“Worcester City’s Lee Smith in racism row”

As FIFA president Sepp Blatter makes the absurd claim that racism doesn’t occur on the football pitch amidst the John Terry/Anton Ferdinand racism saga, 28-year-old local lad, Lee Smith, shows what an ignorant twat he is after a comment made from his Twitter account.

The winger for Worcester City Football Club, who is from Gloucester and still lives in the county, posted a comment on his Twitter page on armistice day saying: “Respect to all the heroes 11/11/11 now to all the illegal *****, fuck off out of are country all call of duty could become a reality – kill um.”

Lee Smith – the Worcester City winger who thinks making jokes about killing illegal immigrants is ‘banter’

He later removed the comment and deleted his profile, claiming he did not realise the comment was open for everyone to see and that he ‘can’t be a racist as he has black friends.’ The idiot later said, “I am not going to apologise because what I said is what I think, because a lot of the illegal immigrants have taken jobs from people here.”

Worcester City Football Club has been quick to distance themselves from the comments and have suspended him from the team. Vice chairman, Colin Layland, has said, “We take racism very seriously, this took us all by surprise. We are involved in Kick Out Racism, which has basically been taken out of our hands by someone we employ.”

3 Counties AFA believe the solution is quite simple; take the lead on the issue of racism in football and make an active stand by showing the silly prick where to go.

Local plod are currently investigating.

*Update from the Worcester Evening News 23.11.11 – Twitter row footballer arrested

Anti-fascist prisoner Thomas Blak released, but deported

From Leeds ABC:

Thomas Blak is the first of the six UK antifascists to be released, but he has been deported.

Antifascist prisoner Thomas Blak, one of the seven antifascists fitted up in the first Welling trial, has been freed but deported to his home country of Denmark.

Thomas was sent to jail in June, along with five other comrades. Sentences varied from 15-21 months, with Thomas receiving 18 months.

Thomas was refused release on electronic tag, and despite having lived and worked in London for 15 years, he was this week deported.

The five other antifascists remain in jail and it is clear that having failed to fit up any of those in the second Welling trial, the State are determined to punish those they did fit up to the best of their ability.

We hope to publish a statement from Thomas shortly, and in the meantime send him our respect and solidarity. Having been staunch in the face of the State’s attempts to criminalise antifascism, he can hold his head up high.

Details of the five comrades still in jail can be found on our prisoner support page.

Clashes at Polish Independence Day march, Warsaw

Video of a fascist group attacking anti-fascists…before making a quick retreat! 

From the BBC News website – 

Violent clashes have taken place in the Polish capital Warsaw between police and rival marchers on the country’s Independence Day.

Forty police officers were injured and 210 people were arrested, nearly half of them said to be “anti-fascism activists” from neighbouring Germany.

Nationalist marches have been growing in size on the national holiday, with leftists turning out to oppose them.

Police used water cannon and pepper spray to restore order.

They responded after right-wing marchers, many with scarves hiding their faces, began pelting them with stones, bottles and flares, national police spokesman Mariusz Sokolowski said.

Earlier, leftist demonstrators chanting “Fascism will not pass” attacked police as they tried to stop them blocking a major Warsaw thoroughfare, down which the nationalist march was due to pass, he added.

The police were attempting to keep Friday’s nationalist and leftist demonstrators apart. A police plan to keep hostile marches from one another was successful, Mr Sokolowski said, but “thugs and hooligans joined the marches to target police”.

Another police spokesman was quoted by AP as saying 14 police cars had been destroyed.

Of the 210 people arrested, 92 were found to be German citizens. Hanka Kubicka, a spokeswoman for anti-far-right movement the November 11 Agreement, said the Germans were “anti-fascism activists”.

“They answered our call [to demonstrate] and our rallies were open to everyone,” she was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.

Other foreigners detained during Friday’s violence included a Dane, a Hungarian and a Spaniard, police said.

For weeks, a coalition of leftists, anarchists, pro-abortionists, Greens and gay-rights activists had been publicising plans to block the Independence March being organised by nationalist youth groups All-Polish Youth and the National Radical Camp, Reuters news agency reported.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he vowed to make sure those arrested for attacking police were severely punished.

Under Polish law, an assault on a law-enforcement officer carries a maximum three-year jail sentence.

This year the marches were seen as a major test of the country’s security capabilities before the Euro 2012 football championship, which Poland will co-host with Ukraine next summer, the Associated Press reports.

For more go to the Antifa Poland website. 

International anti-fascist activity round up

Ireland

British National Party chairman, Nick Griffin, was due to take part in a debate organised by the Philosophical Society at Trinity College Dublin, last month. But they withdrew the invitation after a “careful review of operational and safety issues” and objections by staff and students. This was in no small part due to the actions of Dublin anti-fascists. Anti-Fascist Action Ireland said; 

“Last night, 13th October, thirty AFA members and supporters called into the weekly PhilSoc debate, as part of a campaign against Griffin’s invitation. We feel that this proved to be the tipping point for PhilSoc and the college authorities to withdraw the invitation.
This direct action was the culmination of a number of weeks work by AFA which included a mass email campaign, the production of several hundred stickers and the setting up of a Facebook page, entitled ‘No Platform For Nazi Nick Griffin in Dublin’, which attracted over 580 people.”

Griffin has lodged a complaint with the gardaí.

Anti-Fascist Action Ireland recently hosted a successful speaking tour by Swedish anti-fascist, Paul Hull. The tour covered recent trends in fascist organising across Europe, including ‘Autonomous Nationalism,’ the EDL, and the Norwegian massacre. You can listen to the talk made in Derry here.

For more go to the AFA Ireland website.

Barcelona

On 12^th October neo-Nazis were holding a gig in Barcelona. Anti-fascists turned out to get involved in some music making of their own and as a result 3 of the neo-Nazis ended up needing medical treatment. 2 anti-fascists were arrested. Thankfully a few film crews were on hand to capture the scenes…

Seattle

On 29^th October a small group of neo-Nazis turned up at the Occupy Seattle protest camp. When asked to leave they refused but a bit of persuasion by fists and a few head-cracking sticks forced them to flee, bloodied and bruised.

Poland

German and Polish anti-fascist groups are set to join together on Friday to oppose a march and commemoration by far-right groups in Warsaw. The Polish Independence Day march in Warsaw is being organised by the All Polish Youth group and the National Radical Camp, both of which have been regularly accused of racism and homophobia. News of events on the day will be posted on here afterwards.