Cartoons row help to xenophobic politics
(From BNP website Land and People)"A vote for Labour is a vote for national suicide". Her Majesty's England going down like Titanic.
The xenophobic and semi-fascist British National Party is "within a 3% swing of adding 40 councillors to its ranks, and in most of its target areas it is challenging Labour, according to the Guardian April 17th.
"The areas where it is expected to perform strongly include Barking and Epping Forest in east London, Sandwell in the Midlands, Dewsbury and Calderdale in Yorkshire, and Burnley in Lancashire. ..... the BNP was increasing its anti-Muslim rhetoric in the wake of the July 7 bombings and the Danish cartoon row. The party was also benefiting from disillusionment among Labour voters, and the Tories' apparent shift centrewards, which had left a gap on the right".
The BNP resembles the Danish People's Party, which also draws the most support from working class constituencies and places with a concentration of the elderly. Both parties cater to the fear of globalisation.
On the frontpage of its website the BNP proclaims:
Can you just sit there and watch as our country is being ripped apart by the forces of multiculturalism? The BNP cannot do anything without your full and active support - join, donate, get involved. Today is the day to do something.
Feeling despondent or depressed, perhaps bewildered by daily events?
Feeling angry about news the newspapers and television stations are reporting?
Feeling ignored, abandoned and forgotten by Blair's regime?
Feeling ripped off by the Big Brother Government and the corporate giants?
Feeling exploited, over taxed but unrepresented on your local council or in parliament?
You are not alone.
In this way the party is appealing to the lowest gut feelings in people. This may be the breeding ground of a new fascist movement. The party's website is full of nationalist symbols. On the front page you see the British flag to the left and the English flag to the right.
posted by Cosmic Duck at 3:59 AM
10 Comments:
Unifying the EU countries on many levels is what fed populist right wing parties. Now that part of the unification is done, these parties may well turn their anger at muslims and other immigrants. So, the rise of extremist right wing parties like in France is also due to an internal european problem and not due directly to immigrants.
Right now the asylum and judicial policy is being developed as a common European policy subjected increasingly to decisions by qualified majority. That is a good idea. It is unreasonable that a few countries have dealt with intake of - and integration of a large number of asylum seekers and other countries have done virtually nothing. It's a beggar-thy-neighbour policy, which for instance Denmark have been great masters at. It is also necessary to tell the public that Europe is having increasing problems with ageing populations. Therefore immigration is necessary if the EU welfare societies are to survive as such. If these things are understood in a wider public it'll help to alleviate - and perhaps remove xenophoabia and anti-immigration parties like the BNP and the Danish DPP.
Ah yeah, Cosmic Duck has yet another attack on a marginal right wing party in Europe. Not that I'd love them (on the contrary) but what about implying the same standards you imply on DPP and BNP to your great idols and friends, the very peace loving Hamas? You surely have heard that they now officially think suicide bombing, killing completely innocent outsiders, is just self defence?
Maybe Hamas next thinks it's self defence to blow oneself up in Copenhagen because Danes are pork-eating infidels who make blasphemous cartoons and occupy Iraq? Cosmic Duck, in that case you or exactly anybody could be the victim. I sincerely hope not!
DPP and BNP don't endorse killing people, neither they ever have. Ugly as they may be, there's stilla huge difference between their ugliness and that of Hamas and the like.
By the way, a couple of weeks ago I gave you the contact details of the Palestinian delegation in Copenhagen so that you could help them in case your hated puppet government doesn't. I'm sure you donated something already or..?
CO
CO.
You're right: It's a condemnable act to blow up innocent people like that. On the other hand you should also notice what for instance Sophia and others who want to take a more balanced view of things than you do, write:
At least, Le Monde is the only mainstream western media reporting fairly this time on the last Palestinian suicide attack in Tel Aviv.
Kofi Annan just condemned the attack and so did I.
But did Kofi condemn the daily shelling of the civilian population in Gaza ?
Is the world condemning the starvation of the Palestinian population in Gaza ?
Is the world condemning the international and blunt pressures exerted on the democratically elected Palestinian government ?
Is the world condemning the injustice being perpetrated daily against Palestinians ? (lespolitiques.blogspot.com
CO,
If I may express myself on behalf of Cosmic Duck. I find your cartegorisation of Hamas erroneous because you are attributing to Hamas the next attack in Danemark. Hamas never conducted attacks outside Isarel and the Palestinian territories. However condemnable attacks might be when they hit civilians, Hamas's attacks are different from those of Al-Qaida because they never target a foreign population or government (except Isarel) and they are never meant to be an expression of exported violent opposition to internal political rulers like those of Al-Qaida against the Saudi regime.
You are saying that right-wing european parties never killed anybody, just check some racist killings in France and a wave of criminal acts in Belgium perpetrated in the eighties by right-wing individuals, some of them policemen, thought to have been designed to politically destabilize the country.
Sophia, I didn't write Hamas would even attack in Copenhagen. I meant to say and said that logically Hamas shouldn't condemn a potential attack in Copenhagen but label it as self defence (against innocent bystanders like you). Anybody who fails to condemn the latest Tel Aviv attack should logically accept him/herself getting blown up anywhere in the world due to any 'crimes' the government in their respective countries is committing.
BTW, would either of like to live in a country ruled by Hamas or do you think one ruled by the current Danish government would be even a little bit more democratic and humane?
Whatever attacks there ever are against Palestinian civilians surely do receive a lot of publicity in the Western media. I'm bombed with news and op-eds on these very frequently. The plight of the Palestinians is definitely receiving attention in Western media never given to such problems as the illegal Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara, let alone truly more horrific and bloody conflicts such as the one in Congo and the neighbouring countries where millions have died since the 1990s. Eenergy should be put on solving these conflicts instead of the Palestinian-Israeli one.
As far as the starving in Gaza (real famines occur elsewhere) is concerned, CD, now, did you already donate any money to the PA to help the starving people there? Now, that would be a good deed in your standards and action, not just words.
CO
CO.
I also condemn the attack in Tel Aviv. But so do I condemn Israeli military raids into Palestinian areas.
You must try to develop a balanced view of the Mid East conflict. Otherwise you cannot solve it. Israel has been an aggressor in many ways, and it must use some restraint in order for the conflic to be solved. The annexation of East Jerusalem must stop, and borders before 67 respected. That is a precondition for peace.
I think both sides should come to their senses which seems unlikely and that's the reason why the global community should put more effort into trying to solve worse humanitarian crises than the one in Israel/Palestine, however we want to call that piece of arid land.
And both sides should be expected to make the same sensible decisions. As you know, Hamas calls for the end of Israel and throwing Jews out of the land they think is theirs. This is not exactly what we might call borders before 67 which is what Israel is demanded to adhere to.
CO
CO.
You seem to be a well-informed person. You should read the last Economist. There's an article on how Israel is annexing East Jerusalem. And in this conservative magazine there have been articles on how Israel is making large permanent settlements on the West Bank, thus dividing the West Bank in two. This is going to be their fait accompli for the permanent "solution" to the Palestine problem. Is it really right to treat the Palestinians in this way? After all, Israel is signatory to the Camp David and Oslo agreements.
Haven't seen the latest Economist you're referring to but I guess I have quite a good idea of Israel's settlement policy. It's of course a fact that nasty things are happening over there and I've never denied that. And at the same time the other side of the issue thinks it's justified self defence to blow up just anybody who happens to be walking in a wrong place on the other side of the pre-67 borders, no matter what his/her nationality or political opinions are. Honestly, as far as no real will for peace exists in that part of the world, the international community should concentrate its peace efforts elsewhere, somewhere they might even have an effect.
CO
Post a Comment
<< Home