MAKE no bones about it, the election of Grogan, Hughes and Edwards, three British National Party councilors, in Burnley, Lancashire, is a disaster.

Not since 1993 when Derek Beackon was elected in the Isle of Dogs, has the BNP had any councilors, and now, with one foul stroke, there are three of them.

People are making comparisons with the 17% poll for Jean Marie le Pen in France. All across Europe, from Berlusconi in Italy to Haider in Austria, the Far Right is making electoral gains. The backdrop to this has two major elements – rejection of traditional mainstream political parties, and the European Superstate. Under the 'lightning conductor theory', these problems find various expressions in different places, and in Burnley they have taken the Far Right form in Burnley, and now, concerted action is required by all people of good will, to counter this racist crisis. This is not the time for sectarian sniping, or dogma.

FESTUNG EUROPA

What can we do when Europe turns Fascist? Far Right parties are gathering ground in Holland, Belgium, Denmark and France – but this is not surprising because the European Superstate is implicitly authoritarian. What little so–called 'democratic' institutions it has are prone to capture by totalitarians. In one of these perverse processes of politics, two seemingly contradictory currents, the drive towards Reich integration, and the xenophobic Right, somehow end up pulling in the same direction. Fears over the Euro, and the tearing down of national boundaries under the Schengen and Maastricht agreements, bring a push for exclusion, a hardening of the external barriers, hostility to those outside the pan–European fold. It is straightforward scape–goating theory, as used by the Nazis against Jewish people in the 1930s. The Reich is implicitly racist, and sponsors these currents to cover over the internal problems.

CRUSADERS UNITED

In Britain, partly, this climate is a result of the ongoing 'Great Crusade' against Islam. In so far as Blair and the other pro–US influences can sell the Crusade as a Cold War style conflict against Islam, this will have profound implications for pluralism. Bush has the US Camp X–Ray concentration camp, while Blair has Oakington, Campsfield and Yarls Wood, with more in the pipeline. What has happened in Burnley, Oldham and Bradford has deliberately been manipulated to create this climate of racism. Why else would Blunkett use the racist term 'swamping'? Why else would the system controlled mass media give so much prominence to the BNP? Why would police in Bradford deliberately continue to stoke the fires by releasing new mug shots of rioters, as recently as April 27? The BNP serve as an alibi for New Labour, a fig leaf to cover their racism, by making it appear not so 'extreme'. Meanwhile, the Yarls Wood style camps continue to be built.

IT'S GRIM UP NORTH ...

Burnley has a history of racial tension, ever since September 25, 1993, when the BNP tried to march through the riot hit Stoops Estate. Prior to this, the town has suffered a long economic decline, with cotton mills closing, the manufacturing sector dying, Lucas Aerospace, Prestige Cutlery closing, unemployment, despair and drugs rife. Probably the most severe urban decay in the UK spreads through the long rows of millstone grit terraced houses. Many dwellings are boarded up, houses are also bricked up, others are smashed, yet others burned out. The council has taken to pulling down whole rows of houses in a half–baked urban clearance program. Burnley is reported to have a shrinking population.

CONTEXT OF DISDAIN

Traditional politicians everywhere are despised, and rightly so. Blair has refused to reform the voting system, keeping the corrupt first past the post system. Blair refuses to reform the House of Lords, preferring to keep a House of Cronies. Through its policies, New Labour has proven itself to be a friend of Capitalism, and an enemy of the ordinary people. The other mainstream electoral parties are just as bankrupt. So the issue then becomes to where will the protest vote turn?

RACIST HYPE

During the last few years, the media have been hyping racism, particularly over the asylum seekers issue. New Labour have not been slow to jump on this band–wagon, and the low point of this, made during the current May election period, was David Blunkett's April 23, 2002 remarks about asylum seekers 'swamping' Britain. The word 'swamping' was used by Margaret Thatcher, in 1979, and has gross, unpleasant and racist overtones. This term is as politically unacceptable as the infamous 'Rivers of Blood' speech made by Enoch Powell in the late 1960s. As in France, racists link crime with black people, and prior to the 2001 General Election, used the case of the vicious assault on 76 year old Walter Chamberlain in Oldham to push racial hatred. In France, publicity around a similar case, an attack on Paul Voise, in the Argonne district of Orleans, was thought to have been used to boost le Pen's April 21, 2002 vote.

COMPARE AND CONTRAST

Media complicity in the rise of Fascism can be seen by comparing the large amount of attention given to the BNP with the media blackout on the Green Party and the Socialist Alliance. Blunkett's remarks about 'swamping' clearly mark up the right wing, racist shift of the center of gravity in British political discourse. On April 24, Blunkett was rightly and courageously criticized by Diane Abbott, MP for Hackney, for comparing asylum seekers with 'raw sewage'. Further evidence for New Labour's racism is clear in their threat to build yet more Yarl's Wood detention centers. The events of February 15, 2002, where the concentration camp suffered a riot and fire, have taught them nothing. What kind of racists recklessly endanger peoples' lives by cramming them into buildings with no fire sprinkle systems?

DESPERATION

There is more though. On June 19, 2000, 58 Chinese people suffocated in a lorry, at Dover. Refugees cling to the bottom of Eurostar trains, desperate to find better lives for themselves in Britain. Others try to cross the channel on lilos. New Labour imposed punitive fines on Channel Tunnel lorry drivers and train operators.. Fortunately, this stupidity seems to have been scrapped, because the scheme was unworkable. The problem of racism is not unique to Britain though, as the march of Euro–fascism indicates, and the Tampa refugee ship affair, in late August 2001, where the ship refugees were refused entry into Australia show another aspect of this. Similarly, the racist tenor of the Australian elections, and Pauline Hanson's influence, follows a similar pattern to the BNP here.

NEW LABOUR – NEW ALIBI

It is certain that Blunkett's remarks shifted the center of gravity further to the right, making racism appear less unacceptable. It is a variation of the 'nasty cop – nice cop' routine. There are only 7 or 8 percentage points in it. The BNP are presented as hardline racists. Due to the large BNP vote, – 26% as against the Tory / Tony poll of 33 – 34%, Labour are now in a position to acknowledge the reality of the threat of the fascists, and their need to 'counter' it. "These Fascists are deplorable" they will cry "but people voted for them, and the issues they address, and their concerns, are genuine." As with Margaret Thatcher in 1979, who undercut the National Front by adopting some of their politics, so too with New Labour. They will try to occupy the same ground, try to boost their polling through the scare factor.

PLAYING THE RACE CARD BY PROXY

The BNP are an alibi for the New Labour racists. By adopting the same rhetoric, it becomes easier for disgruntled former Labour supporters to vote fascist. Just as with the BNP in Oldham during the 2001 General Election, so too with Burnley – it becomes a way of playing the race card by proxy. Since the 2001 General Election, we have seen the BNP vote rise from 11 – 16% through the 19.6% polled in Lowerhouse Ward Burnley on November 22, 2001, up to the 26 – 27% seen on May 2. If this upward trend continues, we are in serious trouble.

ELECTORAL TACTICS

Ever since ousting John Tyndall, Nick Griffin, the BNP Fuhrer, has sacked the thugs, and followed an electoral strategy. He has tried to put the BNP into a 'respectable' mould, modeled on the European Fascists. Rather than dispersing their electoral efforts in no hope seats, they have concentrated on fewer places where they feel they can pull in some votes. On May 2, this strategy paid off. The BNP came very close to winning more seats, in Gawthorpe Ward they lost by a mere 82 votes, they came second in 4 out of 5 wards in Oldham. We have a real problem.

HIERARCHY OF EVILS

As an anarchist, I can stand outside the electoral process and view it with detachment. Two things must be understood here. One is that in an ideal world, power and electoralism would be done away with. We wouldn't need councils and elections. Secondly, though, we live in the real world where these things take place, and threaten all of us – even anarchists. As ethical people, anarchists cannot stand aloof, adopting 'holier than thou' attitudes. We have a duty to oppose Fascism. Perhaps as part of a process whereby we step from where we are today towards an anarchist society, we have to realize that a council run by a Green or Socialist Alliance party is a better thing than one run by New Labour or the BNP.

NO ILLUSIONS

We should have no illusions about elections. The electoral system is rigged; with biased media, opinion polls and corrupt money backing the big parties' ad campaigns. After the elections, the same old oligarchies crawl back up out of the Town Hall woodwork, and continue to infest the same smoke filled committee rooms. Power is centralized in County Hall, Westminster, and Brussels.

NO HOPE IN MAINSTREAM PARTIES

We have to take note of what is really going on, though, and we must work to counteract its pernicious effects. Neither of the mainstream political parties offer any hope. In part, the situation has arisen because of their corruption. "Vote Labour to keep out the BNP" is of no use as a rallying cry against Fascism. Vote Labour is no use to the 58 Chinese migrants suffocated by their racist policies, in the lorry at Dover, nor to the refugees trapped sprinklerless in the fire at Yarls Wood. Yet there is hope in the smaller parties, like the Greens or the Socialist Alliance. It is quite possible for the righteous disdain for the Tonies and the Tories to be channeled in positive directions. On May 2, the Greens polled 7% of the vote, up 2% on their 2000 poll, but went down from 45 to 40 councilors because of the corrupt electoral system. Part of the blame must also rest with the publicity blackout. Also positive are the various independent campaigns like the 'Kidderminster Health Concern' group, which returned an MP, Dr Richard Taylor, at the 2001 General Election, and on May 2 took control of Wyre Forest Council. A residents' group also took control of Elmbridge.

SUBVERSION

There are other ways of subverting the process. Blairlusconi's US style elected mayor wheeze backfired over Ken Livingstone, and in the few places where residents have been silly enough to vote for this completely undemocratic measure, populist figures, like Angus the Hartlepool monkey, and Ray 'Robocop' Mallon in Middlesborough, have proved infinitely more popular than the imposed Blair clones. Mallon, for example, polled 26,000 votes against Labour's 9,600. The North East is the principal area pushing for a Regional Assembly, spurred on by the example of Scotland. Similarly undemocratic, the cabinet style councils can only further distance the electorate, as will the polling gimmicks, especially when the capacity for corruption with postal ballots is understood. Only real democracy has any hope of shifting their problems.

TOWARDS A PRINCIPLED, POPULAR DEMOCRATIC FIGHTBACK

With the May elections, we have the worst of all possible results, a double whammy. First and most obviously, we have the three Fascist councilors in Burnley. Secondly, we have the stand still results almost everywhere else, and even the slight increase in polling, up from 29% or so previously to 35% this time. A higher poll sends all the wrong messages to Blair and co, telling them they can get away with it, bringing down yet more of the same on our heads. More oppression, more crusading, more corrupt and racist mainstream politics. No one pretends that fighting this totalitarianism is easy, but there are pointers. We need to build up the decent, small, local autonomous campaigns, as well as people like the Green Party and the Socialist Alliance, wherever we can. All of these give disaffected voters a positive option. It means serious work, and real commitment to communities. In this regard, the Burnley debacle is a real wake up call to radicals in Britain.

– Stephen Booth
   Green Anarchist magazine.

9 Ash Avenue Galgate Lancaster LA2 0NP [UK]

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