Stop the BNP avertising campaign
 

Apparently the BNP have bought advertising space on Clear Channel billboards, please send an email of complaint to Clear Channel via this link, it only takes a few seconds


http://action.hopenothate.org.uk/integrity

Someone posted a BNP leaflet through my door the other day and I ripped it up and threw it in the bin as soon as I could.

Anyway, sent an email.

did you see charlie brookers article in the guardian about the BNP political broadcast on tv? he likened it to a cheap pizza menu which is pretty much what it is, gaudy, bright colours and cheap. the opening line of the broadcast was 'dont turn it off' which is like saying 'dont be sick' to someone your about to sleep with.

anyway email will be sent.

thanks

please forward link to everyone you know also

I'm by no means a supporter of this stuff, but isn't this what is commonly referred to as free speech?

Oh yeah, you guys don't have that over there. Carry on.

Free speech is entitled until they become just plain offensive... and trying to get rid of all ethnic minorities seems very offensive to me.

Hey, if Hitler rose from the dead and ran for election would you just say, "meh, it's free speech!"

It's basically the same, these guys are just neo-nazis and proven to have links with such parties.

"wogs go home"

Fair point.

Plus with politics here in currently in a total state of disarray there's serious concern that the bnp may make gains in the forthcoming elections

I was pretty shocked by their training camps/youth recruitment plans discussed on Have I Got News For You. Jesus.

that little snot mark collet used to live near me in leeds. he could hardly show his face after that documentary was shown. i saw him walking to work one day and could hardly keep myself from punching the little bugger. i think i just called him a cunt and kept going. i wanted to hit him though.

I'm very torn on this matter. The problem, as I see it, is that if no-one bothered to kick up a stink about the BNP, they would be a minority concern, akin to the Green or somesuch. As it is, they've usurped NF and C18 (and other smaller factions) because they have a smidge of democratic clout. The thing is, I resolutely defend their right to exist, and naively hope that the world will do the decent thing and ignore them. One of the good things about not having a constitution is that as soon as they step out of line there's nothing fundamental stopping Whitehall from slapping them down like bitches.

I sent my email

BNP = British National Party or something, right?
I can't believe they're advertising! That's pretty fucked, spreading closed minded and old fashioned views like that.

if you dont believe in free speech for views you despise, then you dont believe in free speech

No, its not. Unless they're telling someone with a gun "shoot, shoot, shoot" then it is free speech.

Consider we ban public dissemination of views like that of the BNP well for a start that establishes a siege mentality on their part and nothing engenders support like being a victim, but will they stop? No of course not, those views simply go underground and in the meanwhile the BNP amps up their populist 'fed up with the system' anti-politics and eventually nobody knows what they're planning until after they are in office.

The problem is, BNP aren't stating exactly what they are doing, and are only presenting basic, positive facts about themselves. Obviously this is the point of advertising, but I'll be dammed if there's a brand of cereal I eat that has ties to Nazi organisations.

I hope you dont drink Fanta then ZEROpumpkins.

A broader question would be where is the appeal for the BNP coming from? Well it might have to do with the Bretton Woods system dismantled in the 1970s and Thatcher in the 1980s - I'd imagine an awful lot of people have been left suffering. Out of work, long hours and bad pay when they can get work, poor living conditions, etc. And among the ones hardest hit by this are the people who are supposed to do well. And they're left wondering whats gone wrong, they're atomized theres little or no social organization, the two main parties represent factions of the Business Party, and then along comes a group with a Big Lie to explain who is at fault.
Anyone doing anything to counter this?

I agree with what Glice says on this. E-mail has also been sent by me.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't Clear Channel a US-based organisation with quite a few links to Christian Fundamentalist organisations?

I'll send an email. They are not worth worrying about, though.

That Charlie Brookers article was sentimental at best. And very naive.

The challenge should be for mainstream politics to get its act together sufficiently enough for people not to be drawn to single issue parties like the BNP, UKIP, etc. I have no sympathies with their politics, but I fear that suppressing the BNP will only reinforce their appeal amongst sections of an electorate increasingly alienated from the centreground. Besides, so far as I'm aware, none of the BNP's policies break any laws. I say let them speak openly, if only so that their position can be more openly scrutinised and subsequently picked apart, hopefully by someone with a bit more savvy than Charlie Brooker.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php...=Clear_Channel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clear_C..._Clear_Channel

i believe that there can be no "offense of opinion".

i think that in mature, free societies there's no need to"protect" people from these billboards. i mean, isn't that an insult to the people's critical mind?

free speech has been used too many times to just belt out whatever racist statements politicians want to make. here in belgium, a far-right flemish political party sends out flyers to everyone in fthe city stating actually untrue facts about immigrants and crime. too bad, there will always be people who don't see right through those hollow slogans and made-up 'facts'. i don't mind politicians advertising for themselves, but as soon as they start getting people on their hand by using untrue statements that result in hate towards other civilians, it goes too far.

it's true that there is a problem with some of the immigrants here in antwerp, but that's maybe ten percent of the entire immigrant population. the rest are just common people who try to get a job and learn the language. not to speak about how many 'pure belgian' kids and teens end up as drugdealers or thieves these days.

also, the big guys who make such a fuss about all these problems and yell that people 'aren't safe outside at night anymore' are usually the ones who live in the big villas out of the city, between doctors and lawyers. i live in the middle of the city and go out in the places that are supposed to be 'dangerous', but i never got in trouble, and i don't know anyone else who did. it's just a matter of being smart enough: if you're in a neighbourhood where nine out of ten people barely make enough money to buy food, don't go walking around alone at night, waving your fancy mobile phone around.

I get NF campaign leaflets through my door, they are black and white photocopies that are covered in smudges, these frequently make the racial identity of the candidate appear ambiguous. They reassure me of the amateur nature of the artless shitballs that distribute them (who probably all smoke weed anyway).

As for the BNP, they dont ever bother.

You cant expect anything from the mainstream parties (two factions of The Busines Party) - they're responsible for the economic decline and social atomization that spawns these disenfranchised elements of society!
The only thing that could happen would be the more extreme faction of the two, which usually doesn't bother with pretending about social niceties, would co-opt it: start espousing similar BNP/UKIP rhetoric, policies, and so on.
Thats what happened here in Australia with the One Nation party, and in the US with their 'angry white male' phenomenom in the '90s & again in the 2008 election.

The way to combat is looking at what these groups are appealing to - are there legitimate grievences being used for alterior motives? And the place to do it in is community organisng, independents, third parties, et cetera.

That's the fear. It's regrettable though that a section of the population are putting issues of immigration and, to a lesser degree, Europe quite high on their list of political priorities. Many of these are already quite long term unemployed and live in public housing, often within quite impoverished multi-ethnic areas, so the current economic crisis has less significance for them (in their eyes) than the colour/religion of their neighbours. Certain members of my own family who live in just such circumstances and were once hard-line labour voters have told me that they're strongly considering voting for the BNP and that they know a lot of friends that are too. (It was, after all, primarily the traditionally left-leaning unions who came out in support of the tory mp Enoch Powell in the 1960s.) Furthermore, anyone who underestimates the BNPs election threat should remember its council by-election victory in 1993. People had written them off just prior to that too.

Obviously, the potential vote for the BNP could never pose a threat to the actual mainstream in terms of competing for government. However it does suggest growing ripples of discontent amongst certain sections of the working class that any mainstream party would be seen as being particularly arrogant if they were to ignore it completely.

So that's the problem. Does the mainstream disregard this group altogether, in which case parties like the BNP really could grow into something far more threatening than they are now, or do they address some of their issues, fully aware that to steal some of the BNPs thunder they'd have to adopt some pretty odious policies?

The problem will continue for as long as the issue of immigration is treated as a non-issue by the mainstream. Moreover, while those who tend to make the most of the immigration issue tend not to focus on the economy, they're ultimately the ones most affected by it, and as jobs and public funds become even more scarce, this is sure to only increase tensions within that community as they search for a scapegoat to blame for their plight.