EDL to rally in Rotherham: Saturday 13 October

Following recent revelations concerning Muslim grooming gangs in Rotherham and the failure of the local police and social services to tackle this problem for years despite being aware of its existence, a decision has been taken to hold an EDL demo in the town. This is scheduled to take place on Saturday 13 October. Shamefully, the Far Left have thus taken the decision not to highlight the statistically significant overrepresentation of a particular ethno-religious group in perpetrating this type of crime, but to try and blind the public to its reality by calling for a “multi-cultural rally” in Rotherham on the same day. In essence, judging by what has happened historically, this means that some UAF supporters will be seeking to initiate a violent clash with the EDL.

The Rotherham Advertiser quotes Pat Keenan (President of Rotherham Trades Council) at some length, and to his shame he has fallen for the dangerous myths constantly peddled and regurgitated by UAF spokesmen across the country:

“The overwhelming majority of people reject the EDL’s attempt to use racism to divide our society."

“Their attempts to spread racist myths about sexual exploitation must be exposed and challenged. They seek to blame one community for society’s problems."

“The EDL does nothing to protect the victims of sexual violence. Sexual predators and paedophiles exist in all communities, as do their victims.”

He added: “Each time the EDL assemble, minorities and trades unionists are subjected to threats and racial and religious abuse."

“Recently the EDL were prevented from marching through Walthamstow in London due to a fantastic show of unity from the local community.”

“It is essential that we show the same level of unity here. There’s no place for Nazis, racists or their allies in Rotherham’s multiracial, multicultural and multi-faith community.”

If Rotherham locals have any sense, which I am sure many do, they will keep well away from UAF and its deceitful spin about the allegedly anodyne nature of Islam. Advocate of violent confrontation with the EDL Weyman Bennett will be addressing a public meeting at the town’s ‘Unity Centre’ next Monday evening, with the paper claiming that local MP Denis MacShane will also be present. Being aware of MacShane’s politics, it would be nothing short of a miracle if he did not seek to make political capital out of this by appealing to Rotherham’s Muslim voters.

Pat Keenan employs a number of routine lies about the EDL including: calling them Nazis, whereas the EDL have burnt swastika flags and have ethnic minority members and supporters; claiming that the EDL scapegoat “one community for society’s problems”, which they do not, and neither do they claim that paedophilia is uniquely perpetrated by Muslims, but they do correctly highlight the fact that the phenomenon of on-street grooming is a predominantly Pakistani Muslim one. Given that the EDL are routinely and purposefully mislabelled as “racists” and “Nazis” by some trades unionists and UAF ethnic minority supporters, is it any surprise that some EDL demonstrators are tempted to voice their dissatisfaction by yelling abuse at their sworn enemies? The EDL are not, as UAF would have you believe, the current incarnation of Mosley’s Blackshirts, but a grassroots protest group made up of people from disparate backgrounds, although many who turn out for their marches are drawn from football firms.

UAF's effective controlling organisation - The Socialist Workers Party (SWP) - has in a recent article sought to exonerate Muslim grooming gangs from responsibility for the crimes that they have perpetrated in Rotherham, instead laying the blame for the abuse on lack of staff, thereby using the case to call for an increase in public spending in this sphere. This is also, of course, a blatant attempt by this anti-free speech party to solicit support from public sector workers in the town. The article states:

But social workers in Rotherham give a very different account of why the authorities failed to stop the abuse. “I’m not surprised young women fell through the safety net,” one social worker based in the town told Socialist Worker.

“There’s a huge shortage of staff—and particularly of qualified staff. The way the service is run is all about ‘cost management’ rather than getting out there and helping people.”

And it is sexist attitudes towards the victims, rather than imagined “sensitivities” about race, that hold back investigations.

The SWP is part of the problem when it comes to the specific crime of organised Pakistani Muslim paedophilia, because it constantly pushes the line that it does not exist and that to say that it does is 'racist', thereby facilitating ongoing abuse and running the risk of allowing the abusers to go unpunished. It claims to be a party representing the 'workers', but when it comes to ordinary working class English people, it sees them as expendable, preferring instead to court Muslim support.

How much money will be wasted on supporting the UAF counterdemonstration and who will be footing the bill? Doubtless, much of the funding will be drawn from union members’ subs, which is a disgraceful misuse of trades unionists’ funds in the current economic climate, and other monies may be forthcoming from the local council. If you are a Rotherham voter, keep an eye on which of your councillors are backing this protest in favour of hiding the reality of Pakistani Muslim grooming gangs, and be sure not to vote for them at the next election. Too many vulnerable Rotherham girls have suffered already because of this type of crime, and with its reality having been recently exposed, nobody – such as UAF – should seek to hide it from view again. One last question: why is it that the Rotherham Advertiser only allowed UAF and its supporters to give their perspective, whilst denying a platform to the EDL and their supporters? Is this balanced reporting, or propaganda? Why not write to the Rotherham Advertiser demanding that they allow the EDL the opportunity to give their side of the story in its pages?

UPDATE
The Morning Star reports that the anti-EDL meeting that took place at Rotherham's Unity Centre attracted circa 100 attendees on the evening of Monday 7 October. It is their expectation that the EDL will manage to muster between 100 and 200 demonstrators this coming Saturday. As at previous such meetings, EDL supporters were subjected to ritual denunciations as "fascists". Local paper The Sheffield Star also ran a story on the protest on Wednesday 10 October stating that extra police would be coming to Rotherham to police both demonstrations on Saturday, but as with the Rotherham Advertiser, UAF were given the opportunity to state why they were demonstrating, whereas the EDL were refused any voice in the paper, which described them as "far right". South Yorkshire Police estimate that the EDL will draw approximately 200 supporters to the town, whereas they anticipate that about 250 counter-demonstrators will congregate next to the town hall.

EDL Rotherham Division at Bristol Demo

Anti-Free Speech Meeting at Labour Party Fringe

It has been announced that elements of the anti-free speech Far Left will be holding a fringe meeting at the Labour Party Conference in Manchester on Tuesday evening. Gathering beneath what it terms “the antifascist flag”, UAF will be bringing together a range of individuals who will be discussing how to make political capital out of manufacturing a phantasmogorical “fascist” threat in Luton specifically, England more widely, and Europe generally. To date, they have been highly successful in raising funds from innocent trades unionists through invoking the spectre of a non-existent recrudescent fascism, and in order to legitimise their ongoing existence and continued funding it is necessary for this bogey to be kept alive in the public's, or at least the Labour Party’s, imagination.

Kelvin Hopkins, MP for Luton North, will be making the most brazen bid for Muslim votes by inveighing against the evils of “the racists and fascists of the English Defence League in his Luton constituency”, whilst other veterans of the cause will include the previously convicted Weyman Bennett, as well as a number of current and former Labour MEPs. Although there are certainly minority elements within the EDL that have caused violence at some of their demonstrations, violence and threat are inherent within UAF’s modus operandi, as most recently demonstrated by the decision to cancel a debate between Stephen Lennon of the EDL and representatives of the Muslim Debate Initiative at London’s Conway Hall that was scheduled for 4 October. In a post on their blog, the Muslim Debate Initiative (MDI) made it clear that it had been cancelled not because of any perception of potential violence from the EDL or from Muslim objectors, but because of the threat from so-called “anti-fascists”. The MDI blog reports the decision relating to the cancellation as follows:

Conway Hall, has decided based upon advice from the Police, and under pressure from various anti-fascist organisations and at least one MP, that the event may put the public at risk to public health and safety concerns under the current climate. Despite the security procedures of MDI within the building, the Venue Director was concerned about the safety of attendees outside the hall when going to, and leaving the event. Therefore, Conway Hall has informed Muslim Debate Initiative that for the time being, they will have to cancel the hire of the hall to MDI for this public event.

The MP concerned was Frank Dobson. Contrary to the assertions of UAF and its ideological confederates, it is not some phantom “Far Right” that we should fear with respect to our liberties, but the very real and influential Far Left of which it is a part. Reading the jubilant piece relating to the forcing of the cancellation of this debate on the UAF website, one is met with the following startling passage:

We believe the EDL is a fascist organisation. Fascism stands for: the total annihilation and mass murder of its opponents including trade unionists, liberals, social democrats, socialists, communists, Jewish, Muslim, black, Asian, lesbian, gay communities and other large sections of humanity. It also stands for war, the destruction of all democracy and freedom. History shows this is what happens when fascism gains power.

Is this what the supporters of UAF truly believe? Does the quote above strike you as having been penned by someone with a rational perspective fully apprised of the facts, or by someone suffering from a paranoid set of delusions? The question is superfluous. UAF is a dangerous anti-democratic campaign group that employs PC anti-racism slogans to mask its SWP-driven agenda. Any decent delegates at the Labour Party Conference this week would be wise to give this thuggish fringe a wide berth, and thereby avoid complicity in manufacturing unnecessary social conflict. 

UAF's Weyman Bennett: arrested for conspiracy to commit violent disorder

EDL Walsall Demonstration

The EDL has held a demonstration in Walsall today. It cited the following reasons for holding the protest in this West Midlands town:

We are going to Walsall,‭ ‬not to protest about Muslims or even Muslim violence,‭ ‬but to protest about Islam,‭ ‬an ideology that denigrates non-Muslims and places them lower than animals and sees non-Muslim women as targets for grooming and sexual exploitation.‭ ‬We are going to Walsall because the West Indian community is suffering even more attacks‭ ‬every day‭ ‬on their community than the white community of the town.‭ ‬The very same people who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the Pakistani/Muslim community to fight down the far-right National Front and their racist attacks.‭

We are going to Walsall to show our support for the West Indian community,‭ ‬to protest the vile ideology of Islam that is splitting communities and breaking down social cohesion.‭ ‬Other ethnic communities,‭ ‬black,‭ ‬white,‭ ‬Afro-Caribbean,‭ ‬European all seem to get along together and have been doing so for many years.‭

Admittedly, this is only an excerpt, and there is far more on the EDL website here.

According to the Birmingham Mail, there have been confrontations between the police and demonstrators in Walsall today, but as is normal in the reporting of EDL demos, the identity of those clashing with the police is not made clear, for the report mentions "two rival groups" that the police were attempting to keep apart. Central News confirmed the customary presence of a counterdemonstration - this time held under the banner of 'We Are Walsall' (WAW) - which is in effect a front group for the SWP-dominated UAF. Many well-meaning individuals may well have been caught out by this strategy and lured into joining the counterdemonstration without being aware of the background agenda of the SWP. The local Labour Party also threw its backing behind the WAW initiative, with the police allotting them a spot to demonstrate some half a mile from the location of the EDL static protest. Whether or not WAW has attracted violent 'antifa' and anarchist elements as in Bristol this summer has not been confirmed, although one tweet by someone calling themselves ST3-walsall claimed that four Muslims got through the police lines and set off fireworks.

Information on numbers attending either of the demonstrations is currently lacking, but the police confirmed that a total of 28 arrests were made, some for throwing missiles which included bricks, bottles and planks. The affiliation of those arrested has not been divulged. The short video posted at the end of this piece appears to have been taken by an observer on his phone, with the EDL hoving into view in the ninth second. It is of rather poor quality, and does not allow for an estimate of the numbers to be made. However, a BBC report states that the EDL managed to draw about 1,000 supporters and the opposing demonstration circa 500. In the last couple of demonstrations held in Walthamstow and Bristol, the EDL contingent had only numbered in the low hundreds and had been significantly outnumbered by their opponents, so this turnout provides something of a fillip for the protest group. Unusually, the BBC refrained from dubbing the EDL "far-right" in its online report.

EDL in Walsall

'Vibrant' UAF counterdemonstrators (peaceful looking, aren't they?)

RMT threatens to disrupt EDL Demo

The RMT Union, headed by Communist Bob Crow, is threatening to disrupt rail services to Walthamstow today in an attempt to prevent EDL supporters attending a demo that will be using Kings Cross Station as a rendezvous point from 11:00 this morning, with the original plan having been for all to set off from their for their destination at 1:00 this afternoon. However, the details on the EDL forum are no longer accessible to those who do not have an account, so I cannot confirm whether or not their plans have changed as a consequence of the threats. The decision to make the forum accessible to members only seems to be a very sensible precaution, and for all I know, measures have been put in place to outwit the RMT.

Information about the planned attempt to violate the democratic right of the EDL to protest is provided on the SWP website which states: 

Now the rail workers’ RMT union has said that in its view the EDL presents a “serious and imminent risk” to staff and passengers, and that its members are justified in refusing to work under these conditions.

RMT London political officer Unjum Mirza spoke to Socialist Worker earlier this week about the bitterness towards the EDL among King’s Cross railworkers.

He said, “The EDL are a bunch of racist thugs with fascists in their ranks. Our members don’t want to be part of helping them get to Waltham Forest to spread their message of hate.”

Last year the RMT engaged in similar disruptive activity in an attempt to prevent EDL supporters attending a demo in Tower Hamlets. Although trades unions are part of a normal and healthy political culture, they should limit their activities to ensuring that their members' terms and conditions of employment are reasonable and capable of providing a living wage. It is not the business of overly politicised senior trades union officials to abuse their positions to forward their own pet political obsessions, such as disrupting democratic and legal political protests because they happen to disagree with the views of the protesters. It is not clear whether Unjum Mirza's objection to the EDL springs from his Islamicity or from any adherence to revolutionary socialist doctrine (it could well be a combination of both), but it should not be in his gift, or that of anyone else, to attempt to prevent a peaceful legal protest from taking place.

RMT Head Bob Crow:

Communist who earns more than £140,000 per annum

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

Dewsbury Bomb Plot?

Normally, the fact that a significant swathe of the resident Pakistani population evades car insurance rankles with me, given that this results in the rest of us having to pay higher premiums. However, today this selfish and anti-social practice has proven to be a blessing in disguise, for according to articles in today’s editions of the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mirror, a chance traffic check that led to a car being impounded because the driver was not insured, could have saved Dewsbury, or possibly somewhere else, from an Islamist terror attack.

The car was stopped and impounded as it was heading southbound on the M1 between Junctions 34 and 33 last Saturday near Sheffield’s Meadowhall Shopping Centre. The driver and his passenger were released, and the incriminating contents of the car are not said to have been discovered until last Monday, when someone in the pound raised the alarm regarding something suspicious in the car. Without this alarm, the improvised explosive device (IED), two firearms, ammunition and anti-British leaflets would not have been discovered. The leaflets, claims the Mirror, made specific negative references to ‘the EDL, David Cameron and the Queen.’

It was this discovery that precipitated this week’s second national police swoop to arrest Islamist militants, with three men from Sparkhill in Birmingham being seized on Tuesday, and three others from Moseley, Alum Rock and Sandwell on Wednesday. A seventh man, from Dewsbury, was arrested on Thursday. With such a gap between the seizure of the car and the arrests, the Telegraph notes that this meant that:

the suspects were at large for three days after the police had seized the vehicle, which could have allowed time to destroy or hide other weapons or incriminating evidence.

Evidently, the suspects and their accomplices will have done their best to cover their tracks during the intervening period, which could unfortunately hinder the prosecution of all involved, and potentially mask the identities of other individuals linked to the plot.

A 'notorious far-right group' and a 'wonderful family' man: a view from a distorting mirror
It is striking that the Daily Mirror chose to open its story on this foiled plot with a sentence that sought to blacken the name of the bombers’ potential target rather than the bombers themselves:

One theory is the occupants were planning to bomb a march by the notorious far-right group taking place just hours later.

Later in the article the EDL is described as ‘the notorious anti-Islamic group’. Note how this stigmatising linguistic usage contrasts to the Mirror’s attempt to normalise and humanise the Dewsbury terror suspect, whom it described as a:

dad-of-three [who had] set up a boxing club in 2009 to get youngsters off the streets. One neighbour said: “They are a wonderful family and this must be one huge mistake.”

How very interesting to see another member of this ethno-confessional ‘community’ not condemning the fact that this man was plotting terroristic violence, and instead describing his actions as “one huge mistake”. Why did the interviewee regard it as a “huge mistake”? Because he had been caught, rather than being able to see through whatever act of mass murder and maiming he was planning?

In the Telegraph the reader encounters yet more apologia for one of the terror suspects arrested in Sparkhill: 

We’ve grown up with them. They’re all lovely. They’re fine. They had a bit of a family issue with the mum and the dad separating, but there’s never been any problem with them as neighbours. They’ve never given any impression of being radicalised. They’re British Pakistanis. We’ve known them since they were babies and they’ve always seemed pretty westernised.

The Dewsbury terror suspect was part of a “wonderful family” and his alleged Sparkhill accomplice was “lovely” and “fine”. Such descriptions could seem to express a deep-rooted unwillingness on the part of Pakistani British residents to condemn Islamism and Islamist-related violence, which may ultimately rest upon the fact that they share and approve of the goals of violent Islamists: the Islamisation of Britain. Although not perhaps willing to use violence to achieve this themselves, are they particularly bothered when others do so in their name? The evidence would seem to suggest not. 

Bomb, Assassination or 'Mumbai-style attack'?
According to the Telegraph, a number of the suspects were already known to MI5, and the seizure of materials ‘raised the suspicion that a group were planning an assassination attempt or a Mumbai-style shooting atrocity that day or imminently.’ Dewsbury of course lies to the north of Sheffield, so it is odd that the men were stopped as they were travelling south on the day of the EDL march in Dewsbury if they were attempting to attack it. Perhaps they were on their way to pick up co-conspirators? Then again, their intended target may have been something else altogether.

Over at the Casuals United blog which supports the EDL and other ‘infidel’ groups across the UK, two of its contributors speculate that there is something fishy about this alleged plot. Both of the posts below take a conspiratorial stance, although each with a distinct slant:

7 07 2012

We are supposed to believe that police pulled over a car that had no insurance and they impounded it. We are supposed to believe that there were guns and a bomb in the car, but police let the men go and didn’t bother searching the car till the next day? We all know that this would never happen. Police stop you for something like that, they always search your car. If it does turn out to be true then it validates everything we[’]ve said about this country being full of dangerous scum who need to be deported in large numbers.

This story stinks and I reckon its been manufacture[d] to cause fear and put people off going to EDL demos. What do you think? If they ever did bomb a demo Britain would turn into Northern Ireland overnight and that is a fact.

NFSE

Suzy

7 07 2012

Someone[‘]s just pointed out that its funny that at the last two demos there have been no Muslims on the streets at all, no gangs of Jihadis and bad boys as there usually are, and they catch a car full of them supposedly on their way to plant a bomb at our demo. Prior warning via the Mosques? Makes you wonder.

Zoe

The strange death of Muslim 'anti-fascism'
It is true that the so-called ‘anti-fascist’ counter-demo in Dewsbury attracted startlingly low numbers of supporters despite heavy backing and publicity, and there was a notable absence of local Muslims amongst the small crowd that turned out. Hitherto, the SWP-dominated ‘Unite Against Fascism’ and its various Trotskyist-led front groups have found ‘anti-fascist’ mobilisation against the EDL useful from their perspective, drawing in hot-headed young Muslims as an aggressive shock-force, designed both to intimidate and to manufacture the perception in the national media that there exists a genuine ‘fascist threat’ in this country, which is just grist to their mill of Marxist revolutionary radicalisation. However, it seems that many Muslims have cottoned on to the opportunistic nature of the Trotskyist far-left and the fact that they have been used as a catspaw to further a Marxist agenda with which they fundamentally disagree. Moreover, highly politicised groups with a specifically Muslim identity have emerged that appear to have been attracting many younger Muslims who might previously have been siphoned off into the ranks of the SWP and other leftist organisations. Thus, the absence of Muslim ‘anti-fascist’ mobilisation at the last couple of EDL demos could be more indicative of both of these trends, than of any ‘warning’ from mosques to stay away because of potential violence.

Seven years ago today 58 people died in London in the 7/7 bombings and hundreds were maimed and mentally scarred. These latest arrests, together with the London arrests on Thursday, illustrate the ever-present threat of violent Islamism within our shores. We must remain vigilant and ensure that all forms of Islamism are rooted out of our country, and its proponents removed.  

7/7 Mass Murder Victims

Liverpool’s IRA Jamboree called off

Northwest Infidels, Casuals and Combined Ex Forces

 

Although part of Liverpool’s population possesses strong links with Ireland, the idea of allowing the city to host an IRA march jars excessively, to put it mildly. Having got wind of the planned parade, a coalition of various nationalists, army veterans and casuals came together to bring about its cancellation in a vociferous protest (see video below). Even the Liverpool branch of UKIP issued an official statement condemning the planned Sinn Fein/IRA Parade, stating:

“The UK Independence Party, Liverpool branch, is dismayed by the decision by the Labour council to allow a parade through the streets of Liverpool, on 18^th February, by militant Irish Republicans.

The prospect of seeing seven Irish Republican Flute Bands, and their supporters, walking the streets of this city is an affront to all decency, and all who love our country.

We do not accept that this parade is an acceptable expression of “Irish Culture”, and we call upon all peace-loving Irish people in Liverpool to disassociate from this outrage.”

One of the many atrocities perpetrated by the IRA in Britain occurred in Warrington in 1993, when two separate bombings left two people dead and a further 56 injured. It is this incident in particular that opponents of the IRA celebration were asked to remember today. It is indeed an affront for the Liverpool Labour Party to have given the seal of approval to this IRA event, in which it was planned to allow 7 or 8 Irish Republican bands to march through the city, followed by political speeches. Typically, the misnamed Liverpool ‘antifascists’ turned up to object to the protest against Irish Republican terror, but thankfully they were heavily outnumbered. The Casuals United blog reports that approximately 250 demonstrators took to the streets and successfully managed to prevent the IRA celebration from taking place. The report states:

Over 250 Patriots are there now, many British Legion and ex Army are there also. Some Warrington people who haven’t forgotten the bomb that killed their children. Police have been told they will not allow the IRA to march and if they attempt to there is going to be trouble. Hopefully they will prevent the march happening as nobody wants a riot to occur. In two separate incidents Commies and Anarchists carrying flags of support for the IRA have been badly attacked by unknown persons and some arrests have been made.

A later update reported rumours that a number of coaches carrying the marching bands had been trashed. Corroboration has yet to be forthcoming. 

Northwest Infidels

Coming as it does hot on the heels of Florence Anderson’s call for the IRA to bomb the annual Conservative Party Conference, shouldn’t the police be considering what to do about the potential ‘extremist’ threat emanating from within the Labour Party and the SWP, rather than taking a swipe at patriots within the EDL and various nationalist groups and parties? The Labour Party has long been a home to IRA sympathisers, and the SWP has shown unwavering support for Irish Republican terror. At least for those who got to hear about these events in Liverpool today, it should now be clear that the so-called ‘antifascists’ are nothing of the sort: they are in reality dangerous anti-British and anti-English militants. 

Videos and Commentary: EDL Leicester Demo, 4 February 2012

The phrase “no news is good news” possesses much merit, and the absence of “news” about arrests in Leicester yesterday must surely be adjudged to be “good news”. Congratulations are therefore in order for the organisers of the EDL demo and their supporters, as well as for the police in ensuring that this protest passed off peacefully, contrary to the shrill propaganda that emanated from UAF, the SWP and kindred groups in the run-up to the event. 

This EDL demo marked something of a shift in tack for the protest movement, insofar as that its focus was not on Islamisation but upon “anti-White racism” and the neglect of this phenomenon by the judiciary and the mass media, sparked of course by the recent furore surrounding the Rhea Page case and the failure of the Judge to classify the attack upon Page and her boyfriend as a case of anti-White racism. As almost all mainstream media coverage of the EDL tends to be highly negative and Leicester yesterday proved to be bitterly cold, the EDL turnout can be adjudged to be a modest success. Estimates as to the numbers as ever vary, with their opponents in the SWP providing the lowest at 450, whereas Suzy at the pro-EDL Casuals United blog gave the highest at 1,200. The BBC and Capital FM cited figures of 800 and 700 which, being in the middle, are probably closer to the mark. What is clear however is that claims by the SWP that UAF protesters outnumbered those on the EDL side are false. UAF did not draw 700 “activists” as claimed, but somewhere in the region of 200.

Trotskyist agitator and leading ‘light’ of the SWP and UAF – Martin Smith – made a risible speech in which he made the following comment: 

“The EDL are David Cameron’s monkeys. The Tories are cutting our wages and pensions, and to do that they need someone else to blame.”

Poor Martin Smith appears to live in an alternative reality in which when it comes to Islamism, Islamisation and anti-White racism his motto appears to be that of the three wise monkeys: “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.” What had the EDL’s protest to do with cuts to wages and pensions? Nothing. Perhaps as a riposte to Smith’s inapt characterisation the EDL might wish to start singing “Hey, Hey We’re the Monkees!” on their marches? If they did so however, UAF could well start demanding a ban on Monkees show reruns and their ‘racist’ psychedelic pop. 

Martin Smith's Three 'Wise' (Brass) Monkeys

 

The EDL is coming up to the third anniversary of its foundation, and in the time it has existed it has certainly succeeded in generating media attention, which has unfortunately been almost exclusively hostile in tone. To have sustained itself for this time is thus something of a feat in itself, but it does seem that in terms of the numbers of protesters that it can get out onto the streets, the peak appears to have come and gone. A shift in focus and re-evaluation of tactics is thus required to propel it forward and to ensure that momentum is not lost. The recent protest against the sale of halal meat at a Rochdale Asda involving supporters of the EDL and other concerned members of the public seemed to be on the right tracks, although an Asda spokesman seemed perplexed by the protest and missed the point altogether. Whilst the Tommy Robinson endorsed tie-up with the British Freedom Party was backed by some EDL members, it did not win universal assent, and although it appears that there has been some crossover in personnel in recent months with a number of EDL joining the BFP and contributing towards its organisational structure, the two organisations remain very much separate entities, which is probably right for both of them.

Returning to yesterday’s demonstration in Leicester, the main speaker was leading EDL member Kevin Carroll. However, from what can be seen in the video of his speech below, for some reason he chose not to focus upon anti-White racism, but instead upon sending a message of support to British forces in Afghanistan and directing criticism at the Government for cuts to military expenditure that have left us without an aircraft carrier. David Cameron was singled out for personal criticism for  “dismantling our armed forces whilst we’re at war.” Although valid points in themselves, it seems odd that this occasion was chosen to make them. As indicated earlier, the EDL needs to be more focused with respect to its campaigning. Tomorrow’s EDL demonstration in Liverpool appears to be an example of this more specific approach, one which could help in winning the movement a more sympathetic hearing from the public. The EDL states:

On Monday 6th February eleven men will appear at Liverpool Crown Court charged with operating a child sex ring.The men, from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, targeted exclusively local white girls in what is becoming an all-too-familiar pattern.

Shockingly, an anti-English hate group calling itself ‘Liverpool anti-fascists’ is planning to counter-protest against the EDL tomorrow. It shares the anti-democratic inclinations of the trades union funded UAF, Searchlight and Hope Not Hate, that together function as the semi-official enforcers of Britain's contemporary controlled 'democracy', in which certain topics that threaten to reveal the truth about the diversity dogma are deemed taboo. The EDL is breaking such taboos, which is why its supporters and activists have been targeted by these groups. I wish its supporters in Liverpool a peaceful and successful demonstration tomorrow. 

Anti-Nationalist Website Popularity: Who’s scraping the Bottom of the Barrel?

Having taken a look at the relative popularity of British and English nationalist websites, it is time to peer into a realm which we do not find agreeable, for there much frothing and fury is to be found: the world of anti-English and anti-British politics. Given the mainstream disdain for nationalism I will not be looking at websites belonging to the BBC, The Guardian or the Labour Party for example, for despite being persistently anti-British (in particular anti-English) the primary reason for their existence is not stated to be the ‘struggle’ against nationalism. Instead, this piece looks at sites belonging to self-styled ‘anti-fascist’ organisations/campaigns, as well as Muslim political groups and the parties of the Trotskyist Left. For the sake of a fair comparison, the three-month trailing traffic averages were taken on the same day as those relating to the websites covered in the earlier article British Nationalism on the Web: Who’s up and Who’s down – 9^th January 2012.

The first thing to note is that generally speaking this group of sites attracts less traffic than nationalist sites, although in a number of instances their Facebook followings are very significant. Two anti-English campaigning organisations will be tiresomely familiar to readers: Hope Not Hate (HNH) and Unite Against Fascism (UAF). Once these two worked closely together, but then had a spat over tactics and fell out. Despite UAF’s massive financial muscle afforded by its TUC backing, its website is less popular than that of HNH (you may be surprised to learn that at times its popularity has even trailed that of Durotrigan): their global traffic rankings being HNH 765,262 and UAF 1,458,466. Nationally, UAF edged ahead slightly, being ranked at 54,474 compared to 57,436. Being globalist internationalists however, neither body would attach significance to this second set of figures, surely? Compared to the global popularity of the nationalist websites, these two lag way down the list behind the BNP, British Freedom Party, EDL, BNP Ideas, UKIP and Britain First. In terms of Facebook ‘friends’ however, both HNH and UAF score highly, with the former having 50,436 (behind the BNP only) and the latter 15,579 (placing it also behind the EDL).

Facebook is of course the social networking site par excellence and its defining feature has, I think, something interesting to say about nationalism and public reticence (or fear): one’s likes and dislikes are available for everyone to see. Thus, whereas it is socially acceptable to be seen to be ‘anti-racist’ and ‘anti-fascist’, generally speaking it is not socially acceptable to be seen to be nationalist or anti-Islamist. The Facebook phenomenon thus leads to a distorted overrepresentation of the level of support for what are seen to be ‘socially acceptable’ groups compared to those that are assigned pariah status by the mainstream media. It could, for example, be risky to state that you were a ‘friend’ of the EDL or a nationalist group on your profile as your employer or one of your colleagues might see it with potentially damaging repercussions.

Having mentioned Facebook and the EDL, let’s look at the latter’s sworn foe that sprang up as a negative copycat organisation/campaign: the Muslim Defence League (MDL). The MDL doesn’t have a website of its own, but its Facebook page is almost as popular as that of the EDL’s, clocking in with 25,308 ‘friends’, just 1,800 behind. The Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK (MPACUK), which was set up to increase Muslim political participation and representation across the country has both a website and a Facebook page, and proves to outstrip the popularity of the Trotskyist political parties by a mile. Out of the sample under examination, MPACUK has the highest website ranking at 317,632 globally and 21,593 in the UK. This places its traffic between that of UKIP and Britain First on a global level, but behind them within the UK. Its Facebook following of 6,408 places it slightly ahead of the English Democrats, makes it more than twice as popular as the British Freedom Party and three times as popular as UKIP. 

Turning now to the Trotskyite rump parties, it is clear that in terms of the internet they are easily outpaced by the bulk of nationalist sites (and indeed by many nationalist blogs). The Socialist Workers Party (SWP) attracts a global traffic ranking of 1,940,152, but fails to generate enough traffic for a UK ranking. The Respect Party comes in at a derisory ranking of 20,402,382, placing it close to the Freedom Democrats in respect of its unpopularity, yet how many times have we seen the scowling face of its leader Salma Yaqoob on Question Time?! With respect (pardon the pun) to Facebook, the SWP manages to attract 3,745 ‘friends’, placing it someway behind the English Democrats but ahead of the British Freedom Party. Respect by contrast, has 257.

Conclusion

Generally speaking, anti-nationalist organisations, campaigns and parties are not generating as much traffic to their main websites as nationalists, but in terms of their Facebook following, the two big anti-nationalist campaigns/bodies HNH and UAF do exert a significant degree of public appeal. What is striking is that despite its relatively small size and limited activist base, the SWP manages to have an undue influence upon political life in the UK. There are lessons it would seem, that could possibly be learnt from elements of its strategy and tactics. Who in the long term will win the propaganda war?

We should of course be cautious with respect to overinterpreting the significance of such figures, for if they genuinely reflected the public's political mood, then the BNP, British Freedom Party, EDL, BNP Ideas and UKIP would be the largest political parties/groups in the country, for their websites all outstrip the popularity of those belonging to the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties. Quite clearly this is not the case, but instead bears testimony to the dull and predictable content of the sites belonging to the big three.

Anti-nationalist Symbol of the Trotskyist Fourth International 

Left redirects Flak towards British Freedom Party and English Democrats

There is a perceptive line in Oscar Wilde’s novel 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' that has rightly entered public consciousness, the validity of which pertains particularly to politicians and political parties: “there is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” For Nick Griffin’s BNP, its longstanding opponents are falling silent about the party, not because they have given up their ‘struggle’ against nationalism, but because they think that the party is no longer worthy of their attention owing to its growing insignificance. In this evaluation they are correct. Unfortunately however, many who are new to nationalist politics will undoubtedly have been gulled into joining the wreck that is the contemporary BNP and parting with their money in the mistaken belief that it is something that it is not: a credible nationalist party. For those still unaware of the fact, be warned that the BNP is now a moneymaking enterprise for Nick Griffin staffed in its upper echelons by incompetent and morally dubious cronies.

The devil finds work for idle hands to do, and as a means of continuing to justify their existence the self-styled ‘anti-fascists’ have, as foreseen, broadened their definitions of ‘fascism’ and ‘racism’ ever further so as to create fresh foes that must in their eyes be combated and slain. The first of these that they chose to latch onto once it was clear that the BNP had entered its death spiral was the EDL. However, so large has the network of ‘anti-fascist’ organisations and campaigns grown, that the professional ‘anti-fascists’ in their employ have found that the EDL hasn’t been providing them with enough work, so they’ve invented some new ‘fascist’ and ‘racist’ threats that must be dealt with. Thus of late they have cast around and begun to lash out at the British Freedom Party and the English Democrats, thereby demonstrating that merely possessing and standing up for the idea that there may be a British or an English people is to the ‘anti-fascists’ synonymous with ‘fascism’ and ‘racism’, which is of course, nonsense on stilts.

As can be seen from the excerpts below taken from an SWP report on their annual conference earlier this month, the Trotyskists never relent in their shrill campaign of anti-democratic hysteria directed not only at nationalist organisations and supporters, but also at ordinary British people wanting to protect their jobs.

"The far right is growing across Europe. Britain has bucked the trend as both the BNP and the EDL have seen serious setbacks.

Weyman [Bennett] added, “Imagine the situation now if we hadn’t challenged them.”

The threat has not gone away. The new British Freedom Party unites elements from the EDL, the BNP and Ukip. The coming Unite Against Fascism conference is a chance to revitalise the movement in 2012."

The SWP’s hatred of ordinary British people and its desire to subvert their living standards and deprive them of jobs was clearly and unapologetically articulated by a delegate named Rhetta:

"Rhetta said that on N30 protests in Manchester some demonstrators supported calls for British jobs for British workers “We need to be deeply embedded in the class to challenge these attitudes,” she said."

For the British Freedom Party, the SWP focus upon them as their new target for anathematisation and annihilation should be seen as both worrying and encouraging, for it would seem to suggest that the Trotskyists view it as the party most likely to grow and exert popular appeal in the wake of the implosion of the Griffinite BNP.

In a separate article penned by Anthony Painter on the Labour List site, attention was turned to the (potential) growth of English nationalism, with the flak on this occasion being directed not at the BFP, but at the English Democrats who have been bracketed alongside the BNP and the EDL.

“One of the tragedies of recent years has been the way in which vile extremists including the BNP, the EDL, and the English Democrats have been able to latch onto anger and alienation and expressed them through a corrupted notion of Englishness. Nothing is more un-English than hate and extremism.”

Note the casual use of the term “vile extremists”. Painter does not elucidate what it is that is “vile” about them, or what is “extreme”. These words have been employed not to describe or to analyse what these groups represent, but merely to elicit a reflexive sense of revulsion in his readers based upon emotion rather than logic. In this way, Painter seeks to reinforce the in-group sentiment of his Labour readership and reaffirm emotional commitment to the redundant political approach of the party he supports. Labour-supporting readers of Labour List, already primed for their Two Minutes Hate when presented with the necessary verbal or visual cues, thus give vent to their repressed anger, directing it towards the EDL and English Democrats. Paradoxically, such officially sanctioned objects of Labour hate represent the true democratic and grassroots expression of the values that the early Labour Party largely embodied but abandoned many decades ago.

What have the EDL, English Democrats and British Freedom Party done to merit such opprobrium? Did they create the predatory Islamic colonies that have sprung up across England? Are they responsible for the democratic deficit exemplified by a cosy consensus amongst the Westminster parties that offers electors no real choice? Are they responsible for our country’s deindustrialisation, mass unemployment, runaway population growth and attendant housing shortage? Do they advocate globalisation and its concomitant loss of sovereignty and economic crisis? Do they call for an end to free speech and the anathematisation of their political opponents? No, they do not. The Labour Party however, cannot be absolved of any of the aforementioned, for it has been eagerly complicit in all of them. Who then are the real ‘extremists’? Who are the genuine enemies of democracy? If you are an English Labour supporter, can you not see that you are being duped and manipulated by people who care nothing for you, and who do not have your interests at heart?

The fact that the SWP, UAF and the Labour Party are now turning upon the British Freedom Party and the English Democrats illustrates that both are seen as possessing the potential for real political growth. That the anti-nationalists (for that is what the so-called 'anti-fascists' really are) at least purport to be alarmed at the emergence of these two parties is encouraging, but ultimately we require a single nationalist party to ensure success. Meanwhile, supporters of UAF are today going about their usual business of being a vociferous and potentially violent nuisance on our streets, targeting an EDL demonstration in Barking.

Dorian Gray or Father Jack Hackett?

Leeds 'EDL'/Nationalist Flash Demo

Apparently, a breakaway faction of the EDL has staged a flash demo in Leeds today. Hull Infidels are certainly playing a role, as are Dewsbury Youth Infidels. Unsurprisingly, the Socialist Workers Party is claiming that its UAF Trotskyist front campaign managed to attract 100 demonstrators onto the soggy streets of Leeds this afternoon, whilst the EDL could muster no more than 70. Their version of events can hardly be adjudged to be non-partisan of course, so I shall post details here relating to alternative reports when they become available later today and tomorrow. However, the photograph at the following link does show a very small knot of protesters looking sodden and bedraggled in a miserably wet Leeds City Square, with the police clearly outnumbering the former. There may have been more there earlier or later, but then again, there may not have been. It was perhaps not so much of a 'flashmob' as a 'damp squibmob'.

It would seem that this wasn't exactly an 'official' EDL demo, but something sanctioned by one of its founders - Snowy - who has since broken away because of disputes with other members of the leadership over the direction of the movement. He posted the following details with respect to the aims of today's demonstration on the Infidels of Britain Facebook page:

Defending our culture against multiculturalism, immigration and Islamic invasion.
We will be protesting in City Square in Leeds which is a prime location opposite the train station, so anyone coming by car/coach please park somewhere near, there are lots of car parks behind the station.
There will be no meet up before the demo as this is a political protest not an all day piss up, so please start arriving at the demo site from 1200 with the demonstration starting at 1300. No one is saying you can't have a drink before but please remember no one listens to a piss head, we are doing this to get our voices heard. So if you feel like getting pissed then please go somewhere else, we are political activists and the issues we are protesting about are serious and not to be taken lightly. We will achieve nothing by acting like drunken thugs and there will be plenty of time after to have a drink and enjoy ourselves.
The police have informed us that there will be no barriers and no kettling but obviously there will be plenty of officers about and more on standby, we will have no problem from them as long as we behave in the correct manner. Our behaviour will determine how we are treated at future demonstrations, this is our chance to show people that we are serious about these issues and getting our point across so lets do it right. There will also be a number of stewards please respect them as they are our lads as well. You will be allowed to leave the demonstration in small numbers at any time to use the local facilities.
The demonstration will finish no later than 1600 when we will disperse and you can either make your way home or come for a drink at a local pub with the rest of us. Please feel free to bring any British flags etc with you.
Finally I hope you all have a safe day and at the end of it feel proud that we have done it right.

Snowy
Keep the faith NO SURRENDER

According to the Casuals United blog the '[d]emo appears to have gone well, speeches done. Got info they are giving the MDL run around now.'

Displaying the customary demonisation of the EDL that we have come to expect from the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), the Shields Gazette stated that:

Members of Youth Fight for Jobs (YFJ), who set off from Jarrow last Saturday, joined a protest at Leeds University against a march by what is believed to be a splinter group from the extreme right-wing organisation the English Defence League (EDL).

Ben Robinson, YFJ chairman, said: “As members of the new Jarrow March, we want to show that we do take the threat of the right seriously.

“We will be marching from Leeds University and into the citycentre, to state our opposition against right-wing and racist politics.”

This YFJ march itself is a peculiar affair, for so far as I am aware, its participants are not marching against globalisation and transnational oligarchical capitalism. This begs the question: why not? After all, these phenomena lie at the root of our current economic, political and cultural predicament. If the marchers truly wanted to solve these problems and build a better future, they would be marching for nationalism and not against it. Then again, can we blame them? Look at the age of most of these naifs in the first of the pictures below. In terms of their education and media exposure, they will have grown up knowing little other than the multiculturalist, globalist ethno-masochism which has been peddled with increasing fervour since 1997. Is it any wonder then that they have fallen into error, lacking as they do, the identitarian self-respect that would allow them to cast off the shackles of misplaced ethnic guilt?

I don't want these young people to be unemployed. They are my fellow countrymen and women, so I want them to be earning a decent living and to have a worthy future to look forward to. However, if they allow themselves to be gulled by the SWP and the so-called 'anti-racist' movement, they will find that they are marching themselves into oblivion.  

March of the Naifs against Nationalism instead of against Globalisation

 

First Video from Today’s UAF/EDL Tower Hamlets Demos

Here is what seems to be the first Youtube video to emerge relating to today’s EDL protest, although alas it is of the SWP-led anti-EDL pro-Islamisation demonstration (more videos showing Tommy Robinson at Aldgate and EDL supporters at King's Cross can be viewed here). Note the preponderance of ethno-masochistic enablers of Islamisation amongst the UAF crowd. It is very sad to see any Englishman or woman led astray by the ideological error of Trotskyism and sundry other species of Marxism. If I were a Christian I might be tempted to say, “Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do”. However, as I am not, I won’t. Also take a good look at the posters that they carry, unwarrantedly attempting to bracket Stephen Lennon/Tommy Robinson with the mass murderer Anders Breivik. Watch and cringe.

Media Reaction to EDL Blackburn Protest: implicit and explicit Messages

On this occasion I thought that it would be of interest for some readers to provide a quick roundup of mainstream media coverage of yesterday’s EDL protest and UAF counterdemonstration. As, thankfully, there was little violence in Blackburn, most of the press seems not to have bothered with running a story in its wake, with the notable exceptions of the Daily Mail and the Daily Star. If any of the mainstream papers possess a readership likely to sympathise with at least some aspects of the EDL’s cause, it is these two, so the manner in which they report EDL demonstrations is particularly salient.

Although there is not time to cover all reports, I have chosen what I consider to be the most significant on a national level – the BBC website, Daily Mail and Daily Star – combined with two local papers – the Lancashire Evening Post and Pendle Today – as well as the Socialist Worker online, to span the compass of conventional news sources that most people are likely to encounter. Radio and television however fall beyond the purview of this piece. I decided to examine the SWP’s reporting of the day, for it after all, is the animating intelligence behind the UAF; what it has to say on this matter is thus of particular pertinence, for it allows us a glimpse into the alternative worldview of the EDL’s most rabid opponents, and the manner in which this is processed and operationalised as mobilising propaganda for its counterdemonstrations.

In reading any report, it is of course important to note the nuances of phraseology, the juxtaposition of information to imply certain things or suggest associations where none may exist, and the general tenor given to articles by their headlines. What I present here will be my own general impressions synthesised from having read and digested all of the aforementioned sources, but for the sake of comparison, I thought that it might be useful to introduce what I shall term a ‘demonising buzzword tally’, which will enable us to assess the degree of bias or objectivity in each of the reports. However, simply counting the number of demonising buzzwords doesn’t tell us everything, as articles vary considerably in length and the words may cluster around certain instances of activity. So, with that caveat, I shall proceed.

Negative buzzwords commonly employed by the media in relation to the EDL include ‘racist’, ‘far-right’ and ‘extremist’. Likewise, even if such reports were to be stripped of this language, they would still display a general bias through their uncritical reporting of the UAF and the routine regurgitation of what its representatives claim to be ‘the truth’ about ‘the racist EDL’. Indeed, simply by referring to the UAF as ‘anti-fascist protesters’, this implies that whatever or whoever it is protesting against must by definition therefore be ‘fascists’ or ‘fascistic’. This is a very clever ploy.

Taking the headlines first of all, in order of descending objectivity they are:

• Protest passes off peacefully (Pendle Today)
• Arrests following town protests (Lancashire Evening Post)
• Arrests in Blackburn as EDL and opponents protest (BBC)
• Fisticuffs in EDL Demo Chaos (Daily Star)
• Mosques support anti-racist demo in Blackburn (Socialist Worker Online)
• Shaming the St George's Cross: Vile EDL thugs in 2,000-strong hate protest wear flag-coloured burkas to confront Muslims (Daily Mail)

Interestingly, it is the Daily Mail and Daily Star which carry the most negative headlines about the demonstration and which single out the EDL for condemnation without any reference to the UAF. This should be seen as significant, for both papers, as mentioned earlier, possess readerships that can to a certain extent be considered as potentially sympathetic to the EDL. Only a few weeks ago, the Daily Star had a brief flirtation with the EDL during which it ran a succession of stories which were either neutrally worded or inclined slightly in favour of the protest group. The furore surrounding that phase however appears to have precipitated an editorial volte-face, and the Star has now gone into full attack mode against the street movement.

Likewise, the fact that the Mail has turned the full weight of its guns on the EDL (a decision unpopular with the majority of its readers if the associated comments section is anything to go by) suggests that this is actually a recognition of the EDL’s growing strength, and that our political masters in Whitehall have given the paper a nudge and instructed it to take a certain editorial line in an effort to take the wind out of the sails of public support. The Star article contained two uses of demonising terms: ‘thugs’ and ‘far-right’, whereas the tally for the Mail was rather higher with six words/terms overall: ‘vile’, ‘thugs’, ‘far-right’, ‘extremists’, ‘hate protest’ and ‘sinister’.

The headlines from the local press, although seemingly bland, likewise provide the critical reader with some key information: don’t upset the locals as this could lose us readers. There is thus an unwillingness to write overly disparaging pieces about the EDL, which is interesting, as it is suggestive of significant local support. Moving onto the ‘demonising buzzword tally’ for a moment, there are no such words in the Lancashire Evening Post article, and only one ‘far-right’ in the Pendle Today piece. Almost as neutral as these local reports was the one produced by the BBC website, which is a surprise, for previously it has provided some very unbalanced coverage of EDL protests which has made liberal use of demonising terminology. On this occasion however, its report has been commendably balanced and contained no demonising buzzwords. It’s not often that I say this, but on this occasion: well done BBC!

Lastly, we move to the Socialist Worker Online, and it doesn’t fail to disappoint in its generous usage of demonising buzzwords which are liberally employed throughout the length of the piece. It thus yields up the following impressive tally of stigmatising terms in referring to the EDL: 

• Racist/racists – 8 
• Racism – 1 
• Fascism – 1 
• Scum – 1  

Morevoer, just to sledgehammer the message home that they’re ‘fighting racism’ because you might not have caught on to their subtle allusions to it in the text, they also pepper the article with four instances of ‘anti-racist’ and ‘anti-racists’. It is a risibly poor piece of journalism, and could have been written by a revolutionary Marxist random text generator. I would certainly encourage you to read their article though, as it does give a wonderful insight into the curious minds of our opponents and the alternative reality within which they operate.