NEWS & LETTERS, October - November 2009
World in View
Neo-fascism in UK
by Gerry Emmett
On Sept. 11, anti-fascists and local residents battled members of the neo-fascist English Defense League (EDL) in Harrow, northwest London. The EDL had targeted a new mosque for attack. Similar fighting has broken out in a number of other cities in recent weeks.
While the violent radical Right is again visible, the British National Party (BNP) has taken a different tack. Taking cues from other European neo-fascist groups like the French National Front, Belgian Vlaams Belang, and Austrian Freedom Party, Nick Griffin's BNP has engaged in an effort at "re-branding" itself.
The "new" BNP will "...use the saleable words: freedom, security, identity, democracy. Nobody can criticize them." It means downplaying traditional themes of anti-Semitism and racism in favor of a more fashionable prejudice against Muslims, and the non-existent "Islamification of Britain."
The cosmetic change has paid off in that the BNP has succeeded in winning two seats in the European Parliament along with 55 local offices. Other groups, like the EDL and Combat 18, have moved to fill the thug vacuum with attacks on immigrants, Muslims, Roma and Irish Republicans.
These British and European neo-fascists have found allies in the U.S., who also represent different strategies but the same racist ends, from David Duke to Patrick Buchanan.
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