‘Struth!
Apparently, a handful of nutzis in the UK have issued a title challenge to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade! Their brave attempt to become real-life martyrs follows Brüno’s scathing criticism of Osama bin Laden’s fashion sense; a joke which fell flat as far as Ayman Abu Aita — a Christian and a member of Fatah, but featured in the film as the leader of an un-named (Muslim) terrorist group — is concerned.
As for the British would-be “Martyrs”…
Far right launch campaign of violence and intimidation against opponents
Matthew Taylor
The Guardian
August 2, 2009Aryan Martyrs’ Brigade issues death threat against anti-fascism activist Weyman Bennett, while student attacked after BNP protest
Far-right activists have launched a campaign of intimidation and violence against political opponents including a series of death threats and physical attacks.
Hardline fascists are targeting students and leading anti-racism activists who campaigned against the British National party in June’s European elections.
A group calling itself the Aryan Martyrs’ Brigade has issued threats including a “death warrant” sent to Weyman Bennett, the joint secretary of Unite Against Fascism, stating he will be killed before the end of the year “for crimes against all loyal white patriots and British nationalists”.
The threat, which the police are investigating and has a picture of Bennett in cross hairs, states: “We know exactly what you look like and what venues you frequent and can strike at will. The police, special branch, MI5, Searchlight cannot save you from the bullets coming your way. No matter where you are, we will get you, all we need is a lock on your mobile phone signal and you are one dead nigger”…
This is not the first time that the ‘Aryan Martyrs’ Brigade’ has popped up on The Guardian‘s radar. In January 2004, Matthew Taylor wrote:
Far-right group issues threat to MPs
The Guardian
January 17, 2004A rightwing splinter group calling itself the Aryan Martyrs’ Brigade has launched a hate campaign against black, Asian and Jewish MPs.
The organisation, which is believed to be linked to the extreme-right website Redwatch, has sent letters to a number of MPs threatening them and their families.
Yesterday, Scotland Yard confirmed it had launched an investigation, and said that the threats were being taken seriously.
“We can confirm that in November a number of members of parliament received malicious communications,” a spokeswoman said. “Police currently investigating the incident are treating them seriously, and have sent the A4 leaflets off for forensic examination.”
The police confirmed the letters were “offensive and racist”…
A similar story appeared in The Northern Echo: Death threats to MP probed, January 19, 2004.
Prior to this, the Brigade made an appearance in Searchlight magazine (December 2003), as well as an issue of TUFS News (No.11, Autumn 2003), the newsletter of ‘Trade Union Friends of Searchlight’ [PDF].
The December 2003 article links the Angry Aryans to Kevin Watmough’s ‘Redwatch UK’ site, which in turn is portrayed as being a vehicle the BNP uses(/used) to intimidate its political, ‘anti-fascist’ opposition. In summary: “The [Aryan Martyrs’ Brigade] does not exist. Its name is just a cover for the Redwatch and BNP thugs who are setting out to silence media critics.” Watmough himself lives in Leeds and is a member of the British Peoples’ Party: a tinpot BNP which is dedicated to re-enacting the Third Reich and saving White children from the pernicious effects of listening to ’90s rap music.
According to Searchlight, the Redwatch site was originally established by a trio of racist losers — Watmough and ‘The Two Tonys’: Tony Foy and Tony White. (Sadly, Simon Sheppard, another fascist bizarro who maintained/registered the site, is currently a guest of Her Majesty, following his imprisonment for talking shit.) In its original, ‘offline’ form, Redwatch was a circular, published in the early 1990s by ‘Combat 18’ by way of US-based nutzi Harold Covington.
The internet version of Redwatch emerged in 2001 from a group of men then associated with the National Front. Soon it became clear that their politics were too extreme for the NF. At first they regrouped themselves separately as Aryan Unity. Later they became the White Nationalist Party. The WNP was then, to all intents and purposes, the political wing of Combat 18. Led by Eddie Morrison, a lifelong nazi from Leeds, and its supporters included Simon Shepherd [sic] from Hull. In 1999, while Shepherd [sic] was the local organiser for the BNP, he was arrested and later imprisoned for producing antisemitic material. The contact name on all three is Shepherd [sic] but while Shepherd [sic] might give some technical advice and support, the men who are really behind Redwatch are based in Leeds. They include Kevin Watmough, White and Tony Foy. All three are diehard nazis with a history of violence.
And again: “…a letter was delivered to the offices of the local paper threatening to blow up the building if the paper continued to run anti-BNP stories. The letter was written in the name of the Aryan Martyrs Brigade. This is the same group that sent a threatening letter to a journalist from Wales on Sunday, whose crime had been to write an article about the BNP. The group does not exist. Its name is just a cover for the Redwatch and BNP thugs who are setting out to silence media critics.”
BNP’s ‘Red White & Blue Festival’
The publication of Taylor’s article comes just a few weeks prior to the BNP’s ‘Red White & Blue Festival’, scheduled to take place in a village called Codnor in Derbyshire, on a farm belonging to some bloke called Alan Warner (an ex-Tory councillor), on the weekend of August 14–16. (On the 2008 RWB, see : Unite Against Fascism is a weird mob, August 1, 2008.) UAF has declared that they will be protesting against the Festival on August 15; the threat against Bennett (UAF joint secretary) has also been noted by his party’s publication, Socialist Worker:
Nazi thugs’ threats won’t stop protest at BNP hate-fest
Esme Choonara
August 4, 2009“We won’t be intimidated by Nazi thugs—we will step up our campaign to build a mass movement to drive back the fascists.”
This is the defiant response of Weyman Bennett, joint secretary of Unite Against Fascism (UAF), to a Nazi hate campaign that has targeted prominent anti-fascist activists.
Weyman himself has received a number of direct threats, including a “death warrant” from a group calling itself the Aryan Martyrs’ Brigade…
UAF will be joining a number of other groups at the protest, including the ‘Amber Valley Campaign against Racism and Fascism‘, Midlands TUC and (seemingly) the main, local organisers, ‘Notts Stop the BNP’. In February, 2008, the Notts mob described itself as follows: “The Stop the Red, White and Blue campaign is a politically independent network of anti-fascists, dedicated to ideological opposition to, and direct action against the BNP’s Red, White and Blue festival.”
In 2008, police protecting the Festival invoked the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, a piece of legislation which grants them wide-ranging powers, and which is frequently used in order to stifle militant (and not-so-militant) protest. Police may also be expected to utilise s.76 of the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008, which entitles them to arrest anyone suspected of taking photographs of police.
Besides these legal manouevrings, chances are high that several hundred or possibly several thousand people will, under the watchful eye and with the permission of police, gather somewhere nearby the Festival, listen to some speeches, perhaps go for a stroll (under the watchful eye and with the permission of police), and then go home. The effect this will have on the BNP’s organisational efforts may reasonably be considered as being rather minimal, but the protest will almost certainly attract media attention.
Which is, of course, the whole point as far as I can see. In fact…
Protesters banned from Red, White and Blue event
Ripley & Heanor News
August 6, 2009
Amber Valley Borough Council has banned protesters from the British National Party’s Red White and Blue event this year.
The council’s order to prohibit ‘trespassory assemblies’ of 20 or more people on land owned by Alan Warner on Codnor Denby Lane, between August 14 to August 18, was granted by the Home Office following an application by Derbyshire’s Chief Constable Mick Creedon.
A spokesman for the borough council said: “The trespassory assembly order is aimed at preventing large numbers of protesters attending the event. A similar order was made last year.”
Orders to close the footpaths in the area have also been made by Derbyshire County Council.
On Tuesday night, Mr Creedon held a meeting at John Flamsteed School for the residents of Codnor and Denby to hear their views about the forthcoming festival.
A spokeswoman for Derbyshire police said: “Police are expecting a large number of people to come to this part of Derbyshire, both to attend the Red, White and Blue event, and also to protest against it.
“The police’s main aim for the weekend is to ensure that it passes off peacefully and with the minimum of disruption for local people.
“Officers are also consulting with the organisers of the festival and a number of groups who have indicated that they will be taking part in a protest against it.”
Last year, more than 400 anti-BNP protesters took part in a peaceful rally and protest march, organised in Codnor and 1,000 are expected this year.
See also : Racist ‘Wolves’ emerge from shadows, BBC, April 25, 1999 | Anti-terror police seek White Wolf racist over bombs, Stuart Millar, The Guardian, April 28, 1999 | ‘White Wolves’ linked to Soho bomb, BBC, April 30, 1999 | A Good Fascist, December 3, 2006 | The BNP & The Farmer (August 18, 2008) | BNP’s RWB vs SWP’s UAF (August 21, 2008)
From the archive.org:
Redwatch closes ranks but the threats continue
The net is beginning to close in on the men behind the notorious Redwatch internet site. The site, which reproduces pictures of anti-racists, and a closed email discussion group where participants plan and discuss violent attacks are now the subject of a police investigation.
Last month Searchlight exposed the men behind Redwatch and the vital part it plays in the British National Party campaign to silence its critics. Our revelations, together with the fact that several trade unions have taken up the case, are forcing the authorities to act…
In Oldham, several anti-BNP activists have complained to police after Tony Wentworth, the BNP youth organiser, took pictures of them during the Failsworth by-election and promised to post them on the Redwatch site.
However, it is events in Liverpool that have been instrumental in forcing the authorities to look into Redwatch. In the past few weeks there have been two serious threats against an individual and a newspaper that highlights the role and purpose of Redwatch.
The first was a verbal threat left on the mobile telephone answer service of one leading Anti Nazi League activist. The mobile was a contact number for people wanting to get involved in the anti-BNP campaign.
Addressing the anti-fascist by his real name, the caller gave him a tirade of abuse and said: “This call is from the BNP and we stand for the white people of Great Britain. If you ever go to Liverpool city centre again we will cut you up.”
A week later, a new Liverpool section appeared on the Redwatch site, containing photographs and personal details of those behind the newly formed Merseyside United Against Racism and Fascism.
When the Liverpool Echo contacted the local BNP organiser for his comments, he had little to say. Literally hours later a letter was delivered to the offices of the local paper threatening to blow up the building if the paper continued to run anti-BNP stories.
For the local BNP organiser, this was personal. It was, after all, the Liverpool Echo that had put a picture of him on the front page in April with the headline: “Vote Scum”.
The letter was written in the name of the Aryan Martyrs Brigade. This is the same group that sent a threatening letter to a journalist from Wales on Sunday, whose crime had been to write an article about the BNP.
The group does not exist. Its name is just a cover for the Redwatch and BNP thugs who are setting out to silence media critics.
There is now a clamour for action. It is deplorable that so far the police have not moved against those behind Redwatch. Given the evidence that the perpetrators also discuss and plan violent assaults, it can only be hoped that action will finally be taken.
The Home Secretary, David Blunkett, is studying a dossier on Redwatch and several MPs have promised to take up the issue. But the matter must not be left there. Searchlight readers need to continue to write letters of complaint to their local MPs and support anti-racist campaigners, journalists and newspapers under attack.
Bonus!
Alan Warner
The Bungalow
Codnor Denby Lane
Denby Village
Derbyshire, DE5 8PT
I don’t believe this.
You are going to protest against a get together which includes many children.
Do you want to be known as someone who attacks children?
Stay away and let your leaders shame themselves.
No, I am not going to protest against a get together which includes many children: I live in Australia.
No, I do not want to be known as someone who attacks children: fortunately, not having attacked any children, the risk of this is minimal.
Yes, I will stay away; no, I have no leader.