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The British National Party has links with various terrorist groups in Britain and abroad. This is despite the BNP advocating the death penalty for terrorists. A strong influence on the political development of the BNP leader, Nick Griffin, was the Italian fascist Roberto Fiore, a convicted terrorist. Fiore came to Britain with several other wanted terrorists including people implicated in the greatest act of fascist terror in Europe since the Second World War - the bombing of Bologna railway station in 1980, which left 85 dead and over 200 injured. Fiore belonged to the Italian Third Positionist NAR. The ‘Third Position’ is a strand of fascism which rejects conventional political paths. It has developed a theory known as the ‘strategy of tension’. This theory argues that in order to gain power, it is necessary to bring about chaos and the destabilisation of the existing economic, social and political structures. This is to be achieved through acts of terrorism and assassination. The BNP had a long relationship with William Pierce (deceased), who was leader of the National Alliance, one of the most hardline nazi groups in the US. Pierce was the author of the notorious Turner Diaries, the bible of the far right, which inspired the Oklahoma bombing. Pierce's articles regularly appeared in Spearhead when it was the official BNP magazine, and in 1995 he addressed a BNP rally in London. British nazis have been able to obtain Pierce's National Alliance material easily through mail order companies advertised in Spearhead, a monthly magazine run by former BNP leader John Tyndall's. Combat 18 was launched by the BNP to steward their events. It openly promotes violence.It has proved attractive to racist football hooligans (including the BNP ex-NW Regional Organizer and election candidate, Chris Jackson) and followers of the neo-nazi music scene, as well as violent young men seeking more action than political discussion. 18 refers to the initials of Adolf Hitler, being the first and eighth letters of the alphabet. C18 supporters went on to post letter bombs, instigate football violence and carry out dozens of racist attacks. BNP members have links with fanatic loyalist terrorist groups in Northern Ireland including the UDA (Ulster Defence Association), the UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) and LVF (Loyalist Volunteer Force). NW activists’ links have mainly been with the UVF (especially among the NW Combat 18 group). UDA support is strong among northeast activists. The feud between the UVF and UDA has been reflected in their respective supporters within the BNP leading to fractious internal disputes. The BNP's most infamous member, David Copeland, the Soho Nail bomber was jailed
for life for the London nailbomb that killed three people in 1999. He claimed. “My
aim was political. It was to cause a racial war in this country. There’d
be a backlash from ethnic communities, then all the white people would go out
and vote BNP.” |
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