UK: Racism & fascism - in brief
01 March 2000
UK: Fascist bomber admits killing three: David Copeland, a 23-year old engineer from Cove, Hampshire, pleaded guilty to planting a series of bombs in London in April 1999, including the device which killed three people at the Admiral Duncan pub in Soho on April 30. Two other devices exploded in Brixton, south London (April 17) and Brick Lane, east London (April 24); together, more than 100 people were injured in the blasts. Copeland was a member of the British National Party before involving himself with Combat 18 and its offshoots. He appeared at the Old Bailey in February and admitted unlawfully and maliciously planting the explosive devices but denied charges of murder. He pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. The prosecution have indicated that they may not accept Copeland's reduced plea. His trial is scheduled to commence in June (see Statewatch vol 9 no 2).
UK: BNP gains council seat by default: The fascist British National Party (BNP) has won a council seat in Herefordshire without a single vote being cast. John Haycock was due to contest the seat for the BNP in local elections on May 4, but as only 16 candidates put their names forward for the 18 seats in the Bromyard and Winslow ward the ex-soldier won the seat. Haycock had previously stood for the BNP in the area in 1996 but received a derisory vote. The party won a council seat in Tower Hamlets, east London in September 1993; however Derek Beackon was defeated a few months later when anti-racist activists mobilised to counter his re-election. The organisation also stood a candidate, Michael Newland, in London's elections for mayor: Newland received 33,569 votes (nearly 2%) and came in seventh place. The party received 47,670 (2.87%) "top-up" votes on the Assembly ballot, well below the 5% threshold for getting a seat. The BNP's main reason for standing was to benefit from extensive free publicity.
UK: David Irving - "a right-wing pro-nazi polemicist": Holocaust denier and nazi sympathiser, David Irving, had his dubious credibility as a legitimate historian destroyed at the High Court in April, when he lost a libel action he brought against the author, Professor Deborah Lipstadt. Irving initiated the case after Lipstadt described him as "one of the most dangerous spokespersons for Holocaust denial" (p181) and a Hitler-admirer in her book Denying the Holocaust. At the conclusion to the twelve week trial, Irving was told by Justice Charles Gray that he had falsified history in order to propogate his pro-nazi views. He said that Irving's writing and talks: "...often display a distinctly pro-nazi and anti-Jewish bias. He makes surprising, often unfounded assertions about the nazi regime which tend to exonerate the nazis for the appalling atrocities they inflicted on the Jews...The picture of Irving which emerges from the evidence of his extracurricular activities reveals him to be a right-wing pro-nazi polemicist". Questioned about the outcome, Irving responded in his customary modest manner by telling reporters that Mr Justice Gray misunderstand his arguments because he lacked intellect. Deborah Lipstadt "Denying the Holocaust: the growing threat on truth and memory" (Plume Books, New York) 1994.
UK: three men questioned over Stephen Lawrence murder: Three men were questioned by police in March after they were arrested in connection with the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence in southeast London in 1993. One man, Danny Caetano, who was named in the Macpherson report was detained in southeast London while a second man, Stuart Waite, was held in Glasgow, although he comes from London. A third London man was later questioned. The arrests took place shortly before Stephen's parents took part in a witness appeal on television in which Doreen Lawrence urged the mothers and girlfriends of the men responsible for her son's murder to speak out against them. Al