UK: NF chased out of Dover
01 November 1997
A National Front (NF) march and rally, planned to whip-up racist violence against Roma refugees fleeing from persecution in the Czech and Slovak republics, ended in a humiliating climb down in November. It saw the small fascist group driven from the town under police protection while anti-fascists held a rally in the town centre in support of the refugees.
The NF was once the largest fascist organisation in the UK but, confronted by anti-fascists and riven by factional splits and internal dissent, it has dwindled to an insignificant handful of diehards. The most recent split took place in 1995 when party leader, Ian Anderson, announced that the organisation had changed its name to the National Democrats. This was greeted with some amusement since under Anderson's ineffectual leadership they had long ceased to be a "national" organisation and the term "democrat" was not thought to be part of his vocabulary.
A rump of diehard traditionalists, under the leadership of John McAuley, rejected the cosmetic name change and vowed to fly the flag for the dregs of the National Front. Among the most prominent of these was south London nazi, Terry Blackham, recently released from prison on charges related to supplying firearms, and Warren Glass, from west London. Both have close links to Combat 18 (C18) through papersales in west London.
During October the arrival at the port of Dover of Roma asylum seekers became the focus of alarmist and racist articles in the British media. They presented their arrival as an "invasion" or "flood" of a bunch of scroungers attempting to exploit the British public (ie "Bouncing Czechs"). In fact, the Roma have well-founded and legitimate fears of persecution in both Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
Research by the Czech non-governmental organisation HOST has documented 1250 racially motivated attacks, resulting in at least ten deaths, of Roma between 1991-97; the figure is certainly an underestimate as there is little point in reporting incidents to a notoriously racist police force and hostile criminal justice system. As recently as September a Romani woman was killed in a racist attack.
It was against this background, and conscious of the symbolic significance at least half a million gypsies exterminated in the concentration camps during the second world war, that the NF decided to mobilise in November. Lacking the support to attract numbers from their depleted ranks they used their C18 links but still managed to muster less than 50 supporters. Their march, heavily protected by police, went only a few hundred metres before being confronted by an alliance of anti-fascist protesters blocking their path. Despite police attempts to clear the route by setting dogs on the protestors it was the nazis who backed down, abandoning their march and leaving Dover. Six anti-fascists were arrested, two were released without charge and 4 were released on bail.
The facing down of the NF/C18 in Dover was a success, but it should be recalled that the majority of the media effectively endorsed the fascist position, if not the fascists themselves. The role of the police, in protecting them, in order that they be allowed to disseminate their message of violence and hate against people driven to seek refuge after being victimised and tormented in their own land, is not unexpected. Other fascist groups, like the BNP, will not abandon Dover as easily as the minuscule and opportunistic NF; rather they will play a long game, building "rights for whites" campaigns and exploiting the gullibility and sectarian interests of the media.
European Roma Rights Centre press release on events in Great Britain 22.10.97.