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Anti-SDL meeting in Edinburgh.
After being convincingly routed last month the SDL are talking about having another march, this time in Edinburgh on February 20th.
The last time the SDL marched they were outnumbered 1,500 to 80 and were unable to march anywhere. They spent the day cooped up in a bar, a totally different situation from other parts of the UK where the EDL ran riot, intimidating Muslims outside Mosques.
SSY is supporting a planning meeting this Wednesday, December the 9th at 7pm in the Meadow Bar on Buccleugh street. I’ll be speaking and giving a brief background on the EDL/SDL and we can discuss and plan openly and democratically how to no platform the fascists – the same way Glasgow Anti-Fascist Alliance did in the run up to the SDL’s Glasgow demo.
Lets keep Edinburgh Fascist free, no pasaran!
Will the UAF/SWP be there?
Hopefully someone from UAF will be there, despite our disagreements we’d still need to work together. Also a lot of the young people in UAF supported confronting the SDL from the very beginning, so they’re not homogeneous.
Naturally it all should be done in a polite and inclusive manner but everything should be done to make sure there is no repeat of the splitting of the protest group on the street. Better to risk a split behind the scenes now to try and create more unity and strength in numbers outside for the safety of all anti-fascists present on the day.
Unfortunately I won’t be able to make it down to the burg tomorrow but as this is the first place I’ve seen up to date/active open talk of what’s going on with regards to the anti-SDL in Edinburgh. I’ll keep an eye out here for what comes of the meeting.
Sorry for the long reply.
Fearghal,
Exile from Edina.
So what was decided at the meeting? Are UAF/SWP going to use the same tactics as in Glasgow? Was there a decent turnout and are there plans for a militant anti-fascist mobilisation that occupys the space and has the flexibility not to get kettled?
There was 21 folk there, not a bad turnout I thought. There was only one member of UAF there and agreed with confronting the SDL, which was the consensus of the meeting.
We’ve also agreed to set up an Edinburgh Anti-Fascist Alliance – http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=228821281130&ref=ts
Thanks Andy.
Everything appears to indicate that the SDL will be stronger numerically for this one than Glasgow. My expectation on this is that the left will be out in lower numbers than in Glasgow and almost certainly no more militant than previously. Looks like the end result will be an emboldened SDL. Hope im wrong.
I disagree, I dont think Edinburgh has the same loyalist base as Glasgow. While the left isn’t as strong in Edinburgh as it is in Glasgow it still is nowhere near as weak as the forces of the far right in Glasgow in terms of numbers.
The advantage the SDL have is that this time they will have had media coverage from their attempt in Glasgow, even though it was a total failure. Their disadvantage will be that if they are kettled for a second time their activists may decide their is no point to being active in a group that wont get anywhere. That outcome is still very likely IMO, but everyone on the left should mobilise to fuck the SDL for the second time. There are only so many times people are beaten before they give up, whats true on the left is true on the right.
The English casual firms are coming to Edinburgh and loyalism/fascism is alive and well in the capital. The Protestant Party was very strong there after it had diminished in Glasgow. Going by some of the comments on the facebook EAFA theres a hell of a lot of liberal pacifism in the Edinburgh left, no surprise given the class background of so many lefts in Edinburgh.
The SDL are seasoned in police tactics from their time in the casuals- they expect to be surrounded by polis- the effects of the state have not dented them in England nor have the left. They have surprised me by their tenacity in turning up to be kept in pubs etc. This wont be popular here but the neither fish nor fowl attempts by the left to stop them arent working. Fascism/loyalism only diminishes when theres no great echo from a section of the wc and where they get physically intimidated. The Scottish left, whilst being more robust than the English left is not up to that so best we can hope for is occupying the space as militantly as possible.
It should be noted that the respectable political fascists of the BNP have now got 15 organisers in Scotland when two years ago they had three, meanwhile the left in Scotland is as weak as a kitten. No offence meant to kittens.
Any new developments- the 20th of February will be here very soon.
check indymedia scotland for news, & there’s also a facebook group here: http://www.edinburghantifascist.org.uk
there’s an organising meeting tonight.. hopefully someone will stick up a report of anything that’s decided.
I see the SSP are backing the UAF/SWP Scotland United jamboree away from the EDL/SDL yet on here the SSP members are plugging the EAF Demo to occupy the space- so how does that work comwades when you split the anti fascist demo numbers?
hi. the SSP also officially backed the Scotland United jamboree in Glasgow. At the time this was incredibly frustrating when a few of us were putting a huge amount of effort into building the earlier demo, but I can understand why they didn’t refuse when approached to back it. In reality, the list of ‘civil society’ backers for Scotland United is meaningless… in Glasgow it was half composed of celebrities, few of whom went anywhere near the demo on 14th Nov.
The SSP made a real effort to get members out for the 10am assembly point at St Enochs and made sure this was well publicised within the party, while only lip service was paid to the Scotland United ‘mainstream’ event. I’d hope we’ll take a similar approach to Edinburgh on 20 Feb.
Its still completely contradictory and an opportunist attempt to ride two horses at the same time. I suppose the argument will be that not everyone on the liberal/left/anti racist spectrum is up for a direct challenge to the EDL/SDL and they would prefer listening to multi cultural back slapping by labour and tory politticians whose ideology and policies have seen the rise of the BNP/EDL in the first place.
There are people who for one reason or another cannot take part in confrontational demos against the SDL etc, but still want to show their opposition to them. The SSP is right to support any demo against the SDL or against racism, and in Glasgow we backed the Scotland United rally for those who could not or did not want to directly confront the SDL but also backed the 10am demo for those who did want to no platform the SDL.
As Liam says, the SSP concentrated on building the 10 am demo but at the end of the day were not going to say people demonstrating against racism is a bad thing or shouldn’t be supported. We will point out its limitations and help build a demo that will confront the SDL though.
Thats the answer i expected– if the SSP cant unite on anti fascist tactics how does anyone expect the wider community and movement? Its not as if the SSP are proposing any direct physical confrontation with the EDL/SDL so there must be some SSP members who think racism is just nasty attitudes and has no correlation to the type of politicians who will be speechifying but not accountable for their ideology and policies. I see little to differentiate between the UAF/SWP and SSP.
This is the SSY website, and SSY members have consistently been involved from the get go in all the attempts to occupy the streets to prevent the SDL marching in Scotland. SSY members have genuinely been trying to mobilise as many radical young people on to the streets against the SDL, and have done so in a collective and non sectarian way. That’s the difference with the way the SWP have done things.
Shame that the SSY hasnt been able to persaude the wider SSP to give no credibility to the Scotland United UAF Labour/Tory/SNP love in.
Can you see the difference yet though?
I will wait to see on the day Jack.