BNP’s first new Ethnic supporter turns out to be dead !

24 hours after the BNP announced that its membership policy is to change a new ethnic member showed up on their website to voice his support for the change.

Shame though he don’t exist.

Lancaster Unity has posted a great item about the whole thing.

Lancaster Unity

HUNGARIAN GROUPS PROTEST RISE OF NEO-NAZISM

Pro-democracy and anti-fascist organizations in Hungary held a joint demonstration to protest the rise of neo-Nazi agitation in Eastern Europe. The rally Saturday marking the anniversary of the liberation of Budapest from Nazi occupation 65 years ago was attended by several leaders of the ruling socialist minority government as well as municipal and civic dignitaries. Absent, however, were representatives of Hungarian right-wing political parties that are expected to make huge gains in April’s parliamentary elections. Another demonstration had been also organized for the same day by an international coalition of neo-Nazis, but it was banned by the police and provisionally postponed until March. Its organizers, including the Hungarian National Front, planned to honor the German and Hungarian defenders of the city who made their last stand against the victorious Soviet invaders at Buda Castle on Feb. 11, 1945. The pro-democracy rally took place in an elegant Jewish district at the Pest side of the River Danube, the scene of nightly mass murder of Jews during the Holocaust. The organizers of the rally included the Civil Movement Against Fascism, the Anti-Fascist League, the New Socialist Movement and the Network of Feminist Left. A significant police presence secured the event, which was attended by a few hundred supporters, most of them Jewish. Péter Németh, editor-in-chief of the daily Népszava newspaper, blamed the low turnout on the growing fear by ordinary citizens of verbal or physical neo-Nazi abuse.

JTA

TURKISH PREMIER ERDOGAN: ISLAMOPHOBIA IS AS DANGEROUS AS RACISM AND ANTI-SEMITISM

Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan said islamophobia was as dangerous a phenomenon as racism and anti-semitism, Anadolu Agency reported. In his address to the US-Islamic World Forum in Doha on Saturday, Erdogan said tendencies towards cultural conflicts was as dangerous as, and may be even more dangerous than international terrorism, spread of nuclear weapons and environmental problems. "Such views that would bring civilizations against each other, creates psychological barriers between peoples. Problems like racism, intolerance, discrimination, extremism are insidiously trying to diffuse into societies like deadly diseases," said Erdogan. He said concepts of "Islam" and "Muslim" in the western world were being depicted with negative connotations in popular culture products like movies, TV series, music, photos and cartoons, even in scientific researches, noting that in a way cultural antagonism was pumped into the subconscious of the people. Erdogan pointed out that the local outfits of the people of certain Islamic countries, their beards, and veils, some of their common words were depicted as accessories of terrorism, noting that pumping of such antagonism created deep fears in societies and causing them to look at each other with suspicion. He said generalization of acts of terror in away to blame it on the whole Islamic World and muslims were wrong, noting that victims of acts of terror was muslims again for the most part. He said none of the divine religions would approve of terrorism adding that islamophobia was as dangerous a phenomenon as racism and anti-semitism, calling on the U.S. and EU to take measures against islamophopia growing insidiously in their territories. Erdogan said Islamic countries were mentioned together with violations of rights urging these countries to make self criticism and question the reasons of this negative image. Erdogan called on the islamic world to display the same reaction to all crimes against humanity without discriminating.

trend.az

Racist march protest group formed on Facebook (Wales)

HUNDREDS of people have joined a Facebook group opposing a racist march through the South Wales Valleys.
Last month a group was set up on the social networking site declaring that “all Muslims should be thrown out of Wales”.
Around 150 people joined the forum and organised to march from Treherbert, in the Rhondda, down to Pontypridd on February 28 to make their feelings known.
But South Wales Police caught wind of the plans and arrested five men for religiously aggravated public order offences on February 4.
They are now confident the march won’t go ahead, and 681+ people have joined a new Facebook group called “We Say No To The Planned Rhondda Valleys Racist March.”
The forum was set up by Kelly Stephens Robson and describes itself as: “A group for intelligent, informed, peace-loving residents of the Rhondda Valleys, who are opposed to the planned anti-Muslim march from Treherbert to Pontypridd on February 28th.”
Members of the group are also considering holding a peaceful protest of their own in opposition to the original march.
Wales Online

UNREPENTANT 'NAZI MOM' AIMS TO GET HER KIDS BACK (Canada)

"Nazi mom" wants to set a few things straight. She thinks Mein Kampf is garbage. She didn't teach her daughter to kill minorities. And she's certainly not a Nazi. "I'm not one of these idiots going down the street saying, 'Kill all the Jews,' " she says, sipping a Starbucks coffee in The Globe and Mail's Winnipeg office, a day after a judge awarded Child and Family Services permanent custody of her two children. "I'm preaching pride, white pride, not hate." For nearly two years, she has been the target of bloggers and editorialists, lawyers and social workers, all picking apart the lifestyle and worldview of a woman who sent her seven-year-old daughter to school festooned with a swastika and white supremacist slogans. She's lost everything since then: her two kids, jobs, friends, family - everything except a stubborn adherence to her belief in the supremacy of the white race. "I'm reforming my life - moving back home, working hard, getting an apartment - but I won't deny what I stand for, even if it made all this go away." Dressed in a conservative black V-neck top and blue jeans, she pushes her auburn hair away from her green eyes as she explains how she arrived at her race-dominated outlook on life and how she plans to get her kids back. In her early teens, she joined the army cadets and fell in with a large skinhead contingent. "I learned from them what kind of immigration policies we have," says the mother in her late 20s who cannot be named to protect the identities of her children. "I mean we're bringing in people from Haiti now. They still practise cannibalism there. Do we want that here?"
Her stance on race stems from her understanding of evolution. The way she sees it, all races began in Africa, and while Asians and Caucasians adapted and thrived, other races floundered. "Africans, they really haven't evolved much," she says. "The blacks that we have here - and I'm going to use the wrong words here - we domesticated them. We made them who they are. Otherwise they would still be eating each other and killing each other. ... It's not racism, it's racialism. There's a difference." She had her first child at 18 with a much older man she worked for. Her parents beseeched her to have an abortion but she refused, prompting them to kick her out of the family home. She moved in with the girl's father but soon moved on, eventually marrying a man closer to her own age who was prominent in Winnipeg's skinhead scene. Family and friends questioned the marriage, but she ignored them. The couple moved to a number of homes in southern Manitoba, but, contrary to testimony from family and social workers, they never lived in squalor, she says. "When they say we lived like pigs, it was all hearsay," she says. "The testimony was wild. They said we would shoot birds and feed live animals to feed our dog - that never happened. They say we showed our kids violent racist videos - it was the History Channel. They said we had neo-Nazi flags all over our house - we just had a couple of White Pride posters on the fridge.... All this shit destroyed my life and none of it was true. They just wanted 'Nazi mom' starving in the streets." But there's one truth she can't deny. When the case began last year, she fled to another province, leaving her husband - the two are now separated - to argue for custody alone. In the custody decision released last Thursday, Justice Marianne Rivoalen wrote that the mother "essentially abandoned her children" and chastised her for what she called a "narcissistic quest for media attention" that "demonstrated a puerile disregard for whether her actions conflicted with her children's best interests."
With eyeliner streaming down her cheeks, the mother insists that she would never abandon her children, that she simply moved to a province where she felt child services would not judge her lifestyle. "I wanted to have the case transferred away from Manitoba so I could get my kids back," she says. She now admits it was a misguided move. During her time away, she allegedly stole and maxed out her mother's credit card and now faces fraud charges. In the week since she's returned to Winnipeg, she's secured two jobs and a decent apartment. A year from now she can apply for custody of her daughter and son, whom she hasn't seen in a year. "Child and Family Services is finally helping me," she says. "I'm doing everything they want me to do. We will need a lot of family counselling. A lot."
The Globe & Mail

Controversial Far Right Australian politician Pauline Hanson moving to Britain

The far-right Australian politician Pauline Hanson has announced she is giving up her home country and moving to England.

Ms Hanson, Australia’s most controversial former MP who campaigned for parliament on an anti-immigration platform, will migrate to Britain after selling her house in rural Queensland, taking a cruise, and visiting New Zealand.

The 55-year-old former fish and chip shop owner complained Australia had become a "harder" place to live with fewer opportunities. She said she was selling her property southwest of Brisbane and was leaving Australia to live in Britain indefinitely.

"Our governments lack enough people with the fortitude to speak up without fear or favour," Ms Hanson told Australia’s Women’s Day magazine. "Over-regulation, increasing taxes and lack of true representation are affecting our way of life. "I feel very much for the young ones. Once it was common for them to own their own home. Not now. It's a harder place. Sadly, the land of opportunity is no more applicable."
Ms Hanson’s father is from England and her mother’s family are Irish, which means she can hold dual citizenship. She will leave her four adult children behind in Australia.
“Every country has something unique to offer, and I want to experience that,” Ms Hanson said.
“…Australia will always be my home. But I love England and Ireland. My mother’s family come from Limerick and my father’s from London. I love the culture.”
She added that she would love to buy property in the English countryside if she found the right place.
“If I found some special place I would consider it seriously,” she said. “Look, I have my children here, and they’d be devastated if I went for good. But as it stands, I’m going to be away indefinitely.”
Ms Hanson, the former leader of the One Nation political party, entered Australian politics in 1996 when she famously said she believed that “we are in danger of being swamped by Asians”, and questioned multiculturalism during her maiden speech to Australia’s parliament in Canberra.
She has been prone to controversy throughout her 14-year political career and caused an international furore after demanding an end to special welfare benefits for indigenous Australians in 1996. She was also briefly jailed in 2003 for electoral fraud.
Her last tilt at politics came last year with an unsuccessful bid for the Queensland state seat of Beaudesert as an independent MP.
Ms Hanson did not say whether she planned a political career in England, and would not comment to The Times when contacted earlier today.
However she told the magazine she realised her political career in Australia was over.
“I know I will never be given a chance to re-enter Parliament again,” she said.
Last year Ms Hanson received an apology over the publication of 30-year-old raunchy photographs of a near naked woman that local newspapers incorrectly claimed were her, a day after she lost a bid for re-election in Queensland.
“As I have always said, ‘politics is a dirty game’,” she said of the photo scandal. “I’ve moved on, but this is another reason why I’ve had enough. I want peace in my life. I want contentment and that’s what I’m aiming for.”
The Times Online

Our View

now the question is will the BNP call for a ban to stop this far right immigrant coming into the UK or put on its selective immigrant blindness goggles and welcome her with open arms like they did with South Africans Arthur Kemp and Lambertus Nieuwhof.

Wonder were the welcome party will be?

BNP changes all-white constitution and ejects Times reporter from meeting

The British National Party voted today to change its constitution to allow black and Asian people to become members.
The decision came at an extraordinary general meeting in Essex that was called after a court ordered the far-right party to comply with race relations laws. A court will decide in March whether the changes bring the BNP within the legislation.
However, the party’s democratic credentials were called into question when a reporter from The Times was bundled out of a press conference shortly before Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, was due to speak. A party official objected to a profile which had appeared in the newspaper at the weekend.
The Times had been invited by Simon Darby, the party's press officer, with other media, to hear Mr Griffin describe the constitutional changes.

However Richard Barmbrook, a local councillor and a member of the London Assembly, who was upset by an article about him in The Times on Saturday, said that the newspaper was unwelcome inside the Elm Park pub in Hornchurch, where the meeting took place.
After The Times tried to explain that the newspaper had been officially invited into the building, the BNP's security staff lifted and shoved its reporter out of the building, grabbing his nose. A punch was also thrown by security staff and the reporter was flung at a parked car outside.
Mr Griffin said The Times had lied about the party. He said: “Because he is from The Times, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch, and it lies and it lies and it lies about this party.
“So he was told ’we’re sorry, you told one lie too many’, The Times, so we are not allowing anyone from The Times in – kindly leave.
“He refused to leave when he was asked so he had to be encouraged to leave.”
A BBC reporter asked if he would be removed if he said the wrong thing. Mr Griffin replied: “If you utter some outrageous lie about me... you won’t be welcome again.”
Mr Griffin told Sky News he expected a “trickle, rather than a flood” of applications from black and Asian people.
He said: “Anyone can be a member of this party. We are happy to accept anyone as a member providing they agree with us that this country should remain fundamentally British.”

The Times Online

BNP votes to allow black members (as if they had a choice)

The British National Party has voted to approve changes to its constitution that would allow black and Asian people to become members, a party spokesman said.
The decision came after the far-right party held an extraordinary general meeting at a secret location in Essex, a party spokesman said.
It was arranged after the Central London County Court told the BNP to amend its constitution to comply with race relations laws or face legal action by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Party leader Nick Griffin told Sky News he expected a "trickle, rather than a flood" of applications from black and Asian people.
He said: "Anyone can be a member of this party. We are happy to accept anyone as a member providing they agree with us that this country should remain fundamentally British."

The party's democratic credentials were questioned by a BBC reporter who told Mr Griffin he had seen a journalist being "bundled out" of the meeting.
The BNP leader said the Times newspaper, where the reporter works, had lied about the party.
He said: "Because he is from The Times, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch, and it lies and it lies and it lies about this party. So he was told 'we're sorry, you told one lie too many', the Times, so we are not allowing anyone from the Times in - kindly leave. He refused to leave when he was asked so he had to be encouraged to leave."
The BBC reporter asked if he would be removed if he said the wrong thing. Mr Griffin replied: "If you utter some outrageous lie about me... you won't be welcome again."
A spokesman for News International confirmed one of their reporters had been removed from the meeting.

icsolihull

What we really like is the fact that the BNP had this pretense. As if they had a choice ! ! !

Muslim graves hit for third time (UK)

Vandals have targeted Muslim graves at a south Manchester cemetery for the third time in two months.
More than 20 headstones at the Southern Cemetery on Barlow Moor Road were pushed over in what police are treating as a racially-motivated attack.
The offenders struck sometime between Friday afternoon and Monday morning, a police spokesman confirmed.
Det Ch Insp Steve Eckersley called it "mindless racist behaviour" that was being treated as a hate crime.
On 29 September, 26 Muslim headstones were vandalised and three days later 27 were targeted.
Police have now increased their patrols in the area.
Det Ch Insp Eckersley added: "It is an absolute disgrace that whoever is responsible thinks it acceptable to repeatedly target the graves of loved ones.
"The repeated nature of these attacks and the fact the offenders are only targeting Muslim graves means we are treating this as a hate crime.
"This sort of mindless, racist behaviour must be utterly condemned and I'm sure the whole community will be outraged.
"To those who know who is responsible or have been told who is responsible I would like to ask how you would feel if someone damaged a grave of one of your loved ones and how hurt or upset that would make you.
"Please do the right thing, tell us what you know and help us put a stop to this."
BBC

BNP4UK now wouldn’t that be a good idea?

Many people will know that the BNP today are asking member to vote on a change to their party’s highly racist whites only membership rule.

And as the BNP have drawn a large number of followers/supporters to the party through their whites only policy this is a serious problem. As a substantial change to their stance will make many members feel lost as this is not the party they joined.
So the BNP should expect a number of people to leave and move their support to some of the even more extreme elements of the far right like the National Front and Combat18. So what can be done? Obviously this exodus will cause a loss of earnings for the party and thus hamper their election funds.
So we at the StandUpToHate have come forward with an idea for Mr Griffin and the BNP that not only will generate more members, increase their monetary resources but will be greatly supported by the majority of British people.
We all know that Islam4UK has been banned, so why don’t the BNP take these people into their ranks.

No wait think about it.

The BNP has to change its non-white policy to continue, they have no choice. The Muslim extremists that were members of Islam4UK, have lost a cause to follow. A joint effort between the BNP and the former Isalm4UK would be an ideal solution.  We know there will be teething problems but think of the benefits to the British public.

1) BNP4UK it’s a catchy name
2) British people will know where all the extremists are.
3) As both the organisations often show up at the same protest venues, it would save them travelling costs. They could travel together. Thus saving the environment. (even though we suggest that policy to the new BNP4UK we don’t mind them using it)
4) They could practice away from any disturbances what they intend to do, who’s going to hit who etc. it would give people a better show.
5) both organisations have uncharismatic leaders, perhaps by working together they could create one person with a some kind of human personality British people might like.
6) It would be a great publicity gimmick and gain worldwide headlines.

But here’s the deal clincher (or so to speak), as the BNP want to remove all Muslim’s from the UK but especially the extremists ones first.
If they ever gained any power as the BNP4UK then the BNP4UK would be the first people to leave the country.

It’s a win, win situation.

Now the only problem we foresee in the whole thing is if they can’t convince Collette and Barnbrook to wear burkhas.

SDLP slams racist Facebook group (Ireland)

The SDLP (Social Democratic Labour Party) has slammed a Facebook Group which targets rose sellers from the Roma community in Belfast.

According to South Belfast MLA Conall McDevitt many of the the racist comments left on the page are by students from the University of Ulster and Queens University, who make up some of the 11,000 members.

Mr McDevitt said: “ We must have zero tolerance for racism in Ireland, North and South.”
The Facebook group has recruited thousands of members in a matter of days, proving to be a most popular subject to comment on between students in the area who say they are “hassled” by rose sellers on nights out.

Mr McDevitt had a similar Facebook group shut down last year after he blogged about it on the Sluggerotoole.com website.
Mr McDevitt added that: “What is worrying about these online groups is that so many young people seem not to realise they are being racist. That it has become acceptable to treat members of minority communities in such a racist way is a terrible indictment of us all.”
Mr McDevitt has brought the matter to the attention of the PSNI Hate Crime Unit.
Over 100 members of the Roma community in Belfast were forced to flee their homes in the city following violent attacks last June.
insideireland

Court in uproar over racism sentence (Canada)

Victim arrested after man who attacked Asian anglers jailed 2 years
Emotions erupted in the Newmarket courthouse Friday as a Sutton man was sentenced to two years less a day in jail for a racist attack on Asian anglers, and one of the victims – upset at the light sentence – wound up handcuffed and arrested.
Justice Alfred Stong found that Trevor Middleton, 23, was motivated partly by racism when he and three truckloads of Georgina Township youths shoved Ruohang Liu, 24, and Charles Hogan, 24, into Lake Simcoe early in the morning of Sept. 16, 2007, in the type of attack some locals referred to as "Nip-" or "Nipper-tipping." One of their friends was left with permanent brain damage in the attack.
Loud sighs, sobs and swearing were heard in the packed courtroom after the judge read his sentence, which also included three years' probation, a 10-year driving ban and an order for Middleton to take cultural sensitivity training.
"There is no justice in Canada," an Asian-Canadian man shouted in the hallway of the courthouse.
Liu was handcuffed and arrested by police after the armrest of a courthouse chair was thrown at a hallway window, shattering it. Police did not immediately comment on whether he had been charged.
Liu said he has nightmares about the attack, which left his friend, Shayne Berwick, 26, with brain damage and requiring a wheelchair.
"I will not go fishing ever in Canada again," Liu said in his victim impact statement. "I no longer trust anyone I meet. I feel like I can only trust people I have from the past."
In sentencing Middleton, the judge noted that he had no criminal record before a jury found him guilty of four counts of aggravated assault and two counts of criminal negligence causing bodily harm.
The judge also noted that Middleton, a professional motorcycle racer, was only 20 at the time of the attacks near what locals call the Blue Bridge, at Mossington Park near Jackson's Point.
Four police squad cars pulled up in front of the courthouse as angry spectators left the building. Middleton's lawyer, Gerald Logan, was cursed as he walked out.
The Crown had sought a sentence of eight to 10 years.
Berwick's father, Colin, shook his head in disbelief outside court as his wife, Terry, cried. Hate crime legislation has proved to be toothless, he said, adding, "That didn't do any good, did it?"
A man who was in Liu's car as it was rammed repeatedly by Middleton's pickup and forced off the road into a tree said the violence still haunts him. "I fear for the future," said Shiv Kumar, 24. "I feel that I am not wanted in the community."
Toronto lawyer Susan Eng, part of a coalition of Asian-Canadians who monitored the case, said it was a victory the attack was recognized as a hate crime. "This wasn't an individual case. This is something that belongs to the community."
Toronto Star

British National Party accounts investigated by Electoral Commission

The British National Party’s financial accounts are under investigation by the Electoral Commission over an alleged breach of the law.
The commission said yesterday there were a “number of concerns” and that the far-right party’s latest accounts were “under review”. The investigation concerns a suspected breach of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act, which requires all party treasurers to file full and accurate accounts each year.
The revelations come as Margaret Hodge, the Labour incumbent in Barking, East London, has threatened the party with legal action over campaign material. And the moves cast doubt on the credibility of the BNP at a time when Nick Griffin, its leader, is trying to persuade voters that he is a serious alternative to mainstream politicians at the general election.
The BNP has already been fined over its failure to produce its accounts on time and was recently exposed for exaggerating its spending during last year’s European elections.

It is also facing court action by the Equality and Human Rights Commission over its policy of excluding ethnic minorities from membership. Its membership meets tomorrow to discuss changes to its constitution.
The commission’s investigation relates to accounts for 2008, which the BNP filed six months late. The party was asked to provide more information last month but it is understood that the extra information was unsatisfactory and the party has still failed to meet the requirements of the Act.with a maximum penalty of a £5,000 or one year imprisonment.
John Walker, a BNP spokesman, said: “We’re not the only party to have problems with finances.”
The Times Online

Racism still rife in Italian football

With Italy hoping to be awarded the Euro 2016 tournament in a few months time, it says it is taking serious measures to crack down on racism in football.

But, as Emma Wallis reports from Rome, there is plenty of evidence the phenomenon is still rife on the terraces - and even on the pitch.
Mario Balotelli - or Super Mario, as he is known by fans of Inter Milan - knows that as well as anyone.

The black striker, who is an Italian citizen, has become a target of racist abuse wherever he plays.
Juventus fans taunted him so viciously the club was fined and forced to play a match behind closed doors.
"Racist hooligans have a problem with themselves and with society, it's not Mario's problem," says Cristina Balotelli, the 19-year-old striker's older sister.
"How would you feel if you had to listen to racist comments?" she asks. "Anyone would be angry, and shocked.
"He [Mario] is disgusted, I believe. Those [racists] should be sent home."
Balotelli is determined to overcome the hostility. Born to Ghanaian parents but adopted by Italians, he has so far turned down appeals to play for Ghana and has set his sights on a place in the Italian team.
Ms Balotelli is not the only one to think that sometimes the football authorities in Italy do not do enough to enforce their zero-tolerance policy towards racism.
Daniela Conti, an anti-racist campaigner for UISP, Italy's sport-for-all organisation, explained that her organisation sends letters to all the clubs in Italy's top leagues regarding anti-racist projects.
Usually, they get no response. Only three big teams have active anti-racist campaigns, Ms Conti says: Sampdoria and Siena in Serie A, and Hellas Verona in Serie C1.

Reaching out
Ms Conti says it is not good enough for clubs simply to declare
Projects should come from the grass roots. The most devoted fans - known in Italy as Ultras - should be encouraged to paint their own anti-racist banners, she says.

Clubs should be reaching out to the community, she adds, going into schools and getting their players to talk about racism.

"It's about a two pronged attack, education and social action as well as fines and repression," says Ms Conti.

In January, Interior Minister Roberto Maroni called for referees to be given powers to stop matches if racism reared its ugly head.
The Italian football federation (FIGC) responded by saying that their referees already had a lot to do, and it should be up to police at the match to call it off if necessary.

Make a stand
Near the Umbrian town of Terni a few weeks ago, a small amateur team, ASD Nuova Casteltodino, made national headlines when the whole team walked off the pitch after one of their two players of Nigerian origin was called a "dirty Negro" by an opposition
Club Secretary Francesco Ribeca compared their struggle to the American civil rights movement.

"You might think that we don't count, but if you think of Rosa Parks in America and how that one gesture of sitting down on a bus sparked a whole civil rights movement, we felt we had to make a stand too," he said.
"Even if we manage to change just a few people's minds that will be a huge success for us. We threw away a football result to get a result for society."
Club President Maurizio Venturi said the insult was the fourth such incident this season. He sees the two brothers Narcisio and Emeka, who were born in Italy to Nigerian parents, as "200% Italian".
Unfortunately, many in Italy do not think the same.

Minefield

One of the favourite chants for racist fans is: "There are no black Italians".
But this assertion is increasingly being proved wrong. In Italy, citizenship is still about having Italian blood, and is not dependent on where individuals were born.

For those born in Italy to non-Italian parents, there is a long and complicated bureaucratic process at the age of 18 to request Italian citizenship.
While Narcisio is Italian in the eyes of the law Emeka, at 25, is still waiting to gain his citizenship.
He shrugs off racism as something that happens, admitting that in Italy, black people are still "treated like outsiders and it's difficult to integrate fully".
"But you have to go on with life," he adds.
In a country where Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi famously described US President Barack Obama as "tanned", it is perhaps not surprising that tackling racism is a minefield.
Writer Francesco Pacifico says the concept of racism is different in Italy. He says it is difficult to eradicate racist attitudes because "in Italy there is no notion of a few rotten apples... we're all rotten apples".
"Everything is so blurred and impossible to reform in a way, and authorities of all kinds know that. That left-wing spirit which just wants to do as if we were a northern European country is misled, because that is not the reality."
Casteltodino's Francesco Ribeca says that with the economic interests of top flight football, the "money factories" of Serie A would probably not be favourable to stopping matches every time a racist insult was hurled.
Seen in this light, perhaps it is easier to understand why it is so rare for teams like Casteltodino to stand up to be counted in Italy's anti-racist struggle.
BBC

BNP IN VOTE ON WHITES-ONLY POLICY

The British National Party is due to decide on whether to scrap its whites-only membership policy.

The far-right party is due to hold an extraordinary general meeting for members to vote on proposed changes to its constitution that would allow black and Asian people to join.
The meeting was arranged after the Central London County Court told the BNP to amend its constitution to comply with race relations laws or face legal action by the Equality and Human Rights Commission

After the hearing on January 28, the BNP rushed out letters to its 14,000 members in order to allow for the 14 days needed to alert them to the proposed changes.
But there remained queries over whether the amended version would go far enough to appease lawyers from the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Further changes are likely to be needed at the meeting, which is to be held at a secret location.

The Express

Riots in Germany by Neo-Nazi group

Recently we posted items about the potential chances of violence because of a march by a neo-nazi group in Germany. The group who wanted to remember the allied bombing of Dresden has been a controversial issue. Today the neo-Nazi group proved why they should not been allowed to march.

As posted by the BBC
More than 1000 neo-Nazis were confronted by around 10,000 of their left-wing opponents as they protested in Dresden on the 65th anniversary of the Allied bombing at the end of World War II.

More than 5,000 police were dispatched to try to prevent the groups from clashing but there have been scuffles on the streets and damage to property.



BBC

Are the UAF effective in their opposition of the BNP?

An article appeared in the Telegraph newspaper’s online site yesterday (12th February 2010) questioning how effective, and even necessary, the opposition to the BNP is by United Against Fascism (UAF).

Andrew Gilligan makes some very valid points about the BNP needing media attention to increase both their numbers and their credibility, and how this was impressively achieved during the 'Nick Griffin on Question Time' fiasco by members of the UAF and other protestors staging a huge demonstration outside the BBC. Having said that, the media were already in a frenzy over the rights and wrongs of the situation long before UAF members got dragged out of the BBC building by their feet. The BNP are controversial, and controversy sells newspapers; the BNP makes headlines whether the UAF are involved or not. The UAF cannot be blamed for that.

I completely agree with his assertion that the best way to combat the BNP and their vile policies is with reasoned argument and discussion with people in areas where there are high levels of BNP support, as Searchlight do so well.

But I cannot help thinking that allowing Nick Griffin and other BNP members to speak publicly with no visible opposition sends a clear message to the people Searchlight do not have time to individually canvas. Surely ensuring the BNP are always surrounded by controversy and opposition is a good message to send to the citizens of the UK??

There are many ways to oppose racism and bigotry, and while the UAF may not be to everyone's taste, they are always there to highlight the hypocrisy of the British National Party actually standing for a small minority of British people's beliefs.

UAF website.

Europe is winning the fight against fascism – BNP take note!

In an interview on Russian TV Dr Efraim Zuroff, a Nazi hunter and historian, states that fascism and racism is not as much of a problem now as it was 30 years ago. He repeatedly reassures the reporter in the interview below (which is conducted in English) that far-right groups are very much marginalized and hold no political power within Europe.



It can appear, looking at the stories that surface on a daily basis from around the world that fascism is on the rise everywhere, especially here in the UK with media coverage being given to the controversial and abhorrent British National Party (BNP). But the truth is we just have more access to the information. The Internet and an ever increasing number of news networks ensure we are fully informed in a way previous generations could not have imagined.

A recent documentary on Channel 4 (Young, Angry and White) followed a young British man who was openly racist and considering joining the BNP. In the program he takes part in a National Front march, stating that 30 years ago this march attracted 1,500 people. Today they get maybe 150 (the documentary can be seen on the on the link below for the next 4 weeks only). Our societies are becoming increasingly multi-racial, and most of us are happy with that, with an increasing number of mixed race families and children in all walks of life. In any community the racists and bigots are in the minority but they are the ones that shout loudest and make the most sensational headlines on TV and in newspapers.

Of course this does not mean we should rest on our laurels after a job well done. Since the Race Relations Act was passed in the UK in the 1970’s there have been massive improvements in attitudes within the UK both on a personal and governmental level but there is still more to do. We must make sure our children are not taught it is OK to hate people because of their colour, sexuality or other arbitrary differences.

Most people have access to the internet, and can see for ourselves the horrors of the Nazi regime in the Second World War, not to mention the atrocities carried out in many countries since then in the name of ‘ethic cleansing’ or genocide. And decent people reject this version of the world, preferring to stand up for equality of human rights and the freedom to practice any religion people chose to follow, providing it does not cause anyone else harm.

We are wining the fight, but have to accept that we will never wipe out racism and hatred entirely however we must continue to do everything we can to make sure bigotry stays in the shadows and never becomes accepted in any society.

Young Angry & White Channel 4

RT

Turning a blind eye on the campaign trail as BNP targets prize seat (UK)

British National Party activists are gathered outside the Underground station, smirking and smoking. A black man spits, twice, at their feet. “Yeah, I know who you are,” he says accusingly.

Does that happen a lot? “What’s that?” asks Richard Barnbrook, a big wheel in the party and an elected member of the Greater London Authority. That man just spat at you. “No! Deliberately?” Yes.

“I didn’t notice,” he mumbles, with a little shake of his head. “We actually get a very positive reaction from many older ethnic minority people here.”

Such a claim can soon be tested. Mr Barnbrook parades along the streets in his “trademark” beige suit which, he thinks, “adds to my charisma — everybody knows who I am”. An Asian woman shudders and moves off the pavement when she sees him approaching. A black father grabs his toddler’s hand and guides her to the other side of the road. A group of teenagers ride by on bikes, yelling obscenities. “Maybe I get a few funny looks, every now and then,” Mr Barnbrook concedes cheerfully.

Welcome to Barking, a suburban town that the BNP wants to make its own, where truth — as well as whole sections of the local population — can be just inconvenient obstacles to be sidestepped or swept away.

The decision by Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, to stand as a parliamentary candidate in Barking has inevitably brought the poison of racial politics ever closer to the surface of an already pockmarked eastern outpost of London.
At the general election in 2005, Mr Barnbrook was only 27 votes away from claiming second place ahead of the Tories. In the following year the BNP grabbed nine of the 30 borough councillor posts in the wards that make up the seat. The party secured an average 41 per cent of the vote in seven contested wards, compared with 33 per cent for Labour.
This is why Mr Griffin abandoned the North West, where he was elected as an MEP last year, and elbowed Mr Barnbrook aside for the chance to stand in Barking. It is where the BNP believes that white working-class alienation can be best exploited to gain a first crucial foothold in Westminster.
Margaret Hodge, the Labour MP for almost 16 years and veteran of many battles in a political career stretching over four decades, recognises that she is in the fight of her life. “We face a real threat from the BNP,” she says. “Griffin is here because he thinks he can win.”

She has, in the past, been criticised for relying too heavily on the black and Asian vote. There have been complaints that she has amplified “BNP propaganda” with efforts to address white voters’ sense of unfairness. Last week she called for immigrants to earn the right to benefits or council housing over several years so that “local people” have higher priority.

Ms Hodge’s campaign has not been helped by an often dysfunctional relationship with Jon Cruddas, the MP for neighbouring Dagenham, who argues that Labour’s appeal should be around shared economic interests, not racial identity. But she has been more visible lately than before, opening a campaign office after the council elections and doubling party membership locally to about 400. Although a number of the party’s older councillors have been purged and are threatening to run as independents, Ms Hodge says Labour has been revitalised. “I’m so proud. We have all had to raise our game.”
Differences within Labour have been put aside because they are far outweighed by the need to “lance the boil” of the BNP. “I am really fearful that if they get a hold here, Barking would become a no-go area for the rest of Britain,” Ms Hodge says. “They bring division and violence.”
There has been talk of Conservative and Liberal Democrat candidates pulling out of the election to present a united front against racism. The consensus among them, however, appears to be that this would merely reinforce Mr Griffin’s claims that the Establishment is ganging up on him.
A greater concern for Labour is the candidacy of the Rev George Hargreaves, leader of the Christian Party, who has strong links to the big Pentecostalist churches proliferating in the area and who may shave away significant numbers of black voters from Labour. “I would much rather he was not standing,” Ms Hodge says.
Barking’s menagerie of candidates will also include Frank Maloney, the former boxing promoter, who is standing for the UK Independence Party. He launched his campaign by challenging Mr Griffin to a fist fight and with a poster that spelt Britain as Britian. The BNP enjoys pointing out that error, but should not laugh too loud. Mr Griffin launched his own campaign for Barking last year in Dagenham, having got confused about the constituency boundaries.
There is much to ridicule about a party that has only recently started wearing suits in an effort to be taken seriously. Council meetings here have descended into farce on occasion. Some BNP councillors — the official opposition — have fallen out among themselves, walked out or been thrown out for misconduct.
On the doorstep Mr Barnbrook mixes talk about wheelie bins with a promise to put immigrant families in tower blocks because, he alleges, they got homes in a Labour plot to flood the constituency with non-whites. Has he got any evidence? “Yes, through our freedom of information requests. But I can’t disclose it at this time because of data protection laws.”
Outside his house, easily recognisable by the St George and Union flags, Mr Barnbrook insists — a little unconvincingly — that he is not bitter about Mr Griffin taking over as parliamentary candidate.
“Only Nick has got an ego big enough to deal with sitting alone in the Commons,” he says. “And, anyway, to control the council would be far more prestigious. I’m better with people, I have more charisma.” So how does he get on with his neighbours? “Great,” he replies. “We have black and Muslim families living here. I get on with everybody.”
A few inquiries at homes nearby suggests that this is not quite true. One black man says that he feels uneasy leaving his young family on their own because “a lot of people come to that house, I don’t like the way they look at my children”. A few doors down, a woman says: “I’m scared of them. Please don’t print my name.”
Mr Barnbrook may try to be nice. He clearly believes in the powers of all that charisma and his special suit. The BNP is ridiculous — even pathetic. But when fomenting such fear and loathing, it is not funny.

Times Online

Germany: How to fight neo-Nazis?

BERLIN, Germany — The government of the state of Bavaria has said it will soon request that Germany's highest courts ban the country's largest far-right party, the National Democratic Party (NPD), for subverting the tenets of the national constitution.

It's a policy that is popular among most of the public, and has earned backing from both of the country's major parties. But it's also a course of action that most political elites acknowledge has little chance of success.

“There's very little chance of the courts accepting this argument,” said Wolfgang Hoffmann-Riem, a former justice on Germany's Constitutional Court.

This is not the first time the German government has considered how to position itself toward the crimes of the country's past. Indeed, the history of post-World War II Germany is fraught with morally dubious decisions toward the legacy of Nazism — from Konrad Adenauer's choice in the 1950s to avoid a thorough de-Nazification of his government, to the Red Army Fraction's campaign in the 1970s to purify West Germany of its Nazi-era sins by means of terrorism and murder.

Nonetheless, the contemporary German state has mostly tried in good faith to feel its way toward an ad hoc accomodation of its Nazi past, one that acknowledges the unique scourge of the Third Reich, while protecting the core freedoms of a liberal democracy. Symbols from the Nazi-era, such as the swastika or the “Heil Hitler” salute, are illegal in Germany, but far-right political groups have also been granted equal right to hold demonstrations to air their views. Holocaust denial is punishable by imprisonment, but neo-Nazi parties have been tolerated as long as they draw no explicit links with the Nazi regime.

The policies might sometimes may seem contradictory, but they are meant to hang together as a carefully managed compromise, one that pays respect both to the tragic origins and the decades-long success of the modern, democratic German state.

But, when it comes to the NPD, the country's largest far-right party, many Germans insist that the government redraw the boundaries between freedom of expression and historical deference. Indeed, the calls for action against the NPD have gotten louder in recent years, a development coincident with the party's increasing successes, especially in eastern Germany.

The party has earned seats in a number of state legislatures by winning more than 5 percent in several state-wide elections, which has also given it the right to receive government campaign financing. Charlotte Knoblauch, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, supports the renewed effort to ban the party, insisting that it's unacceptable that the party receives tax money to spread its “racist propoganda.”

However personally sympathetic German judges may be to such pleas, they say they can't do anything about the party unless the state can conclusively prove that it is explicitly subverting the German constitution. That sets the bar very high: Party leaders would have to be documented laying out plans to install a dictatorship, or belittling the victims of totalitarianism. Gathering such evidence in the public sphere is a madenning process, as NPD lawyers carefully monitor party rhetoric so that it tiptoes up to, without crossing, the legal boundaries.
The German government has tried other methods to gain damning evidence against the NPD, but those have only led to other legal difficulties. Indeed, an attempt by the federal government in 2003 to ban the party relied heavily on evidence gathered by government agents who operated as undercover spies within the NPD organization. The Constitutional Court claimed it couldn't distinguish between the government agents' observations of the NPD activities, and their own participation and possible instigation of those activities. Legal experts, including former justice Hoffmann-Riem, have suggested that the very fact that undercover government agents are still in force in the NPD organization means that any legal case against the party would be weakened from the get-go.
Interestingly, it's primarily politicians from eastern Germany, where the NPD is strongest, who have most strongly resisted calls to ban the party. They argue that the only sustainable way to combat neo-Nazi radicalism is through the normal channels of the liberal state — namely, open debate and argument. “Even if you banned the NPD party, they would just rename themselves and come back the next week,” said Andreas Adammer, a resident of Potsdam in the state of Brandenburg, where the NPD has enjoyed success in past elections.
Of course, the contrasting strategies for dealing with the NPD can and will most likely be pursued in parallel. Indeed, while Bavaria pursues its case against the NPD, some 8000 neo-Nazis are expected to gather in Dresden Saturday to mark the 65th anniversary of the Allied bombing of that city in the final year of World War II. A police presence will be on hand to ensure that the Nazi sympathizers have the opportunity to air their slogans, which compare Allied firebombing to Nazi atrocities. But, they are also expected to be met by a group of counter-protesters whose numbers will double their own.
 
originaly posted by By Cameron Abadi at globalpost.com