Arrest of racist thugs follows TV exposure

West Yorkshire police last week arrested five men on a range 
of charges, including possession of firearms following a BBC 
documentary program, The Secret Agent, shown the previous 
Thursday.

The programme was the result of a journalist infiltrating the 
West Yorkshire British National Party (BNP) and covertly filming 
the aspects of their activities that they hide from the public.

The BNP leadership recently has tried to distance itself from its 
reputation as an organisation of dangerous racist thugs and petty 
criminals.

Instead it tries to portray itself as a respectable political 
party and the only one to care about the rights of white people.

But journalist Jason Gwynne revealed that behind the scenes 
nothing has changed.

The documentary was set up after BNP member Andy Sykes quickly 
became disillusioned with the party and approached the anti-
fascist magazine Searchlight.

Staff at Searchlight persuaded him to stay in place 
temporarily as a mole, and help introduce and guide Jason Gwynne 
as he worked on his exposure.

Gwynne was able to film one BNP member boasting of his assault on 
an Asian man during a Bradford race riot that left the victim 
unconscious.

Another BNP member spoke of his dreams of mass murdering Muslims 
with a machine gun as they left the mosque on Fridays. Others 
spoke of plans to set fire to a Trade Union Congress (TUC) van 
full of anti-racist leaflets.

BNP leader Nick Griffin was filmed making inflammatory and 
distorted remarks about Islam as a religion.

In a subsequent TV interview after the showing of the 
documentary, Griffin apologised for the remarks of some of his 
members and said they had since been expelled from the BNP. But 
he did not withdraw his remarks about Islam.

Former Searchlight editor Gerry Gable told the New Worker: 
"The arrests following the showing of the film are a clear 
indication of just how dangerous the BNP are".

TUC North East welcomed the screening of the documentary. 
Regional secretary Kevin Rowan said: "I believe this is proof 
beyond any doubt that the BNP is a racist party, a party built 
upon violence and incitement of race hate."

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New Worker, paper of New Communist Party of Britain