Monthly Archives: March 2013

2013/03/31

Far right humiliated in Nottingham

By East Midlands Anti-Fascists

In spite of national call outs and attendances by the North West Infidels, Paul Pitt of the South East Alliance, Casuals United, the English National Resistance, Nottingham EDL and the EVF, barely a dozen people bothered turning up for Tony Curtis’ demo at Nottingham Uni yesterday. After plotting up at a nearby Toby carvery the pitiful crowd weren’t even allowed onto the campus and had to stand around in the road outside listening to Tone the Moan. Casuals United reckon they go where they want but as usual they meekly went exactly where the police wanted them. They didn’t get close to the event they were supposed to be protesting or speak to the general public so the whole thing was a waste of time.

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This is further proof that without the EDL these hangers on are nothing. It looks impressive to have alliances of about 10 different groups until you realise that each group has about 3 people in it and most of them are keyboard warriors. These big mouths spend more time designing elaborate logos and posting on Facebook than actually doing anything in the real world.

This is the second humiliation this week for Curtis who foolishly thought he could hold his own against “the left” on Indymedia. When his badly thought through arguments were torn to shreds he quickly surrendered, pretending he’d been banned, even though as one commenter pointed out, you can’t be banned from Indymedia. As one poster noted “typical fascist, making loads of noise but unable to back it up when effectively challenged”.

Part of Curtis’ whingeing was about being called a racist. Well here’s a tip – if you don’t want people to think you’re a racist it’s probably best not to give Nazis a hug. Curtis was recently pictured with his arm around Shane Calvert, leader of the NWI who are notorious for calling for the killing of “Pakis”, the gassing of Jews and murdering of immigrants. Calvert was recently in attendance at the neo-Nazi White Pride Worldwide event and regularly does demos alongside the National Front. Other NWI activists include Liam Pinkham, who likes to pose in jackboots giving a stiff-armed salute.

Paul Pitt, Shane Calvert and Tony Curtis yesterday

Paul Pitt, Shane Calvert and Tony Curtis yesterday

Shane Calvert

Shane Calvert

NWI member Liam Pinkham

NWI activist Liam Pinkham

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2013/03/27

Leicester Nirvana FC take a stand against racism

By East Midlands Anti-Fascists

Leicester Nirvana FC have fought against all manner of racism over the years, both on the pitch and from the authorities. The club, based in inner city Leicester, is made up of predominantly black and Asian players who have faced abuse from rival players and fans as well as being continually overlooked by the local authorities. Now they have compiled a report called Racism and Resistance which chronicling the club’s experiences and how their players have struggled to better themselves, in spite of the prejudice they have faced. Well worth a read!

LeicesterNirvana

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2013/03/26

Far right demonstration in Nottingham on Saturday

By East Midlands Anti-Fascists

Far right activists, led by Casuals United and Tony Curtis of the English National Resistance, will be holding a demonstration against a Muslim conference in Nottingham this weekend. They will be protesting outside the East Midlands Conference Centre at 1pm on Saturday 30th March.

Demo organiser Tony Curtis: Hate speaker?

Demo organiser Tony Curtis: Hate preacher?

In response to our previous article asking why they were coming, they have now seen fit to reveal that they are protesting the invitation of Haitham al-Haddad to speak at the conference. Previously they just told their followers to blindly follow their command to oppose the “hate preachers” and none of them asked questions. Blind obedience seems to be as alive and well in the far right as it was in the days of “just following orders” 1930s Germany.

The decision to oppose al-Haddad is not unreasonable, given that he has reportedly described Jews as “the enemies of God, and the descendants of apes and pigs” and believes in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. He has said that should a woman refuse to sleep with her husband, “angels will curse” her and has written in favour of the prohibition of musical instruments. That he is speaking at a family event and passing on these bigoted ideas is very disturbing.

But it is the utmost hypocrisy for former EDL members to be protesting this man. After all, Tony Curtis has supported the NWI recently, even though leader, John “Snowy” Shaw also believes in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and extreme anti-Semitic ideas. Why is Curtis protesting a Muslim hate preacher but not the hate preacher in his own midst? We can also point the finger at Jeff Marsh, leader of Casuals United, who set up the the openly Nazi Welsh Defence League. Even the former leader of the EDL’s Jewish Division quit claiming that the organisation had been taken over by Nazis. The EDL has courted Jews when it has seemed politically useful but is now turning back to anti-Semites for support.

Casuals United leader Jeff Marsh's Welsh Defence League: very tolerant of Jews

Casuals United leader Jeff Marsh’s Welsh Defence League: very tolerant of Jews

It’s also hypocritical for the far right to criticise al-Haddad’s sexist ideas and lack of respect for a woman’s sexual consent. EDL members have been exposed for promoting rape as a weapon against their enemies and local members were exposed by us for their misogynist and sexually predatory posts. Some of these men will be turning up to “oppose” al-Haddad’s views on women at the weekend, but their own are equally disgusting and backwards. Why aren’t Casuals and Curtis booting them out of the ranks? Maybe because they aren’t brown or bearded enough.

Al-Haddad should be opposed by the vast majority who find his views abhorrent, not this ragtag bunch of far right misfits whose own ideas are just as disgusting. It would be best if both al-Haddad and the racist, sexist, homophobes of the far right were sent packing.

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2013/03/25

Oppose the March for England

By East Midlands Anti-Fascists

If you only go to one anti-fascist mobilisation this year, stopping the March for England in Brighton should be it. The fascists have been salivating about this one for months, whipping themselves up into a far right frenzy about their right to impose their homophobic and racist abuse on the people of Brighton. They are out for revenge against the ‘reds’ who comprehensively humiliated their hate-fest last year and are pulling out all the stops to do it, even inviting the most openly Nazi groups, like the Friends of Golden Dawn.

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Anti-fascists from the East Midlands will be going down and we’d like to encourage you to join them.

Here’s the official callout from Stop MFE:

Last year thousands of people lined the streets of Brighton to drown out March for England’s message of hate. Let’s do it again. Racists and fascists have no place in our diverse city.

March for what?

March for England (MfE) is not an innocent celebration of traditional culture. March for England is a right wing, Islamophobic, racist and homophobic organisation that helped found the English Defence League (EDL) and is supported by EDL members. The fascist credentials of their annual outing to Brighton on Sunday 21st April has never been clearer. Neo-Nazis, Friends of Golden Dawn, supporters of the swastika waving Greek fascist party, have stated they will be attending March for England.

Islamophobia and English fascists

MfE and the EDL are just two of a growing number of English fascist groups that are violently lslamophobic. They state they are against so-called “Islamic extremists’ but this is the mantra of a growing anti-Muslim movement with European fascism that quickly turns into a wholesale assault on Muslim people, all migrants and any way of life that they think is not “English” enough.

Brighton: anti-fascism begins at home

The current economic crisis and the demonisation of migrants has created the political climate for fascist ideas and organisations to grow. Groups such as the MfE, EDL and BNP groups scapegoat those most affected by war and economic hardship, they discriminate according to their ideas of race and nation, they spread fear and hate of those people they believe are different to them, they attempt to intimidate community groups. When the people of Brighton made their collective stand against Mfe and EDL, they helped turn the tide against new fascism in Britain. Since we took to the streets to show our opposition to the rise of a new fascism, the EDL have been halted in Bristol, Walthamstow and Norwich.

We’ll do it again. Fascism grows if we let it.

See you there.

For updates contact:

stopmfe@ymail.com

and follow:

https://twitter.com/stopmfe

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2013/03/21

Far right threaten Muslim conference

By East Midlands Anti-Fascists

Thanks to the anti-fascist who posted a heads up about a possible EDL demo on Indymedia:

Nottingham EDL are trying to shut down a Family Retreat conference at the University of Nottingham for the sole reason that it is being held by Muslims. Calling the organisers “Jihadis” and the event a “hate speech conference” they are encouraging supporters to contact the East Midlands Conference Centre to get the event cancelled and are threatening to hold a demonstration if it goes ahead. In fact, the family event is a very apolitical one, focused mainly on doctrinal issues within Islam. But then the speakers do have beards…

It seems that the EDL only have issues with the event because it is organised by and for Muslims. Of course, if a Muslim group were to protest and try to shut down a Christian event, the EDL would be baying for blood. Apparently, it’s alright when it’s the other way round though. It seems they are only in favour of their own freedom of speech but want to silence others.

The conference is scheduled to take place from Fri 29 March – Mon 01 April at the East Midlands Conference Centre on Nottingham University’s main campus.

East Midlands Anti-fascists have done a bit more digging and found that this is part of a larger campaign by Casuals United who are inviting not just the EDL but all the explicitly fascist groups, like the NWI and EVF, to harass universities into cancelling events.

East Midlands top dog Tony Curtis is claiming to be organising a demo against the family event sometime over Easter weekend, saying that one of the speakers condones the rape of children and the killing of gays. As usual, he doesn’t provide any evidence and given he was also claiming that calling people ‘pakis’ is not racist recently, we aren’t very convinced by his claims.

Casuals United are claiming that:

Main speakers are hate preachers who call f0r female genital mutilation, gays and non Muslims to be killed and who praise terror attacks.

They also say that “This is the same mob below that we stopped at Reading Uni” referring to a talk that was due to be given by Abu Usamah at-Thahabi that was stopped by a student anti-extremist  group (not the far right). However, at-Thahabi is not scheduled to speak at the Nottingham event so it’s unclear what the link is.

If the University of Nottingham event really is going to feature men who promote misogynist and homophobic actions then it should be shut down, by the wider community not a bunch of racist fascists. However, so far the far right’s case for being there looks decidedly shaky.

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2013/03/17

No progress for BNP in Skegness

By East Midlands Anti-Fascists

In spite of their hype, the BNP are failing to make progress on the issue of the Skegness halal slaughterhouse. Their last demo was disappointing, turning out only 30 supporters, some of whom were so disappointed with the local organisation that they handed in their membership cards afterwards. Local activists blamed the time of year and lack of advertising for the poor turnout.

No such excuses could be blamed for a similarly poor turnout (we counted about 30 in their photoshoot) yesterday. Thanks to the decision of Johnston Press to give the BNP an advert for their demo in the local newspaper, the Skegness Standard, the fascist party had had all the publicity they could hope for. So no progress for the BNP and, given the rumours suggesting that the slaughterhouse is being run into the ground by incompetent owners, the issue could soon be a moot point.

Thanks to some constructive dialogue with the editor of the Skegness Standard over his paper’s coverage of the issues, most of the East Midlands Anti-fascists’ statement, telling the truth about the BNP’s fake concern for animals, was published yesterday.

Lincolnshire Coastal Branch had better find another issue to exploit fast, because this one is turning into a dead duck.

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2013/03/17

BNP is exploiting slaughterhouse issue

By East Midlands Anti-Fascists

The fascist British National Party will hold a demonstration outside Skegness’ halal slaughterhouse today. In the absence of a genuine animal rights movement, the BNP is exploiting the real concern of local people about the treatment of animals for its own racist and divisive political agenda.

The BNP only campaign against halal slaughter, not the almost identical kosher slaughter or animal rights abuses committed by white British farmers, because they have identified racism against Asian Muslims as a vote winner.(1) Genuine animal rights activists, such as Bristol Animal Rights Collective, have called the focus on halal slaughter “a sign of racial and cultural discrimination” and stated that they “hope [fascists] will be shown that they’re not welcome in Skegness or the animal liberation movement!”(2)

The BNP’s supposed stance against animal cruelty is hypocrisy. The party has given active support to fox hunting in the past. When the Hunting Bill banning the hunting of foxes with dogs was given the Royal Ascent, the BNP announced that “BNP supporters were devastated by the news” calling fox hunting “a sport which has an important role to play”.(3) The BNP is only interested in recruiting people and winning votes, not the plight of animals.

Unlike the BNP, East Midlands Anti-fascists are opposed to ALL animal cruelty.(4) We do not make distinctions based on the ethnic or religious background of the perpetrators.

Under the coalition government’s regime of austerity, ordinary people are suffering due to wage freezes, job losses and cuts to public services. Because, unlike the main parties, the BNP have no history of mismanaging the country, some people are tempted to give them their support. However, the BNP’s divisive policies offer no solution to the current crisis, only serving to divide the working class along racial and cultural lines and making it easier for bosses to exploit us.

East Midlands Anti-fascists oppose the BNP and other fascist groups because we believe the only way we can change our everday lives is by working together: workers and the unemployed, women and men and people of all ethnic and cultural backgrounds. It is corrupt politicians and leeching company bosses who are holding us down, not immigrants or Muslims.

We want to shut down the Skegness slaughterhouse and all factory farming. We also want to shut down the anti-working class policies of the BNP.

Notes:

(1) The BNP has stated that “We reject both pro-Zionist internationalism… and the Islamification of our homelands. Which enemy is it in our political interest to be seen to be opposing more vigorously at the moment? To a party aiming to win seats in London, the West Midlands and the former mill-towns of Northern England, the answer should be pretty obvious.”

(2) See the full statement by Bristol Animal Rights Collective here: http://bristolar.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/skegness-halal-demos-a-slippery-slope-to-the-right/

(3) The Real Countryside Alliance (http://www.realca.co.uk/violence/hunting-and-racism) also lists the extensive links between hunting and the far right.

(4) The East Midlands Anti-fascists blog is an independent website set up to monitor and oppose the far right across the region: http://emaf.noblogs.org

Comments Off on BNP is exploiting slaughterhouse issue   |  tags: , , | posted in Lincolnshire

2013/03/11

The Skegness Standard responds

By East Midlands Anti-Fascists

We have received a rather haughty response from Philip Murray, editor of the Skegness Standard, who, unsurprisingly, doesn’t think he’s done anything wrong. According to Mr Murray: “We don’t support any political group, and never have, and we have carried adverts from groups all over the political spectrum at one point or another in the past.”

This is inadequate. Would Mr Murray give advertising space to an explicitly Nazi Party? Would that be ordinary business as well? Would he be surprised if there were angry protests against him and his paper if he did so? I imagine he would treat such an approach as either ethically repugnant or bad for business, depending on how cynical he was. Giving the BNP an advert is not really much different, however legitimate they would like us to believe they are, given the leadership’s strong links to Nazism, anti-Semitism and racial violence.

Mr Murray continues:

You also ask why we didn’t look to get comment from anti-fascists; it’s simply because we would always look to get reaction from local politicians first because we’re a local newspaper.

This avoids the thrust of the question which was why the Skegness Standard gave an uncritical report of the BNP’s protest. Were there really no “local politicians” who opposed the BNP’s march? It seems unlikely. The only person quoted in the Standard’s front page feature on the BNP march was the regional organiser, Robert Ashton. If this isn’t bias it is extremely poor journalism and either way Mr Murray is culpable.

Clearly Mr Murray is not going to take responsibility for his paper’s lapses so it might be worth going to the next level. Thanks to Worthing’s Porkbolter for this suggestion:

People might also want to ask the CEO of the publishing group that owns the Skegness Standard why it’s supporting fascism. The firm is Johnston Press and the head honcho is Ashley Highfield – email ashley.highfield@jpress.co.uk or tweet him at @ashleyhi

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2013/03/10

The Skegness Standard supports fascism

By East Midlands Anti-Fascists

The BNP has recently announced that its Lincolnshire Coastal Branch, organised by Grimsby’s Robert Ashton, will be holding another day of action in Skegness next weekend. The BNP will be meeting from 11.30am on Sat 16th March, with the intention of marching to the Heath Road halal abattoir. Last time they met at The Victoria, 23 Wainfleet Road. We don’t imagine they will have moved far but you can call them on 07714009285 to find out. They are even taking the party’s Lie Lorry for a spin around the streets – let’s hope that there are no low bridges in Skegness! Party activists will, once again,  be crying crocodile tears and pretending to care about animal rights but in reality they are more interested in persecuting Muslims.

Interestingly, local paper The Skegness Standard seems to be propping them up, giving the fascists “ground breaking” advertising space for their demo. Readers may remember that after the last BNP demo in January, the Standard gave the BNP a totally uncritical feature article, which will undoubtedly have been a boost for them. Either the people running the paper are totally naive or are sympathetic to the fascists.

We have written to the Standard’s editor, Philip Murray, asking him why his publication is giving support to the fascist BNP. We ask that anti-fascists contact Mr Murrary to find out why his publication is promoting a party led by a holocaust denier that has a racist and authoritarian ideology:

Skegness Standard
Unit 22
The Hildreds
Skegness
PE25 3NU

Editor – Philip Murray
Telephone: 01754 897120 Fax: 01754 610987
Email: philip.murray@jpress.co.uk

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2013/03/10

Tories forming alliance with fascists in NW Leics?

By East Midlands Anti-Fascists

There are local elections afoot in many parts of the East Midlands in May and the party machines are grinding into life. Sensing major defeats to Labour in North West Leicestershire, the Tories are looking for every desperate trick in the book to hang onto power… including courting the “independent nationalist” (i.e. fascist who no longer likes Nick Griffin), Councillor Graham Partner, if his blog is to be believed.

Partner was elected BNP County Councillor for the Coalville ward in 2007  but soon joined Sadie Graham’s anti-Griffin faction, bouncing in and out of the party before finally resigning the party whip in 2010 to become an “independent nationalist” (fascist without a home). Last year he was censured by the County Council for a virulently islamophobic leaflet he sent to voters, which was described as “causing harassment to people of Nigerian origin, Third World origin, Palestinian origin, Pakistani origin, any non-Christian beliefs as well as those of a liberal Christian belief”.

According to Partner’s blog:

In anticipation of those prospects [losses to Labour in a number of wards] and the Coalville defeat of the former BNP councillor, the Tories had the cheek to ask for help from Graham and his associates to fend off the Labour revival and ensure Tory victories.

We definitely take this with a pinch of salt, given the source, but it wouldn’t be unthinkable. The “anti-fascist” credentials of mainstream politicians are always secondary to their desire to hang onto power by any means necessary. If this turns out to be true, it is further proof that you cannot trust mainstream politicians to fight the fascists. The only way they will be beaten is through grassroots anti-fascist direct action.

Comments Off on Tories forming alliance with fascists in NW Leics?   |  tags: , , | posted in Leicestershire