UAF Protest Against EDL Demo in Luton: the Unsavoury Truth

The inappropriately named trades-union funded body ‘Unite Against Fascism’ (UAF) is organising a national effort to counter what is being billed as the English Defence League’s (EDL) biggest yet demonstration against the Islamisation of the UK tomorrow in Luton. From as far afield as Edinburgh and Glasgow the Trotskyite-led UAF organisation is calling upon what it describes as ‘antiracists and antifascists across the country to mobilise against the English Defence League in Luton on Saturday 5 February.’ In pursuit of this objective it is organising numerous coaches for protesters, with Scottish UAF supporters leaving this evening because of the long distances involved.

Amongst the hardcore leftists who enjoy turning up for such festivals of self-created mayhem will be a number of gullible trade unionists and students who will not be aware of the modus operandi of UAF and its masters – the Socialist Workers’ Party (SWP) – a Trotskyite party that seeks to foment ‘class war’ through the patronage of a surrogate working class in the form of the predominantly immigrant-descended Muslim population which it sees as particularly ripe for violent mobilisation. Although UAF poses as a ‘peaceful’ organisation/movement, the clenched fist emblem of the SWP belies the reality of its violent intent; after all, two of the leading lights of UAF – Martin Smith and Weyman Bennett – are SWP Central Committee members.

Weyman Bennett was arrested at a UAF counterdemonstration against the EDL in Bolton on 20 March 2010. The arrest was for ‘suspicion of conspiracy to commit violent disorder.’ Of the 74 arrests that took place that day, 55 were of UAF demonstrators, thus far outweighing the number of EDL supporters detained. SWP National Secretary Martin Smith was convicted of assaulting a police officer in an anti-BNP demo at the time of Nick Griffin’s appearance on Question Time in September 2009. Both the SWP and UAF believe in a ‘no platform’ policy for those whom they deem to be beyond the pale of acceptability, amongst whom they include the EDL and BNP, both of which they brand ‘racist’, along with the recently formed British Freedom Party.

The links between the Trotskyite Left (whether the UAF, the SWP or the ‘Respect’ Party) and Islamism are clear to see. In June 2010 the One Law for All (OLFA) anti-Shariah campaign held a demonstration in Downing Street, whilst that same day former Respect MP George Galloway used rhetoric to whip up hatred amongst a mainly Muslim crowd in East London that had turned up to protest against the EDL. After Galloway had finished, a contingent of Muslim UAF headed off to Westminster where they joined with the Islamist group Muslims Against Crusades with cries of ‘Allahu-akbar!’ in a show of united rage against OLFA (click here for video footage).

Trotskyism and Islamism have come to an accommodation in the UK because each thinks it can use the other to forward its own agenda. Both believe in the transformative power of violence and detest free speech and free thought, and each is anti-nationalist in its own distinctive way. With the fortunes of the BNP on the wane, those who make a living from ‘anti-racism’ need a new target, and for them the EDL will serve as good a target as any for the time being. However, the words ‘racism’, ‘racist’, ‘bigot’, ‘fascist’ and ‘Nazi’ are all simply part of the Trotskyite toolkit deployed to unleash irrational hatred upon those stigmatised by these epithets, thereby keeping members of the movement/party in a state of perpetual and readily manipulated mobilisation. Throughout history Communists of various hues have used terms such as 'kulak', 'bourgeois', 'reactionary', 'capitalist running dog', 'wrecker', etc to stigmatise, dehumanise and destroy their opponents' reputations and lives. UAF continue in that ignoble tradition.

Since its early days the EDL has won the support of a number Sikhs and West Indians amongst others, and has also made clear the centrality of defending the rights of women and homosexuals, which is a reality that clearly rebuts the allegations of UAF about the EDL’s position. From the outset, it has declared itself to be a popular protest movement against ‘radical Islam’ and ‘Islamisation’. Islam is an ideology and there are of course considerable numbers of indigenous Muslim converts in the UK. Islam has no colour. Islam is not a ‘race’. Don’t believe in the lies peddled by UAF such as ‘The EDL, [is] a violent racist organisation with links to the British National Party and other fascist groups’. Remember: Stalin called the brave Polish patriots who rose up against the Nazi occupiers in the Warsaw Rising of 1944 ‘fascists’ and let the Nazis wipe them out before crossing the Vistula and imposing Communism. Men such as Smith and Bennett, although Trotskyites rather than Stalinists, are cast in the same mould.