Anti-fascist press statement

unpublished

WHITE SUPREMACIST TO SPEAK AT MSU FRIDAY
UM Student Group Alarmed by Hate Speech Promoter’s Invitation

ANN ARBOR, MI – A leading hate figure in Great Britain is invited to speak at Michigan State University. British National Party (BNP) head Nick Griffin will speak at MSU at an event hosted by the student group Young Americans for Freedom, which claims to be a Conservative group, this Friday.

Students Allied for Freedom and Equality are shocked that such a speaker – one heavily protested by anti-fascist groups in Europe – would receive an invitation to speak in this state.

The British National Party is a succession group of the National Front, a fascist group infamous for inciting riots, hatred, and promoting institutionalized racism against all non-whites in Great Britain. Griffin, the current head of the BNP, has a deplorable history of hatred against immigrants in Great Britain.

Andrew Dalack, SAFE’s co-chair, said “the BNP stands in opposition to the values in the fabric of our society. It is xenophobic, explicitly racist, homophobic, and anti-Semitic.”

The BBC describes Griffin as such: “He has a controversial past, which includes a 1998 conviction for incitement to racial hatred for material denying the Holocaust.”

Griffin and his party are quite clear about pushing the vision of Great Britain as a country for straight whites. They propose paying large grants to immigrants to leave Great Britain. They also want to deny many asylum-seekers from seeking refuge there despite the clearly humanitarian necessity.