BNP’s fake union Solidarity already up against the ropes

A report that has appeared on the BNP website reveals that the fake union set up by the party is already in trouble and seems likely to go the same way as all the other ventures the BNP has ever been involved in, like Nick Griffin’s washout of a money-spinner Affordable Cars and the Albion Life insurance scam.

The source of the problem is that, according to the BNP, ‘an unconstitutional attempt has been made to remove General Secretary Pat Harrington from his position’. Harrington has something of a fine union pedigree – he was expelled from the RMT. He was also one of the National Front’s ‘political soldiers’ in the late 1980s alongside Nick Griffin. Other BNP activists involved in the project include Jay Lee, who was recently booted out of Aslef, and John Walker, the BNP’s national treasurer, who has had his own troubles with the T&G. Clive Potter, the possible President of Solidarity is a long-time BNP activist from Leicester, who was expelled from Unison for improper conduct. Potter is still listed as President on Solidarity’s homepage though it was our understanding that he had been ousted months ago. More info on this point would be appreciated.

The BNP produces its usual kneejerk response to problems in the ranks, blaming any difficulties on somebody else, usually ‘reds’. In this case, the party goes into overdrive, claiming that ‘Solidarity has been the subject of a far-left sabotage bid, involving several individuals working as a team’ and that the bid to boot the useless Harrington out of office ‘and to replace him with an unknown individual from Merseyside whose involvement in the BNP has extended to just a few weeks…the local organiser and activists concluded from his behaviour that he could well be a Marxist agent provocateur’.

However, the real problem is made apparent in the next section of the article – and regular readers of this blog will recognise it straight away as a problem that seems to exist wherever the BNP sticks its corporate nose in.

‘…Tim Hawke [Solidarity Vice-President] continues to refuse to sign first year accounts so that these can be submitted to the Certification Officer in time. This is despite the fact that the accounts were prepared by an accountant and have been independently and professionally audited by a Barrister and Kenny Smith (head of BNP admin).’

Yes indeed. The BNP – or rather one of its many subsidiaries, is in financial trouble (again). There is really only one reason for not signing accounts off and that is that you do not believe that they are a true statement of the financial affairs of the stated organisation. Clearly, Tim Hawke has doubts about either their accuracy or possibly their legality, and it wouldn’t be the first time that a treasurer or someone connected with the financial side of a BNP venture has balked at leaving themselves open to litigation by signing off on a load of rubbish – at least a couple of treasurers have been booted out after doing the same thing.

One of the ‘purposes’ listed for the formation of Solidarity was to avoid what the BNP interpreted as union corruption. Its statement on formation clearly says; ‘We want independent unions that are fully accountable to its members whose finances are transparent…’ by which one assumes it to mean the organisation’s finances are transparent and not the member’s finances, although that’s certainly open to doubt.

To get around the problem of awkward people inconveniently refusing to sign dodgy accounts, the BNP proposes to call an Emergency General Meeting to completely subvert the democracy it claims to uphold and increase the size of the Executive from the current three, presumably Harrington, Potter and Hawke, to seven, the additional four being one from Third Way (Harrington’s current political affiliation) and a vote-winning three from the BNP. This would ensure that, no matter what dubious transactions take place and no matter what goes on that the members are kept unaware of, all decisions will be made by the patently corrupt BNP and the very co-operative Pat Harrington, Nick Griffin’s buddy from the old days.

Under Item 14(a) of the present constitution of the fake union, ‘The Executive Committee may suspend or dismiss any Solidarity officer in cases of misconduct. It has the power to remove any incompetent or insubordinate Branch or Regional Officer.’

It looks like Tim Hawke has had it then.

It also looks like the BNP is attempting to retain complete control over the union – which is certainly not the impression the party was trying to make when it first set the whole thing up – presumably because if it ever takes off (which it never will) it’ll make pots of money, most of which will be siphoned off to the nearest handy pockets. These accounts, along with membership numbers, should make interesting reading – if they’re ever allowed to appear and, of course, if they’re accurate.

The BNP and the BNP’s union – democracy and accountability in action. Well, not quite.

Griffin: Webster dishes the dirt

The body of this post is taken from the Electronic Loose Cannon, e-bulletin of former National Front National Activities Organiser, Martin Webster. ARN republishes Webster’s missive without alteration as (yet another) instructive intervention in the BNP’s leadership race. While Mr Webster, a life-long racist, clearly has his own agenda and appears to be driven by his loathing of BNP leader Nick Griffin, there is no doubting that he is also a good “facts” man. Obviously intent on inflicting maximum damage on Griffin, Webster’s article will nevertheless make interesting and useful reading for anti-racists generally, though – naturally – we cannot vouchsafe the truth of Martin Webster’s statements. Read on…

Some ‘deep background’ on the BNP Chairman

A reader has e-mailed me as follows:

“Nick Griffins sister stood for the NF in Suffolk. What is her name? What is Griffin’s father’s REAL name? He claims it to be Edgar Vincent Griffin. He also claims to have been born in Harrow but he wasn’t, he was born in Brighton. Why would he lie about that?”

This prompted me to consider that there are so many newcomers (compared to me!) to the Nationalist scene that the time had come for a bit of “deep background” on Nick Griffin, Chairman and, to all intents and purposes, owner of the British National Party. I have no knowledge of Nick Griffin’s father, Edgar, beyond that he is a chartered accountant and that his father, Edwin, was a leading Freemason who left Nick, £300,000 in the late 1980s (which he quickly lost in stupid property deals). On the one occasion in the mid 1970s that I stayed over-night at the Griffin family home (then at Hill House, Huntingfield, near Halesworth, Suffolk) the kitchen was filled with oriental carpets, giving it the appearance of a souk. Mrs Griffin had bought a job lot of these and was proposing, somehow, to merchandise them. She asked my opinion as to their quality. I was surprised she didn’t remark: “Never mind the quality — feel the width”.

It became evident to me on that occasion that the entire Griffin family were money mad. I understand that the family lived in Barnet when Nick was a toddler. Presumably his father had made sufficient cash to translate the family to Suffolk. Perhaps Grandpa helped.

MYSTERY OF THE DISAPPEARING SISTER

I was informed last year by Daily Mail feature writer David Jones that Nick Griffin’s sister is “Susan Patricia”. Jones said he had tried to locate her via a search of the on-line Registry of Electors, but had no luck. There is a real mystery concerning why she has broken off all contact with her family and made efforts to cover her tracks.Susan Patricia was once engaged to Ipswich National Front branch organiser Tony Williams, a boyhood friend of Griffin’s. At the time (late 70s/early 80s) Williams (whose father was a wealthy businessman) was building up a very successful off-licence business in East Anglia. During the 1970s Susan Patricia stood at least once (I think in Ipswich) as an NF local council candidate. I don’t know when or why the engagement between Susan Patricia and Williams ended. It may have been something to do with the following:

NICK GRIFFIN’S FIRST SWINDLE?

In the mid/late 1980s Griffin swindled Williams of a couple of thousand pounds. Griffin told Williams that he had got news about a bargain supply of CDs somewhere on the Continent, but that he didn’t have the cash to take advantage of the offer. He implied the purchase was for his own private business enterprise and promised to repay Williams in cash “within two weeks”. As they were friends, the deal was transacted without paperwork. Weeks went by and no repayment was made.

When Williams asked for his money, he was astounded to be told by Griffin that the money was “a loan to the party” (i.e. what remained of the National Front, or one of its splinters) not a personal loan to him, or a loan guaranteed by him, and that if Williams wanted his cash, he should chase the party. But this was at the time that the remnant of the NF was splintering into little grouplets and Griffin was helping Roberto Fiore set up the International Third Position, so in effect there was no identifiable “party” to chase and any litigation against the then impecunious Griffin would be futile.

JUNK PRINTING EQUIPMENT AND A DRUNK’S LIFE-SAVINGS

You will know that Griffin was eventually forced to quit the ITP after a deal which involved the purchase of printing equipment which turned out to be only just so much scrap iron; and swindling one of its members, Colin Todd, caretaker of the Fiore-owned building Liss House at Liss Forest, Hants. Somehow Griffin persuaded Todd to “invest” his life savings in a venture. It was a scam and Todd lost the lot. When confronted with this cruel swindle Griffin shrugged it off, remarking that “Todd is a drunk”.

The two thousand pounds loss which Williams sustained as a result of Griffin’s crookedness was not the worst aspect of the sting. It was the crass and cynical dishonouring of an agreement between two long-standing friends. Williams just could not believe Griffin could be so dishonest and so brazen — and so casual about a long friendship.

THE FIRST FARM BUILDING RENOVATION SWINDLE

This made Williams loathe Griffin and, decades later, prompted him to make available to me a DVD copy of a video he had shot of a building restoration project which had taken place in 1984 on Hill House, the Griffin family home in Suffolk. Griffin told the NF that he had persuaded his parents to grant the National Front’s youth wing, the Young National Front, free use of a number of outbuildings of their farmhouse, but that restoration work would need to be done free of charge.YNF and NF members went to the farm for weekend after weekend during that year and did hard and dangerous building work for no wage. They paid their own fares to and from the site and slept on the floors of the buildings they were renovating.

A SWINDLE WITH GRATIS AD LIB LAGER FUNDED “FREE MEALS”

They were given “free” meals, but the meals were in fact paid for by means of a petty swindle. Williams had delivered to the site before work commenced a van-load of tins of continental lager which had just gone by their ’sell-by’ date and could not be sold via the off-licence trade. Williams GAVE the lager for FREE distribution to the young idealists. The Griffins knew a business opportunity when they saw it and they set to work grinding off off the ’sell-by’ date from the cans, which were then SOLD to the workers at £1 per can! Easily £2 in today’s values. But this was only a trivial side swindle. The worst aspect of the main swindle — the building restoration — was that the youngsters were put to work on an a major asbestos clearance.

“IF HE DOESN’T BREAK HIS NECK HE’LL DIE OF ASBESTOS POISONING”

By that time a law had been passed requiring asbestos clearances to be conducted by specially licenced asbestos clearance contractors whose staff had been specially trained and who use special protective equipment and who bagged and disposed of asbestos waste in a prescribed manner.Needless to say, the NF/YNF people were ignorant of the dangers and of the law governing such work, and they simply climbed on to the roof of “the Asbestos Barn” and hurled the asbestos sheets to the ground, sending up clouds of potentially lethal dust. This and other aspects of the work was filmed by Tony Williams on his video camera. Griffin wrote and spoke a commentary to the video. His voice is unmistakable. At one point in the film John Field, then the organiser of Hackney YNF, is shown on the roof without any protective equipment or safety harness, hammering down asbestos sheets as clouds of dust rise. Griffin remarks in his commentary: “If he doesn’t break his neck, then he die of cancer due to asbestos poisoning”.

This remark was made with cold matter-of-factness.

WHY SHOULD ALL THIS BE DRAGGED UP NOW — AFTER SO LONG A TIME?

Some may ask why such wickedness should be made an issue now…. “after all, it was a long time ago”. There are two equally important answers, as follows:Firstly, asbestosis is a terminal condition which takes decades to manifest itself. The people who as young men worked on the asbestos clearance at Hill House are now coming into the time when, if they have been unlucky, symptoms will start to present. They may have no idea what is happening to them, or why.

Secondly, anybody who in his 20s (an adult) who could perpetrate such a thing against anybody, let alone “comrades”, and who could perpetrate sundry other swindles against friends and associates, is not somebody who at any subsequent time should have any trust reposed in them. Needless to say, the property, once renovated, was never made available to the NF (nor was the video!!). The whole thing had been a trick whereby the Griffin family exploited their political connection to con young idealists to get dangerous, expensive and potentially lethal work done for free.

VIDEO MADE TO CREATE ILLUSION OF “A HISTORIC PROJECT”

Griffin had only asked Williams to make the video to give the YNF lads the illusion they were engaged in “a historic project” — and how those innocents played up to the camera! Williams says he was as much conned as to the real purpose of being asked to make the video as he was conned by the use made of his supply of lager. The work which those lads did added greatly the value of the Griffin property. When the property was sold, not a penny of the enhanced value created by the renovation work was directed to any nationalist political movement, as promised by Griffin at the outset. Fiore and other of the Italian ITP prominenti occasionally turned up to Hill House to inspect the good work, since the concept of “rural community centres” was then very much one of their ideological fads.One would have thought that the swindle they saw Griffin perpetrate against the NF would have warned them off trusting him with their financial affairs…. but Fiore and his gang were then and are now greedy for money, so perhaps they admired Griffin’s style.

THE SECOND FARM BUILDING RENOVATION SWINDLE

Griffin performed another “Barn conversion” swindle soon after he became chairman of the BNP in 1999 — in about 2001/2. The BNP put up the money for the materials and provided free skilled labour for the renovation of his barn on his ‘Y Gribbin’ farm in Wales. This barn is supposed to function as a venue for party meetings. If as and when it is used as such, the party is invoiced by Griffin for its use. Griffin did not grant the party any equity in the property in return for its “investment” so that if as and when the farm is sold, the added value created by the barn renovation go entirely to Griffin and not a penny to the BNP. For some reason Griffin never secured the video (with his commentary dubbed on it) of the Hill House outbuildings renovation of 1984. Perhaps in the hurley-burley of political splits and financial shenanigans he forgot all about it.

WILLIAMS’ HILL HOUSE VIDEO GOES WALKABOUT

Williams left the NF at about the time of its final disintegration under Griffin’s (mis)management and some time in the 1990s became head of the minuscule National Socialist Movement.The NSM became exposed by the media for one reason or another and Williams fled the country and settled in a far-off land. He took with him the video of the Hill House renovation. Eventually he made a DVD conversion of the video and made available a copy to me. The ownership of the copyright of this film is retained by Williams under contract. Information about this DVD has been given to a wide cross-section of the media. I have retained the complete file of all the negotiations which took place. In all instances there was an initial flurry of keen interest and then, in all cases, the interest suddenly evaporated without any explanation.

THE STRANGE REACTION OF THE MEDIA

Can one imagine what the reaction of the media would be in normal circumstances where a politician — of ANY party — was on record on a DVD of being involved in such a matter and of commenting sarcastically about the possible death of one of his duped helpers? To put the gravity of the current situation into some kind of perspective, one would have to recollect the kind of huge smears, based on the most trivial of pretexts, levelled at personalities in the National Front during the 1970s. In 1978, for example, the Daily Mirror concocted a double-page spread exposing the organiser of a local branch of the NF as “a Nazi” because part of the minute pattern on his tie, when hugely enlarged, could be said to resemble a “pattern of swastikas”! The NF official concerned (Paul Kavanagh) was a respectable middle-class importer of machine tools with no “Nazi” background whatsoever. Indeed, he was widely rumoured to be an MI5 informant (but that is another story!). He was co-founder with Andrew Fountaine of the “National Front Constitutional Movement”. How does that bit of nonsense about Paul Kavanagh’s tie compare with Griffin’s outrageous record?

WHO KILLED-OFF DOMINIC CARMAN’S BIOGRAPHY OF NICK GRIFFIN?

My recent experiences of the media via-a-vis Griffin seem to be very similar to that of the author Dominic Carman (son of the famous libel lawyer, the late George Carman QC). Three years ago Carman was engaged in researching Griffin prior to producing a biography. Carman subjected me to two long in-depth interviews, the first was video-taped, the second audio-taped. He took copies of a lot of documents I have on file. The questioning covered a lot of ground, including most intimate matters. In-between Carman’s first and second interview with me, he had visited the Griffin farmhouse home in Wales. I understand he spent the weekend there and took the opportunity to interview Nick’s wife Jacky separately from her husband Nick. She was very frank on delicate matters. Carman also took information from former pupils at a girls public school in Suffolk, whose sixth form Nick and one or two other lads were permitted to attend. The information which they gave chimed with that provided by Jackie and provided context for my information in the same general area of sexuality.

THE ESTABLISHMENT IS HAPPY WITH GRIFFIN AS BNP CHAIRMAN

Two years rolled by but Carman’s book did not appear. A brief article about Griffin by Carman appeared in the Daily Mail colour supplement about a year ago which was clearly based on his book researches, but since then there has been complete silence. Intrigued by this, I e-mailed Carman on 25th April this year, saying: “….. you will understand my wondering if the reason why your book on Griffin has not appeared has anything to do with my experiences of trying to get quite crucial information about Griffin’s character and background into the public arena at a time when the mainstream media profiles of him are edging towards hagiography. Any reply will be kept confidential by me if you so request…..” Carman received my e-mail but has sent no response. I quite understand. He wants to be able to continue to earn his living from the mainstream media. For want of any other explanation, I feel entitled to propose that the media was and is being orchestrated not to do anything to dislodge Griffin from his perch at the top of the BNP. It is evident that the Establishment has every reason to be happy to have creature like Griffin at the head of the premiere “nationalist” party in Britain, just as it is happy to have corrupt creatures at the head of every other political party which strives for the rewards which only Establishment patronage can bestow.

Martin Webster