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news
1st September 2005
Unity crucial to defeat the BNP
By Paul Mackney, General Secretary NATFHE
The BNP’s electoral gains in May 2005 passed almost without comment. Yet although the BNP failed again to secure any meaningful foothold in national politics, they did succeed in both achieving a higher far right vote than any previous general election, and in getting far right language adopted by mainstream politics.
‘If the trend of legitimising racist policies is allowed to continue, it will just be a matter of time before the BNP make a national breakthrough’
It is extremely easy to dismiss the BNP as a small, ephemeral group of far right extremists. Indeed, their past local election successes have relied heavily on voter apathy and grumblings about local services. However the 2005 general election showed how dangerous it is to underestimate the support far right politics can gather around election time by praying on fears and insecurities. Recently the BNP have begun generating more widespread support, fielding 119 candidates in the election, on a manifesto of racism and xenophobia. They won 192,750 votes in total — four times that in the 2001 general election.
For our part, NATFHE, the left and all those who oppose the far right’s politics of hate have been fighting back, working with national campaigning originations like Unite Against Fascism (UAF). The two recent local council elections in Beacontree and Goresbrook showed how strong the anti-fascist movement can be when standing alongside the local community. In the second of these elections the BNP shamefully used images of the London bombing to whip up hate and racism. They were soundly beaten by a united anti-racist campaign.
All of this is occurring against the insidious drip-drip of dehumanising asylum seekers and migrants by mainstream political parties and a mass media whose headlines talk daily of ‘swamping’, ‘cheats’, ‘bogus’, ‘illegal’ and ‘floods’. A key lesson of the twentieth century is that it is dangerous to play with fascism or give credence to its ideologies. What happens now, after the London bombings in July, will be crucial. NATFHE moved quickly to condemn the atrocities, but also warned against any racist backlash.
Put simply, if we relax our guard, and the trend of legitimising racist policies is allowed to continue, it will just be a matter of time before the BNP make a national breakthrough. Left unchecked, support for them will continue to rise.
So where do unions go from here? Some argue that the most important thing now is to challenge the BNP through a series of campaigns based on local issues. Others argue that we need anti-fascism aimed at white voters. The only certainty is that with the BNP scoring high votes in almost every area they stand, a national united response is required. We need to build a campaign uniting all people who are threatened by fascism and leave our differences outside the door.
Many unions now have a policy of expelling organised fascists. NATFHE holds that membership of the BNP or any other fascist organisation is incompatible with membership of NATFHE. Policy supports any member who will not teach a fascist activist and any student who does not want to study with one. NATFHE welcomed recent changes to the Employment Relations Bill which amended the laws on exclusion and expulsion of workers — so where they are members of far right political organisations the union can choose not to allow them to join, or exclude them from membership.
‘We need to build a campaign uniting all people who are threatened by fascism and leave our differences at the door’
But as individuals we all have a part to play in defeating the BNP. You can distribute your union’s anti-racist material among work-places, lobby your MPs about their stance on immigration, citizenship and terror, join and get your branch to affiliate to Unite Against Fascism and get involved in grassroots campaigns in your area.
The challenges are to recognise the threat of the BNP and confront their racism head on, learn from the effective strategies for beating the BNP and finally to do whatever in our power to reverse the growing tide of racism on which the BNP thrive. This is a big task, but with a clear anti-fascist focus we can win.
From Campaign Group News, September 2005.
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