Hundreds of anti-fascist protesters blocked the English Defence League from having a free run of Bradford today, taking on and battering the most militant racists – despite no support from Hope Not Hate, Unite Against Fascism or the leadership of the local labour movement. We proved that it was right to counter-demonstrate against the EDL.
Hope Not Hate, Bradford TUC and the city council held a cultural festival miles outside the city centre – attended by less than a hundred and fifty people and described by one visitor as “more councillors than human beings”. (The police threw left-wingers out because it was “not supposed to be a political event!”) Five hundred UAF and SWP members gathered in Exchange Square, to listen to hip hop and hear speeches urging “respect” for the police and praising Tory Home Secretary Theresa May for banning the EDL’s attempts to march. Meanwhile many hundreds of people, a mix of leftists (mostly unaffiliated - the only two visible groups were the AWL and Workers Power) and self-organised youth, mostly Asian, rallied and counter-demonstrated, without police permission, metres from the EDL protest.
There were far fewer EDLers than the racists had predicted – about eight hundred, not the many thousands they boasted they would have. They shouted chants including "Allah is a paedo" and "We love the floods" (a reference to the disaster in Pakistan).
When a group of one or two hundred broke out from the EDL demonstration to rampage around the city, they got a nasty shock. Most of the counter-demonstration chased them through town before trapping some of them in Forster Square railway station and giving a few a good kicking.
We received reports that attempts to attack a local mosque were also beaten back, and that some of the EDL coaches were stoned and had their tyres slashed.
Even as it was, with the dominant forces in the labour and anti-fascist movements working with community and religious leaders to prevent a counter-demo, we gave the racists a seriously hard time. We don’t care about the imams, police and Blairite councillors. But trade unionists and socialists who did not even join the counter-demonstration once it began should be deeply ashamed of themselves.
In contrast, supporters of the Stop Racism and Fascism network, including AWL members, argued for a counter-demonstration in the city centre from the very start. Bradford United Against Racism went door-to-door, mainly in Asian areas of the city, working to get people out. We are not pretending that the protest was organised by us; but we do feel proud that we argued for it and played a full role in it on the day. Ironically, the ban on marching praised by UAF speakers was also the reason why many Stop Racism and Fascism activists were stopped from leafleting by police, in some instances being threatened with arrest.
Events in Bradford demonstrated vividly the necessity of challenging UAF and Hope Not Hate’s stranglehold over anti-fascist activity, particularly in the labour movement. Both campaigns have once again shown themselves to be profoundly inadequate – in their lack of class politics and their advocacy of reliance on the police. As an absolute minimum, we need to insist that it is right to counter-demonstrate against militant racists and fascists - just as right as it was in the 1930s and 1970s. We would urge trade unionists and local anti-fascist campaigners to back and get involved in Stop Racism and Fascism.
Part of this is building links with workers and youth Asian and Muslim communities at the sharp end of the fascist and racist threat. The demonstration in Bradford today was largely an amalgam of distinct elements: the only common chant was “Black and white, unite and fight – smash the EDL” (and sometimes only the second part); most of the Asian youth did not take up leftist chants, and chauvinistic comments against EDL members and sexist chants including against female police officers were heard repeatedly. The fact that hundreds of youth defied self-appointed community leaders to challenge the EDL on the streets is positive. But the left, which is largely white, has to stop treating Asian people as an ‘other’ that can only be organised on the basis of religion or communalism, and make the arguments for working-class unity and anti-capitalist struggle.
Don’t let the SWP lie about what happened!
Predictably, the bourgeois media is reporting clashes between the EDL and... UAF. We expect such ignorance from them. But we should not allow UAF itself, or the SWP, to lie about what happened on the day. We raise this because they have done so, many times, in the past.
There were, at most, a dozen SWPers on the counter-demonstration – and not on the front-line – while hundreds obeyed the police - or more to the point the central committee - and stayed in the square. Comrades, ask yourself why your organisation behaves like this – and then ask your organisers and leaders!
Comments
Telling it like it is...
The events in Bradford were a political 'mixed bag'. Some things were very bad indeed, others fantastic.
Fantastic first: for the first time a large number of local people ignored and actively argued against the demands of self-appointed 'Muslim community' leaders - mainly religious or elected political figures - and stood their ground against racist and police intimidation. The large numbers of locals - mainly Asian/Muslim youth - were the decisive factor on the day. That they were joined by a small minority of the active left - the AWL and others - in their action means that the press cannot truthfully paint what happened today as either white vs Muslim or police vs Muslim. In addition, when the EDL managed to break through police lines they were confronted by a large, organised anti-racist resistance.
The very bad: both the labour movement and the largest sections of the revolutionary left abandoned and then ignored the local opposition. Whilst UAF leaders invoked Martin Luther King and chanted "our streets" from a safe distance and whilst the local trades council held an event totally devoid of political content on the edge of the city centre, black and white, Muslims and socialists stood their ground. The actions of the SWP and local union organisations on the day were a disgrace.
The need for a working class anti-fascist and anti-racist movement is as urgent as ever: the events today in Bradford spell this out very clearly. We should not allow the lies or negative conclusions of the majority of our movement to cover over the facts of what happened in Bradford today.
We should tell it like it is.
UAF and SW reports
It looks as if, rather than attempting to claim that they were behind the counter-demonstration (as the bourgeois media is claiming), UAF/SWP are blurring over the cracks by saying, essentially: "Our event was great, but well done to the 'locals' and 'by-passers' who took on the EDL instead."
UAF report
Socialist Worker report
Even if this was the whole truth, it would still be a condemnation of UAF and the SWP leaving local people to fight the EDL without their support. But in fact it also deliberately ignores the fact that many left activists, from Bradford and outside, did participate in the counter-demonstration (and in fact had called for it from the start).
SWP and UAF comrades who really want to fight the fascists and racists must begin to question and challenge their organisations' leaders.
Sacha Ismail
Brighton, tomorrow.
Please forward: Everyone to Brighton on Monday!
Fascist demonstration in Brighton on August bank holiday
Call out for a counter mobilisation
On August 30th, bank holiday Monday, two days after the English Defence League are planning to march in Bradford, the English Nationalist Alliance aim to march through the streets of Brighton. The ENA want to impose their nationalist, far right idea of English identity on us all, their approach to Muslims being to “force out these bastards coz we ain't got the room”.
Whereas the English Defence League officially attempt to hide their far right politics, the ENA are open in their attacks on anti-racists, anti-war and anti-arms trade campaigners, anarchists and socialists. In their own words they intend to “protest against the militant students and attacks on industry in the region by Palestinian militants and socialist extremists, to support the English people of the region against the constant anti-English activities in the area...no more support of Palestinian terrorists...militant students need to know their place...”.
We believe that fascists need to know their place, and are calling for a counter mobilisation from all sections of the community to stop them and show that they are not welcome on our streets. Be in Brighton for the morning of the 30th, the ENA demonstration is due to start at 12.30pm. Further information will follow soon, and will be posted on Indymedia.
Accommodation available Sunday night for those who want to go down early
For further information email us at brightonantifascists@riseup.net
UAF should disband
For all thier claims that a demo had to be held, why hold it somewhere that nobody could see it? they made all sorts of noise and had thier usual spats over who was the most lefty anti fascist with just about everybody before the EDL demo, but when it came to it they hid away in a corner and spent a few hours congratulating themselves on the job the rest of us done. I am no longer surprised by thier false claims of victory, but to even pretend any sort of involvement in what happened yesterday is simply too much. i was right on the front line when the edl started lobbing bricks at the coppers and thier reaction was to come at us with horses and force us back. we pushed back and held our ground while UAF were on the other side of a hotel nicely kettled in. the youth of Bradford werent going to let anybody take thier streets, not even the mounted and riot cops. it was a great moment.
further to that, thier claim that the EDL were dealt with by passers by is a grave insult to the people of bradford who came out in thier hundreds and drove the EDL out. while we were at the train station physically educating the EDL, UAF were treating with police to be let out of the kettle to go to the shops and buy juice and crisps for the journey home.
infamy and shame upon the UAF for thier cowardice and compliance with the police. if they had any bottle they would have got off thier coaches away from the agreed meeting point and marched on the EDL with the intention of driving them out. just like antifa and the locals did.
Hope Not Hate coverage
The Hope Not Hate coverage was if anything even worse: writing out of existence the counter-demo, claiming that the EDLers who broke out rampaged around Bradford without opposition (which will be news to the EDLers with broken noses!) and arguing the problem was that the police should have done a better job. (In a later article they switch line and congratulate the police.) This is truly appalling, Stalinist-style rewriting of what happened on the day.
Sacha Ismail
Winners and losers in the irrelevance stakes
Well, at least Unite Against Fascism can say to Hope Not Hate: "Our ineffectual anti-fascist non-protest was bigger than yours".
A few reflections on the day
@ Sacha Ismail
and arguing the problem was that the police should have done a better job. (In a later article they switch line and congratulate the police.
That's no surprise though, surely? Not only do Searchlight have a close working relationship with the state, we're talking about the same organisation that both claimed that C18 were set up by MI5 and called on MI5 to investigate them! This seems very much part of that pattern.
Some more observations.
One of the really difficult issues that needs looking at is the best way to engage with people at UAF events. The HnH vigil, not so much. It was both tiny and so liberal that any time spent there would have been unproductive. But I'm sure that there will have been people at the UAF event who would have been up for the counterdemo. The problem is that the UAF are so prominent that they sometimes incorrectly appear as the only game in town. That's combined with the fact they're prone to using militant rhetoric when it suits them (backed up by the bourgeois press quite often), which allows them to appear more radical than they actually are. The flipside of trying to engage, of course, is that it makes it much easier for people to get themselves kettled alongside the UAF.
I do think that the whole party with bands stuff has its place, but as something that happens after a counterdemo, not as a replacement to it. Obviously, the chances of the UAF leadership agreeing to that are pretty slim.
The other point is that, while the day was undoubtably a victory, it's important not to get too triumphalist. In some ways, I think we were lucky it came together as well as it did. It definitely showed the need for militant antifascists to communicate with each other better, certainly on the street level. And I wasn't convinced the stewarding was entirely up to scratch either. If we'd faced a more coordinated attack by the EDL, I'm uneasy about what might have happened.
EDL can be beaten but only if we learn lessons like Bradford
Here are a few observations:
My group (I came with Stop Racism and Fascism) met up with Bradford United Against Racism when we got to Bradford. It wasn't obvious what we might do, but we went to Centenary Square, close to but not inside the UAF corral/kettle, and unfurled some small banners with "Stop Racism and Fascism" on them. These were seen by many passers-by. I think this was a more effective display of anti-fascism in the time we were there than being inside the UAF corral, hidden from view of the street - yes, we were "dipersed" (threatened with arrest) after half an hour or so by the police, and we had to keep an eye out for roaming EDL, but I think this was an effective tactic.
I don't know what SWP/UAF think they got from their protest - I didn't go to look at it but I hear it was smaller than the 1,500 the SWP are reporting; people say about 400. Presumably the SWP can get a load of contact names and addresses from it, and perhaps that's enough for them! They can get some more affiliations to UAF. But given they were there for several hours, just listening to bands and speeches about how the EDL must be smashed, I can only think that many SWP members were champing at the bit by the end.
I don't think they left their corral in any numbers all afternoon. There were a few of them at the Midlands Hotel counter-demo later but very few. Could we have found a way to persuade some of them to leave their safe haven and come and join the counter-demo? We should try to. We have got to start addressing the ordinary SWP members who must be fed-up with their group's and UAF strategy/tactics.
After being dispersed by the police, some of us went up to the "Bradford Together" event put on by the council with the help of Hope Not Hate. They held their main event on the Friday evening - a sort of peace vigil - according to reports, they only got 400 to that. The event on Saturday was one of the most pitiful gatherings ever achieved in the cause of anti-fascism. Maybe 150 people there? Like a badly attended village fete. Love and light - but not to everyone, certainly not to anti-fascists! We spread our Stop Racism and Fascism banner on the ground while we planned our next move. I went to leaflet the stalls. After five minutes a woman with a blue flower painted on her cheek asked me whether I had permission to leaflet; some people had been removed earlier for leafleting (SWP, I think).
Then the police came and told us to go. They said it was them, the police, asking us to leave, not the organisers of the event (but the organisers of the event would be happy for us to leave as well, I'm sure). They said it was under section blah-blah which said no one could hand out anything that might offend anyone or inflame the situation. So they returned us to the streets of Bradford... with our inflammatory material.
EDL: on our way up the hill to this event, we had passed the 1 in 12 anarchist centre, now under the control of the police. We also passed a pub called the Boy and Barrel. It was full of EDL and the police were trying to keep them in the pub and the street next to it.
When we came back to the centre of town there were a hundred or so people gathered by the Midlands Hotel watching the EDL at their demo, blocked off by several lines of police. This was a sort of spontaneous counter-demonstration; with a mixture of people, some white anti-fascists, some white locals, some Asian young men, some of them in organised groups, probably, but most not, I would say. A few more people arrived. Down the bottom, the EDL were trying to break out. Some of the Asian men, emboldened, shouted "Nazi scum, up your bum!" (I think). There were enough earnest lefties around to turn this into "Nazi scum, off our streets". The police, mounted on horses, pushed us up the street a little way, it wasn't clear whether police tactics would be to keep us at bay or charge us at some point. People debated what to do: let's stand our ground! Retreat! A couple of young Asian men said to me: they are going to charge and they will arrest us and we'll be put in prison - were they actually remembering what happened at Bradford in 2001, or was this something they had been frightened with by the "community leaders" who had spent the period up to Saturday warning people to stay away?
With more numbers - where was UAF?! - there would not have been so much uncertainty - most people there were up for having a go at the EDL, or at least standing our ground and not being pushed back by the police, but uncertain whether we had the numbers. At this point a small knot of excited anti-fascists bowled up - I'm told it was Revo and Leeds SWP branch (breaking SWP ranks?) - charged to the front and started frightening the horses with their chants and jostling of the police line. There's a time and place for this sort of thing, but people should gauge what is going on before they do it, and this lot didn't seem to.
Then, off in the distance, down the hill, the EDL broke out of the far side of their pen and most of the now quite large crowd round me ran off after them - although they were clearly going to have to run a long way to catch them. I've heard reports saying that people thought the EDL were heading for an Asian area, and so they ran because they were concerned to defend it.
I followed after (I'm no athlete); when I got to the bottom of the hill by the train station, I caught the tail-end of the events where the EDL breakout was pushed (or punched) by assorted anti-fascists and Asian young men back into the tender protection of the police. People had a great sense of exhilaration at beating back the EDL. The police pushed people away from the station and most of us went back up the hill. This event was definitely experienced as a victory for our side; but, let's be clear, the EDL weren't run out of town. If the whole of the political establishment - and most of the far-left! - had not spent weeks beforehand demobilising people I think the EDL could have been completely and humiliatingly routed on Saturday. Instead, they will lick their wounds, brood in a corner, and look for a softer target for their next Away Day. We have to learn some hard lessons from this!
Back up the hill, there was a standoff: a line of riot police, big mixed crowd milling about. A few young Asian men wanted to go and have a go at the EDL and would have to go through the police line. They started arguing with some older blokes who looked like they were from the mosque. There was a theatrical feel to it all. The young men knew they were not going to get through the police, and the older men knew they were not really going to try, but they were having a debate about tactics and ideas in the middle of the street. I am sure this reflects the debate about all of this in the Asian community.
I spoke to some of the young men about the day, and the build-up to it. Socialists should work to get more of a hearing in this community, especially for our ideas on tackling fascism/racism militantly. I am sure some people would be hostile, even people who will give us a hearing will think talking about social struggles, etc, has no bearing on the situation, but with some people it will get an echo - and we will learn a lot from having these conversations!
Anti-fascists have got to sit down and discuss the nitty-gritty lessons of events like Saturday: there are discussions about tactics on the day - how to deal with the police and with the EDL; there are discussions to be had about how to get UAF to shift; how to get left unity around what to do; how to join the debates in Muslim communities; etc. I think the Stop Racism and Fascism Network (http://srfnetwork.org/) is the best forum having these discussions, although we have to raise our game. UAF and Hope Not Hate are raking in the trade union pounds and meanwhile doing, effectively, damn-all to stop the EDL. We can't leave this situation.
forster square train station
vickim, I was at the station on saturday and while we didnt chase the EDL out of town we chased that section of it that thought they could wander freely and that the lefties and locals would run away at the site of them. they were taught a valuable lesson in community action and one that a few wont forget in a hurry. for all thier tough guy swaggering they took a hiding and theres no way to deny it.
at the hotel on kirkgate, the only thing that stopped us from being trampled and arrested was the sudden, and thankful, appearance of maybe 100 or so organised asian lads. I have no idea why they came so late but it was clear that they had come prepared and had scouts out in town so we knew as soon as any edl were at large. if the UAF had appeard then they would have run from the horses and tried to stop us from charging the scummers in the station. numbers, as far as they are concerned, are meaningless. there was several small Antifa groups in town and we were in touch with one another and knew what needed doing. I'd rather have had those 12 guys beside me than the entire might of the spineless left. as for the chants of NAZI SCUM UP YOUR BUMS! being turned into 'off our streets' by 'earnest lefties' there were no attempts to direct the chants (i nearly wet myself with laughter at some of them) and the lefties had all run away by this time in any case. you might have seen the big anarchy flag at the front of the crowd. thats who was left when the riot cops appeared. its was nazi scum, suck our bums' anyway. sometimes nazi scum, fuck your mum.
forster square wasnt the only incident either. there were several smaller skirmishes around town and quite a few edl didnt make it to the main protest, but theyre not going to talk about that on thier forums.
the UAF mob are self serving state sponsored cowards who are only interested in thier own agenda. the SWP and all the other touchy feely socialists can fuck off with thier talkshops. only militant action will solve this problem. this isnt a time for debate and procative gala days. the left will never unite to solve this problem because theyre all too fucking busy arguing over who's name should be at the top of the page.
1 in 12
oh, and the 1 in 12 wasnt under control of the police. they had implemented a section 60 order and werent allowing us to march as a group but had closed the lane off so we had to leave in 2's, after being searched. they never entered the club and they never stopped us from leaving to join up again in the town centre. as a matter of fact they said that they wouldnt stop us heding into town, only that they wouldnt allow us to go as a group. this was probably due to the fact that there was a small group of edl in a pub across the street who they were searching then sending off in a different direction.
Credit where it's due
"you might have seen the big anarchy flag at the front of the crowd. thats who was left when the riot cops appeared."
So we were around to notice your flag but only anarchists were left when the riot cops appeared? How do you work that one out? I don't want to get into any macho bullshit but we were on the frontline all day so can we have less of the "activist-ier than thou" attitude please?
you might have been around
you might have been around but all the liberal lefties had scarpered to the other side of bank street. I watched them go myself. the first time it looked like getting hairy about 15-20 banner wavers ran away. i noticed a few swp and uaf badges but they all disappeared pretty damn quick when it started.
Im not looking to start a dick waving competition, but the weekend warriors legged it the minute it got interesting and theres no denying it.
politics, not willy-waving
It isn't that UAF are all cowards and local youths/Stop Racism and Fascism/Antifa are all really hard and brave. It's to do with politics - politically what your approach is to anti-fascism.
I'm sure there are lots of people in UAF who would act very courageously under different circumstances. That's not the point. The point is that the leadership of UAF have got wrong political ideas about how you fight fascism. Their political priority is to put on events which will allow them to recruit and keep in with labour movement bureaucrats and religious community elders. Our political priorities are to do with working-class self-organisation, self-defence against fascism, and independent class politics.
It's those politics that determined why we acted the way we did - not because we're big tough macho-men and UAF are wimps. Drop the macho crap - it's philistine, apolitical, elitist and reactionary.
Ed Maltby
How can we "smash the EDL"?
I am at a disadvantage in any dick waving competition, as I don't have one. In any case, can we talk about something more interesting? On the subject of "interesting", if you mean "having no regard to life and limb", I confess, I am rather cautious on that score. I "scarpered to the side of Bank Street" when I thought the mounted police were about to charge up the road, but I didn't leave the scene, and started some discussions with people about what we could do to consolidate our position - this was when the young Asian men said they were getting out of there because they didn't want to be arrested. I suppose what I'm getting at is anti-fascism shouldn't be... a dick waving contest.
Like it said on the SWP's placards on Saturday - though they deliberately were not around to do it - we need to "Smash the EDL". That means mobilising more people - whether simply to block roads and hold the coats, or to do the actual business of "smashing". So the really interesting conversations are: how can we get around the UAF/HNH roadblock? How can we get conversations in the Asian community about their right to self-defence? Any ideas?
Some points
1. The problem with UAF is *political* not because the SWP has crap politics on anti-fascism per se but because their anti-fascist organisation (as with the other front groups) is geared towards calculated accommodations to a perceived 'majority' whether it be sections of the trade union movement or 'the mood of the people'.
A significant factor in 'what they do' on any given occasion boils down to what they think they can get 'away with'. Some examples of this contradiction: in Codnor last year the SWP broke with plans made with the regional TUC and local groups and directed their membership and periphery to block the roads leading to the BNP's festival site. They managed to disrupt people trying to get to the BNP event. They took 'militant' action. Good. They thought they could 'get away with it' in this case.
In Nottingham the SWP used UAF as a closed front operation and managed a small and very timid response to the EDL in contrast to the plans and action of the local anti-fascist group. Within months and in the same area the SWP acted in starkly different ways. The reason for the difference? 'Tactics' comrades! OK, tactics are important. Some sensible measure of the balance of forces in any given situation and an honest assessment of your own capabilities is vitally important.
What you do is shaped by these assessments and other measures of what's going on around you and the likely result. Marxists make these assessments with regards to the working class: our action is geared towards organising and politically educating - 'shifting' - our class. In contrast, the SWP makes these assessments purely in relation to themselves: building the SWP, gaining organisational advantage etc... Who knows what the actual calculations/explanation for the SWP's behaviour in Bradford is but recruitment and 'prestige' is bound to feature somewhere.
To have broken from their careful plans would be to admit error. What's actually going on in the real world is secondary for the SWP.
2. So how to *smash* the EDL? The problem is that the 'good sense' of mass, labour movement mobilisation against racist and fascist organisations in no longer 'common sense' in the movement. The fact that the trade unions farm or franchise out anti-fascism and anti-racism to UAF and HnH is a function of (a) the general lack of combativity of the unions and (b) the political culture - or lack thereof - in the unions eg. the fact that even in the affiliated unions the link between single branches (or members) and the political structures is significant.
I guess what I'm saying is that to achieve the sort of mobilisations we need against the EDL we need to look at other questions. Part of this 'looking at' is to continue with our serious orientation to the labour movement and convince others to do the same, but this is not all. The unions are not the 'exact same thing' as the working class and its organisations. Where we can, we should be building working-class campaigns against the BNP and EDL and use whatever leverage we can within the labour movement to get support and to mobilise. Just as important is to develop a serious orientation to the people who turned out at Kirkgate/Midlands Hotel not just in the 'heat of the moment' but before and after counter-mobilisations. Again, working class politics is central to doing this.
3. Ok, that's all fine-and-well but how to do it in the real world? How to go beyond dishing out leaflets and writing comments on the internet? The fact is that it's possible to make a start. The small Bradford group is *small* and there were obvious issues on the day but it's a start, something that can be built on and developed. A similar group sprung up in Newcastle and is still functioning. Groups exist in Liverpool and Nottingham that share a basic working class orientation. Building this sort of anti-fascist campaign is possible.
to AWL and Tomu
My reasons for fighting the EDL are not based in any political belief nor are they based on class models. They are simply vermin that need to be stamped out. I am not interested in mobilising the working class, if such a thing even exists anymore, and nor am I interested in building stronger relationships with unions and other agenda driven organisations. The EDL are not a problem what can be dealt with in this context as they have no clear political ideals. Their sole intention is to stir up racial tensions and start a race war, not a class war. There are elements within their organisation that are pushing a far right agenda, but the vast majority of its membership either has no interest or no idea in Marxism. They get told the reds are fascists and that’s enough for them and they simply accept whets being fed to them. They cannot be educated and they wouldn’t listen to you in any case. Strength in numbers is meaningless unless those numbers are willing to physically confront and prevent the EDL from achieving their goals. Shouting and waving banners will not achieve this.
The UAF have worked against us on several occasions now and have branded us as thugs who are no better than the EDL and just want a fight, completely ignoring the fact that their own banners talk about smashing them. They are afraid of 2 things; one is that we might give them a bad name. They really don’t want people thinking UAF and Antifa is the same thing, that doesn’t look good on TV when there’s footage of us charging the EDL. Bennet will have difficulty squaring that with the mainstream politicians who fund him. The second, and most important thing, is that we look like we might be succeeding and attracting the disenchanted, especially after their dismal performance at the weekend. if the UAF wont confront the scummers and we will, then the more militant will obviously be attracted to our way and that will not only weaken the UAFs position but it will make them face the fact that they are absolutely useless in this fight. Pointless demonstration after another has shown that far from making any real moves to break the EDL, they feed on the EDLs existence to fill their own coffers.
Yes, if the EDL are defeated the UAF becomes redundant. It is not in their interest to win this fight quickly. They would rather drag it on and use the demos as a recruiting ground. I honestly don’t think they care a damn about the EDLs political or social ideals, a theory strengthened by their absurd shouts of FASCIST! at everybody in an England strip. That’s just plain embarrassing.
So, while it may be unsavoury to talk and hear talk of ultra militant action, it really is the only way to deal with them. There is no time to build up a movement and consolidate the working class and so on. Will you tell the people of Dudley, Birmingham and Bradford to sit tight while you hold meeting after meeting in order to set a clear agenda for fighting the racists? And who will make up the numbers at those meetings? Predominantly white middle class males, that’s who. How can you go to a place like Bradford and dictate the tactics when those tactics have been decided by unionists and academics with no real experience of what’s actually going on. This is assuming you manage to reach any sort of agreement in the first place and don’t just spend the next 12 months bogged down in spartist infighting.
Maybe once this is over then we can talk about building a nationwide pro-active anti racist structure, but right here and right now, the only way to defeat the EDL and their affiliates is by meeting them on their own terms. They are 90% football hooligans and the language they understand is violence. Call me elitist or reactionary or whatever you like. Political discourse is for the classroom debriefing session. This is a time for action.
You and whose army?
UnaBummer (curious name), I could argue you with on several points (and agree with you on many) but this is the one I'll concentrate on: who is going to come out and confront the scummers? Do we have the numbers right now? No? If not, then it comes back to the questions I asked: how do we get around the UAF/HNH roadblock in order to mobilise more people to confront the EDL; how do we help mobilise the communities being targeted by the EDL? Those tasks are going to take organisation, debates in meetings such as union meetings, to get more people to come and do precisely what you say we need to do: organise militant action.
"Maybe once this is over then we can talk about building a nationwide pro-active anti racist structure..."? It's the other way around. We won't defeat the EDL until we do build such a structure, even if it is quite rudimentary.
vickim
its different in scotland where the SDL are tiny, less than 50 at thier last demo, and we outnumber them at least 10-1 most of the time. its much easier for us to mobilise the numbers needed on that scale, but we have managed 1200+ in glasgow and edinburgh. I have no idea why the numbers in english towns arent propotional to thier size in that respect, but with the start of a new uni term approaching its time to get organized and gather strength. getting to the new faces before the SWP do is essential. make sure they understand that looking to the SWP for radical politics is looking in the wrong direction.
the reason I am cautious and perhaps even against a structure is because I have sat on far too many committee meetings with far too many opposing political factions in attendance and seen time,money and effort wasted in arguing out the colour of the placards and who is in charge of making the badges etc. its deeply frustrating. much better to have a loose collective of activists who arent affiliated to any one party and who arent bound by the agenda of that party. Scottish Antifa numbers socialists, anarchists and communists as well as the apoliticals in its ranks and we have been very effective in combating the scummers because of this. we meet when we need to and the plans laid out are free from any party political bullshit. we exist indepenently of any structure or umberella organisation and i think this is the best way forward, and a lot of UAF types are starting to see the benefits of this too.
so, the way past the roadblock of UAF, HNH, Searchlight etc is to simply ignore them and thier idiotic rules and work on your own. there are many thousands of activists out there, you just have to have a banner of convenience for them to gather under.
Ask yourself this UB
Why was Bradford such a major success whilst the other anti-EDL mobilisations, in England at least, were lacking in comparable success?
Part may be due to there being a large Muslim population of Pakistan origin in Bradford. But other towns like Nottingham and Manchester have a similar size Muslim population.
A lot, I believe, is down to the fact that there is now an organised national network, the SRF, encouraging groups like Bradford United Against Racism to take independent action from UAF: arguing that anti-fascists/ anti-racists shouldn't hide themselves away from the EDL behind police kettles.
Without the knowledge that such actions were taking place, called for by BUAR, many from outside the town would not have bothered going (as we have all seen the futile UAF kettles in the past). Without the knowledge that people were coming from outside to support them, the Bradford protesters may not have turned out in the same numbers and taken independent action from both UAF and Hope not Hate. We need to network and organise!
i am all for networking and
i am all for networking and organisation, but i will resist any attempt to do it under the banner of any political organisation or any front for the likes of the SWP. any sort of established central organisation will lead to hierarchical division and, ultimately, collaboration with police and other bodies. running a democratically elected antifa group leaves it open to abuse and vote rigging by the party with the most members. I will not allow the SWP or Labour to simply swamp the member list in order to direct the groups actions and policy.
bradford showed that the smaller independent groups work far better at confronting the EDL and that the local population were more comfortable working with non political groups than afilliating themselves with state approved lackeys like UAF. why the muslims of bradford were more radical and willing to mobilise than thier counterparts in other areas is something that you would have to ask them, I have no idea, but I do know that few of them were aware of the different antifa groups working within the city on the day. it seems that most of them had come out for thier own reasons. any attempt to claim credit for thier appearance is false and knowingly so.
I would be wary of claiming that bradord was a major success. it was more of a failure for the EDL than it was a success for anti fascists.
At UB
Thing is, I don't think that anybody in this discussion is arguing for a top down hierarchical antifascist group. While there may be some minor differences on organisation, you're preaching to the choir on this.
Thing is, while the 'small group' tactic is useful some of the time, realistically we only had the numbers to deal with the small breakout of EDL that happened in Bradford. There's no way we had the balance of forces necessary if it had come down to dealing with a full EDL mobilisation. That's something we need to look at trying to change.
While I support a lot of what Antifa do, they have neither the numbers, nor the political diversity that AFA did in their heyday. Yes, we want an independent organisation, not a front group for one party or another. But Antifa are overwhelmingly anarchist. (And I say that as an anarchist myself). They're no more politically diverse in that than the UAF. They aren't a broad alliance of militant antifacists. They haven't managed to grow significantly since their launch, if anything they've stagnated. And the fact they're a closed group means that they aren't in a position to deal with an influx of independent antifacists. None of that is an ideal situation.
But there's a reasonable medium between topdown liberal antifascist groups and that approach. A federated network, of groups that work together but with a great deal of local autonomy on the ground. That worked for AFA for years. I see no reason why it's any less of a good idea now.