A new community coalition has been formed in North West London in order to oppose the second attempt of the fascist ‘South East Alliance’ to march in Cricklewood on July 19th.
North West London United is composed of residents and workers based in North West London (Brent/Cricklewood) as well as trade unions and groups including Brent Trades Council, RMT, London Anti-Fascists, North London Anti-Fascists and UAF.
This Saturday saw the people of Teesside take to the streets to oppose a national EDL demo in Middlesbrough.
Our previous posts have covered in detail the supposed rationale behind the EDL demo (‘grooming’ appears to have overtaken terrorism as their current favourite thing to blame all Muslims for). Sterling work was put in by North East Anti-Fascists and Teesside Solidarity Movement to create a broad-based local opposition to the fascists.
On the day about 200 anti-fascists gathered. There had been a call out to dress in red and to bring red banners and flags to go with the organising theme ‘We are Boro’. Red being the colour of Middlesbrough FC and the traditional colour of workers’ solidarity.
Assemble 11am, Ayresome Gdns, Linthrope Rd, Middlesbrough
The EDL have called a national demonstration in Middlesbrough for this Saturday 28th June. Teesside Solidarity Movement and North East Anti-Fascists have been working together with other local anti-fascists including Unite and Unison in a broad coalition to organise a response.
Last year in the immediate aftermath of the Lee Rigby killing the EDL got 2000 at their national demo in Newcastle. Middlesbrough won’t see numbers anything like that – the EDL have splintered and shrunk massively since last year, with continuous pressure from anti-racists and anti-fascists as well as the defection of the leadership, huge internal arguments and entire ‘divisions’ leaving en masse, unhappy with the new leadership.
Join the demonstration – 3pm, Sat 28th June, Markfield Park, off Crowland Road, South Tottenham.
On Saturday a group of Polish neo-Nazis from the group Zjednoczeni Emigranci (ZE – United Immigrants) attacked the small ‘Music Day’ festival in Markfield Park in Tottenham, North London assaulting a Jewish man and stabbing another Polish man. This pre-planned and unprovoked attack on a family music festival was carried out by a group of about 40 fascists and involved throwing glass bottles, stones and flares. Several other people were injured.
The individual who was stabbed purely through luck suffered only superficial injuries. One member of ZE has been arrested for religiously aggravated common assault in connection with the assault against a Jewish man.
The anti-fascist mobilisation against the South East Alliance demonstration in Cricklewood this weekend was a resounding success. Approximately 200 anti-fascists confronted a mere 40 far-right marchers and prevented them from completing their march, forcing them to turn around and go back the way they came.
The SEA is an even more right-wing splinter group of the EDL that exists in an alliance with all the other tiny far-right splinter groups. Therefore the small number of far-right nationalists in North London on Saturday contained many familiar unpleasant faces from the English Volunteer Force, Casuals United, the March for England etc. Research by London Anti-Fascists correctly anticipated many of the unpleasant characters who would be there.
Tell your mates and join us on the streets!
11am Saturday June 14th // 113 CRICKLEWOOD BROADWAY, NW2, London
London Anti-Fascists are mobilising together with local residents and other anti-fascist groups, including North London Anti-Fascists to oppose the far-right ‘South East Alliance’ in Cricklewood, North London this coming Saturday 14th June. They have all been busy and thousands of leaflets have been distributed in Kilburn and Cricklewood to a very positive response.
Who are the SEA?
The ‘South East Alliance’ are one of the EDL splinter groups that huddle under the ‘United British Patriots’ umbrella. Their last attempt to ‘unite the right’ on the streets was the March for England in Brighton when, as has become traditional, they were hounded out of town and outnumbered 10 to 1 by the unhappy residents of that seaside town.
On Saturday 7th the EDL held a regional demo in Stevenage in Hertfordshire, supposedly protesting about ‘Muslim grooming gangs’. The pretext for this being two men and a woman from Stevenage who have been charged with offences related to the sexual trafficking of two under-age girls. They are currently innocent until proven guilty and will go to trial next year. The two guys happen to have Muslim names – that therefore makes this a ‘Muslim grooming gang’ apparently. When white people with English names are arrested for sexual offences funnily enough it isn’t immediately related to the religion we presume they profess and there are no demos against ‘Christian grooming gangs’.
The local Trades Council and Stevenage Against the EDL did a sterling job of mobilising local opposition to this racist hate-fest as 200 local anti-fascists and trade unionists took to the streets to show the EDL that they were not welcome in Stevenage. The local newspaper reported approximately 300 EDL had come to the town for their demo.
Meet : Town Centre Gardens, 1pm, Saturday 7th June (behind the swimming pool)
The ever-diminishing EDL are dragging their sorry arses to Stevenage in Hertfordshire this weekend. They are supposedly protesting ‘grooming incidents’ in their ongoing campaign to racialise child abuse as something that only Muslims do.
Plenty has been said about the EDL’s opportunistic and racist use of sex-abuse stories to generate anti-Muslim hate and also about their remarkable silence about any sex-abusers with white skin, especially the paedophiles and rapists within their own ranks and within the wider ‘patriot’ movement, whom they more usually ignore or even defend.
Luckily the good people of Stevenage are not sitting back and letting racists march through their town unopposed spreading lies. Local opposition has been mobilised by the local chapter of the National Shop Stewards Network and by Stevenage & District Trades Union Council.
We all know that Nick Griffin is no longer an MEP following the results of the Euro elections on Sunday and we all know UKIP got a sizable share of the vote. But leaving aside the nationalism-lite of UKIP how did the more traditional fascist far-right fare in the nitty-gritty of the local council elections held last week?
The BNP vote has collapsed across the entire country. Big falls in the North-West, Yorkshire and West Midlands. Nationally, they lost 760,000 votes compared to the 2009 election and the party lost its deposit in every single region. These are damaging blows.
Over on the BNP website, Griffin is talking again about ‘media mind-benders’, ‘the ladder of revolutionary consciousness’ and condemning the political elite as ‘the willing puppets of some of the most evil humanoids ever to have walked this planet.’ He’s really lost it.
Today Essex EDL were set to do a wreath laying ‘commemoration’ of Lee Rigby’s death at the Colchester war memorial, hoping to use memories of the killing to boost their own failing movement. Essex Anti-Fascists organised a crowd of 100 locals to oppose the 25-30 EDL who made it, approximately 3 of whom were from Colchester, the rest shipped in from around the region.
Lee Rigby’s mother has made it clear what she thinks about the far-right utilising her son’s death for their political gain, but do they listen? Do they fuck. When it comes down to a choice between being respectful and using something as a stick to beat Muslims with, hating Muslims wins out every time.
Anti-Fascist Network 