WHITE PRIDE WASHOUT national front in Swansea

via SchNEWS

After days of spreading misinformation to the police, council and opposition groups, the National Front finally held their annual ‘White Pride’ demonstration at Swansea Castle on Saturday. By doing their best to convince residents that it wasn’t going ahead and keeping their rally point secret – it was obvious that the organisers didn’t expect any public support and were worried about the size of the opposition.

Unfortunately, one group that fell for the trick were Swansea Unite Against Fascism (UAF) who called off their counter demo after apparently being assured by police that the event wasn’t going ahead.

However by midday groups of skinheads were congregating in the vicinity of Castle Square around Yates bar, and a diverse counter-demonstration was gathering in the square itself.

Around thirty NF supporters unfurled fascist banners outside the castle, they were quickly outnumbered by around 100 antifascists on the other side of the road. The NF found themselves served with restrictions by police, and were ordered to disperse after only an hour.

As they were being dispersed a few up for it antifascists were able to directly confront the White Pride supporters. A small scuffle broke out and a fascist flag was snatched before the NF could be escorted to Ice bar on Wind St, where the boneheads consoled themselves by getting pissed and shouting racist abuse.

“I personally witnessed them shouting at a Muslim couple, who had joined the antifascist demonstration,” Al Brown of South Wales Antifascist Action told SchNEWS “They called the man a “paki” as police officers looked on. The cops did nothing to try to stop the abuse, and wouldn’t listen to the man’s wife when she tried to complain about it.”

After Ice bar, the NF were escorted up to another bar – Static on Kingsway, where antifascists kept watch behind a police cordon. A phone blockade was organised , and the bar’s management in Bristol responded by travelling to Swansea in order to have the racist crowd removed. The NF were then quickly marched by police to the station and made to get on a train.

“South Wales Antifascist Action had a 30-strong bloc and we opposed them every step of the way. It seemed like some kind of pathetic racist pub crawl facilitated by the police, who seemed content to turn a blind eye to all the harassment the NF were causing to Swansea residents. Officers could even be seen exchanging handshakes with NF supporters outside Static. It’s really troubling that they would fraternise in this way with people who were shouting racist insults and threats of violence during the day,” said Al Brown.

“I don’t think Unite Against Fascism can take any credit at all for the counter demonstration on Saturday. They took the fascists’ bait and called off their demo, then ignored other groups who had assurances it was still happening. But SWAFA, Swansea Trades Council and a lot of interested local residents went ahead without them. We want to thank everyone who took part, whatever their background, because we know that true strength lies in diversity.”

For more information please contact South Wales Antifascist Action:

swafa@riseup.net

@swafa05

SchNEWS: Tower Power

The Met Police made up to 300 arrests (07/09/13) in order to allow the EDL to march across Tower Bridge and into the outskirts of Tower Hamlets.

The day started well enough with hundreds answering the Anti -Fascist Network‘s call to stop the EDL. The AFN responding to earlier threats by the Met to march the league into the heart of Tower Hamlets had announced their meeting point as Altab Ali park – effectively as a side rally to the Unite against Fascism shindig.

The UAF affair went down much as expected – a platform with speakers firmly within the designated protest zone. In the end they produced nearly fifty speakers (all the usual suspects and local worthies). It also has to be said that the UAF really only started banging the drum for Tower Hamlets when it was clear that a police ban on an EDL march into Tower Hamlets proper would be enforced.

Meanwhile the AFN quietly assembled towards the back of the park and when the moment came around 500 surged out behind the banners and to the cops’ surprise marched east in order to outflank them and exploit a few undefended side streets. Many locals joined in with the break away.

Swinging round, the block made for Tower Bridge and tried to make its way through the hastily improvised police cordons. Some were kettled or turned back but one group of around a hundred made it to within sight of the EDL’s rally point on Tower Bridge. Determined attempts to break through were met with the threat of horses and dogs. In the end the exchange between anti-fascists and EDL was limited to shouting abuse.

Other anti-fascists operated in small groups along the route of the EDL’s march. After the huge build up and with all the benefits of the Lee Rigby incident the league only numbered around 600 on the day. One SchNEWS reporter who walked alongside them said “They seemed pretty despondent, there was very little shouting or chanting”.

At the EDL’s rally point at Aldgate station one brave couple, who’d evaded police detection, unfurled a banner with the pithy slogan “Racists fuck off”. This provoked a hail of bottles from the enraged EDL. The banner wielders were then nicked for ‘breach of the peace’. There were also (unconfirmed) reports that non-aligned anti-fascists got into a building site to the south of the rally and hurled bricks into the crowd.

The EDL were permitted a half hour rally, during which Tommy Robinson announced a series of charity walks in the Tower Hamlets area, an obvious move in light of the astounding success of the last one. They were then marched directly back along their route and embarked on their buses. A handful remained drinking under the watchful eyes of cops in pubs near the bridge. No EDL supporters managed any kind of visible presence in Tower Hamlets on the day.

As the news of the EDL’s departure came through the UAF staged a ‘victory march’ along Whitechapel High St. The celebration of this ‘victory’ while nearly two hundred comrades were being held in police kettles and being prepared for mass arrest was condemned by at least one AFN activist as a “fucking disgrace”.

Police brought commandeered buses to the two kettles and began loading prisoners into them to be distributed to police stations across London. Arrest support was organised by Green and Black Cross across the capital, with activists waiting outside police stations for released detainees. As far as SchNEWS is aware virtually nobody has been charged with an offence or even interviewed. They have all been bailed away from ‘demonstrations by the BNP, EDL or EVF inside the M25’. These are the very same bail conditions handed out to activists who confronted the BNP’s attempted march on the Cenotaph . Clearly the Met at least are worried about the growing presence of militant anti-fascists on the streets.

Were you arrested? If you haven’t already then it’s probably worth your while to contact Green and Black Cross who are collating information and organising legal support.

For more information on autonomous street based anti-fascism – ANTI FASCIST NETWORK

Link

More reports:

Anti-Fascist Network: East End: Always Anti-Fascist

East Midlands Anti-fascists: Heavy manners in Tower Hamlets

South London Anti-Fascists: Our Thanks

Vice: I Was Arrested for Trying to Report On Saturday’s EDL Rally

Undisinfo: The Hate Agenda’s Transparent This Weekend

Netpol: Mass arrest – an abuse of power

Opposing the “March for England” 2013

A few pictures and a video showing the huge and varied opposition shown to fascist scum who were pretending to march under the banner of St George in Brighton today. Links to independent reports from the day at the foot of the post.

A lot of people don’t like fascism

Fascists on the left anti-fascists on the right

Loud and clear

Bish

Bash

Bosh

More coverage here (Indymedia UK)

English Fascists Took Their First Beating of the Summer in Brighton This Weekend (Vice)

MfE battered and humiliated on the streets of Brighton (EDLNews)

Mobs and Coppers (SchNEWS)

March for england 2013 (Indymedia UK)

Brighton 24th April 2013 – Something For Everyone!!! (Anti-Fascist Network)

March for England Marches Nowhere! (Maletesta’s blog)

Picture gallery (AFA Ireland)

Bangers and Fash (Schnews article)

Brighton – June 2nd

“You asked for it”– “you sowed the wind, now you’ll reap the whirlwind” , “no women and kids this time” “We are coming back to Brighton IN NUMBERS and you dirty lefty child abusing cunts will be dealt with” – These were just a handful of the online threats made by EDL supporters in the wake of the humiliation of EDL splinter group March for England on April 22nd.

The EDL’s football hooligan division, Casuals United, had been boasting on their blog that they would be returning to Brighton in numbers and strength to take revenge on local people. Six weeks previously, hundreds of locals stood side by side against right wing racists who had tried, and failed, to parade around the city under the banner of ‘March for England’.

Weirdly, Casuals United named 2nd June the day for their action, but decided to keep the details quiet. They were obviously caught between the stools of either keeping the whole thing completely offline and having tiny numbers or advertising it and having to deal with police and anti-fascists. In the end they plumped for calling the whole thing a ‘social’, as if coming to Brighton, the South Coast’s biggest tourist town, and buying a pint while in disguise was an achievement of some sort.

Brighton anti-fascists decided against an extensive counter-mobilisation on the grounds that the Casuals weren’t going to pull the numbers and a big call out would simply be crying wolf on their behalf.

Nonetheless on the Saturday around a hundred anti-fascist activists assembled in Brighton’s main shopping area, Churchill Square. This was to support the Brighton Uncut Great Brighton Street Party and the regular Palestine Solidarity campaign stall. They anticipated the arrival of some kind of flash mob as the fash gathered in Hove and around Palace Pier. (Well, most of them – two were nicked at Hove train station for cocaine possession). However all we saw were EDL spotters, at least two using their wives as cover. Police numbers were huge so the spotters were just politely encouraged to fuck off.

FASH BANGS

By 3pm the stalls and street party were winding down – co-incidentally this was exactly as we received reports that the fash had stopped skulking in pubs and in an astounding display of both Dutch and Colombian courage had sallied out of the pubs into Kemptown* to throw bangers around and make homophobic remarks. It was presumably at this point that well-known local EDLer Stephen ‘Sugar Plum Fairy’ Sands got nicked for letting off fireworks – something we all no doubt enjoyed when we were fourteen but possibly a little immature at 44.

*the thriving heart of Brighton’s gay community™

In response anti-fascists set off for an impromptu march down North Street, towards Kemptown behind a large ‘NO FASCISM’ banner. After dealing with a police roadblock and attempted kettle most of the anti-fascist crowd made it down to the Old Steine where the first face-to-face confrontations with the Casuals occurred. Mostly due to the numbers of cops these were confined to slanging matches but there was at least one exchange of blows. There were skirmishes along Old Steine and in Pool Valley bus depot. Anti-fascists were arrested and four were held for public order offences and one (ridiculously) for assault of a police officer.

The whole time this was happening more local people joined the mobile protests. Brighton Anti-fascists distributed a leaflet to explain their actions:

“Fascism grows if we let it. We are here to challenge the racism, Islamophobia and fascism of the EDL, Casuals United and the March for England. This has no place in our city or anywhere else.”

By 4pm police rounded up the majority of the Casuals, (around 35 of them) and marched them to the station where they were forcibly placed on a train and dispersed out of town. They were harangued by anti-fascists the whole way. A few more were arrested at this point for ‘racist chanting’. By the end of the day the fash had taken thirteen arrests meaning that even if we take their inflated estimate of a turn-out 100 at face value then one in seven of them were nicked. The spread of towns they came from means that this really was an attempt at a national mobilisation… oh dear.

In an effort to save face Casuals United have said that the vast majority of their supporters stayed hidden and undercover – moving around in small groups. Unfortunately for them, travelling to the City-by the Sea with all their racist and homophobic baggage meant that they did, in the end, reveal their true colours.

CASUAL LIES

For those disappointed by the end of this year’s season of Game of Thrones there’s always the mystifying fantasy world of Suzy from Casuals United.

Their fantastic account of the weekend started with spotting “loads of UAF” up at the train station.

Actually there was no demo so we’re guessing that some of the idiots just ran into the crowd heading up to the Fatboy Slim effort at the football stadium and jumped to conclusions.

In the morning they came across “some unwashed anarchist scum on the beach in sleeping bags”..ermm do you mean homeless people? So much for the Soldiers off the Streets campaign.

Later, despite “not seeing a Commie all day” the Casuals apparently beat loads of us up.

“Ten people were arrested during these scuffles, mostly ours as several Anarchists were knocked out. A lot of ours then went to the police station to make sure those arrested were ok.”

In boring mundane reality no-one from either side was ‘knocked-out’. Even more hilariously not a single EDL supporter went to Hollingbury police station where their arrestees were being held (as Milton Keynes EDL member Darell Hobson found when he was released).

In the last analysis Suzy is still defiantly pretending that there were hordes of undercover Casuals in town but rather gives herself away with the last sentence “I know some people had genuine reasons not to turn up, but some people said they were going, didnt say they werent and didnt turn up. They should be ashamed and next time they say anything it will be treated as the shit it is.” Temper, temper dear.

The fascists present in Brighton on 2nd June will of course know that this is BS of the highest order and will perhaps begin to lose faith in their organisations and then hopefully, their politics.

Source.

Fascists not welcome .. anywhere in the world

Today saw the fascist menace repelled both in Hamburg, Germany and Brighton in the UK. In Hamburg it is reported that 10,000 turned out to oppose a march staged by 500 neo-nazis, an event which saw 700 anti-fascists detained by police. There is a timeline of today’s events in Hamburg here (google translated) plus a video/report here from Russia Today.

Meanwhile Schnews give the lowdown below on today’s events in Brighton as well as a timeline report of the day’s actions posted here (indy uk)

“Casuals United, the football hooligan wing of the EDL, made complete tits of themselves in Brighton today (2nd). In response to their humiliation at March for England the fash thought it would be a good idea to come back in even smaller numbers to have a go at the “rabid hordes of commie UAF gays” that passes for the population of Brighton.

Far right websites, blogs and Facebook pages are already attempting to claim that antifa either a) didn’t turn up, b) ran away, and/or c) attacked patriots unprovoked. In reality the knuckle draggers managed to skulk about in a few pubs (including Belushis, The Saint James & The Amsterdam) while around 100 antifascists stewarded the UK Uncut demo and Palestine Solidarity stall near Churchill Sq. Once the stall had packed up around 3pm the antifascists mobbed up and headed towards Old Steine to confront the racists.

Police halted the majority of the march halfway down North St, meaning only around 30 made it to the bottom of St James Street, where small groups of fash were skulking around making homophobic remarks. A spirited fistfight broke out, though the police waded in before a decisive outcome was reached.

The cops then rounded up most of the EDL and marched them to the train station, with antifascists haranguing them all the way. Many of them then left town with a few others heading back into town to find a pub to defend from Sharia Law.

Antifascists then regrouped for a well earned pint, while others headed to Hollingbury police station to pick up arrested comrades. So far at least 5 antifascists and 5 fascists have been nicked today.

A more complete & concise roundup of the day’s events will be posted in the near future.

Up the punks!!”

FASH, BANG, WALLOP

Report from Schnews: 23/04/12

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

For more http://brightonantifascists.wordpress.com/

For a great gallery of photos by Guy Smallman

*Updated* Report from Bristol Anti-Fascists can be read here.

Here’s a video of yesterday’s counter protest, more can be found on Youtube.