The following text was submitted by an ex-BNP activist who has campaigned on the streets of Leeds, including Harehills, for many years. It gives a good overview of the changes that have taken place there over the past few decades and a brief history of recent racial Nationalist activity in Harehills. For a number of years now he has been an active member of the British Movement.
I grew up in Leeds, probably less than a mile from the hell hole that is today’s Harehills. Many of my childhood friends lived in the back-to-back houses that made up the majority of the available social housing. Street after street of them, running from Compton Road to Roundhay Road. I still drive through these same streets a couple of times every week.
In the late sixties and early seventies, the ‘Harehills Skins’ were notorious for their brawls with another local gang of skinheads, the ‘Ebor Skins’. The Ebor Skins were lads who all lived on the nearby Ebor Gardens council estate. Many of these lads ended up in racial Nationalist groups, including Eddie Morrison’s NDFM and the NF. Such was the support in that part of Leeds that The Ebor public house became, for a couple of years at least, the defacto ‘sturmlokale’ of the National Front in Leeds.
Asians from Pakistan and Bangladesh had begun to move into the area in the 1960s, but were mainly found lower down Harehills Lane, towards Roundhay Road, and away from the scene of the latest riots. Harehills was known as an Asian area, while most West Indians lived in Chapeltown.
In the latter part of the 1970s, (1977–78, I believe), the National Front used to sell its newspaper opposite the library on Harehills Lane, which ironically, is just around the corner from where the foreign mob set fire to the bus. Apart from the occasional minor abuse, the paper sellers never had any trouble. I couldn’t imagine any Nationalist organisation being able to do that today without serious consequences.
In those days, the NF used to put up a full slate of candidates in the local elections (33, I believe). Fast forward to what has been dubbed the ‘noughties’ and the dominant organisation was the BNP. I vividly remember leafleting those same streets in roughly 2008-2009 for the BNP candidate (I think it may have been Mark Collett).
Those same streets were heavily enriched, and as such any Nationalist activity would soon attract the wrong sort of attention. It was decided that the activists would leaflet one street and then jump into a waiting minibus, which would then drive to the next street.
To avoid any chance of confrontation, the minibus would jump a street each time, so staying ahead of the enraged locals. The activity lasted less than an hour and was the quickest leafleting session I have ever taken part in. It is not hard to imagine what was happening in the streets that had just received those leaflets!
When the BNP membership list was leaked and published online, one local member, who lived in a bedsit in the middle of Harehills, was attacked by a deranged Rasta neighbour. The lad in question was a working class bloke who was down on his luck. Thank you, Mr. Assange.
Today, Harehills and Gipton have a White population of less than 36 percent, according to the 2021 census. After the events of last Thursday, I think it is fair to say that the police cannot be relied upon to protect the indigenous residents any longer.
A Women With More Balls Than West Yorkshire Police
West Yorkshire Police came under mounting criticism after arresting a woman who allegedly spoke out against the riots that occurred in Harehills, last Thursday.
The British woman was arrested for saying, “This is my country, not theirs. Why aren’t you doing anything about it?” to the police in Harehills. During the rioting, the police withdrew from the area, leaving local businesses and residents at the mercy of the mob.
She was released and given a conditional caution.
Credits:
Top Image: Back Harehills Close, 1981. Facebook.
Video: X (Twitter).
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