Posted: 16 May 2003, 04:49
I read that of late the BNP has been trying to dissasociate itself from "The Skinhead Thing" which is fuggin' ironic as most "proper" skinheads (ie not boneheads) have been trying to point out for a couple of decades now that a subculture based to a large degree on a love of Jamaican music and culture is perhaps one of the oddest things for these racist muppets to hijack! 
Though it is of little consequence, I felt forced to give up dressing in a way I felt comfortable with due to several incidents of townies mock "Seig Heiling" me across the street, especially during my visits to London. Ironically enough, I only undertook those visits as I was running a Funk, Reggae and Hip-Hop night at madame Jo Jo's! Irony isn't always fun 
The fact that I hold the tenet of free speech so dear makes it difficult for me to think what to do about the far-right and their filthy missaprehensions (they don't deserve the respect of calling them opinions). Open and frank discussion of the implications of Europes' developing multiculturalism is made nigh-on immpossible by the lager fuelled pub-politics which seems to be in danger of usurping genuine democratic engagement across much of the UK. People seem geniunely unable to link the most simple chains of "cause and effect" together, such as the classic "For the war" + "Against Asylum Seekers"...Hmm, now do you think if we help bomb the s**t out of some middle eastern country, quite a few people might want to leave said territory? A massive oversimplification and a poorly chosen example perhaps, but at least I have the wherewithall to recognise it as such, which is a start.
While I have little time for arbitrary emotional attatchments to nation-states, I rather foolishly cling to the hope that the UK as a whole will remain as automatically allergic to the more insidious end of right wing politics as it has demonstated itself to be in the past. Burnley council may be looking more like a Sturm Abteilung division at every election, but those ancient newsreels of East-End housewives stoning Mosley's blackshirts off the streets in the 1930s should be held up as a far more indicitive example of the basic British attitude to the far-right than a confused and scared post-industrial town let down by succesive generations of poorly implimented social policies (born of tabloid fear more than any reasoned attempt at re-invigorating a North stripped of industry and community), unloved and ignored by a wildly Southern-Centric central government, and quarter of a century of prime-ministers who rank "Statesmanship" above "Public Service" in their defence of their own fragile political egos. This is not to say that those attracted to far-right politics as a result have any excuse, but: "I am without hope, who shall I blame? How about those people in next village/estate who talk funny and don't have milk in their tea!" seems to me to be as strong and reccuring a grand-narrative as anything Marx ever crowbarred into history (bless-'im..)
As far as the future goes, it must be remembered that at the time Mosley's British Union of Fascists were kicked and laughed out of political life, deep-seated racial prejudice and nationalist jingoism were massively more socially, politicaly and even accademicaly acceptable than they are today. Even before the following decades events in Europe clearly demonstrated the horrific products of nationalistic, race-hate driven politics, the British public remained deeply suspicious of the fascist movement. I dearly hope today that, even if only on the level of knee-jerk discomfort, the majority of the UK will remain similarly immune to the far-right.
Ironically, if Blackshirt violence hadn't led to the outlawing of political uniforms in the UK under the Public Order Act 1937, we might be able to see their modern-day equivilants for what they really are: ill-informed, twisted and perhaps most importantly a deeply "silly" group of sad little people with a shabby grasp of history, and an even shabbier grasp of their own obselescence. The poncy black polo-necks just made it usefully obvious. BNP councillor in cheap suit, or a C18 bootboy: Who's the real danger? At least you can see C18 coming (though the fact that some of them still turn up to Two-Tone nights leads me to think that constructing a consistent world-view may not be as high on some peoples' agendas as it is for me if they're so into Aryan cultural superiority, why don't they fcuk off to a Morris Dancing club and leave me to dance to Prince Buster in peace?)
Ill-constructed, poorly argued, badly spelt lefty rant over. For now.
Keep em peeled, and DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE.
"Sisters Gegen Nazis" (f**k Yeah!!!!)
Though it is of little consequence, I felt forced to give up dressing in a way I felt comfortable with due to several incidents of townies mock "Seig Heiling" me across the street, especially during my visits to London. Ironically enough, I only undertook those visits as I was running a Funk, Reggae and Hip-Hop night at madame Jo Jo's! Irony isn't always fun The fact that I hold the tenet of free speech so dear makes it difficult for me to think what to do about the far-right and their filthy missaprehensions (they don't deserve the respect of calling them opinions). Open and frank discussion of the implications of Europes' developing multiculturalism is made nigh-on immpossible by the lager fuelled pub-politics which seems to be in danger of usurping genuine democratic engagement across much of the UK. People seem geniunely unable to link the most simple chains of "cause and effect" together, such as the classic "For the war" + "Against Asylum Seekers"...Hmm, now do you think if we help bomb the s**t out of some middle eastern country, quite a few people might want to leave said territory? A massive oversimplification and a poorly chosen example perhaps, but at least I have the wherewithall to recognise it as such, which is a start.
While I have little time for arbitrary emotional attatchments to nation-states, I rather foolishly cling to the hope that the UK as a whole will remain as automatically allergic to the more insidious end of right wing politics as it has demonstated itself to be in the past. Burnley council may be looking more like a Sturm Abteilung division at every election, but those ancient newsreels of East-End housewives stoning Mosley's blackshirts off the streets in the 1930s should be held up as a far more indicitive example of the basic British attitude to the far-right than a confused and scared post-industrial town let down by succesive generations of poorly implimented social policies (born of tabloid fear more than any reasoned attempt at re-invigorating a North stripped of industry and community), unloved and ignored by a wildly Southern-Centric central government, and quarter of a century of prime-ministers who rank "Statesmanship" above "Public Service" in their defence of their own fragile political egos. This is not to say that those attracted to far-right politics as a result have any excuse, but: "I am without hope, who shall I blame? How about those people in next village/estate who talk funny and don't have milk in their tea!" seems to me to be as strong and reccuring a grand-narrative as anything Marx ever crowbarred into history (bless-'im..)
As far as the future goes, it must be remembered that at the time Mosley's British Union of Fascists were kicked and laughed out of political life, deep-seated racial prejudice and nationalist jingoism were massively more socially, politicaly and even accademicaly acceptable than they are today. Even before the following decades events in Europe clearly demonstrated the horrific products of nationalistic, race-hate driven politics, the British public remained deeply suspicious of the fascist movement. I dearly hope today that, even if only on the level of knee-jerk discomfort, the majority of the UK will remain similarly immune to the far-right.
Ironically, if Blackshirt violence hadn't led to the outlawing of political uniforms in the UK under the Public Order Act 1937, we might be able to see their modern-day equivilants for what they really are: ill-informed, twisted and perhaps most importantly a deeply "silly" group of sad little people with a shabby grasp of history, and an even shabbier grasp of their own obselescence. The poncy black polo-necks just made it usefully obvious. BNP councillor in cheap suit, or a C18 bootboy: Who's the real danger? At least you can see C18 coming (though the fact that some of them still turn up to Two-Tone nights leads me to think that constructing a consistent world-view may not be as high on some peoples' agendas as it is for me
if they're so into Aryan cultural superiority, why don't they fcuk off to a Morris Dancing club and leave me to dance to Prince Buster in peace?)Ill-constructed, poorly argued, badly spelt lefty rant over. For now.
Keep em peeled, and DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE.
"Sisters Gegen Nazis" (f**k Yeah!!!!)
