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Newcastle: impasse for the anti-fascist movement
North East Against Racism flying demo
Saturday 29 May was meant to be the day of the English Defence League’s ‘secret’ protest. So secret, in fact, that its location was revealed months ago as Newcastle upon Tyne, giving anti-racists enough time to organise a whopping three separate anti-racist protests, all ostensibly setting out to ‘oppose’ the EDL.
The outcome was far from decisive. The EDL turnout was not nearly as high as anticipated, with most reports giving estimates of between 800 and 1000 at their demonstration. The day passed off relatively peacefully, with no arrests on either side, and there was no repeat of the widespread rioting and violence the EDL caused in both Stoke and Dudley in recent months.
Sections of the anti-fascist movement have been quick to declare the day as a ‘huge success’ and a victory, with ‘anti-racists dominating the city’. This is simply not true. The fact is that the EDL were able to hold a police-sanctioned march through the city centre, ending at an outdoor rally with speakers and music, before they dispersed en masse to pubs around the city to continue their drunken, xenophobic chanting. This ability to openly organise and assemble in the streets, effectively unopposed, was a massive confidence boost for the EDL. What’s worse is that later on the EDL continued to maintain a large presence in the city – groups of young males in EDL hoodies and t-shirts were on virtually every street corner, and outside every pub, well into the evening.
The EDL demonstration
The anti-fascist response was marked by its disunity and poor turnout. North East Against Racism (NEAR), a grassroots organisation similar to the Glasgow and Edinburgh Anti-Fascist Alliances, assembled early on, with the intention of staying mobile, avoiding police ‘kettles’, and confronting the EDL. NEAR had spotters around the city, as well as at the service station of the outskirts of Newcastle where some of EDL were gathering. Having discerned that the EDL were beginning to assemble outside of the central railway station, we marched down to confront them. Skirting through backstreets to avoid police lines, we reached the group of around 100 EDL. A tense stand-off ensued, with police forming lines to attempt the separate us from the EDL. Tactically retreating, we marched back and forward a number of times to the station. However, the NEAR demo, although called with the best of intentions and tactics, faced two main problems. We numbered less than 100, severely limiting our ability to disrupt the EDL or challenge police direction. On top of this, the EDL were everywhere – this was two hours ahead of their official demonstration start time, and EDL supporters were spread out across the city. No sooner had we massed beside one group of EDL supporters than another would start appearing behind us. We retreated back to the Monument, where local trade unions were holding a rally against the EDL. Unfortunately, this gave the police an excuse to keep us there, and the NEAR mobilisation disintegrated.
So what did the labour movement response to fascism entail? A couple of lonely union banners, shit music, some woman dancing with a hula-hoop, a few speakers and a shockingly low turnout of no more than 150 is probably the best way of summing it up. Outright lies as well – one speaker applauded the police’s actions while informing the assembled turnout of embarrassed looking trade unionists, confused onlookers and obscure paper sellers that the EDL had been ‘denied the right to march in our city today’. Surrounding the union rally was huge lines of police, which only served to alienate the public from the event, and either way, did not stop a leading EDL member, Joel Titus, from swaggering his way through the crowd earlier in the day.
Meanwhile, as the EDL began to assemble in the city centre, Unite Against Fascism were massing on a quiet road a couple of miles away. What followed was a stage-managed display of militancy, with angry chanting and plenty of talk of ‘smashing’ the EDL, before the 500 or so protestors marched into a pre-arranged tight police kettle within what was just about shouting distance of the EDL. If you shouted REALLY loudly, that is. Which they did of course, not that you could even see the EDL through the thick lines of police, parked riot vans and so on.
The word reached us that NEAR were regrouping in another part of the city. Rumours abounded that the EDL were going to descend on Fenham, a mixed area of the city with a significant Asian population, as they had in Stoke, where groups of EDL went on the rampage through a predominantly Muslim area of the city, smashing up shops and vehicles. Avoiding police detection, NEAR maintained a strong presence in Fenham for the rest of the day. Thankfully, this precautionary step remained as just that and there was a no show from the EDL. Nonetheless, with the UAF and TUC demonstrations both packed up and gone home, all that remained in the city centre from the events of earlier on was large numbers of boozed-up EDL members, as well as the accompanying heavy police presence. Fortunately on this occasion, the EDL kept up their non-violent, peaceful facade and the streets of Newcastle remained free from the scenes of destruction seen elsewhere.
EDL: a fun day out for all the family!
It’s uncertain where the anti-fascist movement in England, or the EDL, go from here. It is clear that UAF, particularly following their disasterous attempts at playing militant in Bolton which ended in their leading members’ arrest and a farcical push-and-shove contest with the police, have no interest in direct confrontation with the fascists. They will continue to maintain that marches to show the EDL that ‘they are not welcome’, while barely setting sight on them, is the best strategy to oppose them. The NEAR demo on the other hand had real potential, but sadly lacked numbers. A decisive point could have been attempting to occupy the space where the EDL were finishing their demonstration. While police stood idly around the edges, leading EDL members were setting up a PA system in the middle of the Biggmarket. Several of us were able to wander freely through – with more numbers we could have taken the street.
The future for the EDL is difficult to predict. Last year, many predicted that they would burn themselves out within a few months. This has evidently not been the case – they now have a solid base of support that they can mobilise anywhere in England, from Aylesbury to Newcastle. In the short term, they look set to be planning demonstrations over the summer – perhaps an attempt to capitalise on the upsurge of football-related patriotism that England’s involvement with the World Cup will generate – including extremely provacative demos in Bradford and Tower Hamlets in east London. In the long term, the EDL leadership are attempting to make inroads into UKIP – a party with which they share both overt Islamophobia and an obsession with Geert Wildeers. With the BNP in organisational and electoral disarray, could a new popular front of the radical right, backed up by a street army of football hooligans, be about to emerge?
The tactics we need to defeat the far-right have already been displayed twice in Scotland. Mass street mobilisations to directly confront and stop the fascists can and will be effective. But for this to truly happen, unity of the anti-fascist movement is essential. Unfortunately – and as we’ve gone into on several occasions before – the established organisations have no such interest in directly stopping the fascists. Until then, its up to organisations like GAFA and NEAR to do so, and NEAR should be commended for taking the initiative with their demo in Newcastle on Saturday. It’s just a shame that there wasn’t a bigger turnout.
North East Against Racism should be applauded – UAF should be ashamed of themselves. It sounds like they had the numbers that could have made the difference, and they squandered them just for the sake of petty sectarianism and trying to stay separate so that they can take credit for any good results that might have come from the day.
Obviously one of the main reasons the SDL hasn’t been as strong as the EDL is the whole weird mental English pride patriotism madness that they all seem to be plagued with, but I wonder if the fact that the left is more unified in Scotland has made an impact.
Reading this has just reinforced to me how important it is for socialists/anti-fascists/revolutionaries to be unified.
As we’ve said before about the SDL in Glasgow and Edinburgh, there IS room for two separate demonstrations, one strictly peaceful and safe, and one for people willing to physically confront the fascists – but the two need to complement each other, not compete!
Good article but the English anti fascists are not able to connect to the working class in a way that can mobilise the numbers.
‘Mon the NEAR.
The EDL will have fed from the shitstorm coming from the ‘Police ban football tops!’ nonsense coming from the English tabloids. As sectarian as scottish football may be; it can never be so effortlessly manipulated by national far-right movements. The fash just look stupid when trying to use the Saltire.
Looking forward to showing them again in Kilmarnok.
Aye but are the UAF all about “petty sectarianism” or does this term just obscure an analysis of what has actually benn going on. Above all, directed by the Socialist Workers Party, their strategy is to build an alliance with the Labour party- that is the ex-government Labour party. A bit of a problem here since the racist, warmongering Labour party is primarily responsible for attacks on Muslims, immigrants and asylum seekers. Strange partners in an “anti- racist”, “anti- fascist” organisation, funny unity against fascism! Unless of course the murder of a million Iraqis, tens of thousands of Afghanis and support and cover for Israel ain’t propa fascism, in’it! So up onto our UAF platforms you can come- parading anti-racist, anti-fascist credentials you don’t deserve but the SWP will strenously vouch for you. That’s part of the difficulty many of us have with the UAF aproach. We’ll see it again in the coming anti- cuts struggle, the SWP giving that same Labour party a helping leg up, while staying quiet about its record here and abroad. This is much more than “petty sectarianism” comrades.
Michael MacGregor
Good points Michael.
I think there is a place for less militant and perhaps less prepared for exertion/confrontation demos, but certainly not under the auspices of the UAF. We need a flexibility of tactics and a class approach and analysis to draw in the wider working class- everything from defence/offense squads, numbers dominating space and a demo space for the less militant. Most of all we have to have a socialist and pro working class programme to undermine racists/fascists from getting a base in the working class.
You people clearly seem to inhabit an alternative political reality, nay an Alice-through-the-looking glass world where opposites are switched and things are viewed as if from afar in a feverish dream. You take sides with, or at the very least make exceptions for, the real fascists; those who are every bit as vicious, dangerous and murderous in their intent as was Nazi Germany. I am of course here talking about Islamic Fascism; at war with western civilization, at war with anything that does not conform to its nightmarish vision of a worldwide totalitarian theocratic Islamic state. And how do those on the far-left respond to this enemy? They label and abuse those who identify and label it for what it is as being “fascists” or “racists”, when in reality it is they who have sided with the real fascists and racists not dissimilar to what happened prior to the outbreak of WW2 when the far left lent its support to the Nazi-Soviet pact. I am not talking about Muslims in general, I am not tarring them all with the same brush, but am talking specifically about those who subscribe either actively or passively to the ideology of Jihadi violence;a minority of the Muslim world, but nevertheless not an insignificant minority. Philosophers and theologians will have to debate to what extent Jihadi violence is hardwired into so-called mainstream Islam; but before that happens the not insubstantial obstacles of idiotic political correctness and inverted racism (something the far left is soaked with) will have to be overcome. Everyone knows that at present we have to walk on eggshells when discussing Islam lest we offend and invite fury.
The EDL clearly has its “base in the working class” (to borrow a phrase from the poster above) and is a visceral reaction to the Jihadi threat, as well as its vanguard Shariah creep masquerading as “moderate” Islam. The UAF, on the other hand, has its base in anything but the working class; in fact, the UAF (or United Aside Fascism as it should be known) is nothing more than a front organization for the parasitic morally-bankrupt intellectually-inept slogan-barking Socialist Workers Party that is in bed with the Islamofascists. It reminds me of the day decades ago when, as an idealistic English youth, I wrote off the join the Anti-Nazi League only to discover that this organization was just a front for the angry self-righteous (largely) middle-class Trots of the Socialist Workers Party; an unsavoury bunch with a deep loathing for their own country of birth and a deep contempt for the real working class; in that respect, I see that nothing has changed.
Ur wrong lol.
Northumbrian yer folk in Scotland have tried to demonstrate against Mosques wi no link to terrorism or jihadism. When you chant ‘pakis out’ your not confronting fascism, you are one.
Andy Bowden, I can assure you that I have never chanted “Pakis out” and nor would I ever be inclined to say anything as offensive or racist as that. The people who chant “Pakis out” are racists. Sooner or later you will understand that conflating anti-jihadists with racists is not a tenable position; on the other hand, there is considerable justification in conflating the far left with jihadism.
I’ll just ignore the silly comment about me being a “fascist”, and put it down to youthful inexperience on your part.
Incidentally, I’m glad to hear that you have mosques in Scotland with no links to terrorism or jihadism.
Northumbrian one point i agree with you on- the social composition of the SWP/UAF [and sadly a lot of the left] you are also correct in the fact that the EDL in England has managed to create a small base amongst a section of marginalised and ignored white working class young men, who have been fooled, by the racist/fascist EDL leadership into believing the greatest problem in their lives and communities is Islam and jihadi militants. The politics of multiculturalism embraced by the majority of the left and the establishment and the rampant imperialism and chauvinism of the British state has also injected respectability into the EDLs narrative.
It is the failure of the left that has resulted in the growth of the EDL and until the left gets its act together and makes itself relevant to the aspirations of the working class then your organisation and other racist scapegoating pro imperialist outfits like yours will continue to exist and indeed grow, however the fightback against racism and imperialism on these islands is underway, albeit from a weak position, and the EDL and others will be opposed both politically in the working class and physically on the streets.
Northumbrian your mates in the EDL have chanted “pakis out” and been caught on tape doing so.
None of the Mosques the SDL have protested (or attempted to protest against) have links to Jihadism but then again that’s not the point – they’re Muslims so a legit target for the SDL/EDL.
fiannanahalba, I consider myself to be a traditional socialist. I believe in the equality of all men (and women) and in traditional socialist values such as universal health care, universal education and the right of everyone to a decent life. I am against unearned privilege and elitism. But what do we see when we look at much of the left today who call themselves socialists? The left has become a nihilistic, hypocritical and dangerously deluded. Some of them actually think Cuba is a wonderful place and that the collapse of the Soviet Union was a bad thing. They admire purely fascist regimes such as Iran or Sudan because they are “anti imperialist” (a much over-used expression by the far left). I could go on, but the sad litany is depressing. George Galloway is a good example of what may be called “a useful idiot”. And there is the left’s alignment with militant Islam, the most dangerous development of the past few decades; something that does not bode well for the west.
Andy Bowden, I have no doubt that what you say is true: there will always be bonehead racists and football hooligans who do the things you describe. This is difficulty most people have in standing up to Jihadism and in speaking out against Islamism: they don’t want to be tainted with the same brush as the people you describe. All one can do is repeat that the problem is not Muslims, but Islamism. If you haven’t done so already, I would recommend that you read what an ex-Muslim like my hero, the beautiful and intelligent Dutch-Somali Ayaan Hirsi Ali, has to say about Islamism and Islam in general; her website can be found at http://ayaanhirsiali.web-log.nl/ayaanhirsiali/english/index.html
See the country table in “IQ and The Wealth Of Nations” this table explains everything.
“IQ and The Wealth Of Nations” is a book which has been demolished for its racist assumptions and statistical manipulation to try and prove false, racist premises. As Girma Berhanu of the University of gothenburg put it, “the low standards of scholarship evident in the book render it largely irrelevant for modern science”.