Fascism, as a political ideology only came about as a reaction to the growing workers’ movement in Europe in the late 1800s. It was, and still is the ideology of the bosses, who upon seeing a growing working class movement that threatened their own economic and political power sought to find their own ‘extreme’. This extreme saw it’s fulfilment in fascism, an ideology which has traditionally attacked the working class first, whilst blaming the problems of society on ethnic minorities, and other sections of society rather than themselves (the bosses). When Hitler came to power, his first wave of attacks targeted the trade unionists in Germany, as well as the Anarchists and Communists. Unions were banned except for the ‘official’ one and they used the state to crush any attempt by workers to improve their working conditions, pay and their life in general. The BNP is no different, it has its roots in former members of the National Front, a more ‘in your face’ fascist organisation, whilst it also drew members from the former National Socialist Movement (National Socialist being another term for ‘Nazi’) and the Nationalist Party among many others. The Minister of European Parliament (MEP), Andrew Brons had been a former member of the National Socialist Movement and stated his aim to create a pan-Aryan “Universal Nazism”, whilst Nick Griffin himself had been a former member of the National Front and continue to have links with Fascist organisations around Europe and America. Simply because they have changed their attire from boots to suits doesn’t mean they have dropped their former politics, like all politicians, they are also lying.

During the Great Miners’ strike, which was eventually defeated by Thatcher’s government as well as by Scargill’s (the then leader of the National Union of Mineworkers) incompetence, the BNP actively worked against these working class heroes. Not only did the BNP not support the strikes, but they actively called for the miners to return to work and called on the Army to be used to break up pickets. A former BNP parliamentary candidate in Yorkshire and a candidate in Dewsbury in the 1990s, the Dowager Lady Jane Birdwood ran Self-Help, a right wing pressure group dedicated to smashing unions and funded scabs during the strike. She, among many others such as the late John Tyndall who remained in the party up until his death only a few years ago, saw the miners’ strike as a “Communist plot” to destroy Britain and even saw Thatcher as being too weak towards the miners. For anyone who remembers the great battles during the 1984-85 strike would remember how Thatcher ruthlessly persecuted mining communities and trade unionists and brought in London police and the Army to batter the miners into submission, at the Battle of Orgreave, soldiers in police uniforms herded miners into a field before charging at them on horseback, and to the BNP, this was seen as being too soft. Jane Birdwood found support from … guess who … mine owners, who actively worked with her and her pressure group to undermine the strike.

The memory of the Miners’ strike is still burning brightly, to those who fought against pit closures in order to secure a decent life for themselves, their family and friends, the BNP’s attempt to gain their support should be met with a hard fist to the face. Fascists are opposed to unions and working class struggles as they are organised on class lines. We realise that our enemy is the boss class and their politician lackeys, not fellow working class people who happen to have a different skin colour, unlike what Nick Griffin tells us, but then that is no surprise seeing as he is from a rich, traditionally Tory (his father had been a member of the Conservative party and Griffin himself attended Cambridge university at a time when attending Cambridge was more of a privilege than it is now) and middle class family, he can safely say these things whilst sitting in his comfortable farm mansion in Powys.

The BNP is a scab party, we have more in common with other workers with different skin colour than we do with bosses with the same skin colour. Smash the BNP before they can come for our class!