The BNP 4. Activism - The Quiet Revolution

When Nick Griffin assumed leadership of the BNP in a bid to be seen as respectable he abandoned the struggle for the streets and banned marches arguing that they gave the BNP a thuggish image, were a waste of time and turned people away from the party.

The NLF views this as a serious mistake as marches generated immense publicity and propaganda for nationalist parties. Nationalist parties such as the BNP and National Front would plan a march and on the day they would be greeted by the far-left which would attempt to violently disrupt the march and prevent it from going ahead. The chaos caused by the March would break the media silence as the film crews and journalists would rush to the scene to report on the events unfolding. Unwittingly the media would be assisting the nationalism in engaging in the propaganda of the deed.

For example the BNP first became prominent in 1989 following a March in Dewsbury, in which there presence sparked the Asian community to riot. Judged on grounds of economy the BNP gained a massive amount of publicity for such a small expense.

A nationalist party will never be treated fairly by the media or the rest of the political system, so the BNP by refusing to engage in activism out of the box like demonstrations dooms itself to failure. The NLF believes the political struggle cannot be waged by purely electoral means alone but must participate in the struggle to regain the streets.