Racism & fascism - in brief (9)
01 May 2005
Italy: Piazza Fontana bombing suspects acquitted: Judicial proceedings into the terrorist attack in the
Banca dell'Agricoltura in Piazza Fontana in Milan on 12 December 1969 (see
Statewatch Vol. 10 no 2, Vol. 11 no 3 & 4, Vol. 12 no 6), which killed 17 people and injured 84, ended with the acquittal of Carlo Maria Maggi, Giancarlo Rognoni and Delfo Zorzi, three neo-fascists from the north-eastern region of Veneto. The lengthy proceedings have included eight trials, the last of which resulted in sentences for life imprisonment being passed against the three defendants on 30 June 2001, before they were overturned by their acquittal on appeal on 12 March 2004. The acquittal was confirmed by the Court of Cassation on 4 May 2005. The Piazza Fontana bombing is one of a number of unsolved atrocities involving right-wing terrorist attacks in Italy with secret service collusion during the so-called "years of lead". Global project, 4.5.04; Repubblica, 12.3.04, 4.5.05.
UK: BNP defeated in by-election: The British National Party failed to win a a seat in a local by election in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham after running a campaign that attempted to exploit the tragic bombings in London on 7 July. The organisation had targeted the area believing that it could exploit white working class dissent by inaccurately claiming that the area had been "swamped" by asylum seekers and immigrants before opportunistically attempting to gain milage out of the deaths that occurred on the number 30 bus that was blown apart at Tavistock Square. The organisation produced a leaflet reproducing a photograph of the carnage, asking: "Maybe it's time to start listening to the BNP". During the course of the campaign, BNP members attacked a local Labour Party canvasser who had narrowly avoided becoming a victim of the bombings. He told
Searchlight magazine: "I wanted to clear my head but came across a group of bone-headed thugs from the British National Party...One of them put his fist into my face and asked me if I wanted a slap. I was shaking and terrified. We had to get the police involved." The BNP's candidate, John Luisis, would have become the BNP's first local councillor in London since they lost the neighbouring Barking seat earlier this year. Independent 15.7.05; Searchlight:
http://www.stopthebnp.org
UK: BNP founder dies: John Hutchyns Tyndall, the founder of the British National Party (BNP), was found dead at his home on 19 July aged 71. The veteran of numerous fractious national socialist organisations, who had a penchant for dressing up in nazi uniforms, was ousted from the leadership of the BNP by Nick Griffin in 1999, leading to a series of expulsions, reinstatements and proscriptions. Tyndall's hard-line national socialism did not fit well with the rebranded BNP's European-style "post-fascism". Griffin will now face little opposition within the party. Tyndall had a number of convictions for violence, the most serious of which saw him imprisoned for possession of a firearm, and was awaiting trial on charges of inciting racial hatred when he died.