From tburghardt@igc.apc.org Thu May 28 23:49:26 1998 Date: Wed, 27 May 1998 09:01:02 -0700 (PDT) From: Tom Burghardt Reply-To: a-infos-d@tao.ca To: a-infos@tao.ca Subject: (en) [AFIB] Anti-Fascism in the U.K. ________________________________________________ A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E http://www.ainfos.ca/ ________________________________________________ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ||| ||| ||| A N T I F A ||| ||| ||| ||| I N F O - B U L L E T I N ||| ||| _____ ||| ||| ||| ||| * News * Analysis * Research * Action * ||| ||| ||| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ***** ||/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\||/\|| || * -- SPECIAL -- * May 27, 1998 * -- EDITION -- * || ||\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/||\/|| * SPECIAL EDITION * * * * _________________________________________________________________ ANTI-FASCISM IN THE U.K. _________________________________________________________________ * ANTI-FASCIST ACTION * Box BM 1734 London, WC1N 3XX Tel: 0161-232-0813 CONTENTS ------ - `Fighting Talk' No. 19, April 1998 (excerpts) - 1. In The Area 2. AFA Statement Concerning Northern AFA Network And Searchlight 3. Behind Enemy Lines 4. Between The Sheets * * * _________________________________________________________________ IN THE AREA _________________________________________________________________ Welcome to Issue 19 of Fighting Talk, and we start with our usual round-up of news and views from the front line against fascism. * On January 24 the annual Bloody Sunday commemoration march was held in London. The NF called a counter-demonstration along the route so AFA mobilised against the fascists. What was interesting was the scale of the police operation against AFA; indeed, the chief target for all police action on the day was the anti-fascists. Not the marchers, not the NF counter-demo - but AFA. At midday AFA members arrived at the Archway to be met by 100 police. This was no coincidence but part of a well planned operation. Police were seen carrying sheets of mugshots, presumably to identify the 'ringleaders', and anyone on the street who the police thought looked like an anti-fascist was stopped and photographed. As this included a number of people who had nothing to do with AFA this raises additional civil liberties questions. One group of anti-fascists sought 'refuge' in a pub, only for the police to come in and close the pub down, but not before everyone was photographed, videoed, and details taken. Five mobile police camera teams were operating against AFA throughout the day, as opposed to one that was based at Kings Cross for the visiting Barnsley supporters. Anyone who was identified as being with AFA was pushed away from the tube station to prevent any further movement and contained in an area about a mile and a half away from the fascists. The NF operation on the day was totally coordinated with the police. The police were waiting for them to arrive at Holloway Road tube station at an appointed time and when they failed to persuade a local pub to open and let the NF drink there they escorted them to their allocated site. Almost immediately when the demonstration had passed them they were escorted by the police to a different tube station (Caledonian Road) and away. In all there were 50 fascists, including a group of National Socialist Movement - the Steve Sargent faction of C18. This group then left the main NF contingent and went for a drink in a well-known football pub in Camden. Unfortunately AFA scouts were rumbled and they moved to a pub in Kings Cross but had left by the time AFA stewards were able to avoid police attention and arrive in the area. The lesson for AFA was the amount of resources the police were prepared to use on the day to prevent the anti-fascists being effective. Historically the physical struggle against fascism has proved vital, and although the BNP (undoubtedly the main fascist threat at present) have withdrawn from this arena at present, the principle of physical opposition must be maintained and defended. The attempt to smash effective anti-fascism was seen again in Dover on February 28. Once again the NF had called an anti- gypsy march on the seafront and anti-fascists mobilised against them. After AFA's success in stopping the Front when they tried to march there last November, other anti-fascist groups supported the call to mobilise along the route of the NF march rather than away in the town centre. With the NSM not showing this time the Front's numbers were down to 30. This meant the anti-fascists outnumbered the fascists by 5 to 1, but that pales into insignificance when you consider that the police outnumbered the anti-fascists themselves by at least 3 to 1. Again the police had camera teams busy all day, including at least one from Bloody Sunday. Suspected anti-fascists were stopped and searched, and when the NF march set off the anti-fascists were penned in. This led to a number of arrests which contrasted with the previous encounter in Dover, which was more confrontational but no-one was arrested. In all 14 anti-fascists were charged, their names and addresses appearing in the local papers before they appeared in court. This goes against normal practice and the information was obviously supplied by the police, in direct contrast to the Gillingham fans arrested after the murder of a Fulham supporter recently - whose addresses were kept secret "to protect them from reprisals". The scale of the police operation meant any meaningful activity was hopeless, and once again the NF didn't complete their intended route but were put back on their coach and escorted up the motorway. Recently there has been an upsurge in National Front activity in the South East. Apart from Dover and Bloody Sunday they have been touring around the area doing one off paper sales in old haunts like Brick Lane. In Camden an SWP paper sale was chased off and another left-wing sale was threatened in Kentish Town. On this occasion a black stall holder was attacked and 5 fascists were arrested. The result of the subsequent court case was one Fronter fined 30 pounds for possession of a penknife! Their activity in North London is being closely monitored and, in a recent press release, a spokesperson for London AFA said: "It is a fact that all incursions into North London by the Far Right in the last decade have ultimately ended in disaster and humiliation. Because it has long been established as a no-go area for fascists they will be aware that to prosper now will require a combination of determination, intelligence, cunning and luck. Luck is a rare commodity and they will have to be lucky all the time. While we, on the other hand, need only be lucky once." The NF have also announced a campaign of activity at football grounds, and they did leaflet Fulham for the last Dover demonstration. Presumably the NF have spotted a gap in the market and are looking to raise their profile by returning to the kind of activities that they used in the 70s and early 80s. The fact that the BNP no longer operate this way, instead treading the electoral path, will be seen as an opportunity to pick up some new recruits. The other interesting point about the NF activity, particularly Dover and Bloody Sunday, has been the opportunity this has given the police to run major operations against AFA. Presumably the police are happy to work so closely with the NF on these occasions to develop their tactics against AFA. You have to ask serious questions as to why the NF called the second Dover march. No attempt was made by them to use the media to publicise the march, only 30 people attended, the police didn't even let them march the whole of the agreed route, and yet 500 police were mobilised to prevent anti-fascists operating freely on the day. The involvement of former C18 members on some of these NF activities is interesting. As readers are undoubtedly aware many of the top C18 activists have recently been jailed. Will Browning, Mark Atkinson, Robin Gray, Charlie Sargent and Martin Cross have all been sent down - the last two for murder. The organisation, always greatly exaggerated, is essentially finished. Browning is apparently trying to keep things going, but Charlie Sargent's brother Steve has set up a rival National Socialist Movement group. They have produced a pamphlet entitled 'Drowning Browning' which is a 12-page attack on 'the Beast' himself. It is full of the usual old nonsense but there are two interesting allegations. One is that Browning privately kept in touch with the BNP's Nick Griffin and the other is that he has been selling information to Searchlight since 1994. At the moment we can only speculate on the reasons behind both these revelations, but they are undoubtedly significant. At the trial of Gray and Atkinson (for distributing C18's 'The Stormer' magazine) the judge commented that he had "never encountered such vile outpourings of hatred and incitement to violence as revealed in these magazines." What surprises us is how they got away with it for so long. C18 openly incited violence (including murder), printed bomb-making instructions and published hit lists of opponents. They must have known that they would inevitably get done for it - so why do it? Curious. In Scotland the links between fascist activity and increased racist violence have been tragically highlighted by the murder of a 15-year old Asian boy, lmran Khan, by racists in Glasgow. In May the BNP had been active in the area in support of their candidate in the General Election, Jim White. Also in Glasgow two BNP activists and members of Rangers ICF, Craig Pringle and Peter McGregor, were jailed for their part in a racist attack on a young black footballer after a local match. Despite denying their politics in court, they are both known to AFA as being actively involved in Far Right politics. The Scottish papers carried a front page story in February about a senior Lothian Health Board official who was jailed for 4 1/2 years for carrying out a series of attacks on gays and down- and-outs in Edinburgh. Police found nazi literature when they raided his home and it was revealed that he had tried to join the KKK but was turned down because he was gay himself. The papers picked up on the KKK angle, in line with a wider media policy of promoting the KKK now that C18 are in decline. AFA has long argued that building up groups like C18 and the KKK is wrong because although they make for sensational stories (violence, weapons, hoods, masks, etc.) they are used to call for more State action against the fascists, which is then inevitably used against all "extremists" - and distract attention away from the far less dramatic but much more dangerous activities of the BNP and other 'respectable' Far Right groups. We are not suggesting that they don't exist (they have recently distributed a joint leaflet with the Surrey Border Front in Croydon) or that they shouldn't be opposed - but the threat they pose must not be exaggerated. Anyway, back to the story. The Daily Record unearthed James Mitchell who claimed to be "one of the top people for the Klan in Scotland". In fact he is a former mental patient who has got on the wrong side of Edinburgh AFA twice for his fascist activities. The interview in the paper is a classic with Mitchell claiming 5,500 KKK members in Scotland who meet 6 times a week and "3,000 turned up for one meeting in West Lothian." Now either AFA in Scotland is in serious trouble or Mitchell's doctor should increase the dosage! The serious point, though, is why on earth the Daily Record insist on printing this nonsense without comment? Talking of nutters, an incident at the Upstarts gig in London in December proves the point that the fascists are still pumping the old line to new recruits that AFA are just a bunch of middle class students and social workers. AFA was happy to be of service to steward a gig for our old mate Mensi and the boys and after he had told a lonesome bonehead to remove his Skrewdriver T-shirt or leave the gig, we thought we were in for a quiet night once Mr. Blobby had waddled off into the distance. But it wasn't to be. Just before the band were due on, one of the stewards reported that he had been accosted on the way back from the toilet by some geezer shouting the odds, claiming he had seen our man on the TV at the Dover NF march taking the piss out of his mate who was wearing a Rangers shirt (C18's Warren Glass). The AFA stewards declined the opportunity to take up this discussion, the band were on and they were needed at the front of the stage. Just as Mensi was getting into his stride, who comes wading through the crowd but Ian! (His 'mates' furnished us with the relevant information later on). After handing round his drink to his new found friends, he began to harangue our man again. Boredom quickly set in and the group of students and social workers decided it was time to test out whether Ian was either incredibly popular or incredibly dumb. As the bouncers arrived to scrape Ian up and carry him away, it had become obvious to everyone that he was just incredibly dumb; his mates stared at the stage, singing along, never once turning to look. When will they learn, eh? Vicious bastards the middle classes! Back in the real world the massive Countryside March in London on March 1st saw 3 fascist groups out and about. The NF, ITP and BNP (who produced a special paper for the occasion - see Behind Enemy Lines) were all spotted distributing propaganda and appeared completely unmolested. As society moves to the Right the fascists see opportunities to address new audiences - and given the reactionary nature of the protest it appears their views weren't that out of place. As anti-fascists are getting marginalised and the fascists look to enter the mainstream, the BNP have publicly praised the actions of Camden's Labour Council for banning AFA's International Conference. The campaign against AFA has continued with the London Welsh Centre refusing an AFA booking. This venue was successfully used by AFA as one of the alternative venues when we were banned from the Irish Centre in October. Presumably the plain clothes police sitting in the car outside during our meeting eventually got their chance to talk to the management! LOYALIST LEADERS IN NAZI ROCK SHOCK When Mo Mowlam, the Northern Ireland Secretary, recently visited the Maze prison to discuss difficulties over the Loyalist ceasefire, one of the UFF leaders she met was Sam McCrory. It was noticed at the time that he had a 'white power' tattoo on his arm which only confirmed what AFA has been saying about the links between the fascists and the Loyalists. What was not widely known was that Sam McCrory and another notorious senior UFF prisoner - Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair - were both in a nazi Oi band called Offensive Weapon. They played in England a few times, featuring alongside Blood & Honour favourites Skrewdriver and Brutal Attack at the Rock Against Communism festival in September 1984. In those days if you wanted to contact the band you wrote to Johnny Adair's Crumlin Road address in Belfast. ***** _________________________________________________________________ AFA STATEMENT _________________________________________________________________ * For the last eighteen months AFA has been trying to resolve a number of problems concerning the Leeds and Huddersfield AFA branches. The main problem has been the insistence of the organisers of the Leeds branch in working with Searchlight, in direct contradiction of agreed AFA policy (see below). A whole web of lies and deceit has surrounded the issue which has resulted in others, opposed to the Searchlight strategy, becoming involved in the intrigue. In addition, the representatives of Leeds and Huddersfield branches have failed to carry out their responsibilities in the Northern Network and have refused to participate in the national AFA structures or abide by agreed decisions. At a time of increased support for the Far Right, and being based in an area of Yorkshire which the fascists see as a priority, it is intolerable that the effectiveness of AFA is undermined by individuals with a completely different agenda. Tired of being lied to, listening to excuses and the lack of accountability of the Leeds and Huddersfield delegates, the National Co-ordinating Committee of AFA (made up of delegates of the four regions) has been forced to intervene. The 'old' Leeds and Huddersfield branches have been replaced with a new West Yorkshire AFA branch. It is important to stress that the problem lies with the 'organisers' and that activists in the area who agree with AFA's stated aims and objectives are invited to get involved with the new branch. Contact the National Office for further details. Printed below is a statement regarding AFA and Searchlight which was unanimously agreed by national AFA delegates in September 1997: "It is widely recognised within AFA and among large sections of the Left which is any way familiar with anti-fascist politics that Searchlight has a separate agenda to our own and is friendly or hostile to AFA depending on whether it fits in with their agenda. It has also been established that Searchlight have in the not too distant past used individuals and organisations to manipulate, exploit or subvert AFA policy and initiatives. Searchlight has also targetted organisations and individuals within AFA, employing many of the tactics used against the Far Right. Its reporting of events, particularly involving AFA, is often so dishonest it amounts to black propaganda. It provides genuine information only where it sees a benefit to itself. Information concerning the personal safety of individual militant anti-fascists it regards with indifference unless it meets that criteria. Cultivating extensive contacts with Special Branch and MI5 is pert of its remit. With the election of a Labour government militant anti- facism faces a tremendous challenge. All over Europe the Far Right is on the march. Similar ambitions exist over here. Due to the Far Right's adoption of the Euro-Nationalist strategy a steadily increasing intensity between the protagonists as the ante is upped can be anticipated. Over the next five years anti-fascist resistance will be broken or the existing fascist vanguards may collapse. It will prove a fight to the political death. As a consequence routine surveillance by MI5/SB/C11 will be stepped up and more determined efforts to infiltrate AFA wtll be attempted. This means: Membership or association with the Searchlight team is incompatible with AFA membership. Any information supplied or approaches made by Searchlight should be reported to the National Office and Regional Delegate immediately." AFA does not normally conduct its internal affairs in public. Due to rumours circulating around the country it was decided to issue this statement. All further enquiries regarding this matter should be addressed to the National Office. ***** _________________________________________________________________ BEHIND ENEMY LINES _________________________________________________________________ With our old columnist Bill Gothrocks forced into early retirement, Fighting Talk would like to welcome our latest recruit Vern Ethered who takes his first look at the writings of the Far Right. * The BNP continues to expand its strategy of entering the political mainstream, targeting specific sections of the population with relevant propaganda. A new leaflet on benefit cuts for single parents, pensioners and the disabled is now available! However, it is only to be used on impoverished council estates. On the other hand propaganda concerning rural issues is addressed to Middle England. In both area the BNP hopes to pick up support on the back of disillusionment with Labour. The Benefits leaflet, which has already been used door to door on the Isle of Dogs and in Bristol, is hard to distinguish from a left-wing leaflet on the same subject, at least to the casual reader. But this shows how serious the BNP are in attempting to address real issues affecting the working class. It does not matter that the BNP can do little to actually help people getting shafted by New Labour's restructuring of the Welfare State, or that the qualifications they add (e.g. "genuinely" disabled and "abandoned" single mums) demonstrate that their real agenda is no different to that of the Tories and New Labour. By making sympathetic noises and by addressing the issue and other areas of local concern where more can be achieved, they are copying proven tactics for building a political organization, that is effective, local and credible and which can serve as a springboard to electoral success. As they acknowledge this is exactly the tactic used by the Liberal Democrats to achieve their gains in local government. As part of this new grass-roots community activism the BNP can also tackle populist issues like anti-social crime, paedophiles etc. They are fully aware of the potential to exploit such issues in a particular political direction, whether against the "politically correct" establishment or to justify a racist agenda. By taking on issues which the Left won't address or by doing so in areas where the Left no longer has a real presence, they can pander to popular conservative prejudices and, at the same time, appear as a radical "can do" organization. Of course the underlying aim is to rehabilitate themselves as populist Euro-Nationalists rather than the Hitler loving sad cases they actually are. They can win elections, especially when some form of proportional representation is introduced. As they are also fully aware the same tactics are not restricted to urban estates. For the recent "Countryside March" the BNP produced a special newspaper, "British Countryman" and rural issues have featured prominently in other publications, together with a new leaflet, "Theme-Park Britain: How 'politically correct' townies are killing our country". The "revolt of Middle England" is seen as fertile ground, since it combines opposition to Labour policies and European integration with dewy eyed nostalgia for the Britain of warm beer, cricket and old ladies cycling home after church. The BNP web site reports that the paper was well received, as has been their leaflet on buying British Beef. Whilst the majority of people on the Countryside March would traditionally vote Tory, many of the issues raised affect the rural working class. As with many urban estates, the absence of an alternative radical agenda from the Left means the BNP have something of an open field. The BNP doesn't mind which class rallies to its banner, but they dearly love the idea of being able to attract disgruntled middle class Tory xenophobes. After all this will provide them with the people of "quality" they want to make their movement respectable and who can continue their "natural" role of managing and leading the working class in the nationalist cause. A case of goodbye "Eastenders", hello "To The Manor Born". The rural agenda promoted by the BNP is very much a cobbled together affair, which doesn't bear even the lightest scrutiny, despite Nick Griffin's attempts to lend it credibility in his other persona as a Welsh small-holder. The driving force behind the Countryside March was the fox hunting lobby. Understandably some BNP members are perplexed as to whether the party now has a pro-hunt policy. No, they are reassured - its just a matter of individual freedom. The real issues about fox control and the hunt are not even addressed. In fact all British Countryman does is use fox-hunting as a convenient peg for racism - stop the "real cruelty" of ethnic ritual slaughter. If the BNP is so concerned about cruelty to animals what is their position on factory farming? Is ritual slaughter a deeply contentious issue in rural areas? We think not, but fox-hunting definitely is, as the many farmers and small landowners who have tried to stop hunts riding roughshod over their property will testify. Is the BNP going to defend their freedom? Similar contradictions underlie the demand to stop concreting the countryside and preserve its traditional and quintessentially English character. This is utter drivel since the green and pleasant land, unchanged in appearance and tradition for generations, is a Victorian myth. The "traditional" countryside was destroyed by the Enclosure Acts and the introduction of industrial agriculture, starting over 200 years ago. The rural working class was evicted, to emigrate either to the cities or abroad. Over one million Scottish smallholders and crofters were driven off the Highlands by force of English arms, so that large scale sheep farming could be introduced, wool being more profitable than human beings. The culmination of this process has been the reverse emigration of the privileged from town to countryside. For years now they have been buying up the countryside and forcing out locals by pushing up house prices, the general cost of living and contributing to the closure of village schools and cottage hospitals because they subscribe to private health and private education. So the BNP is a little late in wanting to defend country folk from urban migration. The rural landscape they champion is infested by the rich and the sentimental bleating about countryside traditions comes largely from the mouths of people who have never done any agricultural work in their lives, other than watering the dahlias. Not that the BNP are that bothered. Whatever they say about defending the indigenous rural population, they're far more interested in recruiting Little Englanders. As with fox-hunting, another upper class innovation in the countryside, the BNP doesn't have a position on the rural class divide anymore than on the urban one. The semi-feudal image of the labourer and the lord of the manor as part of some mutual organic structure exactly matches their ideology of a corporate nationalist society, even though that image is one promoted by the ruling class to justify themselves sitting at the top of the heap. As with the development issue, the economic arguments in British Countryman and the scribblings of Farmer Griffin leak like a sieve. Fishing communities and small scale farmers do face serious problems, but its like the chicken and egg question. European subsidies and quotas exist because of the imbalances introduced by corporate intensive farming and by cheap imports from even more exploited rural communities elsewhere in the world. Farmers have been protected from exposure to the ruthless nature of Capitalism, unlike the "urban" industries of coal, steel, etc. Without wishing to be over harsh, perhaps if the farmers had woken from their rural idyll, counting out the European gold, and supported those other "traditional" industries when they were being decimated, they would not now find themselves so isolated. Whilst its good to see small farmers emulating their European counterparts by faking direct action, the BNP's support for them rings very hollow. After all they are forever condemning French farmers for doing exactly the same thing. But the last point exposes the reality and absurdity of the "Euro-Nationalist" position. Major problems immediately face anyone withdrawing from the global free market (regardless of whether their ideology is nationalist or communist). Trade protection measures always result in reprisals, which affects exports, which then produces a downturn in industry. The classic historical solution to trade wars is real wars. The BNP might want to give the French, Irish or Argentineans a slapping, but these are hardly the dominant players in the global agricultural economy. Restrict U.S. imports or the activity of U.S. multinationals and you can kiss the "special relationship" good- bye overnight. And unless Tyndall and Co. fancy having the Marine Corps landing on our beaches to "stabilize democracy" (i.e. McDonald's profit margins), they'll do what they're told and our farmers will continue to be pared to the bone. The conclusion from all this is clear, the BNP are talking rubbish when it comes to the countryside. But if there are no other voices out there to oppose them then they can carry on calling a spade a fork and vice versa until the cows come home. The same truth applies in urban areas as much as in rural ones. For all its premature triumphalist preening, the BNP faces some major obstacles in both town and country. As has been pointed out before they are seeking to move in on the landscape previously regarded as the natural home of the militant left-wing of the working class. And even in today's changed political arena they are going to have to do a lot and quickly, starting from a handful of areas of real support, with little experience of community organising and many bitter opponents ranged against them. And they know this - which is why their real tactic is not community activism in itself, but using this as a stepping stone to electoral power, the only way a minority can impose itself other than by economic or physical force. Which is why it is amusing to see articles like "Red Force, Spent Force" (Patriot #2) in which Tony Lecomber seeks to bolster party morale and the current BNP agenda by quoting from the AFA analysis of the current situation, not to mention incorporating chunks of the "Left Luggage" article from Fighting Talk #17 without quoting the source. Well, they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Just to set the record straight. The fad that the political landscape has changed and that the BNP has adapted to it whilst the traditional Left has not, should give them only temporary cause for celebration. After all the main reason they now pursue the electoral road is because AFA repeatedly crushed their previous attempt to establish dominance on the street. So now they have changed direction and they have chosen a good time and a good strategy, albeit largely borrowed from their opponents. But they should remember a few sobering points. First, the "Left" may be in collapse but AFA and other militant elements are a different kettle of fish - not just physically but also ideologically (a point the BNP, etc. never seem to have quite grasped), and we definitely aren't going away. Second, we understand that we loom large in the BNP's thinking and its very gratifying but AFA is not a political organization or party - more like a specialised (and very efficient) department. It may seem like it at times, but we don't just appear out of thin air - we have our bases of support in the community too. AFA is not tasked and does not have to win the political war by itself, as the BNP seem to think. More important are those solid working class elements disaffected from the political parties and sects but still understanding politics as class struggle, who will not only fight the BNP street by street if they come into our communities but are also the elements from which the political challenge to the Right as a whole will assert itself. Third, developing this, the paralysis and collapse of the traditional Left presents us with an even greater opportunity than it does the Fascists, because the traditional Left has been one of the biggest obstacles to advancing genuine class politics and class struggle in this country. So while Lecomber may derive satisfaction (and mislead his readers) by partially quoting AFA, "We cannot actually prevent them (the BNP) attempting to enter the mainstream..." he is well aware of what followed, namely that we will "enter the mainstream ourselves". If the new battleground is in the arena of grass roots politics, then that's where you'll find us. ***** _________________________________________________________________ BETWEEN THE SHEETS _________________________________________________________________ With Elvis Mondallant In our regular column that looks at how the wider media report on all things fascist, Elvis Mondallant casts his eye over the recent C18 murder trial, no-go zones in Germany and the dead bigot Enoch Powell. Read on. * Charlie Sargent and Martin Cross will not be seen for some time. Several articles have appeared in the press recently reporting on the trial of Sargent and Cross. Both received life sentences back in January for the murder of Chris Castle, a fellow member of C18. Castle was killed, according to press reports, while acting as an intermediary between two rival factions of C18. Originally the difference of opinion was over control of C18's CD operation, a big money spinner, later developing into a contest for control of C18 itself. The killing took place last February at Sargent's girlfriend's flat in Harlow. Castle went into the flat alone while X, Charlie's rival for the C18 gaffership, waited outside. When he appeared again, Castle had a 12-inch knife wound in his back. Mr. X, somewhat put out by all of this demanded to know what was going on. "He's a casualty of war. Fuck him. Let him rot.", was the reply. Castle died shortly afterwards at hospital. Searchlight's coverage was fairly predictable. The February issue used up column inches patting its personnel on the back, "Despite personal danger, including a letter bomb and an attack on a photographer, Searchlight's team of investigative journalists, moles, researchers and photographers have never let up in pursuit of these terrorists." We are also informed "Eighteen months ago, at a meeting between Searchlight and Essex police officers, both sides agreed that when the festering split in the organization finally exploded, someone was likely to die." Articles in The Observer and The Independent on Sunday, as well as drooling over events in Harlow, delved into some of the history of C18. The Observer gives us a fairly sensational story, C18 from its origins to the present day ending with a quote from X, "All the scum has been got rid of, all the hangers on, all the drunken bums. The music scene will continue. Now that Sargent has gone, we can only get stronger." However Nick Ryan in The Independent on Sunday made some fairly astute observations. He recalls two interviews with C18 members towards the end of 1996 when Charlie and others explained their ambitions. When describing his meetings with Charlie and co. Ryan draws a grim sketch, describing hard looking men, well versed in violence and with plenty to say about "White Revolution". Charlie is an aggressive, intimidating character, we are told that on at least one occasion he has bitten off an opponents nose. Charlie explained why it was necessary for C18 to come into being, "The reds were going around and they were beating the living daylights out of the right-wing. They were kicking in doors, petrol bombing people and beating old men black and blue with hammers (a reference to an attack by anti-fascists on a right-wing meeting in Kensington Library during 1992]. Red Action [an extreme left-wing group] were absolutely battering the Right." He then goes on to claim that C18 turned the situation around: "We fuckin' battered 'em wherever we met until there was no fucker left standing." Charlie's admission that militant anti-fascism was winning at street level is a lot more honest than anything you would ever hear from the likes of Tony Lecomber, who claims that the BNP's move away from street level activity was "...because it hindered our political progress, and was the only thing holding our extreme opponents together." However Charlie is also a past master at twisting the facts into some unrecognizable shape. The covert activity he makes reference to certainly never took place and there has never been a big clash at street level between C18 and AFA. The earliest meeting between AFA and what was about to become C18 came at Weavers Field, Bethnal Green, in 1990. C18 bottled it. Since then C18 has been found wanting on a number of occasions - The Little Driver (Bow), The Harrow Inn (Abbey Wood), The White Hart (Holborn) to name a few. Hardly the crazy monsters they were made out to be. Ryan, during the course of two interviews, is subjected to further bravado and much bullshit. In one of the interviews detail is given of the white homelands project, apparently funds were raised with shares being sold at 10 pounds each. "1000 shares giving you the right to work permanently and reside on the site", Ryan tells us. However for once the journo refrains from hyping it up and instead does his homework, concluding like AFA previously, that C18 is partial to confusing ambition with ability. The white homelands are just a dream. By the end of the article Ryan takes us back to the murder trial and delivers his final assessment of Charlie Sargent. "In the dock at Chelmsford crown court a fortnight ago, Charlie Sargent cuts a lonely, almost sad figure, stripped of his reputation and coterie. When I first met him some 15 months ago, he seemed an intimidating figure, with his short, cropped hair surrounded by followers and talking of revolutionary struggle. Now wearing glasses, with his hair long and very much on his own, the myth was dispelled. I noticed for the first time just how physically small he really is. It seemed to highlight the difference between reality and the fantasy so often espoused in the Far Right's literature and lifestyles. Is this - finally - the reality of "Aryan man"? * In January there was a sudden rush to report on neo-Nazi activity in eastern Germany. The Guardian of January 21st reports: "Large parts of formerly communist East Germany are becoming no-go areas for foreigners and German 'outsiders' as support for racist neo-Nazi ideology backed by violence, intimidation and clandestine propaganda, grows rapidly across the region." German police estimate the number of active fascists at 47,000. This is only the hardcore. The Guardian tells us "much of the population, young and old, is receptive to neo-Nazi ideas, sympathetic to such views, and often tacitly endorsing violence..." An East German criminologist, Berndt Wagner, says "To say that one third of East German youth is now prone to the extreme right is an understatement. The point of no return has already been reached for many." The fascists are well organised and a major weapon in their arsenal is the Internet, which is used to propagate their politics, including foreigner free zones. "Vast tracts of eastern Germany are becoming de facto no-go areas for foreigners, left- wingers, gays and teenage punks - anyone who does not fit the homogeneous ideal, or appears 'un-German'", according to The Guardian. The Internet is also used to list venues for clandestine gigs with about sixty skinhead bands active on the neo-Nazi music scene. Last year there were seventy nine gigs, some with audiences of up to 1,600 strong. Although the media have been fairly quiet in the recent past about fascist activity in Germany, the story has been there to report if anyone had felt inclined to do so. This is not media hype either, like some of the C18 scare stories dished out by the press. In Brandenburg state the authorities have warned that thousands of foreign building workers are under threat from the fascists, where they are setting up foreigner free zones. The truth is that the neo-Nazi organizations that are established in Germany are slowly but surely developing in size, stature and influence. In some areas they and the political ideas that they propagate are now the mainstream. Everything else has been swept aside. * The press has been full of comment on the passing away of Enoch Powell, with much chewing over of old speeches and his personal political history. Tributes have been forthcoming from many high profile political figures, "There will never be another Enoch. He was magnetic." says Thatcher. His funeral proved to be something of a magnet as well. It was held at St. Margaret's, Westminster, which was, "packed to capacity with friends and admirers" the Daily Telegraph tells us. Francis Wheen, writing in The Guardian, noticed something a little suspect about one of the mourners. Among the list of Tories and Major Generals that had gathered to pay their last respects was one Mrs. Joy Page of The London and Counties Tenants' Federation. Francis did a little investigative work and discovered that Joy Page was also, in the past, with an organization called The Immigration Control Association. At a rally in Trafalgar square in 1976 she shared a platform with Michael McLaughlin and Lady Birchwood. In the 1980's Page and her friend Joan Mason were leading lights in WISE [Welsh, Irish, Scottish, English], an organization that provided a link between the extreme Right of the Tory party and leaders of the NF. Joy Page was not the only dodgy character at the funeral. The Daily Mirror of February 19th reports: Sid Chaney, 76, from Basildon, Essex, unfurled a poster of the cross of St. George with a picture of a knight on a white horse. He said: "I've come because I'm a great supporter of Mr. Powell. So many young people today don't know who he is. We do. But we have to keep our mouths shut." A lot of young people today might not know who Sid Chaney is. We do. Chaney was an active member, and stood as a candidate for the National Front in the 1970's. It comes as no big surprise for us to discover that characters such as Page and Chaney turned up at the funeral. While much of the liberal press have been critical of Powell and his politics, it is some indication of the political culture in the British Establishment that tributes to the man have been made, not only by Thatcher but by the likes of Tony Blair [see quotes] and the Bishop of Wolverhampton. "He was one of our great politicians." The truth is that Enoch Powell was a racist bigot operating to a hard-Right political agenda and he should be condemned as such. QUOTES "We don't categorize feelings of revulsion against foreigners as Extreme Right (Brandenberg police spokesman. Guardian - January 21, 1998) No comment. "I want lovely clean streets and blue eyed blonde birds." (Steve Sargent. Independent On Sunday - February 1, 1998) What you want and what you get are two very different things, and we don't reckon his brother Charlie will be getting either for a good few years! "One of the greatest figures of 2Oth century British politics, with a brilliant mind." (Tony Blair. Guardian - February 9, 1998) The Leader of the Labour Party praising the reactionary, racist bigot Enoch Powell. "A German skinhead picked on the wrong man in a billiard hall in Zinnowitz last week and ended up with a bloody nose. The skinhead directed racial insults at a Cuban relaxing in the hall only to find that he had taken on the boxer Juan Carlos Gomez." (Guardian - January 15, 1998) "Nor will we have been chased into doorstep politics by the police, or by red gangs. Rather we should adopt doorstep tactics because it is the best way to campaign. And if the reds change to doorstep politics to counter us, then it is another victory for us." ('Jack Truman' Patriot magazine, Winter 1997) Well, 'Jack', a couple of quick points. First, back in the early 90's it was AFA that chased you off the streets (ask Charlie Sargent) and second, I can't quite work out the logic of the BNP's 'victory' if anti-fascists start challenging their arguments on the doorstep. * * * ANTIFA INFO-BULLETIN (AFIB) 750 La Playa # 730 San Francisco, California 94121 E-Mail: tburghardt@igc.org * On PeaceNet visit ANTIFA INFO-BULLETIN on pol.right.antifa or by gopher --> gopher://gopher.igc.apc.org:7021/11/europe Via the Web --> http://burn.ucsd.edu/~aff/afib.html * ANTI-FASCIST FORUM (AFF) Antifa Info-Bulletin is a member of the Anti-Fascist Forum network. AFF is an info-group which collects and disseminates information, research and analysis on fascist activity and anti-fascist resistance. 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