Category Archives: Far right racists

Demonstrate against EDL in Tower Hamlets on 20 June

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Close East London MosqueThe English Defence League plans to whip up racism against one of Britain’s largest Muslim communities. It has announced plans to gather in Tower Hamlets, east London, on Sunday 20 June.

Unite Against Fascism and East End United have organised a national counter-demonstration with backing from local activists, the council, campaigners and mosques. The momentum is on the side of the anti-fascists. The EDL were heavily outnumbered in Newcastle recently and were sent packing in South Wales last week. EDL demonstrations have been getting smaller.

But there must be no complacency. Local trade unionists, anti-racist activists and campaigners sent an open letter to the Guardian newspaper and local press within days of the EDL’s plans becoming known. It reads, “The English Defence League is a violent, bigoted organisation. They should be condemned everywhere, but will be particularly unwelcome if they come to Tower Hamlets.”

Glyn Robbins, the local activist who organised the letter, toldSocialist Worker, “We have seen how destructive the EDL presence has been in other towns and cities. Now they are coming to our city, to our borough. We have a strong tradition of standing up to racism and fascism in east London – a tradition that goes back to the 1930s when people fought off Mosley’s fascist blackshirts. If the EDL comes here without being opposed, then they can go anywhere. We have to do every­thing we can, in every way, to oppose them.”

Musaddiq Ahmed, secretary general of the Tower Hamlets Council of Mosques, told Socialist Worker it is vital to defend Tower Hamlets multiracial and multifaith tradition.

He said, “We are black, white and Asian – Muslim, Sikh, Jew and Christian – people of all faiths living together. We live in an area where the east London mosque sits side by side with a synagogue – we are proud of the diversity in Tower Hamlets. It would be a disaster if the EDL come here. The EDL wants to use the recent rise in Islamophobic attitudes to paint a distorted picture of Islam in order to divide our communities.”

Socialist Worker, 12 June 2010

See also “Joint statement says: Keep the racist EDL out of east London!”, Unite Against Fascism, 7 June 2010

Gay rights should not be harnessed to an Islamophobic agenda

Posted on by Bob Pitt

In a brilliant exposé the Guardian reported how a lone man held up a pink triangle at a demonstration of the English Defence League – one of the most openly anti-immigrant and Islamophobic organisations in the country. When the reporter asked him what it was for he replied nervously: “This is the symbol gay people were made to wear under Hitler. Islam poses the same threat and we are here to express our opposition to that.”

Given fascism’s history of violent and outspoken homophobia, the news that the EDL would have a 115-strong lesbian, gay and transgender wing would appear, at the very least, incongruous.

But in fact it just the most glaring example of the misguided and ill-informed shift in our nationalist discourse that has moved the emphasis from creed to culture and race to religion in a bid to erect a moral rampart between the a mythological modern, enlightened, progressive west and the demonised medieval, backward, bigoted south. Far from being a contradiction confined to the far right, these issues have taken on totemic significance in the mainstream in the broadside against both multiculturalism in general and non-European immigration in particular as though they were inimicable with the principles of social equality.

Gary Younge in the Guardian, 7 June 2010

EDL outnumbered by anti-fascists in Cardiff

Posted on by Bob Pitt

UAF demonstration Cardiff

One of Wales’ biggest-ever police operations yesterday saw three events in the capital pass off without serious incident yesterday. The rival rallies between the UAF and EDL had the most potential for trouble but police said that, despite security fears, they had made just four arrests and were pleased with the way the day went.

Nearly 400 UAF supporters marched from Cardiff Bay’s Millennium Centre through Riverside and the city centre in protest at the EDL rally, and arrived at City Hall shortly before 1pm. Roughly 200 EDL activists were later bused in to a nearby rallying point at 2pm and verbal exchanges and scuffles broke out.

Former First Minister Rhodri Morgan, wife Julie, MP for Cardiff South and Penarth Alun Michael and MP for Caerphilly Wayne David joined the UAF march, holding banners and chanting with protesters.

Mr Michael said: “It has been a terrific turnout and a very strong and positive message about the nature of Cardiff as a multi-racial city which is determined to maintain harmony. The whole city is increasingly multi-racial and proud, and confident in it. It is a quiet, peaceful demonstration that has real authority – we don’t need conflict with the EDL, we just need to demonstrate Cardiff is not an environment in which they can flourish.”

Unemployed Jamie O’Brien, 30, left Newcastle at 3am to get to Cardiff to support the EDL. He said: “We want to keep the Muslim bombers off our streets – they are getting away with blue murder. We’re ultimately cast as racists by the UAF but they haven’t got a clue. I’m sick of seeing these Muslims – why do they want to change our country to suit them?”

Wales On Sunday, 6 June 2010

See also Unite Against Fascism, Welsh Icons and the Morning Star.

Wilders’ PVV a potential coalition partner

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The sluice gates are wide open,” Dutch anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders says in a campaign video that shows planes landing in Holland as women in headscarves outnumber natives in shopping street scenes. “Every day we are confronted with mass immigration: headscarves, burqas, minarets, social security dependence, crime … it never ends,” Wilders laments as dramatic music plays in the background of the clip released ahead of June 9 parliamentary elections. Whole neighborhoods are being Islamized.”

Pollsters expect Wilders’ Party for Freedom (PVV), to double its strength from nine to 18 MPs in the 150 seat parliament on a ticket of halting the “Islamic invasion” – enough to make it a potential ruling coalition candidate.

“Wilders exerts a big influence on these elections,” political analyst Martin Rosema of Twente University told AFP. Wilders’ bold move onto the shaky ground of multi-cultural tolerance, for long a matter of Dutch pride, “has prompted other parties to adopt a stricter approach to security and the integration of Muslims,” said Rosema.

Agence France-Presse, 6 June 2010

Update:  See also “Poll favourite may put anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders in Cabinet”, Times, 7 June 2010

Anti-Islam website run by 16-year-old

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Carmarthenshire_Front

An extreme right-wing website calling for the closure of all mosques and warning of the threat to “the white man” is the work of a 16-year-old Welsh schoolboy, Wales on Sunday has learnt.

Website “The Carmarthenshire Front” – named after the far-right National Front – features videos of BNP leader Nick Griffin talking about the “Islamification” of Europe, and describes the dangers facing the “white man” from the “tsunami of immigration” coming into Britain.

But rather than a large-scale organisation, the website is written and run by a GCSE pupil at Queen Elizabeth High School in Carmarthen.

The website fights against mosques, saying: “Say NO, Vote NO, Mosques must GO!” It particularly attacks plans to build a mosque near the site of the 9/11 massacre in New York, saying: “This is the sickest thing I have ever heard, and it’s perhaps no surprise when we note that Obama is a Muslim himself, which I would say must go a long way to explaining why this evil plan has been passed.”

Wales on Sunday, 6 June 2010

CST and BoD reject EDL’s ‘Jewish division’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL We Support IsraelThe English Defence League, the extreme right-wing anti-Islamic-fundamentalism group, has launched a “Jewish division”, encouraging members of the community to “lead the counter-Jihad fight in England”.

It has signed up hundreds of followers on Facebook since the launch last week. Supporters include an ex-Community Security Trust volunteer who claims “a lot of Jewish guys want to get stuck in”.

One follower wrote on Facebook “we are all Shayetet 13”, in support of the IDF naval special forces unit involved in the Gaza flotilla incident.

But Jewish community organisations responded to the initiative with shock, saying the EDL intimidated Muslim communities and claiming its support for Israel was “empty and duplicitous”.

The former CST member, Mark Israel, claimed Jews should back the EDL as an alternative to existing community groups. He said: “I’ve been involved with groups like CST and the 62 Group for 40 years. At first I thought the EDL was an off-shoot of the BNP but I have been investigating them. They are very pro-active, unlike the Board of Deputies. They are our allies. We have a common cause. These guys want to have dialogue with the Jewish community.

“I know a lot of Jewish guys who want to get stuck in and want to support a physical presence. It is not your typical thing people want to be associated with, but in this day and age we need something like this. Is the CST enough?”

The EDL mission statement says the new division is for “Jewish supporters of the EDL, and supporters of Jewish people everywhere. We are non-racist/fascist and anyone is welcome if they want to live under English values and fully integrate into our way of life”.

Last September the EDL brandished the Israeli flag at a demonstration and called on supporters to launch a counter-protest against a pro-Hizbollah march in Trafalgar Square.

Mark Gardner, CST communications director, said: “The EDL intimidate entire Muslim communities, causing tension and fear. Jews ought to remember that we have long experience of being on the receiving end of this kind of bigotry.”

Jon Benjamin, Board of Deputies chief executive, said: “The EDL’s supposed ‘support’ for Israel is empty and duplicitous. It is built on a foundation of Islamophobia and hatred which we reject entirely. Sadly, we know only too well what hatred for hatred’s sake can cause. The overwhelming majority will not be drawn in by this transparent attempt to manipulate a tense political conflict.”

Jewish Chronicle, 3 June 2010

EDL to hit Lincoln this summer?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A right-wing group, which claims to protest against militant Islam, is planning a Lincoln demonstration this summer, The Linc can reveal.

The English Defence League (EDL) wants to protest against plans to build a mosque in Boultham Park Road. The mosque was originally rejected by City of Lincoln Council on the grounds that it would cause traffic problems, but an appeal against the decision has been launched.

A spokesman for the EDL’s Lincoln Division says: “We will be protesting against the building of the mosque in Lincoln and using it as a platform to say no to all mosques in England. You may say that this is against all Muslims [by] saying no more mosques, but it’s not.

“The reason we don’t want mosques in our country is because many of them are funded by an..extremist group, Tablighi Jamaat, which means that they will have a say in what is taught in these mosques.”

They also insist that the EDL isn’t racist because “there is [sic] muslim members within the EDL…Do you think they would be supporting us if they felt we was [sic] racist or islamaphobic?”.

One member of Lincoln EDL’s Facebook group, writing under the name “Jem England Cook”, said: “Great that all the houses will be worth 50% less around Boultham if these rag heads get their way. Wasn’t it an old chapel they was [sic] turning into a paedo palace? Sums up this fucked up country when they are taking over our religious places. Keep them out of Lincoln full stop.”

The Linc, 4 June 2010

Electoral gains predicted for far-right Sweden Democrats

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Jimmie Akesson2From his party’s office in the basement of a Stockholm parking garage, Jimmie Akesson is running for Parliament, preaching sharp cuts in immigration and calling Islam the greatest threat to Swedish society.

That message until now has gained little traction in Sweden, but polls are predicting gains for Akesson’s far-right Sweden Democrats that could give them a king-maker role in national elections this year if neither mainstream bloc wins an outright majority. It’s an unnerving scenario for Swedes and their self-image of being more tolerant of outsiders than the rest of Europe.

Opinion polls show the Sweden Democrats could get 4 to 6 percent of votes in the September election, enough to win 15-20 seats in the 349-member Riksdag and potentially throw Swedish politics into disarray. But by law a party needs at least 4 percent to get into the legislature, and the Sweden Democrats could well fall short. Also, paradoxically, their poll numbers are up at a time when another survey show the number of Swedes worried about excessive immigration is declining.

All the same, the mainstream parties which hitherto simply ignored the far right are being forced to say where they stand. The center-left says it won’t govern with the Sweden Democrats under any circumstances. The incumbent center-right hasn’t put it quite that strongly, but sounds very reluctant to line up with the far right.

Akesson, the clerkish 31-year-old leading the Sweden Democrat charge, insists voters are more disenchanted with liberal immigration laws than they admit out loud. “In Sweden, if you voice criticism against the immigration policy, you are viewed as a racist or xenophobe,” Akesson said.

Associated Press, 5 June 2010

Cardiff: taxi drivers plan strike over anti-Muslim rally

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Taxi drivers are preparing to strike on Cardiff’s busiest day of the year in protest at an anti-Muslim rally being held in the city centre.

As tens of thousands of people descend on the capital on Saturday to watch Wales take on South Africa at the Millennium Stadium, the Stereophonics play Cardiff City Stadium and Glamorgan take on West Indies A at the Swalec Stadium, some of the city’s 950 hackney drivers will withdraw their services.

Estimates of the numbers of black-and-white cabbies taking part in the strike against the Welsh Defence League’s (WDL) rally range from 80 to 700, but with large amounts of sport and music fans expected Mathab Khan, chairman of the Cardiff Hackney Association, told the Echo he has warned police of the potential for “worrying” disruption. Mr Khan said he believed up to 700 drivers or more could join the strike, expected to run from 10am on Saturday to 10am Sunday.

But Robert Goddard, of Unite Against Fascism, which asked drivers to leave work and join its counter demonstration on Saturday, told the Echo he believed around 80 drivers would take part. “We have been speaking to a number of taxi drivers that would normally work on that day, but won’t be working in support of the protest we are having,” he said. “They are joining us in light of the WDL’s demonstration and also in light of the fact they experience racism.”

Mr Khan said as the Cardiff Hackney Association was a non-political organisation it had opted to take a neutral stance on the strike and had not encouraged or discouraged members to take part. But he confirmed he would not be working on Saturday and would instead be joining the Unite Against Fascism counter demonstration in an individual capacity.

Wales Online, 3 June 2010

East End stands against EDL

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The English Defence League is a violent, bigoted organisation and an embarrassment to our country. They should be condemned everywhere, but will be particularly unwelcome if they come to Tower Hamlets. Most people in the East End live in peace and mutual respect for neighbours, regardless of their faith or skin colour. As residents and workers in the borough, we will not tolerate attempts to divide us or stir up hatred. The real enemies of Tower Hamlets are poverty and inequality, not Islam. At Cable Street in 1936 the people of the East End united to block the way to Mosley’s fascist blackshirts. We stand ready to do the same to the EDL.

Glyn Robbins, Cllr Helal Abbas Leader, Tower Hamlets council, Mowlana Shamsul Hoque and Musaddiq Ahmed Chair and secretary general, Council of Mosques, Tower Hamletsand 24 others

Guardian, 2 June 2010