The dreadful far right in England

The EDL Spent Saturday Bleeding All Over Birmingham, England
Vice by Simon Childs |
You might have thought that the English Defence League had already sufficiently exploited Lee Rigby's murder for their own Islamophobic ends. But Tommy Robinson and his merry band of blinkered patriots have never been too bothered with decency, preferring instead to make Rigby a martyr in their fight against every Muslim man, woman, and child currently raping and murdering their way through the UK.
On Saturday, a bunch of EDL trekked up to Birmingham to continue dancing on Rigby's grave. I went along to see if their dancing was as awkward and ungainly as it usually is



EDL leader Tommy Robinson being escorted by security goons.
I arrived to find the EDL pouring out of a nightclub, spilling beer everywhere. This was presumably to the chagrin of the English Disco Lovers, a group that protests against the EDL by subverting their acronym and sending up their macho aggression by blasting the Village People at them.
Here, the vision of a genuine EDL disco was realized, and—shockingly—it wasn’t particularly pretty. In many ways it was probably familiar territory for the club, which looked like a regular stomping ground for any stag night making its way through Birmingham city center. Only instead of groaning the lyrics to "Get Lucky" at anything resembling a skirt, this baying troop of beer-fuelled bruisers were shouting, "Allah! Allah! Who the f**k is Allah?" at a group of Muslims milling about on the other side of the road. Judging by their response, it's likely that only one of those songs will ever be regarded as the feel good hit of any summer.
Someone also hurled a beer can at the assembled group of observers, prompting a round of, "Stick your f**king Islam up your arse!" The can missed its target and the EDL members were escorted away from the area by the police.



As you'd expect at an event staged by a large number of drunken bigots, the police presence was heavy. The EDL had been prevented from holding a proper march and instead allowed a static demonstration in a square located about 100 meters down the road from the club.
On the way, a small number of people carrying Unite Against Fascism (UAF) banners managed to get within jeering distance and the usual insults were thrown. One EDL guy was also excitedly shouting "UAF UFO!" prompting sideways looks from antifa, his fellow racists, the police, myself, the other amassed journalists, passing children, passing dogs, and anyone else who lacks the brainpower to make the link between opposing fascism and life on other planets.

Overall, the anti-fascist response was pretty muted, beer cans and a rudimentary understanding of Islam his fighting fuel.
Upon entering the square, half of the crowd walked towards the stage, where the leadership were about to make their speeches. The other half rampaged towards the line of police and started larging it up while trying to push past the police line for no discernible reason, other than the fact that they love a bloody good dust up.



The police brought out the dogs in response, then the EDL started throwing missiles in the form of plastic cups of lager. The problem with them, though, is that they do absolutely no harm to your enemies, often while making you some new ones as you cover everyone around you in sticky beer. A few people realized this and started to throw glass bottles or bricks instead.



What with the cops having truncheons and shields and combat training, a lot of the EDL members ended up battered and bleeding, like this gentleman.



He wasn't happy. 



When all the shouting and bottle throwing had died down a little, EDL leaders started to make their speeches. I didn’t hear them because I was on the other side of the square watching a large number of people who'd decided to keep confronting the cops. I also spent a large amount of that time being told to f**k off for being a journalist.



Those who were willing to have a chat with me seemed pretty confused. A 47-year-old solicitor called “Viking” told me that he objected to the fact that Kingsmill bread is halal. He was convinced that, as a Christian, this meant that he couldn’t eat it.
Another man told me, "I'm not racist, but I hate Muslims—horrible."



Simon, 30, a tanker driver, told me he came to express his concern about "what’s going on with Islam, terrorism and that kind of stuff.” I asked him whether a particular event had colored his opinion on Islam, and he said, “Obviously 9/11 and that, but it’s getting closer to home now—stuff going on in Tipton, Wolverhampton, Walsall, the London bombings.”
I pointed out that Tipton, Wolverhampton and Walsall were examples of mosques being attacked. He said, “Terrorism is terrorism—it doesn’t matter which side it’s coming from,” while attending a demo specifically and aggressively targeting one side.

 


The rally was soon over and the EDL were marched back to the nightclub, where they boarded their minibuses and drove off their separate ways.
A total of 20 arrests were made and three people were charged—one with violent disorder and two with possession of offensive weapons. Overall the EDL turnout was pretty high, coming in at around 2,000.
So I guess their resurgence following Lee Rigby's murder isn’t quite the flash in the pan I'd been hoping for. That said, the EDL are still far from a coherent organization, and the only thing they seem capable of doing is organizing these pointless, heavily policed street brawls that ultimately go nowhere. The scary thing is that people are still turning up to them.

http://www.vice.com/read/the-edl-bled-a ... n-saturday

..........What a bunch of   

........Cretins!

 

Woolwich is my birth town and the majority of people living there and in the surrounding boroughs are very pissed off with them they are a bloody menace  

The EDL are called the far right yet are more akin to football hooligans than the authoritarian capitalist elite. Are they far right or is this a derogatory label?

Don't get me wrong - I loath them, with their penchant for violence, Nazi salutes and council estate diplomacy; fight first, talk later.

I do agree  
I doubt that their Economic Policies and Prinicples can be called either Left or Right.  
they could probably be called Dumb which would make sense, most of the members are.

It is insulting to the Far Right to call these Idoits Far right. I means Facists still understand that they want all the money. these are Poor lower class bogans, it is stupidity not any desire for Economic reform that drives them.

Police arrested 58 anti-fascist demonstrators this afternoon as they clashed with BNP supporters outside the Palace of Westminster today. The majority of those arrested are thought to have been supporters of United Against Fascism, and the BNP group cheered as handcuffed demonstrators were led onto a red double decker bus which had “Special Service” as its destination.

One BNP supporter who suffered a large cut to his nose said: “I've put my best suit on today and come out for a peaceful demonstration and this is what's happened. And to think they call us thugs!”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/58-arrested-as-bnp-and-antifascists-clash-in-london-protest-8640630.html

I'm no BNP supporter but I do like to see a balanced picture of events rather than one-sided propaganda.

@vertias
Good point.

Also I find the Irony that BOTH groups are tendably Violent White Non-Islamic Males delicious  
I was working with an administrator of the ADL (Aussie equivelent, but no where near the same following their protest got 20 people) And my argument to him was as White males with violent tendacies we really shouldn't worry as history has shown that only the Mongols ever exceeded europeans for efficent brutal violence.

I think the core of the issue is that the BNP do make some vaild points(there is Muslims that do Hate the West) but the exection of the idea is wrong (or they are cowards)
a Rapist is a Rapist, a Thief is a Thief, what does it matter what their religion is? You don't need to make Islam Illegal because any Bad Muslim in regards to criminal law is already a criminal and should be arrested as such. There is no need to throw another law over the top of our already heavily legislated system that will only effect law abiding citizens just because they have a slightly different imaginary magic sky giant friend, again any non law abiding Muslim is already covered by existing laws so the addition is redundant.

Well Actually My Nemisis(Ralph) from the ADL is still about. and Oddly made contact to a mutal friend today  

http://www.sbs.com.au/podcasts/Podcasts/radionews/episode/274534/Anti-Islam-group-seeks-to-expand

I know the ADL are not facists as they dont understand the econimic concepts involved, they are just dumb racists. Apart form the whole racist thing Ralph is actually alright he even treated Akther a muslim co worker with respect, but Ralph comes from a fairly well off area and I don't think he realises that some of the people he stirrs up with the racist rubbish will not treat other people with respect once they have a few drinks in them (by 5pm any day of the week).

Veritas wrote:Police arrested 58 anti-fascist demonstrators this afternoon as they clashed with BNP supporters outside the Palace of Westminster today.  The majority of those arrested are thought to have been supporters of United Against Fascism, and the BNP group cheered as handcuffed demonstrators were led onto a red double decker bus which had “Special Service” as its destination.

One BNP supporter who suffered a large cut to his nose said: “I've put my best suit on today and come out for a peaceful demonstration and this is what's happened. And to think they call us thugs!”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/58-arrested-as-bnp-and-antifascists-clash-in-london-protest-8640630.html

I'm no BNP supporter but I do like to see a balanced picture of events rather than one-sided propaganda.

Very rare occurrence.

UAF don't attack the police but might attack fascist scum on rare occasions.

Hello veritas

Could you post some footage of the UAF being violent.

Thankyou.

 

Tut Tut

 

My partner and i live in a very multicultural area there haven't been any kind of problems here between the races and people of different sexual orientations etc...The very road that we live in is a fine example where there are black couples, white couples, mixed race couple, gay couples, old people, young people all living together in complete harmony so it isn't really surprising that some would get upset about a bunch of fascists around here trying to destroy that harmony.