- Update : EDL demonstration in Dudley, Russell Pollar @ Demotix. The EDL is unhappy about the construction of a mosque in Dudley, one which they claim is being financed with funds from Saudi Arabia, and hence likely to support the doctrine of Wahhabism. See also : EDL – council statement and FAQs.
A week prior to the debut of the Australian Defence League in Melbourne on Friday April 9, in Dudley the English Defence League has staged another rally. See : Seven arrested over rival protests in Dudley, BBC.
Seemingly chastened by the previous counter-rally in Bolton, at which several score counter-protesters were arrested, on this occasion the UAF/SWP has organised a rally — ‘One Dudley Many Cultures’ celebration rejects the hatred and division of the EDL — well away from the EDL’s, with speeches (by all the usual suspects) supplemented with entertainment provided courtesy of the SWP’s musical front LMHR. At the same time as this tactical shift has occurred, the SWP/UAF has also altered its rhetoric, from SMASH THE EDL (Smash the racist EDL in Bolton) to STOP THE EDL RIOTING (Stop the EDL thugs rioting in Dudley).
In both cases, most observers appear to agree that the police have a definite advantage over the UAF/SWP in this area.
What the shift from confrontation to competition on the part of the SWP/UAF means for the EDL is a good question. Insofar as what attracts the moar apolitical hools to the cause is the potential for some violent fun and games, the UAF/SWP’s absence may serve to dampen their enthusiasm. The same applies to the hool’s desire for notoriety, which would seem to require at least some imgs of League members clashing with their Muslim and leftist opposition. Still, something like 1,000 EDL are reported to have stood around in a car park surrounded by police in Dudley, and something like that number did much the same in Bolton a few weeks earlier, so maybe they’ve reached a certain threshold already. As for Australia, it’s difficult to imagine a mob consisting of even 1/10th that number taking to the streets to ‘defend’ the country from Muslims. On the other hand, no Australian city has experienced the equivalent of London’s 7/7, so it’s perhaps not all that surprising.
As for the BNP, its leadership is going through troubled times, only a few weeks away from the next UK general election. Thus Mark ‘Young, Nazi & Proud’ Collett is one of several senior figures to have been dismissed from the party in recent days. Supposedly, Collett had been discovered to have been using his position to his own financial advantage. MEP for North West England and Führer Chairman of the British National Party Nick Gri££in, who would never do such a thing, is pitting himself against millionaire Labor MP Margaret Hodges in the seat of Barking.
On the BNP ~versus~ Labour, see : Too late for Labour to stop the BNP (IWCA, February 4, 2010). Also relevant is National Equality Panel confirms that class is the main issue (IWCA, March 16, 2010). UKfightback has republished a BBC radio documentary about the EDL, BNP, and other far right groups here. It dates from October 2009, but provides good background material.
Meanwhile in the ‘Midlands’
EDL Dudley march: Protesters fight among themselves as 2,000 descend on town
http://www.birminghampost.net/news/west-midlands-news/2010/04/03/edl-dudley-march-protesters-fight-among-themselves-as-2-000-descend-on-town-97319-26170561/
Mark Collett was held by the police on Thursday over a plot to kill Nick Griffin. Also see the “Scottish Sun” and indymedia scotland for LOLZ over the BNP billboard in Aberdeen.
People Like You Make Nick Gri££in Cry.
ROFLMAO! Gri££in’s Empire Strikes Back against the Proud Young Nazi!
Oh yeah.
Apparently, the ex-BNP member has a YouTube account. He (FIFAPLYR1) writes:
Seems pretty unlikely but whatever.
On Russell Brand’s 2002 TV show RE:Brand, Collett described homosexuals as “AIDS Monkeys”, “bum bandits” and “faggots”. On Young, Nazi and Proud, Collett said that he considered AIDS a “friendly disease because blacks, drug users and gays have it”.
Who wouldn’t want him as an MP?
The BNP billboard has been defaced (and even set on fire) so much, they hired “security” to guard it. Of course the “security” were BNP thugs. When they caught a student defacing the billboard, they tried to do a citizen’s arrest and were charged with assault by the po po. It costs them £600 every time they have to replace the poster.
£600 eh? What’s the BNP’s publicity budget for their campaigning in Aberdeen? It would be awfully sad if it were absorbed in this manner.
Oh and this:
LOL.
Looks like the BNP has reached if not surpassed the heights that the NF reached in the 1970s as far as electoral contest is concerned, only they have the further advantage of two MEPs and a lot moar local councillors…
Also, Jonathan Warren has the best report I’ve read so far of the EDL rally (tho’ admittedly I haven’t read many) here:
EDL rampage as journalists attacked in Dudley
Jonathan Warren
Expose the BNP
April 5, 2010
He estimates that there were 3,000 on the EDL rally, which would make it the largest thus far, and draws attention to the successful attempt by some to break through the police cordon and approach the UAF rally, only to retreat when confronted. Further, that the EDL stewards had a difficult time making sure rally-goers behaved, and that media was not witness to some internal rumblings.
Police in riot gear follow English Defence League protesters as they run through Dudley town centre after breaking out of their protest area. Image © Jonathan Warren/jwarren.co.uk 2010
I am a White, working class male living in London. Can you please provide reasons to why those in my position should display opposition to the BNP. And will doing so bring about positive changes in relation to us?
I am a White, working class male living in London.
In reality, you’re a troll from Melbourne.
hey andy, is the left’s support of multiculturalism a conspiracy. i mean, are you guys covertly encouraging racial unrest in the hope that society will break down, giving you the basis of the revolution you so eagerly seek. or maybe you are subconsciously sabotaging your own moral principals to that end. it all seems a bit freudian to me, you should see a doctor:)
Only your tinfoil helmet prevents the satellites from destroying such thought-patterns developing as you tap-tap away on your keyboard.
Thanks for playing.
IT WAS A JOKE ANDY
AND IT’S SPELLED PRINCIPLES
try not taking yourself so seriously mate. you’re stooping a bit low now. first you dig up the old tin foil joke, now an exercise in pedantry. i can picture you stamping your feet when you throw a tantrum. i think i will call you ‘rick’ when you act this way. now..hands up who likes me?
IT WAS A JOKE WOODY
i forgot about this one… and, no rick, you weren’t joking. what’s funny is your various reactions. [you’re] more like your new namesake than you realise.
AND IT’S SPELLED PRINCIPLES
this’ll shake ’em up at the anarchist society