Inspired by the principles of Malcolm X / Malik El-Hajj Shabazz. A 'Third Worldist' perspective focusing on the increasing pace of south-south co-operation which is challenging and defeating US hegemony, and the struggles of those oppressed by neo-colonialism and white supremacy (racism) who fight for their social, political and cultural freedom 'by any means necessary'
I’d like to preface this with an apology. I’m sorry that my writing on the EDL thus far has taken them seriously in their claims. Their threatening nature, though significant, has been grossly inflated and exaggerated.
After Bradford (AKA: “the big one”), we have a clearer picture. What they represent is deeply problematic and needs confronting; however, as an entity – they are redundant, vacuous and failing by their own standards.
Aylesbury, Stoke, Dudley, Bolton and Manchester show that the EDL are not toothless; in their optimum conditions they can and will inflict real damage. However, their aim is to pacify the Muslim community through fear.
They cannot do this without taking on the strongest Muslim areas – some of those being Tower Hamlets and Bradford where they’ve categorically and unequivocally failed. Which leads one to question: how much further can they really go? Their aims of escalating to Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales have hit the rocks due to a distinct lack of popular support and an unreceptive police force (unlike in England). In England, they have not stirred up racial tensions in the intended way, despite having no nationally unified resistance to speak of and quite overt support from the police. The fact they have to high-tail out of areas like Bradford, Tower Hamlets, Birmingham and Cardiff says it all. The EDL are provocateurs – nothing more, nothing less.
British cities like Birmingham, London and Bradford have a cohesion that transcends the ideological milieu on which the EDL thrive. Islam, in such areas, far from being a problem to the community is embraced. Throughout the Isles of Britain ties exist that run deeper than the prejudices of the post 9/11 world. In the face of such solidarity the EDL are powerless. The EDL are losing both on the streets and in public relations. Some are even going so far as to label the EDL “cowards”. Based on the numbers who turned up for “the big one” – which was at maximum around 700 – it is clear that there is a lot of fear in their ranks. It may be that like any good ideology, they are forced to believe their own lies; genuinely believing that there are “no go areas” for whites in Britain. Hence, they are too terrified to stand up to these “Muslim ghettoes”.
Anyone who is not a racist or paranoid will realise that such claims lack all validity. The Black and Asian youth of this country have grown up in a climate of harmony compared to their parents and do not indiscrimately attack whites. Most, however, are conscious of recent history and will actively fight to maintain the path of progress when challenged. Hence, within the marginalised communities of our cities, there is a brotherhood that is not tangible – but which manifests in times of crisis. In Birmingham this alliance has actualised numerous times to get the EDL out – in an extremely effective fashion and we saw it materialise to great effect in Bradford.
Now I may as well state the platitude that in the fight against the EDL – all have their roles to play. HOPE not Hate’s statist approach stops marches. Unite Against Fascism’s counter demos get good coverage and offer the chance for solidarity beyond racial lines. However, while their roles are important in their own right – this summer’s defeat of the EDL cannot be ascribed to these leftist groups. Autonomous, well organised and rational youths have been the primary buttress. The EDL are a force mobilised to cause damage and fight. The danger they present is that when the clashes occur and the police get involved – the youths get caught between fighting the police and the EDL. However, wisdom is seemingly omnipresent throughout Britain. The angry youths are not attacking the police despite provocation – instead they are maintaining a discipline and only acting in self-defence. The actions of the youth in Birmingham and Bradford are paradigms for us all.
The UAF’s counter-demo was well monitored by the police. There were police lines that penned protesters in. Understandably among the Muslim youth there was a reluctance to walk into such constraints. The vast majority of those who felt the need to be a presence on the street therefore maintained presence in their local communities where they would only act if the EDL made moves towards their localities. When the EDL were seemingly allowed to break police lines and make such movements, they were confronted by a few hundred predominately local Asian youths who fought off the EDL in a highly restrained and dignified manner – but one that left the EDL bloody, bruised and humiliated. It is a testament to the organisation of local communties that there were no images of youths wrapped in Kefiyyehs rioting on our televisions this weekend.
The role of the left in all of this is minimal. HOPE not Hate are too closely associated with the British state to take any position of radicality to confront the threat posed by the rise of nationalistic sentiments in the UK. Unite Against Fascism are an important organisation who can facilitate important community events that exhibit that there is far more that unites the population of Britain, than what divides them. However, their modus operandi is to get the image of unity across – so essentially are confined to the realm of PR. When rampaging thugs are on the street attempting to beat up Muslim’s and Asians – neither group have the ranks or the philosophy to be a force worth relying upon.
The way to defeat the EDL in urban areas is to look to the street. The “Urban youths” who white lefties tend to avoid are foundational to anti-fascist movement in this country. To put it crudely, due to their emotional and historical connections to the fight against racism they are the foot soldiers of the movement when and if confrontation amounts. Any anti-racist national movement in this country has to support and defend these youths. Attempts should not be made to recruit them into organisations that hope to sever them from their communites, rather organisations should facilitate them and stand with them to ensure all police provocation is monitored and recorded so that Bradford 2001 and Kensington 2009 (the site of the Gaza demonstrations that led to 119 arrests) never happen again. We know the Muslim youth of this country are willing to take steps that “lefties” are not. Therefore, they deserve our full support. Instead, so far in the post-Bradford climate both HNH and UAF are screaming victory for their actions, praising the youths – but not engaging with, let alone facilitating or supporting the philosophy of anti-racism that has emerged through praxis.
Decentralised, wise and aware youths are the future of the movement – we need to harness our institutions so the state cannot vilify them. Without them this summer, this article would have been a completely different tone. Instead, the summer of escalation for the EDL has failed – ending in an almighty bang. POWWW!
Yesterday (Saturday 28th of August) seems to have been a huge failure for the EDL.That being said, there still has to be some soul searching done among what is called 'the left': hard questions have to be asked about the modus operandi of setting up counter protests.
Yesterday...
Yesterday, hardly any of the local youths and those embedded with them bothered to come to the UAF's static rally. It's no wonder. Not long after I had arrived to see what they were up to, the police had set themselves up around the square and erected metal detectors by the entrances and the EGT's were harrassing everyone with their cameras staring at people who supposedly 'look radical'.
The UAF rally was half-filled people who can't fight (hippies, old people, and other fragile types) but the UAF wasn't planning to bring people to Bradford for defence purposes - it couldn't. After facing so much trouble from the statist left, and Weyman Bennet being accused of conspiracy to start a riot; UAF felt the need to prove themselves as 'peaceful' - not the source of trouble and rioting.
That being said, UAF's plans for counter demonstration combined with the statist left's ranting about keeping order allowed the police to justify a massive operation, which made the EDL's protests utterly pointless. They were penned in, in a location where they couldn't even be seen by the public.
The result?
The EDL - who in absence of an 'enemy' to 'take liberties' with, started fighting with each other - have appeared in the miniscule mainstream media coverage to be a bunch of stupid drunken hooligans. And the UAF officially cleared their name and 'took the moral high ground'. Example of such coverage: http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid62612474001?bctid=598209585001
The resistance
A few people from the UAF crowd (which was mostly white) did join a large mobile crowd (mostly Asian, and local)
Despite the huge police operation, some EDL did break out of their police kettle. Looking for Asians to start on. Those stray but large groups of EDL were strongly repelled by an organised resistance entirely led by the Muslim youth of Bradford, with a contingent of Birmingham youth embedded within them, and local youth of other religious backgrounds.
These Birmingham lads did not come in 'airlifted' by coach, they came the day before and stayed at people's houses. That modus operandi is exemplary when compared to our 'post-colonial' anti-fascist organisations, if you ask me.
This organised 'task force' dealt the EDL a blow that sent them running back into the kettle they came from.
And then the EDL were bussed out of the city again. Most of the local Asian youths were then only to be seen in their neighbourhoods in the areas surrounding the city centre. They were obviously not looking to hang around, knowing that 600 years worth of sentences were slapped on their brothers back in 2001. Although it is also Ramadan (DON'T FORGET), a time not to go further than you have to with respect to self-defence.
The police brought in from other forces, with nothing to do were sent home early. Only five arrests were made yesterday, are they going to be raiding the homes of all those EDL caught on camera like they did with the Birmingham resistance this month last year, or the Gaza protestors? Or do the police have other plans?
Conclusions and questions?
Our youth in target communities will always be the first, best organised and strongest line of defence (and they are getting better at it). Why don't all the lefties out there work with them as our Birmingham brothers did? Is there much point to clearing the name of an organisation to a public that largely doesn't care? Should we be publicly declaring counter-protests if this inhibits our ability to defend communities and defeat the EDL, and indirectly empowers the state?
The EDL appear to be collapsing in actual (not facebook gauged) popularity, however not everthing is as it seems when state intelligence has its part to play. However, there was a video on youtube (now removed, alternative version) that shows the EDL being utterly defeated in Bradford, I hope it scares them all off. The EDL's Welsh boy has been trying to patch these events up as a victory - they are starting to look genuinely desperate - unless there is something they know that we don't.
I'm looking forward to analysis by 'Malatesta', an anarchist who reports in fine detail on what's going on with the EDL and the far-right in general. Always good reading material!
There is a war going on. Its effects are not just manifest in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia – but also in our localities. Police intimidation and racial profiling on the one hand, mixed with a rise of racism and nationalism upon the other. Either can be seen as the domestication of NATO’s logic: pre-emptive action must be taken to stem the tide of (radical) Islam – the enemy at the gates just waiting to kick down the doors. Large swathes of our population are convinced that Muslims aspire to one day reign supreme in Britain; many are fearful that Sharia will be the way of life for all and great ‘English traditions’ will be eradicated with the establishment of the caliphate.
A lack of tolerance within our society is leading many to support the forced assimilation of Muslim communities. The colonially minded within our society are disturbed by the fact that allegiance to God can supersede that the nation-state, and that brotherhood with the Umma means the average Muslim does not support the death of their brethren abroad.
In response to the “impending threat” posed by what Education Minister Michael Gove refers to as Britain’s “sleeper cells” (a euphemistic turn of phrase that denotes to Islam – as all Muslims are, in theory at least, receptive to the call of Jihad), the English Defence League (EDL) have formed. Their key aim is to “get on the streets” and affirm English “resistance” to the incursions of the Islamic world – attack being the best form of ‘defence’.
Their idea of Englishness is manifest in their actions: get up – start drinking – get on a coach (continue drinking) – reach destination – shout racist abuse – break police lines – get into a few scuffles, if not full scale violence – go home brandishing themselves as ‘heroes,’ pissed as newts…‘English liberty’ indeed. They are being met on the streets by the “commies” and the “Mussies” – an alliance hated by both the state and the far-right. Britain’s ever so troubling alliance of the left and Islam is the only bulwark that has come to actuality to confront the imperialism and domestic colonialism we are seeing emerge.
This weekend the EDL intend to travel to Bradford – a city which is 19% South Asian. Provocation is the aim – racial abuse and rioting are the means. The EDL want to provoke the youth of Bradford Moor, Toller and Manningham – areas with high concentrations of South Asian inhabitants – the majority of whom are Pakistani. The attempt is clearly to echo the race riots of July 2001, when the National Front (NF) and affiliate groups protested in the town centre which stirred up tensions within the community – leading the police to attack the Muslim areas. This year, any such provocation is deeply inappropriate. Many in the community are in a sense of trauma due to the events unfolding in Pakistan, on top of that – it is Ramadan; the holy Month – a time of deep spirituality and introspection.
The two predominant leftist groups that have mobilised to address the potential riot are Unite Against Fascism (UAF) and HOPE Not Hate (HNH). The mixed allegiances of our schizophrenic “left wing” have left their mark profoundly on the run up to Bradford. The community has been split by what type of action to take. HNH worked through state channels to ban the march, getting the support of local papers and councillors. The UAF on the other hand have applied the same process that they did in Tower Hamlets – starting the “We Are Bradford” counter rally by appealing for all sections of the community to come out and stand in solidarity with their Muslim neighbours. Months of bickering have ended with the banning of the march, but the allowance of a rally. Therefore, the aim now is to unify the community – which is being plagued by divisions between a vigil, a Manningham ‘multi-cultural event’ and the “We are Bradford”. A far more incendiary situation has been avoided by stopping the March, if and only if the police do their job – and given their history in Bradford, one should be wary of such thinking.
It is clear that some forces are extremely receptive to the EDL’s logic. In Bolton back in March, 74 arrests were made by Greater Manchester Police – around 50 of which were of the anti-fascist protestors and local Muslims – with the organisers being detained under anti-terror legislation. In the run up to Bradford, West Yorkshire Police have threatened Weyman Bennett and Martin Smith (organisers of the Saturday’s “We Are Bradford” event) with police action for ‘conspiracy to incite disorder’. The Police have clearly been against the mobilisation proposed by the UAF claiming it is more likely to induce a riot. Such language has been echoed by HNH, who continue to oppose the tactics of UAF and regurgitate the state’s account of what happened in July 2001. It is an error to rely on the state to tackle the EDL, especially the police who are colloquially dubbed “the real EDL”.
Presence on the streets of Bradford is of absolute necessity. It cannot be forgotten that 2001’s riot was essentially started by the police – who after years of antagonistic relations with the South Asian youth used to pretext of a disturbance outside a pub to invade Muslim communities in force[1]. The blatant scapegoating cannot be allowed to happen again, it is vital that the UAF do not allow the police to separate the Muslim community from the “lefties”.
Saturday will dawn very soon and we cannot HOPE for anything unless unity is maintained. If people manage to transcend their ideological divides, their geographic obstacles and an EDL friendly police force, then the EDL will be swatted away like they were in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Cardiff, Birmingham, Tower Hamlets and Harrow. However, if disunity prevails and the left are split from the local Asian youth – race riots will ensue, of that there can be little doubt. In such an eventuality, the EDL will get bloodied, as will the Police – yet it will be another great excuse for the state to further repress Britain’s Muslim community.
"To label the EDL and ZF "racist" is too crude. They are imperialists committed to the perpetuation of Orientalism and European hegemony. The saddest thing about both movements however is how divorced they are from reality. They are products of deceit; a lie that argues that the social alignments of liberalism are conceived on the basis of moral values and not the dogma of the market."
This week we witnessed the conjunction of the English Defence League (EDL) and the Zionist federation (ZF) who united for a rally in support of Israel's brutal raid on the Freedom Flotilla. Despite both the BBC and The Guardian covering the rise of the EDL of late, both failed to cover the story of this troublesome matching.
The EDL are crudely referred to as a “far-right organisation”. They were formed in Luton following Muslims challenging British soldiers returning from their conquests in Afghanistan with placards with messages like "murderers". In response a group of "concerned citizens" attacked the demonstrators and rampaged around Luton. When national outrage was felt due to this "attack on the pride of British heroes”, the campaign became national and in their wisdom they called it the English Defence League, excluding Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales from their name, while planning marches in all UK major cities.
What the EDL have mobilised to support are the values of English/British society which are "under attack" from the ever elusive “Sharia”. While some may wish to label them akin to the BNP, their genealogy is not so simple; I trace their rhetoric to Blair more than Mosley. In the simplest possible terms, they have domesticated the foreign policy of the West. What Blair attacked Afghanistan for are the same reasons the EDL are planning to attack Bradford and Tower Hamlets. Their reasoning is “humanitarian”: Islam in its political form “Islamism” subjugates women, enshrines patriarchy, encourages violence, is homophobic and is diametrically opposed to liberalism and representative democracy – it therefore must be eradicated from within Britain.
The EDL believe themselves to be bastions of toleration; defence structures guarding the moral nucleus that so typifies European thought. They not only grossly misunderstand the notion of toleration, immortalised with Voltaire's "I may not like what you say, but I shall fight to the death for your right to say it" (which, unfortunately for them, includes political Islam) - they also strongly misunderstand the basis of the faith they oppose; swallowing hook, line and sinker the propaganda that justified a war of political strategy fought under the guise of "moral values". The source of the EDL's political venom derives solely from the post 9/11 world where "Muslim" and "terrorist" became synonyms. It is only with this point of clarification in mind that the EDL's affinity Zionism can be understood. Israel are the "civilising force" in the Middle-East and need support in their "humanitarian" moral conquest to turn those misguided "Islamists" into liberals. At the heart of both movements thinking is the white man's burden of bringing "civilisation" to the world through uncivilised means. Both the EDL and the Zionists accept and endorse violence to subjugate and sedate the communities they fear.
To label the EDL and ZF "racist" is too crude. They are imperialists committed to the perpetuation of Orientalism and European hegemony. The saddest thing about both movements however is how divorced they are from reality. They are products of deceit; a lie that argues that the social alignments of liberalism are conceived on the basis of moral values and not the dogma of the market. They valorise liberal democracy missing its oligarchic nature. Their moral universality knows no bounds, unless of course you are Muslim/Arab/"Paki". Principles of exclusion are embedded within both outlooks - there is an enemy within and without that needs to be expunged - only then can a moral foreign policy and domestic society come into fruition.
Their fear of the other derives from a fictious existential threat, paranoia being their greatest recruitment technique. Both movements are the outcome of a nationalistic lie that was told to justify the appropriation of an other's resources. For the Zionists, the Arabs became the evil villains who have a natural propensity to replicate Hitler. For the EDL the Taliban are the voicebox of all Muslims, those who accept Liberal values only do so to assimilate. When the Caliphate is re-established the essentialism to the Arab/South Asian skin colour will spark a shift in mind state that will turn great British citizens into jihadi Islamists. Both movements can be traced to an ideology that propagates fear in order to justify aggression.
One may want to make this argument about the lack of political acumen in the Zionist movement, if they believe they can align with the far-right and not accept the anti-Semitism that they are killing Palestinians to eradicate. However, this is too reliant upon a conception of the right that is divorced from the ideology of our times and completely misses the essence of Zionism; colonialism. This alliance is the logical outcome of a project of imperialism and has been defended as "left wing" by the likes of Nick Cohen and Tony Blair. The right we now face talk a completely different discourse; a post-modern, euphemistic language of libertarianism and morality. "Scratch the EDL find the BNP" may be true to some of the divisions, like Stoke, but to assume homogeneity nationally is problematic and lazy. Given the complete lack of engagement of the traditional left with this topic, and the imminent threat of a repeat of the riots of 2001 in Bradford and Tower Hamlets - we have to ask - can we really afford for this laziness to continue?
Scottish Defence League members from Leeds, Scotland.
Intro by Sons of Malcolm:
Yesterday's events in Edinburgh shows a lot of things:
- there is a split in the anti-fascist movement between the completely non-effectual UAF/SWP status quo, and those who want direct confrontation with the far-right, which includes some UAF/SWP rank and file and other anti-fascists
- that the far-right in the form of ...anti-Islamic politics is nowhere near as popular in Scotland as it is in England, mostly to do with the fact that many Scots are anti-imperialist/anti-English domination
- due to the above political dynamics, England is still faced with a dire far-right threat from several quarters, and requires a sizeable and robust anti-fascist movement to challenge the far-right effectively, which is nowhere in sight
- Anti-fascists in Scotland must not show hypocrisy and allow the same far-right elements and their allies in the supremacist Loyalist movements to attack those Scots who identify with and support Irish Republicanism, with the latter being attacked frequenly, esp at the Bloody Sunday Commemmorations, as one person said on a comment on the blog: "Well done. When the Irish community in Scotland attempt to remember ‘Bloody Sunday’ we are attacked by fascistic loyalists, BNP, NF and orange order members. We are pelted with bricks, bottles, urine, shite by animals – I look forward to our community being defended. Remember, at the Glasgow SDL joke they did not attack our muslim brothers and sisters – they attacked an Irish catholic pub called the Empire Bar in the Saltmarket"
After much anticipation and preparation, today was the day of the English Scottish Defence League’s second outing. They had first appeared in Glasgow last November, with a generous estimate of 80 turning up to find themselves outnumbered by about 50 to 1, consequently finding themselves kettled in a pub by the police for their own safety.
There were two main lessons that people came away with from that encounter. First, that it had been a great victory for the anti-fascist movement, providing the confidence necessary to organise in future. And second, that there was a split in the movement over tactics. Broadly there appeared two groups: one led by the UAF/SWP under the banner of Scotland United, which favoured a parallel rally, hosting speakers from the Tories, SNP, Church of Scotland and others, and to that end actively opposed any idea of direct confrontation with the SDL. And one led by a range of activists from the SSP, anarchist groups, student groups and others (including, it must be said, individuals from UAF/SWP), which favoured direct confrontation via a march on the SDL position wherever it may turn out to be.
Fortunately and unfortunately respectively, these will once again be the two main lessons that people come away with from today’s encounter.
The combined march towards Royal Mile.
Preparation and March
Almost immediately after Glasgow there were rumours that Edinburgh would be the next destination, and so the Edinburgh Anti-Fascist Alliance (EAFA) was established to organise those preferring the tactic of confrontation.
Needless to say that plenty of anti-fascist/anti-racist posters went up around the city from both the EAFA and the UAF, as well as many city-centre shops carrying leaflets on their counters. Indeed, such was the saturation that it led a Conservative councillor to complain that anti-fascism has become a “polarising influence” — Tories on the ball as always!
Each group, of course, was advertising its own event. The UAF/SWP rally was to occur at 11.30am and march through the city centre, while the EAFA organised to meet at 9.30am before heading wherever the SDL turned up. Coincidentally, the UAF/SWP decided to start advertising for students to gather at 10am instead, just down the road from where the EAFA were meeting.
This proved to be a mistake on their part, as the EAFA decided to join up with this group at around 10.20am while they waited for news on the SDL’s arrival. This turned, consciously or otherwise, into an entryist manoeuvre, as they soon got news of the SDL’s location and marched off with the entire group in tow.
Anti-Fascists headed by the EAFA move towards the SDL position after temporary confusion.
This is where the UAF/SWP’s role became a damaging rather than a building one. Having failed to stop the entire group marching off, they set themselves up further down the road with a loud-speaker to try and convince as many people as possible into staying with them. While this first attempt failed entirely to halt the enthusiastic crowd it did succeed in sowing the seeds of confusion in the majority who were not there with a group, but rather as a response to the posters, media coverage and word of mouth.
Having heard (accurately) that the bulk of SDL members seemed to be having a morning drink near Holyrood Parliament, the march entered the Royal Mile, where the police quickly mobilised to prevent any advance.
This is where the battle of the two groups commenced, as the UAF/SWP sought to take advantage of the police lines and confusion to peel people back to their rally, while the EAFA and others sought to find a side-street past the police lines. Throw into this a sighting of SDL members in the Bank Hotel — a pub right in the centre of the march (the building in the above photo) — and misinformation being introduced about where the SDL were and what was happening by prominent UAF members, and it isn’t difficult to imagine that things were getting a little chaotic. Eventually the sizeable EAFA group found their side street — barging past a single hapless police officer, who must have been unfamiliar with the story of King Canute — and took the bulk of the protesters with them. However, it was noticeable that with two factions competing for loyalty, many unaligned protesters simply gave up and drifted off, weakening both.
The SDL find that the latest stop on their world pub tour is just too good to leave.
Kettling the SDL
Despite the commotion a significant group moved forward with the EAFA and eventually reached the pub hosting the SDL — about 80 of them in total [update: The Scotsman is reporting 40]. At this point, echoing the scenes of Glasgow, the counter-protesters trapped the SDL in their pub. Now it just became a question of the police holding their ground until buses arrived to remove the SDL from the area. This took some hours, with increasing numbers of police flooding into the area and drones flying overhead, but eventually it happened and the SDL piled onto their buses — though not before they had all their details and photos taken.
Division appears in the SDL rank and file as one brave fighter forgets to swear at passing protesters.
There can be little doubt that the day was a success for the EAFA. Their spotters found the SDL early and the EAFA led a significant group to trap them in a relatively out-of-the-way pub before they could meet up or hold their rally. Other SDL members found themselves confronted by break-away groups of protesters and escorted or kettled by police — reports of which arrived from both the train station and 20 minutes away at the Grassmarket. This will hopefully set the SDL back and discourage any future rallies in Scotland, as well as establish the organisation necessary in Edinburgh to engage in future events.
It is only a shame that a rather grotesque public factional fight cost some of the momentum along the way. It must surely be seen as imperative to sort this situation out beforehand if the SDL return, with an acceptance that while the UAF’s passive rally is a good way to involve those who wouldn’t want to be involved in an EAFA-type strategy, it shouldn’t be pursued at the expense of those who are willing to carry out the important work of direct confrontation — and certainly not at the expense of a march which is already on its way.
Scottish Defence League members forced to leave city by police
Thousands of anti-fascist protesters staged demonstrations across Edinburgh on Saturday as members of the far-right Scottish Defence League (SDL) gathered in the city.
Lothian and Borders Police drafted in officers from the Strathclyde, Fife and Northumbria forces to bolster their numbers in the capital - in all, it is understood that 900 police were on duty.
In one incident, scores of banner-waving activists attempted to enter a bar opposite the Scottish Parliament. Protesters said members of the SDL were inside Jenny Ha's bar and vowed to stay in the area until the SDL members left the city.
Police later loaded members of the league on to a bus to leave. Officers had closed the Royal Mile, with the road sealed off and hundreds of police on the street keeping opposing groups apart.
It is believed that around 90 people were kept inside the bar by police, who blocked the doors to stop trouble on the street. Minor scuffles broke out when some SDL supporters passed by anti-fascist activists behind police cordons close to the building.
Meanwhile, inside, SDL supporters held up flags and banners protesting against Islamic Sharia law.
Riot vans with officers wearing helmets eventually surrounded the pub entrance while two double-decker buses were driven towards the door.
Despite chants from SDL supporters that they would not be moved, the SDL members made their way on to the buses before being driven past two small counter-demonstrations assembled along the Royal Mile and outside Holyrood.
Officers said no arrests were made and the street was cleared by 4pm. A small number of SDL members were also held in Edinburgh's Waverley station.
Student protester James Nesbitt, 23, from Glasgow, said: "We had spotters out across the city looking for fascists in pubs. We got here quickly but the police are doing everything they can to keep us away from them. We're here because people are frightened with the developments in the far-right."
The incident happened as a formal anti-racism rally began in Edinburgh city centre. At least 2,000 people are believed to have taken part in the Scotland United rally, which was prompted by SDL plans to gather in the capital and protest against "militant Islam".
MSPs, charities, trade unions and faith groups were among those taking part in the rally, and speaker Aamer Anwar told STV News they planned to show there is no place for racist and fascist organisations in Scotland.
Mr Anwar, one of the rally organisers, said the march would serve as a warning to the SDL to "stay away". He had previously said: "We are uniting, right across the political spectrum, against their message of hatred. And we are sending a out a positive message, one of unity and one of celebration of our diversity.
"Let me be quite clear. They are testing the water and complacency is not an option. Silence is not an option. In the 1930s, the fascists scapegoated one section of the community, the Jewish community. And now today, what we have is a far right Nazi organisation that is scapegoating the Muslim community and that's why we're uniting. And every time they raise their heads they have be exposed for what they are, which is fascists."
Osama Saeed of the Scottish-Islamic Foundation, one of the protest's organisers, said: "Today is a further humiliation for the SDL. They only got ten minutes in the rain last November in Glasgow. They didn't even get that today. This is only due to good people coming out in numbers to take over Edinburgh's streets. The threat from the far-right cannot be ignored and simply wished away."
Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, one of the rally's guest speakers, said: "Today is about making a stand against those who would seek to divide and saying to them that their views are not welcome, as well as showing to the world that Scotland will not tolerate such views."
Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray added: "The message from today's rally was upbeat and clear - Scotland will never stand by and allow hatred and bigotry to have its day. There is no place for - and Scotland will give no platform to - those who would divide our communities and attack our citizens."
The SDL describes itself as non-violent and pro-British. A video posted under the group's name on You Tube urges members to head to the capital to demonstrate against "Islamification" in the UK.
Police had earlier said that the SDL had not sought permission for a demonstration and it was unclear how many people might come to take part. Scotland United's organisers insisted any right-wing activist who tried to march in the city should be removed immediately.
Lothian and Borders Police assistant chief constable Iain Livingstone said: "We are pleased that today's activity in the city centre passed off without major incident, and with only five arrests being made for public order offences.
"At this time I'd like to thank those who participated in the Scotland United rally and march, the majority of whom were well behaved and willing to engage constructively with police. I would also like to thank those members of the public who may have experienced some disruption to their day as a result of the activity in the city centre, for their patience and co-operation."
A demonstration held in Glasgow in November by the SDL saw around 100 protesters contained by police and then herded onto buses out of the city, while thousands passed peacefully through the city in an anti-fascism protest at the same time.
In their online video urging members to attend the event in Edinburgh, the SDL said it would "unite with their fellow countrymen to defend this great nation. We will never surrender".
It continued: "To carry on the fight against Muslim extremists and Islamification in Great Britain, we will never surrender. If you love this country and love Great Britain then please join us in Edinburgh on February 20. We all join as one."
The Scotland United rally, organised by Unite Against Racism and Fascism, begun in Princes Street Gardens before heading through the city centre.
The SDL is an offshoot of the English Defence league, which has staged protests in Manchester and Birmingham which resulted in violence.
On Sunday the 30th of May 2010, chanting racist chants and making stiff-armed Hitler salutes, disguised with face masks, armed with hammers, chisels and bottles, the racist private army known as the EDL will march from Bradford Interchange Railway Station to the Turls Green Lloyds Bar (Wetherspoons) in Centenary Square, the exact site of the rioting nine years ago, (a bar ironically used by Asian as well as white customers) intending to cause the mother of all race riots, aiming to destroy what remains of Bradford's undeveloped city centre.
Behind the spin doctoring of Portsmouth-based mouthpiece Trevor Kelway, while denying they are neo-Nazis at every juncture, the EDL have shown their true colours with racial attacks exemplified by Luton, by openly saluting Adolf Hitler, smashing windows of Asian shops, and most incendiary of all, attacking mosques and destroying Muslim graves on the days leading up to their protest.
Visits to Manchester, Nottingham and Stoke have all resulted in widespread disorder, with arrests for various different crimes, but anti-racist campaigners have criticised police forces for failing to arrest EDL mobs for openly chanting racial abuse in public. If the forces of law and order were, by negligence, to fail to arrest EDL thugs shouting the word "paki" in public, the West Yorkshire Police would once again be viewed by Asian people and anti-fascists as taking sides with the neo-Nazis resulting in Bradford's final riot.
It has taken years for Bradford's multicultural communities to move on from the last race riot, and since then, public enquiries have been carried out, reports written, and new community initiatives have been conducted to help heal the scars, but much of Bradford's city centre has failed to recover. Shops still lie empty, pound shops and charity shops all that remains of a once-thriving city centre economy. Half of Bradford's city centre now resembles a bomb site, since the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition allowed the Westfield Shopping Centre to collapse, and the Odeon row rumbles steadily on, public discontent with Bradford Metropolitan Council at an all-time high.
Trevor Kelway and millionaire far right backer Alan Lake have exploited a loophole in the laws of the land which allow static political protests, albeit peaceful ones. The actions of the EDL are anything but peaceful, and compared to the purely vocal extremism of Islam4UK, they are a much greater threat to both community and public safety with their rampages of uncontrolled physical force, and yet, despite regular complaints from anti-racist and mainstream faith organisations including the Muslim Council of Britain, the Labour Party continues to turn a blind eye to their violent Islamophobia.
Conspiracy theorists have argued that in treating the neo-Nazi EDL with kid gloves, the government is utilising their disgusting campaign of violent hatred as a tool of patriotism, keeping Muslims in their place to shore-up the War On Terror, defend the government from the fall-out of the Iraq enquiry, and mute protests against both civilian and military casualties from the War in Afganistan. For their violent racist actions which include racial attacks, attacking the police, smashing up Asian businesses, the EDL could be banned in a matter of minutes, however Britain's far right groups are never ever banned, regardless of the crimes they perpetrate. This sadly is a historical fact which leads some people to suspect the EDL are state-funded either by special branch or MI5/6.
Bradford's home grown Pakistani Muslim community is religiously moderate, and times have changed significantly since the Salman Rushdie protests many years ago. If the EDL were seriously choosing genuine hotbeds of Islamic extremism to target with protest, Bradford should be way down the list. All of Bradford's mosques work with the police and social workers to ensure young Muslims are not radicalised, and if it is all a question of patriotism, consider this: -
In December, £1000 Bradford's Muslims in Thornbury raised £5 each for the floods in Cumbria, including money for the family of a policeman who died rescuing householders from danger.
In the words of Canon Andy Williams, Bishop of Bradford said: “The president of the mosque and the Imam spoke positively about their aim of strengthening ties between the Muslim and Christian communities, saying we all live in the UK and need to support one another.”
And only last week, Manningham's Muslims set up a well-attended scouts and cubs group. And still the likes of the EDL and the BNP accuse Asian people of refusing to integrate.
Of course, any such measures by Bradford's Asian community to prove they are as British as white people fall upon deaf ears when the EDL plan acts of racism and public disorder. Their hatred of Islam is in-fact a hatred of non-white people, a racist loathing that four or five "Uncle Toms" cannot brush under the carpet. Using violent football hooligans as their hired muscle, the EDL are a serious threat to community harmony let alone public safety. When are our elected politicians going to protect us from the imminent dangers posed by such groups?
Bradford's Asian community has moved on in leaps and bounds since the last riot, and young generations of Muslim Bradfordians are optimistic, self-confident and hopeful for the future, assuming there would never be a far right march through Bradford ever again, however along comes the EDL, aiming to turn the clock back.
If the Prime Minister, the Home Secretary, Bradford Council and the West Yorkshire Police insist on allowing the EDL the freedom to create havoc in Bradford under the false premises of "free speech", officialdom will lose any last vestige of credibility with Bradford's populus, who will hold the powers that be soley responsible for washing their hands of social responsibility, in standing back and allowing another race riot to happen. A preventable race riot, if the government and intelligence services do their homework.
All Bradfordians (regardless of race or creed) were hoping to never to live to see race riots in their own backyard ever again, but unless the EDL are banned from gathering, another riot will most definately ensue, triggered by the explosive actions of an army of football thugs and hardcore Nazis getting drunk in Lloyds Bar, before rampaging through Centenary Square en-masse.
Bradford has been at the hub of radical English political activism for over a hundred years, as the centre of Britain's woollen industry. Staunch trade unionism has recently been complemented by social centres such as the 1-in-12 club. If the EDL's violent neo-Nazi element are allowed to break through police lines as has happened elsewhere, and go on the rampage, smashing up the city centre and Bradford's multicultural inner city areas, punching and kicking every Asian passer-by they come across with vitreolic hate, the spirit of Bradford's strong tradition of defiance, reflected in its punk and hip hop bands such as Fun-Da-Mental, which rallied for working class unity against fascism, will ensure the EDL's street fighting tactics are met with a firm counter response.
Bradford's marginalised Asian community has a history of taking direct action to fightback against the far right that stretches back to the 1970s. Ironically for the EDL's fake "cause celebre" of protesting against Islamic extremism, a sizeable number of Bradford's young adults are not particularly religious, and will not heed calls from Imams to stay at home when their community is under threat from violent fascist extremists. Unlike in Nottingham and Stoke, police and religious leaders will thus find difficulty in persuading concerned Asian people to stay away from their beseiged city centre.
In Stoke, the EDL's neo-Nazi hooligans broke loose and rampaged through a majority Asian neighbourhood, attacking shops, homes and cars, and if the policing in Bradford was to be just as shambolic, angry young Muslim people will not stand by idly while drunken racist football hooligans go on the rampage. Militant anti-fascists will also stand their ground when the EDL's bully-boys break away from the police's kettle, however if the numbers of neo-Nazis are indeed large, and they storm through the streets of Bradford with inpunity like SS-stormtroopers, if the police are seen as defending the racists and allowing them to racially abuse and assault Asian people at will, all hell will break loose.
A recent press investigation by the Daily Mail spoke to one particular Bradford resident who was rubbing his hands with glee at the opportunity to join in another Bradford race riot - Kevin Watmough.
As always, Trevor Kelway and PR-distorting chums will tell the local media they are simply opposing religious extremists, claiming that most of their supporters are peaceful, will regulate their drink, and are only in Bradford to make speeches, however there will as always be the offensive and inflamatory banners calling for "NO MORE MOSQUES", racist chants will echo for miles, and just about every hardcore racist rent-a-thug including the whole of the BNP, BPP, British Freedom Fighters and the National Front will be in Bradford, getting a piece of the action. Regardless of what lies Trevor Kelway tells he media before their visit to Bradford, he knows full well that EDL's Bradford Demo will attract Britain's most extreme racial bigots like flies to a steaming pile of dogshit.
Many of the roads into Bradford are lined by Asian takeaways, clothing shops and other small businesses. Expect smashed windows and racial attacks-a-plenty as cocksure racists jump at the chance of destroying Bradford. And don't forget an attack on a mosque or two on the week before the event, after dark. The cowardly thugs of the EDL, like Adolf Hitler's Nazis whom they secretly (and openly) support, know the value of instilling fear upon minority communities.
Bear this in mind - Last time around, a measured number of National Front members arriving in Bradford were enough to trigger a riot. This time there could be thousands, the EDL's biggest ever turn-out. Everybody sharing any sort of diverging far right ideals will readily put aside their rivalries, heading to Bradford by coach, train, car, and van hellbent on swarming into Bradford and waging all-out racial warfare, unless they are prevented travelling to Bradford.
If you think these concerns are sheer alarmism, cast yourself into the mindset of a bored hardcore racist who missed out on the action nine years ago, and is now given a chance to get involved in a far more catastrophic repeat of history.
On one particular online football forum, members discussing a possible EDL visit to Bradford believed there would be deaths if another riot took place. Whether or not fatalities will happen, alarm bells should be ringing in the distant hallows of Westminster. Sunday the 30th of May follows the upcoming elections, which, if polls prove correct, may herald in the political instability of a hung parliament. What better time for the far right to make the impact of its presence felt (whether or not Griffin wins a seat for Barking), by causing Britain's worst ever race riot to back up their claims that "multiculturalism is not working".
Forget the EDL's regular drunken boneheaded supporters for a moment. An open EDL gathering in Bradford City Centre is every hardcore neo-Nazi fanatic's wet dream come true. Every racist Tom, Dick and Harry will most surely make their way to Bradford to join in the fighting. If EDL numbers exceed official expectations, reaching the 2000 mark, the drunken EDL mob will be uncontrollable, smashing up Bradford's Lloyds Bar (Wetherspoons), perhaps setting it on fire, before triggering an uncontrollable series of events to provoke minorities and antifascists into a violent reaction, with the police in the middle wading in with dogs, riot shields and batons.
For years Nick Griffin, Simon Darby and Lee Barnes, and others in the BNP/NF and BPP have talked about a racial civil war taking place. Now is the chance for every potential Copeland-style Aryan terrorist lunatic to get their ass down to Bradford and join in the EDL "protest", putting their terrifying plans into action.
Even if there are no fatalities, violent street confrontations will inevitably come at a devastating price for the livelihood of the city and the further loss of retail jobs. Since the tragic National Front-ignited riots of 2001, many small businesses have closed and numerous shoppers have stayed away from the city centre, leading many to describe Central Bradford as a "ghost town", an image not assisted by the upcoming demolishment of the Odeon cinema, the Westfield hole in the ground saga, and a ghetto of pound shops and charity stores.
Since Bradford's last riot, trust between communities has inevitably suffered, revellers and clubbers have travelled elsewhere, university admissions periodically declined, and all across the world, Bradford became world famous as a city of racial tension alongside Los Angeles.
Even today, tell a stranger at a bus stop that you come from Bradford, especially an older person or pensioner, and they will look at you with sympathy, and many won't believe you when you tell them how Bradford has moved on. Bradford has sadly become internationally synomymous with racism and riots, an image impossible to shake-off, and unless the EDL are prevented from gathering in Bradford under emergency anti-racism, anti-terror and public order laws, the city's inage as a hotbed of racial violence and disharmony (far removed from reality), will persist for an eternity.
If record numbers of EDL fascist thugs turn out, defiling Bradford with their raw hate, a million pounds of police budget will not be enough to prevent sporadic violence from kicking off big-time. At previous events, the police have taken a softly-softly approach towards EDL rioters, with minimal arrests. If ineffectual, hands-off policing allows the racist mob to do as they please, and Asian vigilantes take to the streets to defend their own communities from attack, anything might happen.
An emergency government or police ban is an absolute necessity to prevent World War III from erupting in Bradford, and race relations being set back fifty or more years. Bradford is a city of promise, ambition and hope amongst its young, diverse population, with communies represented locally from far afield as Eastern Europe, the West Indies as well as Asia. Bradford has been through a lot, and truly deserves it's chance to get off the floor and bounce back to life, without being kicked back down by the drunken jackboots of a neo-Nazi lynch mob given free reign by feckless governments, local politicians and the police, to destroy one of Britain's most multicultural cities without rebuke.
In Stoke, the EDL hoodlums copied Loyalist terror tactics by phoning up taxi companies making death threats against Muslim drivers. Day by day, month by month the EDL are getting far more menacing. Whether Nick Griffin and the BNP are pulling the strings, as the National Front did in 2001 with its Northern riots, the grounds on which to make the EDL illegal are steadily strengthening, and yet the silence from officialdom is deafening.
In the United States of America, KKK marches are frequently stopped from marching through African-American communities, and in Belfast, Orange Order parades are usually now re-routed away from Catholic areas, so why are is officialdom turning a blind eye to such a blatant disregard of community sensitivities, by allowing a cavalcade of racist chanting and violence in Bradford's Centenary Square?
Answers on a postcard, please.
Bradford is not Nottingham, Manchester or Leeds. As the BNP-supporting white supremacists on Stormfront gleefully ackowledge, Bradford will not survive another full-scale riot!
If the EDL aren't banned from marching in Bradford as a matter of national security, this will be the end of our once-proud city. Guaranteed!
(With historical significance from the English Civil War, the last time the city was on the verge of being ransacked by an invading force of pseudo-patriotic outsiders), "PITY POOR BRADFORD!!!"
“Stoke today was a disaster. We rioted. We throw bottles. We attacked police. Some people were racist.” (EDL forum)
As expected the EDL gathered at the RV point at the train station and were taken by the cops to Wetherspoon’s where they were able to drink under close scrutiny. According to 1 EDL forum poster there was trouble in the pub between 2 firms: “we tried to break it up right away, but the c**ts on the bottom floor throwing s**t did not help.” Outside there were some speeches through an apparently feeble PA system and some got restless and tried to break out to march. According to the EDL forum, the police started to kettle them into a smaller and smaller space, there was a clash with the cops and this sparked off wider unrest with the EDL fighting the police and throwing things at them. The EDL forum claims heavy handed policing and there is no need to doubt this. The EDL represent a volatile challenge to the police who know they are up for confrontation which naturally makes the cops nervous and over-react. Anyone who has been on a rowdy demo or attended a football match will have experienced this.
“Uncontrolled violence. Rioting. Vandalism. All committed in the name of the EDL.” (EDL forum)
As the demo dispersed 500 EDL marched through a predominantly Asian area smashing windows and damaging cars which led to further clashes with the police. According to the BBC there were 17 arrests, 1,500 EDL, 300 UAF, and 600 cops. The EDL’s website still claims to be “peacefully protesting against militant Islam” but yesterday’s behaviour makes this statement nonsense. Stoke was always going to be a potential problem with a strong football firm and local BNP support and the EDL made a concerted effort to get there in numbers yesterday. The police created the pre-conditions for the trouble: putting them in the pub, kettling them and increasing the pressure. Then it kicks off. The police were outnumbered yesterday and the EDL took liberties climbing on and then almost turning over a police van which will no doubt have infuriated the cops.
‘Lamppost Incident’
The EDL Reaction There are mixed reactions on the EDL forum with some of the moderates calling for better organisation and exclusion of known trouble makers and some worried about band-wagon jumpers simply turning up to kick off with the cops. Supporters are also concerned over the alcohol fuelled aggression and calling for internal policing, even handing over unruly elements to the cops - which is not going to please the extremists as this is tantamount to grassing. One poster listed the reasons for the trouble: “In-EDL fighting, Football firms fighting, Attacking the police, Police equipment stolen. Police vans turned over. Lamppost incidents. Racial chants. Speeches not being respected. People not shutting up during a 1 minute silence. The occasional Nazi salute.” The view from the inside is pretty much the view from the outside and it lists the kind of behaviour that has been witnessed at every EDL demo so far. Forum members are calling for official membership cards but this could be dangerous if the list falls into the wrong hands as the BNP membership leaks showed. As of this time, the EDL leadership have yet to make a statement about Stoke.
There was the usual Sieg Heiling despite the leaderships requests not to. The EDL still deny any far right links and on the forum there is resentment of the Nazi presence which could lead to a repeat of yesterday’s infighting. The EDL are ranged right across the far right spectrum with supporters ranging from ‘patriotic’ to the Nazi nutjobs out for violence. The moderate EDLer’s are clearly worried over the effect the Nazis have on public perception. They are also wary of agent provocateurs and there is state interest. A skinhead in full regalia being interviewed by TV was deemed suspect: “Without a doubt he was a plant. I know his ilk and have met his doppelganger ( same s**t same person just cant prove it) many times before.”
EDL Support
The EDL is increasing it’s support on the streets and the demonstrations are increasing in violence and confrontation. However, they are also operating in the short-term. Whilst meeting up for a drink and a crack at the cops and opponents is all good clean fun they are increasing the pressure for the further curbing of civil rights and increasing the likelihood of demonstrations being banned. The government has also raised the level of Terror Alert to Dangerous which has implications for any form of dissent, particularly anti-war demonstrations. The EDL are also attempting to legitimise Islamophobia which similarly helps the government’s agenda as the support for the Afghanistan and Iraq situation is waning and the election draws nigh. The EDL supports the state case for more legislation, surveillance and aggressive policing. The left and far right have both accused the EDL of being state engineered and it is difficult to not suspect this given the stated facts.
There is also the prospect of the EDL filling the vacuum created by Nick Griffin on the far right. As far right antipathy to the BNP increases over finances, jobs for the boys, the non-white membership issue and suspicions over the legitimacy of Griffin as a leader, the EDL are in a position to capitalise on it politically. By organising a political party they will no doubt attract the more extremist voters and benefit from general anti-Muslim sentiment in certain areas. This could also operate as a right wing vote splitting tactic which could well be part of the state agenda. Whether the EDL members have the political will to sustain election campaigns is doubtful unless they can attract former BNP organisers used to generating local supporters.
Learning The Lesson
The anti-fascist turnout yesterday was dismal. Only 300 assorted UAF, community leaders and anti-fascists turned out compared to 1,500 EDL. The EDL tried to break through the police lines to get at the protestors but the cops held firm. Luckily for the anti-fascists as there would have been serious violence. Having the cops protecting anti-fascists gathered in such small numbers is not good. The next official EDL demo is in Dudley on April 4th but there are intimations that Oldham and other towns may see the EDL gather in the more immediate future. Anti-fascists need to get organised to stop them gathering momentum and oppose them in much greater numbers.
An Anarchist problematising the hitherto failed approach of stopping the EDL
When i and other London anarchists/radicals scouted the EDL demo in Brum in sept 2009 they had no more than 100 on the demo and another few dozen more fasc types hanging about the edges looking for trouble. Over the 5 months since then the EDLs numbers, as we predicted, have climbed dramatically while the numbers attending anti- protests has not kept up. Yesterday we are told there were between 1000-1500 EDL and supporters and 300 Antis. And as in Notts IF the thick blue line had not held the Antis would have been done.
While I argued back then that the EDL was politically a new type of politics, that they are loyalist and should be opposed politicaly, and physically only if people attempted to attack muslim areas, the vast majority of anachists (and the Trot left) and particularly on IndyUK, have argued that
1) the EDL are simply fascists
and thus pushed two tactics that
2) the EDL then must be physically opposed and driven from the streets.
and
3) to attack and ridicule them on the internet, a campaign typified by one Indymedia based individual (Mista Journalist/Lozza/Trolldestroya/Harpic/Robesphere/Demmy God/Troll Deflator /Dangermoose etc etc ) which seeks to destroy the EDL (having decided they are Nazis) by identifying the significant neo-fascist involvement in it, and noting their violence and attacks on the police.
So is the analysis correct and are the tactics working?" These are very very simple questions that must be asked and analysed and answered if we are to progress. .
Imho the analysis is incorrect and the tactics are not working. But first who am I comment. Ok, I first got involved with anti-racist and antifascist politics in 1978 when i joined my local "..... Against Racism" and then the ANL (and SWP), which i stayed with till the early 1980s. When ANL was wound down and I moved to London I was on the periphery of AFA,i.e. I attended actions/demos but was not involved in the hits. However as I got more involved in working class and anarchist politics and studied both the history of anti-fascism and the working class it became evident to me that anti-fascism is not an anarchist politics but the politics of the middle class that seeks to defend (as does loyalism ironically) the status quo. And when AFA declared that Anti-fascism in this era could no longer work I agreed 100%. Does this mean fascism should not be opposed? No of course not but it is how. I am also a shop steward for over 20 years and am heavily involved in local radical politics and to a lesser extent @ politics
So 1) is the analysis correct? No it is not. Fascism is the state/capitalism using race or reaction to divide the working class so it can not unite and resist or overthrow it. While in effect the EDL is divisive, on paper and on camera, unlike fascist groups, the EDL continuously argues it is multi-ethnic and anti-racist and anti-fascist and indeed of its top activists there are mixed race and jewish. And in December EDL activists after being taunted over race attacked and beat up nazis in Whitehall, London.
Yes the EDL has fascists involved, but mostly on the periphery, but if you study their forums, as I do, you will see a very strong rejection of fascism as 'anti-british' and a rejection of 'racism' as 'anti british'. It is clear to me as someone who has studied groups like this for over 30 years that the EDL are not 'fascist' but 'loyalist'. That means they want to defend 'britain' and 'britishness'. And here lies the problem. While 'britain' is on many ways progressive ( EDL continuously counterpose and defend liberal british values re women and gays and race against conservative fundamentalist islamist attitudes) it is also playing a role in the world that EDL supporters simply do not acknowledge. So the EDL ends up being a defender of not only progressive social attitudes but more importantly a state and all that goes along with that, a defence of privilage, of class division, and of invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. They while not fascist are then still extremely dangerous and divisive.
And then so how are the liberal anarchist tactics outlined above working?
2) Attempts to oppose the EDL physically have been a total failure. Indeed if it were not for the police on several occasions the Anti-s would have been quite simply mullahed.
and 3) The info/disinfo/ridicule tactic probably does work to an extent and it is useful to an extent that the links are publicised but sadly the links have been regularly exaggerated and confused which has led the mass of anarchists to make 2+2=5 and then react wrongly. See above.
So clearly we are at an impasse. Neither tactic is working. So can and should the EDL be opposed? Yes and yes. But loyalism as is the EDL ( and it is the same for fascism), can only be opposed from inside the working class and any attempts to oppose it from the outside contribute to it's growth.
But first we have to properly understand what we are dealing with. And that is a movement that has come out of a working class army background in fury at what they saw as insult to their comrades, and has drawn to it 1) thousends of angry and disempowered young men, who btw have every right to be angry as they have been disempowered by capital. They are drawn to EDL as it is offers a simple outlet for that anger against an 'enemy within' and one critically that the state will allow. If a similar angry violent street movement had been developed against e.g. the bankers it would of course have been attacked by the state. These youth while racist in a casual way (deal with it @s, thats life outside your ghetto) are not fascists BUT if we stay in our ghettos and regard all these kids AS fascists it is more likely they will become so. And 2) ?? who is behind EDL; EDL undoubtedly is playing a role in the so called 'war on terror' and i doubt very much whether they are at the very least not being given tacit support by Suits at one level or other particularly if you note their army connections
We have an historic opportunity. Capitalism is at it's most doubted for 50 years and the state is despised by most people. And the authoritarian left are at an historic low point in their acceptance in the working class. If we are to stop reaction we must have the respect of and the ear of those who are drawn to it. None of us takes a blind bit if notice of people who we neither respect nor even know especially if they are shouting at us, saying they want to attack us!
Libertarians and anarchists have a simple choice. Remain on the outside of the working class (and end up a victim of reaction from the surging EDL or BNP) or become part of the class and create a progressive working class movement that will draw youth away form reaction like the EDL and maybe even a movement that can one day overthrow the state and capitalism. It is in our hands.
