Monthly Archives: November 2012

2012/11/26

Racist attacks in Lincoln and Bingham

By East Midlands Anti-Fascists

Earlier this month, a gang of drunken racists who attacked a student in Lincoln were found guilty of racially aggravated assault and harassment and jailed. The group shouted racist abuse at University of Lincoln student, Nadir Ali, before punching and kicking him. An Irish shopper who tried to intervene also received racist abuse.

Meanwhile, last Friday in Bingham a Muslim family had a cross wrapped in ham and set on fire left on their doorstep in a clearly religiously-motivated act of harassment. This is exactly the kid of spiteful childish act that the local EDL specialise in. After all, it’s not long ago that Nottingham EDL activists Chris Payne, Nicky Long, Wayne Havercroft and Robert Parnham left a pig’s head on a stick at the site of a mosque in Nottingham.

Chris Payne (2nd from left) and friends: Local specialists in pork-based hate crime

Anti-Muslim attacks are an increasingly prevalent “hate crime” and it is groups like the EDL and BNP who are inciting them and their supporters who are carrying them out.

Comments Off on Racist attacks in Lincoln and Bingham   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire

2012/11/19

Far right do badly in Corby

By East Midlands Anti-Fascists

As well as seeing the far right fail to muster a single candidate for the Police & Crime Commissioner last week, they also did very badly in the Corby by-election. The BNP fielded Gordon Riddell who only got 1.7% of the vote (in 2010 the party got 4.7% in Corby) and the English Democrats’ David Wickham did even worse with 1.2%. That’s two more lost deposits for the fascists!

Comments Off on Far right do badly in Corby   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Northamptonshire

2012/11/19

UKIP dominate Boston protest

By East Midlands Anti-Fascists

Yesterday’s demonstration against immigration in Boston seemed to have been a moderate success for the right. In the end, the protest drew 150-300 people according to the Boston Standard. The event seems to have been dominated by local UKIP politician, Chris Pain, whose party’s flag was prominently positioned behind the speakers. Indeed, most of the placards displayed an anti-EU sentiment rather than outright xenophobia. Even so, it is worrying that an implicitly anti-foreigner event has drawn such a big turnout.

Protest organiser, Dean Everitt, searches for new ideas

EDL members from Lincolnshire, Nottingham and East Anglia traveled to take part in the event which was also trumpeted by BNP activist Craig Farnsworth. Their relatively small and muted presence (they didn’t feel confident enough to openly display their far right affiliations) was eclipsed by the better funded and more politically acceptable (to some!) politics of UKIP. However, that hasn’t stopped them from crowing about their success and how this small acorn will grow into a mighty oak and other such nonsense.

It is clear that, given the collapse of their own movements, the far right are now looking to other issues to piggyback on in the hope of finding new recruits and new forums for them to infect with their politics.  Anti-fascists need to be alert to these tactics and be countering their arguments with our own perspective on global capitalist politics. It is only where the only voices are those blaming foreigners rather than the forces of international capital that the falsehoods pedaled by the extreme right can take hold.

The apparent success of the protest has led to the inevitable unimaginative response. They are going to hold another protest in the neighbouring town of Spalding some time in the future, presumably to keep flogging this horse until it’s well and truly dead.

Comments Off on UKIP dominate Boston protest   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Lincolnshire

2012/11/15

Boston protest is a far right event

By East Midlands Anti-Fascists

This Sunday will see an anti-immigration march take place in Boston, Lincolnshire. In the past, organiser Dean Everitt has made a big fuss about avoiding being “hijacked” by the far right but we can reveal that Sunday’s static demonstration at the Herbert Ingram memorial is a solidly far right event.

Dean Everitt has shown support for the Infidels of Britain, BNP and EDL on Facebook and of the 100 odd people who have signed up on Facebook, many are far right organisers and activists. They include Lincolnshire EDL organiser, Daz Healey, partner of Tony Curtis and former EDL speaker, Tracie Bird, organiser of the recent EDL demo in Norwich, Sam Burgess, BNP activist and in charge of the New Daily Patriot far right news site, Craig Farnworth, East Anglian EDL organiser, Ivan Humble, Shane Overton (Lincoln EDL), Sonya Greenberry-Coleman (Nottingham EDL) and Andy Reynolds (East Anglian EDL). Those who maybe going include Geoff Mitchell (East Anglian EDL), Louise Walsh (Nottingham EDL), Dom Woodhead (Keighley EDL), Tony Ball (Sunderland EDL), John Morrow (EDL) and Roy Wolfshead (CxF). The list of those invited includes British Freedom Party founder, Simon Bennett, Derbyshire BNP organiser, Paul Hilliard and Derbyshire BNP candidate, Emma Roper.

Dean Everitt: Organiser of the Boston Protest Group and currently under investigation for assault and criminal damage

Tracie Bird, EDL speaker, partner of Tony Curtis and going to Boston this weekend

Sam Burgess, organiser of EDL demo in Norwich and fond of getting off on his own reflection

Craig Farnworth, BNP activist who runs the New Daily Patriot

Lincoln EDL member, Shane Overton, gets ready to “peacefully protest”

Considering the mess the EDL and BNP are in at the moment this could be a relatively big event for them and there will doubtless be more turning up who aren’t foolish enough to announce their presence on Facebook. It is quite hard to see how they this fits in with the stated mission of the EDL to combat “Islamic extremism” but when times are hard the far right turn to whatever cause they think is populist and likely to garner support for their own flagging organisations.

Local migrant rights organisations have expressed their worry about the demonstration turning ugly and resulting in violence and harassment of migrant workers and their families in the area. Given the kind of people who are pledging to turn up and the followers they will bring with them, it does not seem unreasonable. Let’s hope the people of Boston show them the same lack of respect they have done so far.

1 comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , | posted in Lincolnshire

2012/11/14

East Midlands #EDL donors revealed

By East Midlands Anti-Fascists

Hackers, ZHC, have defaced the EDL website, hacked the organisation’s email accounts and have released a list of donors to the far right group. Although only 19 addresses are listed, 3 of these are from the East Midlands: Clive Muddimer of Quorn, Leics, Mark Rowan of Brinsley, Notts and Anthony Otoole of Derby.

The EDL have had to redirect traffic from the hacked englishdefenceleague.org address to a .net domain. Defenceleagueclothing.co.uk got a similar treatment. This is only the latest of several hundreds of attacks on EDL sites by ZHC. The EDL have also been targeted by Anonymous and TeaMp0isoN in the past.

Comments Off on East Midlands #EDL donors revealed   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire

2012/11/08

No English Democrat Police Candidates

By East Midlands Anti-Fascists

We’re pleased to announce that there will be no English Democrats standing for Police & Crime Commissioner posts in any of the 5 East Midlands counties next week. Neither Elliott Fountain (Lincs) or Alan Spencer-Bennett (Northants) made it onto the ballot. That means that, UKIP aside, there are no far right candidates in the region.

We’d like to think our exposé had a little something to do with Fountain’s withdrawal – after all what party craving respectability would let an openly islamaphobic man, who can’t keep his arse in his trousers and supports far right violence against the police, run for head of the local police force? It’s about as sensible as a drug-taking anti-drugs candidate… Still, we’d have loved to have seen him come last with 25 votes again.

Comments Off on No English Democrat Police Candidates   |  tags: , , , | posted in Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire