HOPE not hate news

BNP bid to recruit our heroes

Home news | credit: News of the World by Jamie Lyons on: Sunday, 7 February 2010
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THE reviled BNP has launched a recruitment drive to sign up soldiers serving in Afghanistan.

The far-right British Nation Party is secretly hoping to gain support before the general election, expected in May. The main theme of the campaign is "Bring Our Boys Home". But it's gone down badly with troops - where soldiers of diverse ethnic background serve alongside each other like brothers.

And they just want people back home to support them. They are also angry after the racist BNP criticised Grenada-born VC hero Johnson Beharry, who saved the lives of 30 comrades.

Soldiers are allowed to join the BNP but membership is frowned upon.

A source at the anti-racist campaign group Searchlight said: "The BNP think they will get support because the Taliban have different colour skin. But soldiers are hardly going to join a racist party."

HOPE not hate is Searchlight's campaign to counter racism and fascism in elections and beyond. Over the past few years the British National Party has seriously contested elections all over the country. The two BNP MEPs elected in June 2009 have brought the party financial benefit in the form of their salaries and staffing and expenses allowances, as well as an opportunity for Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, further to develop his links with other European fascist parties and strut around on an international stage. However without the HOPE not hate campaign, the BNP would undoubtedly have had more MEPs and many more local councillors elected. In May we won a great victory, kicking the BNP out of Barking and Dagenham and cutting its total number of council seats to 28. But this setback has sent many more far-right supporters back onto the streets with the violence of the EDL. At Searchlight we want to make sure that people know the full story about who the BNP and EDL are and what they really stand for.
The HOPE not hate website aims to do just that, serving the anti-fascist movement and providing up to date news, good practice and analysis.

HOPE not hate/Searchlight PO Box 1576, Ilford IG5 0NG | Telephone 020 7681 8660 | Email