It's the song I hate...
The Bloggers Against Fascism campaign seems to have caused a bit of controversy amongst bloggers in the last day or two, so I thought I'd weigh in with my 2p's worth - a bit later than most, as usual.
For what it's worth, I'm happy to have a United Against Fascism graphic and link up here. I'm not under any illusions that, in itself, it's going to stop the BNP but it's one step amongst many on the way to stopping them. As others have pointed out, the number of people who read blogs is small, even amongst those likely to be voting in June and there are probably few, if any, BNP voters (or potential BNP voters) amongst that readership. However, I think those of us within our little political bubble ignore the fact that there are a lot of people out there who aren't aware of the BNP, or at least what they truly stand for behind their vaguely moderated rhetoric. I had this brought home to me a couple of weeks ago when I was talking with a friend who I thought was pretty clued up about politics but thought the BNP were in the same area of the political spectrum as the UK Independence Party and didn't realise the full extent of their politics. Not that he'd have been likely to vote for them anyway, but we soon let him know just what they stood for, and while I'm aware of the flaws in generalising from one experience, I doubt he's alone in that belief.
As I said, in and of itself something like UAF/BAF isn't going to stop the BNP, but what it may do is encourage more people to get out and vote in June, and maybe even go campaign for whichever party they support (as long as it's not the BNP, I don't really care which one, though obviously anyone campaigning for the Liberal Democrats will be most welcome). Recent elections that have featured BNP candidates have shown one thing - at least from my perspective - that they don't have huge levels of support, even when they go out and campaign heavily. They thrive when there's a low overall turnout, when the other parties can't be bothered to campaign and the higher the turnout in June, the less likely they are to win seats anywhere.
Just to show the whole strange bedfellows nature of this discussion, I'm in broad agreement with Peter Cuthbertson (who's in agreement with Chris Rennard) when he says that united fronts in campaigning run the risk of 'portraying the BNP as the only real opposition to the existing state of affairs, the only ones who offer an alternative.' Just going out and telling people to not vote BNP may work in one sense - they may not vote BNP, but they're also not going to vote for any of the other parties unless they're given a positive alternative. Someone, and I think it was Peter again, wrote in the comments to a post I made about negativity in politics that 'when A attacks B, C is the beneficiary'. However if A are all other parties and B is the BNP then C can only be abstention. To be united against fascism is to be united for democracy and going out to tell voters 'Vote Liberal Democrat/Conservative/Labour/Green/UKIP/Monster Raving Loony/whatever' is going to more effective than just saying 'don't vote BNP'.
On a final note, I just want to state that I don't regard people who choose not to take part in this campaign as being pro-fascist, objectively or otherwise, and I'd be very disappointed if any supporter of UAF tried to make that allegation - for what it's worth, I think the only potentially pro-fascist blogger I've ever encountered is Adam Yoshida, but the less said about him the better. I've always been very uncomfortable with statements like 'if you're not with us, you're against us' and 'if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem' as, while they're usually well-intentioned, I think they just an attempt to stamp an either/or argument onto a situation which is not necessarily the best way to deal with it. In framing an argument in those terms, you run the risk of alienating those who might potentially support you with reservations and driving them into whatever cause you're trying to oppose. Better, I think, to phrase it as 'if you're not part of the problem, we want you to be part of the solution' or 'if you're not against us, surely you can find some common ground with us?'
For what it's worth, I'm happy to have a United Against Fascism graphic and link up here. I'm not under any illusions that, in itself, it's going to stop the BNP but it's one step amongst many on the way to stopping them. As others have pointed out, the number of people who read blogs is small, even amongst those likely to be voting in June and there are probably few, if any, BNP voters (or potential BNP voters) amongst that readership. However, I think those of us within our little political bubble ignore the fact that there are a lot of people out there who aren't aware of the BNP, or at least what they truly stand for behind their vaguely moderated rhetoric. I had this brought home to me a couple of weeks ago when I was talking with a friend who I thought was pretty clued up about politics but thought the BNP were in the same area of the political spectrum as the UK Independence Party and didn't realise the full extent of their politics. Not that he'd have been likely to vote for them anyway, but we soon let him know just what they stood for, and while I'm aware of the flaws in generalising from one experience, I doubt he's alone in that belief.
As I said, in and of itself something like UAF/BAF isn't going to stop the BNP, but what it may do is encourage more people to get out and vote in June, and maybe even go campaign for whichever party they support (as long as it's not the BNP, I don't really care which one, though obviously anyone campaigning for the Liberal Democrats will be most welcome). Recent elections that have featured BNP candidates have shown one thing - at least from my perspective - that they don't have huge levels of support, even when they go out and campaign heavily. They thrive when there's a low overall turnout, when the other parties can't be bothered to campaign and the higher the turnout in June, the less likely they are to win seats anywhere.
Just to show the whole strange bedfellows nature of this discussion, I'm in broad agreement with Peter Cuthbertson (who's in agreement with Chris Rennard) when he says that united fronts in campaigning run the risk of 'portraying the BNP as the only real opposition to the existing state of affairs, the only ones who offer an alternative.' Just going out and telling people to not vote BNP may work in one sense - they may not vote BNP, but they're also not going to vote for any of the other parties unless they're given a positive alternative. Someone, and I think it was Peter again, wrote in the comments to a post I made about negativity in politics that 'when A attacks B, C is the beneficiary'. However if A are all other parties and B is the BNP then C can only be abstention. To be united against fascism is to be united for democracy and going out to tell voters 'Vote Liberal Democrat/Conservative/Labour/Green/UKIP/Monster Raving Loony/whatever' is going to more effective than just saying 'don't vote BNP'.
On a final note, I just want to state that I don't regard people who choose not to take part in this campaign as being pro-fascist, objectively or otherwise, and I'd be very disappointed if any supporter of UAF tried to make that allegation - for what it's worth, I think the only potentially pro-fascist blogger I've ever encountered is Adam Yoshida, but the less said about him the better. I've always been very uncomfortable with statements like 'if you're not with us, you're against us' and 'if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem' as, while they're usually well-intentioned, I think they just an attempt to stamp an either/or argument onto a situation which is not necessarily the best way to deal with it. In framing an argument in those terms, you run the risk of alienating those who might potentially support you with reservations and driving them into whatever cause you're trying to oppose. Better, I think, to phrase it as 'if you're not part of the problem, we want you to be part of the solution' or 'if you're not against us, surely you can find some common ground with us?'
Nick got away with this at 4:14 PM
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