English Defence League riot in Leicester: community fights back
This following report on the anti-EDL demo in Leicester is taken from the Alliance for Workers Liberty website. Although Liverpool Antifascists agrees broadly with the analysis presented, of course the views of the AWL do not necessarily represent the views of LiverAF.
The English Defence League protest on 9 October in Leicester showed yet again that they are a violent racist force whose protests and demonstrations cannot be ignored but need to be physically opposed and if possible prevented by mass mobilisations.
Whilst the bulk of nearly 1,000 EDLers were bussed from their congregation point in four local pubs to their static protest in Humberstone Gate, organised gangs of their supporters wandered across the town provoking confrontation with Asian youths. There must have been at least fifty thugs carrying out such provocations around the town with a great many attacks on Muslim and Asian people. Some at least of which were physically answered by groups of black and Asian youth.
The official counter protest called by the UAF was a minor and embarrassing sideshow of probably no more than 300. The UAF on the day were not only bad with their event they were even worse with their propaganda. The leaflet they gave out on the day even explicitly counselled Asian youth to refrain from engaging in physical confrontation and therefore even self-defence from the EDL: “Sections of the press and TV as well as some of the police … believe that the anti-racists and young people of this city will react to the EDL and cause trouble. Today we must prove them wrong”! (‘Leicester Unite Against Fascism – Safety Guidelines’ leaflet).
Meanwhile probably about 2,500 other anti-racists were out on the streets opposing the EDL. The vast majority of these were Muslim and other black and Asian people in the Highfields district of the town. The rest from a great many uncoordinated socialist and anarchist groups without any central organisation. The lesson learnt by these groups, and not just the non-UAF organised left, is that the kettled carnivals held by the UAF are no answer to the racist thugs of the EDL.
A number of the anti-EDL groups acting independently from the UAF were able to respond in kind to the EDL attacks. But the racist intimidation and violence of the EDL was very real and very frightening to many Asians in town, or moving around town, on their daily business. Such organised racist intimidation cannot be continually allowed to happen.
The most aggressive of the EDL’s attacks occurred at the end of their static protest as they were being directed to their coaches to leave the town. At that point abysmal policing allowed something like 300 EDLers to push through their lines and chase local Asian youths and other anti-fascists.
For 10 minutes there was chaos as EDLers spread across the wide inner-ring road and attacked cars and people on the ring-road who were Asians.
Fortunately they had no plan and no idea where they were going. Nevertheless a proportion of them did make their way 600 yards towards the strongly Muslim area of Highfields. After 10 minutes of police chaos, whilst some Asians defended themselves and the area from the EDL, the police eventually were able to regain some control over the EDL breakaway.
Had the EDL made their way further up into Highfields they would not have fared well. The local people in Highfields had been out on their streets all day in several hundreds. But as news spread of the continuing attacks in town by the EDL and especially their break-out at the end of their protest, people poured out of their houses and the number of anti-racists on the streets of Highfields grew to about 2,000. The main organising force was undoubtedly religious groupings around the Mosque. The prominent one probably being the Muslim Defence League which had contingents mobilised across the region.
It was admirable that the local Muslim population were prepared to ignore the advice of both Hope not Hate and UAF not to defend themselves on the streets against the EDL. It is regrettable that the only people to join them were small number of activists mainly from the Stop Racism and Fascism network and the very recently formed and still small Leicester United Against Racism campaign.
With the weak public visibility of these campaigns, reports as usual have attributed the activities of physical self-defence to the UAF. But in Highfields they were even less visible than they had been in Bradford when the EDL were similarly physically confronted.
The working class movement has to recognise the futility of the advice given them by the both Hope not Hate and the UAF. The violent racism of the EDL will not be stopped by the police. It will not be stopped by prayers or multi-racial carnivals, either before and after the EDL protest as promoted by the Hope not Hate campaign or on the same day as organised by the UAF.
The EDL will not be given publicity by anti-racists mobilising directly against them. They have enough publicity as a result of the police action. They do not gain support because they seem harmless racists; they gain support because they are a focal point for racism and violence. They get publicity by ‘kicking their way into the headlines’.
The EDL will be stopped by anti-racists of all races and ethnic backgrounds, who are not embarrassed as identifying themselves as a working class force, taking to the streets. Not merely defending the Muslim areas but stopping the EDL from sending their racist gangs across the area as was so successfully done in Bradford. But that takes organisation and engaging and refuting the nonsensical arguments raised by Hope not Hate and UAF. It means building accountable local campaigns of working class anti-racists before they appear in your town. Importantly, it means building those campaigns even more energetically and widely when they threaten to march.
It means connecting up with the Stop Racism and Fascism Network which is attempting to do that along with the Scottish Anti-Fascist Alliance.
Violence flares at English Defence League protest in Leicester
Officers wearing riot gear and dog handlers worked to keep a crowd of EDL supporters under control as bricks and coins were thrown at police. The EDL held a static demonstration and Unite Against Fascism (UAF) staged a counter-protest in the Humberstone Gate East area of the city.
At least 1,400 officers were drafted in from 12 other forces to deal with the demonstrations, the city’s largest policing operation in 25 years.
EDL supporters arrived from across the country in coaches throughout the morning. They were permitted to gather ahead of the protests in Hotel Street, Leicester, with police monitoring the groups in four different pubs.
With many wearing EDL branded hoodies and carrying banners, they met in and around the pubs, monitored by officers and police evidence gatherers. Some chanted ”EDL, EDL” while others carried banners reading slogans including “Sharia laws will destroy Britain and all our British values”.
Before the protests started, police said one person was arrested for drugs offences and another three people were also arrested.
Earlier this week, Theresa May, the Home Secretary, authorised a blanket ban on marches in Leicester, but the groups were still permitted to hold static demonstrations in Humberstone Gate East in the city from 2pm to 3.30pm. The area was shut down by police today, with rival groups placed either side of metal barriers.
Much of the city centre appeared quiet and some shops were boarded up near to the protest site.
Police were using Section 14 of the Public Order Act which meant officers could take action against anyone who protests outside that place and time. They were also using stop and search powers, and were supported by the dog unit, mounted unit and East Midlands Air Support Unit.
At one point a policeman was put into a buggy-style ambulance on a stretcher. Some EDL protesters were also treated by police medics, it is unclear what their injuries were.
Police said around 1,000 EDL supporters had turned up and approximately 700 UAF demonstrators.
Originally published in the Daily Telegraph
Neo-Nazis booted from the Swan
Today (October 9th) members of Liverpool Antifascists were in town scouting to ensure that the BNP didn’t show their faces again.
We gave out leaflets to a broadly receptive public. Both on Church Street and on the James Larkin trade union march that took place in the middle of the day, we recieved a warm reception and several people expressed an interest in getting involved.
After a succesful day, a couple of antifascists retired to the Swan pub for a pint. Imagine our surprise when we bumped into neo-Nazi scumbags Liam Pinkham and Karl McKeown.
Pinkham, for those who don’t know, threatened to burn down News From Nowhere to the women who run it as a co-op. And his fingerprints were on the letter delivered to trade union leader Alec McFadden, threatening to rape his kids. Big man.
Liam Pinkham, as pictured on a dating website
One of the lads, whose previous encounters with Pinkham have led him to have little patience with the mini goon, got in the Nazi’s face during a very visible and vocal confrontation. Pinkham was visibly shaken and could only respond by whining that “there’s six of you and only two of us.”
A female member of the bar staff, not knowing what was going on and fearing violence, asked the antifascists who had confronted the fascists to leave, which they did with apologies for any distress caused. Their issue was with the two racists and not with the bar or its staff.
Some antifascists who hadn’t been part of the confrontation report that their opponents’ exit didn’t assuage the neo-Nazis, however. “Their arse had dropped,” in the words of one, and they immediately reached for their phones. Having no credit, they had to go for the bar phone, but this too wasn’t working. They were eventually reduced to begging to use somebody in the pup’s phone so that they could call a taxi and make a hasty exit.
Karl McKeown
Meanwhile, members of Liverpool Antifascists had been able to talk to the bar manager and explain what had been going on. He was quick to assert that the far right were not welcome in the pub, and that his staff had intervened only to avoid trouble in the establishment. LiverAF agreed with this, offering that things only got so heated given first-hand knowledge of Pinkham’s despicable record.
With the misunderstanding cleared up, and the fascists sent packing back to Birkenhead, those who had left following the confrontation were allowed to re-enter with the good graces of management. They reasserted that Pinkham and McKeown would not be allowed in again, and that the Swan was no place for racists and fascists.
Liverpool Antifascists and our comrades from Manchester thus toasted a productive day with several pints.
Liverpool, and especially long-standing working class venues such as the Swan, is no place for Nazis – no matter how small and cowardly they may be!
On Liverpool BNP’s response to last Saturday’s events
The Liverpool branch of the BNP have taken their time offering a write-up of their being run out of town on Saturday. They have obviously taken their time putting just the right spin on events to serve their purposes … and still come up with semi-coherent garbage.
The new Liverpool BNP blog is far better presented than the Merseyside BNP one now controlled by the party’s dissident “reformer” faction. But it is still a mess, not least because whoever writes it often forgets how to use hyperlinks and the text becomes clunky as you try to wade through web addresses thrown, seemingly at random, into the middle of sentences and paragraphs. If their aim is readability, they’re self-sabotaging.
But anyway, returning to the main point, they begin with what is now a common refrain;
My companions and I are members of a legal, democratic political party and in our opinion the only alternative to global politics and world domination. Our Leader and local MEP Mr Nick Griffin has a mandate from nearly a million to serve the people of Merseyside and the North West. In fact it has just been announced Nick is the 2nd best performing MEP. Of course this to us is common knowledge but, of course media bias avoided this!
http://www.nickgriffinmep.eu/content/nick-second-best-performing-north-west-mep
It goes almost without saying that nobody has ever claimed that the BNP are “illegal,” since to qualify as such you have to be proscribed by the Home Secretary. And if they want to believe that the BNP is the only viable alternative to the status quo, that’s up to them – though I and many others beg to differ.
But the idea that they are “democratic” needs to be challenged. The recent farce of their leadership challenge demonstrated just what a dictatorial stranglehold Nick Griffin has on power in the BNP. Though I’m no fan of them either, the Labour Party had an open and fair leadership election, and many of the failed contenders will now be part of Ed Miliband’s shadow cabinet.
Not so the BNP. Those who supported Eddy Butler have been suspended or expelled. The other challenger, Richard Barnbrook, has been booted. High-profile critics of Griffin – such as Lee Barnes – have jumped ship. And Griffin’s personality cult has been cleansed of “spies,” “homosexuals,” and “cranks.”
As for Griffin’s “mandate” to represent Liverpool – it was only that the vote was across the entire North West that he scraped in. Those million votes didn’t come from this city.
I pointed this out at the time of his “victory;”
In the North West, the increase in BNP support was marginal. They barely upped their share of the vote to 7.96%, just ahead of the Greens’ 7.63%. In Liverpool, meanwhile, the locale of the defining moments in their North West campaign – from the arrest of 12 activists for inciting racial hatred in distributing the Racism Cuts Both Ways leaflets to prominent Merseyside BNP members Peter Tierney and Steve Greenhalgh’s vicious assault on local anti-fascists – they polled at just 6.4%.
Moreover, “an incredibly low overall turnout, contrasted with the generally high turnout the BNP pushes for amongst its supporters, suggests that 6% may be an overestimation of BNP support in the city.”
The events of this Saturday, and the similar occurrence a fortnight before that, bear this point out.
But the BNP, as you might expect, tell that differently too. The fact that “the general public are in full support of this campaign and most flock to sign our petition” can be boiled down to the fact that the public – including antifascists – are overwhelmingly anti-war.
But whilst those on the left try to do something about it, from enormous marches and support of deserters to direct action such as that of the EDO decommissioners, the BNP use the issue to hide their politics.
To labour the point, the “petition” they’re touting is not a petition at all. As Griffin admits on the BNP website, it is part of a recruitment campaign, and those who sign up will only succeed in lining themselves up for his begging letters and BNP postal votes. Not to mention that, per their election manifesto, they would happily still leave “our boys” to die in that war if they felt it “in the national interest.”
But I often wonder whether the BNP activists involved in this are deliberately masking the truth or if they are utterly delusional.
They consider the chants of antifascists to be “government induced.” And, despite the disproportionate arrest and harassment of antifascists and youth, their post rails against “the (left-wing, common-purpose ordained) Police,” “the baying ‘Sponsored Anarchist’ crowd,” and “the obvious ‘State protected’ confidence, which has been bestowed on these Anarchists.” [sic, ad infinitum]
Hyperbole and excessive use of randomly-aligned adverbs aside, this betrays the cultish, barnpot mentality of those deepest in the mire of the far-right.
For them, there are only two sides: themselves, and the student-liberal-hippy-ethnic-politically-correct-common-purpose-communist-Marxist-anarchist-unwashed-left. Who are, naturally, all sponsored by the state. And “middle class” – despite being “unwashed.”
Liverpool BNP tried to articulate this reasoning in “Meditations on a Lefty Mob “Demo”“[sic];
all the UAF and Socialist librarian gimps had concentrated at the Echo Arena to perform a demo for the public and Media against the ConDem ‘Government’ in No. 10. However, on hearing that the nefarious BNP had the audacity to hold a Day of Action in Liverpool Town Centre Comrade McFadden hastened into the town centre. Surely enough there was the BNP! How dare they confront this glorious regime! http://www.stopcp.com/index.php Comrade McFadden was on the phone immediately.
…
Now whilst most ordinary folk seem to agree with the sentiment ‘Bring Our Boys Home’ the elite had other ideas and by mid morning Comrade McFadden had arrived and was on the phone to his government rent-a-mob. … Then lo and behold The Government cash funded UAF and Socialist Workers Party and a few of the old Hatton Militant hard-liners abandoned the [Liberal Democrat] Party Conference to perform a merry dance around the BNP table top instead!!! Thus exposing the public to a performance of what it really is-a Thespian parade for the controlled Tabloids and Media.
So, because left-wing activists had abandoned a protest against the Liberal Democrats to protest the BNP, we are all of course in the pay of David Cameron and Nick Clegg. And protesting against them as a show for the media.
In reality, the “demo” was actually a small gathering aimed at lobbying attendees of the conference, attended by 20-ish people. The main march and protest was the next day and attended by a throng of several thousand people. But the idea that somebody can oppose both the present government and a fascist party such as the BNP is apparently really far-fetched. Or something.
Likewise, it would seem that opposing the BNP makes you no longer a local to anywhere they happen to be. Unless you’re a member of an ethnic minority.
According to the wisdom of the BNP;
only about 5% of them are actually from Liverpool, and that 5% are ethnics. The rest are students from outside so they can by no means speak on behalf of the people of Liverpool!
Except that I am a white, working class person who holds a full-time job, was born in Liverpool and has lived here all his life, and I was amongst the crowd opposing the BNP. Unless I and my fellow white, working class, antifascist Scousers imagined the whole thing, of course.
I’d also point out that, as an anarchist, I was no doubt in a minority amongst the antifascist crowd. But it would no doubt fall on deaf and wilfully ignorant ears.
I’m not going to Fisk the entire article, because I have better things to do with my time. But it should be pointed out that there were no “indiscriminate[?] members of the public standing in the crowd observing this situation and then fearlessly challenging this mob’s week[sic] argument.”
The BNP themselves would only get in the faces of kids, whilst members of Liverpool Antifascists would engage with passers-by and could hold our own in debate easily enough. Far from “watch[ing] the agitators shrivel when confronted with common sense debate,” all the BNP could do was shout “fuck off” and call us “paedophiles.”
Likewise, when “one of the protesters was caught by one of our group, and by the Police, vandalising our equipment,” it was actually a young lad who hooked his mp3 player up to their loud-hailer so that it played rap! Whether it should be classed as “vandalism” or music is entirely subjective, I guess.
Thus, the writer of this pathetic diatribe may “honestly believe the UAF are above the law and they know it,” but I wouldn’t take his word for it since I doubt his grip on reality.
He rounds of his semi-coherent rant thus;
Is this the price we pay for being a Patriot in Britain today? The true concept of ‘democracy’ has been lost. Anyone who supports an opinion different from the Government/State is demonised. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dx2YLFyp43Q&feature=player_embedded The media have aided the Government in the sanctioning of attacks on Nationalists/Patriots. There is and has always been a media bias against Nationalistic endeavours. http://www.nuj.org.uk/innerPagenuj.html?docid=1253
We are now, no-longer safe in our own land. Am I frightened? Yes, I am terrified for our Country’s future but I am awake and I cannot turn away from what is happening to my beautiful Land.
This ‘politically–correct’ Regime, is empowering alien cultures, at the expense of our’s. Are we not the Host-Nation ?
My Grandfather went to War for this Land and my Great Grandfather was in the trenches. I cannot stand by and let Traitors and fiends deliver this Land into the hands of foreigners. I will not apologise to Blacks for my Great British History. If I am to be condemned for loving my own culture, so be it! And if you want to call me names for trying to stop MY People becoming second class citizens in our own country, feel free. I don’t care.
In MY heart I am a Patriot-British till the end. The blood of the ethnic English runs through my veins. Onwards and upwards!
Well, he may be right about a couple of things. But the manifestation of the state demonising dissidents, i.e. left-wing activists being filmed, photographed, and documented as “domestic extremists,” is utterly at odds with his view of us being “above the law.”
If the BNP wants to think of us as “government-sponsored” and “traitors,” that’s their call. But the evidence doesn’t bear it out.
We’re not asking them to “apologise to Blacks for my Great British History,” or “condemn[ing them] for loving [their] own culture.” We’re challenging their advancement of a fascist ideology rooted in bigotry and political violence.
The Extremist Defence League
Tommy Robinson (Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) with Alan Spence-(Inset) Spence with BNP leader Nick Griffin
The English Defence League likes to parrot its worn out mantra, “We are not the BNP and we are not nazis”, over and over again. Simon Cressy takes a closer look and finds a different story.Is the EDL racist? People have asked the question since the inception of the EDL back in summer 2009. The EDL itself says on its website: “Some organisations and media reports have branded the EDL as ‘racist’, ‘fascist’, ‘far-right’, or even ‘Zionist’. All of these accusations are flat out untrue. We take an actively anti-racist and anti-fascist stance.”
As always the EDL is being economical with the truth. There can be no argument over the EDL’s racism as the organisation is full to the brim with known BNP members together with a number of hardcore nazis, who are using the EDL as a vehicle to further their vehement xenophobia.
Despite being proscribed by Nick Griffin, the British National Party leader, BNP activists regularly attend EDL events.
The EDL leader parades around as Tommy Robinson and hid his identity behind a mask for over a year until Searchlight uncovered the fact that he is a former BNP member called Stephen Yaxley-Lennon who has served 12 months’ imprisonment for assaulting an off-duty police officer.
Robinson’s cousin Kevin Carroll is considered to be one of the founding fathers of the EDL. In July he lost his appeal against his conviction for shouting abuse at Islamic protesters at the Luton homecoming parade for the Royal Anglian Regiment. It was the events in Luton in March 2009 that prompted the EDL’s formation.
He insists he is not racist, yet he revealed in a BBC documentary, Young, British and Angry, that he had signed the nomination papers in the 2007 Luton council elections for Robert Sherratt, a BNP candidate and activist in the tiny nazi November 9th Society. Carroll apparently was very keen to stand as a BNP candidate himself but was prevented by his partner’s intervention.
Other founding members of the EDL are also known to have been BNP members and activists.
Davy Cooling from Daventry and Chris Renton of Weston-super-Mare were fully paid up members of the BNP, with Renton described as an “activist”.
One face seen at most EDL events is Alan Spence from Newcastle upon Tyne. Spence is pretty much now the EDL organiser in Newcastle, but in May 2010 he stood as the BNP parliamentary candidate in Newcastle East where he received 3.5% of the vote. He also contested Kenton ward on Newcastle City Council, where he finished in last place with 7.3%.
Spence, who is a BNP gold member and has only recently deleted swastikas and Combat 18 images from his Facebook page, has appeared in photographs with both his spiritual leaders, Griffin and Robinson.
Often accompanying Spence to EDL events is his son Steven who also sought election to Newcastle City Council in May as the BNP candidate in Fawdon ward.
Rob Purcell
Another regular at EDL protests is Rob Purcell, the former Birmingham BNP organiser. Purcell, who hides his identity on Facebook by using the moniker “Rob Jones”, joined the BNP in 1997 and has stood in local, parliamentary and European elections. He makes a tidy living selling BNP and EDL tat on Ebay using the strange nickname “Brit Pancake”.Stuart Bates and Michael Fritz have attended various EDL demonstrations. Both are from Birmingham but that is not all they have in common, as they are both trusted members of the BNP West Midlands security team. In fact Bates is so highly regarded that he was drafted in to provide security for Griffin at the BBC Question Time fiasco and at his High Court appearance last month.
It seems the BNP security team has a penchant for the EDL as Jock Shearer, a convicted drug dealer and BNP bodyguard, appeared at last month’s 9/11 “flash” protest by the EDL in Oldham.
Dave Bradley, a BNP activist from Blackburn who turned up at the High Court to support Griffin, is also regular EDL participant. He is known to be close to the Blackburn EDL leader Shane Calvert.
Charlie Baillie and Max Dunbar, both seen with the EDL in Bradford on 28 August, were Scottish BNP candidates in the 2009 European election.
Also at Bradford was the former Wakefield BNP organiser John Aveyard, who was recently released from prison after being convicted of assaulting his girlfriend. On Aveyard’s coat tails was another BNP candidate from Wakefield, Grant Rowe.
Other BNP candidates who have taken part in EDL protests include Karen Otty from Liverpool, the Rotherham BNP organiser Marlene Guest and Sion Owens, the Swansea BNP organiser. Owens was photographed at the Swansea Welsh Defence League demonstration with a group of well known hardcore nazis including Wayne Baldwin, an EDL regular. Baldwin, a convicted criminal, is an unabashed nazi who has the obligatory swastika tattoo on his chest and has been photographed posing in front of a swastika flag.
Two other nazis who have attended EDL events are now languishing in jail. Trevor Hannington and Mike Heaton were both convicted in June. Members of the shadowy nazi Aryan Strike Force, they were jailed for posting violent and vicious racist messages on the internet.
Heaton, of Leigh, Greater Manchester, and Hannington, from Cardiff, described Jews as “scum” and called for them to be “destroyed”. Heaton was found guilty of stirring up racial hatred and jailed for 30 months. Hannington pleaded guilty to the same charge and other offences and was imprisoned for two years.
The EDL might like to think it is not racist, but the proof is in the pudding. As the BNP implodes many of its activists are finding a new home in the EDL.
Leon McCreery
The English Defence League’s head steward comes from a notorious UDA family in East Belfast.
Leon McCreery, who now lives in Stockport, is the nephew of the former Manchester United and Northern Ireland footballer David McCreery.
His father, Leonard McCreery, is a convicted UDA thug who served 11 years in prison for the attempted murder of Geordie Legge, a leading member of the paramilitary UDA and the Ulster Freedom Fighters, in 1997. Legge sus-tained knife wounds to the heart and twice died on the way to hospital but was revived by paramedics in the ambulance.
Leonard McCreery believed Legge was responsible for the murder of his brother Ned five years earlier. Ned McCreery was an East Belfast UDA brigadier who met a bloody end when he was murdered by the UFF after they labelled him a police agent.
Leon McCreery, now 28, fled Belfast in 1999 with his mother, brother and sister after he was attacked and slashed in the face by rival loyalists. He required 63 stitches and 17 staples for head and body wounds. In 2004 he was awarded £25,000 compensation.
Despite all this Leon McCreery still displays pro-UDA sentiments on his Facebook page.
From Kirklees Unity Monday, 4 October 2010. Originally published by Hope Not Hate.
BNP takes hate message to Larne with fake picture
The BNP has taken its race hate message to Larne.
Skinhead members of Nick Griffin’s far-right party spent the last week leafleting homes in the Co Antrim seaside town.
They put scaremongering mail through doors warning about a new asylum seeker centre which is being built in Larne.
The BNP news-sheet includes a fake picture of two Muslim women dressed in burkas walking down the Glenarm Road.
The leaflet states: “The good folk of Larne do not want their town being used as a dumping |ground, holding centre, or whatever name the liberal elite wish to call it.
“No matter how much sugar coating is applied to this foul tasting proposal, the Ulster BNP…will not have the wool pulled over their eyes.”
But what the BNP leaflet does not say is that the asylum centre is being built inside the local PSNI station.
The 25 immigrants held there ahead of deportation will not be able to leave the complex.
They will not be allowed enter the town and will be shielded from public view.
Larne Mayor Bobby McKee accused the BNP of whipping up racial tension.
He said: “I wouldn’t give these BNP people the time of day.
They held a protest at a council meeting at the beginning of September and only 10 people showed up. They have no support.”
Bobby explained that the majority of refugees who will be held at the new detention centre will be children.
“They will be held within the grounds of the PSNI station before being deported. It’s not like they will be running the streets,” he added. “Instead of moaning the BNP should recognise the contribution refugees have made to society.
“They come to Northern Ireland and gladly do the jobs no-one else will do.
“You’ve got to give them credit for that, they are only trying to escape poverty.”
The BNP Larne leaflet drop was the brainchild of its new Northern Ireland organiser Steve Moore — who was born in the town. On the BNP’s website, Moore said: “Local people are horrified by this news that their town has been earmarked as a dumping ground for illegal immigrants and bogus asylum seekers.
“We have seen that it is almost impossible to deport anyone from our country because of the insane Human Rights Act. Larne will undoubtedly become home to these economic migrants.”
By Ciaran Barnes. Originally published in the Belfast Telegraph Tuesday, 5 October 2010
Editorial note. Larne is, or was when I was last there about thirty years ago, quite possibly the most fiercely loyalist town in Northern Ireland. If the BNP cannot gain a foothold there, and earn the condemnation of the town’s mayor, they may as well give up. There is absolutely no hope for them.
Fascist BNP run out of town by the people of Liverpool
Yesterday (2nd October), members of the British National Party who tried to hold a stall to promote their fascist agenda in Liverpool City Centre were met with angry protests by local people and quite literally ran out of town.
Two weeks ago, when the BNP tried to hold a stall in the City Centre, they were met with massive, spontaneous resistance. As a result, last week they retreated to their stronghold in Huyton, but today they tried once again to claim the streets of Liverpool for the far-right. What a mistake that was.
As two weeks before, phone calls and text messages saw local antifascists mobilise in opposition. And once again, their ranks were swelled by great swathes of the public, particularly young people.
By one o’clock, there was a large, noisy protest under way, held back from the fascists only by a police presence.
The BNP responded by telling people to “fuck off you Irish bastard,” screaming “commie” and calling protesters “paedophiles,” including a Trade Union official. They also gave out racist abuse to black and Asian people who objected to their presence.
Police didn’t respond to complaints that they were breaking the law with their abusive behavior and language, and instead decided to start arresting people protesting against the BNP on the most spurious grounds!
The number of protesters steadily increased, with locals screaming, shouting, and singing at the increasingly agitated fash. It was only the presence of the police which allowed them to stand their ground, but their recruitment efforts were stopped and the day turned into a war of attrition.
Whilst chants rose up, activists from Liverpool Antifascists gave out several thousand leaflets to largely receptive passers-by.Some people did angrily reject the leaflets – only to come back and apologies when they realised we weren’t BNP! We also received genuine thanks from people for the work we were doing. Scores of people also passed on contact details and expressed an interest in joining the fight against fascism in Liverpool.
Where this event differed from a fortnight ago was that people, predominantly younger, returned with their mates to laugh and have a go at the BNP. It was a scene to remember as the fash were completely surrounded by good, decent Liverpool people, venting their anger and outrage that these scumbags had dared to appear in our City Centre.
Liverpool is a genuinely multicultural city. Our population come from a wide variety of mixed backgrounds, and make up one of the friendliest and welcoming cities in the world. Here, the colour of your skin and where you come from doesn’t mean squat, and the BNP’s attempts to stir the mire are not welcome here.
The day became the centre of attention for shoppers and visitors to our city. Many people from different countries, Spain, Norway, Sweden, China, the US, France, stopped for a chat and took our leaflets. They congratulated us for our efforts and agreed that these scumbags belonged to history. The only reason that the fascists were able operate was due to the heavy police presence. When I say “operate,” I mean to stand there and look stupid. They managed to do this very well.
Once again, a number of people who knew BNP activist and former Quiggins owner Peter Tierney from old raised questions about his sanity. Rumours are circulating about his mental health and the idea that he joined the far-right following a breakdown. He did little to dispel this wwhen he took to marching up and down, ringing a bell, and grinning maniacally at the antifascist crowd.
By 5 o’clock the crowd of people objecting to the BNP’s presence on our streets had grown even larger. Masses of younger people of all colours joined the demo, many getting in the face of the fascists who had turned up on our streets in an attempt to divide us.
Their activists responded by squaring up to teenagers and youngsters. Andrew Tierney at one point broke ranks to chase a young girl, only to be physically restrained. One fascist shoved a man holding his young daughter in has arms. And Jamie Luby was seen telling the same young girl to find him in O’Neills if she wanted to fight him.
Andrew Tierney: antifascists are "now fair game."
But the threats didn’t work on local people. Even children, some no older than eleven, stood up to the thugs. At one point, they jumped on a raised podium to block Andrew Tierney’s view of the girl he had been shouting at when he tried to take a picture of her.
As dusk approached, there were a couple of explosions close to the BNP. One exploded on the BNP’s stall table, collapsing it. Another exploded within the ranks of antifascists. The result was to make a number of protesters move away from the demo. there were many older people proteting against the BNP as were a number of people with young children; explosions in a closed area were therefore at best unwise.
Whatever the motives, Liverpool Antifascists cannot condone the act. We have found great success by educating people as to what the BNP are and only advocate the use of force in self-defence. Fortunately, nobody was seriously injured. Peter Tierney hurt his foot, though given his previous violence against antifascists, we don’t have much sympathy.
The thrower of the fireworks, a silly and incendiary act, was not identified.
By this stage the BNP were looking decidedly ruffled. Having given up on their attempts to recruit people, they resorted to their usual tactics of trying to intimidate people with clenched fists and abuse. Most telling was Andrew Tierney’s threat that – because an unknown individual had thrown fireworks – everyone who opposed the BNP was now “fair game.” Organiser Mike Whitby also promised that when they took pictures of those opposing the BNP, they would end up “on a site far worse than Redwatch.”
This shows that the BNP have far from outgrown their violent roots, and that they are still more than willing to intimidate and attack opponents. As Peter Tierney, of course, showed us when he picked up that camera tripod. But today it didn’t work. It was clear to everyone present, and people passing by, that the BNP are not welcome in Liverpool.
The grand finale came when the fascists decided that they’d taken enough abuse for one day and started getting their stuff together. It was like something out of a television drama.
Mike Whitby: pictures of anti-BNP protesters "will end up on a site worse than Redwatch."
They complained to the police about the behavouir of the protesters, but the BNP were the target for derision by respectable people for very good reason. The fascists had to rely on police protection to save them from the wrath of local people. Many of the police present were not comfortable with the job of protecting fascist scumbags, but nobody forced them to join the police. Any sympathy for them in this situation had been eroded by the arests of anti-fascists on the flimsiest of pretences, whilst abuse by the BNP was always conveniently overlooked.
The day finished off with a spectacle that will live forever.
Having got together their bits n’ bobs (and the £3.46 that they’d managed for their full days campaigning), the BNP were allowed to bring cars into Church Street. A line of police blocked them from the opposition as they got in, still mouthing off and offering threats.
Under heavy police escort, they managed to edge their way foward behind a convoy of police vehicles. But an enormous crowd, now well over two of hundred strong, surrounded this sorry spectacle, hurling abuse at the huddled group of fascists hiding behind their police minders. They were chased up Church and Lord Street in a scene reminiscent of the old westerns. The fascists were literally ran outta town.
‘Don’t come back soon’ was the message. Liverpool is a fascist free zone and its people intend to keep it that way.
¡No Pasarán!
Public started to gather, attracting more anti support. Come 1. 00 clock large, niosy protest under way, police presence. As the day progressed more liveraf supporters arrived distributing leaflets and talking to public, encouraging people to stick around, which they did. BNP getting isolated and recieving abuse of gen public. They responded by telling people to’fuck off you Irish bastard’, screaming ‘commie’ and calling protesters peadophiles, including a TU official. Curiously, the police refused to intervene when clearly the bnp ‘master race’ were clearly breaking the law with these allegations. A complaint will be going into Mside police about this. The bnp were also giving out racist abuse to black + Asian people who objected to their presence. Police didn’t respond to complaints that they were breaking the law with their abusive behavior and language and unfortunately decided to start arresting people protesting against the bnp on spurious grounds. No’s of protesters increased, mostly gen public screaming abuse at fash who became increasingly agitated. Needless to say, their aim of recruitment now becoming a battle of attrition, only being able to stand their ground due to heavy police protection; the BNP ‘s attempt at respectability failing abysmally. Liveraf supporters and other anti fash distributed some 3000 ‘liveraf’ leaflets to the gen publc, mostly well recieved. About one in a hundred made adverse comments and refused our leaflet but I can live with that considering most people gladly took them and shook our hands and made very positive comments. Scores of people signed up for Liveraf to oppose fascism in our City.
The difference about this event was that people, predominantly younger, returned with their mates to laugh and have a go at the bnp. It became a scene never to be forgotten as the fash were completely surrounded by good, decent Lpool people venting their anger and outrage that these scumbags dared to appear in our City Centre. Lpool, a proper mulicultural city, with our population of mixed backgrounds who get on very well together where skin colour doesn’t mean diddly, and yet here were a group of nazis trying to stir the mire.
The day became the centre of attention for Lpool shoppers and visitors to our City. Many people from different countries, Spain, Norway, Sweden, China, the US, France, stopped for a chat and took our leaflets, congratulating us for our efforts and agreeing that these scumbags belong to history; no place for racism in todays world. The only reason that the fascists were able operate was due to the heavy police presence. When I say operate I mean to stand there and look stupid as no-one was taking their material. They managed to do this very well. If prizes were to be awarded for stupidity then they’d have got a first. A number of people confronted the BNP members face to face telling them exactly what they thought of them. Once again, a No of people who knew P. Tierney from old questioned his sanity and given that rumours are circulating about his mental health. Not an unreasonable question when the individuals who he was standing with created a bizarre spectacle.
Another bnp stalwart, when asked where his swastika was boasted that he had it tattood on his arm! Obviously not confident to display it though as it would’ve given the game away to the nature of their true politics.
By 5.00 clock the crowd of people objecting to their presence on our streets had grown even larger. Large groups of younger people, of all colours joined the demo. This surely proves that the ideology of the bnp is never going to be accepted by ordinary people. Lpool people don’t care about skin colour or religion; they recognise that its unimportant in the world of today. Liverpool is a truly multi-cultural society where everyone joined in to torment the fascists who’d dared turn up on our streets in an attempt to divide us.
As dusk approached a couple of explosions amongst the bnp caused a mixed reaction. While the motives may have been good, the result was to make a No of anti-bnp protesters move away from the demo. Bear in mind that there were many older people proteting against the bnp as were a number of people with young children; explosions in a closed area therefore were probably not the best tactic. Liveraf supporters prefer to educate people to what the bnp are and felt that under the circumstances the fireworks were unneccessary and possibly had a negative affect.
By this stage the bnp were looking decidedly ruffled. Having given up on their attempts to recruit people they resorted to their usual tactics of tring to intimidate people with clenched fists, abuse and of course the never ending photo’s to try to frightem people. It didn’t work. It was clear to everyone present, and people passing by, that the bnp are’nt welcome in Lpool.
The grand finale came when the fascists decided that they’d taken enough abuse for one day and started getting their stuff together. It was like something out of a television drama. They complained to the police about the behavouir of the protesters as though they themselves were somehow respectable people. Anybody who knows anything about the bnp will know that respectable they’re not. A bunch of violent racsits trying to peddle their filth is anything but decent and everyone present knew it, not to mention their criminal convictions. The BNP were the target for derision by respectable people for very good reason; the fascists had to rely on police protection to save them from the wrath of Lpool people. Many of the police present were obviously not at all comfortable with the job they’d been tasked with this day of protecting fascist scumbags but from the point of view of liveraf is that nobody makes anyone join the police. Any sympathy for the police in this situation wasn’t helped by the fact that a number of anti-fascists were arrested when most people present felt that the scummy fascists should be the ones in the back of the police vans.
The day finished off with a spectacle that will live forever. The bnp, having got together their bits n bobs and the £3.46 that they’d managed for their full days campaigning, were ushered into their cars by the police; cars that were allowed to enter a pedestrianised area in town. Surrounded by the good people of Lpool, under heavy police escort, they managed to edge their way foward following a convoy of police vehicles. A huge crowd , maybe a couple of hundred, surrounded this sorry spectacle, hurling abuse at the huddled group of fascists sitting tight with their police minders. I’ll never forget the scene as they were chased up Lord Street by hundreds of anti-fascists letting the world know that the bnp aren’t welcome in Lpool. Reminiscant of the old westerns, the fascists were literally chased outta town. ‘Don’t come back soon’ was the message. Liverpool is a fascist free zone and Lpool people intend to keep it that way.
BNP Organiser guilty of racial abuse on Asian woman
A British National Party organiser has narrowly escaped jail for racially abusing an Asian woman in a supermarket.
Peter King told stunned Sajida Islam “go back to your own country” when he saw her in the aisles of Hartlepool’s Tesco Extra store, in Burn Road. He followed with a tirade of racist abuse. In another unrelated incident he threatened a student with a medieval weapon in another outburst.
John Gillette, prosecuting at Teesside Crown Court, said: “He just passed an Asian lady in an aisle in the store and said ‘get home to your own country’. It was just abuse out of nowhere, and left the victim upset. She contacted store security who in turn brought in police. Although the incident was not caught on CCTV he was seen leaving the store and was identified from that.”
The incident happened on October 14 last year.
King, who the BNP’s own website describes as regional organiser, was arrested again on Christmas Eve. Police were called following a row with his neighbour, 20-year-old student Nicholas Thompson, who he confronted with an ornamental mace for revving his mini-moto bike.
Mr Gillette said: “There had been an argument over some noise from a vehicle exhaust being revved and he went and got what is described as an ornamental medieval mace. The weapon had a wooden handle with a chain and a couple of metal balls.”
King, 38, was at risk of going to jail after he admitted racially aggravated harassment and possessing an offensive weapon. However, he walked out of court after he was given a suspended prison term.
Nigel Herrmann, mitigating, said King, of Bluebell Way, Hartlepool, had experienced personal problems in the last year. He added there had been no further incidents since.
Judge Peter Bowers sentenced King to 10 months prison suspended for 18 months with supervision. He warned King to curb his temper in future. King was accompanied at court by Cheryl Dunn, who unsuccessfully ran for the BNP in the Hartlepool mayoral election and also in the Easington parliamentary election
From Lancaster Unity. Originally published in the Hartlepool Mail October 03, 2010.
Steve Greenhalgh denied entry to BNP meeting by Peter Tierney
Further to our recent coverage of factionalism within Liverpool BNP, what follows is a video of former BNP organiser Steve Greenhalgh being knocked back from the Aigburth Peoples’ Hall by “super-activist” Peter Tierney.
Both men were involved in the incident which saw Tierney crack an antifascist across the head with a camera tripod last year.
- Richard Barnbrook has been expelled from the BNP in an increasingly bitter feud with Nick Griffin. Photograph: Andy Paradise / Rex Features
Richard Barnbrook, one of the British National party’s most senior figures, has been expelled as part of an increasingly bitter feud threatening to engulf the far-right organisation.
The London Assembly member, who was one of a group of rebels who tried to wrest control of the BNP from party leader Nick Griffin last month, was informed via an internal memo this week that he was no longer a party member.
“Sadly we have concluded that we are left with no alternative but to expel Richard Barnbrook from membership of the British National party,” it reads. “I have written to him informing him that I have taken that action today and he is no longer a member of our party.”
Barnbrook, who was the party’s sole representative on the London Assembly, is one of the BNP’s most high-profile officials and his expulsion comes as the party faces a growing political and financial crisis.
Since its poor showing in May’s general and council elections, several senior figures have come out against Griffin, at least three local councillors have resigned the party whip and many key activists have been suspended.
The prospect of a permanent split has been heightened by the party’s dire financial plight and the formation of a new faction – the BNP reform group – which is openly discussing forming a new party.
“Even by its own vicious standards this has been a bloody episode for the BNP,” said Nick Lowles from anti-racist organisation Searchlight. “The relentless infighting has done serious damage to Griffin and the party’s organisational ability.”
Griffin’s opponents have rallied around another leadership challenger, Eddie Butler, who has run the BNP’s election machine in recent years. Their anger is focused on Griffin’s leadership style and concern about the party’s debts.
“You may think I should have little reason to have sympathy for Richard Barnbrook’s plight,” Butler wrote on his blog this week. “But I can see that they used and abused him … watch and observe. This is the way Nick Griffin’s British National party treats its members.”
Concern about the BNP’s finances has been exacerbated by news that the Electoral Commission is investigating the party’s 2008 accounts and that its 2009 accounts are already late. The BNP faces further legal action from the Equality and Human Rights Commission over allegations that it has failed to remove potentially racist clauses from its constitution. Lawyers say the case, due to go before the courts again in November, could see Griffin landed with a fine or even imprisonment for contempt of court.
The BNP refused to comment on reports that the party is more than £500,000 in debt or to confirm how many members had been suspended or had resigned. But Griffin has sent members increasingly desperate appeals for donations to “keep the wolves at bay and to ensure our survival”. In one email he admitted that the party was “cash-struck” and needed money to fight the case being brought by the EHRC. “Be clear on this, if you don’t give, we can’t fight … and if we don’t fight we will be shut down and killed off.”
Griffin’s position has been under attack since the party’s poor showing in May’s general election when it saw a small increase in its vote but failed to make its promised breakthrough. It also performed badly in the council elections where all but two of its 28 sitting councillors standing for re-election were beaten and it was wiped out in its east London stronghold of Barking and Dagenham. However, last month he managed to see off a leadership challenge when Barnbrook and Eddie Butler both failed to secure enough support to trigger a leadership ballot.
Barnbrook, who lost his Barking and Dagenham council seat earlier this year, resigned the party whip last month calling for an investigation into allegations of wrongdoing by party officials, although he remained a member of the party.
The memo from Clive Jefferson, the BNP’s national organiser, said Barnbrook had had time to understand that his actions were “disloyal and unacceptable”.
Barnbrook said yesterday that he would launch an appeal against his expulsion and that he would remain an assembly member as an independent.
From the Guardian . Wednesday 29.09.10. Article by Matthew Taylor.
