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"Racists wage campaign for civic power
As the far-right BNP anticipates its biggest election victory yet, Paul Harris reports from Burnley - a town on edge
Sunday April 14, 2002
The Observer
At first glance it looks like any ordinary street. But the brightly coloured election posters plastered in the windows carry a starkly different message: 'Vote British National Party - People Like You.'
In this corner of Burnley, the posters, displayed from living rooms and bedrooms, are becoming common. They outnumber Labour placards and are displayed openly from living rooms and bedrooms. This is a trend that could next month earn Burnley an unwanted reputation as the racist capital of Britain.
Local elections are less than three weeks away and the BNP, which campaigns for voluntary repatriation of ethnic minorities, is on the threshold of winning council seats. The far right party believes it can win seats in Oldham, too - plus Tipton in the West Midlands and Bexley in London.
But it is in Burnley that the party has its best chance. The BNP is putting up 13 candidates for election. Even anti-BNP groups there admit the party's support is higher than 20 per cent. That could be enough to win it a seat.
Owing to boundary changes the entire council is up for grabs, so each ward will elect three councillors. A BNP candidate only has to come third in one ward to win a seat. It is the BNP's strongest hope since Derek Beackon won a council seat in 1993 in London's Isle of Dogs.
That would be a disaster for the Lancashire town. With an openly racist party holding positions in the town hall, businesses could start to avoid Burnley, starving it of jobs and investment. Relations between white people and the Asian community, already fragile after a riot last summer, would degenerate yet further.
'If they win, this will be seen as the most racist town in Britain. It will become a magnet for the BNP. That will be a catastrophe for Burnley, its economy and its people,' said Shahid Malik, a Burnley native and a commissioner on the Commission for Racial Equality.
But such arguments cut no ice with many of those flocking to the BNP. Burnley has real and deep social problems. More than 4,000 houses in the town stand empty. Some estates occupied largely by white people look almost like war zones, with burnt-out cars, rubble in the streets and row upon row of boarded-up houses. Crime and drugs have blighted these communities. Jobs are scarce. After many decades of voting Labour with little improvement, many in the town are planning a protest vote. As they look for scapegoats, the BNP is all too happy to provide one: Asians.
BNP leaflets harp on the same themes: Asians get more than whites; mosques are replacing churches; immigrants milk the system; the town is being taken over. Each day a trailer drives through Burnley bearing BNP posters. A BNP banner has been stuck to the roof of an abandoned mill just outside the centre.
The party's message has struck a chord with many disaffected white people. 'People feel like they have had enough. It is like a volcano waiting to erupt,' said Philomena Smith, 61. A lifelong Labour voter, she has switched to the BNP.
So has Colin Green, a father-of-three who has just graduated with a degree in computer design. He says he won't vote Labour again. 'What bothers me is the fact that so much is discriminated in their [Asians'] favour,' he said.
Others are more crude. 'I don't think a black feller should be mayor. Come on, it just isn't fair,' said an elderly woman who runs a charity shop. 'It is not about being racist. It is about what's right. They have just got cheeky.'
The BNP is careful to hide its racist face. National leader Nick Griffin, once convicted of distributing hate literature, has sought to present the party as the modern face of nationalism. But criminality and racism lurk under the surface. In Oldham five BNP activists have convictions or links to racist violence. In Burnley the BNP's main organiser, Steve Smith, has been convicted of electoral fraud. National organiser Tony Lecomber once tried to bomb the office of a left-wing group. In recent months the BNP has embarked on an anti-Islam campaign blamed for inciting racial attacks.
In Burnley, the Asian community, which numbers just under 5,000 in a town of 90,000, is feeling vulnerable. No one doubts that a BNP victory could see a repeat of last year's riots - which lasted for three days and caused millions of pounds of damage.
In the Asian part of Burnley some are afraid to go into the town centre at night. The sense of segregation is as acute as ever. Local youths are ready to defend themselves. 'I am not looking for a fight, but if they come into our area and threaten my family, then we will do something about it,' said Abdul, 20.
Muhammed Sher Ali is more circumspect. He blames extremists on both sides of the racial divide for the problems Burnley faces. 'It is a tiny minority causing the mayhem, but everyone will suffer if the BNP win,' he said."
this is depressing news indeed. but it is inevitable? are people really that easily fooled? or too desperate to care? |
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