UK: Nazi headquarters shut down
01 September 1996
The British National Party (BNP) has been forced to close its headquarters, in Welling, southeast London, following a seven year campaign by anti-racists and local residents. The fascist organisation announced the closure after its owner, and senior party official, Richard Edmonds, was fined ?700 (with ?200 costs) at Bexley magistrates court for failing to comply with council instructions to remove fortifications from the premises.
The BNP opened the premises as a shop in 1989 amid widespread fears that it would use it to coordinate racist activities in southeast London. The years following their arrival saw an increasing militarisation of the building - which came to be known locally as "the bunker" - as fortifications and security cameras were added. The shop's transformation into a base and headquarters was paralleled by an horrendous escalation in racist violence that included the murders of three black youths - Rolan Adams, Rohit Duggal and Stephen Lawrence. Their murders have been attributed to the BNP's high-profile "Rights for Whites" campaign that targeted white working class housing estates and public houses in the locality.
The escalating racist violence provoked increasingly angry demonstrations demanding the closure of the headquarters. These culminated in large demonstrations in 1993, which required a huge police presence to protect the fascists, and resulted in large scale arrests and the jailing of anti-fascists (see Statewatch Vol 3 no 6).
Following these protests Bexley council issued instructions to the BNP to reconvert the building to its original design in September 1994. This decision was upheld, in April 1995, by Secretary for the Environment, John Gummer. Nonetheless, by the beginning of 1996 the BNP had failed to make any alterations and in June the council served a summons against Edmonds for failing to comply with the order which led to his conviction.
Edmonds, a former teacher with a long criminal record for racist violence (see for instance Statewatch Vol 4, no 4), will continue to live on the premises from which he will run a mail order book service.
It is already clear that the loss of their headquarters will throw the BNPs desultory general election campaign into even greater chaos. They are committed to standing 50 candidates but it is evident that the electoral path opportunistically masterminded by party leader, John Tyndall, after the successes of fascist parties in France, Italy and Austria, is in disarray. It is highly likely that Tyndall's undisputed leadership of the BNP will be challenged following the abject failure of his electoral strategy.