BNP tries to lure young recruits with white rock FAR RIGHT: NEW

THE British National Party has launched its own music label, Great White Records, in order to fund, propagandise and recruit for the far-right political movement.

Its releases will feature a logo designed especially to attract young people, and any money raised by the venture will go directly to the BNP.

Anti-racism campaigners said white-power music was the "single number one recruiting tool" for drawing young bigots into the racist movement.

Nick Griffin, the leader of the BNP, said of the project: "People will listen to a song over and over again, and take all the words in, in a way that you would be very lucky to get one in 100 of them to listen to a speech. Music is a very effective way of getting our views across."

David Hannam, managing director of Great White Records, which is based in the Leeds-Halifax area, said: "Any money raised by sales will go directly to the BNP and help them in their election funding and other projects."

He said he hoped the music would be branded taboo because "young people always rebel and, in our opinion, if they are going to rebel, we would like them to do it our way and listen to our music."

Hannam added that he was deliberately targeting children through the label's distinctive Great White Shark logo. He said: "Kids love logos, and the hope is they will go to school with that logo."

Griffin has already been filmed recording in the studios of Great White Records by a documentary team from Scottish Media Group Productions. The team was making a documentary entitled Nazi Hate Rock, to be screened on Channel 5 in February. The controversial programme will be followed by a studio debate on hate crime and freedom of speech.

In the programme, Griffin and his 15-year-old daughter Rhiannon both record tracks for one of Great White Records' first albums, called Dragonfield.

His daughter recorded a folk-style song, written by Griffin, which tells the story of a white man who falls victim to a "racist" attack. At least 13 albums are to be released by Great White Records, together with a full merchandise range. The BNP is expecting a turnover of pounds-100,000 in the first year.

Griffin, who is on trial facing race hate charges, states that no ethnic music such as reggae, bhangra or hip hop will be released by the label. The party claims it has reformed and ditched its violent skinhead image. Griffin now frequently says that the BNP is about "suits not boots".

Whatever the BNP is doing, in the documentary its deputy chairman, Scott McLean, from Glasgow, is shown at a Nazi cross- burning ceremony in Scotland where racist songs are sung, Nazi salutes given and jokes made about Auschwitz.

Also in the film, the infamous Scottish neo-Nazi Steve Cartwright, reveals that British far-right groups are to begin Project Schoolyard in the UK. This will see Nazi activists handing out free copies of white-power music CDs outside the gates of British schools.

Project Schoolyard was started in the US by the white-power record label Panzerfaust, which is named after the anti-tank bazooka used by the Wehrmacht in the second world war.

Devon Burghardt of Turn It Down, a anti-white-power music lobby group in the US, said: "Hate rock is a growing problem. It is the single number one recruiting tool drawing young bigots into the white supremacist movement. It is the single largest money generator for the movement as well.'

Abraham H Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said Project Schoolyard was "repackaging oldfashioned hatred and anti-Semitism".

He added: "Instead of handing out leaflets on street corners, they are creating CDs whose aim is to attract children by at first concealing their real message."

Nazi Hate Rock, made by SMG Productions, will be shown on Five on February 6 at 11pm.

neil. mackay@sundayherald. com Reich 'n' roll: Seven Days

Copyright 2006 SMG Sunday Newspapers Ltd.
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.