What will HnH say after Euros??

[elbows]

I'm astonished that lowles can write this with a straight face.

Dear oh dear, even my flawed analysis before the results came in showed that the best they could have achieved was 3 or 4 seats.

I gues they think its important to keep the morale of the troops up, fearful that if more people give up then the fascists will do even better.

Never mind that the distorted picture they paint increases cynicism which fuels fascism further.

 

[frogwoman]

And so it starts:



I'm astonished that lowles can write this with a straight face.

 

[Louis MacNeice]

And so it starts:



I'm astonished that lowles can write this with a straight face.

Cruddas was just on the World at One saying what a bad result it was for the BNP; there seem to be a lot of people in denial.

Cheers - Louis MacNeice

 

[JimPage]

Cruddas was just on the World at One saying what a bad result it was for the BNP; there seem to be a lot of people in denial.

Cheers - Louis MacNeice

Cruddas said the BNP vote numbers were actually down, in reality they increased from 808,000 to 943,598

 

[durruti02]

"The BNP set out believing that they could win seven or eight MEPs. As the expenses scandal broke they increased this to 12."

this is the absolute pits .. really real bullshit lies .. indefensible

 

[durruti02]

"I don't know about anyone else but I didn't get any sleep last night. I would like to say that I can't believe it but we faced an uphill struggle from the beginning. I remember telling people that we were facing a perfect political storm, what with the economy, the lack of accompanying local elections and a general disinterest/dislike in the European Union - and that was before the expenses scandal and the implosion of the Labour Party in the last few days.

Our campaign this year was quite phenomenal. We distributed 3,400,000 newspapers and leaflets. Over 50,000 have now signed into our campaign. We placed anti-BNP articles in the national newspapers on a daily basis and our eve of poll email was sent to 600,000 people.

I genuinely believe that we made a difference. The BNP set out believing that they could win seven or eight MEPs. As the expenses scandal broke they increased this to 12. That they failed to reach these numbers is testament to the thousands of people who took part in the HOPE not hate campaign. And we almost stopped Griffin. He only got in by just 1,200 votes.

Anyway, today is a new day. We are already regrouping and planning the campaign ahead. There will be regional meetings in the next few weeks to organise the next stage of our campaign. We want to bring some of the thousands of new supporters together with existing activists and local anti-BNP groups. We need to turn ourselves outwards and go into the communities where the BNP got their support and do the hard unglamorous work that will be vital if we are to reduce the BNP vote in the future.

The BNP made a significant breakthrough yesterday but without our collective work it could have been far worse. But now a new fight must begin."

 

[butchersapron]

Latest Searchlight, hints of reality finally dawning on Lowles, but analysis fatally undermined thoughout by understanding of local compaigning simply meaning using the local establishment to deliver locally targetted HnH leaflets, rather than the nationally produced ones. Suggests No Platform is now tactically wrong, that the rallies, pickets festivals etc is also, in these conditions, a wasted of scant resources and that a new set of priorities needs to be developed (community work as understood above basically). That existing political need not to be challenged but to encouraged...some relevant quotes:

It is also important to dispel two widely (though separately) held assumptions. Firstly, this is not the protest vote against mainstream parties and useless locally elected representatives that many politicians would like us to believe. It is an increasingly hard and loyal vote which is based on political and economic insecurities and moulded by deep-rooted racial prejudice.

Class politics exists but not as we once knew it. The Labour Party, in line with many other centre-left parties across western European and Scandinavia, draws the bulk of its support from the middle class, public sector workers and minority communities, especially in the big cities. The BNP, on the other hand, is the voice of a section of the white working class, particularly in those areas of traditional industry that have experienced the greatest economic and social upheaval over the past twenty years.

Addressing the widespread economic insecurities, solving the democratic deficit and forging new progressive identities requires public policy changes that are beyond the remit of the HOPE not hate campaign and anti-fascism generally. We can mobilise the anti-BNP vote and even sometimes suppress the pro-BNP vote but we cannot build houses and reduce waiting lists; we cannot prevent undercutting of wages and the abuse of migrant workers. Local anti-fascist movements cannot get resources into communities, often the poorest, dealing with extraordinary levels of migration.

That is the job of politicians and political parties. It is their failure currently to do so that is resulting in the increasing tribalism of local politics along racial and religious lines.

To begin to undermine local BNP support we also have to build alliances within the community. Local anti-BNP groups need to be accepted and even respected. Every community has key movers and shakers and spending a bit of time cultivating relationships with these people will open new opportunities, allow our message to be widened considerably, potentially increase our activist base and give us a regular flow of information to rebut BNP myths and lies.

 

[butchersapron]

..and now, how not to combat the BNP...

(Complete with terryfitz making an idiot of himself)

 

[JimPage]

Latest Searchlight, hints of reality finally dawning on Lowles, but analysis fatally undermined thoughout by understanding of local compaigning simply meaning using the local establishment to deliver locally targetted HnH leaflets, rather than the nationally produced ones. :

Read as a whole, its actually quite a challenging article, with some truths which need to be heard in there. If you can ignore where it comes from that is

The key is that things did change when they were elected into Europe.

As it goes, I think the state and its agencies will move within the next few months to formally ban or mor elikely bankrupt the BNP by administative and legal means

 

[butchersapron]

I welcome the Lowles piece, and i sense he's challenging others within the searchlight network by writing it - esp whe you read things like this

Hopefully some will emerge as local organisers, committed to the localised strategy ahead. Old hands must be encouraged to support new organisers and we will be providing an organising and leadership programme in every region of the country.

but, we heard the same thing last May...then next month it was back to normal. There is a whole training/organising/recruitmnt plan mentioned this time though.

 

[The39thStep]

..and now, how not to combat the BNP...

(Complete with terryfitz making an idiot of himself)

That terryfitz is a right nob. Sad to see the denial on that thread, apparntly it was working class Tories that voted BNP not former Labour supporters

 

[butchersapron]

Thread on SUN about the new Searchlight doc.

Seems to me that the last week has seen the mainstream anti-fascist left swing behind the view that the BNP vote is a simple hard racist vote, a position emboldended by a yougov survey of less than 1000 BNP voters - all the stuff about the social motivations that the survey reveals largely ignored. And that this entails, as a priority for their activity, being against racism, a linking up with the mainstream parties each section having a different function. Is this where the warped UAF/HnH approach takes it's first steps towards open coalition with the lib-dems and tories as well as the existing one with labour?

Anyway, the perspective is shining clear and true - don't worry about actually constructing an independent w/c politics to deal with the issues producing the far right, rather, work towards mobilising a pre-existing 'anti-fascist majority' with the help of the existing parties and winston chuchill and Baroness Thatcher (it'd be cyncial to see this as a way to get back ino the game of wider politics wouldn't it?).

Not a lesson learned. Nothing.

 

[ViolentPanda]

I notice that Searchlight are still hanging on to their belief that the BNP vote is effectively the sole work of elements of the working class. How convenient for them.

 

[treelover]

Seems to me that the last week has seen the mainstream anti-fascist left swing behind the view that the BNP vote is a simple hard racist vote

So all the 300 people at the Griffin meeting in barnsley were 'hardened racists' mmmm...

 

[durruti02]

Latest Searchlight, hints of reality finally dawning on Lowles, but analysis fatally undermined thoughout by understanding of local compaigning simply meaning using the local establishment to deliver locally targetted HnH leaflets, rather than the nationally produced ones. Suggests No Platform is now tactically wrong, that the rallies, pickets festivals etc is also, in these conditions, a wasted of scant resources and that a new set of priorities needs to be developed (community work as understood above basically). That existing political need not to be challenged but to encouraged...some relevant quotes:

hmm .. how differrent is it from this in 2008

http://www.searchlightmagazine.com/index.php?link=template&story=233

http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=253098&highlight=lowles

 

[butchersapron]

Not at all.

On. we go ourselves then. They missed the last great chance to kick it over because they're brickies.

 

[treelover]

http://www.davidosler.com/

Good article on Dave Oslers blog

 

[durruti02]

Not at all.

On. we go ourselves then. They missed the last great chance to kick it over because they're brickies.

they are trying this strategy in Hackney .. without success as far as i can see

 

[butchersapron]

Just notice3d more amazingness from the latest Searchlight - this time from the editorial:

The BNP has two MEPs but in many ways the anti-BNP campiagn won...The BNP won two European seats but we have a stronger campiagn as a result

 

[DotCommunist]

standard guff for politickers ennit 'in a way, this defeat is a victory'

 

[Pickman's model]

a couple of points, which i'd like to make.

firstly, whatever the result and however well the bnp do, i don't think searchlight and hnh are going to make more than superficial changes. how can they? although some members of the searchlight team, eg graeme atkinson, may have cut their teeth in more forward action against the fash, the political, organisational, psychological - and above all bureaucratic - apparatus they have built up prevents them taking on board ideas which the iwca and afa floated in the 1990s. frankly, they cannot lead a successful campaign against the bnp imo for a number of reasons:

* they cannot be seen to break the law. basic, but i think this holds them back.
* they are so wedded to parties and organisations like the unions and labour that severing that link, even in the context of a massive failure and of (most) unions and all of labour being at best a hindrance in effective opposition to the bnp, is to them unthinkable.
* the fight is no longer on terms hnh & searchlight are familiar with. holocaust denial is in reality yesterday's bat to whack the bnp with. it's been used so many times it no longer has any significant value. as nick griffin's been at pains to point out, the bnp is much more than simply an anti-immigration party. they are hard at work in communities on issues which resonate with members of the (white) working class, for example their support for the rspca in east london. any campaign to effectively counter the bnp must come from the bottom up, not the top down, and it is difficult, at least, to see how hnh or searchlight can manage that.
* which leads me onto the searchlight/hnh need for control. it was all very well searchlight working with afa when afa was compliant. when the anl mk 2 was established, searchlight had a massive pop at them, because the anl were not within the searchlight sphere of control. when things changed, searchlight made vile accusations against veteran anti-fascists in the afa milieu and supported the trot grouping. any campaign against the bnp, no matter how it manifests itself, has to be responsive to local conditions and therefore operationally independent of any institution where it is active. this searchlight would not permit to occur - it would rather see an ineffective campaign under its own leadership than an effective one under someone else's or none.

secondly, the parliamentary scandals and resulting increased disaffection for 'mainstream' political parties has i feel affected the ability of searchlight and its front groups to work effectively. i don't believe they comprehend the hatred for politicians which has erupted over the past few months. the links between labour and uaf and hnh and searchlight are thus an obstacle to their future development of any influence within the people who matter in this issue, the white working class.

 

[durruti02]

yep makes sense