So far this weekend has seen two far-right events in the UK: a nationalist rally in Glasgow’s George Sq celebrating Scotland’s “No” vote, and a national EDL march in Central London.
On Friday night, loyalists, British nationalists and fascists gathered in George Sq, central Glasgow to celebrate the “no” vote. The rally started peacfully enough but soon descended into violence as members of the far right chanted “no surrender”, waved Ulster Unionist flags, nazi saluted and attacked “yes” voters. There are multiple reports that the Scottish Defence League, National Front and Britain First were in attendance, although this has not been confirmed. There are, however, multiple confirmations of far-right chanting and nazi-saluting. It seems very probable that far right groups were out in force last night.
A loyalist protester nazi-salutes. Screencap taken from this video.
Another nazi-saulte, taken from twitter.
The Scottish Descrier newspaper is claiming that Britain First had a hand in organising last night’s ruckus, based on the image below, which was posted on Britain First’s facebook page.
An image posted on Britain First’s Facebook page.
The level of far-right involvement is unclear at the moment, although it seems certain that there was a significant amount. Was is clear, however, is that multiple people were attacked and injured, with the majority of unionists getting away with it (Police have said they made 3 arrests on the night). The danger now is that this incident will give confidence to the Far Right in the UK. Antifascists must be on guard for this.
On the other side of the the country, the EDL have held a national demonstration at Downing St, opposed by the UAF. Initial report-backs say there were between 3/400 EDL present, and around 100 brave antifascists opposing them. It seems that the majority of the EDL were late for their own demo (surprise surprise), meaning unfortunately lots of antifascists had left by the time the main EDL block marched down from Trafalgar Sq. Those that remained chanted against the EDL, drowning out much of their hate speech.
Although the EDL have failed so far to capitalise on the Rotherham case to the same level as they did in the aftermath of the Lee Rigby attack, 400 EDL marching down Whitehall is still worrying. It is clear the EDL are experiencing something of a resurgence in popularity recently (350 marched in Batley, 600 or more in Rotherham and now 400 in London). It is the job of antifascists to combat them on the streets where ever they rear their unwelcome heads, to make sure this is just a flash in the pan and not a long-term trend. The next EDL demo is Oct 11th in Birmingham. See you on the streets.
Anti-Fascist Network 
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