Reports and thoughts from Saturday’s anti-fascist actions

7 07 2015
CJGS68YXAAAjc8P

Hundreds of anti-fascists drown out 23 Nazis in a cage on Whitehall

Saturday was a very busy day for anti-fascists as the full spectrum of far-right racists took to the streets of Britain. The targets of their hatred were Jews and Muslims. And Jews and Muslims stood up to oppose them, together with local people, trade unionists, and anti-fascist and anti-racist groups who all joined forces against the far-right.

The events of Saturday are very instructive in showing where the far-right and its opposition is currently at in Britain.

In Sheffield we had an EDL national demo. The EDL was once by far the largest far-right street movement in Britain. On Saturday they pulled about 200 people on to the streets, which shows the extent of their decline. In Stockton-on-Tees, a demo called by the EDL splinter group the North East Infidels brought out a whole coalition of groups to the right of the EDL who got almost the same numbers as the ‘official’ EDL – about 150.

Read the rest of this entry »





Update on anti-fascist mobilisations this Saturday

1 07 2015

fighting-fascism-is-a-social-duty

UPDATED Thu 23.30

This Saturday 4th the AFN will be mobilising in different locations across the country to oppose multiple far-right threats. Join us on the streets to show the fascists how isolated they are!

The situation with some of these fascist demonstrations has changed since our last post.

  • Westminster: Oppose the Nazis – meet at 12.30 – junction of Richmond Terrace and Whitehall: Facebook event
  • Sheffield: Stop the EDL march – meet at 13.00 – Hallam Square: Facebook event
  • Stockton-on-Tees: Unite against Islamophobia & oppose the North East Infidels – meet 12.30 at Old Town Hall: Facebook event

For continuing updates on the situation with all these mobilisation keep checking our twitter feed.

Read the rest of this entry »





Anti-fascist action dates for the summer

17 06 2015

header-image

The Anti-Fascist Network is announcing two national call-out dates for the summer, which are:

On July 4th groups from the north will concentrate on opposing the EDL national demo in Sheffield, while groups from the south will support Jewdas’ demonstration against neo-Nazis in Golders Green in North London.

On August 15th we are making a national call-out for everyone to support the mobilisation against the neo-Nazi ‘White Man March’ in Liverpool.

We call on all those opposed to racism, Nazism and Fascism to join us in these actions.

Read the rest of this entry »





Rotherham demo report

12 05 2014

dsc00846-small

by Sheffield Anti-Fascist Network

Last Saturday the English Defence League (EDL) held a national demonstration in Rotherham, ostensibly against “Muslim grooming gangs”, although this excuse was tacked on weeks after the demo was announced.

Child abuse needs to be tackled wherever it occurs but the EDL’s treatment of the issue is completely opportunistic and disingenuous. They blame all Muslims (or all Pakistanis or British Asians) for the actions of a small minority but they have nothing to say about child abuse perpetrated by Christians or white people (including their own supporters) and certainly don’t portray it as representative of those abusers’ ethnic or religious communities. They have nothing to say about the cuts to children and family services or about the chauvinistic attitudes that led the police to ignore the voices of vulnerable girls in Rotherham and allowed their abuse to continue.

Read the rest of this entry »





Stop the EDL national demo in Rotherham Sat 10th May

6 05 2014

rotherham

 

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.

Read the rest of this entry »