East Midlands Anti-fascists

On Saturday the East Anglian Patriots bussed a couple of hundred fascists into Lincoln for a demo that threatened violence against Muslims and sought to deny freedom of workship in the city. An anti-fascist counter demonstration was also held. The fascists, led by a Lincoln Infidels banner, chanted “Burn the mosque” and “Allah is a paedo”. The Infidels are an openly Nazi splinter from the EDL.

They also listened to speeches from people including “Wolfie” Smith, a man whose speciality seems to be inciting racial violence. He recently posted “DEATH TO ALL MUZZIES KILL THEM ALL” and “BURN EVERY MOSQUE IN THE COUNTRY … BURN THEM ALL WITH THE MUZRAT SCUM IN THEM”. He has also referred to Muslims as “SAND NIGGER[s]“. The local organiser was an EDL supporter called Alex Banos who has previously said that if the mosque is built it will be “coming down”.

The march was organised by a group of former EDL members calling themselves the East Anglian Patriots. The EAP and their supporters clearly share Wolfie’s views. On hearing the news about the murder of Lee Rigby the EAP posted about Muslims that “THEY’VE KILLED ONE OF OUR BOYS IN WOOLWICH … KICK THE BASTARDS OUT NOW!” When reporting that Gillingham mosque had been attacked in revenge their followers posted “Throw boiling tar over them set fire to them” to which EAP responded “Happy days!”. “Great news keep on lads” posted another fan, “yes this is a start in the right direction” and “I would be out whipping some muzzie ass all over town tonight”. Other responses on the page included this from Wendy Wooley: “Kill the fucking lot off them if you want just give me a gun and I will do it point blank straight in the head”. Lj High: “march on the muslim areas and kill them all…..”

These are people who support arson, murder and genocide as a response to the Lee Rigby murder. Just like how the men who killed Rigby saw all British soldiers as the enemy, these “patriots” see all Muslims as the enemy and would be happy to see them ethnically cleansed.

The EAP were pleased with the turnout in Lincoln and have said they will be back. They are also organising a demonstration against the Skegness halal slaughterhouse on Sat 6th July.

We cannot sit back and let these fascists gain support and win the argument simply by shouting the loudest. There has been a 10-fold increase in attacks against Muslims since the Woolwich murder, including numerous arson attacks against mosques. The threats being made by groups like the EDL and the EAP are not idle talk – these people mean to act on them.

We need a well-organised anti-fascist response to forthcoming demos by working in the local communities and linking up with wider anti-fascist networks for support to prevent these people getting a platform for their sick views and incitement to violence.

On Sat 1st March the EDL organised “memorial events” up and down the country in a disgusting and exploitative attempt to make political gain out of a brutal murder. One of those was held in Nottingham. In the Nottingham Post’s write up of the event they chose to focus on the question of whether it really was the EDL organising the event or not, rather than the exploitation of a man’s murder to whip up hatred against the Muslim community. The fact is that the event was timed to coincide with a load of other events organised by the far right group and was openly advertised on the Nottingham EDL Facebook page.

EDL march organiser, Jay Clark

Let’s be quite clear – there is no doubt that this was organised by the EDL. The organiser, as quoted by the Post, was none other than Jay Clark, former organiser of the Nottingham EDL division who is still very much involved in the group’s politics. Despite his attempts to disassociate himself from the EDL, Clark led their contingent at Nottingham’s St George’s Day march last year and organises St George’s Day events in Clifton with East Midlands EDL members. He has threatened to “wipe out” independent media websites in the past for making clear the links between himself and fascists.

EDL members Adam Bilyk (left in green hoody), Donna Walker (carrying wreath) and Emma Laker (glasses and pink shirt)

Alongside Clark were other prominent Nottingham EDL members. Donna Walker laid their wreath flanked by Adam Bilyk (last spotted at the English Volunteer Force launch in Birmingham) and Emma Laker. Whether these people still consider themselves EDL or just fellow travellers, their  anti-Muslim agenda differs little from that of the official EDL line.

On Saturday, the EDL held events in towns and cities across the country, as part of their new spike in activity following the murder of Lee Rigby in Woolwich on May 22nd.  Having realised that the pissed-up argy-bargy at their national demos in Newcastle and London the previous weekend hasn’t exactly helped their image, the EDL played these local events differently.  They were all branded as memorials, and participants were urged to stay sober, refrain from chanting or shouting, and to carry no banners or “colours” (that’s branded hoodies to you and me).

In Leicester, around 80 joined the EDL-organised march from the Clock Tower to the war memorial in Victoria Park, where flowers were laid.  A UAF counter-demo of about the same size stood with banners at the Clock Tower, with some heckling of the marchers as they departed, but without further incident.

In Nottingham, about 70 walked from the Trent Bridge Inn to the war memorial on the Victoria Embankment, again laying flowers.  Not wishing to interfere with the flower-laying, a group of about 30 anti-fascists stood quietly with banners on the opposite side of the road from the memorial.  Apart from one aggressive EDL supporter who was restrained by police, there was no interaction between the two sides.

The EDL successfully stayed sober and calm on both these events, and achieved their objective of appearing “reasonable and respectful” – something they are generally find beyond them.  It’s concerning that they appear to have attracted numbers to these commemorations beyond their usual activist base, and not everyone who attended Saturday’s events would have thought of themselves as an EDL member.  In other words, they are having some success at rebuilding their numbers and activity, and are expanding their support base.

The gruesome murder in Woolwich has been a gift for the EDL, allowing them to capitalise on a personal tragedy and surf the wave of outrage for their own ends – despite appeals from both Lee Rigby’s family and his regiment that no racist capital should be made by political groups from his horrible death.  The EDL and other fascist groupings will be working hard over the next few months, and anti-fascists must remain vigilant and keep developing strategies to counter their activities in this challenging time.

Only a couple of 14 year olds and a dejected looking bloke in an EDL polo shirt bothered turning up to the EDL’s attempt to exploit a tragedy in Nottingham yesterday. The organiser obviously lost his bottle before even showing up. A 70 strong crowd of anti-fascists held the square for the afternoon quite comfortably and sent a clear message to these vultures that their attempt to capitalise on a violent murder will win them no converts in the city.

Hoping to exploit a horrific murder for political ends, individuals associated with Nottingham EDL are calling an “unofficial” demo in Nottingham’s Market Square tomorrow (Saturday 25th May) at 1pm. Steve Ryan, a Nottingham Forest football hooligan, has been touting an attempt to milk social tensions generated by the murder of a soldier in Woolwich, according to a poster on Nottingham Indymedia. Local Muslims have been warned to stay away from the city centre out of fear that they will face violent racist “revenge” attacks and anti-fascists are calling for a counter-mobilisation.

We are sceptical about whether many EDL will turn up as most will be going to Newcastle for the EDL’s national demonstration there. However, some bully boy “patriots” might spend enough time in Weatherspoons to get the courage up to have a go at any non-white people who happen to be in the area. If you’re in the Nottingham are tomorrow please go and support the anti-fascists who will be making sure the EDL are not welcome in the city.

Here’s the Indymedia post:

Just a few days after Lincolnshire’s newly elected UKIP councillors refused to sign an anti-racism declaration, Linconshire Police have confirmed that they are investigating three of the councillors over racist posts made on their social media accounts. One of those to be investigated is the leader of UKIP in the county, Councillor Chris Pain, who has made appearances at BNP and EDL supporter, Dean Everitt’s anti-immigration demos.

Pain posted the following:

Have you noticed that if you ­rearrange the letters in ‘illegal ­immigrants’, and add just a few more letters, it spells, ‘Go home you free-loading, benefit-grabbing, resource-sucking, baby-making, non-English-speaking ********* and take those other hairy-faced, sandal-wearing, bomb-making, camel-riding, goat-********, raghead ******** with you.

Pain used the time-honoured ‘my account was hacked guv’ defence and hilariously added ““When you’ve got friends that are coloured it makes it even worse.” Perhaps you should ask those friends whether they like being referred to as “coloured” Chris! The rather dubious account hacking explanation was rubbished by the journalist investigating Pain who said that he has a “prolific habit of xenophobic, racist and far-right posting”.

Also under investigation is Alan Jesson, councillor for Spalding South who posted racist and homophobic remarks on his page, threatening forced repatriation for all migrants. Jesson told a Polish woman to “fuck off” and another man that his “culture is not welcome in the UK”.

Tiggs Keywood-Wainwright, the third councillor, posting about migrants said “Put them in a box so they can’t fight back and ship them off as cargo” and “From what I know of Turks, they are not to be trusted.” In her defence, Keywood-Wainwright said “The comments I made were from months ago.”

We’ve been doing a little digging into the Lincoln mosque demo to find out what more about the people organising it. The original Facebook event was set up by a local man called Alex Banos who lists his religious views as “muslim bashing” and his political views as UKIP. He is a big fan of the EDL and it was his posting stating that “we all edl on here”. He has also made posts threatening to bring down the mosque if it gets built.

Alex Banos: Not the most English name in the world

Since then a more organised far right group has picked up on the event. The East Anglian Patriots, led by former EDL webmaster, Anthony Bamford, and with an admin consisting of disaffected former EDL organisers like Andy Reynolds and Rob Stebbing, is promoting the event. In spite of the fact that Lincoln isn’t in East Anglia. Oh dear. There are plenty of actual EDL members involved as well. Members of the Stop the Lincoln Mosque group include EDL deputy, Kev Carroll, and Norwich EDL organiser Ivan Humble. Sam Burgess, who organised the Norwich EDL demo has said he is going. Other members of the East Anglian Patriots include EVF Midlands organiser, Wayne Ayers, Daz Healey and Ben Laight of Boston EDL and a familiar face who seems to pop up in everything far right around these parts – Dean Everitt. Everitt’s latest anti-immigration demo in Wisbech was deemed too extreme even for the strongly anti-immigration UKIP to attend so he obviously feels the need to move in more blatantly fascist circles these days.

Things are not looking good for the far right mobilisation according to posts on their event page, demonstrating that, as we expected, local interest in the demo is non-existent. Interest from “Lincoln lads is embarrassing” according to Dave Gooderham,  who complains that “the locals don’t seem to care”. Rob Sawyer agreed: “the i don’t want a mosque brigade can’t get off there arse” and added that he’s “using the demo as a social and nothing more”. He concluded “the people of Lincoln don’t fucking care”. Which begs the question of why people from a different region are coming to protest a mosque that has nothing to do with them? It just looks like an attempt to stir up trouble where there is none, a social (i.e. heavy drinking) session for a few lads from Norfolk and an excuse to do a few racist chants as well as trying to intimidate the local Muslim community.

Fortunately, local Lincoln anti-fascists have calling for a counter-mobilisation against the racists. We will promote their plans once they’ve been made public and encourage anyone who is against fascism and nationalism to oppose the anti-Muslim demo.

It seems that Paul Hilliard’s not alone in his admiration for Mussloni’s boot boys. The Sun has investigated Oswald Mosley fanciers, the New British Union, and found that a prominent member lives in Sudbury, Derbyshire. Matthew Gill was until recently the NBU’s “Policy Officer”, although he stepped down citing health reasons earlier this month. Here’s an excerpt from the Sun’s piece:

A key Raikes lieutenant is NBU “Policies Officer” Matthew Gill, a charity worker and Doctor Who fan.

On the NBU website is an article on immigration in Gill’s name. It reads: “There are those who will say there is nothing wrong with massive Third World immigration so long as they learn the language, adapt to the local culture and so on. This presupposes that the human being can be intentionally colour blind.”

Gill’s blog posting adds: “The truth, of course, is that even if a Kenyan can speak perfect English, even if he wears English clothes, uses English slang and attends the C of E, none of that makes him English!”

The Derbyshire village of Sudbury, where Gill lives, was mentioned in the Domesday Book, and with its bowling green and friendly village pub, it’s a picture postcard location.

Dad-of-two Gill, 33, and his father Phil are both members of the New British Union.

Answering the door in jeans and T-shirt, Gill Junior soon scuttled back inside to put on his black coat with an NBU badge.

“We’re not Nazis! Oh no!”

The former mortgage adviser, who says he now works for a Mormon charity, claims the party has “a few thousand” members and said: “We’re not racists. I’m a fascist but I’m not anti-Semitic.”

He added: “Black shirts are a traditional way of making us stand out. We don’t wear them in public.

“It sets us apart. Black was the colour chosen by Mosley.”

However, Gill then defended Mussolini, one of the party’s heroes. In 1938 the Italian fascist dictator passed laws barring Jews from universities and many professions. After 1943, when Germany occupied parts of the country, more than 7,000 Jews were deported to Nazi concentration camps, with many dying at Auschwitz.

Gill insisted: “Mussolini was not anti-Semitic, he got carried away. He got in with the wrong crowd — with Hitler. But you can’t compare us to Nazism — they were National Socialists, I’m not.”

The presence of a fascist in the tiny village — population 180 — has shocked locals.

Vicar John Vickerstaff, 52, said: “Well, I certainly don’t share their views,” while salesman Joe Hagan, 65, said: “The younger man has said some odd things to people so I’m not that surprised. I knew they were Mormons — but not fascists.”

One anti-fascist campaigner who posted NBU activists’ biographies online called them “a few easily led fools” but added: “They’re still fascists who think they can organise openly and as such it seems sensible to cast a wary eye in their direction.”

EDL splinter group, the East Anglian Patriots (not to be confused with the East Anglian Patriotic Front or the People’s Front of East Anglia), have announced that they will hold a demonstration in Lincoln on Saturday 8th June at 1pm. They are protesting the building of a mosque on the site of a disused dairy because they don’t believe in freedom of religion.

Just in case there’s any dispute about whether or not the organisers of the demo are EDL or not, here’s what they are saying on Facebook:

Unsurprisingly, the promotional material for their event is littered with factual errors and half-truths. To start with they state that the mosque will cost £0.5m to build whereas the actual figure is close to £1m (and it’s going to be paid by the local Muslim community anyway, so why do they care?) The former EDL members twist the truth mercilessly by saying that “Local residents have objected but as usual their pleas have been ignored.” In actual fact, local residents group Boultham Residents’ Association initially objected to the plans on the basis of the increased traffic that would be brought to the area, but came out in support of the final plan, which included 68 parking spaces for worshippers. Lincoln Council only received five letters of objection, “mostly about concerns over traffic congestion”, while six letters were sent in which backed the project.

Chair of the Boultham Residents’ Association, Jean Flannery had some very positive things to say about the scheme that seem to demonstrate that local people are accepting and welcoming of the mosque and the Muslims who use it:

We need to move forward together. Now, our joint task is to foster understanding and acceptance of one another.

Misunderstandings may cause difficulties and anxieties but they can be corrected.

We already live and work alongside one another.

Individual and working relationships are the norm for many. We have our differences but we also share more similarities.

By far the majority of us surely wish to live in harmony. To my mind the way to accomplish this is to develop and expand relationships to fully include the wider community, in which we all share.

It seems that it’s the far right protesters who are riding roughshod over the desires of the local community and trying to impose their own agenda.

The invaluable piece of English heritage that will be destroyed by the mosque

“Our way of life, our faith, our very existence is under threat from this Islamic encroachment” the East Anglian Patriots’ poster shrieks hysterically, although it’s not at all clear how turning a derelict wasteland into a mosque is going to do that. The Lincoln Islamic Association has compelling reasons for needing a larger mosque, saying “We now have approximately 2000 Muslims in Lincoln and surrounding areas. Our current Mosque capacity is only 60.” The truth of the matter is the demonstrators are mostly anti-Muslim and racist people from out of town (Lincoln is not in East Anglia) who want to divide communities along lines of race and religion.

This demonstration and its politics of intercommunal violence should be resisted.

The BNP’s election campaign turned out to be a disaster yesterday as their share of the vote was seriously cut down across the East Midlands and the country as a whole. Newcomers, the British Democrats, failed to make any impact and the English Democrats did very badly as well. UKIP’s populist right wing politics seems to have eclipsed the far right, perhaps for good.

Here’s how the BNP share of the vote looked in the wards in which they stood at the last elections in 2009 compared with the current results.

• Derbyshire:                 2009: 19.2%    2013: 5.5%
• Leicestershire:            2009: 14.3%   2013: 8.4%
• Lincolnshire:              2009: 11.1%    2013: 4.3%
• Northamptonshire:   2009: 13.2%   2013: 4.7%
• Nottinghamshire:      2009: 10.9%   2013: 2.4%

In other words the BNP has done extremely badly, a view shared by their last remaining councillor, Cathy Duffy, who flounced out of the count in Leicestershire before her (poor) result was even announced.

Another welcome result at these elections was the booting out of Graham Partner, elected as BNP Councillor for Coalville in 2009 and being rejected by the electorate as a British Democrats candidate this year. We won’t be sad to see him go.

Whilst the further collapse of the BNP is to be welcomed, the rise of UKIP poses new questions and challenges for those who oppose anti-migrant racism and right wing populism. This analysis by the Independent Working Class Association is not a bad place to start in understanding the relationship between UKIP and the BNP and stating the challenges facing those who seek to oppose their right wing populism with a genuine working class politics.