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The BNP’s international friends
It is said that one can tell a lot about someone by the company they keep. That is certainly true about the British National Party. A quick look at its international contacts reveals its true nature. Across the world, the BNP is linked to some of the most extreme and fanatical nazi, fascist, and racist groups around. They include:
USA
The foremost nazi group in the United States. NA speakers regularly address BNP meeting in the US and, in 1995, it founder and leader, William Pierce, spoke at the BNP annual rally in London. When Pierce died in the summer of 2002, the BNP posted an obituary on its website. Pierce was the author of The Turner Diaries, the fictional account of a Race War. The book proved to be an inspiration for the Oklahoma City bomber, Timothy McVeigh, and the London nailbomber David Copeland. The 2003 Red, White and Blue festival was attended by Turner’s successor Shaun Walker. Walker and two other National Alliance members were arrested in June 2006 in the US for attacking a Mexican man and a man of Native-American origin. Read more on the National Alliance (External link)
A former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux, is very close to Nick Griffin and the BNP. Since their first meeting in April 2000 Griffin has regularly shared platforms with Duke and the American’s antisemitic and Holocaust denial material is sold through the BNP. After attending a far right conference in Belgium with Griffin in December 2006 Duke attended the Holocaust denial conference in Tehran, Iran.
Read more on David Duke (External link)
A far right US based publication that supports the notion of the biological superiority of white people. Each edition is packed with the theories of race-science, and grim statistics showing the moral degeneracy of black people. Griffin spoke at their annual conference in 2002 and 2006.
A former Alabama Klansman, Don Black runs the world’s largest white supremacist website – slogan “white pride, world wide”. BNP members run the British section. In 1981 Black and his supporters tried to invade the island of Dominica and set up a white supremacist state. The venture failed and Black was jailed for three years. Black and Griffin and Mark Collett were pictured together with David Duke at the 2006 American Renaissance conference. Read more on Don Black (External link)
Europe
The ENF brings together some of Europe’s most extremist and openly fascist groups. They include:
NPD (Germany)
A bunch of nazis that the German government tried and failed to ban. Its members include terrorist bombers such as Peter Naumann and racist thugs and arsonists.
La Falange (Spain)
So fond are they of the dead Spanish Fascist dictator, the bloodstained General Franco, that they still use his emblem.
Noua Dreapta (Romania)
Worship Corneliu Codreanu, pre-war leader of the fascist Iron Guard which slaughtered Jews on Hitler’s behalf.
Forza Nuova (Italy)
Led by Roberto Fiore, an Italian terrorist and millionaire slum landlord, this mob is notorious for its violence. It was a member of Forza Nuova who killed a police officer in a football riot in Catania in February.
Renouveau Français (France)
A handful of fascist and Roman Catholic fundamentalist cranks who think the Nazi occupation of France during the Second World War was a good idea.
Nationale Alliantie (The Netherlands)
A deeply unpleasant crowd of racists, antisemites and Nazis that has organised petitions to demand the expulsion of Muslims from Europe and takes part in illegal paramilitary camps.
Nordiska Förbundet (Sweden)
Influenced by the pro-terrorist US National Alliance and the former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, this outfit distributes antisemitic books and denies the Holocaust happened.
Germany’s leading nazi group. NPD leaders deny the Holocaust took place and revere Adolf Hitler. The NPD shares many of its activists with the outlawed Blood and Honour skinhead movement. In August 2002 Griffin attended a festival put on by the NPD’s newspaper Deutsche Stimme (German Voice), where he was photographed with Voigt and the former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. Later that month he took part in an NPD summer school with Mahler and Voigt. In May 2003 Griffin was billed to speak alongside Voigt, Fiore and the NPD’s lawyer Jürgen Rieger, but failed to turn up.
Griffin organised a BNP demonstration outside the German embassy when the German government tried unsuccessfully to ban the NPD. When Griffin and other BNP officers were arrested last December on suspicion of causing race hate, the NPD website called for support for them.
The French fascist group led by Jean-Marie Le Pen. Le Pen was convicted for dismissing the Holocaust as a “mere detail” of the Second World War and for violence. Griffin has publicly stated his admiration for the FN. Le Pen launched the BNP’s 2004 election campaign alongside Nick Griffin in Manchester. FN officials regularly attend the BNP Red, White and Blue festival, which was modelled on the FN event of the same name.
Nick Griffin with French Nazi Le Pen during a recent trip to Britain surrounded by BNP heavies
Close links have been formed between Sweden’s leading far right party and the BNP in recent years. The Swedish party is better known as the Criminal Democrats because so many of its leaders have extensive criminal convictions. The ND is much like the BNP, it combines suit and tie racists with Hitler fans and street louts. It has a particularly violent Action Squad. Griffin has made a number of trips to Sweden to visit the ND in recent years as have a number of other senior BNP officials.
Groups
Robert Faurisson with Lady Michele Renouf
The BNP, and especially Nick Griffin, are close to many of the world’s leading Holocaust deniers. Robert Faurisson, one of the foremost Holocaust deniers, was a star witness at Griffin’s trial for racial hatred in 1998. The German Gunter Deckert, who has been to prison for denying the Holocaust, spoke at a London BNP meeting in 2001. Even the British Holocaust denier and antisemite, David Irving, has addressed BNP meetings and his recent imprisonment in Austria sparked protests by BNP members in London. When Irving was jailed in Austria for denying the Holocaust a number of people including the BNP’s Richard Edmonds staged a demonstration outside the Austrian Embassy. Amongst them was Irving’s chief cheerleader Lady Michele Renouf. Although officially barred from addressing the Croydon BNP recently many BNP members still flock to hear Lady Michele Renouf speak at other far right events.
Blood and Honour (B&H) is the international skinhead network that promotes White Power music. In Britain, BNP members are heavily involved in B&H, putting on concerts and helping to produce its magazine. A recent Channel Five documentary revealed the close links between the two groups and revealed how nazi music was helping to fund the BNP election campaigns. British B&H members were prominent amongst those at a Nazi Day of Honour in Budapest held in early February 2007 where they spoke alongside prominent figures from the German NPD, including Griffin’s key ally, NPD chairman Udo Voigt.
