The violent and weird world of fascism....

I said at the time (not to you, of course) that there was more than meets the eye about the Tottenham Court Road siege last Friday... AND THERE WAS. The man involved was the BNP's 2010 General Election candidate for Stevenage, Michael Green. This is him pictured shortly after the end of the siege. I don't know about you but he looks to be at least topless. One of the things he is charged with is making a bomb hoax; semi-naked? That's some power of suggestion...

But seriously: yet another loony connected with Britain's far right has been found guilty (or in this case caught red handed) of plotting and/or carrying out murder and mayhem. Will our mass media keep portraying these scum as lone wolf madmen whose violence is incidental to their afilliations?

Elsewhere in fascist violence, read this statement by Lewisham Anti-Racist Action (via Transpontine). Last Saturday fifteen nazis assaulted two socialist pensioners (what a brave and noble master-race!):

Two local  anti-racist pensioners  were viciously attacked and hospitalised  this Saturday by racist thugs who said they were part of a group known as ‘March For England’ which is  very closely linked to English Defence League (EDL) and the BNP. Andy Smith, a retired teacher and active in Lewisham Pensioners’ Forum and the NUT was viciously attacked as well as another local pensioner.

The attack appears to be in response  to a planned Unite Against  Fascism event  across south London  whose aim was to  discourage  people from voting for or supporting far-right racist parties in the forthcoming London assembly elections.  It  follows  the humiliation they received in last week’s ‘March For England’ Brighton demonstration where 1000 anti-racists succeeded  in reducing the far-right march to a miserable  and defeated mob.

The attack happened during a busy Saturday on Lewisham High Street whilst manning a regular campaign stall, one that has been active for over thirty years in Lewisham and an integral part of the local community. Shortly after 12pm the stall was thrown to the floor by an individual loitering in the area and according to witnesses, already there waiting for the local activists to arrive.

A group, taking photographs and staring menacingly at the activists started to gather near the clock tower. Before too long, they passed the stall en masse at which point an altercation began, with shouts and heckling from the racist group. In response to Islamophobic statements one pensioner approached them and received a vicious head-butt as an answer, throwing him to the ground . Another pensioner  intervened and was quickly surrounded, man-handled and flung to the floor receiving a knock to the head. Both had to receive medical treatment for their injuries.

Earlier in the morning a photographer was also attacked by the same group of racists and had reported the attack to Lewisham police station...

LARAG is arranging a coach from Lewisham to Luton next Saturday May 5th to join the counter-demonstration to the planned EDL march there.  Call 07508 633 045 to book a ticket.

That's a point! National anti-Fascist demo, Luton, Saturday, definitely, be there!

The weird world of nazis

Or it's really is a mad, mad, mad, mad reich... Last night Panorama broadcast another show about the British Nazi Party. It was generally instructive; professional fraud, amateur kidnapping, lies and general nastiness (what, no solidarity among the master race?). The climactic scene was fittingly menacing and bizarre. The reporter managed to secure a meeting to put various accusations to Nick Griffin. He was led a merry dance round various carparks of Greater Leicester by BNP security men until they reached a hotel. Once inside their furher read out a brief, whacky, paranoid statement in front of some cameras before hot-footing, leaving his goons to surround and intimidate the reporter and his crew.

There was only one problem, the documentary deliberately left aside the issue of racism and fascism. There is no apart-from-the-violent-racism with the BNP. You cannot interview loonies like Mark Collett (Mark "AIDS is a friendly disease because blacks, drug users and gays have it" Collett) like they're just members of the public... Unless, of course, you're a BBC reporter.