If you were paying attention, you may have heard news about a fascist attack on anti-fascist fans of Clapton FC just before Christmas. We reported elements of this on our twitter feed at the time, but here’s some further info to update you and to fill in some of the background…
Clapton FC is a small football club in a very diverse area of East London, playing in the Essex Senior League. For three seasons now they have gathered an enthusiastic and dedicated following calling themselves the ‘Clapton Ultras’. This dedicated anti-racist, anti-fascist and pro-working class group of fans has resulted in Clapton seeing some of the highest turnouts for matches in their League, drawing in people pissed off with the extortionate price and soulless atmosphere of many major-league clubs. The ‘Ultras’ have also got involved with the local community, supporting the Focus E15 mothers, anti-immigration raids campaigns and collecting donations for local foodbanks.
Somewhere along the line this development attracted the attention of the extreme right-wing internet group ‘Casuals United’, who taking great objection to there being a group of overtly anti-racist, anti-fascist football fans started encouraging their internet followers to go and attack the Clapton Ultras.
In October a small group of ‘Casuals’ supporters visited Clapton’s ground, posing for a photo and sticking up some racist stickers and scarpering before anyone noticed. Afterwards the fascists re-grouped and headed into central London where they carried out attacks on several individuals attending the Occupy event in Parliament Square.
In December this gathering campaign of intimidation finally resulted in two organised and pre-meditated attacks on Clapton fans at an away match on Saturday 20th in Southend. Unfortunately for the car-load of fascists led by well-known aspiring führer Paul Prodromou, they were outnumbered and came off very much the worse, with Prodromou ending up in A&E.
This group of extreme right supporters had travelled from around the country (including well known figures such as Mark Carlton from Huddersfield) in order to attack Clapton fans. They did not attend the match but preferred to try and ambush fans going to and from the game.
Attempting to make up for their dismal failure, the ‘Casuals’ and their racist friends have been muttering darkly about another attempt to attack Clapton fans. They have also been trying to get to Clapton fans by launching complaints to the Football Association about the Ultras and by hoping that their threats to turn up and cause trouble will land the club with a large policing bill.
All anti-fascists in London and further afield should consider attending Clapton games in the new year to show them some support (and also to have a great time and meet some lovely people!)
The next home games are:
Sat 10th January 15:00
Tue 20th January 19:45
Sat 24th January 15:00
at The Old Spotted Dog ground on Upton Lane, London E7 9NP
All forthcoming fixtures are here.
Further info
– One fan’s account of the failed attack in Southend.
– Some more background on attempted fascist intimidation here.
– More background on Clapton Ultras here.
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