The BBC got it wrong when they refused to broadcast the appeal for Gaza. Now they've got it wrong again, by airing a party political broadcast for the neo-nazi British National Party. People showed their displeasure in a noisy protest outside the BBC building on Oxford Road on the day of the broadcast.
One voice "stuff the BNP"
"Shame on the BBC"
It was not simply that the broadcast provides the BNP with an opportunity to promote their racist propaganda, but that getting a political broadcast on mainstream television is likely to give them more credibility. It gave them access to a mainstream audience to promote their views without challenge or question.
Though of course, the BNP would never agree to take part in an open debate about what they really stand for. They know they wouldn't stand up to scrutiny.
The BBC may claim it has to be "neutral" between different political parties, but in this instance it is being politically stupid. No other party has race hate as the bedrock of its existence, nor does any other party, as policy, wish to deny freedom of speech to others.
Last autumn, one of their number stamped into the independent bookshop on Bold Street in Liverpool and threatened to burn it down. It seems he didn't appreciate the kind of books it sells, which includes ones on feminism, gay rights, Black history and the various strands of socialism. It might be baffling to some, that somebody could have political objections to what other people read, but this authoritarian attitude is typical of the BNP. It makes joke of their own bleatings about being entitled to freedom of speech.
For anyone who wants to do something practical to oppose the neo nazis, (and who doesn't have an objection to voting in itself) campaigners will be meeting at 7.30 in the morning on Friday 29th May outside Victoria, Oxford Road and Piccadilly stations to hand out leaflets to commuters to encourage them to vote against the BNP. The aim is, if there is a big enough turnout for the EU election on 4th June, the BNP will not win a high enough percentage of the vote to get their own MEP elected.
Though of course, the BNP would never agree to take part in an open debate about what they really stand for. They know they wouldn't stand up to scrutiny.
The BBC may claim it has to be "neutral" between different political parties, but in this instance it is being politically stupid. No other party has race hate as the bedrock of its existence, nor does any other party, as policy, wish to deny freedom of speech to others.
Last autumn, one of their number stamped into the independent bookshop on Bold Street in Liverpool and threatened to burn it down. It seems he didn't appreciate the kind of books it sells, which includes ones on feminism, gay rights, Black history and the various strands of socialism. It might be baffling to some, that somebody could have political objections to what other people read, but this authoritarian attitude is typical of the BNP. It makes joke of their own bleatings about being entitled to freedom of speech.
For anyone who wants to do something practical to oppose the neo nazis, (and who doesn't have an objection to voting in itself) campaigners will be meeting at 7.30 in the morning on Friday 29th May outside Victoria, Oxford Road and Piccadilly stations to hand out leaflets to commuters to encourage them to vote against the BNP. The aim is, if there is a big enough turnout for the EU election on 4th June, the BNP will not win a high enough percentage of the vote to get their own MEP elected.
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Shut up Swappies
28.05.2009 17:59
You are all just middle-class tits who love to sell your papers more than anything.
SWP are twats
Both as bad as each other
28.05.2009 18:16
Ban the BNP and SWP
Yeah
28.05.2009 18:38
Right.
anon
What exactly was the point of this?
28.05.2009 18:46
By all means protest the BNP but what do you think this demo will achieve? It's not like the BBC can or will turn around and go 'oh right, sorry, hadn't noticed they were massive racists, we'll refrain from broadcasting their stuff from now on'
Ae
The neo-conservatives are the real enemy!
28.05.2009 18:52
Why are the SWP and far left barking up the wrong tree all the time? While the BNP are a tiny party with no hope in hell of ever getting into power the neo conservatives are imposing an evil new world order on us here and now and waging brutal imperialist wars of aggression!
Thinking anarchist
Protest against the BBC – again
28.05.2009 19:26
A few weeks ago on the BBC show Question Time, our elected members were on the ropes, the audience was calling for blood, and what mechanism did the MP’s use to deflect this justified anger, the BNP. It’s a bit like criminals in prison needing someone lower than themselves to hate to make themselves appear in a better light. They skilfully used this to get the audience to listen to them as before they did this they could not even get a word in without boos from the crowd, once they used this, things got better for them.
I want a fair and just world, one that shares wealth and life’s comforts. This naturally leads me to a socialist viewpoint, but why have the left such strong totalitarian tendencies, this just leads to real fascism and scares the life out of me, after all the real Nazis called themselves national socialists. Personally I think the distinction between left and right is a construct designed to constrain debate and thought itself, pushing unthinking tribalism before common sense. The world is fucked and its people treated in despicable ways, real people being really killed and treated terribly, so why waste all your energy on something a majority would never vote for unless mislead by the elite in society as seen many times before, we are not in that situation, so wake up people and aim for something that can aid folks in real ways.
M.Wood
Protest against the BBC – again
28.05.2009 19:42
A few weeks ago on the BBC show Question Time, our elected members were on the ropes, the audience was calling for blood, and what mechanism did the MP’s use to deflect this justified anger, the BNP. It’s a bit like criminals in prison needing someone lower than themselves to hate to make themselves appear in a better light. They skilfully used this to get the audience to listen to them as before they did this they could not even get a word in without boos from the crowd, once they used this, things got better for them.
I want a fair and just world, one that shares wealth and life’s comforts. This naturally leads me to a socialist viewpoint, but why have the left such strong totalitarian tendencies, this just leads to real fascism and scares the life out of me, after all the real Nazis called themselves national socialists. Personally I think the distinction between left and right is a construct designed to constrain debate and thought itself, pushing unthinking tribalism before common sense. The world is fucked and its people treated in despicable ways, real people being really killed and treated terribly, so why waste all your energy on something a majority would never vote for unless mislead by the elite in society as seen many times before, we are not in that situation, so wake up people and aim for something that can aid folks in real ways.
M.Wood
The BBC has to do as it is told
28.05.2009 20:26
What's problem do the busybody anti-fascists have with BNP broadcasts anyway? Surely if the BNPs message is so terrible then the more publicity it gets the fewer people will be inclined to vote for them.
Of course we know what their problem is. Anti-fascists have such a low opinion of the rest of us that they feel we should not be allowed to hear the BNP's message in case it appeals to us. What a joke - as if the general population needed the protection of a bunch of kids at university, some of their unworldly teachers, journalists who refuse to grow up and all the rest of the middle class amateur revolutionaries/local government workers who comprise the bulk of loony groups like the SWP and other oddball outfits.
Pete
Mindless activity
29.05.2009 13:26
Who do they think should decide which parties can have an election broadcast and which can't? Probably by same system Lenin and co decided which parties would be tolerated in Soviet Russia. At the moment it is based on how many candidates a party is fielding in order to be impartial.
With the collapse of their Respect party and the unpopularity of the government, it seems the SWP are reverting to type and mounting a 'save Labour' campaign using the BNP as the bogeyman to frighten the Labour faithful.
I'm simply glad that with each passing year the SWP and their type are a little bit smaller and a bit less influential as they continue their long march to oblivion.
Observer
First two posts!
29.05.2009 20:38
Fucking wastes of oxygen..............
Me
ahh the swp
30.05.2009 12:34
their stand blew over that the manchester mayday march was a right laugh, then the lovely police officers helped them pic up their flyers whilst the rest of us laughed
ballz
The BBC can't stop it
30.05.2009 14:53
There's absolutely nothing the BBC can do about it. It's not their choice. Same goes for the other terrestial broadcasters -they all have to screen it, too. The only basis on which a broadcaster has ever been able to reject a PEB is "taste and decency". An anti-abortion outfit put up enough candidates in 2001 to get a PEB in Wales. The tape they submitted showed graphic footage of abortion operations being carried with lots of blood. BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 all refused to broadcast it in that form and after lots of negotiation it became virtually a radio broadcast with a black screen saying "censored". The anti-abortionists sought judicial review of the broadcasters' decisions and lost all the way to the House of Lords.
The BNP may be thick, but even they are smart enough not to get snagged on "taste and decency". As long as they avoid that one, they know their shit HAS TO BE broadcast and there's nothing at all the BBC or the commercial TV companies can do about it.
No, I'm not sticking up for the BBC,,just pointing out how things are.
Stroppyoldgit
Pinkolady's right to reply
01.06.2009 08:49
I happened to see this demo when I was on my way home from work on the bus and I hopped off and joined in. And I always carry a digital camera around with me, hence the three photographs.
I also joined in their leafletting session despite not supporting them as a party, because THE ANARCHISTS IN MANCHESTER AND LIVERPOOL ARE DOING NAFF ALL TO EFFECTIVELY OPPOSE THE BNP. Go on, own up - what is anybody doing exactly? The A's in Liverpool - a few of them - have been helping to hand out an anti-BNP newspaper which is funded by Mirror Group newspapers and distributed by a trade union led group, even though the aim of the campaign is to encourage people to go out and vote for any party other than the BNP. But since most anarchists don't believe in voting on principle, most of them won't even do this.
When the BNP parachuted into Liverpool city centre as part of their European election campaign last autumn, it is true the anarchists mobilised to physically confront them at short notice. But they were quickly surrounded by the police and shoved further up the street out of the way. They succeeded in letting the BNP know they aren't popular with left wing people, but with no strategy or plan all they achieved was to cramp the BNP's style.
It is frustrating to see the fash getting publicity without opposition, so I will join in with whatever anybody is doing to oppose them whether that's running them out of town, or persuading people not to vote for them, or poking fun at their more absurd or sinister policies, or getting them prosecuted for inciting racial hatred. You have to use all the tools in the box, and bugger political sectarianism.
Pinkolady