Anti-Fascist Network

Sunday was a successful day for anti-fascists.

The ‘Brexit Betrayal’ March

Tommy Robinson’s attempt to officially link up with UKIP and use the Brexit chaos to springboard himself into position as leader of some sort of right-wing Brexit resistance appears to have stalled somewhat. The ‘Brexit Betrayal’ demo seems to have got about 3000-5000 people out and didn’t really have a lot of energy. Despite a coming together of UKIP, the DFLA, Tommy’s fan-base and the Brexit vote a mere two days away, it failed to muster the energy or numbers that we had feared.

A few days prior to the demo Tommy Robinson had said: “If we pull off Sunday you will see the launch, and the momentum will build, for a revolutionist populist party and political movement in this country”.

Thankfully this didn’t look like the beginning of a far-right revolution. Compared to the ‘Free Tommy’ demos earlier in the year or DFLA demos from last year, this was small numbers. 3-5000 people turning out for a fairly explicitly far-right Islamophobic demo in central London is however, still very disturbing and not to be treated lightly.

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Main Facebook event

Here’s the latest on what will be one of the biggest and most important mobilisations against the far-right this year.

Tommy Robinson and UKIP , supported by the DFLA have called a ‘Brexit Betrayal’ demo on Sunday 9th December. They are currently believed to be planning a re-run of the route of the October 13th DFLA demo from Park Lane to Whitehall, but new details may emerge over the next days.

The counter demo to this that was originally called for Parliament Square is now meeting at 11.00am at Portland Place, outside the BBC. This is supported by a large coalition of groups from across the left including Momentum, Plan C, Feminist Anti-Fascist Assembly, Global Justice Now, ourselves and many others.

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Facebook event here

Serial hate-monger Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (“Tommy Robinson”) has called a “Brexit Betrayal” march in London on Sunday December 9th in an attempt to stoke right-wing anger over the Brexit crisis and manoeuvre himself into position as leader of the angry, ‘betrayed’ Brexit voters.

Yaxley-Lennon has recently got himself appointed UKIP leader Gerard Batten’s “special advisor”. This finally seals the deal of UKIP’s steady march further and further right. Now they appear to be happy to be associated with an ex-BNP member, football hooligan, EDL founder and serial fraudster. Not that surprising given their recent history, but still a significant point – a political party that won the last Euro elections is now so closely linked with Tommy Robinson.

This is a critical moment. If at a moment of national crisis with everything up in the air, a racist Islamophobe like Tommy Robinsion is allowed to position himself as the representative of everyone who voted for Brexit and foment a right-wing backlash with himself at the front of it, far-right politics will be pushed even further into the mainstream.

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by London Antifascists

There’s no doubt about it, #stopdfla was a good day out for anti-fascists, and an absolutely terrible showing for the Democratic Football Lads’ Alliance. Over 1000 militant antifascists from a broad coalition of groups mobilised for a vibrant, proudly anti-fascist unity demonstration which didn’t allow the police or the fascists to set its agenda. It went, for the most part, where it wanted. The addition of another 500-800 participants on a Stand Up To Racism rally in Old Palace Yard meant that, for the first time in London in 2018, anti-fascists outmatched what the far right were able to pull onto the street. The Unity demo’s call out was for Portland Place at 12pm, and ten minutes after noon the numbers of anti-fascist protesters, ranging from seasoned to newly recruited activists, was quickly growing. Soon afterwards, a large and dynamic contingent of women and non-binary anti-fascists approached the meet up point to join the Anti-Fascist Network grouping, and our numbers swelled. Anticipation among the crowds grew, and despite intel suggesting a potential risk of the demo being attacked by fascist hoolies at the meet up point, everyone assembled safely. We’re confident if they did happen to be in the area they’d have taken one look at our numbers, how organised our blocs were, and thought better of it.

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UNITY DEMONSTRATION AGAINST THE DFLA – SATURDAY 13th OCTOBER

12:00, BBC BROADCASTING CENTRE, PORTLAND PLACE, LONDON

As you may have already heard, Tommy Robinson’s footsoldiers, the ‘Democratic Football Lads Alliance’, otherwise known as the EDL Mk2, are planning on marching in London this Saturday 13th October. The DFLA have formed the backbone and the main numbers on the streets for all the recent hate-filled Islamophobic ‘Free Tommy’ protests, including the demo back in July where RMT trade unionists got attacked in the pub and a female Muslim bus driver was surrounded and taunted.

The DFLA have attracted all the elements of the old far-right – at their most recent demo in Sunderland they marched with EDL and BNP members as well as members of banned neo-Nazi terror group National Action. The DFLA includes members convicted of racist and far-right violence. They are happy associating with white supremacist groups like Generation Identity and their leaders hang out with with Ulster Loyalist terrorists and post Nazi propaganda online.

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