“Book Club” meeting goes awry

London:

Anarchists arrested after clash with BNP activists in East End
East London Advertiser
October 8, 2008

SIX anarchists were arrested in a street fight after they discovered BNP activists had duped a vicar into letting them use his church hall for a rally by saying it was a “book club” meeting.

The six were part of a group of about 30 supporters of the Antifa anti-fascist group who had been lying in wait for the British National Party in Bethnal Green on Sunday.

The anarchists had found out that some 40 BNP members, including former Millwall councillor Derek Beackon, were staging a strategy rally in the church hall of St John on Bethnal Green.

Derek William Beackon is a former UK school bus driver who achieved nationwide notoriety after winning a Millwall council seat for the far-right British National Party (BNP) on September 17, 1993.

    A former member of the openly Nazi British Movement, Beackon joined the BNP in 1986 as an associate member, becoming a full member two years later. Known as ‘Daddy’, Beackon first presented as a candidate for the BNP in 1990 in the Redcoat ward of Tower Hamlets where he gained 3% of the vote, a typically low total for the party at the time. Derek Beackon lost his council seat in May 1994 after a Labour landslide in the East End. The Liberal Democrat candidates – who never really recovered from the taint of alleged racism the previous year – were also swept out of power in Tower Hamlets. The BNP did not win any other elections until May 2002 when the party picked up three council seats in Burnley.

They tipped off the rector, the Rev Alan Green, who had been told by the person reserving the hall it was for a “book club” discussion.

When Mr Green called the group and asked them to leave, the BNP refused.

The vicar then called the police.

As six officers escorted the BNP out of the hall, the anarchists pounced sparking a running battle with cops who called in back-up units and used CS spray to fight back.

An Antifa spokesman told the Advertiser: “We had about 40 of our people in the area, but we didn’t want to cause problems for the church, so we waited outside for the fascists to come out.

“We told them they weren’t welcome in east London and not to show their faces again.”

The Advertiser understands the BNP’s meeting was called to drum up support for a new electoral offensive, and possibly a re-formed branch in Tower Hamlets, before next May’s European polls.

The Antifa spokesman said: “Getting elected in the London elections has given them confidence and they’re slowly marching back into old territory in the city.”

Vicar Mr Green, chair of the Tower Hamlets Inter-Faith Forum and one of the most respected religious leaders in the East End, said he was “disturbed” by the incident.

He said: “We were told it was a book club, but it was quite clear after the meeting started that this was nothing of the sort.

“I could hear them from my office near the hall, it was a political rally.

“When it was quite clear they weren’t going to leave, I called the police. I only found out later there had then been fighting.”

He also pledged to vet groups wanting to use the hall, which is let out free of charge, more carefully.

He added: “They booked under false pretences. We have quite an open policy, but in future I think someone will have to be present when new groups arrive. Extremists are not welcome here.”

BNP spokesman Simon Darby said speakers at Sunday’s rally included former national organiser Richard Edmonds, Barking councillor Bob Bailey and author Jonathan Bowden [BNP ‘cultural officer’; former editor, Revolutionary Conservative].

    In 1988, The Sunday Times revealed that Holocaust News, a publication that claimed The Holocaust was an “evil hoax”, was being published by Edmonds, on behalf of a BNP front organisation, the Centre for Historical Review, and distributed by members. The theme was returned to in the April 8, 1991 edition of Panorama where Edmonds described the publication as ‘a wonderful statement of the truth’. Edmonds also spent time in custody over a racial attack in 1993 and had previously been convicted for smashing a statue of Nelson Mandela on London’s South Bank. Further controversy came in 1993 when he told The Guardian‘s Duncan Campbell that ‘we [the BNP] are 100% racist’.

Mr Darby said: “It’s a sad reflection of the times that we should have to book legitimate meetings under a false name and then be intimidated and violently attacked by left wing, politically motivated stooges.”

The six anti-fascists arrested, aged between 19 and 29 and including one woman, were detained overnight, police said.

Five were released on police bail and no further action will be taken against the 19-year-old.

    antifa.org.uk : “All in all a pretty good day for anti-fascists with plenty of photo opportunities and a fascist meeting stopped! The old heads of the East London BNP including the likes of Derek Beackon and Richard Edmonds must tonight be scratching their shiny domes wondering what went wrong. Maybe stick to taking the old folk out to bingo in future eh chaps!”

Rome:

Our friend and comrade Renato was beaten to death by a fascist delinquent two years ago. During the commemoration of his murder, a group of ten fascists attacked three other people under the cover of darkness.

Same Blades, Same Plots

August 27, 2006: Renato Biagetti, 26 years-old, left a reggae beach party with his girlfriend and a friend in the early hours. They were attacked not far from the beach. They were “guilty” of attending a leftist party. Renato was stabbed eight times and killed. The man who murdered him had a Celtic cross tattooed on his arm. This is the reason why we have claimed a fascist attack.

August 30, 2008: Two years after the murder of Renato Biagetti, a concert was organised in the centre of Rome to commemorate his memory and reject fascist violence. Around 4am, after the event, a fascist squad of about 10 people armed with knives and chains cowardly attacked three of our comrades as they were going back to their cars. They had been hiding not far from the concert site waiting for most of the people to go away. One of them, a member of Otra Campana, got stabbed six times in his thigh and ended up in hospital. Despite being injured, the others managed to send them away. This ambush is an incontrovertible proof: Renato was killed by the neo-fascists and their obtuse culture of violence (especially characterized by the use of “the knives”).

This is not an isolated case: over the last few years a significant number of murders and hate attacks directed at immigrants, transgender people, squats, lesbians and gays and anyone who may look “different” have been taking place in Italy. This is not a new phenomenon: but it has become increasingly serious in the last few years. Since January 2005 activists and antifascist groups reported more than three hundred attacks, some of them fatal. Their warnings have remained unheard…

why the fuck would i do that when im too busy trying to fix australia from being destroyed by people like you. the gooks can sort their own [shit] out. it took the mighty white race plenty of time to get to where it is and outside scum shouldnt be helped, they get it too easy as it is. open the floodgates and let the cunts in you probably say, and wait and watch as they make the most of our freedom without wanting to give any of it back. we’ll be a fascist state because of so called anti fascists like you in about 20 years because of your inaction on stopping the yellow peril. wait until they take over and then take away your rights. they’ve already helped make one of the best prime ministers ever lose his own seat so dont doubt their ability to greatly affect this country… and reading earlier you were very concerned about some of us hassling a negroid girl, well did you stop to think there may have been a reason? she was foul, spitting on people, drinking goon, making a fool of herself and she had what was coming. anyway mate youre a goose and i think you should put your money where your mouth is ~ BirmyHammerSkinz, Bombshell punk rawk forum, December, 2007

As great as the name Slack Bastard is maybe you should consider changing it to Misinformed Twat. I’m off to play a set of Jamaican and Two-Tone ska [at the formerly fascist-sympathising Birmingham Hotel] right now, I’m sure I’ll speak to you soon when you find some other way to twist truths into bullshit. ~ Reverend Jack marked by or reflective of narrow interests and sympathies [The Beefeaters], Feb 9th, 2008 at 5:11 pm

About @ndy

I live in Melbourne, Australia. I like anarchy. I don't like nazis. I enjoy eating pizza and drinking beer. I barrack for the greatest football team on Earth: Collingwood Magpies. The 2024 premiership's a cakewalk for the good old Collingwood.
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3 Responses to “Book Club” meeting goes awry

  1. Kadet says:

    Hmmm. Wonder if Nick Griffin will get the same sort of surprise when he gets his fat white ass down here. And I believe the misinformed twats are the morons that frequent the bombshell forum. Notably Reverend Jack Petty, what a douche.

    Sometimes antisocial, always antifascist!

  2. Ultimate Hater says:
      antifa.org.uk : “All in all a pretty good day for anti-fascists with plenty of photo opportunities”

    Pics or stfu!

  3. @ndy says:

    i imagine that there are others…

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