A BNP union?

Submitted by Anon on 2 March, 2006 - 6:35

According to the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight the British National Party has launched a trade union which they have, unfortunately, chosen to call Solidarity. “The Union for British Workers” was registered with the trade unions Certification Office at the end of last year. If it gets off the ground — and that is a big if — it will of course be a scab union. The stated aims of the “union” is to “improve the relations between employers and employees throughout all industries served by the union”.

For years they BNP have got their members to infiltrate existing unions. There have been many examples of fights to expel BNP members. These confrontations the BNP relished, as it gave them an opportunity to rant about “free speech” for their members.

Indeed many of the new officials of the union are battle-scarred BNP activists who have been expelled from different unions.

Other aims of the union are to “resist and oppose all forms of institutional union corruption” and “promote freedom within and without the Trades Union movement, protecting and promoting freedom of belief, thought and speech, irrespective of political and religious affiliation or creed”.

It also intends to set up a Political Fund and “print, publish, issue and circulate” literature that “may seem conducive to the objects of Solidarity”. There you have it — a BNP front.

Searchlight’s analysis of the turn is that this is a continuation of the party’s recent orientation to working-class politics. It is developing support in traditional Labour areas where there is a great disillusionment with the Labour Party and where race is much less of an issue.

The number one “industrial” issue for the BNP is migrant workers and the collapse of British manufacturing. Last year the BNP launched a Miners’ Memorial Day. This is a real outrage — during the 1984-85 miners’ strike the BNP called for the Army to be used against the NUM.

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