North: No to the Nazis!
by Chris Henry - Telephone 07944425570 (Chris Henry lives in the Mountsandal area of
Coleraine, he attends Dominican College, Portstewart.)

A HARD-LINE Nazi splinter group of former British National Party members has set up shop in Northern Ireland.

The White Nationalist Party have attempted to recruit members through leafleting in towns right across Northern Ireland, including Coleraine, Ballymena and Craigavon in particular, where racist attacks upon families carried out under the banner of the WNP have taken place.

The actions of local councillors have been lacklustre in opposing the WNP, whilst some members of the DUP have indirectly given the Nazis a helping hand in their stance against the building of mosques in Northern Ireland, giving the argument that "Muslim prayers are noisy"!

The group also have links to Combat 18 as well as loyalist paramilitaries. It has even been discovered that the BNP, who have categorically denied any involvement with the WNP, allegedly supplied material for them to use in their recruitment drive in Portadown.

Unless action is taken against these vile hate-pushers now, there is the danger that the WNP could continue to increase their profile and become more powerful in the months and years ahead.

There is a danger that the WNP could grow if they are not challenged. The time to stop them is now when they are small and have no real support in the community.

Trade unions, community organisations and socialist groups should mobilise people in Coleraine and any other area they appear in to stop them organising.

BELOW: From  http://socialistyouth.myikonboard.com/viewthread.php?threadid=134

»  socialistyouth  >  General Discussion  >  Social  >  WNP Come to Coleraine

Topic: WNP Come to Coleraine

Chris Henry

Title: Registered

Posts: 9
Joined: July 2003  Posted: August 29 2003, 19:51    #598
Possible Solidarity Action needed

Comrades, I'm posting this here in the hope that it will be read. At this moment, Coleraine is facing potential problems on the scale of the 1980s when the National Front attempted to break into the town through activity and rallies. At that time, the NF were finally thwarted through a mass mobilisation of comrades from across the country, as well as local residents turning out to stop this filth from coming to the town. The NF left, tails between legs and rarely made any inroads again.

However, fascism threatens now to rise again, in the guise of the White Nationalist Party. The WNP's leadership is made up of ex-BNP members who believed the BNP's policies to be too "liberal", as well as ex-members of Combat 18 and other far-right groups.

The danger of their membership rising in Coleraine is great. The town is historically strong for the far-right, and from my experience very little has changed. If allowed to do so, the WNP will undoubtably create another stronghold. We must seek to stop them.

On a personal level, this is difficult for me to acheive on my own. I am the only comrade in this area, and although I am ready and willing to fight the fascists, on my own I and my family are undoubtably easy prey. Also, being the only member of the SP in the area has given me a bit of a profile - only a couple of weeks ago I was attacked walking through one of the loyalist estates in the town by youths who recognised who I was. Left-right tensions in this respect will undoubtably increase if the WNP have their way, and personally I don't fancy being on the thick end of it.

However, there are ways to fight the fascists, and I am looking into how to do so at this moment in time. I have been in close contact with a couple of local councillors who are possibly willing to help organise some sort of local public meeting to decide what is to be done in regard to the WNP. I will undoubtably seek to speak at such a meeting and put the party line across. Personally, I believe that community groups need to be set up in all of the different areas of Coleraine with close contact between familes, so that if anyone is threatened by the fascists the community can organise quickly and kick them out. Also campaigns on the street need to be organised, possibly by comrades willing to come to Coleraine and do this sort of work.

I believe that local councillors will be rather quick to come out and condemn the WNP, but they will have to be pushed hard to act. It was the fault of Coleraine Borough Council in the 1980s when the NF came to use our town hall; the council granted them access to the facilities and refused a request from our comrades to ban the meeting. However, if faced with widespread pressure they will act. The WNP, with their anti-asylum racist stance, have the potential to threaten the massive tourist industry that surrounds Coleraine and provides over 6,500 jobs here. This in turn has the potential to decimate the local economy. Our "representatives" will not want to see this happen.

If any comrades have any ideas as to what should be done, please post them here. I recently made up my mind not to use LE so much, and i'm sticking to that, but I feel that this situation has to warrant a public forum, before it escalates to a much more dangerous level.

Yours Comradely,
Chris Henry

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Title: Guest

Posts: 0
Joined: May 2002  Posted: September 2 2003, 18:12    #611
Best of luck.....

It will be an extremely hard battle to get these Fascists out of Coleraine, and Northern Ireland/The 6 Counties for good. I applaud you for having the balls to stand up and try do something about it. Yes, it maybe the case that you might be unsure as to exactly what needs to be done -we ALL face that decision, at one, if not many stages of our political work, straddling a whole variant of issues. The most important thing is that you are willing to do the best you can to stamp out this meance, and for that I applaud you. I'm on the Refuse Charges campaign for the South Dublin County Council area. We started off little over 2 1/2 years ago as about 15 people in a small room in a hotel, now the campaign is flourishing beyond our wildest dreams. The main committee members had the will and determionation to succeed in their stated aim, to defeat this hated double tax, and hopefully bring about the end of double taxation measures for good. With the same grit and determination, who knows where you will get in your campaign. The one sure thing is, with regards the defence of foreign nationals in this country, and overall civil rights, the only way is up.

If you wanna chat some more about this feel free to add me - bigjimlarkin@hotmail.com - to your Messenger list.

The very best of luck buddy!

Sean Heffernan.