 15 other Jews who are leaving for a similar reason. That reason, he says, is a rise in hate crimes against Jews in Malmo, and a sense that local authorities have little desire to deal with a problem that has exposed a crack in Sweden's image as a bastion of tolerance and a haven for distressed ethnic groups. Anti-Semitic crimes in Sweden have usually been associated with the far right, but Shneur Kesselman, an Orthodox rabbi, says the threat comes from Muslims. "In the past five years I've been here, I think you can count on your hand how many incidents there have been from the extreme right," he said. "In my personal experience it's 99 percent Muslims." Sweden prides itself on having taken in tens of thousands of the world's war refugees, and Malmo, its third largest city, should be a showcase: 7 percent of its 285,000 people were born in the Middle East, according to city statistics, and it has large numbers of from the Balkans, including the Macedonian who heads the city's largest mosque. After the Holocaust, it took in many Jews who survived the World War II Nazi genocide. Bejzat Becirov, the mosque head, said he feels "great sympathy for the Jewish community" and knows what it's going through because "the Muslim community, too, is exposed to Islamophobia." He listed a range of incidents, including an anthrax letter sent to him after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in New York, and several arson attacks against his mosque.


But Jews are feeling the heat disproportionately. Malmo police say that of 115 hate crimes reported in 2009, 52 were anti-Semitic. Becirov estimated there are about 60,000 Muslims in Malmo, while the number of Jews is about 700 and shrinking — it was twice as big two decades ago, according to Fredrik Sieradzki, a spokesman for the Jewish community. Last year at least 10 of the hate crime complaints were filed by Kesselman, from the Brooklyn-based Chabad-Lubavitch movement, whose black fedora and long beard single him out as he moves around the city. Walking home from the Jewish community center on Malmo's snow-flecked streets, the 31-year-old rabbi recalls some of the worst incidents: a young man who shouted "Heil Hitler" and chased him off a city bus; a car that suddenly reversed and almost hit him on the crosswalk by the opera house. "A typical situation is I'm walking in the streets and a car with Muslim youth between 18 and 30 will roll down the window and yell '(expletive) Jew,' give me the finger and shout something in Arabic," he said. Malmo's Jewish community is mostly secular and long felt safe because few display Jewish symbols that would distinguish them from other Swedes. But things changed after a series of fierce anti-Israel protests and a spike in anti-Semitic hate crimes following Israel's offensive in Gaza last year, which deeply angered Malmo's Arab immigrants. Tempers flared when Jews held a peaceful pro-Israel rally outside City Hall a week after the offensive ended. A bigger crowd waving Palestinian flags threw bottles, eggs and firecrackers. Tensions rose again two months later when Malmo authorities, saying they couldn't guarantee security, forced Sweden and Israel to play their Davis Cup tennis matches in a near-empty stadium as police held off rock-throwing anti-Israel activists outside who wanted to stop the competition completely. Eilenberg said it was a wake-up call — "a degree of hate that none of us — except those who survived the Holocaust — had experienced before."
Jewish groups say anti-Semitic attacks increased in several European countries following the Gaza war, notably the Netherlands and France. Across the narrow Oresund Strait, Jews in Copenhagen say they have also felt a rise in Muslim anti-Semitism but are less worried, said Yitzchok Loewenthal of the Jewish International Organization in the Danish capital. "The fundamental difference is that here in Copenhagen, Jews feel that the police, state and authorities take the issue very seriously and are on top of the situation, while in Malmo the Jewish community feel unsafe because the political will is not there," he said. Malmo's Jews say they feel little support from Mayor Ilmar Reepalu, a left-winger who told a Swedish newspaper in January he thought the anti-Semitism was coming from extreme-right groups. He also drew criticism for suggesting the Malmo Jews should distance themselves from Israeli violence against civilians in Gaza. "Instead they choose to hold a demonstration ... which can send the wrong signals," Reepalu was quoted as saying by Skanska Dagbladet. Jewish leaders sensed a blame-the-victim attitude. Reepalu has since spoken out against anti-Semitism and claims the media twisted his comments. In an interview aired by Danish broadcaster TV2 this month, Reepalu said he was being misrepresented by "the Israeli lobby who aren't interested in what I say and believe." Reepalu didn't respond to repeated requests for an interview with The Associated Press. The city recently appointed an anti-hate crimes coordinator, Bjorn Lagerback, who said Reepalu has sent a letter to the city's 20,000 employees denouncing all attacks against minorities in Malmo, though without specifically mentioning Jews. Asked whether Jews were particularly targeted by hate crimes in Malmo, Lagerback said anti-Semitism had become "more explicit." He added that "we also have discrimination against women who wear a hijab. They are also exposed to various kinds of insults."

Susanne Gosenius, a hate crimes investigator at Malmo's police department, said the rise in anti-Semitic incidents was linked to the Middle East conflict, and immigrants who are "having a hard time distinguishing between Israel and Jews." Malmo is one of several examples of how conflicts related to the Middle East and Islam have been carried into Sweden's streets. There was an alleged plot to kill Swedish artist Lars Vilks for his caricature of the Prophet Muhammad with a dog's body, and an article in the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet last year that caused Jewish and Israeli outrage by claiming, without any evidence, that Israeli soldiers harvested organs from dead Palestinians. Daniel Levin said he has felt stronger animosity toward Jews since moving from Stockholm to Malmo to study real estate. "It's not recommended to walk around with a Star of David. That's how bad it is," he said, referring to the symbol many Jews wear on necklaces. Levin was warming up for practice on a frozen dirt field with SK Hakoah, a low-ranking Malmo soccer team with a Jewish history and a few Jews among its players. Hakoah Coach Daniel Krook said that in matches against teams with players and fans from Muslim countries his players have been subjected to anti-Jewish slurs and even pitch invasions. The team asked to be moved to a league outside the city, but local soccer officials refused. This year, Hakoah is in the same league as Palestinska, which plays in the colors of the Palestinian flag. Krook said he expected police protection when the two teams play. But Ali Kabalan, a representative of Palestinska, didn't foresee any trouble and said spectators would be urged to refrain from violence. "Put politics aside," Kabalan said. "It's best for everybody."

Associated Press

SKINHEADS ARRESTED AFTER SKIRMISH WITH GAY RALLY IN BULGARIA

Six men were arrested in Bulgaria’s Pazardzhik after they assaulted physically a rally supporting gay rights. Six activists of the youth organization “Lesbians, Gay, Bi- and Transgender in Action” arrived to the city of Pazardzhik from Sofia in order to protest an order to local City Council banning the display of homosexuality in public. The activities arranged large banners on which they started writing articles from the Bulgarian Constitution and the UN Human Rights Charter. No local gay rights activists joined them, Darik Radio reported. However, about 100 local young men most of them with shaved heads and in black clothes staged an anti-rally claiming they had gathered to express their support for the order issued by the City Council. As several of skin heads members attacked the gay rights activists they were immediately knocked down to the ground and arrested by the policemen guarding the rally, who were led personally by the head of the Pazardzhik Police Directorate, Commissar Stoyan Stoyanov. No-one was hurt during the skirmish. However, the anti-rally protestors shouted offensive slogans directed against the gay rights activists such as “No one wants you, losers”, “Out of Pazardzhik”, “Go to Uganda, freaks”. The gay rights organization has attacked the order of the Pazardzhik Municipality before Bulgaria’s Commission for Protection from Discrimination, which is to come up with a ruling on Wednesday.

novinite

Prosecutors must 'raise game' on disabled hate crime (UK)

The Crown Prospection Service should do more to help disabled victims of hate crime, an official has admitted.
Joanna Perry of the CPS's equality and diversity unit said the prosecution service for England and Wales needed to "raise its game" over the issue.
She added that it must secure more successful prosecutions against those who target people with disabilities.

The CPS has issued new guidelines to the police which it says will help increase the number of prosecutions.
The police and prosecution service have had marked success in tackling race, religious and homophobic crime, but admit they have been less successful in combating disabled hate crime - where hostility towards a person is based on their disability.
Ms Perry's comments follow the case of Fiona Pilkington, who killed herself and her disabled daughter Francecca Hardwick, 18, after years of abuse from a gang in Barwell, Leicestershire.
In an interview with the BBC, Ms Perry said: "We know that disabled people probably think enough is not being done in this area.

"We think that the CPS could raise its game and that we could better identify where there is hostility against disabled people - in other words, where there's evidence we can bring to the courts' attention that shows that this crime, for example, was not just a robbery, it was a disability hate crime robbery."

But Ian Kelcey, the chair of the Law Society criminal law committee, warned that many such cases would not make it into court
"A lot of these cases may fall at the first hurdle," he said.

"When people with disabilities realise they've got to go to court, they've got to give evidence, they may feel somewhat disempowered, somewhat reluctant to go to court because of the issue of repercussions."

The police say disabled hate crime is often difficult to define it but that better training has raised awareness.

Chief Constable Steve Otter, from the Association of Chief Police Officers, said agencies needed to work together to tackle the problem.
"There's no doubt we can do more. It's very challenging - we have to make sure our officers are trained properly so they can identify disability and mental health issues.

"We have to make sure that we can get the evidence into court in an admissible way and we have to make sure that we are working really hard to prevent these things from happening in the first place."

BBC News