Nick Griffin During His Days With The National Front. Note the "White Power" T-Shirt.
Nick Griffin—a member of the British National Party (BNP) and a longtime figure on the racist right—was scheduled to speak at Michigan State University (MSU) on February 18. The talk—booked as part of a brief tour of the United States
that would take Griffin from Lansing to Washington, DC for speaking engagements at colleges and the white supremacist American Renaissance conference (as well as the more mainstream Conservative Political Action Conference)—would have been the second time that Griffin spoke at Michigan State University.
Back in 2007, Nick Griffin spoke at MSU—or rather tried to as his talked was repeatedly disrupted by anti-racist protestors. Griffin’s talk was attended by a various white supremacists active on the online message board Stormfront and who have organized racist events across Michigan. In 2007, Griffin was brought by the student group Young Americans for Freedom (YAF), a group who routinely brought racist speakers over its two-year history.
As was the case with the 2007 talk, this week’s talk was organized by an MSU student organization. This time it was named Sons of Liberty, but it seems to function similarly to YAF. Like YAF, Sons of Liberty advertised for Nick Griffin’s talk on white supremacist websites, with “President and Founder” of the group Jordan Zammit posting press releases about the event on the American Renaissance website.
However, the event was cancelled yesterday after anti-racists across the country successfully organized to cancel speaking engagements at Kenyon College in Ohio and at the American Renaissance conference in DC. In a statement announcing the cancellation, Sons of Liberty president Jordan Zammit wrote:
“The event was cancelled because left-wing agitators caused other organizations to cancel their own events that featured Griffin, and it could not be justified for Griffin to fly to the U.S. to only speak at MSU and at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C.”
It’s proof that confronting racists wherever they try to organize can win results.
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A well intentioned victory against racism may be an unintentional attack on free speech.
“He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.”
-Paine, Thomas
Defending the freedom to organize and speak of somebody whose intentions are potentially genocidal isn’t cool.
It isn’t an attack on free speech when the right to a Neo-Nazi’s so-called “free speech” comes with the fact that allowing them to speak means giving them sanction to threaten people of color and others. Moreover, if they are allowed to enact their program, the BNP would forcibly deport many of the United Kingdom’s residents. That said, I think anything that folks can do to make it impossible for Griffin and his ilk to organizer is great!
To those who disagree with this statement:
“He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.”
-Paine, Thomas
Please see the following documentary about why suppression of free speech is not conducive to a truly free society.
http://www.documentary-film.net/search/watch.php?&ref=237
Anarchists of all people should be aware of the value of being permitted a dissenting voice. If Anarchists are for suppressing free speech, then they have ceased practicing Anarchism and have become nothing more than an oppressive mob muddled in dogmatic group-think. Those individuals have unwittingly and ignorantly adopted an ideology of oppression. Those types of people would be better off adopting one or more of the many obsolete political parties and philosophies that are more agreeable to their frail sensibilities and discriminating tastes.
Unfortunately, even bigoted hateful baseless garbage needs to be permitted a voice. If there is intolerance about us, then we need to lead by example and display tolerance to intolerance. That is not to say we should roll over and accept ignorant bigotry, far from it. It means we as Anarchists need to work harder to educate people on matters and issues of equality, instead of alienating people by denying them their right to speak. We need to work to figure out what drives people toward antisocial beliefs and how to create a society where people do not feel the need to identify with those negative and destructive behaviors.
If our societies are filled with bigoted, psycho/sociopathic individuals, it means that we as a Anarchists need to be more effective in communicating and spreading our values, messages and ideologies. We need to make Anarchy a much more attractive and viable alternative than spreading hate, fear, and oppression through the traditional obsolete systems of hierarchy.