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This is not England – this is Brighton!

20 04 2013

The waiting is almost over, tomorrow is going to see the extreme right wing try to take revenge on a town that keeps telling them to fuck off. The police seem to be taking the threat to locals seriously and have issued a number of draconian measures for the fascists to abide by. There’s a write up here in the Brighton Argus. Whilst trolling through the fascist facebook pages it’s hilarious to see them complaining about the police tactics, and whinging on about being persecuted whilst at the same time posting threats and discussing ‘smashing the reds’. Maybe they should not be so quick to critisise the police – these measures maybe meant to protect them?!

Av what?

Unfortunately for those keyboard warriors who don’t manage to find an excuse for bailing out at the last minuet, a lot of the facebook material that’s already been screen grabbed could be used by the pigs to have them up on conspiracy to commit violent disorder charges should anything happen. By contrast the Antifascist campaign leading up to the day has been entirely reasonable, we are not the ones who’ve blustered about this for months and made violent threats to anyone who’ll listen. If the fascists can’t follow through on their threats they’re going to look very weak.

Hope Not Hate and EDL News have reported that Casuals United led by Jeff Marsh have come up with an ingenious plan to wear all black and try to mingle with Antifascists. At first this might seem like a fairly clever idea, until you think about how outnumbered they are going to be, and the fact that we’ve been doing this for years, good luck with that lads! – Most antifascists know each other! Many fascists (including Marshy who will be staying at the Worthing Travel Lodge) will be making their way to Brighton today, some with no intention at all of going to the demo, they will probably try to mob up in pubs waiting for an easy target. Needless to say antifascists will be on alert throughout the weekend.

The media spotlight will be on the demo, and it will be the mass mobilisation of the decent folk who live in the town that are going to put an end to this pathetic parade and ultimately win the day. Twitter users who spot groups of fascists not on the march can use @stopmfe to pass on that, or any other info.

For any first time antifascists – stay aware, stick with your group, try to get a bust card with legal info on, and write a solicitors number on your arm. maybe have a look at Green and Black Cross.

Have a great day – See you on the Streets.

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Categories : events

Stealing A March – Far right march in Brighton to be met with counter-protest.

15 04 2013

To give those travelling to Brighton on Sunday a taste of how the town is gearing up for the fascist scum here is a repost from Brightons weekly free sheet Schnews.

Oh Christ ..not again. About as welcome as the arrival of Jimmy Saville at an orphanage, it’s time for the outbreak of political venereal disease that is the March for England – set to tarnish the streets of Brighton again on April 21st. Following last year’s diverse, determined and ultimately effective opposition to the march, Brighton has become an emblematic issue on the far-right. They received a shock when a town they considered to be populated by communist homosexual freaks wasn’t the walkover they expected. The usual blood-curdling threats have been issued but nothing can conceal the panic on the far-right that Brighton will once again mount a succesful defence against racism and homophobia.

The March for England (MfE), confusingly the name of their organisation as well as their main event of the year, is a predecessor of the English Defence League and very much part of the counter-jihadist extreme right. Their focus is on a sense of English rather than British identity and opposition to Islam. In public they claim not to be racist but a trawl through the Facebook and Twitter feeds of their followers soon turns up terms of racist abuse and digging a little deeper uncovers the wonderful world of outright white supremacism (check out EDL News for a quick dip in the sewer if you must.). Their trade-marked chant of “You’re not English any more” is directed at anyone who disagrees with the narrow definition of what it means to be ‘English’.

Although the annual march in Brighton is the main public event organised by the group, their banners can be found at many other far-right protests across the country. Following the slow-motion collapse of the EDL over the last year MfE’s organisers have tried to distance themselves from the League, but their membership overlaps significantly with all the little splinter groups that have sprung up after the demise of Tommy’s little troopers. Dave Smeeton, the Portsmouth based organiser of the march, has been doing the rounds of any far-right group that will have him and appealing for unity on the right. For a full rundown anti-fascist coalition Stop the March for England have provided a fact-file. Organisations claiming that they’ll be making the trip to Brighton include an alphabetti spaghetti of the far-right SEA, NWFF, SIOE, NWI etc etc. How many of these groups are the same ten men under a variety of pseudonyms remains to be seen.

Certainly MfE view a successful march in Brighton as an essential first step in rebuilding the far-right – making effective opposition all the more important.

MESSAGE OF HATE

MfE have been coming to Brighton on the St George’s Day weekend for the last six years. At first they were given (in true Brighton style) the benefit of the doubt – a flag draped parade to celebrate the death of a dragon might not be everyone’s thing but whatever floats your boat, right? However MFE took the lack of opposition as a victory and showed their true colours by chanting racist and homophobic abuse. Since then the opposition has grown year on year.

Last year saw over a thousand counter-demonstrators out on the streets, and despite a massive operation by Sussex Police the march route was cut short as the road was blocked and barricaded. The fash were surrounded in their own pen and jeered out of town. For a full write-up FASH, BANG, WALLOP and for an excellent film of the day see This is not England this is Brighton.

Taking note, Sussex police have made the decision to move the march to the more easily policed sea front road. This alone is a victory for anti-fascists. The plan is to bring them in on buses from an as yet undisclosed train station to the march start point at Palace Pier, march them from there to Middle Street and back, and allow them to have a rally before putting them on buses for the return journey. The march is scheduled to begin at 12 noon but anti-fascist coalition Stop the March for England are urging supporters to gather in the vicinity of Palace Pier from 11 a.m to the line the route and “drown out the message of hate”. (See map below for route)

A word from our sponsors: “The real victory of the last year was a whole town saying ‘NO’. This had a knock on effect across the country and put Brighton on the anti-fascist map. The racists are desperate to make up ground so we urge everyone to stand together and give them a real Brighton welcome. Stay alert and be ready to move – see you on the streets.”

To get updates in the run-up and on the day @stopmfe on Twitter #stopmfe and StopMfe website

Fact-File on the March for England.

CASUAL INDIFFERENCE

As a minor footnote nine or so MfE types turned up to counter-protest the Unite Against Fascism meeting on Thursday night. Autonomous anti-fascists gathered to greet them. In the event thanks to the cops having everyone under heavy manners it amounted to what one anti-fascist told SchNEWS was “a supervised conversation with the fash”. Anti-fascists stood in the MfE demo, which had a celebrity guest appearance from Jeff “Casuals United” Marsh who is apparently down in Brighton to clear out Wetherspoons larder. In the event the MfE couldn’t deviate from the script and were still bellowing at the assembled UAF (who had a rooftop vantage point thanks to their meeting being on the fifth floor) to “come down here if you’re so hard” despite the fact that anti-fascists were mingling with them. After forty minutes and two half hearted choruses of “St George in my heart, keep me English” they retreated to Yates where a a proudly scruffy rentamob shouted at them through the windows in a fine example of a counter-counter demo. A brief bit of argy-bargy later and the assembled boneheads were loaded into a cop van to be driven to Brighton station and dispersed for their own safety.

And here’s a good example of the shit going around the EDL facebook pages.

LOL! Lets hope they can live up to their threats, otherwise they gonna look stoopid!!

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Categories : events

Plymouth EDL gear up for pointless demo

3 04 2013

A couple of years back Plymouth EDL tried to host a demo, it was pathetic – the organisers fucked up as much as possible, some people got the wrong meet up point, the other 100 got kettled in town while an energetic anti demo had the run of the streets. Things took a more precarious turn later in the day as some more up for it EDLers crept through the back door of a pub where the antifascsists were gathered outside. They then sent an older guy (who had spoken at the Fascist demo) out to drink among the antifascists in the hope of drawing people into a fight. The plan did not work however – as people started to tell the old chap to fuck off the police swooped and whisked him off. The lads in the pub were then escorted out by police through a hail of abuse and the odd bottle. Later in the evening they came back and thought about attacking an antifascist benefit gig but this also came to nothing.

Just last month Plymouth’s hapless EDL leaders Hayley Wells and Kelly Watterson escaped jail following a particularly cowardly attack on a Kurdish takeaway they targeted after a bout of heavy refreshment at an EDL meeting. Here’s the report from the local paper: Plymouth Herald. Rather than keeping their noses clean for a while they have jumped straight into organising an anti-mosque demo at the site of the disused Dance Academy building on Union Street in the city (poster below). The problem with this latest scheme is that the building is not going to be a mosque!! It was a suggestion that was made (It would not even be a new one but a change of venue for the existing Islamic centre) however there is a group with a serious interest in it here: Project Palace. Most people we’ve spoken to down in Plymouth do not want any kind of religious group to take over the historic building, but want something the whole community can use. Want they want even less though is the EDL muppets stirring up racial hatred in their city!

Moronic Protest

This Poster is doing the rounds on the EDL facebook pages, they’ve tried to make it look like it’s not an EDL event but here’s a previous picture for it:

It was supposed to be a joint demo with Exeter EDL but it looks like they all fell out with each other again. Bournemouth however are billing it as an ideal starting place for those who have not been to a demo before. So it’s a good guess that the hardcore remnants of the EDL will be in attendance.

Are they protesting so they can claim a victory? It’s difficult to understand the mind of a racist at the best of times! The local community has again set up a facebook group to counter the demo if it does go ahead. Antifascists may want to take note that the Plymouth EDL group is no stranger to violence and there are also a number of wannabe paramilitary CXF lurking around, although they were seen off last time. Watch this space.

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Tags: edl, Plymouth Anti-Fascists
Categories : events

Millfield/Sunderland tomorrow

29 03 2013

This is from North East Anti-Fascists facebook. Solidarity with all those stopping the fascists in Millfied tomorrow.

Stop the EDL!
Sweep Fascism Off Our Streets
Sunderland March 30th

We live in a time of political and economic crisis. Far-Right fascist groups like the EDL, BNP and National Front are trying to exploit this by shifting blame onto immigrants, but it wasn’t immigrants who caused the banking crash or who are dismantling the welfare system: it’s the rich and powerful.
Groups like the EDL do not protest against cuts and job losses, but they have physically attacked those who do: for example, in the last year fascists have attacked the Occupy camp and a socialist meeting in Newcastle, and picket lines and a trade union office in Liverpool. Fascist groups like the EDL are ANTI-WORKING CLASS. All they ever do is stir up racism to divide the working class against itself so that the rich can continue to shaft us.
It wasn’t immigrants who shut down the pits or the shipyards: it was the Tories. It was Labour who sold off all the public housing stock and brought in workfare. Know your REAL enemy: it’s the boss class scum, not immigrants.
The EDL are coming to Sunderland again on March 30th to try and spread racism and divide our communities. The only people who will gain from this are the ruling class.
We say, take to the streets and stop the fascist EDL in their tracks!
Fascists and Nazis are class traitors.Stop the EDL from marching in Millfield.
North-East Anti-Fascists

ne-antifascists@riseup.net | Look for us on Facebook!

This is the poster for the official demo.

This is the poster for the fluffy demo.

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Categories : events

Gearing up for March For England – Brighton 21st April

29 03 2013

As most people will already be aware, every extremist, far right nut job and, in some cases, out of the closet Nazi, will be heading to Brighton on the 21st April for their annual ‘family friendly’ parade hosted by the front group ‘March for England’.

The reason they are heading to Brighton is because last year the people of Brighton came out to block the march, and sent a clear message to the demo that bigotry is not welcome in their town.

The March For England organiser, Dave Smeeton, is not from Brighton, he’s from Gosport. Last year he whinged on and on about his parade being nothing to do with the EDL (although it is). This year however, he seems to be going cap in hand to every fascist who will listen, begging for their support in Brighton. The proof:

Here’s some pictures from the 23rd March where the fascists of the south held a meeting in Poole at the Pure Drop Inn:

This lot call themselves South East Alliance – A group headed up By EDL organiser Mickey Bayliss

As a side note, the rather rotund young gentleman (middle row, second from right) is from England’s Golden Dawn (NAZI!!) He is second from left in the photo below, when the fascists really embarrassed themselves trying to support Golden Dawn outside the Greek embassy!

Angry Golden Dawn Supporter In with the South East Alliance (someone tell him it’s ok to be ginger!)

Can anyone guess who else was at the Poole meeting? You guessed it, none other than March for England organiser David Smeeton!

Dave clenching hard with a supporter from Essex

Dave (right)clenching hard with a supporter from Essex outside the Pure Drop Inn.

Here’s an excerpt from the English Volunteer Force blog in which they helpfully write all about the day:

It is important to shake hands.

So we know for a fact that Smeeton is trying to organise all these little shit stains to back him up in Brighton. Why do they insist on a St Georges Day Parade in Brighton? Surely they could find a nice family fun day celebrating our Syrian patron saint at numerous quaint villages up and down these green and pleasant lands! The answer is simple – Dave Smeeton and his gang of backwards buffoons hate Brighton, they hate it because it is arty/liberal/independent/tolerant/spirited/accepting/alternative and proud. Fascists want everything to be the same, and everyone to be subservient to the state.

There appears to be far right groups of varying commitment promising to travel to Brighton for the 21st from all over the country. One of the more notable groups plotting to take revenge on the good folk of Brighton is Casuals United, here’s one of their tasteful posters meant to look like splattered blood:

Childish shit

How ever many freaks manage to make the trip to the seaside, it is still not going to be anything like the numbers the town itself will get out in defiance. The Anti-fascist Network was established to support mass mobilisations like this. It happened last year in Brighton and Bristol and it will happen again. Groups like the Casuals like to use violent imagery to try to intimidate people – don’t fall for it, they are all talk – as summed up in the account from London Antifascists about their outing to Manchester in March – Road Trip .

It appears Smeeton and his buddies are organising meetings with small groups over the south coast in the run up to the 21st. Last year they were shown the door – this time lets close it behind them. It’s already been said but it bears repeating – if you go to one anti-fascist demo this year then go to Brighton. Support the locals, and help drive fascism from the south coast for good.

To keep informed of all info here are some useful links from the local campaign group ‘Stop MFE’.

Email: stopmfe@ymail.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/stopmfe

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/events/304015513057291/

Blog: http://stopmfe.wordpress.com/