Our intrepid investigator, the legendary Dan Woinsaiker, peers into the darkness of the world that is 'Blood and Honour'.
The police raided the homes of two leading C18 [Combat 18, British nazi group --ed.] activists in January. We now know that during these raids the police seized a lot of material relating to Blood and Honour, including all the production equipment for the Blood and Honour magazine, all the back issues, the full mailing list, and a thousand copies of the Skrewdriver 'Live at Waterloo' CD. Despite this setback, a new issue of Blood and Honour has been produced.
The political control that C18 now have over Blood and Honour comes through loud and clear in the magazine, with a lot of emphasis on National Socialism and anti-police/anti-state rhetoric. The term ZOG (Zionist Occupation Government) used to be confined to extreme right-wing American paramilitary groups like 'The Order', but has know been adopted enthusiastically by Blood and Honour. In fact it appears 12 times in the half page editorial.
C18's political domination of the Nazi skinhead scene continues, and presumably in an effort to isolate any potential opposition, they are now fingering former Blood and Honour boss Paul Burnley as a tout. "...now that B&H is being steered by uncompromising National Socialists, who have shown to deliver the goods and achieved more in 10 months than the traitor Paul Burnley did in the years he controlled all aspects of B&H, during which time he was never raided by the police...he seems to be untouchable considering he gave himself such a high profile." (Blood and Honour magazine).
Considering the recent raids and possible charges to follow, I was surprised they put this in.... "All nationalists in England please note that from Nov 5th, British Telephone has offered a new service called 'call return' this tells the receiver of a call the telephone number of the caller by dialing 1471. To prevent this service being given, the caller should dial 141 before the number you dial. Those with Red Watch lists take note." (Blood and Honour magazine).
What with the organisers getting raided and this encouragement to phone threats to opponents, it is no wonder that the Blood and Honour Prisoners Association is now up and running. This is the welfare group for people they describe as prisoners of war. They have started to put out a badly produced newsletter entitled 'Behind the Bars' from Steve Sargent's PO Box in Barnet.
Blood and Honour in Sweden is very interesting with a number of similarities to the situation over here. In the same way that C18 have linked up with Blood and Honour in Britain, in Sweden the militant Nazi Storm Network (Stormnatverk) are tied in with Blood and Honour (Blod och Ara). Gigs are organised in a similar way, with re-direction points for their supporters, although in November last year the fascists were a bit too security conscious about revealing the destination of the gig when most of the audience went to Linkoping instead of Lidkoping where the actual venue was! But anti-fascists in Sweden tell us that on the whole the Blood and Honour scene has access to considerable resources - which confirms our view about the amount of money they can raise.In the late 80's Blood and Honour used shops and pubs in London's West End as an international meeting place until AFA closed them down.
In Sweden they have tried a similar tactic , using shops in Stockholm ('Asgard' and 'Last Resort') and Goteborg - although the one in Goteborg was 'closed' before it even opened. AFA (Sweden) is continuing to campaign against these 'bases', because where they have been established there has been a considerable rise in fascist violence.
Fascist skinhead groups have come under recent pressure from the police in Germany, Spain and Italy, while the newly formed Blood and Honour 'Ulster Division' has had its Belfast PO box number closed down by the RUC. AFA has never called on the police to take action against the fascists, there is no substitute for an anti-fascist movement, but if these raids cause extra problems for the fascists then I won't be shedding any tears. One thing does worry me though, because there is a danger that if all the attention is put on right-wing skinheads - a very identifiable target - then the fascists in suits become more 'respectable'. When a gang of skinheads drowned a Moroccan man during the demonstration in Paris on May Day, Le Pen, who wears a suit, said the 'skinheads' were nothing to do with his organisation. The obvious danger is when "skinheads," not fascism, are seen as the problem.
And finally, on a more positive note, Roddy Moreno, the man who launched Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice (SHARP) in this country, has now reformed The Oppressed to produce the excellent 'Anti-Fascist Oi! EP'. Four tracks, all covers, but with new hard-hitting lyrics. My two favourites are a reworking of Sham's 'Borstal Breakout' that now becomes 'Nazi nightmare' and Menace's classic 'GLC' sounds even better as 'BNP (Your Full of Shit).' Well worth getting and available from: Marcos Mari Brown, Apartada de Correos 1474, 07800 Ibiza, (Baleares), Spain.
Despite the BNP's move away from public events, which AFA has a good record of disrupting, AFA groups around the country remain active and organised.
January 28 saw three anti-fascist activities on the same day, which serve to illustrate (again) the difference between the ANL and AFA. The annual Bloody Sunday march has been a focus for fascist/Loyalist attacks over the years, and as such is of interest to militant anti-fascists. This year the march organisers moved it from London to Manchester.
Three AFA squads patrolled the route of the march, and in a series of skirmishes the fascists took a clear second prize. One group of unfortunate BNP members, who had gathered outside a pub, were trapped in a classic pincer movement by two AFA stewards groups and suffered accordingly. Clown of the Day award goes to the idiot who, while stood next to several AFA stewards, started brandishing his St George's Flag and boasting about doing the "reds". Predictably, the ensuing debate was short, sharp and painful. Yet again Manchester has proved to be a no-go area for fascists.
While fascist morale was getting dented in Manchester, in Winchester the situation was equally bleak. The campaign to get John Morse sacked from his job as a bus driver had called another demonstration, and when these demonstrations had been called on two previous occasions, each time they had attracted prominent fascists from London and the South East to "counter-demonstrate" in defence of Morse.
Consequently, a joint operation was organised by Southampton and Surrey AFA. After a preliminary survey of the area a number of "suspects" were identified in a pub adjacent to the bus station. A small AFA contingent entered the pub with the intention of making sure that these individuals were "activists". As the march passed the pub itself, it was evident that these individuals were not simply pro-BNP but had come from Birmingham with the specific intention of attacking the demonstrators. By convincing this group that they were sympathetic, the AFA members accompanied these fascists up the city centre high street with the intention of "picking off lefty stragglers". The fascists were, in fact, led directly into a contingent of militant anti-fascists where they were "dealt with" in the appropriate manner. Those elements of the BNP from Birmingham were last seen hiding in shops and scrambling for the protection of the local constabulary - all very undignified for the "master race."
In contrast to the damage inflicted on the fascists in Manchester and Winchester, the ANL demonstration in Cardiff provided the fascists with the opportunity to boost their morale, with an ANL car and its passengers getting blitzed. The ANL's continuing failure to take the threat of fascist violence seriously allows them (in this case probably C18) to score easy victories which encourages them to carry out further attacks.
It's not just the ANL whose shallow approach to anti-fascism winds us up. In March two rival demonstrations were called in East London to protest against racist violence. The first march dishonestly claimed to have the support of virtually every major anti-fascist and anti-racist organisation. On the day only 70 people turned up. The second march was cancelled to save the embarrassment of attracting even less people. In an area where the BNP can count on between 10-20% in local elections, it is totally unforgivable and potentially disastrous, for small groups of political opportunists to behave like this.
In the West Midlands, AFA continue to keep the pressure on the fascists. A pub that was used regularly by the NF, for relatively well attended meetings, has been persuaded to stop allowing the fascists the use of the premises. In another pub incident, AFA was informed that "50 Blood & Honour boneheads" had turned up at a city centre pub to attack an anti-racist band. After weighing up the information, which had come from flaky ex-AFA elements who are prone to exaggerate, it was decided to send half a dozen AFA stewards to have a look. Suffice to say that the B&H boneheads (who numbered around 10!) came off somewhat the worse for wear and were last seen disappearing into the Birmingham sunset. Surprisingly, the ANL invited West Midlands AFA to have a stall at a benefit gig they had organised. Not surprisingly, when the AFA contingent arrived, they found out the real reason they had been asked to come to the gig was because at the previous gig the ANL put on, the fash turned up and one of their supporters was stabbed. Another interesting little tale about Birmingham ANL was when they contacted AFA one evening in early April to say that they had found out that the fascists would be leafleting the next day for the council elections. Sure enough, the fascists did go leafleting, and an AFA raiding party narrowly missed them, but what was interesting was that the ANL didn't turn out a single person. Think of all the times the ANL have led people on wild goose chases (when there was never any chance of the fash being there) and now, when the fash have turned up, the ANL are nowhere to be seen.
Significantly, Birmingham AFA have been approached by several Villa fans who have informed us that since the trouble at the England vs. Ireland game in Dublin, there has been an increase in Loyalist and fascist singing in pubs near the ground. One in particular includes certain individuals who were arrested in Dublin but at the time denied any Loyalist/fascist links. So it is interesting to find out that they have been leading the singing and dishing out C18 stickers. Discussions are taking place between Villa supporters in AFA and these new contacts to see what can be done. One of the Villa supporters said, "Many of us are sick of hearing this shit and were going to do something ourselves, but after hearing about AFA's successes we decided that a joint approach would be our best bet!"
An AFA delegation approached the landlord of one of the 'problem' pubs and were suprised when he gave them a copy of a leaflet he had been giving out asking punters not to sing racist songs. Now we can't say for certain if this was 'insurance' against an 'anticipated' AFA visit, or whether the police had got on the case, but either way we'll be monitoring the situation with interest.
The developments at Aston Villa are important as C18 continue to try and win influence at football. Similarly the successful sales of Fighting Talk at grounds in Glasgow, Manchester and London show the potential for building a militant anti-fascist opposition among football supporters.
Finally from the Midlands, we are pleased to see that Leicester AFA have recently reorganised themselves and can now be contacted at PO Box 320, Leicester, LE1 5WS.
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