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By Jamal Okae
Staff writer: New Civilisation
jamal.okae@newcivilisation.com | |
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Over the past year the British National Party has repeatedly occupied a place in the media spotlight, and much discussion has taken place about the appropriate steps that government and civil society should take to address this far-right party. After the broadcast of the BBC documentary ‘The Secret Agent’ earlier this year, they achieved a new level of notoriety. The programme, showing secretly recorded footage of BNP members describing the violent attacks and harassment they had perpetrated, was the product of months of undercover work by Jason Gwynne, a BBC reporter, and Andy Sykes, a regional organiser for the BNP who had become disillusioned with their agenda. Following the broadcast the police launched investigations regarding the footage, and BNP members including its leader Nick Griffin, may face prosecution.
Earlier in the year, there was concern that protest votes could produce big gains for the BNP in the local and European elections in June. To avert this prospect the main parties entered into dialogue in order to form strategies to undermine the BNP, especially in sensitive constituencies. Trade unions and other civic organisations discussed methods to prevent their offices becoming platforms for the BNP or other racist parties. In tandem with this in the House of Lords, an amendment to the Employment Relations Bill was tabled in order to allow trade unions to expel BNP activists. Small protests took place outside BBC offices in different cities on Friday 28th May, opposing the airing of the BNP's party political broadcast on the terrestrial television channels.
In order to prevent major gains by the BNP in the June 10th elections, anti-Nazi organisations with the backing of some trade unions, coalesced into a platform entitled 'Unite against Fascism'. They were convinced that the best way to combat this fascist party was to deny it any voice in the public arena by all possible means, as well as expose its racist ideology whenever possible. In addition they called on people to ensure that they participated in the June 10th elections and voted for any party other than the BNP.
Since the broadcast of the programme, increased scrutiny of the party's activities and internal wrangling have placed the organisation in crisis. Prosecutions have been brought against members, its finances are under investigation and hardliners in the party claim that current leadership policies are a betrayal of their founding ideals. Those who blame the BNP for exacerbating racial tension and dividing communities will welcome the party's current problems. But it would be complacent to assume that those tensions will resolve even if this group were to disappear; in fact the BNP is a reflection of wider problems in society.
The British National Party activists are deeply committed to a narrow nationalistic agenda, which in their view requires that Britain be 'reclaimed' from a hostile, culturally deviant elite. In their view, because the elite's Capitalist predilections (though at times the BNP refers to them as Marxists) require them to seek cheap labour from abroad, they blithely imperil the very existence of Britain as a nation, without giving thought to the result for the ordinary man in the street. While racism, casual or otherwise may be prevalent in British society, preserving the 'purity' of British blood is not high on the agenda of most people. For nationalists such as the BNP, their motivation for involvement in politics is allegiance to and the preservation of, their national group. The issues that will win them support be it immigration, crime and the like are actually secondary to their goal of a pure nation, free from miscegenation. The fact that they do not draw on their views of race and nationality when canvassing is not simply because people will oppose them, in actuality for most people, preservation of the race is not usually the highest item on their list of priorities. For this reason, as well as the need to avoid litigation, the BNP have moved away from overt racism in public. Whereas in the past they would call on people to confront the danger of non-white immigration, now their approach is more subtle. They draw on popular concern about other issues, preferably ones that can be linked to a racial or cultural dimension, in order to gain the interest of potential voters, rather than expressing their doctrines towards race.
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