Anti-Fascist Network

Meet in Rotherham at 11am, Saturday 10th May.

Location to be announced nearer to the time.

Facebook event

This Saturday 10th May, the EDL have called a national demo in Rotherham. We all know EDL national demos are not what they once were, but unfortunately the climate of racist hysteria, Islamophobia and immigrant-scapegoating is greater than ever. This means although the EDL may only pull 200 people to Rotherham, the need to stand up against them is also as great as ever. Five years ago there were NO far-right mobs marching through British towns – we should not rest on our laurels that now there are ‘only’ 200 or 300 of them.

Although with the upcoming elections, anti-racists’ and anti-fascists’ attention is on UKIP,  the nasty wannabe “foot-soldiers” of the EDL exist in a reciprocal relationship with the more mainstream racism of UKIP. Every time the EDL manage to march through a town centre chanting their nonsensical racist slogans other racists feel emboldened to express their views openly. It is all part of the mainstreaming of racism.

Supposedly the excuse for this racist mob outing is ‘Muslim grooming gangs’ despite the EDL themselves containing a sizeable number of paedophiles and sex offenders who they seem reluctant to acknowledge or deal with.

Of course as swiftly becomes obvious for anyone who looks at it for more than 5 minutes, the EDL don’t care about victims of grooming gangs, in the same way they don’t care about the oppression of women or animals in slaughterhouses. The only thing that interests them about any of these things is if it gives them an opportunity to stir up hatred against Muslims. They are always remarkably silent about any of their pet causes when the perpetrator does not appear to fit their racist agenda. They are especially silent about the animal-abusing, women-beating, sex-offending paedophiles in their own ranks.

There are more examples than you would ever want to look at here: edlcriminals.com

The EDL outnumbered and surrounded on a previous visit to the Sheffield area

Here’s the call-out to oppose the EDL from Sheffield AFN:

“The English Defence League are coming to Rotherham on Saturday 10th May, and anti-fascists from Rotherham and Sheffield will be there to oppose them.

For updates on the demo and anti-fascism in South Yorkshire, you can follow us on Twitter @SheffieldAFN or email sheffieldafn@riseup.net

The EDL will talk about sensitive issues like child grooming or the murder of Lee Rigby to try and drum up support. But they don’t have any real answers to the issues they talk about, or any suggestions for how to make life better. They just want to come to town , wave their flags around and go home, leaving the rest of us to clean up the mess that they’ve made. When racists exploit sensitive issues to stir up tensions in our communities, it makes life harder for everyone.

Join us in the streets to let these racists know they’re not welcome round here. We know life in South Yorkshire isn’t perfect by any means, but we want to work with all our neighbours and workmates to make it better, not make things worse by letting racists set us against each other.

We recognise that we cannot rely on others to keep us safe from racists and fascists – it is up to us to organise together to defeat the far-right. They get their power from being able to mobilise on the streets. We believe in opposing them there and confronting them in numbers. But effective anti-fascism needs all sorts of actions, from handing out leaflets to holding community meetings as well as turning out on demonstrations.”

Sheffield AFN Facebook

UAF mobilisation

UAF are also organising a “peaceful multicultural celebration” against the EDL, starting at 11am, location TBC.

UAF Facebook event