It’s Labour’s duty to defeat the BNP – to achieve this we must end No Platform

By Hadleigh Roberts / @hadleighroberts

The rise of the BNP is an issue that strikes a strange nerve in the Labour movement, one that triggers a huge sense of panic and hysteria. It is time to confront this phobia so we can confront the problem head on. Our first act must be to renounce the No Platform Policy.

Those in favour of the ‘No Platform’ policy see engaging with the BNP as tantamount to “legitimising them.” As if a number of councillors, a London Assembly member and two MEPs were not enough to prove the BNP’s electoral support it also arrogantly supposes that Labour is the only organisation which can decide whether other parties are legitimate or not. If we do not trust voters enough to make their own choices, then we have a far greater problem with democracy than we do with the BNP.

Positive change requires action; the only change without action is decay. ‘No Platform’ can work only when there is no platform on which the BNP can stand. The Tories and the Liberal Democrats do not share our practice of collective deafness and thus render ‘No Platform’ completely ineffective. On the contrary, the struggle against extremism is given yet more credibility with Labour taking a leading role in a united front.

Being the only major party refusing to participate in a debate always comes across as cowardice, always. Regardless of the principles that may lie behind the decision, refusing to enter into a debate projects a lack of confidence in our own abilities. Our values are invincible and so we must use them to full capacity. We cannot take the moral high ground in battles of fascism against democracy if our means are suppressive instead of progressive.

Our strategy must change from ‘crushing the vermin’ to ‘catching flies with honey’. The BNP will exist as long as there is racism and nationalism. Instead of trying to eradicate the party like continuously trying to stamp on a cockroach, our cause is so much more powerful if we use the strangely democratic means of persuading the persuadable. If there are some who cannot be reasoned with, then yelling “Nazi Scum” will not change their mind but rather make them ever more determined.

Assuming that all BNP voters are racist is also to presume that core Labour voters are racist, if polling research is to be believed; the main reason people are likely to consider voting BNP is fear. They are fearful for their jobs, families and homes in a time of unprecedented economic instability and this fear is so easily exploited by the far-right against the easy target of immigration. Their success at the EU Parliament Elections (regardless of the electoral system), showed that people have turned to them as a non-mainstream party alternative. Then combined with the MPs Expenses scandal it showed that voters feel more disconnected that ever. Surely this is sufficient enough to demonstrate that Labour needs to act quickly and decisively.

In reforming our approach, the policy of demonising the BNP as fascists and Nazis needs to stop. Despite whether the accusations are true or not, it plays into their own hands and illustrates the worst features of the “loony left” that descends to the same level of the BNP. All too often the questions of martyrdom and freedom of speech are classic features of the debate, though make no mistake: Griffin is no champion of free speech and to use such an argument is to do a disservice to one of our most precious and fundamental rights. They are not worthy of such a title.

In my personal experiences with the BNP the behaviour and conduct of those who chase the BNP in the name of freedom and democracy has been far worse than that of the BNP themselves. No matter how noble a cause, little has disappointed me more than a gang of young UAF protestors (their faces hidden by scarves) tripping up a poor elderly man with a cane who was trying to take part in the democratic process. It was more horrific than seeing some protestors with anarchist symbols and others running around with flags of the Soviet Union in the name of anti-fascism. To see a (now-former) Labour MEP standing alongside them was all the more painful.

Sitting on ivory towers refusing to get our hands dirty leaves an open goal for those who already feel disconnected. It astounds me that Labour’s predominant method of re-engaging with voters has been to explicitly avoid listening to them.

It is time to stop sounding the retreat and start taking back lost ground. We must not shy away from the challenges ahead; for the worst of enemies require the best of weapons.