Report on Saturday’s far-right Rotherham demo from UK Aktion blog.
Well it unsurprisingly transpired that the EDL National Demo in Rotherham yesterday was a shambles. Some sources put their numbers at 500, some at 1000+ maybe more; it is fair to say that yesterday Rotherham was a petri dish of right-wingers, crawling all over this issue like flies to shit. Without going into too much detail about the consequences of the hijacking of a public, emotional issue (as it has been addressed in the last couple days by both the Anti-Fascist Network and by ACABrighton, both posts are reblogged below) it is useful to have a quick summary of their day in town. The guest-list to this depressing party included the sordid likes of the NF, the BNP, the laughably the tiny crew of Infidels, as well as a couple jokers from Casuals United (aka. the Pie and Mash Squad). A report included in Malatesta’s blog states that the BNP “were spotted on the outskirts of town at a roundabout, such were their numbers I was unable to take a photograph. We passed the 7 of them in a split second and I hadn’t even got the cover open on my phone.” Yet, bizarre points of the day go to far-right extreme religious nutjobs, The World Church of the Creator, described here as “formed in the United States by a paedophile named Ben Klassen”, adopting “Adolf Hitler as their God!”.
Although the lack of an antifascist presence in Rotherham this weekend is regrettable – and represents a larger failure of antifascists to respond to the needs of our Northern comrades, mirroring the age old British geographical divide between North and South – it does allow for the spotlight to be shone on the interplay between different far-right groups, as well as the standard drunken, violent EDL behaviour so commonly seen on their street demonstrations. However, it is clear from yesterday’s reporting that various fights went down across Rotherham. The details blurring as large, badly-tattooed men threw down on street corners, no doubt the glints of bald heads coalescing with crimson streaks looked akin to their beloved St. George, causing all sorts of confusion for them.
Scuffle action, right-wing style.
Poor quality image, just like their public one.
But here’s how it looks from here. The EDL, being the drunken louts they are, alienated other far-right groups, and vice versa, as did they to the EDL types who don’t go in for the Hitler admiration fan club and 14 words bollocks. The IB Times discussed Hope Not Hate’s reports of the demonstrations, here, in which “English Defence League protestors in Rotherham were attacked by National Front protestors.” It’s difficult to say who started which fight, and honestly it’s rather irrelevant as in this case each group is claiming a different story – and to me it’s all scum on scum anyway. But, watching the online aftermath of each group blaming the others just tickles me.
What a bizarre day. There’s about 100 fascists here wanting to attack other fascists….#Rotherham pic.twitter.com/A9xJtcPw2y
— HOPE not hate (@hopenothate) September 13, 2014
The EDL are chanting “Hitler lovers” at the NF. March is moving very fast with ongoing scuffles. About 600 EDL marching #Rotherham
— HOPE not hate (@hopenothate) September 13, 2014
So when the day’s events had winded down, the weary Britain First (all 5 of them) got back to their second-rate propaganda machine to release a statement. In it they describe the “shocking scenes from Rotherham today as several arrested or injured as EDL rally descends into violence. Boozed up National Front/Infidels/BNP factions battle it out with EDL drunks in town centre” (And, no I will not link here to their page, you’ll have to take my word for this one). The EDL were reported to have been screaming ‘Hitler lovers’ and ‘Nazi scum’ at the NF, who it seems had joined forced with the Infidels to up their numbers, whilst chasing Britain First out of Rotherham for a second time. Online EDL propaganda vehemently declares how super-duper grumpy they are with the rest of the far-right.
Anti-Fascist Network statement on the far-right and the Rotherham scandal
It is the responsibility of anti-racists and anti-fascists to break the silence on the nature of the far-right’s presence in Rotherham.
By now virtually everyone in the country must be acquainted with the horrific details of the child sex abuse in Rotherham. As far as the extreme-right are concerned this is the perfect storm: a gang of Asian men with the connivance of ‘politically correct’ authorities engaged in systematic abuse of young white girls. The mainstream media are effectively spouting EDL press releases, while the EDL themselves accuse all those who oppose them of condoning paedophilia. Meanwhile, the whole spectrum of extreme right-wing groups have taken up residence in Rotherham, establishing a permanent camp outside the police station and holding marches and demonstrations through the town, all building up to today’s large ‘unity’ demonstration of all the racist groups.
The far-right have swarmed on this issue solely to push their own divisive and racist agenda. For all the crocodile tears shed for the children of Rotherham they remain silent on all child abuse unless it involves Muslims. If their concern for victims of child abuse was genuine, why restrict their campaign to Rotherham? Why not march against the systematic abuse perpetrated by the clergy, especially that of the Catholic church? Why have they not campaigned for the release of the “lost” Whitehall files relating to abuse and cover-ups at the heart of the British government?
The story of child abuse in Rotherham with its corrupt authorities and blind eyes turned to the exploitation of young working class girls, making them effectively disposable people, has much in common with the other child abuse scandals that have enraged us all. Jimmy Saville and Cyril Smith profited from a similar disregard for lives not important to the establishment.
Where are the EDL’s demands for white men of Christian background to put their collective house in order? They are silent on that subject and perhaps they are wise to be because lurking in their ranks are an assembly of groomers and sex offenders.
The truth is this:
We live in a patriarchal society in which sexual abuse is rife amongst people of all backgrounds. Male power and male sexuality in our society are deeply problematic.
We live in a class society in which working class lives are not seen as valuable – The police and councils don’t care about working class kids from care homes.
We live in a racist society in which people who are not white are not seen as individuals but are held to be collectively responsible for the actions of their ‘community’.
We stand against all injustice and all oppression based on class, race or gender.
It is the duty of all anti-fascists and anti-racists to speak up against responses to the tragic scandal in Rotherham that seek to blame all Muslims or all Asians. It is likewise our responsibility to address the fear of identifying racism and to take action against the far-right and their exploitation of this issue. All the nasty little far-right groups are clearly hoping this will be a great recruiting tool for them and if they go unopposed we can expect to see bigger gangs of racist thugs marching through our towns and ever increasing anti-Muslim hate crime and racism as a result.
Anti-Fascist Network statement on the far-right and the Rotherham scandal
EDL stand with neo Nazis for Downing street demo
–from:
http://www.edlnews.co.uk/latestnews/1371-edl-stand-with-neo-nazis-for-downing-street-demo
After last week’s drunken punch up in Rotherham, we were not expecting many EDL members to turn up to their demonstration outside Downing Street and we were correct. Only around three hundred turned up, many of which were shipped in from outside the capital and they seem to have lost interest in who they stand with and a number of known neo Nazis stood with them without so much as a bat of an eye lid.
The started the day getting drunk in the Moon under Water Wetherspoons early in the day which resulted in a few punch ups. The day ended up with no sign of the camp Andrew Edge claimed that they were setting up as a last stand before he gets sent to a lengthy spell in prison for his part in the Birmingham demo violence.
The highlight of the day seemed to have been a half arsed speech by upper class fascist and political failure, Paul Weston, who is trying to muscle himself in with the EDL.
If you were looking to see what type of socially inadequate failures they had invited to bulk up numbers, you need to look no further than this delightful man who has ’14/88′ tattooed on his eye lids and swastikas on his arms. The ’88 stands for Heil Hitler whilst the 14 stands for ‘The Fourteen Words’ written by white supremacist, David Lane, who had an unhealthy obsession with underage girls.
Unsurprisingly, he was not asked to leave.
