Hackney 'Loony left' accused of cashing in on BNP

Terry Fitzpatrick sent this letter to Blood and Property. It is a response to a letter published in the Hackney Gazette last week. Whether you agree with him or not, there seems to be a long-standing division in the fight against fascism:

"Regular readers (of the Hackney Gazette) will remember an exchange of letters between myself and several members of Hackney Loony Left starring, amongst others, the SWP's Sasha Simic. I won the exchange and they all went quiet until this week when a bunch of them popped up in the letters page, (Unite in the fight to stop fascist vote 25th Feb).

"Using the SWP front Unite Against Fascism Hackney Trots are on a shameless money raising mission from people quite rightly concerned about the rise of the BNP vote. People may be asking why, some eight weeks before the elections of May 6th, we now see a call for " a broadly-based UAF organisation in Hackney. Our aim is to mobilise the broadest opposition to the BNP and (sic) provide a network of supporters for the anti BNP campaign in Barking."

"A campaign against the far right already exists and can be contacted on Hackneyunites@btinternet.com. In the GLA elections last year it distributed 50,000 copies of a special eight page tabloid paper printed especially for Hackney which I delivered to activists all over the borough. The group also organised a day of action when every railway station in the borough was leafleted. Where was UAF when all this was going on? Well, nobody knows as there was no sign of them.

"There is a national campaign which can be contacted at www.hopenothate.org.uk with daily updates on the national anti BNP campaign.

Terry Fitzpatrick.

(Who is he? Some links: Hackney Gazette, Searchlight, But for a flavour of the oddness/bitterness behind the scenes in the world of anti fascists, check out the comments section here: http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=2544. Or a life story/interview.)

Diane on wanting Boris' job and the BNP's chances in Hackney

Diane Abbott answers questions from the Independent's readers: Diane Abbott, You answer the questions

Highlights include her desire to be the Mayor of London (here's Andrew Gilligan's assessment of the liklihood of this happening) and comments on Boris, the BNP, her son's education and whether we can expect a resurgence in socialism:

"Fear drives racism, not the simple fact of non-white people next door. Hence there is no support for the British National Party (BNP) in Hackney where there is a highly diverse community.

"But the BNP does well in Essex, with a relatively small black community, where people are easily terrified at the thought of blacks moving in next to them."

BNP: Labour can't rely on christian or muslim voters

The BNP reaffirmed that it aims to field a candidate in the Hackney mayoral election. In an interview with the News Shopper the party's London organiser said: “It’s going to be difficult. The Labour Party think they’ve got the ethnic vote sewn up - that’s why they imported all these people and gave them passports.

“But a lot of people who follow Islam won’t be following Labour because of their wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“They can’t rely on the Nigerian Christian vote because of their support for abortion and championing of gay rights above what’s right and normal.”

BNP to stand in Hackney Mayoral elections this year

According to this website - www.londonpatriot.org - the BNP is aiming to find a candidate to stand in Hackney's Mayoral elections 2010.

The site is not officially BNP. In its "about us" section it says: "We are an independent site for London nationalists. We fully support and will promote the British National Party as we believe it is the only serious vehicle for the advancement of British Nationalism. However, any opinions expressed in posts or comments are those of the authors and not necessarily that of the British National Party."

I couldn't find any mention of the plan to stand in Hackney on the BNP's main website and I don't know if the BNP often stand in Hackney elections either.

According to Londonpatriot, a BNP spokesperson said the party needed money and candidates.

Should UK politicians seek support from abroad?

The previous post mentions George Galloway's trip to Bangladesh before the 2005 General Election.

The reference was made in connection with Hackney-based fundamentalist Christian Reverend George Hargreaves being criticised by the BNP for apparently seeking support for his party in Nigeria.

Whether or not this is something that UK politicians should or shouldn't do, I don't know. But may be it is an aspect of politics that should be more closely monitored - particularly in boroughs with strong links to areas outside the UK.

Galloway beat Oona King by a margin of just 823 votes and the majority of his support came from the Muslim Bangladeshi community which makes up more than 40 per cent of population of his Bethnal Green and Bow constituents.

As such it is likely that his two week trip to Bangladesh played an important part in his victory.

In a speech made at one village on 7 March 2005, Galloway said: "I'm going to be a champion of Bangladesh in London... I will be a champion of Bangladesh in the world. I will fight so Bangladesh receives justice."

He also said: "I'm asking you, my brothers, to telephone every relative and friend in East London, to write them a letter, to send a message, tell them what you heard here... You can strike a blow for dignity when the General Election comes."

When he got back from Bangladesh Galloway was asked: "Do you still intend to become a "Champion of Bangladesh" if you are elected in Bethnal Green and Bow? How do you think that being a "Champion of Bangladesh" will benefit people in Bethnal Green and Bow?

His reply was: "Taking a few words out of the context of thousands I delivered, publicly and privately on a recent visit to Bangladesh, inevitably leads to misrepresentation. My job is not to represent any foreign country or its interests in parliament, nor, of course, would I do so.

"But I do intend to become a champion for all of the people of Bethnal Green and Bow, whatever their race, religion or ethnic origin."

Whether or not the people back in Bangladesh would ever have known that these words were out of context is hard to say. Meanwhile the majority of his constituents back in Tower Hamlets had no idea that he had said the words at all.

As far as I can tell Galloway has stuck to his word and not become a champion of Bangladesh since winning his seat and I don't know if he has been back to the country since. Meanwhile his attention remains focused on the middle east.

However Bangladesh could do with a champion. I'm not sure how accurate or useful this is, but it seems that Bangladesh has more people living in it than the combined global population of Palestinians (c.10m, although 80% of those in Gaza Strip below the poverty line) the entire population of Iraq (31m - now with around 30 per cent living below the poverty line) and the UK population of around 60m (14% below the poverty line in 2003). Add them all up to 100m and may be about 30-40 per cent live below the poverty line.

Meanwhile Bangladesh has a population of 153m with 45 per cent living below the poverty line.

However the reasons why Galloway doesn't spend much time on Bangladesh is that, if he did address human rights abuses or corruption... or anything else, he would lose the support of one faction or other within the Bangladeshi community.

The issue received some attention back in 2005 but not much. This is an extract from an angry piece published in April 2005 by a member of the Socialist Workers Party (which later split from Respect). The piece mentions some of the problems associated with Galloway's trip. Here is an excerpt: "Despite being asked to respond to these instances (of human rights abuses) Galloway has maintained a diplomatic silence. Could it be, as suggested by Private Eye, that Galloway has compromised himself in his ambition to get elected, being aware that “most Bangladeshis in London, whose votes Respect is seeking, support either the Awami League or the Bangladesh National Party, the two groups back home most closely implicated in such abuses” (Private Eye April 1-14)?

"Either way, it is clearly untenable for comrades in the SWP to maintain a silence on such issues. Votes from the Bengali community must be won on a principled basis, not through courting reactionary “politicians and businessmen”

In case you're wondering, I'm not a member of the SWP or the BNP (Bangladesh or British).

Hackney christian politician in BNP 'mistake'?

The Reverend George Hargreaves has been attracting the attention of a more sinister crowd than the usual outraged atheists and liberals. (His entry in Wikipedia tells you what you need to know about him - the creator of gay anthem So Macho turned anti-gay Christian fundamentalist based in Hackney.)

Hargreaves' bizarre views are no secret and yet the far right seems to have resorted to fiction to demonise him.

On 3 May this story was posted on the Telegraph website blog: Eu Madness: Nigerians, with Nigerian Passports, Living in Nigeria, Can Vote in British EU Elections by Proxy.

The story claimed that Hargreaves was calling for Nigerians to vote in UK elections.

One reader left a short comment pointing out that the original story - printed in the Nigeria-based Daily Independent - was actually talking about Nigerians with British passports who, like any other British citizen, can vote in British Elections.

It looked like a mistake but exactly the same story, 'mistake' and all, had appeared on the BNP's website a day earlier on 2 May. Here BNP readers had left 103 comments. The BNP site provided a link to the original story in the Nigeria-based newspaper, which the Telegraph blog had not, until one was provided by blogger Peter Barnett.

Some people might wonder why Hargreaves feels the need to campaign for his party in Nigeria but he's certainly not the first to have looked beyond the borders for support. For a start there's George Galloway who campaigned in Bangladesh in 2005. He visited villages with links to Tower Hamlets. After mentioning that he was keen on an amnesty for illegal immigrants in the UK (not necessarily a bad idea) he (possibly a bit cynically) called on his audiences to write, fax and phone their relatives in Tower Hamlets - but more on that another time.

Hargreaves' brush with the BNP was only the latest in a long line of stunts - his other recent escapade apparently involves a poster campaign saying "Murder is not a joke. Sack Alan Duncan" following some comments made by the MP on Have I Got News For You. His last poster campaign 'There Definitely Is A God" was in response to an atheist poster campaign saying "There is no God".

For those who like to leave the nutters to do battle on the fringes of politics, there may be no cause for further alarm.

But a quick google search delivers a Hackney Council scrutiny panel investigation on gun crime in 2004. This says: "The Crime and Disorder Scrutiny Panel would also like to encourage the continuance of contact and discussions between the Council’s Community Partnership team and Reverend George Hargreaves(CANDLE Project) in order to establish clarity relating to the development of his proposed Barnardos led multi-agency response to social deprivation."

Whatever progress was made with this interesting sounding project, no further mention could be found. But the Reverend George Hargreaves' ties to the establishment were highlighted again in 2007 in a piece called: "Half of all young people arrested are revealed to have smoked cannabis":

"Mr Hargreaves, who is the pastor of the Hephzibah Christian Centre in Hackney and sits on two Metropolitan Police committees, said: 'We are talking about a brand of cannabis that sends young people schizophrenic."

And for something lighter, here's a story from the Times about how multiculturalism isn't working in London with a passing reference to Hackney: "I realise now I was confusing coexistence with integration. Looking back, not only were my eight years there marked by a retrospectively bewildering number of terrifying incidents, such as the two times I was mugged on my doorstep, the one time a potential flatmate was mugged on the way to inspect my flat, the several times police officers suggested I move out (“If you saw what I see, you'd get out”), the one time I went to throw away rubbish and discovered a vagrant copulating with a local prostitute in the refuse area, the bombing, the mini-riot, the numerous anti-terrorism raids, the stabbings, kneecappings and murders, but also a complete failure to make friends with any local residents."