East Midlands Anti-fascists

The brutal murder of Jo Cox MP is a tragic reminder of the very real physical threat fascism poses.

The British media have been hesitant to describe Thomas Mair as a terrorist. Early reports emphasised what a good neighbour he was, or that he was known locally as a loner.

There is overwhelming evidence that Thomas Mair was inspired by fascist politics:

• Eyewitness reports suggest that he shouted, Britain First” as he launched the attack
• The Southern Poverty Law Centre, a hatewatch group in the US, have uncovered receipts showing that he purchased $620 of books from the neo-Nazi Nationalist Alliance including fascist propaganda and guides to making improvised weapons.
• The far-right Springbok Club described him as “one of the earliest subscribers and supporters of ‘S.A. Patriot'”.
• He had at least two letters published in the South African Patriot in Exile (which succeeded the SA Patriot)  in 1991 and 1999. In these he condemned “White liberals and traitors” who he blamed for the downfall of Apartheid. He stated that he had “faith that the White Race will prevail, both in Britain and in South Africa, but I fear that it’s going to be a very long and very bloody struggle.”
• According the the Southern Poverty Law Centre, in 2000 Mair attended a meeting with members of the BNP and William Pierce, then leader of the Nationalist Alliance. They also suggest that John Tyndall (former BNP leader) was aware of Mair.
• Police searching his house are reported to have discovered Nazi regalia and far-right literature.
• A photo on the website of Britain First appears to show Mair alongside other members of the group’s “Northern Division”.
• At his first court appearance he gave his name as “death to traitors, freedom for Britain.”

Lone wolves

Mair is unusual amongst wannabe fascist terrorists in that he actually managed to kill somebody. However, there have been no shortage of attempts over the last few years. Here are just a few we know about:

• In September 2015, Mark Colborne was found guilty of preparing terrorist acts. He had purchased the ingredients for making cyanide. His politics appear to have been… unique, but notes expressed hatred for “non-Aryans” whom he referred to as “blacks and Caucasian idiots”.
• In January 2015, Zack Davies attacked Sarandev Bhambra, a Sikh, with a machete and hammer shouting “white supremacy”, “this is revenge” and “this is for Lee Rigby.”
• In 2014, Bret Atkins and Jamie Snow, has their sentences extended after they tried to send a letter bomb to a Halifax solicitors from prison. According to the police,they chose “victims purely on the grounds of their race or religion… expressed deeply racist and anti-Muslim views and sent a series of threatening letters designed to instil fear in their recipients” before moving beyond mere threats.
• In March 2014, Ian Forman was found guilty of a plot to blow up mosques in Merseyside. Forman frequently expressed his racist ideology and views against the disabled to friends and workmates.
• In 2013 the three members of the “United Rebel Army” were arrested in Loughborough. They had stockplied materials to make weapons to carry out a “new Colombine” (more on this below).
• In 2013, Pavlo Lapshyn placed bombs outside three mosques in the West Midlands. The only reason nobody died was because he’d got the timing wrong. It later emerged that he’d stabbed Mohammed Saleem, an 82 year-old Muslim grandfather in April of that year.
• In 2010, father and son Nicky and Ian Davison were both found guilty of terrorist offences. The pair were members of the neo-Nazi “Aryan Strike Force”.

We can thank a very British amateurishness for the failure of these groups and individuals to do more damage and kill more people.  Mair demonstrates that we can’t rely on that.

Mental illness

It has also been widely reported that Mair was mentally ill. We are not in a position to comment on these reports. If true, it would not be the first time that vulnerable people had been drawn in by fascist ideas.

In 2014, Michael Piggin a teenager from Loughborough was tried at the Old Bailey accused of planning a “new Colombine”.

Piggin was a self-proclaimed member of the English Defence League. His bedroom was decorated with a swastika and newspaper cuttings about Norweigan fascist terrorist Anders Breivik. His plans were detailed in a Che Guevara notebook, the cover of which he had supplemented with a swastika, SS runes and the slogan “EDL no surrender British and proud”.

When he was arrested in February 2013, police discovered an arsenal of bombs and weapons including partially assembled petrol bombs and pipe bombs.

The fellow members of his “United Rebel Army,” later named as Jacob Crouch and Ryan Towell, both pled guilty to possessing explosives. However, following his arrest, Piggin was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome (a form of autism). His defence argued that his plans were never serious and his condition “was the lens through which they must view his behaviour”.

After two trials failed to reach a verdict, the judge ordered that Piggin be detained under the Mental Health Act.

None of this is to suggest that there is some simple correlation between mental illness or non-neuro-typical individuals and violence. The real world is very different to a slasher movie or a Batman comic. One in four of us will experience mental illness at some point in our lives. Only a tiny fraction of mentally ill people become violent.

Clearly, however, some vulnerable people are susceptible to racist ideology. Anti-immigrant racism is being pushed ever more loudly, reaching new lows in the EU Referendum campaign. At the same time the impact of austerity and government-imposed NHS restructuring is hitting mental health services hard. That could prove to be a toxic combination.

What now?

Defeating lone wolf fascists is tough. There are no easy answers and we’re not going to pretend there are.

Our fundamental task remains challenging fascists whenever they show their heads. This may reduce the risk from lone wolves. (As “radicalisation” requires somebody to do the radicalising, this can’t hurt.) Even if it doesn’t, organised fascism in and of itself remains a real physical threat both to those on the left and to ethnic minorities.

It was their third attempt to “take back” the streets of Nottingham, and Notts Casual Infidels had threatened to “smash the reds”. On their first demo in October last year, the Market Square was taken by antifascists and refugees before they could leave the pub. They came back with 15 pitiful racists to be humiliated again later in the year but this time they had been building for months to make Saturday their big one. It was not to be.

Spot the fash: Where are ya?

Despite calling favours from mates from all round the country (fascists travelled from Halifax, London and Sussex), less than 20 bothered to turn up. Despite the presence of hundreds of police to facilitate their march they were forced to hold their rally in an alley, about 50 yards from their pub, penned in at both ends by antifa and other pissed-off members of the local population. They waved a UKIP placard, and were bundled onto a bus by police anxious to get them to the station and out of town before any of them was seriously injured. It was all over by 3.

Casuals Infidels sounding very much like they’re about to surrender

It wasn’t long before recrimations were flying. Nottingham EDL’s Jack Stevens and Adam Repton were spotted by antifascists staggering out of an off-licence, moaning about how it was all organised by Nazis from out of town.  Incidentally, Repton, who didn’t go to the demo, was also seen having a long and involved chat with a suspected undercover cop.  I hope he knew what he was doing!

Then Chesterfield EDL’s John Bryan slagged off the demo’s “star attraction”, Pete Gillett, a racist bedroom ranter who came all the way from West Sussex. Bryan claimed Gillett was only in it for the money (no change for the far right there then!) and Gillett swore he wouldn’t do any more demos because “I do not want to rub shoulders with cunts like them“. Oh dear.  if you’re short of cash, perhaps you’ll have to take up the drug dealing again Pete – or try working as a Matt Lucas impersonator?

Speaking of scamming, what were the – doubtless unlicensed – Casual Infidels doing collecting donations in a Cancer Research bucket all day? Let’s just say it wouldn’t be the first time that ‘patriots’ have been involved in bogus collections of money.

Mansfield infidel Jamie Upton (‘Daniel Hall’) shows some schoolkids how to scam the public when you run out of beer money

Meanwhile, antifascists had another morale-boosting day. The fascists were out-manouvered and out-numbered for the third time in a row. Their march was stopped, and no one heard their poisonous message or even saw them. Antifascists had the run of the streets and the opportunity to engage with the public whilst the fascists hid behind rows of police. It was another public demonstration that militant antifascism works and keeps Nazi scum off the streets.

After their underwhelming protest in Nottingham in October, the Notts Casual Infidels had another go on December 5th, under  the guise of ‘Nottingham Against Mass Immigration’.  This time the ex-EDL rump organised with more notice and agreed a march route with the police – as so often, “we go where we want” translates as “we go where the police tell us“.  They were clearly hoping to attract more than the 20-odd they attracted on their first foray.  It didn’t go so well for them….

They met up at the Waterfront pub on the side of the canal near the railway station, for the usual pre-demo dutch courage. 

As the area around the pub quickly became occupied by a sizeable crowd of antifascists, the police spent some time working out how they would get the Casual Infidels on to the march route.  A surprisingly small group of hapless fascists soon lined up behind heavy police numbers, and off they went.

The Casual Infidels numbered around 15 – even less than their previous effort.  A large anti-fascist crowd quickly blocked the street in front of the fascists, and attempted to prevent the fascist march from progressing.  However, a huge and concerted police effort saw the march pushed through, and on to the busy main road near the pub.  After much push-and-pull with antifascists, and kettling some of them in a side-street, the police managed to escort the tiny Casual Infidel march towards the town centre, harassed and harangued by antifascists all the way.

The end point of the march brought home how lame the Casual Infidels day out in Nottingham was; about 10 of them (some having slunk off already!) corralled behind fencing and a large number of police in a side street, and essentially invisible to the public; meanwhile a much larger number of antifascists leafletted the main shopping street and taunted the minature fascist mobilization.

All in all, a good result for the antifascists, and a reverse for the Notts Casual Infidels – time to give it up lads….

On the evening of October the 19th, a group calling itself Notts Casual Infidels organised a protest in Nottingham against “Uncontrolled Immigration” (the fact that immigration is ‘uncontrolled’ in the UK will come as a surprise to migrants imprisoned in detention centres, but let’s leave that aside for now).  A group of about 20 fascists spent a while drinking themselves brave in a Wetherspoons pub on the City’s Market Square, before venturing out to wave a large St.George’s Flag and a home-made banner.

They stood on the edge of the square with their flag for a while, opposed by a much larger anti-fascist group, mobilized at short notice.  When the anti-fascists, numbering about 100, moved towards the pub, the police formed lines to keep the two groups separate.

A familiar face on the demo was Jimmy Saville fan Bob Brindley, aka “Nottingham BNP”.  He stood at the edge of the NCI contingent, waving his grubby Union Jack.  He quickly scuttled off when the antifascist demo moved closer.

It seems the NCI are linked to the remains of Nottinghamshre EDL – note the rotund guy on the left in this photo from the evening…

Craig Burridge

He’s Craig Burridge, from Worksop EDL.  Here he is again at the anti-mosque march in Lincoln in July…..

In the gutter, gazing at the bars…

Also from Worksop EDL was Andrew Shaw….

Andrew Shaw

Here’s an ex-Nottingham EDL activist – melancholic chauvinist Adam Repton (in the cap):

The NCI spokesperson on the evening was Jamie Upton…

‘Honest Jamie’

Upton also used to be a prominent local EDL activist, but fell foul of the EDL hierarchy in January, accused of stealing funds.  So, it looks like the NCI is another of the many little splinter groups that have emerged from the remains of the EDL (in this case, perhaps with suspiciously full pockets….).  It could be said that they are, ironically, themselves refugees from the wreck of the EDL.

Some more photos of the NCI on the evening…

After a while, the NCI dispersed, and after being shepherded around the market square by the police, went back into the pub, to enjoy the traditional far-right pastime of drinking beer under the watchful eye of the constabulary.

The antifascist counter-protest subsequently dispersed, with one arrest as someone tried to break through police lines.   Some time later, the NCI finally emerged from the warm shelter of the pub and took a photo of themselves on the empty steps of the Council House.  They had an abandoned UAF placard with them as a ‘trophy’….recovered from a bin on the market square!

We go where we want (as long as all the antifascists have gone home)

It’s fair to say that the NCI’s first demo was hardly a success – they were heavily outnumbered, and spent most of the evening being slowly pushed back into the pub by police.  The highlight of their evening’s political activity seems to be a sign found in a bin – whatever floats your boat, lads….

On Sat July 25th, the EDL held a demo against construction of Lincoln’s first mosque.  This had been the subject of previous far-right protest in 2013, and the EDL have jumped on the issue in an attempt to boost their flagging support.

About 120 attended the EDL event, marching from The Anchor pub to Cornhill…

Another town, another pub, usual muppets

A counter-demo organised by Lincoln Against Racism and Fascism attracted about 100 anti-fascists, who marched to the City Square.

Police kept the two marches apart, and there were no arrests.

This is a really bad time for the electoral ambitions of the far right.  In the run-up to the most unpredictable General Election for many years, the far right are nowhere.  With their own little parties in disarray, and most of their thunder stolen by the rise of UKIP (more on that later), only three candidates in the East Midlands are stepping up to lose their deposits on Thursday.  In Lincolnshire, the ludicrous pretend vicar Robert West is standing for the BNP in Boston & Skegness, whilst Cathy Duffy is the BNP candidate for Charnwood in Leicestershire.  The English Democrat’s one candidate in the region is the party’s National Secretary Derek Hilling, standing in Kettering, Northants; the ED were hoping to contest at least three seats in the county, but have decided not to spread their meagre resources too thinly, and are going all out behind Derek.  Hmm….

Rabbit in the headlights….Derek Hilling

There are more far-right candidates in the local council elections, also to be held on Thursday.

The BNP have Cathy Duffy (again) standing in Charnwood.  Duffy is an endangered species, being one of only two BNP councillors in the whole country, and the only one in the East Midlands.  We’ll see if she manages political survival on Thursday.  Meanwhile, the Derbyshire Blackshirt Paul Hilliard is standing, as usual, in Derby; and Marc Whitestone is standing in East Northamptonshire.

The English Democrats have two candidates, Oliver Healey and David Haslett, in Leicester.

The British Democratic Party, an Andrew Brons-inspired BNP breakaway, are standing five candidates in Leicestershire, which they regard as their stronghold – Kevan Stafford, Chris Canham, Julia Green and Paul Newman in Charnwood, and virulent muslim-hater Graham Partner in North-West Leics.

This blog has been quiet for a few months, partly because we’ve been busy with other projects, and partly because there has been very little to report from the far-right in our region.  However, this happy absence of muppets has ended with a day-trip by Britain First to Nottingham last Saturday.

Britain First in action earlier in the year – reclaiming the flat cap for fascism

We hear that about 15-20 of the BNP offshoot were in the city leafletting as part of their”national action”.  Easy to spot in their green knock-off leisurewear, their main focus seemed to be attempting to intimidate an islamic info street stall.  The wannabe “street defence organisation” were apparently taken aback at the refusal of the young muslims to wilt before their verbal onslaught, and a number of passersby also showed their disdain for Britain First and their clumsy attempt at provocation.  After a bit of standing around and scowling, the fascists dispersed.

Having been countered by effective opposition when they declared a “national tour” earlier in the year, and more recently in Rochester, Britain First have obviously decided that turning up unannounced gives them a chance to mobilise with no organised opposition.  It’s a shame that they were able to leaflet unchallenged for a while in Nottingham, but good to hear that they were not well received on the streets.  Despite their clownish incompetence, Britain First are attempting to establish themselves as a provocative fascist street presence, and anti-fascists need to keep an eye out for them and counter them wherever they may crawl into the light.

We hear reports that the EDL (remember them?) have been active, in a manner of speaking, in north Notts. In March, a group of five held a flash demo outside the Savanna Rags factory in Mansfield, where 30 immigrant workers had recently been arrested for illegal working.  What exactly this has to do with the EDL’s stated purpose of “protesting about islamic extremism” is unclear….

More recently, the EDL latched onto the anniversary of the grim murder of soldier Lee Rigby to hold a “memorial walk” in Sutton-in-Ashfield on May 25th (despite the Rigby family’s opposition to political groups attempting to take advantage of his death).  Around 20 EDL turned up, and were opposed by a similar number of anti-fascists in Sutton.

Despite police attempts to keep the two groups apart, after a brief scuffle the EDL were left minus one of their flags.  This is reminiscent of an occasion four years ago not so far away in Ripley, when the NF lost a flag to anti-fascists, and also echoes successful games of antifa “capture the flag” played at various demos this year….

Mansfield and Ashfield EDL may be small and incompetent, but they seem to be trying to get out on the streets locally, and so anti-fascists will be watching them with interest.

Last week’s elections for the European parliament were a significant national success story for UKIP, and the East Midlands echoed this unwelcome trend.  UKIP polled first in our region with 32.9% of the vote – one of the highest proportions returned from any region.  There are now two UKIP, two tory and one labour MEPs in the East Midlands.

The results for the small far-right parties were, happily, very poor.  Mirroring their national decline, the BNP polled only 1.64% of the East Midlands vote (down from 8.7% in 2009, the largest percentage downswing of any party).  They got even less votes here than the new and obscure AIFE eurosceptic party, and their disastrous electoral meltdown continues.  Ex-MEP Nick Griffin is vowing to continue as party leader – welcome news for anti-fascists, who applaud the greedy incompetent as he drags the BNP further into the political wilderness.  Keep up the good work, Nick!

The English Democrats polled just over 1%, down from 2.3% in 2009.

Derbyshire BNP freefall continues

As predicted, the BNP’s four candidates in the region polled very poorly in Thursday’s local council elections.

In Amber Valley, Derbyshire, Ken Cooper came in fourth place in Ripley Ward with 80 votes – 3.2% of the poll.  In Codnor & Waingroves ward, Alan Edwards also came fourth with 39 votes, 2.8% of the poll.  However, both BNP candidates narrowly beat the LibDems into fifth place.  These results are even poorer than the 2010 elections, when the BNP polled 7.5% in Ripley and 4.2% in Codnor & Waingroves.

In Derby, Paul Hilliard came last in Chaddesden ward with 4% of the poll (136 votes), whilst Carol Tucker also came last in Derwent ward, with 3.1% (84 votes).  This is a significant drop from their performance in similar elections in 2012, when Hilliard polled 14.7% in Chaddesden and Julie Fuller polled 11.9% in Derwent.  That performance was itself a disappointment for the BNP in 2012 – how much lower can they go?

We have been enjoying Derbyshire BNP’s downhill trajectory for a few years now, and it’s good to see it continue.

New UKIP councillors

The most significant feature of the local elections was the dramatic rise in fortunes of UKIP.  They now have increased representation on several local councils in the region, with 8 councillors in North-East Lincolnshire, 3 in Daventry, and 2 in Derby.

Whilst enjoying the increased electoral irrelevance of the BNP and their ilk, the entry into the mainstream of a new brand right-wing nationalism in the guise of UKIP poses significant fresh challenges for antifascists.  We will be monitoring UKIP in the region closely.  This piece from the IWCA, written a year ago, is an interesting contribution to this vital issue.