Antifascists were out in force on the streets of Sunderland today (August 11th) outnumbering the nazi boneheads of the National Front three to one. The NF fascists were out to protest against a proposed mosque in the area. Another failed attempt to create community tension.
The deluded nazis, dwindling in numbers, claimed that the NF had “won the day” (?) on the Sky Tyne-and-Wear news page, only a bonafide bonehead would come to that conclusion, and only an underhand scumbag would lie about the circumstances. The NF now propose to waste everyones time including their own once a month protesting on the green.
Also ..
The EDL made complete cocks of themselves at their Blackpool fancy dressparty (August 5th) –
“Where’s the fucking film crew? it’s freezin..”
Also .. gee they’re busy ..
Roughly around 80-100 knuckledragging racists that missed the evolutionary ‘jump’ turned up on August 4th surprisingly in Keighley, West Yorkshire. Why? No one knows.
“AN English Defence League mob which descended on an East Lancashire town for a flash mob protest have been branded ‘a pack of wild animals’.
Five of the gang have today been jailed for their parts in the brawl.
One Asian teenager was punched and kicked during the disturbance last July and another Asian man was run over as around 35 EDL supporters rolled into Brierfield last July.
Ringleader Bernard Holmes has been jailed for 18 months for his role in co-ordinating the protest, which ended when a rival gang of Asian youths confronted the mob in the Castle Street area of the town.
And Lancashire Police have secured a five year anti-social behaviour order on Holmes, 26, of Bolton Road, Blackburn, preventing him from organising any further ‘flash mob’ protests. He admitted a racially aggravated public disorder charge.
His ‘lieutenants’ Leonard Hawley, 47, of Worcester Road, Blackburn, Jason Smith, 43, formerly of Burnley but now of Hollinge Road, Todmorden, David Wilson, 47,of Devon Road, Blackburn, who admitted the same offence, were each jailed for 37 weeks.
David Garratt, 45, of Beckett Street, Darwen, who confessed to possession of an offensive weapon, was jailed for 47 weeks.
Six others from Todmorden, Chorley, Clitheroe and Blackburn were given suspended prison sentences, after admitting using threatening behaviour as part of the same incident.
Passing sentence Judge Norman Wright said freedom of speech was something enjoyed by everyone in the UK, no matter how repugnant the views expressed may be.
But the judge, sitting at Preston Crown Court, said the events of that day saw ‘middle-aged men running around like a pack of animals’.
Earlier that day protests had taken place in Accrington and Clitheroe, and outside the home of MEP Sajjad Karim at Simonstone, who said his wife and daughter were left ‘terrified’ by the ordeal.”
Kharchenko Igor Olegovich
FKU SIZO-2 UFSIN Rossii po g. Moskve
ul. Novoslobodskaya d. 45
127055 Moskva Russia
Igor was arrested in September 2011. He is accused of having participated in a fight on the 4th of July 2010, during which the audience of a punk hardcore concert dispersed a band of nationalists, who had come in order to kill and maim concert guests.
Igor, however, did not take part in the fight – plenty of those present at the concert have given testimony, that during the fight Igor was performing in the concert. The whole case against Igor relies exclusively on the testimony of failed “race warriors”, V. Sumin and V. Zhidousouv.
The true reason for the arrest of Kharchenko is an attempt by Moscow investigators to take revenge on their failure to jail anyone for the action by anti-fascists against the Khimki city administration on the 28th of July 2010.
Igor’s co-accused is Denis Solopov, one of the “Khimki hostages”, who has received refugee status in Western Europe after UNCHR recognised, that the police investigation on the Khimki case was carried out with various violations, for example confessions gained through use of torture.
Moscow investigators ignored the fact, that during this fight Solopov was in Turkey, which is confirmed by the stamps in his passport, and plenty of eye-witnesses.
The investigation also attempts to indict Kharchenko for “organising of an extremist community,” according to statute 282.1 of the Russian criminal codex.
Butyrka prison has also a form, which you may use in order to send letters: http://wr1.fsin-service.ru/Letter-Client/main.html#new_letter
However, this form is only in Russian and paying for the service (minimal payment is around 1.20 euros) requires either a Russian bank account or account in some internet payment system, common in Russia (such as yandex.dengi or webmoney). In form, you must indicate year of birth of Kharchenkio – 1991.
Sutuga Alexey Vladimirovich
FKU SIZO-2 UFSIN Rossii po g. Moskve
ul. Novoslobodskaya d. 45
127055 Moskva Russia
Alexey Sutuga has been a member of Autonomous Action since the early 2000s. He was first active in Irkutsk and then in Moscow. He participated in every single major campaign of the anarchist movement in the past ten years, and supported the journal Avtonom.
In 2007, he joined the ecological protest camp against uranium enrichment in city of Angarsk in Siberia, which was assaulted by nationalists in the early morning hours. Ilya Borodaenko from Nahodka of Pacific Ocean was murdered there, and a number of other visitors of the camp were seriously wounded.
Alexey was arrested on the evening of 17th of April, and has been in remand prison since then. He, together with Alexey Olesinov, is accused of having taken part in an incident in the Moscow club “Vozdukh”, where on 17th of December, during a punk-hardcore concert, a conflict between the audience and the security took place.
The club security, consisted of supporters of the far right, and were provoking guests. Due to the conflict, the concert was stopped prematurely, but the security attempted to take some guests hostage, threatening them with punishment from their friends – nationalist football hooligans. Concert guests resisted, the security opened fire with rubber coated metal bullets, but soon the concert-goers gained the upper hand and the security was neutralised and sent to the hospital.
The Butyrka prison also has a form which can be used in order to send letters: http://wr1.fsin-service.ru/Letter-Client/main.html#new_letter
However, this form is only in Russian and paying for this service (minimal payment is around 1.20 euros) requires either a Russian bank account or an account with some internet payment system, common in Russia (such as yandex.dengi or webmoney). In the form, you must indicate year of birth of Sutuga – – 1986.
Full list of prisoners in former Soviet Union by Anarchist Black Cross of Moscow:
“The Institute of Race Relations has published an important study by Liz Fekete, Pedlars of Hate: the violent impact of the far Right.
The report “documents patterns of violence, from the peddling of hate online and the drawing up of lists of ‘national traitors’, to violence, arson and murder on the streets, and the stockpiling of weapons in preparation for ‘race war'”.
The IRR points out that Islamophobia is just one element in the rise of violence on the part of the European far right. While Muslims are the far right’s principal targets in western Europe, in eastern Europe it is the Roma who are the main victims, while anti-black racism and antisemitism are also on the increase.
Another worrying development is that “attacks on Social Democrats, Left politicians, academics and journalists that report on the far Right around Europe are intensifying too”.
“Netpol has published a critical report into the policing of the EDL and Counter demonstrations of February 4th in Leicester. The report is a collation of the evidence and observations obtained by a team of community-based legal observers who spent the day monitoring the policing of both EDL and counter-demonstrations. The legal observers deployed were local volunteers trained by Netpol with support from The Race Equality Centre (TREC) and Highfields Centre.
The report criticises police handling of the demonstration, particularly the effort and resources the police and local authorities devoted to persuading the local community, particularly young people in the local community, not to attend counter demonstrations against the EDL. It also raises questions about the use of force, particularly the use of dog units against Muslim youth, and the restrictions on movement placed on the Muslim population, effectively making Leicester a ‘no-go’ area.
Val Swain of Netpol stated, “The decision by Leicestershire constabulary to persuade local communities, voluntary and faith groups and particularly young people to stay away from counter demonstrations was utterly wrong. It really cannot be the role of the police to decide who is able to demonstrate and who is not. As well as being an interference with fundamental rights to protest, it led to a policing strategy that prioritised police control of the local community, especially Muslim youth. This raised tensions, heightened anger, and in my view made conflict more, rather than less likely.”
A statement given to Netpol by a local youth who witnessed his friend being bitten by a police dog, is illustrative of this;
“That is ridiculous, that is not acceptable. He was in a lot of pain, he was treated by the ambulance for an hour. When last year the EDL kicked off big time, did they use the dogs on them? No. Why not? Because they are only after Muslims, that’s why.”
The report was launched at the Highfields Centre in Leicester on Monday 11th June by community youth worker and Netpol campaigner Saqib Deshmukh, who presented the findings to local activists, journalists and a representative of Leicestershire constabulary. Saqib has also helped to train community based legal observers in East London, as part of the initiative to monitor the policing of the Olympics by Netpol partner Newham Monitoring Project.
Key Findings:
• Police, working with Leicester council, put significant resources into a campaign aimed at persuading local people, particularly the youth, to stay away from counter demonstrations.
• The use of the Children Act, which allows police to take under-eighteen year olds to a ‘place of safety’, was unacceptably used as a ‘scare tactic’ to further dissuade young people from attending demonstrations
• Police maintained control over the movements of local people, making Leicester effectively a ‘no go zone’ for young Muslim men.
• Police used substantial force to control groups of Muslim youth, including the use of kettles, baton strikes and police dogs, leading to one young man sustaining dog bite injuries.
• Stop and searches were carried out under s60 Criminal Justice and Public Order Act, a police power that does not require suspicion of an individual. Although the number of such stop and searches was not high, all reported searchers were of people of Asian appearance. Powers to remove face coverings and scarfs also appear to have been disproportionately used against Muslim/Asian young people.
• The facilitation of the EDL appeared to take greater priority than the facilitation of counter demonstrations.
There has been a great deal of interest in the media – from the local paper and BBC Radio Leicester, though not all of it was positive.
Netpol would like to thank the community legal observers in Leicester for their hard work in putting the report together. The quality of evidence that was given both in written form and the photographic and video evidence is testimony to this.”
Quote of the day – “Well who thought it was a good idea to organise these two demonstrations on the same day? Surely it was obvious there would be problems” – random Brighton theatre-goer/by-stander
Yesterday’s counter-protest against the March for England exceeded all expectations. Although the fascists did march they did so inside a mobile police kettle continuously surrounded and occasionally bombarded by counter-protestors. Their march route was cut short and for once the chant “Police protect the fascists” was 100% accurate.
Last year the police successfully kettled most of the anti-fascists, allowing the MfE free rein through the city. They took full advantage of the opportunity to hand out racist abuse and attack alternative looking types. Brighton anti-fascists were determined to avoid a repeat.
Aware that the cops plan was to push the march straight down the road from the railway station to the sea front, the anti-crowd was encouraged to spread themselves thinly along the route. This prevented a pre-emptive kettle.
The MfE were due to start their procession at midday, but due to the geography of the area no-one in the counter-demo had a direct view of their meet-up point at the station. A strange High-Noon quiet settled over the town centre as the counter-protest shuffled and waited, watching police movements for a clue as to what might happen. Numbers gradually built up, serenaded by the bizarrely soothing tones of dub from a punk- soundsytem.
For a while it looked as if the cops were going to throw the towel in and refuse to allow the MfE out of the station. At half-twelve jogging lines of cops and the arrival of horses let everyone know that the fash were on the move.
One eyewitness at the station told SchNEWS “From where they were mustered, they could only see a tiny part of the counter-demo, mainly the UAF contingent. They were very cocky. As soon as they turned the corner and saw the opposition their faces fell”. By this point there were around 500 anti-fascists on the streets.
The nationalists had only mustered around 100, a third of what they had predicted. Yesterday SchNEWS reported that “there was little if any English Defence League insignia actually on display”. Since then we’ve been told that EDL banners and an Essex Infidels flag were unfurled at the station. In reality this was a moot point as the main body of march consisted of known EDL faces, including virtually all of Brighton and Portsmouth EDL with the addition of various unsavoury characters such as Jeff Marsh of Casuals United. Despite the presence of a few token women and kids the march was overwhelmingly male, bald and fat.
It didn’t take long after the march set off before the first few antis were in the road behind a banner. From then on the march became a rugby scrum as the cops used horses, truncheons and pepper spray to force the MfE through. Every time the cops broke through an anti-fascist line, another would form ten or twenty metres down the road.
BATTLE OF CHURCH ST
The pressure only intensified as the police decided to abandon the planned high-profile route and try to smuggle the nationalists down the back-streets. Anti-fascists got ahead of the game and running around the side got in front of the march on Church St to build barricades. Fascists and police came under attack with bottles. It was at this point that some-one set a bin on fire, irritating everyone, right and left, with the acrid smoke.
What was totally remarkable was the level of solidarity for the counter-demo by folk from all walks of life in Brighton. There was no support for the MfE. Pensioners and kids shouted abuse at the fash. The UAF stood shoulder to shoulder with Antifa punks.
Eventually the MfE, numbering around a hundred ended up in their pre-prepared pen, – unfortunately for them so did almost the entire counter-demo. They then had to put up with two hours of being jeered at by the surrounding mob before cops rushed them back to the station to be dispersed.
Their march was dogged every step of the way but as they were leaving the crowd was happy to let the cops rush them along. Anti fascists went on to enjoy a pint in the sunshine.
MARLBOROUGH LIGHT-WEIGHTS
Despite the usual online japery the few EDL who tried to make a stand outside the cordon were quickly seen off. Joel Titus, self proclaimed leader of the EDLs youth wing was spotted skulking with a crew of half-wits in the Marlborough pub, one of the few bars that would serve them on the day. A handful of anti-fascists were able to send them packing. Virtually no other pubs would serve the MfE and they failed to maintain a presence in town after they were dispersed.
Is this the end of the March for England in Brighton? Watch this space!
Final word to Brighton Anti-fascists “Brighton showed the racists today that their brand of hatred isn’t welcome in our city. Brighton has always historically seen off the fascists, in the the thirties , the seventies and now today. Big thanks to all who turned out! – Up the punks!”
As far as SchNEWS knows no-one on our team got nicked- If you were arrested and require support then please contact stopmfe@ymail.com
3 Counties Anti-Fascist Alliance (3CAFA) 
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