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Thursday 30 August 2012

EDL Walthamstow Demo: 1 September 2012


This Saturday, the EDL will be holding a protest in Walthamstow which had originally been planned to take place in August. Although this will be a national demo, recent attendance figures at such events – such as in Bristol and Dewsbury – have been rather modest compared to those that took place earlier in the protest group’s history. An explanation of why the march will be taking place has been provided in an article by Esmerelda Weatherwax, focusing upon how the borough has become a hotbed for Islamists in recent years, some of the most notable being involved in Anjem Choudary’s numerous differently-named groups consisting for the greater part of the same members articulating the same backward Islamist ideology.

Contrary to the shrill and predictable denunciations of the EDL protest made by the latest Trotskyite front group to spring into existence – ‘We are Waltham Forest’ – as well as formulaic imprecations issued by UAF, the SWP and sundry soi-disant ‘antifascists’, the police adjudge that the EDL march poses no threat of violence. Whether or not they believe that the same can be said of the miscellaneous anti-democratic elements of the Trotskyite and anarchist Left has not been divulged, but judging by past experience, including the recent ‘antifa’ attack upon police in Bristol, violence could well be forthcoming from that quarter. These groups employ the language of ‘anti-racism’ and ‘anti-fascism’ as a means of camouflaging their true intent of subverting public order and fomenting violence, and yet although these facts can be ascertained by anyone who cares to look at the literature that they produce, observe the manner in which they act and listen to the words that they speak, the mass media seem to possess a perplexing blind spot in this regard. Why are their claims, given their serious nature and implications, never subjected to objective scrutiny? The failure of the press, television and radio to investigate the murky world of the violent fringe of the anti-democratic Left, and the willingness of broadcasters and journalists to accept all of its pronouncements at face value, constitutes a baffling mystery. 

Turning to what the opponents of the EDL Walthamstow Demo have written, their true colours are revealed. For example, one article entitled ‘We Are Waltham Forest: residents to confront EDL racists’ appears on a website called Counterfire. This organisation describes itself as follows:
Counterfire is an organisation of revolutionary socialists. We work in the trade unions, student movement, and protest campaigns to link together different struggles, push them forwards, and build resistance to the system.
Counterfire members have played a key role in the Coalition of Resistance, Stop the War, and the student revolt.
Note the term “revolutionary socialists” and how the organisation freely owns that it infiltrates trade unions, student groups and protests to “build resistance to the system”. We live in a democracy where any “socialist” candidate is free to stand for office via the ballot box, and yet these people – “revolutionary socialists” – reject this route, preferring instead the tactics of infiltration and destabilisation, for they realise that in the cold light of day only a tiny minority of people would ever vote for them, so unappealing are their policies and the dystopian vision that they hold dear. They make clear their contempt for democracy and pluralistic thought and declare that their intent is to gradually curtail the compass of what passes for legitimate political debate so that eventually only those adhering to their own “revolutionary socialist” agenda are allowed to articulate their views. Still, history is unfortunately replete with examples where such “revolutionary socialists” have taken power and then violently turned on each other, such is the nature of their chiliastic urge to power in the name of an abstract humanity, the concrete reality of which they despise.

Such a tendency as outlined is clearly at play in the article written by Counterfire writer Charles Brown after he has written off the EDL as a dying force:
But this does not mean that we should downplay the threat posed by the EDL and fascist groups like the BNP and National Front. The scapegoating and scaremongering favoured by these organisations can often be found, in only marginally less virulent form in the right-wing press, and we have seen a ratcheting up of rhetoric against multiculturalism from Cameron and other Tory leaders.
Here we see the tactics of the “revolutionary socialist” Left laid bare: turn on any organisation or anybody who questions their ideological position. Thus, the first focus of their opposition was the National Front followed by the BNP then the EDL. Now that they think that the EDL are on the ropes, attention shifts to the Conservative Party and the “right-wing press” (presumably anything not falling under the control of the “revolutionary socialist” Left?). What are their weapons of choice? Smear, slur and insinuation. “Racist”, “fascist”, “far-right” and “Islamophobe” are just a few of the pejorative labels that they favour and employ with wild abandon, enjoying great success owing to the uncritical receptivity of the mass media, who help them to implement their strategy of: stigmatise, isolate and destroy. The SWP is also happy to whip up an atmosphere of fear with a view to inciting confrontation, hence its recent direction of propaganda towards Walthamstow's Muslim population. This, unfortunately, is one story that you will not see covered in mainstream reporting of the EDL protest in Walthamstow this Saturday.

UPDATE: Click here for demo coverage.

Welcome to Walthamstow: 'friends' of the revolutionary socialist Left

30 comments:

  1. According to the 2011 census, Woltham Forest has about a quarter of a million people. So it seems to me that a couple of hundred unelected folk calling themselves "We are Woltham Forest" sound like the real fascists.

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    1. They certainly aren't representative of the population as a whole, and there is clearly a distinctly totalitarian taint in their political DNA.

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  2. Firstly, I would like to start by offering my hearty congratulations. This is the first ethnic nationalist blog I have encountered that contains the phrase "soi-disant"! Wonderful. When so many EDL supporters take pride in the fact they "sport are troups" and think Muslims should "respect are country and speak English", you are indeed a very welcome anomaly.

    Nevertheless, it is tragic that someone with a reasonable degree of articulacy should waste their words on the verbiage of this blog. What on earth do you think you are trying to achieve here?

    You start off by linking to an article by the beautifully-named "Esmerelda Weatherwax". The EDL has no doubt access to some good copy writers, but perhaps they could get someone in the pseudonym department to give that one a look over? I'm aware that they like to parade their working-class credentials with frontmen like Yaxley-Lennon, (a dreadful example of the class it must be said, but anyway), but we all know that their rich boy backers like Alan Ayling can afford it.

    Of course, "Esmerelda" (or is it John Jones?) is a native of Walthamstow whose mother stood in protest at the National Front who were opposing the building of a mosque. But, hey, dear old "Esmerelda" soon saw the light after a while and crossed the floor, as it were. Ok, well taking that at face value, do you seriously think for a minute that his/her views are any more representative of the opinions of Wathamstow residents than the "Islamic extremists" you decry?

    And don't sit there and crying and pretending that this is a lazy comparison. Yaxley-Lennon himself said that he has no control over who turns up at EDL demos and he is not responsible for their actions. Look at the Infidels and all the other spin off groups it has inspired. You may well wring your hands over Breivick, but the fact is the climate of fear that you and your ilk create when you spout division and hatred creates exactly the kind of conditions that inspire his sort of actions. (That, incidentally, was the point of the article in Counterfire that you refer to - nothing whatsoever to do with “turn[ing] on any organisation or anybody who questions their ideological position”). And in the years since its formation, what exactly has the EDL achieved other than parading a bunch of coked-up beer boys around city and town centres?

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  3. The answer to that, of course, is absolutely nothing. And that is because it is not, as it purports to be, a human rights organisation of any sort. Typically of the far-right, the EDL and others use the disgusting views of people like Chowdhury as stick to lash out and stir up people’s hate as a way of furthering its own nationalist agenda. And as repulsive as the activities of Chowdhury et al are, what do you actually think you are achieving here as regards dealing with these issues? I mean, really?

    The genuine grievances of people in Wathamstow and elsewhere in the country are caused by the government’s austerity programme which is cutting of basic social provision to the neediest in our society. It is also seriously damaging the social cohesion you obviously value. How many people will die in terrorist attacks in the UK this year? And how many people will die due to the NHS cuts? And where are the EDL and other ethnic nationalists in all of this? Nowhere to be seen. At a time of austerity when the richest are getting bailed out, you take the king’s shilling from the likes of Ayling and you are putty in their hands. You are serving no-one’s ends but theirs. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves.

    I have my own issues with the so-called “revolutionary left”, but your equating Parliamentary democracy with actual democracy is naive and self-serving. And also, if you are so concerned about free speech, why do you bemoan the presence of pro-Sharia demonstrations? Do I have to remind you of what Voltaire said about all that? Once you pick apart what you are saying, it is clear you are as authoritarian as the Leninists and Islamists you rage against. You disgust me.

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    1. I am glad that you have derived some satisfaction from constructing your strawman and then pulling him apart piece by piece. You thereby seem to have conformed to type, as outlined in the post above, by liberally employing smear, slur and insinuation. I have had no more contact with Ayling than you have (possibly less so). As for taking money from anyone for what I write, I have not received a penny. Is my stance with respect to the EDL wholly uncritical? No.

      Tackling Islamism and the retrograde religious culture that nourishes it is important, contrary to the assumptions inherent within your Marxisant wilful ignorance of the centrality of culture in favour of economic determinism. What I write on this matter, and the extent of the attention devoted to it on this blog, arises not from the fact that I deem other issues to be less important, when clearly they are not, but because of the manner in which the NUJ code deliberately dictates the distortion of the reporting of matters relating to Islam in this country. I wish that this were not so, for then I could focus upon writing about other matters and safely ignore this irksome manifestation of religious obscurantism. Before you start screeching "Islamophobia" I dislike all religious fundamentalisms, and their secular equivalents - Communism and Fascism.

      Thankfully, people, and the mainstream media, feel rather freer criticising the lunacies displayed by fundamentalist adherents of religious doctrines other than Islam, hence my relative but not total neglect of them: http://durotrigan.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/todd-bentley-punching-for-jesus.html

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    2. Why do you think that I do not care about good public services, and do not recognise the deleterious impact of globalist transnational predatory capitalism upon our economy? Why do you think that I am not proposing anything constructive, or indeed, planning to work to bring about a positive alteration to our current negative situation? You are deeply wrong on both counts: http://durotrigan.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/economic-decline-and-need-for-changed.html

      You should also read my criticism of the British Freedom Party’s 20 Point Plan, with particular reference to point 12. If you can honestly read what I have written there, and then continue to adhere to what you have stated in your comments above, then your grasp upon reality must be as tenuous as that of Breivik: http://durotrigan.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/british-freedoms-20-point-plan-cohesive.html

      My views on parliamentary democracy are not nearly so “naïve” as you assert: http://durotrigan.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/eu-referendum-blog-hosts-harrogate.html

      If you still purport to be “disgusted” by me after reading these pieces, then I simply despair. Some people will stop at nothing in their procrustean attempt to make a complex reality conform to their rigid pre-existent ideological schemas.

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  4. edl are all thick idiots who cant speak their own language properly.

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  5. You can wheel out all the big words you want, my friend, but all you are demonstrating is your ability to disappear into your own narcissistic verbiage.

    Where did I say you were taking money from Alan Ayling? You strike me as a literary man. Are you not aware of the meaning of the expression "taking the King's shilling"?

    Of course tackling Islamism is important. Just what do you think standing in an English town centre and shouting slogans like "Allah is a paedo" going to achieve? The EDL have achieved and will achieve nothing. Do everyone a favour and stop wasting your time.

    And who said anything about global capitalism? You are writing defending the EDL and attacking a community for standing up against its politics of division. It is not helping people join together to combat the cuts, quite the opposite in fact. Ethnic nationalism will not solve anything, it will just create more division. It is a dead end, and you know it.

    Finally, your naivete regarding how differing elements on the left view democracy is quite stunning, bearing in mind how much you criticise it, dreary ramblings on the subject of parliamentary democracy notwithstanding.

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  6. One way to 'combat the cuts'and 'tackle Islamism', would surely be to stem the tidal wave of immigrants pouring into England which is draining us of our public funds- but I'm guessing that such a silly suggestion would be considered 'racist'- and quite possibly 'islamophobic' too. The trouble with useful idiots like our anonymous friend above, is that they are generally so open-minded that their brains have fallen out:
    "if you are so concerned about free speech, why do you bemoan the presence of pro-Sharia demonstrations?"
    Pure, blissful ignorance .Absolutely priceless!!!

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    1. I completely agree with you 'Anonymous' (that is, the 'Anonymous' who posted on Saturday 1 September 2012 at 19:36).

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  7. In the future fascists will be known as anti fascists
    Winston Churchill

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    1. If you can provide ANY genuine historical evidence that Winston Churchill EVER said anything of the sort, I swear I will turn coat and come to the next EDL demonstration. I shall even grow a beer gut. Just show me the evidence!

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  8. Hello, my little also-anonymous friend. So far, it is only you and your buddy Durotrigan who have mentioned racism and Islamophobia, not me.

    According to Migration Watch UK: "Clearly some migrants bring economic benefit to the UK but, taken as a whole, what they add to production is counter balanced by their addition to the population". In other words, the best stats that your friendly neighbourhood anti-immigrant campaigners can marshall show that immigrants make no overall difference to the UK economy. What they as a group in public funds they give back in revenue. So disregarding the fact that I consider them to present a jaundiced view on the whole subject, that's a rather poor show, and it hardly backs up your observations. And these people are on YOUR side!

    Your poor friend Durotrigan was in such a tizz about the "anti-democratic left" and his concern for for the future of "pluralistic thought", I felt I had to help him out of the infantile cul-de-sac of his laboriously-expressed thinking. I would imagine someone like you would see this as blissful ignorance on my part as I imagine you aren't particularly bright. But don't let it stop you commenting. You amuse me.

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    1. What I was referring to was your ignorance of Sharia. If you had even the most tenuous understanding of Sharia Law, then you would have instantly recognised the cringe-worthy stupidity of the following sentence:
      "if you are so concerned about free speech, why do you bemoan the presence of pro-Sharia demonstrations?"

      But nevermind. At least you have your imaginings to comfort you...

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    2. 'Anonymous' number 1 would seem to think that matter and anti-matter could happily co-exist.

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  9. You can imagine all you like, oh venomous one, but at least I can string a sentence together.

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  10. You don't sound very amused.

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  11. Of course you think that my statement about Sharia law is ridiculous, you didn't understand the reference to Voltaire!

    Keep trying, my friend.

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    1. It seems clear you are refering to the widely misattributed quote, "I disapprove of what you say but will defend to the death your right to say it."
      This was written by Evelyn Beatrice Hall in her biography of Voltaire, The Friends of Voltaire.

      Keep trying.

      NE Bloke.

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  12. I didn't attribute that quote to Voltaire. You did. Hall herself claimed later that she had been paraphrasing Voltaire's words in his Essay on Tolerance: "Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too."

    You do amuse me, oh Durotrigan!

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    1. Oh do fuck off, you dreary prick. It is exactly what you meant and you know it and when found out, had to google / wiki your response. Admit it. You've just had your education enhanced by an Englisc Nationalist.

      'You do amuse me, oh Durotrigan!'. Come out, man, woman, man. Do you see yourself as Walliams or Lucas ?

      NE Bloke.


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    2. Do we really have to descend to the level that we have to call people pricks and tell them to F off? Does that not make our arguments weaker if we become what we are fighting against?
      Consip

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    3. Nuff said. Good sparring with you all. It is ALWAYS an education. Peace out.

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    4. Consip : Until Durotrigan bans bad language I will continue to post online in the manner I would argue with my adversaries in a bar or at the match. I do appreciate your sentiments however, as I would never speak this way in front of my parents, kids or indeed any mixed company.

      Anonymous : Peace Off.

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  13. Durotrigan,
    You are a bigoted liar.
    1) WAWF was NOT a 'trotskyite front group'; it was a broad-church group comprised of SWP, SP, Labour, Greens, CHURCH OF ENGLAND representatives (one of the best speakers at the rally was the aqrea's deans), local mosques, Jewish groups and other community groups, eg disabled groups. I live in WF, and so I can say we all came together out of a sense of common cause; we do NOT want these dangerous, fascistic and racist people in our harmonious, multiracial borough. We LIKE the way life is here.
    2) "No violence" - You WHAAAT! By their own postings on facebook, they came out swinging punches at all and sundry, assaulting police and a photographer. Violence is, and always has been, intrinsic to the crowd they attract.
    3) So joining a TU is 'infiltrating it'. right, I'll have some of whatever you're on!
    4) The vast majority of muslims in this borough reject the likes of Choudary

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    1. What a short-sighted, narrow-minded comment; Firstly, Durotrigan is by no stretch of the imagination 'a bigoted liar' ; his pieces are well-researched, considered, and backed up by an overwhelming amount of supportive evidence.
      Whilst I appreciate that YOU might enjoy a harmonious, multi-racial borough- what of the the peoples who live in a multiracial borough which is not the heady utopia that you imply? I wonder if white residents of Tower Hamlets- another multiracial area- would share your enthusiasm, given the role that radical Islam plays in shaping the politics of that neighbourhood- posters recently declared the area to be a 'gay-free zone', whilst muslim females who refuse to wear the burqa are subject to intimidation by local Islamic fundamentalists.
      It is exactly these sorts of infringements on our freedom that EDL are campaigning against; they do not wish Britain's long-standing traditions of free speech to be destroyed by creeping Sharia. As I see it, you can either choose to be spoon-fed the malicious anti-EDL propaganda that the mainstream media propagates, or you can do a bit of your own research, looking at both sides of the story. It seems that you have chosen in favour of the former. I have watched a great deal of EDL demo footage, and it would seem that almost without exception, the violence emanates from the black-hooded, self-styled so called 'anti-fascists' and not from the EDL. I appreciate that the EDL does attract some thuggish types- hence, perhaps, the facebook messages to which you refer- but I suppport their cause wholeheartedly.
      Also- it is a meaningless and disingenuous statement to say that 'The vast majority of muslims in this borough reject the likes of Choudary' given the all-pervasive role of Taqiyya in Islam.

      R

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    2. Anonymous 'WAWF is not a trotskyite front group' You WHAAAT!
      You just wait untill Islamist radicals gain control of your local authority. Then come and tell us of your 'harmonious borough'

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    3. EDL Walthamstow return. Yes, my whinging friend in October the anti-jihadists will be marching in your 'harmonious multiracial borough' You WHAAAT! HaHaHa.

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  14. Durotrigan is certainly not a bigot. What I am aware of and certain of is that moslems are the ones that spouted the most bigotry. Live and like whatever way you like, but don't expect others or us infidels to share your feelings or your opinion. Moslems leaders are unfit to dominate in our infidels world and most certainly have NOTHING in common with us infidels.
    WLIL

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    1. I agree with WLIL. No non-muslim could possibly know what the 'vast majority of muslims' feel about the 'likes of Choudary' given that one of the major tenets of Islam is that lying and deception -in order to advance Islam's cause- is perfectly acceptable; this is known as 'Taqiya'. Fortunately, some of us are not quite as naive as the accusatory 'anonymous' above WLIL's comment, and are beginning to recognise Islam for what it truly is: a bigoted, racist,anti-semnitic, homophobic, anti-democratic, totalitarian cult.

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Comments that call for or threaten violence will not be published. Anyone is entitled to criticise the arguments presented here, or to highlight what they believe to be factual error(s); ad hominem attacks do not constitute comment or debate. Although at times others' points of view may be exasperating, please attempt to be civil in your responses. If you wish to communicate with me confidentially, please preface your comment with "Not for publication". This is why all comments are moderated.