Racism and fascism - new material (15)
01 April 2010
Racial Violence: the buried issue, Harmit Athwal, Jenny Bourne and Rebecca Wood. Briefing Paper No. 6 (Institute of Race Relations), pp.25. This research paper “shows the hideous fact that since Stephen Lawrence’s death in 1993, eighty-nine people have lost their lives to racial violence – an average of five a year.” The report analyses these racist murders and 660 cases of racist violence that the IRR has collated. Appendices examine official statistics on racist violence (Lee Bridges) and A. Sivanandan is interviewed about Islamaphobia and anti-Muslim racism. The study concludes: “If you are an asylum seeker or a migrant worker or a foreign student, dispersed throughout the UK, or if you are a British Muslim, or could be mistaken for a Muslim, and maybe work in a trade where you are isolated and vulnerable, if you are from a settled BME community seeking to move into a more affluent, and traditionally white, area, there is a real and terrifying daily risk of becoming a victim to racial violence.” Available at: http://www.irr.org.uk/pdf2/IRR_Briefing_No.6.pdf
EDL Unmasked. Searchlight no. 421 (July) 2010. This issue focuses on the anti-Muslim English Defence League and its links to the British National Party (BNP), the Loyalist paramilitary, Johnny Adair, and various football “firms”. Another article considers the imminent leadership challenge to the BNP’s Nick Griffin after their disastrous general election campaigns in Barking and Dagenham and Stoke-on-Trent. There is also a brief piece on a speaking tour of southwest England by the anti-Semitic “historian”, David Irving.
Football hooligans to launch ‘European defence League’ in Amsterdam, Leigh Philips. EU Observer 31.8.10. The English Defence League (EDL), made up of violent far-right activists and football hooligans, has threatened to demonstrate in Amsterdam in October in support of the racist Geert Wilders. The far-right outfit’s latest outing in the UK was a provocative protest in Bradford when members pelted anti-racists with bricks, bottles and smoke bombs, leading to 13 arrests. The EDL will be joined by the recently launched French Defence League and Dutch Defence League, both modelled on the English street army model, in Amsterdam.
BNP terrorist jailed for weapons and explosives, Simon Cressy. Searchlight no. 416 (February) 2010, pp. 6-7. This article is on another far-right terrorist, Terence Gavin, who pleaded guilty in November 2009 to 22 charges involving explosives, firearms and collecting information useful for terrorism over a 10-year period. Gavin, a former soldier and British National Party member, was sentenced to a total of 11 years in prison in January. In a separate incident leading British National Party activist, David Lucas, was given a suspended prison sentence at Ipswich Crown Court after admitting possessing ammunition and gunpowder in June.