The BNP list: would you have leaked it?

[Stroppyoldgit]

If this was a BNP membership list I'd have no compunction about leaking it. But it isn't. It's a contact list with all sorts of people on it, including those who say they're strongly opposed to the BNP and have no idea why they're there. It includes people such as greens who've written to the BNP asking for a policy document to try to work out what their alleged "environmental" policies actually are. It includes people whose relatives have sent in their names. It probably includes a few people whose mates have sent their names to the BNP with a request for literature as a "laugh". The non-BNP members and even anti-BNP people on this list merely shows the BNP to be as dishonest in administration as they are in everything else.

Dedicated fash watchers say quite a few major BNP activists are NOT on the list.

There is a theory the list was actually leaked by Griffin's faction and was sabotaged first by deleting some names and including innocent ones. In view of the fact that Griffin's injunction proceedings against the faction expelled last year comes to a final hearing soon and it is thought Griffin will lose expensively, this makes some sense. I'm not a conspiracy theorist jumping to conclusions from partial information, so I'm not saying it's true, but it's certainly a possibility. The possibility that everyone is dancing on a string jiggled by Griffin seems not to have been considered carefully enough

This discussion has overlooked the fact that there's already a list of core BNP activists' name and addresses available to anyone who cares to check the notice of poll every time they stand in an election. That gives not only the name and address(es) of the candidate(s), but also of the people who signed the nomination paper. 10 of them, I think, and unlike the candidate(s), they must be registered as electors in the ward or constituency concerned.

If anyone assembles the names and addresses from notices of poll and adds the 300-odd people from the leaked list who're marked as "activist" they will have a much more reliable list.

Nothing much seems to have happened as a result of many hundreds of BNP names and addresses having been in the public domain already. The main value of the leaked list has been to reveal a number of people as BNP members or supporters who were never suspected (e.g. a Nottingham DJ, a nutty Essex preacher), with no denials or credible claims of innocence coming from them.

 

[teuchter]

Some of the arguments against here are making a number of assumptions:

1) that those listed face the prospect of serious physical harm, even murder

2) that there is going to be some kinda mob frenzy against those on the list

3) that anyone using the list is incapable of distinguishing the "innocent children" from the diehard activist.

Well...

1) How many fascists have been murdered by "the reds" in the UK? some may get a beating, perhaps, and this may or may not be right, but murdered? hmmm...

2) I'd be surprised.

3) Well. you have been perfectly capable of spotting that theres kids, I think others can too. The list also helpfully has notes to assist in determing the committment of the member anyway.

Besides as noted above, the widespread dissemination of the list lessens the chance of really planned physical attacks but places responsibilty for the consequences in the hands of a much wider constituency than just the hardcore antifa. That is probably a good thing, no?

As posted on the other BNP leak thread - the case against those who made the leak has just concluded:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8231475.stm

Difficult to get an objective idea of how many people were subject to hassle, but the police are quoted as saying:

"There was pretty serious stuff after what happened. People were fearful for their safety.
"There was an arson attack on a vehicle, there were daubings and malicious communications. White powder was also put through people's letterboxes purporting to be anthrax and there were daubings of swastikas on garage doors and on homes."
It was disclosed in court that more than 160 complaints were made nationally to police following attacks on BNP members and their property.

Also:

BNP spokesman John Walker said some of the party's members were now considering civil cases against Single and his wife.

 

[invisibleplanet]

No, I wouldn't have leaked the BNP list, because after seeing what happens to people whose details have been gathered and published on R*dw*tch, it's clear that offering up personal addresses can lead to physical force attacks, intimidation and persecution by violent vanguard with no concern for people's families, etc.

Knife attack on Mersey Trade Unionist: http://randompottins.blogspot.com/2006/05/knife-attack-on-merseyside-trade.html

 

[ch750536]

I wouldn't.

If we are to keep any kind of faith in the sham democracy we live in then we have to allow freedom of thought in any guise. If someone has broken no law then why should they be victimised?

As a country running to be a police state it is another example of how ironic people can be.

'We must not let these fascists have any power or communictaion'....

 

[tar1984]

I'd have leaked it.

 

[Bajie]

The bloke who bought my flat 2 years ago was on that list, with my old address as his membership address. His dad was really nice as well, but he was a bit weird

 

[Azrael]

No. Not out of any concern for the BNP members, but out of the knowledge that by leaking it I'd invite the same tactics to be used against myself and others.

 

[tar1984]

No. Not out of any concern for the BNP members, but out of the knowledge that by leaking it I'd invite the same tactics to be used against myself and others.

They'd already do stuff like that though. What about that redwatch site?

 

[butchersapron]

The one set up by people opposed to the BNP?

 

[Azrael]

They'd already do stuff like that though. What about that redwatch site?

Exactly my point. It's a lot harder to complain about that when the people behind it can come back and say "you're doing the same thing". I'm not saying leaking the list is the same thing (it's not, IMO), but it muddies the waters and gives them ammunition they shouldn't have.