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Griffin postpones Australian tour

Matthew Collins
Searchlight
January 2009

As 2008 drew to a close the news arrived that Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, had postponed his Christmas speaking tour of Australia.

Since the BNP first announced Griffin’s plans to visit the country last year, Searchlight has received a steady flow of enquiries not only from the Australian media, but from hundreds of Australian activists and trade unionists seeking Searchlight’s help with campaigning to stop Griffin’s visit.

In Britain, thousands of trade unionists and antifascist campaigners took advantage of Searchlight’s postcard campaign, inundating the Australian High Commission in London with our “He’s Not Fair Dinkum” postcards, while in Australia seasoned antiracist and antifascist campaigners from the Jewish community and the Fight dem back organisation joined with other faith groups and concerned organisations to pressure Chris Evans, the Australian Minister for Immigration, to deny Griffin an entry visa.

One of the organisations with which Searchlight is working closely is the Catalyst group, a democratic campaign organisation that works with the Australian trade union movement. Catalyst’s spokesperson, Jo-anne Schofield, told Searchlight that she had never heard of Griffin or the BNP, but within days of working alongside others fighting to stop Griffin’s visit, she felt it was “one of the most valuable and important campaigns” she and Catalyst had ever undertaken.

Catalyst organised for several hundred emails to be sent to Evans through its website, while Fight dem back delivered intelligence to media organisations on the true nature of some of the people Griffin wanted to visit as well as undertaking a poster campaign on Australian university campuses.

Last September, Searchlight met with representatives of the Australian Labor Party, including its General Secretary, to press for Griffin’s visa application to be refused.

In November, the Australian Minister for Immigration issued a press release stating that Griffin would have to satisfy the Character Test, a test that Searchlight suggested would be “worthless” if Griffin did manage to pass it.

In December, the BNP announced the visit had been “put off”, news that made many people relieved and satisfied. Across the board, political and religious organisations are still campaigning on behalf of all decent Australians who want to keep the messenger of hate from their shores.

Searchlight would like to send our thanks and congratulations to the many, many people who have helped with the campaign but also to remind them that it is not yet finished. Although Griffin’s electronic visa application has been refused, he has been asked to submit a full written application if he still wants to visit the country.

We will keep working throughout the New Year and for as long as it takes, to keep Australia a Griffin-free zone in 2009.

Fight dem back · 24 January 2009 · Discussion

Pressure mounts to block white supremacist visa

From The Age:

PM urged to bar UK supremacist
Paul Austin
November 22, 2008

STATE Liberal leader Ted Baillieu is urging Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to block British white supremacist Nick Griffin from entering Australia.

Mr Griffin, head of the far-right British National Party, has applied for a visa to visit Australia next month to talk in Melbourne and Sydney on what he calls “the demographic genocide” caused by immigration from the Third World to developed countries.

Mr Baillieu has written to Mr Rudd and Immigration Minister Chris Evans warning that a tour by Mr Griffin would pose a threat to Victoria’s tradition of tolerance and diversity.

In the letter, Mr Baillieu says that Mr Griffin was convicted in 1998 of distributing material likely to incite racial hatred, and advocates “white supremacy”.

News brief · 22 November 2008

Nick Griffin: In his own words

So… what sort of nice things could we expect to hear from Nick Griffin on his Australian tour? Here’s some stuff he’s had to say in the past:

On race: “Without the White race nothing matters [other right-wing parties] believe that the answer to the race question is integration and a futile attempt to create “Black Britons”, while we affirm that non-Whites have no place here at all and will not rest until every last one has left our land.”

On Nazi leader Adolf Hitler: “Yes, Adolf went a bit too far. His legacy is the biggest problem that the British nationalist movement has to deal with. It just creates a bad image.”

On Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler’s autobiography: “At 13, I read Mein Kampf, making notes in the margins… I remember thinking, are the Jews really that bad? The chapter I most enjoyed was the one on propaganda and organisation there are some really useful ideas there.”

On democracy: “[BNP voters backed] what they perceived to be a strong, disciplined organisation with the ability to back up its slogan ‘Defend Rights for Whites’ with well-directed boots and fists. When the crunch comes, power is the product of force and will, not of rational debate.”

Fight dem back · 21 November 2008 · Discussion

Neo-Nazis demand visa equality for Holocaust denier

From the West Australian:

Party leader’s sponsors demand visa equality
NICK BUTTERLY and ANDREW PROBYN

Supporters of far-Right British political leader Nick Griffin are demanding to know why he could be barred from entering Australia when US gangster rap stars with criminal convictions have been given visas to perform here.

As revealed in The West Australian yesterday, Mr Griffin, the leader of the British National Party, has been red-flagged by the Immigration Department and is not likely to be granted a visa to come to Australia on a planned speaking tour next month.

Islamic and Jewish groups are urging Immigration Minister Chris Evans to deny Mr Griffin a visa, saying that his presence in Australia could incite prejudice and violence against ethnic groups.

News brief · 21 November 2008

The Good Ship BNP is a Leaky Vessel

    Update : The leak has become a media torrent. And the list has gone viral. Such is the nature of the intarwebs I guess. Fuehrer Griffin and his Party are threatening use of privacy laws they’ve apparently vowed to abolish, while an article in the Press Gazette also references Redwatch: Seven journalists appear on leaked BNP member list, November 19, 2008. A naughty police officer is also under investigation — membership of the BNP being against police regulations. Dunno if the same rule applies to the armed forces, prison guards and vicars but. As for joining the BNP: “What do I get for joining the British National Party? BNP members not only get the satisfaction of knowing that they are contributing directly to the vital work of building the Party. You will also receive a plastic credit card style membership card and our monthly membership bulletin ‘British Nationalist’. Membership runs for 12 calendar months from the issuing of your card.” As an added Bonus!, your name, home address, phone number, email address and even occupation and hobbies will be published online.

Know Your Product

Cor blimey, the BNP membership list got leaked!

http://bnpmemberslist.blogspot.com/ was one location where the list was published, but it’s since been closed. However…

    http://www.bnpmemberslist.co.uk/
    http://wikileaks.org/wiki/British_National_Party_membership_and_contacts_list%2C_2007-2008
    http://cryptome.org/bnp-members.zip

There’s obviously been a fair bit of wailing and gnashing of teeth following this latest debacle, but the person (or persons) responsible have yet to be identified. In the running are filthy red hackers, or possibly ex-BNP Treasurer John Walker. Jilted John got the arse recently after clashing with BNP fuehrer Nick Griffin, and speculation is rife among fascist trolls on teh Intertubes that he may have enacted his rewenge by leaking the list.

Who knows?

Slackbastard · 20 November 2008 · Discussion

Visa ban likely as BNP membership list leaks

From the West Australian:

Visa ban likely for far-Right party leader

A far-Right British politician accused of inciting racial hatred is likely to be barred from coming to Australia on a speaking tour after pressure from Jewish and Muslim groups.

It is understood British National Party leader Nick Griffin has been red-flagged on a Federal Government alert list. The tour was due to start next month.

The theme was to be the “demographic genocide” caused by Third World immigrants.

The visa assessment coincides with the leaking of thousands of names, telephone numbers, home and email addresses of BNP members, prompting a spokesman for the group to warn it had “put the lives and livelihoods of fellow nationalists at risk”.

The West Australian, which has obtained a copy of the list containing more than 12,000 names, has identified at least 15 members of the BNP who are living in Australia, including two from WA.

News brief · 20 November 2008

Neo-Nazis want fascist visit… to prevent Cronulla Mk II

Bit weird, really, cos they rather enjoyed it the first time around.

From the Age:

Visa fight over fascist visit
Connie Levett
November 16, 2008

DENYING a visa to British fascist leader Nick Griffin, who has a conviction for inciting racial hatred, will only increase the likelihood of Cronulla-style racial conflict, his supporters say.

Mr Griffin, head of the far-right-wing British National Party, has applied to visit Australia to tackle the issue of “the demographic genocide … caused by large-scale immigration of people from the Third World”.

Darrin Hodges, the NSW head of the extreme Australian Protection Party, which is backing his visit, said: “Having a full and frank debate was more helpful than not … and suppressing the debate leads to events like Cronulla.”

He said Mr Griffin would speak at private forums in Sydney and Melbourne.

However, Jewish lobby groups opposed to the December speaking tour by Mr Griffin — a Holocaust denier with long-standing links to far-right-wing groups throughout Europe — believe the free speech argument has to be balanced against the harm done to local communities.

News brief · 16 November 2008

Senator Evans on Griffin

This statement was released by Minister Chris Evans’s office on October 17, 2008.

All non-citizens who wish to enter Australia must satisfy the requirements of the Migration Act and regulations, including the character test.

The character test includes provisions to ensure that a non-citizen will not vilify, incite discord in or represent a danger to the Australian community, or a segment of that community.

Griffin has not yet applied for a visa. If and when an application is made it will be assessed against the character requirements.

The Labor Party strongly opposes the fostering of extremism, hatred, division and incitement to violence.

Thanks to Catalyst for this update. I guess we’ll keep you posted. We’ve been in contact with all the various bodies, including our friends in the UK Searchlight, and local multicultural groups, and the ball is in Nick’s court. If he applies, we’ll push to get it knocked back.

Fight dem back · 20 October 2008 · Discussion

Nick Griffin. GO HOME.

Nick griffin is a cunt

The BNP has announced that its leader Nick Griffin intends to visit Australia in the “very near future” at the invitation of Darrin Hodges’ “Australian Protectionist Party”.

The proposed December visit by the leader of Britain’s premier racist party would help to give visibility to Hodge’s attempts to drag Australia back into the dark ages of unapologetic imperialism and racism. It would also give Griffin the opportunity to act like some kind of spokesperson for ex-patriots, damaging our friends in Britain’s tolerant reputation while at the same time attempting to raise funds for his party’s coffers.

This year, the Australian parliament’s first order of business was to make an apology on behalf of the nation to the “stolen generation”, Aborigines who were removed from their families and ancestral lands to be “anglicised” (made to behave more like white people) for over one hundred years, until 1969. Only a tiny minority of Australians were opposed to this long overdue sentiment.

As a modern nation, Australia celebrates its new, modern and diverse culture with great pride. A visit by the BNP, a party notorious for sewing the seeds of intolerance, hate and mistrust, is likely to only be attractive and beneficial to the sort of Neanderthals who took pleasure from race-related rioting against Muslims in Cronulla New South Wales in December 2005. Since those riots, described as a “pogrom” by some Australian journalists, the Australian far-right has gone to great lengths to recruit and galvanise support for their policies.

The BNP and its Australian supporters will attempt to use Griffin’s controversial visit to garner support to their campaign against the new Australia. In a time of sweeping economic turmoil, the APP will be hoping to learn from Griffin how to make local gains on the back of world-wide difficulties. This weekend (September 13th) the APP is standing in local elections as a litmus test for its policies.

Britain has strong historic, cultural and sporting ties with Australia. In 1998, Griffin was refused entry to the country as was Holocaust denier David Irving before him. The Australian government is being urged once more not to soil those positive ties by allowing Australia to take in another one of our criminal undesirables.

Jeremy Jones, a spokesman for Australia’s Jewish community said: ”A visit by Griffin ought to be a matter of concern for Australia’s Muslim community, indeed by all communities here who have found that tolerance and engagement is a better path than division and hatred.”

Watch this space, as FightDemBack, in association with our UK friends, Searchlight, launch our campaign to have his Visa blocked. We’ve gotten Visas of prominent European nazis blocked before, and we can do it again. You just gotta pick up the phone.

(Adapted and mutilated from Searchlight’s page here. We’ll throw up our own propaganda when we get around to it.)

Fight dem back · 27 September 2008 · Discussion

Their attacks only make us stronger

Earlier this year, the British National Party tried to cut off a source of funding to the Tyne & Wear Anti-Fascist Association by writing to the GMB asking it to stop making donations. But the union had never heard of the community group — until the BNP told them about it. A GMB spokesperson said, “Slightly hilariously, the BNP have urged their members to ring up the GMB and ask why we are giving money to TWAFA, which we have not. But we will be giving it now.

Own goal.

That’s the problem racist organisations face. Every time they think they’re making progress, they’re really uniting the community against them. Every time they think they’ve landed a punch, they’ve left themselves open for a knockout blow.

Take the recent Denial of Service attacks against Fight dem back! Sure, this website was offline for a few hours, and I suppose you could call that a victory. The spike in bandwidth cost us a few dollars, and I suppose you could call that a victory, too.

But within minutes of the first wave of attack, we had people coming forward to offer their support. We received generous financial contributions to help cover our costs, and some welcome advice about securing our site in future.

Most importantly, we have a new server. This one has regularly fended off much stronger DoS attacks than the nazi script kiddies managed to muster. It has several extra layers of security, and an administrator who is keen to work with us to add even more. Best of all, it’s free!

So we here at Fight dem back! have a few people to thank. We want to thank the activists who have made this site such a threat to race-hate organisations in Australia and New Zealand. We want to thank the supporters who offered their assistance over the last couple of days. We want to thank our new hosts for their generosity and expertise.

But most of all, we want to thank the racists who launched the DoS attack. Thanks to you, we’re saving money and we’re stronger than ever.

Robert Corr · 26 May 2005 · Discussion