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Far right aims to gain foothold in Oldham
The BNP is no longer reaching immediately for the top of the political
ladder, says its leader. Instead it plans to work from the bottom up Jeevan
Vasagar Wednesday May 30, 2001
He is polite, well-spoken and
enjoys the occasional curry. But he has also been blamed for stoking the
tensions behind Britain's worst race riots for more than 15 years.
The British National party and its media-savvy leader, Nick Griffin,
have descended on Oldham in the hope that this will be the place where
they will make an electoral breakthrough. Mr Griffin, who is standing
against Michael Meacher in Oldham West, has no real chance of making it to
Westminster, but he has reason for some satisfaction.
In 1995, he wrote about the need to defend "rights for whites" with
"well-directed boots and fists" in the white separatist magazine The Rune.
He denies playing a part in the weekend's riots, but his prediction
appears to have come true. "We're not a vigilante organisation," he said.
"There are white kids out there defending their homes. Local community
defence organisations are being set up, and there is nothing anyone can do
about it."
Mr Griffin is no jack-booted thug - the situation, Oldham council and
police allege, is more subtle than that. They say the BNP and the National
Front have stirred up a volatile situation then withdrawn to enjoy the
chaos.
Yesterday evening, hundreds of officers were preparing for a fourth
night patrolling the town where race riots have so far led to the arrests
of 33 whites and 16 Asians. The police said they would keep up their show
of force, which contained most of the trouble on Monday night.
There is no evidence of active coordination among the rioters on either
side, but the violence has played into Mr Griffin's hands. Reportedly, the
BNP did not have members in Oldham 18 months ago, but Mr Griffin said: "We
have got people in every white ward in the constituency. I'm sure we will
save our deposit, which would have been unthinkable 18 months ago."
The BNP's aim is to win council seats in next year's local elections in
Oldham, when there will be seats they think they can win. The BNP had
tried for power by jumping for the top rung of the ladder, Mr Griffin
said; now their strategy was to build up from local bases.
To that end, the party has printed thousands of election leaflets for
both Oldham seats and also for neighbouring Ashton-under-Lyne, calling for
an end to the building of mosques and "five bedroomed houses" for Asian
families. They have seized on a handful of media reports identifying "no
go areas" for whites in Oldham - claims dismissed by the police and the
council.
Dennis Clayton, a victim of an attack by Asians, has been lined up to
endorse them. Mr Griffin reserves his most virulent condemnation for
British Muslims, often the poorest, most marginalised of ethnic
communities. He casts a slur on their elected representatives, calling
them corrupt, and despite the persecution in Bosnia, Chechnya and Kashmir,
brands Islam an "aggressive" faith.
"Muslims are the biggest problem at present, for several reasons,
because they have the highest birth rate, which means their communities
need living space - that's what the ethnic cleansing is about. They have
political cor ruption in their own countries, and when they have a chance
to get council places they are there for graft. Most important of all is
that Islam is an aggressive religion."
He disagrees with observers who say the roots of Oldham's conflicts lie
in poverty and segregated communities. Instead, Mr Griffin's solution is
to impose further segregation, like Northern Ireland's peace lines between
communities. "Oldham is like Belfast in 1969," he said. "People are
attacking their Asian neighbours because they are Asian and hounding them
out of their homes. Asians are attacking their white neighbours because
they are white."
But Mr Griffin recognises how the Gulf war alienated British Muslims.
"All over the country, local people say it was OK 10 years ago. The
problem with young disaffected Muslims attacking white people started 10
years ago, and there is a direct connection with the Gulf war. The
majority of British newspapers were cheering while the west got out there
and 'fried the wogs' - their words, not mine."
He is surprisingly willing to speak in favour of immigration, so long
as it is strictly limited. "There's a limited number of benefits. The one
which everyone always points to is curry. I like curry. I eat in Indian
restaurants."
Mr Griffin, who grew up far from multi-cultural Britain, in Halesworth
in Suffolk, has a history of far right involvement. He stood as a National
Front candidate at a mock election at school. He studied history and law
at Cambridge, graduating with a 2:2 and a boxing blue. In an accident, in
1990, he lost his left eye when a shotgun cartridge exploded in his face.
His prediction for Oldham and Britain is yet more violence. "Apocalypse in
due course - as sure as eggs is eggs, and broken ones at that."
Riaz Ahmad, councillor in the predominantly Pakistani area of Glodwick,
accused the BNP of "exploiting" electoral law to spread their extremist
message. "The Asian community feels they are exploiting the electoral
laws. In normal times they would not be allowed in Oldham in any shape or
form. Their activities serve to provoke anger and violence.
"Hopefully they will be here today and gone tomorrow."
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