Anti-Fascist Network

Sorry for the late post, but if anyone can get down to this do it!! Brighton Antifascists deserve every bit of support you can offer as they continue to show us how effective a non hierarchical Anti-Fascist group can be!

Repost from EMAF….

The National Front made it to the seaside on Saturday, attracting around 40 assorted fascist dregs from all over the UK to their much-hyped national demoagainst the reopening of a Skegness slaughterhouse.  They were confined to Tower Gardens by the police, out of the way of the general public or any opposition, where they made speeches to each other.  They are, of course, claiming the event as a great success, with fantasy claims of 150 attendees being made – think of a number lads, any number! – but were disgruntled about being kept out of the town centre and in the park, well away from anywhere most locals were likely to have seen them. They weren’t too happy about the leaking of their redirection point either.

Pondlife in the park

Although the demo did not bring the NF the outreach opportunities they were hoping for, the abattoir remains a contentious issue in the town.  We must be on the lookout for further attempts (including, certainly, from the BNP) to exploit this issue for their own ends.

Here’s a funny story for a Friday afternoon…..

Following on from the trouncing EDL received last weekend the Casuals United bloggers have released the following statement:

The police basically kidnapped us for about 5 hours and treated us like animals in order to deter us from doing any more demos. The girls rang the liason officers and were told that this was out of their hands. I reckon they had been given an ultimatum by Muslim Community Leaders to get rid of us or they would riot. They liased for weeks over this demo then broke all their promises from the morning onwards.

It’s clear that extremist groups like casuals united have long ago abandoned any shred of sanity they ever held. There were three hundred EDL tops. There were thousands of locals and antifascists lining up to show the EDL where to go. People pleaded with the police to go home so we could deal with the fascists as a community. All police liason with the EDL would have had to go out of the window as soon as they saw the the scale of the opposition, to a few fat racist drunks stumbling down the road. The police protection was the only thing that allowed the EDL to go home in one piece. you’d think they’d be grateful, we paid for that protection!….it gets better though….

Well done everyone who went through our ordeal in Walthamstow. Legends all of you. Its still a victory. We marched right through their area for over an hour, we stood tall and proud and we stuck together. We will be back there but unannounced and with no liason. NFSE  

“It’s still a victory” – I don’t think even they believe this, no one can be that optimistic unless their on crack, oh, wait…

“we marched right through their area for over an hour” – No, you were escorted by police up until a point where not even the force of the Met could push you through, you did not make the rally point, EDL speakers Tommy and Kev had to be escorted out by police. Your march was diverted through side streets to keep you safe from the opposition.

“we stood tall and proud and we stuck together” – After all the morning beers fights broke out within the EDL crowd, and they even assaulted one of their own stewards, and it’s hard to stand tall when you can barely stand at all! – ha ha!

“we will be back there but unannounced and with no liason.” – They got 200-300 people out for a national demo. Some of them had travelled from the north east, how many can they get out locally?  Not many!! My guess is that if they do turn up without the fuzz to protect them, and unannounced, they may not get off so likely!!….So good luck with that boys and girls of the extreme right, every demo you hold forges links between different groups in communities, so they are prepared when the fascists try to roll in to town.

Happy Weekend!

Today various far right groups (CXF,NWI,NF and BNP) tried to attack a march against racism and fascism starting in Toxteth.

The march was organised by Liverpool Irish Patriots Republican Flute Band, in commemoration of local Trade Unionist James Larkin, the fash stopped a march by this group in February this year, claiming it was IRA.

Obviously the fascists with little understanding of British politics can’t be expected to understand the difference between republicans and IRA or even the various IRA factions and splinter groups and differing opinions to the Good Friday agreement.

The fash attempted to leaflet the local area and claim ‘The IRA are going to try and march through Liverpool’ it was obvious some members of the public believed this hype, what was also obvious was that despite that the fash had pulled from other areas, they had a poor turnout, and antifascists, mingled with the crowd and explained the position to many members of the public.

Large banners made it clear that the march was actually against racism and fascism and many members of the community showed support for the march, despite best efforts of the fascists, they couldn’t stop the march, and so they tried to attack it.

Again these attacks were foiled by militant antifascists on the outsides of the march who quickly dealt with the threat and forced the fascists away from the group. At the end of the march around 200 people made up of UAF, trade unions, the local community and various antifascist groups gathered to hear the speeches, and then went on to a social event, whilst fash went back to defending the boozer under the watchful eye of the police.

One thing that needs to be noted here but I will address soon in a more detailed post is that wearing a vis-vest does not give you any kind of authority over others on their march, and people should not be so quick to do the police’s work for them, one blurt in a jacket in particular removed the hood of a young man who was in a scuffle with police, rather than assist in a successful de-arrest (as had happened several times throughout the day) this traitor took it upon himslef to remove the young man’s hood and then attempt to chastise him from wearing it, before swiftly being told where to go by the de-arresting comrades.

Also on several occassions ‘protesters’ dragged antifascists off fascists and pulled them away, when the antifascists where simply defending themselves (and the march) from fash who had broke through police lines, again this is 100% unacceptable, how can people feel they have the right to interfere and do the police’s job for them? like I said this appears to be a recurring issue and I feel a lengthy post coming up about it.

Today was a definite win for the organised working class in Liverpool, the march went ahead, we outnumbered the fash, any fash attempts at attack were sent packing and as far as im aware (at the time of writing) everyone got home safely.

reproduced via – http://1solutionrevolution.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/saturday-21st-july-working-class-unity.html