BNP victory unleashes racist violence
01 September 1993
The openly fascist British National Party (BNP) has gained its first councillor. In the by-election in the Millwall ward, Tower Hamlets, east London on September 16 their candidate, Derek Beackon, won on a recount by seven votes. The last fascist electoral victory in council elections occurred in 1976 when two National Party candidates were elected in Blackburn.
It was an election that will be remembered not only for its violence, but also for its cynicism as the mainstream political parties vied with the BNP for the racist vote. In the post-mortem the Liberal Democrats received much criticism for running an opportunistic, anti-Asian campaign. Party leader, Paddy Ashdown, was pressured into initiating a damage-limitation investigation into the tactics of the local party. In reality the Liberal- Democrats have been running a racist policy, particularly around housing issues, since they won control of Tower Hamlets council in 1986. The Labour Party have also been criticised for their dubious campaign tactics.
The BNP candidate, Derek Beackon, who has said that he will only represent his ward's white voters, has a long track record of involvement with violent BNP and Combat 18 (C18) racist attacks. Euphemistically described as a "steward" before his election, his campaign, on the Isle of Dogs and the surrounding area, witnessed an alarming increase in racist violence. Many Asians were intimidated from voting by BNP gangs, armed with iron bars and sticks, who threatened them outside the polling stations.
This follows a pattern established in last years local election when the BNP candidate, Barry Osborne, polled 20% of the vote. Three BNP members, Alan Thompson, Earnst Lukas and Nicky Cooper, who are also involved with the paramilitary C18 group, appeared in court recently charged with violence in connection with the 1992 campaign.
The most horrific incident in the lead-up to the BNP election victory was the violent assault on a seventeen-year old Asian student, Quaddus Ali, in nearby Stepney on September 8. The attack involved up to nine white youths who beat him to the ground and repeatedly kicked him in the head and throat. A month later he is still on a life-support system in a critical condition.
The policing of the by-election has also come in for criticism. A vigil, called to show support for the Ali family and attended by several hundred local people and anti-racists, was broken up by police outside the Royal London Hospital. Eyewitnesses at the vigil described how police moved in to make an unprovoked arrest leading to scuffles. Riot police with dogs followed-up injuring several people and arresting nine others. They have been charged under Section 1 of the 1986 Public Order Act.
The following weekend, at 10pm, up to fifty BNP supporters rampaged through Brick Lane, in the heart of the Bangladeshi community, attacking Asian restaurants, smashing windows and injuring diners. A local youth compared the police response with that of the vigil and described how BNP members "walked up Brick Lane with the police. The police were letting the BNP do what they want." Another youth, a friend of Quaddus Ali, described how policemen disarmed five skinheads with baseball bats and then let them go.
The unrelenting violence led young Bengalis from local estates, youth clubs and colleges to form Youth Connection, an organisation that is determined to protect their community against the escalating racist and police violence. They are calling for "an end to the BNP's right to roam our streets, attacking our community with the...complicity of the police" and the dropping of charges against the Whitechapel 9 who were arrested at the vigil.
Following the election count an eighty strong BNP mob celebrated their victory by launching a series of attacks. They brutally beat a white man unconscious before turning on a Channel 4 television crew. They then turned their attention to an Anti- Nazi League counter-demonstration ou