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

Here's a photo of the moments described in the letter

Most readers will have been following how two weeks ago thousands of anti-fascists mobilised on the streets of Edinburgh to defeat the racist Scottish Defence League through militant direct action.

If you haven’t, you can read what SSY had to say about the day here and here.

Although the day was a great success, one of the things that clearly needs to be tackled if we’re going to build mass opposition to the far right in Scotland is unity within the anti-fascist movement.

SSY and the SSP have argued that there was room for both a mass demo and rally against racism (even if we had some reservations about some of the characters on the platform, like Edinburgh City Council Leader Jenny Dawe) and for those willing and able to take mass direct action by peacefully occupying the streets.

But on the day there were tensions and disagreement between the Edinburgh Anti Fascist Alliance, who argued for direct action, and Unite Against Fascism and Scotland United, the organisers of the march and rally.

Now EAFA have written an open letter to UAF, arguing for these tensions to be resolved to allow us to make sure that the SDL won’t be able to march in Lockerbie later this month. We should stress that this letter is by the Edinburgh Anti Fascist Alliance, which involves loads of different groups and individuals, and it’s not just by SSY or the Scottish Socialist Party. Nevertheless I think it’s fair to say that SSY endorses pretty much everything it says.

Here it is:

“Subject: Open Letter to the UAF

Edinburgh Anti-Fascist Alliance Open letter to the UAF, 28 February 2010

Fellow Anti-Fascists,

We recognise the hard work of the UAF in building for the anti-Scottish Defence League demonstration, and were pleased with the cooperative relationship we had with Unite Against Fascism in the lead up to it. We were working together in the spirit of a united response to the SDL.

We were heartened to hear in the UAF meetings we attended, that the UAF considered that there was room for the two complimentary demonstrations on the day. We hoped that the problems that occurred in Glasgow were behind us, and that the UAF and Anti-Fascist Alliance could cooperate this time.

However on the day of the demonstration some members of the UAF intended to disrupt our protest, and take it back to the Scotland United march,despite these previous assurances, and the spirit of cooperation that existed before. Some UAF and Scotland United organisers spread disinformation, and said things that were known to be untrue, to the crowd as it marched to confront the SDL at the bottom of the Royal Mile.These untrue statements included: “there are no SDL in that pub, only Hibs casuals”, and “150 fascists are about to attack the Scotland United demonstration”. This led to confusion and people leaving.

Unity and superior numbers are our strengths against violent racists like the SDL. However these strengths were jeopardised by this behaviour, and put the safety of anti-fascists at serious risk. We would not like to imagine what the situation could have been like, had the depleted number of anti-fascists met a large group of SDL thugs at the bottom of the hill.

We hope that this letter will start a fraternal discussion about how we can avoid similar situations in the future, and how we can ensure greater level of unity and cooperation between the UAF and Anti-FascistAlliance so that we have the best chance of defeating fascism. We lookforward to cooperating with you against the SDL/EDL in Lockerbie and Bolton.
In Solidarity,

Edinburgh Anti-Fascist Alliance.”

Last weekend thousands of anti-fascists took to the streets of Edinburgh to confront and defeat the Scottish Defence League. We won an overwhelming victory, and everyone who was part of it should be proud.

This Thursday (25th), SSY has called a national meeting to discuss what we can learn from the weekend’s success, and what role socialists can play in taking the anti-fascist movement in Scotland. It’s at 6pm in the Forest Cafe, which is on 3 Bristo Place.

There’s a lot to talk about. LydiaTeapot below has given a great report of the day, so I don’t want to repeat to much of what she’s said. I’ll just add a few points about my impressions.

Saturday was great for two main reasons: number one, our actions helped make sure that the fascists had absolutely no ability to march. The previous anti-SDL mobilisation in Glasgow last year was great, but we weren’t able to surround the Cambridge Bar, where the SDL were, throughout the day. As a result they were able to come out for a (pretty pathetic) static demo on the street.  On Saturday we very quickly found out they were in Jenny Ha’s pub, surrounded it, and as a result were able to make sure that there was absolutely no kind of street protest.

Number two, we won the argument about how to deal with the fascist presence. In both Edinburgh and Glasgow, when it was announced the SDL were coming to march, SSY members were among those who moved quickly to set up broad, grassroots and militant anti-fascist alliances, involving everyone who was committed to directly preventing them from marching on our streets by occupying them ourselves. Glasgow Anti Fascist Alliance (GAFA) and then Edinburgh Anti Fascist Alliance (EAFA) were both crucial organisations that have made sure that the SDL have now been defeated and humiliated twice.

Assembling at Princes Mall, one of the many times we were Standing Around Against Fascism

Meanwhile, the Scotland United and Unite Against Fascism (UAF) groups have organised big rallies, which are supported by all the mainstream political parties and trade unions etc. These rallies have been about getting people into a park and listening to speakers, many of whom are politicians in power that help create the conditions for the rise of far right politics, i.e. poverty, unemployment, other stuff we don’t like. They have NOT been about physically preventing the SDL from marching.

Potentially, these events could be complimentary, the rally providing a safe space for anti-fascists who for whatever reason aren’t able to confront the SDL directly. The SSP on paper has supported the rallies, while most of our work has gone into organising and participating in direct action. The problem has been that these rallies, and the people promoting them, have tried to make out that they are the only people organising against the SDL, and that their rally is the only game in town. This is after the alliances have spent months putting together a plan based on a more radical strategy. In the run up to the weekend rally organisers had tried to sabotage the EAFA events, claiming that there was no 9.30 assembly point, and telling people to only do as they were told by official stewards for their march and rally.

On Saturday, the outcome of all this is that EAFA had called for people to assemble from 9.30 at Princes Mall. Meanwhile, UAF and groups of students were meeting just down Princes Street from us at 10. Early on in the day there wasn’t much going on, so we headed along to join up with this group. Very soon afterwards we got good information on where the SDL were and headed off up towards the Royal Mile. Most people came with us.

On the way up the mound, Aamer Anwar, who’s a left wing lawyer, and one of the main figures behind the Scotland United group, was desperately shouting into a megaphone to try and get us to go back to where we’d just came from, in order to wait around for the march and rally he’d helped organise to start. At this point though he was like a man shouting at the sea as everyone just kept on marching past him.

The point when debate raged on the streets about the best way forward

When we reached the junction of the Royal Mile and North Bridge there was a serious debate about the best way forward. EAFA activists, including SSY folk, shouted to the crowd that we should keep on down the hill to confront the SDL. Some people from UAF, mainly Weyman Bennett (one of the main leaders of UAF who’d come up from England) said all kinds of things in an attempt to get us to head away, and back towards their rally. Wild claims were made, such as that the people in the pub weren’t in the SDL, they were “hibs casuals” (this wasn’t true, as everyone now realises.) Another one was that there were 150 SDL poised to attack the Scotland United/UAF rally (there weren’t even 150 SDL in the whole of Edinburgh!) This was all shown to be nonsense as the day went on.

A similar situation had developed before on the Glasgow march, when conflicting ideas about what to do had sowed a great deal of confusion, mistakes were made, and ultimately the SDL got their 20 seconds on the street. But what was crucially different this time is that those of us who wanted to take a radical approach were ready, and made our arguments on the street. Huge numbers of anti-fascists, most of them young people and at least some of whom didn’t come with any group but had just seen posters or leaflets, were the ones to judge who was right. They voted with their feet and moved down the Royal Mile.

SSY and SSP people were among those speaking out for heading down the hill, and the SSP’s bright and eye catching banner also helped prove a rallying point in pulling people in the right direction. This then gave us the numbers to effectively confront the SDL and win a key victory. There were people from all different kinds of political groups and none, including (credit where credit is due) many of the younger supporters of UAF. Many of these people expressed a lot of frustration with the actions of their own leadership, and it’s to be hoped that in the future they will continue to take part in and plan for direct action.

We rapidly took up positions on both side of Jenny Ha’s pub, separated from the SDL by police lines. The SDL were unable to leave the pub, and after many hours of singing and chanting, we got the satisfaction of giving them the finger as they were bussed out of Edinburgh past thousands of anti-fascists. The approach and arguments of EAFA were completely vindicated-we had the right strategy for the day and it worked, despite real attempts to undermine it from people who are supposed to be on the same side.

Smaller groups of anti-fascists encountered the SDL out and about the city and helped drive them out. For example, a group of 50 found about 10 SDL and escorted them to the train station, seen in the video at the top, with only about 2 police present.

Let’s be clear-it was never the EAFA strategy to go and pick a fight with a bunch of thugs who were hoping for just that. What we set out to do was mobilise as many as people as possible to outnumber and surround the fascists. Although it was the police that eventually removed the SDL from Edinburgh, it was the presence of thousands of anti-fascists surrounding their location that prevented them from being able to have a march. Some people have tried to claim that EAFA were just a bunch of people who like to imagine they are hard when they are safe behind police lines. But the truth is we didn’t aim for violence, we aimed for peacefully occupying the streets with mass numbers so the fascists couldn’t take to them. The same approach defeated fascists in Dresden last week as well, and it worked in Edinburgh.

The development of GAFA and EAFA is a key factor that makes the difference between Edinburgh and Glasgow, where the SDL has been completely routed, and some English towns, where the EDL have run riot with little opposition. Broad groups of people, including socialists, anarchists and people who just want to take radical action to stop the far right, have managed to pull big numbers into actively confronting the SDL. We’ve done it in a way that wasn’t top-down, and we didn’t need Tory politicians’ endorsement. What’s important now is that crucial advantage isn’t lost.

That’s why SSY wants to bring together young socialists from across Scotland on Thursday to talk about what we do next. My own personal opinion is that we must try and keep the groups together, keep them meeting and active. We shouldn’t let the momentum we’ve gained drift.

Another idea is to get a joint meeting between GAFA and EAFA. This could even take the form of a weekend event to allow us to have a day talking, educating each other and developing a strategy for the way forward. We’ve already heard about anti-fascists from other parts of Europe who’ve been watching what’s been going on in Scotland who might be interested in traveling to take part in such an event and share their experience as well.

Anti-fascists surrounding the SDL's location, by the Scottish Parliament

Ultimately, the long term plan has to be try and find a way to build up more groups like GAFA and EAFA, groups that are radical, open and committed to confronting fascists when they try to march. The next couple of events to consider are the National Front’s proposed “Kriss Donald memorial event” and the news that the SDL plan a “Lockerbie bombing memorial” in Lockerbie on 27th March. But ultimately, we also have the thorny issue of the BNP’s participation in the general election and the Scottish election next year. The BNP are the respectable face of the far right, and generally don’t want to be caught out street fighting (which doesn’t mean that many of their members aren’t crazy thugs.) How we respond to them is a little more complex than stopping the SDL from being able to come out of the pub.

With regards to the UAF and Scotland United, it’s to be hoped that after Edinburgh they might behave a little more respectfully to their fellow anti-fascists, instead of trying to undo a lot of our hard work. Ultimately in many cases there might be a good argument for having a “safe” rally for people who for whatever reason aren’t able to confront the SDL, but still want to show opposition. The problem is when the organisers of this rally try and actively prevent people from taking direct action. In future anti-fascists as a whole need to be more united and collective, and that means that the UAF needs to start talking with us and acting a bit more openly. If they don’t they may well find themselves undercut by the groups who are committed to direct action. But the actions of some UAF supporters on the day do give me hope.

Of course, all these ideas at the moment are just my own, developed while chatting to folk in the many hours of standing around in Edinburgh. Everything needs to be discussed to get our collective wisdom, and hopefully the meeting on Thursday can start that process. And of course, SSY members are far from the only people in the alliances, and we wouldn’t want to impose our ideas on the broader groups without the agreement of others taking part.

Although it’s an SSY meeeting, it’s open to all young people interested in stopping fascism. We just want a chance to share ideas and chat about what we do next. Hopefully soon afterwards GAFA and EAFA can meet as well to formulate a plan. But until then, hopefully as many people reading this can make it along as possible and we can begin to consolidate our victory and drive the far right out of Scotland.

SSY National Meeting on the way forward for anti-fascism in Scotland

Thursday 25th February, 6pm

Forest Cafe, 3 Bristo Place, Edinburgh

Anti-fascists & local yoof block the route of the NF: Lewisham 1977

The dieing days of a Labour government, discontent bubbling away in the trade unions, a resurgent Conservative party, mass unemployment, cuts – everywhere – cuts!, the far-right gaining limited electoral success, the SWP falling apart .. fuck me, haven’t we been here before?
Well, um not strictly, seeing as SSY are all under-the-age-of-26 and that, but you get the picture. We seem to be heading towards a bad re-run of the late 70s, but this time, the economic crisis is that bit worse and we’re going to see the biggest erosion of the welfare state and attacks on the working class since like um… Thatcher as it happens.

And now, to top it all off, the National Front are back. Allegedly. They’ve been trying for a while to play on the back of discontent with the direction Fuhrer Nick Griffin is taking the BNP (not enough hitler worshiping, too many jews) with some limited success. But, I mean, it’s hardly like we’re about to see a resurgent threat of the far-right marching on our streets, victimising minorities, and taking over OUR chain-pubs though, is it?
OH NO WAIT, we already are -  it’s just being done under the, ahem, respectable guise of the English/Scottish Defence League, that’s all.

Now the Scottish section of the NF have announced that they’re having a wee get-together this Saturday, in Glasgow. All five of them, presumably, but it’s good to know that they’ve advertised it on the internet just in case they get a few keen new members. Do the fash never learn? Posting details of yr gatherings on the internet = a silly idea.

Glasgow Anti-Fascist Alliance are mobilising to oppose the National Front. They will be assembling at 12 noon at Borders on Buchanan  Street, Saturday 13 February.

Next Saturday, 20th February, is the date of the Scottish Defence League’s planned second outing  – this time in Edinburgh.
Edinburgh Anti-Fascist Alliance are calling a counter-demo to confront the SDL, assembling at 9.30am on Princes Street, outside Princes Mall.
There’ll also be some pish Scotland United ‘let’s listen to speeches by boring mainstream politicians about why teh racists are bad ‘ one, but you’re nae missing much with that.

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!

As Leftfield reported last month, the so-called ‘Scottish Defence League’ are planning to hold a ‘demonstration against Muslim extremists’ in Glasgow this Saturday, 14 November.
With past English and Welsh Defence League protests being marred by racist violence, provocative chanting, fascist salutes and general far-right hooliganism, we can probably assume the Glasgow demo will try its hardest to follow in this proud tradition.
Anti-fascists are mobilising to stop the SDL. A broad alliance of trade unions and various organisations and individuals are holding a rally in Glasgow Green from noon, with a march through the city centre taking place later in the day.
SSY is supporting the call-out for mass action to stop the SDL when they arrive – and with that at present remaining unclear, anti-fascists will be mobilising for an early doors convergence outside St Enochs subway station at 10am.
We’re urging everyone to come down and make sure there’s a huge anti-fascist presence in the city centre from early on.
Anyone coming is strongly advised to arrive in groups and to stick together! SSY will have a visible presence from 10am.
It’s very hard to predict how events will unfold on the 14th – the police are treating the day very seriously and have reportedly cancelled all leave, so expect stop and searches, and don’t carry anything illegal!
Above all, we want to stop the SDL fascists from being able to freely organise and operate on our streets. If they are decisively defeated on the 14th, chances are they’ll think again before they appear elsewhere in Scotland – they’re already claiming to have an Edinburgh event in the pipeline. Mass, militant action has defeated the fascists in the past – and we can do it again.

See you on the streets! No pasaran!

Special Guest Post Exclusive by Honorary SSY Member Jo Harvie….

So it’s the morning after Griffin got on Question Time. The Guardian and Independent have slammed the oxygen feed to the fascists, the Star has called him a nuttaaaah, and every single telly programme and radio phone-in, from GMTV to This Morning has discussed the merit of allowing ‘Dick’ to sweat, giggle and stutter through an hour of flagship political discussion.

There’s been a mixed bag of views shared. A few surprising celebrities have argued passionately that there should never have been a place for the BNP on a programme like Question Time. Everyone on Twitter loved Bonnie Greer’s intellectual wasting of Griffin’s idiotic view of history. All the panellists agree he looked stupid.

But from the people phoning in, there’s an overwhelming feeling that it was a sin for him, the poor kid who hadn’t done his homework being hounded by a whole gaggle of strict teachers. One phoner-upper to The Wright Stuff actually likened Griffin to “Joan of Arc tied to the stake”. Well, I suppose he insists he can trace his ancestors back to William the Conqueror, making him, by his own standards, French.

NIck Griffin is no victim. From the second it was announced that the BBC had invited him onto Question Time he couldn’t lose. He looked inarticulate. He looked nervous. The bloke who made the South Pole joke made him look a total tube. But he was there. He was on our tellies, sitting opposite the ‘political elite’ he purports to despise so much. He touched Bonnie Greer’s arm several times. I hope she’s burnt her jacket.

And again, and again, last night and across all channels this morning, it’s been repeated that none of the politicians could answer the question about ‘the problem of immigration’. Labour, LibDem and Tory argued it out last night about who it was who’d let too many people in, and who would let in less in the future.

The argument I’m hearing today is that the mainstream parties are ’scared’ to debate immigration. That’s nonsense, they talk about immigration all the time. It’s just that they’re all saying the same thing – ‘we have to find ways to stop people getting in’. Between them, they have shifted the language on immigration so far to the right that they’re all living next door to the BNP.

Let’s hear the other side for a change. Britain is not ‘full up’. If the UK’s population is rising slightly (Scotland’s, on the whole, is not) it’s because middle class people are living longer.

The number of people making a new application for asylum in the UK rose, very slightly, this year, after dropping over the last five years. Not because people are looking to live comfortably on our benefits – our government forces people to live in absolute poverty, on £35 a week, while they wait for a decision on their asylum claim – but because Western armies have clattered through their countries spreading terror and chaos. People seeking asylum come, overwhelmingly, from Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia.

Tory Baroness Warsi challenged Griffin’s use of the term ‘bogus asylum seeker’ – I think it’s the first time I’ve ever heard the term challenged on TV – because it’s an invented slur. There are no bogus asylum seekers, every human on the planet has the right to ask for sanctuary. Yet her party would still seek to limit the number of people to whom we offer that sanctuary, would send families back to the killing fields of Sudan and Somalia, to the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq.

They argued over the number of people who arrived from Eastern Europe. So what? People came, they worked, they paid taxes. And when rich white people screwed the whole world’s economy, lots of people went home to try to work and pay taxes there. Like the British young people who troop off to work their way round Australia, then come home when they’ve had enough adventure.

Britain’s unemployment rate is soaring – not because of Poles or Romanians or Somalians, or even Australians, who are in fact the most regular visa overstayers in the UK – but because of an economic system that bleeds every profit it can from working people of every race, then dumps them when it’s expedient.

Griffin is bleating today about his beating last night. And as very, very funny as it was – ‘he’s not in the violent Ku Klux Klan’, ‘I’m frightened of men kissing’ – until we get voices on Question Time who don’t just pay lip service to the bounties of immigration, ‘yay for curry and Dizzee Rascal!’, but who say clearly that all political parties must stop pushing fear of the other, and really tackle poverty, unemployment and exploitation of all people, then the fascists keep winning.

When I wrote a thing on here a few weeks ago about the English Defence League, the far-right football casual cum ‘we’re not racist we just hate muslims’ group, I made a passing comment that if they ever do come to Scotland, we better be ready for the fight back. I didn’t seriously believe they were about to announce their first demonstration north of the border a couple of days later, though.

Balaclaved Nazis holding a swastica? SHOCK HORROR. Hang on… they’re setting it alight? Cause they’re most definitely NOT RACIST, that’s why. Why they had the fucking swastica in the first place remains unknown. Hmm…

But so they have. From what Leftfield understands, they’ve applied to the council for a route which will, on 14 November, see their demonstration assemble at Clyde Street, then go over the bridge at Gorbals Street to Glasgow Central Mosque . Sorry, did I say demonstration? My mistake. The Scottish Defence League (for that’s what their calling themselves) have made it clear that they are ‘not asking for a parade’  but will ‘walk around on the pavement’.
Walk around on the pavement? Yeah, if that doesn’t show those pesky extremist terrorist muslim bombers to get back to their own country and stop enforcing that sharia law stuff onto us, stealing our women and wearing those burqas, I don’t know WHAT will. And to really emphasise the point about not covering faces, we’re all gonna wear balaclavas, right lads!

Of all the streets the SDL could have chosen to assemble their wee fash protest on, they chose the street with a fucking statue of La Pasionaria. No Pasaran on Clyde St!

It’s still not known whether they’ll actually get permission for their march, sorry, I mean, ’peaceful pavement excursion’, from the council. In Manchester, for instance, they have - for what looks likely to be the EDL’s biggest show of force yet. The intinery goes something like this: meet in Wetherspoons at 12, drink for 5 hours, and then have what I’m sure will be a peaceful pavement-based saunter to Piccadilly Gardens (as ever, the UAF demo will have fucked off by then – they’re holding it 5 hours earlier in the same location). Islamophobia, racism, nazi salutes and muslim-baiting will not be tolerated, the EDL website reassures us. Yeah… right.
Back to Scotland… so they, the SDL/EDL/combat 18/UDF/scum are coming, and whether they get council and police permission or not, they’ll almost certainly show up, whether that’s in Glasgow, or, as the rumour goes, Kilmarnock. Probably not Edinburgh though, where there’s a massive anti-NATO demo going on that day, so at least we can rule that one out..

The newly formed Left Society at Glasgow Uni are calling for mass, militant action to stop the SDL march from going ahead. The far-right must be prevented from taking to our streets. And our pavements.
This week, we’re holding an open meeting with representatives from a number of different student groups and trade unions, to discuss how we can oppose the EDL and organise actions to stop them on the day. 

OPEN MEETING —- organising to oppose the Scottish Defence League:
Tuesday 6 October, 7pm, Boyd Orr building: room 412, Glasgow University. ALL WELCOME.
Meeting initally called by Glasgow Uni Left Society – contact leftsociety@gmail.com

Let’s stop them crossing the fucking river! No pasaran!