fascism with a feathery face

Times are hard for the English Defence League. As they drift ever further into obscurity and irrelevance – continuing to insist to anyone who’ll listen that the single greatest threat to the British working class right now is the impending arrival of islamofascism – their tactics are becoming increasingly desperate.

Britain’s inevitable transformation to an Islamic Republic could, according to the dogma to which the EDL subscribe, come from anywhere. So while the minds of the population have been concentrated on slightly greater issues – namely the path of total destruction of the welfare state that the Tories are currently taking us down with glee – the EDL have spent the past few months running around in chicken suits outside fast food restaurants, in a bid to halt the encroach of halal chicken across Britain. Sharia law is surely only a step away.

And just last week, it was reported that dozens of EDL members have submitted compensation claims after they were involved in a “horrifying” (read: minor paint damage) coach crash en route to a demonstration in Preston in November. With 78 claims submitted, it soon transpired that there was only about 25 EDL supporters on the coach. Although maybe they’re keen to recoup some cash from all the lucrative merchandise money they’ve been losing out on after their transactions list was leaked recently. Understandably, the coach company aren’t amused.

However, while laughing at the English Defence League has become a new national sport, it would be foolish to write the organisation off. The growing sense of political polarisation, which will intensify as the cuts begin to be felt, is not lost on the EDL. Earlier this month, leadership figure “Tommy Robinson” (real name Steven Yaxley-Lennon) gave a flavour of the direction the EDL are moving in. Responding to the student demonstrations which shook the country in November and early December, Robinson told an assembled mob in Peterborough that the EDL are “disgusted with the behaviour of the so called fuckin’ students in London… we support British police, we are their allies…. we never want to see the British police attacked by people of this country”, with no sense of irony.

What followed was a confused mess of misdirected class anger, casual racism and out-and-out jingoism. There’s the references to ‘our boys’ and Britain’s imperial wars abroad,  much more adoration of ‘British police’, the usual digs at ‘the Muzzies’ and then a lot of OUTRAGE at the people who ‘desecrated’ the statue of Churchill in Westminster, a man who represents “every single thing this country is about” and is a “fuckin’ prophet”. He even tells the mob that ”every EDL member should shake the hand of a British policeman”. It’s unclear whether the eleven arrests that took place later in the day were actually just the police overreacting to friendly handshakes.

But beyond this fawning patriotism, his greatest vitriol is reserved for ‘the students’, who “do not understand what it is to be a working class member of this community” and “never ever lived a normal day in their life”. Pretty remarkable given that that the demonstrations have been precisely about access to uni for working class students, battling a government determined to raise fees to a level that will burden all but the richest graduates for life.

Tommy Robinson (far left) at a BNP meeting in 2007 - he's consistently denied any connection to the party

But it’s an identical narrative to the one that the tabloids have been ramming down our throats over the past two months. Within hours of the Millbank demo, journalists were pouring through the facebook pages and backgrounds of so-called ‘ringleaders’, attempting to smear them, and by implication all, students as upper class, undeserving and spoilt. Similar tactics have since been used against UKuncut. The agenda here is clear – to make their predominantly working class readership feel distance from the student and anti-cuts struggles, by painting all those within them as either reckless militants (Bob Crow, Len McLuskey) or upper class kids living out their teenage rebellion. The idea that normal people are out on the streets terrifies the media – which is why they’ll do everything to convince their readers otherwise, and place that distance between them.

The EDL are not a traditional party of the far-right, but the consequence of years of tabloid lies about Muslims, immigrants and asylum seekers – their politics more  The Sun than Der Sturmer. But the EDL are adapting to the times and it’s little surprise that they’re now concentrating as much of their ire on ’students’ and ‘reds’ as ‘the Muzzies’. It also neatly fits in with their bullshit notions of ‘old Albion’ and bizarre view of British history, with the students, allegedly, seeking to destroy everything that makes Britain great – statues of racist Prime Ministers, for instance, while the EDL frame themselves as the valiant last defence against Islamo-Bolshevik takeover.

In a time of crisis, the English Defence League are reverting to fascist type. They claim to be the true voice of the English working class – but it’s clear on which side they really stand. They idolise the Queen and Winston Churchill, who was an admirer of Italian fascism, ordered troops to march on workers during the 1926 General Strike and held a racist and anti-semitic worldview. For all that they claim Britain is a “two tier” system, they crucially fail to see the real dividing line – not their fantasy of a system that favours Muslims above all others, but of the class divide.

Currently, the EDL are content with running around after Anjem Choudary’s equally deranged Jihad4Anglia warriors and scrubbing graffiti off of Churchill’s statue. But is it beyond the realms of possibility that, over the coming twelve months and as class conflict intensifies, the EDL will be turning up at pickets to intimidate striking workers, beating up students protesters or, as in Greece, providing back-up militia to riot police? History tells us it is not – underlining the crucial importance of class-oriented anti-fascist work in the period we’re now in.

Police lines coming between fascists and anti-fascists

We’ve previously covered the run-up to last weekend’s English Defence League march in Bradford. Despite a successful campaign to have the government ban the march, it was always clear that the EDL would come anyway. The “official” anti-fascist movement made no plans to take direct action to try and stop the EDL from being able to take the streets, while a smaller number took action like we’ve done up here with the Scottish Anti-Fascist Alliance.

Daniel Randall is a member of Workers’ Liberty and a supporter of the Stop Racism & Fascism Network who has participated in mobilisations against the EDL in Bradford, Nottingham and London. The following is a guest post giving his impressions of what went on last Saturday in Bradford.

August 28 in Bradford will rightly be remembered by many of the activists involved as the day we defied the police, the local establishment, and, significantly, both poles of mainstream anti-fascism (and their supporters in the left and labour movement) to physically confront the EDL (which, as I’m sure SSYers will be pleased to know, resulted in the EDL getting a good kicking).

The background and build-up to the day is complex and is fundamentally a reflection of the political divisions within the anti-fascist movement in Britain (I understand the situation in Scotland is largely similar to ours in England).

The Hope Not Hate/Searchlight campaign, the anti-fascist formation of choice for large sections of the trade union bureaucracy, focused on collecting signatures for a petition calling on the (Tory) Home Secretary to ban the EDL’s march.

When such a ban was secured, HnH began organising “Be Bradford – Peaceful Together”, a “multicultural festival” (music, face-painting, bouncy castles… precisely the sort of stuff that were key weapons for the anti-fascist militias in Spain in 1936/7) at a location a couple of miles away from where the EDL (now reduced to a static protest) would be gathering. Their event secured the backing of various local religious institutions, the local trade union bureaucracy and indeed local government.

The SWP-run Unite Against Fascism, frequently politically indistinguishable from HnH (same “unite with anyone – and we mean anyone – against fascism” approach, same celebrity fetish, same slavish deference to trade union bureaucrats and religious leaders, same faith in the state to sort things out by banning fascist parties or organisations), called their own “We Are Bradford” event in the city centre, close to where the EDL would be amassed. The list of initial supporters for the event was a chemically-pure mini-popular front, including everyone from trade union leaders to Lib Dem MPs to religious zealots.

However, they were at great pains to ensure everyone that the event WASN’T a counter protest. Oh no. Nothing as radical or confrontational as that; just a “peaceful multicultural celebration of Bradford”. Undoubtedly the EDL were quaking in their boots.

Local supporters of the Stop Racism & Fascism Network called for a genuine counter-mobilisation to confront the EDL from the start.. SRFN doesn’t have a fraction of the resources that either HnH or UAF have so we were sanguine about our prospects. Nevertheless, SRFN supporters spent the build-up to the event leafleting local working-class estates, particularly in Asian areas, calling on people to mobilise on the day to confront the EDL rather than spending the day at HnH’s limp “festival” or at UAF’s non-protest.  SRFN called on people to meet at separate location, Centenary Square, near to the EDL’s rally point.

The other key element in the picture, which would ultimately prove decisive, was local Muslim youth. Unfortunately the left has no real implantation amongst those communities and before the event it was unclear to us whether they would mobilise independently in any significant numbers or follow the advice of community “leaders” to either stay at home or attend the HnH or UAF events.

The experience of previous anti-EDL mobilisations told us that policing would be pretty tight, and we weren’t disappointed. On the day, the cops were out in force. SRFN supporters who attempted to remain outside of police cordons and leaflet members of the public were told to move on and disperse, under threat of arrest. However, in spite of almost every organised element in the equation militating against it, a crowd of several hundred of us managed to gather across the street from the EDL’s rally point, almost literally within spitting distance of the enormous pen the police had constructed to contain the racists. The crowd was made up of SRFN supporters and other independent anti-fascists along with hundreds of Muslim youth, and police soon mobilised to make sure we didn’t get any closer to the EDL.

I think a lot of us were preparing to dig in for a day of fairly typical anti-fascist activism; shouting at a group of nearby racists plus a bit of low-level scuffling with the cops as they try and push us back and we try and get a bit closer. Even if that had been the end-result, it would have represented a significant improvement on UAF or HnH’s strategy; at least the EDL would’ve encountered some visible, vocal opposition (even if it was from the other side of a fenced-off pen and a few lines of cops) rather than having every anti-fascist in town neatly swept off into either the UAF or HnH distractions where they were visible only to other anti-fascists and maybe a few passers-by who took the time to find out what was going on.

As it turned out, we were able to do rather more than just shout at the EDL. They were obviously just as agitated as we were about being held in one place and made several attempts to break out of their pen. At one point, a small group made it onto the pavement and lobbed a few bottles and rocks in our direction. Then, a few hours later, around a 100 EDLers managed to escape and headed off; we could only assume their intention was to cause a bit of (probably-violent) havoc in town. We figured that trying to head off and confront that group was a more useful thing for us to do than spending the rest of the day shouting ourselves hoarse and shoving the cops, so a group of maybe three hundred of us turned back up the street we were on and ran to find them.

We tracked the EDLers down to a roundabout by a retail park and managed to bloody a few noses before police stepped in to break us up and quickly herded the EDLers into Forster Square train station and out of town.

We shouldn’t overstate what we achieved; the EDLers we confronted represented maybe 1/8th of their entire forces on the day. We should also take care not to fall into a crude idealisation of physical-confrontation anti-fascism; it’s a form of activism that excludes those less-able to take part in it and is only one aspect of the anti-fascist strategy we need to develop.

But we did prove that with a bit of tactical dexterity, the EDL can be confronted. We challenged their right to bring their racist bile onto the streets of our cities without encountering any visible opposition. We challenged the pro-state, popular-frontist perspective of mainstream anti-fascism that asserts that calls for state bans or polite rallies are sufficient responses. A lot of us didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when we received reports that leading SWPers had led chants of “whose streets? Our streets!” from the platform of the UAF rally while we were actually doing the work of defending the streets from the EDL hundreds of yards away.

Darth Vader and pals move in

Beneath the practical unity built on the day between Muslim youth and independent anti-fascists, there are some politics that need unpicking; during the lulls between scraps with the cops, we chanted “unemployment and inflation are not caused by immigration; bullshit, come off the enemy is profit” while many of them chanted “Allahu akhbar!” Some of them also chanted “the EDL are faggots!” and hurled sexist abuse at women police officers.

The point is that practical unity in confronting fascist organisation is the best framework from within which to challenge the religious, homophobic and sexist politics that some Muslim youth hold. The left must break from the essentially racist assumption that working-class Muslims can only be related to on the basis of religious communalism and can only be engaged with through the religious establishment and community “leadership”. At one point the self-same community “leaders” who had backed the HnH and UAF events turned up on the frontlines of our confrontation with the police to plead with local kids to go home. Fortunately, their pleas were ignored.

The English Defence League promised us a summer of mass mobilisations intended to cause havoc in some of England’s key centres of Asian, and specifically Muslim, population. They crowed about mobilising up to 5,000 to come to Bradford. Those claims have come to nothing; they were not strong enough to meaningfully impose themselves on the streets of Bradford on August 28, and when a few of them did manage to defy the police they were sent packing by our hastily-convened anti-fascist rapid response unit.

Hopefully, the dismal and disgraceful role of HnH and UAF on the day will help break the stranglehold that these groups hold on anti-fascist politics in the organised workers’ movement. One battering isn’t going to make the EDL go away and the social problems leading many white working-class people into the arms of the EDL and, beyond them, the BNP haven’t gone away either.

We still need to build a national anti-fascist movement that combines a direct-action approach with ongoing campaigning on issues like jobs, homes and services so we can provide anti-capitalist, anti-racist answers to the legitimate grievances which the far-right attempts to exploit. Young working-class people from every community will be at the centre of that; the ruling-class figures and popular-frontist ideas that existing mainstream anti-fascism looks to will be no part of it at all.

Following the relative success of their wee day out to Kilmarnock -- where the shameful actions of Strathclyde Police ensured that their ‘march’ could go ahead -- the SDL are intending to have another go at parading through Glasgow next month, on Saturday 18th September.

As you might recall, when the SDL last tried to march in the city, the first far-right demo in Scotland for decades, they were met by thousands of anti-fascists who opposed them directly on the streets and ensured that the police soon bussed them out of the city centre. It was a resounding victory, and a repeat of this situation when they tried to hold a demo in Edinburgh in February was enough for many to see the organisation as finished. Not so -- they came back for a jaunt to Killie, had a nice day, and since then have been intent on making their trip to the big city as much of a success.

Responding to an official complaint from the Scottish Anti-Fascist Alliance, the police have sought to defend their actions in Kilmarnock on the grounds that they cannot discriminate against ‘legal protest’ and that their heavy-handed treatment of anti-fascists was both ‘justified and proportionate’ in keeping order on the day.

This all sets a worrying precedent for September 18th. The SDL have learnt from their previous mistakes, and now know that by meeting inside pubs, they’ll invariably just end up getting kettled within by the police, and in turn, hundreds of anti-fascists. On the other hand, meeting on the street offers them both police protection, and guarantees that they’ll get some kind of street protest/shouting match. So this time, the SDL have applied for a demo which will, they claim, gather in Blytheswood Square towards the west of the city and march to George Square, where they intend to lay a wreathe at the cenotaph. It will be doubly ironic if the SDL are allowed to assemble at their desired location, given that Blytheswood Square is now off limits to everyone else.

What Kilmarnock demonstrated though was that the state cannot be relied on at any level to stop the threat of organised fascism. Ultimately, the police will attempt to keep public order -- and if this means allowing the SDL/EDL/NF to march, then so be it. It’s a game of numbers, one which worked to our advantage in Glasgow and Edinburgh, less so in Kilmarnock and countless EDL demos down south. Mobilising against fascism doesn’t have to be difficult -- in fact it’s been one of the best, most gratifying and worthwhile things that SSY has been involved with over the past 12 months. In Glasgow and Edinburgh hundreds, even thousands, of ordinary people have been angry enough to take to the streets in direct action against fascism.

Which makes it all the more bizarre that there’s a growing school of thought which says that the EDL “shouldn’t be opposed”, because this is “playing into their hands” and “harming community relations”. It doesn’t come as any great surprise to hear that this is being spearheaded by the ‘anti-fascist’ magazine Searchlight, and their establishment-backed front organisation Hope Not Hate. The entire strategy of Searchlight and HNH rests on making appeals to the state to ‘ban’ nasty people -- bans which then all too easily backfire against the left. Their major success in this so far was Luton last year, where they managed to get ALL political gatherings banned for several months in a bid to stop one EDL march -- great job guys!

Bradford is a special case in many respects, given the race riots which happened there in 2001. But simply calling for the EDL to be banned does not get around this -- the main catalyst for the disorder in 2001 was  a march by the National Front. A march that, as it happens, was banned by the authorities from taking place. But this ban didn’t stop some of the Nazis showing up anyway -- and similarly, a ban on the EDL’s march isn’t going to stop a large amount of their support showing up either. They’ve been building up this demo for months, constistently referring to it as ‘the Big One’ and one that ‘one wont be for families’. It doesn’t take long to figure out what they want: a ruck with the local Asian youth (with  one third of Bradford’s population being Muslim).

It’s particularly shameful that the local trade union council has come out against any planned counter-demo, alongside “most political parties, faith groups and community groups”, according to Hope Not Hate. In effect, all they’re doing is alienating those that will come out to oppose the EDL -- abandoning any local youth who come out to defend their community from attack by the thugs of the EDL. The local labour movement should be at the forefront of direct action to stop the EDL, not cowering at the back cause they’re scared they might get hit. A broad, united anti-fascist demo would send a clear message to the EDL, and people watching from all over the UK, that Bradford stands against them. Sitting at home and abandoning the local Asian youth to defend their city is exactly what will lead the media to portray the whole thing as a ‘race riot’. And that’s what we all want to avoid.

Dresden shows how it’s done -- 13.02.2010

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.

UKIP are the most successful minor party in British electoral history. Despite having no MP’s, no official backing from any major newspaper, and only 70 councillors UKIP were able to beat the Lib Dems and come third in 2004’s European Elections. Last year they went further, coming second and beating the governing Labour Party. Today UKIP send as many MEP’s to Brussels as Labour do. This is a formiddable achievement for a party that was only founded in 1993.

Despite this fantastic growth, there has been very little discussion or criticism of UKIP on the Left. This is despite UKIP representing a “radical” right-wing constituency, with MEP’s further to the right than most Tory MP’s and who would attack the standard of living of working people quite dramatically if elected.

Most concern on the Left to radical right wing parties has been directed to the growth of the BNP, who picked up 2 MEP’s at the last European Election. UKIP is very obviously and clearly not the same kind of party as the BNP but there is definitely competition between both parties for the same anti-EU, anti-Immigration, nationalist vote. This vote isn’t homogeneous however and there are important differences. UKIP attract a wealthier, home counties right-wing vote, compared to the BNP who attract support from much poorer areas in English cities.

UKIP and the BNP also have differences in how they view society should be organised; UKIP are made up of Thatcherites who are too Eurosceptic for the Tory Party but still uphold the free market and libertarian values. The BNP in contrast support protectionism for British companies – this has led to some on the Tory nutter right to attack the BNP as “Left-wing”. Farage, UKIP’s former leader and best known public figure says the difference between them and the BNP is that they are the “do what you like party” and the BNP are the “hang em and flog em party”.

Parliament for the jocks you say? What ho, no, let them use the one behind me!

Of course the biggest and most fundamental difference between the two parties is that the BNP is still a neo-Nazi organisation pretending to be a populist right wing one, while UKIP is just a populist right-wing party. UKIP doesn’t believe in the racial supremacy fantasies of the BNP and has no problems with ethnic minorities as candidates or members. It’s for this reason that it would be unimaginable (and wrong) for UKIP to be no platformed the way the BNP is.

Despite these important differences however, UKIP deserves a lot more attention and criticism from the Left than it has got. It’s generally been ignored by the Left as it is not in any position to control the Government or Local councils and because its not a fascist organisation like the BNP. However UKIP may not always be the eccentric party of ex-Tory Daily Mail readers, able to attract a bit of a laugh now and again with some Bernard Manning style comments about women or attacking the EU President as a damp rag.

UKIP’s potential danger can be seen in the man they invited last week to the House of Lords – Geert Wilders. UKIP’s leader, Lord Pearson invited Wilders to broadcast his anti-Muslim film “Fitna”. Wilders was also welcomed to London by the English Defence Leage, producing an unholy trinity of football casuals, ex-Tory lords and Wilders. This display was another example of the EDL are acting as violent thugs for ideas which are circulated and promoted by well heeled members of the establishment who are far more “respectable” than they are.

I likesh a shmoke and a pancake, but I don't likesh the Mushlimsh

UKIP have tried to justify their love in with Wilders on the basis that we need to have a discussion about “radical Islam”. Time and time again however Wilders has made clear that his problem is with Islam, and sees no difference between moderate and radical Muslims. Wilders today is the most successful far-Right politician in Europe, and has a real chance of becoming the next Prime Minister of the Netherlands.

Wilders has made it a demand for any coalition Government in which his Party for Freedom (PVV) takes part, that the hijab is banned from all public institutions; meaning any Muslim who wears the hijab will be banned from working in or using a library, swimming pool, school etc. Wilders does not even attempt to cover his attack on Muslims by saying its about secularism – he openly says Jewish skull caps and crucifixes will not be affected by this law, as they are a part of western culture.

People should remember that the hijab is not the burqa. Unlike the burqa, which is an extreme form of Islamic dress worn by a very small number of Muslims in Europe the Hijab is a far more modest headscarf little different from a nuns habit. The hijab is worn by a massive proportion of Muslim women – banning them from wearing it is a clear attack on their civil rights. There is no practical difference between someone who wears a hijab, a turban or skullcap in how they do their job or use public services. They have been singled out because they are Muslims.

Wilders has also called for the banning of the Koran, and for Guantanamo bay style facilities for Muslims in the Netherlands. He is also a staunch defender of Israel – Wilders PVV is in fact interested with fighting a war against the freedoms of the Netherlands’s Muslim minority.

How far UKIP will go down the PVV road remains to be seen, but it is clear that they are attempting to win support not just from attacking the EU but now from attacking Muslims. UKIP have become the first party in the UK to call for the banning of the Burka in all public places. This is further than even the BNP wants to go – they only want the burka banned in govt buildings. Whatever criticism can be made of the burka for it’s attacks on women’s rights it’s clear that if UKIP are cosying up with Wilders it is unlikely they are banning it to emancipate Muslim women.

UKIP also need to be dug up by the Left for their hypocrisy on the issues of democracy and accountability they claim to uphold. UKIP have won virtually all their support on their largely correct attacks on the European President and European Commission for being totally unaccountable and unelected – but they see no contradiction between these institutions and having an unelected Lord as leader! There is no attack on the House of Lords from UKIP on what it is, an undemocratic chamber which has the power to stop laws being made by a parliament with elected MP’s.

UKIP’s policy on Scotland also betrays their Tory roots – they call for the abolition of the Scottish Parliament, an act that would return Scotland to the bad old days of the 80’s where our votes were irrelevant, and the votes of middle England would decide who rules Scotland.

After all as bad as the EU parliament is, its done nothing like force the poll tax on Scotland using MP’s elected in England – but then again, that wouldn’t bother UKIP much seeing as they argue for a “flat tax”. A flat tax means that everyone pays the same amount of tax for their services regardless of their income, which was of course the exact same principle the poll tax used. They also call for a reduction in the rate of corporation tax, referring to Thatcher and Reagan’s UK and USA as a justification. This flat tax would also mean less funding for public services, cutting jobs and services in order to transfer even more wealth to the rich. This “freedom” for companies to do whatever they want is part of UKIP’s attack on the alleged “social democratic consensus” at Westminster.

Both this flat tax and reduction in corporation tax would be another salvo in a war which has been going on for 30 years, a war between the richest 1% of the population who have seen their wealth skyrocket whilst the working majority have seen their wealth stagnate or barely increase. Alongside their cosying up to someone who is determined to deny public services and jobs to Muslims in the Netherlands, it shows up UKIP as being a bit more dangerous than their charismatic and dotty English Toff MEP’s suggest.

Right now UKIP are unlikely to put into practice any of these policies. Both parties of the radical right in the UK, the BNP and UKIP have major barriers to growth. In the case of the BNP it’s their racism and neo-Nazi baggage. For UKIP its being identified as solely interested in Europe.

The PVV in the Netherlands shows that these barriers can be overcome however. If UKIP and the BNP dealt with these barriers by dumping Griffin and other neo-Nazis, paid more attention to domestic affairs and founded a new radical right party along the lines of the PVV there is little to stop them from emulating Wilders success. There is clearly a very large vote for opposing the EU, immigration, political correctness and for old school Tory values that Cameron has had to cede somewhat to take the centre ground.

Such a party of the radical right would pose a threat to Scotland’s democratic rights, working peoples status in the tax system, funding to public services and civil rights of Muslims in the UK. Remember that the next time you see Nigel Farage guffaw on Question Time and ask if anyone wants to go for a punt and a Pimms.

Regular readers of this site will know of two attempts by the so-called “Scottish Defence League” to march in Glasgow in Edinburgh to demonstrate against Muslims in this country. On both occasions the SDL have been kettled, unable to march – and in Edinburgh unable to make even a token static protest. On both occasions democratic, grassroots and broad anti-fascist organisations have been formed, with SSY members working with different anti-fascist campaigners to physically stop the SDL from marching. These organisations have been responsive in nature, and have only formed in the cities where the SDL have planned to march – but it has left us with a network of anti-fascists, in Glasgow Anti-Fascist Alliance and Edinburgh Anti-Fascist Alliance.

This Saturday both groups will be coming together to have a national anti-fascist meeting to discuss the way forward for anti-fascists in Scotland. The SDL have been convincingly thrashed both times they have attempted to march or demonstrate but it is now clear the SDL are changing tactics and the anti-fascist alliances must respond to this. They have shut down their facebook, bebo groups etc and now are reliant on a hardcore of their members to come out and demonstrate. They have given up trying to publicly advertise their demonstrations and are now reliant on contacting those who have already been on previous demonstrations.

This in itself is a victory, as it severely stunts the possible growth of the SDL as an organisation but it also makes it harder for anti-fascists to combat them. After the Edinburgh disaster for the SDL, they announced they would be having a memorial event in Lockerbie on the 27th of March. Again this shows they have been thrown out of the cities in Scotland and marks a retreat for them. However instead of demonstrating on the 27th the SDL organised a demo last Saturday – this was entirely in secret, with no press coverage of any kind. Again, a blow considering the media coverage they obtained in both Edinburgh and Glasgow.

What it does raise though is the possibility of “lightning demos” – where the SDL contact a few dozen of their trusted members to organise a brief, static demo in major cities in Scotland – possibly outside key targets for them, such as Mosques or the Parliament. The anti-fascist movement needs to be able to respond to this effectively, particularly as the conditions will be very different from in the past in terms of policing etc.

We also need to discuss how we deal with other fascist organisations, such as the National Front. Long dormant across the UK – and in particular Scotland, where they never had anything like the base they had in England – they are now planning a “Kriss Donald memorial” later this month. The NF is trying to stoke up racial tension and exploit the tragic murder of a young boy for their own fantasies of racial war.

The biggest threat we need to face is not forces on the street however – its the established party of the far-right across the UK, the BNP. The BNP took 2 MEP’s last year, alongside their dozens of councillors and GLA seat. They are trying to make the break into political respectability, and with Griffins infamous appearance on Question Time are making some inroads. While the BNP have no councillors in Scotland, and have never picked much support north of the border its clear they are now trying to break on to the Scottish political scene. In the Glasgow North East by-election they came 4th, not far off beating the Tories and holding on to their deposit.

The BNP are now talking about standing in up to 12 seats across Scotland, which would be their largest set of candidates in any General Election in Scotland. While the BNP do not have any chance of winning the seats – and are very unlikely to hold their deposit in any of these seats either – these elections will be used to boost their profile for the 2011 Holyrood Elections. The BNP will be trying to get a PR seat by winning 5-6% across a region, most likely Glasgow.

At the moment this appears unlikely, particularly as Scottish Elections don’t give the BNP media coverage on the basis of their successes down south. What their strategy most likely will be is to boost their profile in national elections across Scotland in preparation for the 2012 council elections. All the BNP need here is 16 – 20% in one council ward to take a councillor. The BNP built their base in council halls in England, its logical they would use the same tactics up here – where they do not need to win a FPTP election.

The anti-fascist movement not only needs to deal with the far-right in their political organisations but with a wider acceptance of racist views in society in general. It’s now commonplace to hear migrants being blamed for taking jobs, and attacks on Muslims as being disloyal, terrorists etc. Most of the people who make these kind of comments would never vote BNP, but they can influence the major parties through voting for them to accept these ideas.

If the organisations, and more importantly the ideas of the far-right are going to be beaten anti-fascists have to evolve a strategy beyond “Don’t vote Nazi”. We need to flesh out, and campaign as for a strategy that undercuts why people are attracted to racist parties and ideas. That means uniting working people for positive demands around housing, education, employment and wages. SSY hopes that the national anti-fascist meeting this Saturday begins that process, and helps to build a national Scottish Anti-Fascist Alliance.

Saturday, March 13, 2010
6:30pm – 9:00pm
upstairs in the Forest Cafe, 3 Bristo Place, 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!

Facebook group for the event

Image by John Lanigan

Almost two months of organising against the Scottish incarnation of the fascist English Defence League paid off yesterday – the SDL were outnumbered 50 to 1 by anti-fascist demonstrators, unable to march and spent most of the day kettled in a pub in Glasgow. Earlier fears of the SDL marching on Glasgow Central Mosque, attacking anti-war and pro-Palestine stalls on Buchanan St or assembling in George Square were unfounded thanks to the presence of well over a thousand anti-fascist demonstrators.

While the SDL spent their whole day stuck in the Cambridge Bar anti-fascist demonstrators had freedom to march all across Glasgow in what were effectively illegal marches. It was this presence which stopped the police from allowing the SDL any kind of demonstration in Glasgow, bar a pathetic 60 pace “march” outside the Cambridge Bar to police lines. The SDL themselves had to be taken out on double decker buses for their own safety.

Theres lots of things we could have done differently on the day – there was a split in the demo between those who wanted to stay at the Cambridge where the SDL were and those who went to Glasgow Green.

SSY members and GU Left Society members argued throughout the build up to this demo that we should have a mobilisation in the city centre early on in the day, as the SDL planned to demonstrate in the city centre well before the Scotland United rally. Having a rally away from the city centre and after the SDL were due to turn up therefore couldn’t be the only way to confront the SDL. At first UAF opposed the 10am kick off but later came round to supporting it.

The split in the demo between those who went to the Green and stayed at Cambridge is a lesson for any future demos the SDL or the far-right try to organise; many people did not stay at the Cambridge because the SDL presence there was tiny, and it was believed they would try to hold a larger rally later on in George Square. That made getting kettled outside the Cambridge an unattractive prospect, especially as there were rumours 100 SDL supporters would be coming in on the Trains at 12 to assemble in George Square.

As it happened the only SDL presence was in the Cambridge and in retrospect the demo could have stayed there for most if not all of the day. If part of the demo had to split off for speakers etc then in the future it should be somewhere much closer to the SDL – for example George Square.

Despite this the day was a resounding success, the SDL were totally unable to march or advertise themselves or their message. Just take a look at their comments on their Facebook group – http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&ref=search&gid=227558430152
The free march the EDL had in Luton was totally denied to the SDL.

SDL’s tiny “demo” kettled by the police

This wasn’t just down to a large anti-fascist mobilisation but a mobilisation which was committed to meeting in the city centre and confronting them – not simply going to the Green. SSY comrades played no small part in many of the meetings in the build up to this demo in arguing and promoting that city centre confrontation and we should be proud of our role in making sure the SDL had a bad day in Glasgow.

NO PASARAN!