Norway Is Not Alone - But Nor Is Breivik

As the world rushes to write off Anders Breivik as an isolated, maverick madman, a lone phenomena with no enduring significance beyond the appalling acts of savage murder he carried out in Norway last Friday, British racists have hurried to his defence online. As we see in the post by English Defence League supporter, Michelle Miley, lauds him as a hero on her Twitter.com account above; and her colleagues similarly tweet (such an innocent terms for such violent bastards) in the extract below. Because Breivik's young victims were nearly all members of the Norwegian Labour Party, it seems Michelle and her friends reckon they had it coming to them. (A similar phenomenon errupted in Israel, where many Israelis also suggested the young Labour members got what they deserved because they had had a banner on the island criticising Israeli policy towards the Palestinians - Breivik meanwhile had cited his support for Zionism and Israel.)

English Defence League leader, Stephen Lennon, has rebuffed any suggestions - including Breivik's own claims - of any links between the Nordic terrorist and his supposedly peaceful organisation. And yet, in the next breath, he tells the Daily Mail that "others could be inspired to commit similar atrocities ‘within five years’ if they feel their voice is not being heard."

The worry of course is that, unlike the Norwegians, who have responded to the atrocities with a ringing re-emphasis of their open, multicultural society, British politicians will seek to "listen and learn" from the sympathisers of the EDL and the self-imploding BNP. This we already saw with David Cameron's crass speech about "muscular liberalism" earlier this year.

Cameron, his Communities Secretary Pickles, and a host of other rightwing commentators have dangerously lied and lied again about supposed "political correctness" taking over Britain. Complete fictions are made up about non-existent sharia courts taking over towns like Bradford and Dewsbury, no-go-zones for white people, Asian immunity from criminal prosecution and of course the perennial but complete myth (or lie) about bans on Christmas trees, Nativity plays and even Christmas itself. 

The deranged ravings of newspaper columnists like Melaine Phillips and Jeremy Clarkson could be ignored were it not for the fact that people like Anders Breivik directly quote their rubbish, including in his genocidal manifesto. Smirking Clarkson should perhaps be smiling a bit less if he stops to consider how he has added to the mood music that has provided such fertile ground for the Nordic murderer to create the political narrative to justify his slaughter and carnage. Perhaps he would like to test drive the victims' hearses for them and make some of his stupid remarks as they pull into the graveyards, again and again and again?

The fact is that the rightwing nationalism that is spouted by so many in this country is nothing to do with any real threat to our culture. I have lived in areas with high concentrations of Muslims for nearly a quarter of a century and am in no way proscribed from living my life in precisely the way I wish. The churches still function for those who wish to attend, school lessons are in English, the pubs are open, and young women can walk the streets as scantily dressed as they like. If anything is gradually changing, it is the cultures of Asian communities that, like so very many waves of immigrants before (including the English - once foreigners to these shores themselves), are slowly assimilating into the wider zeitgeist.

Extreme nationalism is very much what it says on the tin: it is exclusive; it sees those outside its genetic definition as The Other and as a threat. It is not about pride or self-worth. Rather it is about insecurity, lack of pride and rank xenophobia. It is propagated by self-serving interests that see it as a very useful means of diverting the grievances of those who are losing out in a society that is increasingly polarised between rich and poor. Instead, it focuses on the idea that poor white people are poor not because they no longer have trade unions and are paid crap wages by exploitative employers, but rather because the local council has built a playground in an Asian area rather than a white one. Divide et impera.

The British media has repeatedly played up the threat from a handful of Islamic fascists over and over again, while largely ignoring the actual and planned attacks by scores of white fascists. Again and again, the police have, to their credit, arrested members of the BNP and EDL for assaults on Asians. Huge caches of bombs, bomb-making equipment and even biological material such as deadly ricin have been found in the homes of active members of fascist groups in the UK, but you wouldn't know it from the press.

Even when attacks are carried out, such as those against the black and gay people targetted by the explosions carried out in the most vicious way by the London Nailbomber, whose shrapnel ripped an unborn baby from its mother's womb, the media dutifully declared him a lunatic loner - ignoring his former activities in the BNP and the other members of that party arrested for planning similar attacks. Leader Nick Griffin's assistant, Tony Lecomber, was even known in the party, for very good reasons, as "Bomber Lecomber", but the media instead concentrated on how the party was supposedly becoming respectable under his leadership.

Fascism is a term that comes from the Latin fasces - the bundle of rods for beating and axes for beheading the opponents of the Roman state. They were selected by Mussolini back in the 1920s as the symbol of his movement of nationalists and have been aped by his admirers and ideological brothers ever since. This aggressive symbolism has reinforced the martial rhetoric of nationalist leaders, who have framed their ideologies very much around conflict which deems their political opponents to be traitors and mortal threats to the survival of the national Volk. Consequently, the most extreme response is at least psychologically sanctioned and so whether or not he acted alone, Breivik is not ideologically alone. And however comforting it may be to declare him mad, the only delusions in such circumstances are our own - for these are cold, calculated acts with a clear purpose, however horrifying. We do not dismiss al-Qaeda as illogical mad people; so why do we hurry to excuse white extremists by declaring them to be conveniently mentally ill and so not really responsible for what they have done?

Mainstream politicians across our Continent are failing to address the social and economic inequalities that are at the heart of our crisis. Instead, they play up to the xenophobes by gestures such as the ban on the veil in Belgium and France, the illegal deportation of gypsies by Sarkozy and the stigmatising of the Muslim community as fundamentally hostile in Britain due to the actions of four men in July 2005. They do so at great peril, ultimately, to us all - because by doing so they will never solve the root causes of discontent. Rather, they will simply fuel the anger and desire for more and more scapegoats, greater violence and, in some minds, provide the justification for more massacres like the one we have witnessed.

It falls to those of the Left, the internationalists, the humanistic, to show the different path, to argue incessantly for real solutions, real equality and community. The real stories from Friday should not be the frightening scenarios of ceaseless conflict and division conjured up by Anders Breivik and Melanie Phillips and their twisted fellow travellers. Rather, they should be the stories of the ambitions and hopes of those whose young lives were snuffed out when they were just about to begin. We owe it to them to listen to their voices, which were for democracy, tolerance and humanity rather than the narrow and perverted bigotry that so arrogantly decided to silence them.