Until recently, I didn’t pay much attention to the UK’s
anti-fascist groups. I knew little more about them than that they
opposed the racialist British National Party.
BNP
The BNP’s success in 2009 (where they gained two members of
the European Parliament) seems to have been their undoing – the party
has fractured and been rocked by in-fighting ever since.
Former BNP MEP Andrew Brons was reported in the Telegraph
as saying that “80 or 90 per cent of the party’s members, activists and
former officials had left it”
According to Wikipedia, The BNP can now only boast one MEP
and two councillors. Their membership teeters on the brink at 4200. I
predict they will lose their remaining MEP in 2014.
Antifascists
British ‘antifascists’ then surely have two choices –
congratulate themselves on a job well done and retire from their
activities or go after the National Front, a party that has seen a
massive resurgence of late.
National Front
The resurgence of the National Front was stimulated by the
BNP’s 2010 decision to start accepting non-white members. It was also
flooded with BNP defectors dismayed by constant infighting. The party
has been holding dozens of street stalls across the nation in 2013 in
locations as diverse as Wigan and Swansea.
Recently however, anti-fascists seem to have taken the
bizarre decision to target the moderate UK Independence Party or UKIP
instead.
UKIP
Nick Lowles, director of Hope Not Hate said in a Huffington
post article : “Ukip is not a far right party, or even intrinsically
racist.” Former Labour MEP Glyn Ford, now the UAF’s Europe officer has
said “Ukip are not a fascist party”.
On a Channel Four news discussion in May 2013, the
well-known Anti-fascist campaigner Matthew Collins said: “They [UKIP]
are not a fascist organisation…they are very different to the BNP in a
lot of ways” Diane Abbot MP said at the United Against Fascism
conference “UKIP is obviously not a Fascist party”.
So why target UKIP?
So if we are not a fascist or far right party, why target
UKIP? I believe the answer is simple – many of these anti-fascist groups
are linked to the extreme left and militant elements within the Labour
party. While UKIP concentrated on taking donors, votes and councillors
from The Conservative party these groups said nothing.
When we started gaining support in the North of England,
much of which is traditionally Labour controlled, suddenly there were
hastily-arranged meetings held by these groups in which the main topic
of conversation was the increase in UKIP support. These actions are not
motivated by anti-fascist ideology at all. Anti-fascists are being
cynically used by extreme left politicians for no other reason than they
like their jobs and want to continue drawing in their huge salaries.
Nigel Farage & UKIP’s Eastleigh candidate, Diane James
Some facts about UKIP
Unlike the BNP, UKIP have never had a whites only member
policy. Our membership rules prevent ex-BNP and National Front members
from being members of UKIP. We have black and ethnic minority
candidates and seek to rebuild links with the commonwealth. While we do
want to reduce immigration, we don’t want a closed door or forced
repatriation.
In summary then, UKIP are being targeted unfairly for
purely party political reasons – and I would urge all genuine
anti-fascists to do their own homework on these issues instead of
relying on wealthy Labour and communist apparatchiks to tell you who to
oppose.
