Last Saturday in Barking we had an interesting guest accompany us on our regular leafleting session. Francesca Paci, an Italian journalist. She had heard of me!!, and she wanted to learn more about the BNP.
Nationalists will notice there are no references to the BNP being a bunch of racist thugs, and she gave a picture of us that no one in the UK would ever, ever dare print.
Her reference to the ‘working class’ is relevant, because ‘La Stampa’ is read by the many thousands who work directly or indirectly for Fiat, the Italian carmaker.
There is an unusual quote that Britons may not know, ”The working class goes to heaven”.
This refers to an Elio Petri’ film, “The working class goes to heaven”, the story of a factory worker fighting for better working conditions. It was made in 1972, during a time that workers were striking against their greedy employers and trying to change Italian politics.
The film interestingly, puts the spotlight on the indifference of the politicians to the working class; the supposed “Socialists” who should have been supporting the workers, sound familiar?
Ms Paci is the London correspondent of ‘La Stampa’, a Turin based daily; the translated article follows.
By Francesca Paci.
Peter works for a marketing company, Dave works for a construction company, Rory was a shop assistant but he lost his job a few months ago. At 11am they are all in front of the subway station in Becontree, remote eastern outskirts of London, about forty men and women between 30 and 50 years too late perhaps for the appointment with their life but punctual with the only party they believe will promise them redemption. A quarter of a century ago, probably they would have marched under the banner of socialism. Today, victims of economic and cultural globalization they show proudly the British National Party’ badge, the British far right party that from a modest 6% started to capitalize on the lost illusions of the Blair’ dreams.
“Come on boys, the elections are not won by sitting in the living room.” Slicked-back hair, square-toed shoes, full cream suit without an overcoat, Richard BARNBROOK, representative of the BNP in the London Assembly, braving cold to galvanize the militants with the red nose like the factory’ workers before dismissal typical of the first Ken Loach’ movies. The day is long but so is the list of families to contact door-to door and mark with an X in favor, opposed, uncertain. In Barking, a historic Labor party’ stronghold, the BNP already occupies 12 of the 51 seats: if on May 6 local elections, gained another 14, it would have the majority and control of the area, an historic victory for the pariahs of Westminster.
“So far, the electoral system has kept us away from the parliament but we are gaining supports on the ground where the people are tired of politicians, Europe, third-world immigrants,” says Giuseppe De Santis, 30-years old, from Catanzaro, the only foreigner in the BNP. Bob, a former window-fitter now unemployed is waiting with the engine running in the Ford Mondeo with loads of leaflets against the Labor Party that has changed the demography in Barking in its favour, (it was once 95% British working class), by assigning thousands of council houses to immigrants. Until a few months ago, the party’ constitution excluded non-whites from membership but then, after the intervention of the court, an Asian candidate, Rajinder Singh, applied for membership, a Sikh that will never forgive Muslims for his father’s death during the partition of ‘India in 1947. De Santis is Italian but there is no risk he will be confused with the Africans, the Pakistanis, the Chinese that through the neighborhood look with barely concealed suspicion BNP activists at work and, in doubt, he speaks only English.
“Racist and fascist, are the shame of the country ‘heats Margaret H., 58, a former maths teacher, weeding in the garden of the chalet in Roycraft avenue. “It’s about time somebody said no to multiculturalism that steals our work and roots” says, like two thirds of his fellow British, the 31 year old bricklayer Ralph. A door slammed in my face it’s worth another that opens: Ken, how to repair the roof and shakes hands like Ivan Drago in Rocky IV, the blonde Corry, Tony Mason, earrings and jeans with the hem lengthened given to him by someone taller than him.
“The BNP is not only appeals to unemployed workers but also to the middle class, skilled employees who share the fear of immigration and the disenchantment for the political class” notes Daniele Albertazzi, an expert on the new right of the University of Birmingham. Excluded from the mainstream media, the extreme right has specialized in door to door and online activism: “The first-past the post’ system psychologically discourage voters from voting a party without a chance, but if 2 members can make it to Brussels and others become councilors people will believe that things can change even at national level. ” In 1983, 83% of Britons believed that Tory and Labor were different, now this belief is shared by just one voter in five. If the BNP would get somewhere near the 30% majority it needs it would be enough to bring Nick Griffin in Westminster. Difficult, admits Albertazzi, but not impossible. Peter and the others believe it: if the working class did not go to heaven after all, the fault is not theirs.
GIUSEPPE DE SANTIS
