Unite Against Fascism briefing: BNP meltdown in 2011 elections INTRODUCTION The 2011 elections were a humiliation for the fascist British National Party (BNP). The results are a victory for all the anti- fascist campaigners who have distributed hundreds of thousands of leaflets and tabloids urging voters to Stop the BNP. The election disaster will only add to the scale of the crisis inside the party. The BNP suffered its worse set of local election results since it first stood significant numbers of candidates in 2002. It was wiped out in its key target city of Stoke-on-Trent and is reduced to only one councillor in Burnley — once considered a BNP powerbase. This defeat for the BNP comes after years of a patient and principled UAF campaign that exposed them as Nazis. The UAF are proud to have worked with local and national organisations to mobilise as wide as possible participation in the campaign to stop them. The BNP was already reeling from crisis to crisis ahead of the polls. In March, long-standing Nazi and BNP MEP Andrew Brons, warned the party faithful that bitter infighting could bring the BNP to “an ignominious end before the end of this year”. The party has also been wracked with financial and legal problems. The BNP stood more than 268 candidates across the country — far fewer than the 744 it put up when the same seats were contested in 2007. It struggled in many areas to get its campaign off the ground, with activists divided and demoralised and leader Nick Griffin under fire from his troops. The results will further intensify the crisis and weaken the BNP — its future looks bleak, with more strife to come. But antifascists cannot be complacent. The BNP’s electoral Nick Griffin flees the Frontline Club in January (top) during an support is clearly declining. The only way it will be resurrected emergency protest called by UAF. Griffin was due to speak at a about his 2010 election campaign in east London. The BNP were wiped out in is if mainstream political parties make concessions to racism that Stoke-on-Trent following a long campaign by antifascists (above). serve to legitimise far-right and fascist parties and make them appear less extreme. grave concern. But David Cameron’s attack on multiculturalism shows that the The election campaign against the BNP has been important not scapegoating of Muslims and other communities remains a real just in driving home the party’s weakness, but also in beginning to problem. Lessons should be learnt from France where the Front undercut the EDL, which is strongest in areas where the BNP has National’s vote decreased in 2007, but concessions to racism by previously had more of a base. president Sarkozy — the ban against the full face veil and the Leaflets like those distributed in many thousands in Stoke have expulsion of Roma communities — has led to an increase in the labelled the BNP as the Nazis they are. But they have also argued FN’s vote. clearly against the anti-Muslim racism on which the EDL as well as the BNP seeks to build. EDL street thugs We should cheer our success against the BNP — but we must Alongside the visible crumbling of the BNP over the last couple of also step up campaigning against the racists and fascists of the years, we have seen the dangerous growth of the English Defence EDL. League (EDL) — the racist thugs with fascists in its midst — whose leader “Tommy Robinson” is a former BNP member. 2011 Electoral wipe-out The BNP’s election collapse is likely to add to the drain of The BNP won no new seats on 5 May, retaining only two of the former members into the EDL. Fascist elements in the EDL have 11 seats it was defending. It lost all of its seats in Stoke-on-Trent, already been increasing their influence inside the organisation, one in Boston, one in Burnley, and two in Leicester. The only two “hardening up” its members and directing them against other seats it successfully defended were in Queensberry in Bradford traditional fascist targets, such as trade unionists and socialists as and East Goscote in Charnwood, where they sneaked in with five well as ethnic minorities. votes. EDL members recently invaded the News From Nowhere In less than 12 months the BNP have lost 12 seats in Barking bookshop in Liverpool — the area’s main trade union and labour and Dagenham council, and in the last 18 months been taken movement bookshop — to intimidate staff and customers. They from nine members to none in Stoke-on-Trent. The BNP have have targeted a host of towns and cities in their campaign of hate. not won a seat in Stoke since 2008 and have lost the last two They attacked a peaceful lobby of the French embassy over the elections for council seats in the Hapton with Park ward in banning of the veil and attempted to intimidate Muslim women. Burnley — where the last remaining BNP councillor will be up Every antifascist will celebrate the BNP’s miserable election for election in 2012 — the BNP had 8 councillors in 2003. results. But the growth and direction of the EDL are cause for Around the country, BNP votes have slumped, with candidates often reaching only half or less of the percentages they took in UAF Wales 2007 — the last time the same seats were contested. distributed some The BNP still has 13 councillors — one on Charnwood council, tens of thousands of special election two on Amber Valley council, one on Epping Forest council, one tabloids in the on Burnley council, two on Pendle council, one on Nuneaton & months leading up Bedworth council, one on Calderdale council, one on Rotherham to the elections. council and two in the Queensbury ward on Bradford council. The BNP councillor in Three Rivers council was not up for election on 5 May. Barnsley, where the BNP has been strong in the past, saw the party stand 19 candidates this time, polling an average of 8.8 percent, almost half their 16 percent average across 18 seats in 2007. And in cities such as Liverpool and York, every single fascist candidate got less than 5 percent. Two English Democrat candidates — one of them a former BNP councillor — were elected on low votes of just 195 and 231 votes in the Fenside ward of Boston, Lincolnshire. There were no other gains for the English Democrats, the white supremacist England First Party (EFP) or the old-time Nazis of the National Front (NF). National CAMPAIGN Antifascist campaigners were out delivering the last rounds of leaflets up to the eve of election day. In Stoke-on-Trent antifascists delivered one thousand leaflets a day during the run-up to the election (see Stoke report below). In Leicestershire, UAF activists and local trade unionists reported a positive response, with residents and various people said they were sick and tired of the BNP. In Arun, West Sussex, local trade union reps from the CWU, PCS and NUT unions joined other antiracists to sign a joint statement headed: “The BNP are Not Welcome In Arun”. Thousands of copies of the statement were distributed along with UAF’s “Don’t Vote BNP” leaflet as UAF supporters, Labour Party and trade union activists went door-to-door and ran high- street stalls to counter the BNP’s election campaign. The local campaign to stop the BNP has been widely welcomed and a UAF public meeting is planned in the area for after the elections. The BNP stood candidates in 12 wards in Bristol last year, but this time around they have managed to stand only one, in Thousands of leafleats Filbrook ward. were distributed in Stoke-on-Trent leaflet Residents gave antifascist campaigners the welcome news that there had been no evidence of any campaigning by the local BNP candidate — no-one on the area had even seen a BNP leaflet. In the West Midlands, there has been an excellent campaign in Barpool, Nuneaton, to dislodge BNP councillor Martyn Findley. BNP vote in Local Elections: 2000-11 Antifascist activists including a local NUT official reported a heartening response from residents. Year Candidates Seats won Total Seats The BNP stood 24 candidates at the last council elections, and BNP election posters and boards were prominent. On 5 May, they 2000 17 0 0 fielded two candidates and not one BNP election poster has been sighted. UAF activists have worked to get the “Don’t Vote BNP” 2001 4 0 0 message into every household where the BNP is standing. 2002 67 3 3 PCS union members joined other antifascists to distribute anti-BNP leaflets in Dudley, and UAF has worked with 2003 217 13 16 Wolverhampton TUC, which produced campaign materials 2004 312 14 21 against the BNP. The BNP stood 15 candidates in Birmingham received an 2005 41 0 21 average of 5.3 percent of the poll. 2006 363 33 48 BNP defector 2007 744 10 50 In Leeds high-profile BNP defector Chris Beverley’s bid to take a seat for the English Democrats failed. Beverley, still apparently 2008 612 15 55 assistant to MEP Andrew Brons, came in third — well behind the 2010 745 2 25 first two candidates. Neither the BNP nor the English Democrats succeeded in the city. 2011 268 2 12 The English Democrats secured two seats in Boston’s Fenside ward on very low votes. Former BNP councillor David Owens 2001, 2005 and 2010 local polls were held on the same day as a general election, won on just 195 votes after defecting to the English Democrats, the high turnout led to the BNP winning less seats than in previous elections.