Nazis to blame for Bradford

Anti Nazi League | 10.07.2001 08:52

The debate over who is to 'blame' for the Bradford riots in the media is
lacking any analysis of the role of Nazi organisations.

The far-right are attempting to organise race riots in cities in the North West, to capitalise on the electoral success of the British National Party in the general election. We have already witnessed racist gangs rampaging through Oldham and Burnley, attacking Asians and petrol bombing shops and restaurants.

The riot in Bradford was caused by a leading member of Combat 18 throwing the first punch, while hurling racist abuse at a group of Asians. Combat 18 contains the most violent of Britain's Nazis as members.

The Anti Nazi League had organised a rally in response to threats by the National Front to march. Our rally was peaceful, attended by over 2,000 people - black, white and Asian, children, the young and the elderly. MPs, councillors, trade unionists and anti-racists were united in defending our multi-cultural and multi-racial society which the Nazis are out to destroy.

BNP leader, Nick griffin, who has convictions for race hatred and Holocaust Denial, addressed a meeting of 150 people in Bradford on Friday evening.

When assessing the violence, we must examine the role of the police in allowing leading Nazis to openly walk the streets of Bradford on Saturday, taunting anti-racists and creating tension. The Nazis made a mockery of the government ban to stop them marching.

I personally identified a group of Nazis to the police and asked for them to be monitored. The police responded by body searching the young Asians around me.

In the wake of the McPherson Report and the conviction of BNP nailbomber David Copeland, it would appear that the police have learnt nothing.

Anti Nazi League
e-mail: anl@anl.org.uk

Comments

Hide the following 18 comments

What ar the anl playing at?

10.07.2001 14:58

So you had this rally and invited MPs and councillors, Labour I presume, to speak at it.

Why?

Isn't Labour the government and aren't the problems that create racism caused to a large extent by the racist Labour government and Labour councils? Isn't a lot of the white working class resentment that the BNP feed off caused by this same Labour Party's refusal to improve things for them? And isn't this the same Labour Party that runs Campsfield and is very keen on tight immigration controls? And isn't part of the problem that the left in the socialist alliance/anl/whatever won't give voice to working class anti-labour sentiment - refusing to stand in Oldham against Michael Meacher for instance, or even Dover - letting the BNP win votes by doing just that?

And then you ask the police to act like their not racist.
Get real.

geezer

anl - combat 18 same thing to me

10.07.2001 15:53

Is that an ANL press release? Are they so infantile as to blame the mass destruction, 11 hours of chaos and 120 injured police on one punch thrown by a Combat 18 member. In a democratic society all sectors have the right to express themselves peacefully, however distasteful. The riots in Bradford cannot be reduced to such a trite, irresponsible and impartial analysis. If that is the way the ANL think then as far as I can tell, they are as much part of the problem as the moronic Combat 18 and BNP.

damian

Is "damian" on this planet?

10.07.2001 16:38

"Damian" (the "Omen" presumably?) What are you on about, are you a memeber of BNP/NF/Labour Party or similar "pro democracy" groups? "In a democratic society" for fuck sake, I know no one is so stupid to believe that, not even you. This society is rotten to the core and must be torn out root and branch, groups such as ANL etc SUPPORT this society, the status quo. What makes a person like you "damian" and various other liberal/middle class supporters of the status quo look up Indymedia etc? You obviously believe in the way this world is run, you obviously agree in the persecution, repression, destruction of the mass of the world population's lives. Only when there are millions of working class heroes, like our brave friends in Bradford, Leeds, Burnley, Cinncinati, Bolivia, Gotthenburg etc etc will this society be destroyed and a beautiful new world ushered in. The cruelty and inhumanity of capitalism cannot be wished or talked away.
A big shout out to THE HEROES OF BRADFORD, WELL DONE! A RISEN PEOPLE CAN NEVER BE DEFEATED

Joe Public

Nazi's entirely to blame?

10.07.2001 18:22

Nazi's were not entirely to blame as you seem to state in your title. In truth the Nazi presence you report was the incident that lit the blue touch paper. Brdford, unlike some of the smaller outer mill towns of Yorkshire and Lancashire has not had the large presence of Fash prior to the weekend kick-off. In Oldham and Halifax a decade ago there was a steady build up of Nazis until it all blew up. Anyway its been happening small-scale regularly in Bradford for ages. Reason? social exclusion and the cops. That's why there was the trouble on the white estate last night. They have seen the Asians take on the cops in Mannningham, and have grabbed a piece of the action for themselves. A typically simplistic piece of rhetoric from the SWP run ANL, what do you expect?

Yorkie

Race Card

10.07.2001 23:29

In Bradford, an Asian youth was beaten and kicked by a member of Combat 18, while the police stood no less than two yards away, and watched. They did not use their over-zealous powers to arrest the offender, instead, they eventually surrounded the victim, with their back to him, until an ambulance came. Not one of them offered him assistance or first aid.

This is the root of the problem in Bradford and every other city.

Yet when lawyers representing Asian clients said, we must look to the root causes which provoked the Asian community to react the way they did, the Home Secretary’s reply was, that the lawyers are talking “garbage” (his words) and there was no element of racism involved, only a “drug element.”

Drugs did NOT trigger the Bradford, Burnley or Oldham riots. The racist BNP and their henchmen, the police, were directly responsible.

Now, while the Asian Manningham district of Bradford has restored calm, white youths are still rampaging through the area, burning Asian homes and businesses. But, the police have called on “minority” community leaders to hand over suspects!

How have we reached a point where politicians can be openly racist and vindictive to the minorities within out midst and implement harsh, unjust measures to repress them, and we the electorate, by doing nothing, silently condone this institutional racism?

M.P.

combat 18

11.07.2001 09:30

As you probably know combat 18 take their name adolph hitler
read up on their propaganda
at the very basis of their ideology is the idea that me, my family and all my friends should be dead or in slavery and all you bastards are arguing over which methods i can or cant use to stop this happening

fuck that

blank

Anti-Nazi League heroes

11.07.2001 14:39

The ANL is by far the biggest and most effective organisation fighting fascism in Britain.

It has a proud history of defeating Nazis on the streets, and long-term dedicated campaigns to reduce Nazi support in white communities where it used to be strong.

Largely thanks to the ANL the Nazis have been unable to build in the UK. The ANL is willing and able to fight the Nazis hand-to-hand on the streets while others stand back and say "oooh, you can't do that, it isn't democratic".

I say good luck to the ANL, there is no right to free speech for Nazis, and physical force to stop them ruling the streets is a very important part of the fight against fascism. Join the ANL.

Frank
mail e-mail: gobbledegook@ukonline.co.uk

pHYSICAL FORCE AGAINST THE FASCISTS!

11.07.2001 16:53

I completely agree with the ideas but to say that the ANL are actually effective is a nonsense, it was not the ANL, fighting in the streets. They were asking for police protection and were told to fuck off, the majority of them are white middle class liberals who are the ones who are trying to "restrain" those who have got off their knees and were physically taking on the racists, both NF and police. The ANL are known to receive money from the State (rumours of MI5 money?) the very state that persecutes relentlessly the working class.
We the people who take direct action because we must don't need these student protestors "leading" us and telling us what we should do. The idea that the ANL "Stopped" nazi ideas from being taken up is repugnant, my white working class neighbours are not some gullible closet nazi's who need "educating" away from these vile ideas. They are against fascism as much as me. I feel sometimes these university lecturers are "old style" colonialist missionary types. At the end of the day while freinds of mine where getting driven from their town centre the "protestors" scuttled off to their cars, to avoid "confrontation". The ANL are a major problem because they justify the system by promoting the idea that the State "protects" rather than is the instigator of racism. Only through grass roots action that we seen on Saturday will anything be changed.

Had Enough

Where can I find more infos?

11.07.2001 21:06

(Sorry, can`t join this discussion, my English is not good enough.)
Does anybody know where I can find more (good) information in the WWW on the riots in Bradford? Especially looking for photos. Thanks in advance.

LoonySquat

sloagn,slogan,slogan, shout, shout, shout

12.07.2001 09:32

Message to the ANL/SWP front group

Rev Kenneth Leech wrote in the foreword to 'Brick Lane 1978': "The battle against racism and fascism cannot be won by outsiders who march into an area, chant slogans, and then march out again; it can only be won by the most dedicated, rooted and persistent commitment to undermine and destroy the injustice and neglect on which such movements thrive".

jo
mail e-mail: schnews@brighton.co.uk

a/n/l : muppets

12.07.2001 16:16

the Anti Nazi League are shit:

the bradford riots were real deal riots fighting oppression along the lines of race and class: they were grassroots, democratic,working class, autonomous and fucking cool:

the swp follow the liberal agenda that they were 'race riots': they werent: if the c18 saddos hadnt of even turned up Bradford would have still erupted at some point:

the idea of asking the cops for protection,(look the pigs are our oppressers) of inviting MPs(oppressors), of being predominantly middle class(priveleged lifestyles), of being called the anti nazi league (do you know anyone who would not describe themselves as anti-nazi's):

fuck sake the anl are lost: also i think facists do have a right to assemble protest and i would look to a facist state to enforce a ban on the movement of people even if i found their views utterly abhorrent:

if facists use violence I will retaliate: but I wont go to a fucking cop to protect me:
yoke

yoke
mail e-mail: anarchyisorder@ireland.com

em

12.07.2001 16:26

no i mean i would NOT look to a facist state or its henchmen the pigs to get the facists off the streets:

yoke

the ANL do not support the police

14.07.2001 14:24

the anl may have called for the police to call for the police to stop the NF marching in Bradford but only that. If a march i banned then the police should enforce the ban. They, the poice, will happily clamp down and use violence against the left. Just look at Welling. DO you seriously think the ANL would support the police after that?
Without the ANl the facists would not have been smashed

Andrew

ANL ask for police protection

14.07.2001 15:17

Who is the silly man foaming at the mouth because people in the ANL asked for police protection from fascists?
It it perfectly proper to make demands that cannot/will not be fulfilled, because it shows that the State WILL NOT defend the people it is supposed to protect.
When economic demands are made, for example to nationalise a redundant factory, these demands are made not in hope or expectation that they will be fulfilled, but in the full knowledge that they WILL NOT be fulfilled, thus exposing the ruling class for the parasites and money-grabbers that they are.
I say full support for the ANL, the ONLY organisation that is both prepared to fight hand-to-hand AND to keep up sustained propaganda against the Nazis.
As for the part-time revolutionaries in the 'anarchist movement', I say go and wreck a local restaurant if you think that strikes a blow against capitalism, but don't expect many to join you.

jimbo
mail e-mail: still@it.com

Bradford riot info & pics

19.07.2001 15:44

LoonySquat: check out www.kids.legend.org.uk

Paul Boulton

Bradford riot info & pix correction

19.07.2001 15:49

Sorry LoonySquat. Scratch that last address. Should read: www. kdis legend.org.uk

(kdis, not kids)

Paul Boulton

ANL

22.07.2001 10:44

It's nonsense to suggest that the ANL march into an area and march out again, or try to patronise white people in particular areas.

The BNP leafleted my area recently. It freaked out my neighbour, an Indian woman, who thought it was directed mainly at her.

But now, she, a couple of railworkers from a nearby street (one white, one black), and a couple of gay men are getting together to begin a campaign against the nazis in our area.

That wouldn't have happened without the ANL. And it is ANL activity that has come from INSIDE our community.

Now, if the BNP try and march through our community, we will mobilise as many local people as possible to stop them. But we will also call on people from elswhere to come and help us, and show solidarity.

If you think that amounts to the ANL, the SWP, or anyone else marching in and marching out again, or patronising us, then you are wrong.

We will not only want the solidarity of "outsiders" we will fucking well DEMAND it.

And if the nazis try anything on neighbouring eststes where there is, as yet, no opposition, we will go and oppose them there as well and do our damndest to get the people who live there to resist the Nazis too. I see nothing wrong with that.

And as for MI5 money...

well, anyone who comes off with shite like that really has run out of arguments.

GAN

The Legacy of the American Friends of the BNP

01.09.2001 22:24

It is fascinating that the controversy about the American Friends of the British National Party did not touch upon how they have been coordinating and leading non-British groups in their Northern Virginia area (between Falls Church and Richmond) to build a prototype for other White power bases to be called "Little Europes." This is also believed to be going on in Britain's north. Ref: AF-BNP Heritage and Destiny magazine.

Outside of immediatly collecting money, that is what they have really been devoting all their time to because it's possible to get a lot more support from Americans if you have hundreds of thousands of them legally organized to topple the British government. Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center says they have the Who's Who of the racialist right behind them, so I certainly doubt that the Little Europes project has been stopped simply by another nation's election laws.

Jim Clifton
mail e-mail: HistInves2@aol.com