Why the BNP is not an anti-war party

The BNP presents itself as anti-war. It is not. It is a fascist party that incites racial hatred and has declared civil war against ethnic minorities.

Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National Party (BNP), claims he speaks for the "ordinary squaddie" when opposing the war in Afghanistan. He certainly does not speak for the soldiers and ex-soldiers who will lead Stop the War's national demonstration on Saturday 24 October.

The BNP calls for the immediate withdrawal of all British troops from the Afghanistan war, which it describes as "unwinnable", and says the Iraq war was "illegal and immoral". To publicise its supposed "anti-war" policies, Nick Griffin is now saying that Tony Blair and all the politicians who have led Britain into these wars should be held to account for war crimes.

Stop the War does not accept that the BNP is an anti-war party. It is a fascist organisation. Its policies can only be carried through by a civil war against ethnic minorities and all those it regards as inferior.

Its leaders and core members are violent racist thugs with a history of whipping up hatred against black people, Asians, Jews, immigrants and most recently Muslims. They accuse all ethnic minorities of being "racial foreigners" who are "taking over" the country. Their declared aim is to build an "all white Britain".

Civil war

The BNP’s policies incite the worst kind of racist violence. Former BNP candidate Robert Cottage was jailed in 2007 for hoarding a stockpile of explosives at his home in preparation for a "civil war" against Asians.

Nick Griffin has a conviction for incitement to racial hatred for publishing a Nazi magazine that claimed Hitler’s Holocaust did not take place.

Andrew Brons -- like Griffin elected to the EU parliament -- has belonged to fascist organisations since the 1960s and was convicted in 1984 for breach of the peace while selling papers in a shopping centre and shouting slogans such as "Death to Jews" and "White Power".

Stop the War supports the campaigns which reveal the true nature of the BNP and which mobilise opposition to its fascist policies. Many of Stop the War's supporters will join the protest on Thursday 22 October against the BBC's decison to invite a fascist party to participate in its Question Time programme.

Whatever Nick Griffin and the BNP say about the war in Afghanistan, there is no place for fascist organisations in the anti-war movement. Their ideology inciting racial hatred and violence towards minorities is the antithesis of the real anti-war movement, which on Saturday 24 October will be demonstrating for the withdrawal of all British troops from Afghanistan and will be led by anti-war soldiers, ex-soldiers and military families.

Demonstrate: Bring the Troops Home Now
Saturday 24 October Central London
Assemble 12 noon Hyde Park: March to Trafalgar Square
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