UK: Fascist elected in Tower Hamlets
01 January 1991
UK: Fascist elected in Tower Hamlets
artdoc May=1994
A victory for the neo-nazi British National Party in a local
election in Millwall in the east London borough of Tower Hamlets,
on the 16 September, means that a far-right party in the UK has
secured its first council seat in a local election since May
1979. The BNP polled 1,480 votes, representing a 11% swing to the
BNP since the last by-election in October 1992 (Guardian
17.9.93).
Prior to the BNP's victory there had been an alarming growth
of racial violence in Tower Hamlets.
On 8 September, a 17-year-old Bengali youth, Quddus Ali, was
viciously attacked by a gang of white youths. Four friends who
were with Quddus Ali when the attack took place have criticised
the police response. A friend who went to the police station the
following day to tell the police what they had seen was told to
go home because the police were too busy to take his statement
(Evening Standard 9.9.93).
Local anger about the police's response to racial violence was
heightened three days later when forty fascist sympathisers who
were, at the time, under police surveillance, rampaged down Brick
Lane, an area of restaurants and shops at the heart of the
Bengali community. Local people said the police seemed more
intent on controlling young Bengalis than arresting the fascists.
There is also further criticism of the police's response to a
vigil of 600 young people outside the hospital where Quddus Ali
who is likely to suffer permanent brain damages from the injuries
he sustained during the attack - lay in a coma, on a life support
machine. The vigil was broken up by mounted and riot police who
say they were attacked when attempting to arrest a demonstrator.
But other eye-witnesses say the police over-reacted to minor
incidents (Guardian 11.9.93).
Further demonstrations led to more arrests. On 20 September,
33 people were arrested after anti-fascists protested against a
BNP paper-sale in Brick Lane (Guardian 10.9.93.) A demonstration
organised by `Youth Connections', which represents Bengali youth
organisations in east London, passed off peacefully. Meanwhile,
the victory for the BNP has led to accusations that the ruling
Liberal-Democrat council have fuelled racism in the area through
its housing policies. The leader of the Liberal Democrats, Mr.
Paddy Ashdown, set up an inquiry to investigate allegations that
members of his party had distributed racist leaflets helping to
create the climate that allowed the BNP to win. Disillusioned
Lib-Democrat activists told the Guardian that they had been
pressing for such an inquiry for five years (Guardian 18.9.93,
24.9.93).
Other attacks in London
On the night of the BNP victory, a young white man, Paul Pye,
from south-east London, was attacked by a man believed to be a
neo-nazi who slashed his face with a carving knife and called him
a `nigger lover'. Paul Pye had been staying with a black friend
who had been threatened by the neo-nazi who was a neighbour (Sun
20.9.93).
On September 25, an Asian mother, Kamiljit Kaur, living on an
east London estate, required forty stitches after a gang of
youths chucked a wooden stake off a 70 foot balcony. Mrs. Kaur
says racist attacks on the Teviot estate have increased since the
BNP victory (East London Advertiser 30.9.93).
BNP deputy leader remanded
The BNP deputy leader, Richard Edmonds, has been remanded in
custody accused of violent disorder. Edmonds and three other BNP
members are accused of an attack on a black anti-fascist in which
the man received severe facial injuries after a glass was smashed
in his face (Evening Standard 20.9.93).
Court convicts murderers of Asian taxi driver
Mark Lee (22) and Ricky Lee (19) have been jailed for life for
the murder of an Asian mini-cab driver, Fiaz Mirza, with a
recommendation that they should serve a minimum of 22 years.
During the trial it emerged that the two men hired the minicab