| Hateland -
Articles |
03/06/01 - Election 2001: Election
Hopeful Was In Ku Klux Klan; Operated in the Midlands
Sunday Mercury
BIRMINGHAM'S only National Front candidate was a former
organiser for the Ku Klux Klan, the Sunday Mercury can
reveal today.
Michael Shore, who is contesting the Erdington seat,
was a member of the notorious KKK - one of the world's
most extreme racist organisations - and was its Midland
representative in the late 1980s.
According to anti-fascist magazine Searchlight, the
30-year-old was one of the US-based group's most active
UK members while based in his hometown of Leicester.
Now the National Front party treasurer, whose wife
Lianne is the NF candidate for Bermondsey in South London,
is hoping to gain a foothold in Birmingham in next Thursday's
general election.
Tony Robson, of Searchlight, which monitors right-wing
activity, said: 'Shore was one of the KKK's major players
in the UK when the group first started seriously
recruiting in this country in the late 1980s and early
90s.
'He was the Midland organiser and was very vocal in
his support until the KKK slowly disappeared off the
scene in the mid-1990s.
'That is when he became involved with the National
Front which has always had a large presence in his hometown
of Leicester.'
Founded in 1866, the Ku Klux Klan made its name in
the American Deep South where white hoods and burning
crosses became its chilling trademark.
The shadowy organisation, whose US members have been
responsible for horrific racist attacks including lynchings
and shootings, helped form the British Knights of the
KKK in the late 1980s.
The move coincided with the appearance of a US KKK
leader and convicted child abuser, Allan Beshella, in
south Wales.
At its height the KKK - the words Ku Klux are derived
from the Greek for circle and Klan is a corruption of
Scottish clans - boasted a 1,000-plus membership across
the UK.
The group's trademark burning crosses were even found
in Brownhills in the early 1990s and the group once
held a major meeting in a Birmingham hotel.
Mr Shore last week complained of receiving death threats
after the National Front announced it would be marching
through Erdington - which has a 90 per cent white population.
The rally was cancelled in the wake of the violent
clashes in Oldham.
It was expected the NF activists would be met by about
200 protesters from the Socialist Alliance and Anti-Nazi
League who had organised a counter demonstration along
the route.
The National Front is believed to have fewer than 200
members but is known for its hardline approach to race
which even the right-wing British National Party condemns.
Its hate-fuelled literature attracts the more violent
elements of the Nazi movement, including football hooligans
and Combat 18, with the promise of violent confrontation.
The group has been blamed for sparking the recent race
riots in Oldham after targeting Asian households and
businesses.
In its heyday in 1979, the National Front fielded 300
losing candidates in the general election but this year
is represented in just a handful of seats including
Erdington and Wolverhampton South East.
Its website and publications, called Bulldog and Pitbull,
recently produced pictures and home details of anti-racists.
The Sunday Mercury tried to contact Mr Shore at the
National Front Birmingham office but was greeted by
an answerphone message which began: 'This is the National
Front fighting for rights for whites in Oldham and in
Britain.'
We finally tracked him down to his home in Brookside,
Burbage, Leicestershire - but when confronted, Mr Shore
said we had got the wrong man.
In his manifesto, Mr Shore promises to stop immigration
and says he will introduce a 'programme of repatriation
of foreigners back to their ancestral origins.'
This would be funded by stopping all foreign aid and 'money
being wasted on asylum seekers would be instead be given
to pensioners.' |
| Contact : bernard.omahoney@bernardomahoney.com |
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