Nottingham EDL organiser, Jay Clark, has made threats against the Nottingham Indymedia website in relation to an article on the site exposing the presence of the EDL and BNP at this year’s St George’s Day march. “It’s about time these pathetic cunts got wiped clean out of Nottingham” he wrote on Facebook. Asked whether he meant the EDL or the BNP he clarified “Nottingham Indymedia there a bunch of cunts”. He added that “it was them that put me all over the net leading to me getting raided for an harmless picture” referring to this repost of a photo from Hope Not Hate. Fellow EDL member Chris ‘pigs head on a stick’ Payne called Indymedia “fucking maggots”.

This is not the first time the EDL have threatened Indymedia. A group, including John ‘Snowy’ Shaw who is now leader of the North West Infidels, attempted to disrupt a meeting of the Sheffield Indymedia collective in 2010. Disrupting and attacking what are seen as left-wing or anarchist political meetings and stalls is a sideline for the EDL that they may well return to as their numbers on demos continue to plummet.

The irony is that Indymedia collectives are just providing a platform for anyone to post local news, such as “Fashwatcher”, the anonymous person who posted the article about St George’s Day. Jay could have posted his own responses on the article or his own write up of St George’s Day if he’d wanted to. Also, his assertion that it was Indymedia who put his face all over the net is not entirely accurate given that Hope Not Hate, an organisation with national rather than just local reach, published the original article.

The fact that the EDL are making threats against independent news sites is an indication of how seriously they take freedom of speech. Their response to criticism is not to engage in debate but to threaten to “wipe out” their critics and turn up in mobs to meetings with the intention of intimidating people. These are typical fascist tactics that show them for exactly what they are.