There was a definite sense of deja vu in Edinburgh today as the far-right Scottish Defence League attempted to hold their latest ‘demonstration’, with hundreds of anti-fascists gathering to oppose them. But, unlike last time around, the script could’ve been written well in advance for the way in which events would play out today. And indeed, it had been – Lothian and Borders Police saw to that.
Having been turned down on their initial proposal to hold a march through the city centre, the SDL were forced to make do with a police sanctioned “static protest” outside the Apex Hotel on Waterloo Place, at which they gathered from early on. Anti-fascists were meanwhile meeting at the foot of the Mound, where a rally had been organised by Unite Against Fascism. After hearing from several trade union and political party speakers, a short, five minute march along Princes Street took place. However, upon nearing the pre-arranged spot for a ’second rally’, it became clear that the march was, in fact, being directed straight into a ‘designated protest area’ surrounded by metal barriers. When a sizeable section of the march stalled and attempted to resist entering this area, and to encourage others not to as well, UAF stewards rapidly intervened. We had to enter the protest area, we were told – and through a mixture of lies, confusion and just following the crowd, most did. Around 40 remained outside, staying mobile and attempting to reach the SDL – both to ensure that they would not be allowed a demonstration publicly, and to let them know that there was an anti-fascist presence in Edinburgh that day.
This was carried out with limited success, a shouting match (from great distance) with the SDL here and dash past police lines there. But with the vast majority of the anti-fascist demo, which had numbered up to 4-500 people, being herded into a pen, there was no scope for the kind of blockade of the SDL that took place last time they visited Edinburgh. With officers from at least four Scottish forces in attendance, the city centre was in a state of virtual occupation, with riot vans, prison buses and dozens of cops on every street in the proximity of the demonstrations. In this context, it wasn’t a victory for anyone but the forces of the state, who gave a textbook performance of flooding the streets with officers, keeping two opposing sides apart, maintaining order and having the whole thing over and done with by 2.30pm.
the fash get escorted away following their demo
Some sections of the anti-fascist movement – namely Unite Against Fascism – are already declaring a massive victory on the streets of Edinburgh today, much as they did in Tower Hamlets last week (where they also succeeded in banning all marches for a 30 day period). The twitter feed of UAF’s Martin Smith is a sight to behold – an utterly delusional portrayal of the day’s events which counts police kettles, the fact that the SDL were “nowhere to be seen” (certainly not from where the UAF demo was situated) and Labour councillors giving grandstanding speeches “evoking the spirit of Cable Street” (lol) as some kind of stunning victory. But in reality, the SDL still numbered around 100+ supporters, were able to have their demonstration on Waterloo Place, and then leave pretty much of their own accord by Calton Hill. Of these 100 or so, though, a sizeable contingent had travelled from England – banners and hoodies were seen from Luton and Newcastle EDL divisions, alongside the EDL splinter group the “North West Infidels”. The SDL are not in a position of strength; whether they were strengthened by today’s demo, though, is difficult to say.
Anti-fascists can claim a success in that the SDL were not able to venture beyond a tightly controlled cordon. The very fact that there was opposition to them in the streets today was key in ensuring that they were unable to come into contact with the general public (with the exception of the unfortunate couple having a wedding inside the same hotel). But the willingness to accept “designated protest areas”, while allowing the police to “do their job” of penning in the fascists in their protest area, is extremely dangerous territory not just in the fight against the far-right, but for the progressive movement as a whole. These very same forces who have spent weeks now fetishising the riots and anti-police sentiment today walked into, accepted and pulled others into a dystopian nightmare-esque vision of “legitimate” protest in “designated” confines. They shall not pass – the police cordons, that is.
The story is all too familiar. Once again this Saturday, the rump group of semi-organised racists that make up the “Scottish Defence League” will take to the streets of a Scottish city. Having been denied their proposed march route by Edinburgh City Council last month, the group are now claiming to be holding a “static rally” in the capital’s city centre this weekend.
This represents the first time the SDL have attempted to demonstrate in a major city since February 2010, when they were outnumbered over 25-1 and left unable to march in Edinburgh, as hundreds of anti-fascists evaded police lines (and UAF megaphones) to ensure the SDL were kettled inside Jenny Ha’s pub at the bottom of the Royal Mile. Although no formal application to march had been made, it’s almost certain that the police would have allowed a demonstration to proceed outside of the nearby Scottish Parliament, had there not been such a large anti-fascist presence.
Since their last Edinburgh outing 19 months ago, which followed a not much more successful first demo in Glasgow in November 2009, the SDL have adopted a strategy of holding demonstrations in near secrecy out with the main cities, making anti-fascist mobilisation more difficult. Now, however, the SDL are venturing back to the big city, with all the subsequent publicity that that has entailed, particularly coming just a week after the much-hyped up EDL demonstration in Tower Hamlets.
The level of opposition the SDL will face on Saturday is unclear, although Lothian and Borders Police have issued a statement promising “robust action against any disorder or unlawful actions”. Unite Against Fascism have organised a counter-demo, which will meeting at the foot of the Mound at 11am before marching along the road to the Wellington Statue at the east end of Princes Street, where a rally will hear from various MSPs and local dignitaries. They state that “By holding the area around Wellington statue we will physically prevent the racists from entering our city centre. This area will be within sight of where the SDL intend to assemble, so the size of our protest will demonstrate that that they are a tiny extremist minority.”
Given past experience of SDL demonstrations, the UAF statement amounts to little more than part fantasy, part sheer fallacy. There is no way of knowing where – or indeed when – the SDL will assemble, nor how they will arrive in the city. Given that they will now not be marching, at least officially, it’s highly likely that the police have reached a private arrangement for the SDL to meet elsewhere in the city, under close police supervision. The idea that this will be anywhere near the official UAF demo, let alone that UAF will be able to “physically prevent” the SDL from being able to enter the city centre by being effectively kettled next to a statue, is complete delusion.
Just like last February, anti-fascists need to directly confront the SDL and prevent them from being allowed to have a public assembly in Edinburgh city centre. Then, as now, the police had reached a private arrangement with the fascists for a demonstration spot. Meanwhile, anti-fascists were meant to keep their side of the bargain and not venture outside of a strictly pre-arranged march route, enforced by megaphone-toting UAF officials. Several hundred of us disagreed, and evaded police lines to reach and surround the pub in which the SDL were situated. Throughout, UAF stewards attempted to direct everyone back to Princes Street Gardens, whilst claiming that the SDL were “in Haymarket”, and that the alleged fascists in Jenny Ha’s pub were in fact “Hibs casuals”. It was, of course, a lie – and a dangerous one at that.
The lessons of last February need to be learned from and remembered. We can’t rely on the state to crush the far-right, a failed strategy that has multiple political pitfalls, and ultimately doesn’t work and never has done. And nor can we rely on official marches and rallies, penned in by police miles away from the fascists – we need direct action on a mass basis, to confront and prevent the SDL from spreading their racist bigotry to Edinburgh’s streets.
Hundreds take direct action against the SDL in November 2009, Glasgow
Edinburgh City Council today denied permission to the far-right Scottish Defence League for a proposed march through the city centre next month. This is the first time that the SDL have gone before a local government decision making body, in the past having favoured circumventing official permission and going straight into negotiations with local police.
The march was set to have taken place on Saturday 10 September, reportedly to ‘commemorate’ the ten year anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. Following huge political pressure, the council today refused to grant permission for the march, which was to take a route from near the US Embassy to the Wellington monument off Princes Street, on fears that disorder could break out.
Such a move should be welcomed – albeit cautiously. Calling for restrictions and bans on the right to protest is dangerous territory for any progressive organisation to step into, having backfired in the face of the left on countless occasions in the past. However, despite the ban on marching, the SDL are standing defiant and are still calling for a mobilisation of their supporters on the 10th September in central Edinburgh.
And so we’re back to square one: the same situation as November 2009, when the SDL held their first ever demo, in Glasgow, and February 2010, when they attempted to march in Edinburgh. Since then, the rump group of around 50 hardcore supporters have held a number of lower profile demonstrations, generally in smaller towns across Scotland, and most recently in Irvine, to varying levels of success.
But the SDL have struggled to gain anything near the same momentum as their English counterparts, for a number of reasons. High among these is the sheer level of opposition the SDL have faced on the streets in Scotland, which has meant they’ve struggled to ever get off the ground, with thousands of anti-fascists facing them down (and winning) in Glasgow and Edinburgh, and in the latter case, maintaining a physical presence which prevented the SDL from being allowed, or able, to march.
With the SDL now gearing up for a static demonstration on the 10th, it’s imperative that anti-fascists once again organise and mobilise to oppose them en masse on the streets. What attitude the police will take to the SDL presence is entirely unpredictable, as previous demonstrations have showed, with the balance of forces on the day likely to be key.
As one of the few SSY members who made it to today’s anti-fascist demo in Stirling I’d like to write a bit about what went wrong and where we can go from now. As you may or may not know today was a bit of a setback for the movement against fascism in Scotland. To begin with a small group of us travelled through on the train from Glasgow, being followed and asked various stupid questions by the police (such as “are you going to Stirling?”). Once there some more joined us but the overall turnout was disappointingly small (under 50 people in total) and as a result the police were easily able to put us into a kettle outside Stirling train station as a dozen or so fascists later got off the train. We were held for around half an hour as the fascists walked off towards the town centre, apparently ending up in a park where the police had allowed them to rally. After the police let us go we headed up towards the town centre discussing what to do next. Before getting anywhere close to the park we received news (from spotters I think) that the fash had been joined by a fairly large group of football casuals, some of which were said to be armed with weapons and clearly looking for a fight. With this it was decided, perhaps sensibly given the numbers, that there was little we could do in Stirling and that the safest option was for us to head back to Glasgow. We could have stayed of course and hoped that the police would have protected us from them but do we really want to be in the situation in Scotland where we must rely on the state to prevent anti-fascists from being beaten up or worse?
I absolutely don’t mean to blame any individuals for the low turnout. I understand the announcement was very last minute, many of us only heard that the SDL would be demonstrating in Stirling and not Glasgow (as was originally planned) less than 24 hours before the event. And I’m sure those who didn’t attend will have also sorts of perfectly valid reasons for this. I think our success in Glasgow and Edinburgh had perhaps helped to create a false sense of complacency that contributed to the low turnout today. But the SDL can’t and mustn’t be written off as a threat. Today will I fear have emboldened them, it will have handed them a feeling of victory which, if we had had more of us and had been better organised, would have been denied to them. Personally I don’t think the SDL have that much reason to feel joyful after today. That they felt unable to show their faces in Glasgow and ended up in a park in Stirling instead is itself a sign they are still weak. But the danger is that they will now feel far more comfortable about travelling to smaller towns all over Scotland (preferably after keeping the location a secret as long as possible), relatively secure in the knowledge that not enough of us are going to turn up to show them meaningful resistance. With a lot more of us there today we could obviously have broken through the police kettle and cut the fash off before their football thug friends were able to join them.
So what’s the solution now? As someone who hasn’t really been involved in any organisation work up to now I can’t really answer that sufficiently. But we need to obviously keep on working on intelligence and perhaps on building up a secure mailing list who we can contact if there’s any details we don’t want made available on facebook. We should also, I feel, try not to leave anti-fascist work until only when the SDL have an event planned. To keep up the momentum I think it would perhaps now be good for us to have anti-fascist meetings and discussions more often in order to stay up to date with what’s going on. Ideally we could have a fairly large network of committed anti-fascists who can be contacted quickly through various means, not just facebook. If we’re only going to find out at the last minute then we can’t rely on local anti-fascist groups to emerge and coordinate any form of action in time. As things stand most will likely have to come from Glasgow and Edinburgh where SAFA has a reasonable presence.
I’m sure other people will also have some good ideas and suggestions about where to go now. We can all agree though that fascists on the streets, in a town of any size, is not something we want to see here in Scotland. You only have to look to England and the massive threat posed by the EDL to see what happens when fascists consistently feel comfortable spreading their poison in public. It’s not too late here in Scotland and we can still defeat the scum with a bit of effort. Let Stirling be the last time they’re allowed to show their faces on our streets.
EDIT: Some of the information in this article would now appear to be inaccurate so I stand corrected. There were around equal numbers of fascists and anti-fascists present in Stirling with some of the more sensationalistic information we received being manufactured to create confusion.
It’s been a busy week here at SSY towers. Many strange inhabitants of the murkier corners of the internet were so disgusted by our bin raking ways, they were moved to try and track us down and give us death threats, letters to our (commie) parents about how we’re mad commies, and even complaints to our unis about how they are harbouring terrorists!
A quick recap: last weekend SSY were among the many different protesters (various different socialists, anarchists, trade unionists and random members of the public) who were disgusted to see the fascist BNP attempting their first street activity in over a year in Glasgow city centre. The 7 hate-mongers were quickly outnumbered by hundreds of normal, sensible individuals who don’t blame immigrants for everything wrong with their own lives. Embarrassed, the racists were quickly forced to retreat under the protection of the police. In their rush to run away, they abandoned their banner on the street, which was then put in a bin.
Going by the motto of ‘waste not, want not’, some SSY members decided to rescue this fine piece of fascist art from the bin, and take it away for our own amusement. We’d like all our fascist friends reading this to please note that THERE IS NO SUCH CRIME AS BIN RAKING. That is why, despite what you have been claiming over the past few days, none of us have been contacted by the police, because we didn’t in fact steal your banner, unless a bin is capable of ownership.
Many hours of laughing at idiots later, this led to this picture being taken. The far right were completely humiliated by their own inability to mobilise on anything like the scale the (still relatively weak) left can, and the fact that ordinary people in Glasgow will take time out of their busy Saturday to tell them in no uncertain terms what utter twats they think they are. Now it was even worse: the banner that they left behind was in the hands of the very people who had earlier forced them to run away.
The crazy bullies, well used to blaming their own failures on others, were quick to lash out. Across the far right internet, different factions of fascists tried desperately to blame each other for who’s fault it was they’d been collectively humiliated (and which of them weren’t proper racists because they were “race mixers” willing to shag non-whites). As you can see here, some of them can’t quite decide if they hate us or fancy us. Here we reproduce a selection of the highlights of their various imaginative insults (all spelling mistakes were in the originals!):
THE MARXIST EDUCATIONAL CIRCUS
“Agitated commie tit”
“products of the Marxist educational circus”
“i expect they are buying supplys of nappies and plastic bedsheets incase they have a accident during a nightmare.”
“insecure fairies just dying to conform to the status quo.”
“These people are a cancer in our society”
“Sqeal like a piggy boy.”
“Those two guys look like the under-the-thumb sort that do the big hero act to try and impress the girls, and hopefully get into their pants. They probably do all the housework as well! (Instead of a 50/50 split, which is what I have.)”
“you can bet your bottom dollar that the males involved, which will be most of them, if they aren’t gay, are self hating apologists for their own gender, who consider themselves to be male feminists, or manginas.”
“I mean for someone who will never have a girlfreind and likes singing gay disco and has the features of a rat with lepracy, he should really should be locked in a cellar for the rest of his life or stuck on a sex offeneders wing with the rest of his marxist bum chums..”
“What i find funny is the girls, they hardly look like the typical Marx Theoreticians. So pathetic how they go along with what their androgynous girlfriend does.”
“I quite fancy the girl on the left. Nice legs.”
“a rather cute kiss curl hairstyle”
“Oh dear, I wonder if he is very scared tonight, and nights to come? I bet his teddy is being hugged like it has never been hugged before.” [Antifascist commie scum responds: "They're way off the mark about me squeezing my teddy extra tight. Teddy is getting the normal amount of snuggles."]
WHAT DID YOU DO TO PROTEST THIS OUTRAGE?!?!?!111?!
“The scum bag leftys in this video make me feel sick, I dont see them protesting against the black police association or the black nurses association , where were they at the MOBO awards or when Islam4UK wanted to march through wootton bassett ? why is it that the words ‘white’, ‘British’ and ‘English’ are treated with total disrespect when everyone else can have representatives.”
For the past week there’s been a fairly unrelenting torrent of insults and death threats of which this is just a selection. Gutted at their own patheticness, they’ve been desperate to make us feel terrified at their hateful violence filled internet vitriol. They’ve been really keen to prove to us that they KNOW ALL ABOUT US, WHO WE ARE, WHERE WE LIVE ETC. ETC.
Except. They don’t. Their intelligence gathering is more inept than the Chuckle Brothers at any one of their many jobs. Although they’ve managed to gather a few basic details about some SSY members that are freely available online (such as the shocking revelation that, like 21 million other people in the UK, some of them HAVE FACEBOOKS?!?!), they’ve been far outweighed by the stuff they got so spectacularly wrong.
Let’s start with the most obvious clunker. The Nicola poster on the wall. Have a think guys. How many people you know have a MASSIVE FUCKING POSTER OF THEIR NAME ON THEIR BEDROOM WALL? Maybe that’s the kind of thing egostical Nazis are into, but normal people just don’t do it. We’re giving you a headstart here. It’s Nicola from Girls Aloud. None of us are called Nicola.
Then there’s all the fantasy “zoom in and enhance” action. One far right CSI fan commented that he’d “heard it’s possible to get software to remove the black bars.” No, it’s really really not. They also claimed they were going to zoom and enhance the badge hanging off the cupboard, the one that reveals our ID that we’d stupidly left in the picture. We’ll save you the bother. This, of course, reveals the identity of a notable SSY member who goes by the name of “The Worker’s Beer Company is a Fundraising Arm of the TUC” (we just call her WorkBeer for short.)
And let’s not forget about all their bullshit claims, such as they’d heard someone had turned police informant (bullshit), people had deleted their Facebooks (also bullshit), that loads of our “so-called friends have been grassing us in” (total fantasy), and that we were getting chucked out of uni (there’s absolutely nothing in the course requirements of any of my modules about not taking BNP banners out of bins.)
The BNP table is under his fist
To help you out, we’ve put together some handy biographies of our key members:
Liam Turnip, AKA, Liam ‘Iron Man’ Turdbit, AKA Captain Radical, AKA the long streak of piss, AKA the rat with leprosy, AKA Liam Touch My Willy Wallace, AKA Longshanks.
He may go by many names but there’s no mistaking the long man. You can tell wherever he goes by the trail of watches he leaves behind him as they slip off his slender wrists. Fascists everywhere just can’t resist his androgynous cute kiss curls.
Liam grew up on the multicultural hell of Arran, where he ran the island’s second most successful dancehall and bhangra night. However, this was only to appeal to the local crowd as his true musical love is, of course, gay disco. Since moving to the mainland his attempts to get a degree have been hampered by his non stop terrorism.
Nicola Roberts grew up in Runcorn, Cheshire. She has one sister, Frankie, and two brothers, Harrison and Clayton. She holds family values close to her heart, which was revealed in a documentary following the members of Girls Aloud SSY for six months.
Roberts stated: “For years I felt like the ugly one in Girls Aloud SSY. I was tall, skinny, with red hair and the whitest skin you’ve ever seen -- standing next to four of the most gorgeous terrorists in Britain.” She added that she felt much better about her appearance once she realised that SSY is a refuge for ginger fantasists.
Nicola sometimes forgets what her own name is, so has this handy reminder poster on her wall
Apart from her hectic schedule of anti fascism, Nicola has managed to perform on some of the greatest socialist hits of recent years, such as ‘Sound of the Untermensch,’ ‘Something Kind of Jew,’ and ‘You Can’t Mistake My Ideology’.
And of course, let’s not forget Donna, who TOTALLY EXISTS AND IS NOT A PSEUDONYM. We all realise that, just as you’ve claimed in banned comments, you know Donna’s real name, where she lives and the fact the she is very much real. Unfortunately, she can’t remember who she is since Dr Who had to wipe her memory.
Of course, all joking aside, death threats, even if they do emanate from pathetic internet warrior losers, have to be taken seriously. On the private SDL section of the EDL forums (which we, being slightly better at internet spying than you, can read no bother) there’d been folk talking about coming to the Glasgow SSY AGM last Thursday to “put the boot into these faggots.”
Given that the night before 20-30 EDL thugs tried to attack a socialist meeting on Tyneside, we had to take this at least a bit seriously as an attack on our right to meet and organise. So we responded appropriately, and with less than a day’s notice we put out the call to socialists and anti-fascists to come down to the venue to show solidarity and help defend us. The resulting mobilisation was inspirational. Over 60 people from all kinds of political backgrounds came down. Many would disagree on a lot of our politics, but we were united in our desire to defend each other in the face of mindlessly violent knobheads.
Of course, we got no trouble. Nobody we saw did look like the SDL or their other fascist chums. But if they did send anyone along for a look, they’ll have got the message. Anti fascists in Glasgow are organised and militant and prepared to stand up for each other. And there are many many more of us than you.
Anti fascists stand united against the SDL's internet bullshit
BNP members Mark McGarry (centre with camera) & Joseph Finnie (far-right)
Saturday 18 September saw a hugely successful day of anti-fascist direct action against the racist thugs of the BNP and the Scottish Defence League – both of whom attempted to carry out public activity in Glasgow on the day.
September 18 was originally the day the SDL were planning to hold a march from Blytheswood Square to the Cenotaph in George Square. With this route being denied by the council – who offered them a static protest instead – the SDL announced that the march was cancelled and re-applied for one in the east end of the city in November.
In light of the events of last weekend, however, when the EDL descended on Oldham in a secret ‘flash mob’ protest, local anti-fascists began to suspect that something similar could be afoot in Glasgow. This was compounded when both the main SDL forum was taken offline, and their facebook page announced that they would be holding a ’social gathering’ in a city centre pub on the day. Acting on these fears, activists from the Scottish Anti-Fascist Alliance decided to keep an eye on the city centre over the course of the day, posting scouts at different locations where it was believed the SDL might show up.
However, it soon turned out that the SDL were not the only group of far-right thugs in town that day. At 1pm, a number of BNP activists were spotted in George Square, setting up a stall and posing for photos with their ‘Support our Troops’ banner. They left soon after, but quickly set up again on Buchanan Street. Anti-fascists from across the city quickly mobilised, and by 1.30 there was a small gathering around the stall, preventing the BNP from engaging with the public. Ten minutes later, a larger group of anti-fascist arrived. Within seconds, the stall was smashed up and the BNP material was scattered and destroyed. The 5-6 BNP members were forced to stand beside the ruins of their stall waiting for the police to show up, which they did – about 15 minutes later. After a humiliating half hour of being chanted at by a now large group of passers-by and anti-fascists, the BNP were driven away in a police van for their own safety. A total victory for anti-fascists and, judging from the response from the public, a reaffirmation that Glasgow will not stand for the bigotry and racism of the BNP. This was the first BNP activity in the city centre for almost a year, and apparently the ‘launch of their new campaign’. We don’t think they’ll be back any time soon.
But believe it or not, this was just the beginning of a day of successful direct action against fascism. At 3pm, members of the Scottish Defence League began gathering in The Goose pub on Union Street, next to Central Station. Upon being approached by anti-fascists, they informed them that they’d be going to George Square at 5.30pm, apparently with the intention of assembling at the Cenotaph. Clearly, they were after a confrontation – regardless, though, this doesn’t change the issue at hand: fascist gatherings need to be opposed.
By 5.30pm, small groups of anti-fascists and local youth were assembled around the square. When the 15 or so SDL supporters showed up, a brief confrontation ensued. The crowd of around 100 anti-racists ensured that the SDL did not reach the Cenotaph, while a few fists were thrown in both directions, although it’s understood that no anti-fascists suffered injuries. A large number of police then stepped in and pushed the SDL to one corner of the square, where they were held for a period then removed. The BBC are reporting that a 14 year old was arrested – as far as we know this was for punching an SDL member in the face. One SDL supporter was also lifted for a ‘racist breach of the peace’.
Overall, a massive victory for anti-fascists: two groups of racists thrown off the streets. We didn’t rely on the police, and we didn’t rely on the council or Home Secretary to ban them either. The numbers of anti-fascists weren’t massive, but were swelled by passers by and young people who didn’t want the SDL or the BNP on our streets either. A reassuring confirmation that Glasgow is not a safe space for fascists to engage in public activity.
Anti-democracy COMMUNIST FASCIST REDS set about the BNP
The captured spoils of war!
Comments on this article are now closed because all fascists are boring.
The past few weeks have seen a noticeable increase in police surveillance of left-wing activism in Glasgow, with blatant attempts to close down meetings, seize newspapers and shut down street activity.
On Monday evening, an initial meeting was held by the Scottish Anti-Fascist Alliance to kick-start organising the opposition to the Scottish Defence League’s proposed march in Glasgow on 18 September. The meeting was well attended and made several concrete steps in organising a protest for the day. However, upon arriving at the venue – one of the main lecture buildings at Glasgow University – activists were confronted by at least four police officers. Many were uneasy about the police presence and until it became clear that police would not be inside the meeting itself, a large group remained outside the building. Meanwhile, however, two officers had ventured upstairs to the room, booked through a sympathetic student society, and started to question those already there about their motives, remaining in the room for around 10 minutes. Others were prevented from going to the room, with allegations made on the night that police had informed several people that the meeting was ‘cancelled’. A complaint has already been submitted to Chief Constable Stephen House regarding the police behaviour on the night, from a local MSP who was in attendance at the meeting.
This all sets a dangerous precedent. Last year, it was through a number of well attended meetings at Glasgow Uni that the mass opposition to the SDL was initiated. This strategy then set the blueprint for opposing the SDL when they emerged elsewhere in Scotland. All these meetings were able to go ahead with no interference from the authorities; it seems, however, that times have changed and the police are now keen to keep closer tabs on independent anti-fascist activity in Glasgow. It also poses the question of how the police will act on 18 September itself, especially when we consider their actions in Kilmarnock in going out of their way to facilitate an effectively illegal demonstration by the SDL.
Monday cannot be seen in isolation, however. It comes at the same time as disturbing developments on the southside of the city, where police are stepping up attacks on the rights of left-wing groups to sell newspapers and hold street activity. Over recent weeks, members of Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! have now on several occasions had dozens of copies of their newspaper seized by police, who claim to be enforcing legislation to regulate street trading. This neglects the fact that the Civic Government Scotland Act is clear that newspapers are an exception to this rule, and do not require a license to sell . FRFI members report that to get around this, police are arguing that their newspaper is in fact… not a newspaper, despite it being registered at the Post Office as exactly that! As a result, three FRFI members have now been arrested and charged with breaking this law.
This is all happening in Govanhill, an incredibly diverse area of the city with several generations of immigrants living in the vicinity, including most recently an influx of eastern European migrants, many of Roma descent. Local residents report that there is a growing sense of underlying tension in the area, with accusations and rumour flying around of “Roma crime” with reports of bin-raking for identity theft, cars being vandalised and so on. Clearly this ignores the reality of the social problems in the area, and points to the classic tactics of divide and rule in a period of huge capitalist crisis. On top of the police attacks, loyalists in the area are becoming more active, with at least one attack by far-right thugs on a stall on Victoria Road.
Whatever one thinks of FRFI’s politics, it’s deeply worrying that a left-wing group doing consistent work in a working class area with its own set of social problems are coming in for sustained attack from so-called ‘community police officers’. It’s something that we’re likely to see more of over the next few years, as the state attempts to clamp down on any attempts to build working class resistance to their austerity package of swathing cuts and job losses. They’re targeting one group on the southside now, but any of us could be next, and we’ll need maximum solidarity from all progressive and left-wing forces to face off these blatant attacks on the democratic right to hold activity on our streets.
UPDATE (13-08-10) : in the past couple of days a new campaign has been launched, the Govanhill Defence Campaign, to oppose political policing in the area and present a united front against harassment and intimidation from the authorities. There’s more info and a launch statement on the campaign blog here: http://govanhilldefencecampaign.blogspot.com/
Following the relative success of their wee day out to Kilmarnock -- where the shameful actions of Strathclyde Police ensured that their ‘march’ could go ahead -- the SDL are intending to have another go at parading through Glasgow next month, on Saturday 18th September.
As you might recall, when the SDL last tried to march in the city, the first far-right demo in Scotland for decades, they were met by thousands of anti-fascists who opposed them directly on the streets and ensured that the police soon bussed them out of the city centre. It was a resounding victory, and a repeat of this situation when they tried to hold a demo in Edinburgh in February was enough for many to see the organisation as finished. Not so -- they came back for a jaunt to Killie, had a nice day, and since then have been intent on making their trip to the big city as much of a success.
Responding to an official complaint from the Scottish Anti-Fascist Alliance, the police have sought to defend their actions in Kilmarnock on the grounds that they cannot discriminate against ‘legal protest’ and that their heavy-handed treatment of anti-fascists was both ‘justified and proportionate’ in keeping order on the day.
This all sets a worrying precedent for September 18th. The SDL have learnt from their previous mistakes, and now know that by meeting inside pubs, they’ll invariably just end up getting kettled within by the police, and in turn, hundreds of anti-fascists. On the other hand, meeting on the street offers them both police protection, and guarantees that they’ll get some kind of street protest/shouting match. So this time, the SDL have applied for a demo which will, they claim, gather in Blytheswood Square towards the west of the city and march to George Square, where they intend to lay a wreathe at the cenotaph. It will be doubly ironic if the SDL are allowed to assemble at their desired location, given that Blytheswood Square is now off limits to everyone else.
What Kilmarnock demonstrated though was that the state cannot be relied on at any level to stop the threat of organised fascism. Ultimately, the police will attempt to keep public order -- and if this means allowing the SDL/EDL/NF to march, then so be it. It’s a game of numbers, one which worked to our advantage in Glasgow and Edinburgh, less so in Kilmarnock and countless EDL demos down south. Mobilising against fascism doesn’t have to be difficult -- in fact it’s been one of the best, most gratifying and worthwhile things that SSY has been involved with over the past 12 months. In Glasgow and Edinburgh hundreds, even thousands, of ordinary people have been angry enough to take to the streets in direct action against fascism.
Which makes it all the more bizarre that there’s a growing school of thought which says that the EDL “shouldn’t be opposed”, because this is “playing into their hands” and “harming community relations”. It doesn’t come as any great surprise to hear that this is being spearheaded by the ‘anti-fascist’ magazine Searchlight, and their establishment-backed front organisation Hope Not Hate. The entire strategy of Searchlight and HNH rests on making appeals to the state to ‘ban’ nasty people -- bans which then all too easily backfire against the left. Their major success in this so far was Luton last year, where they managed to get ALL political gatherings banned for several months in a bid to stop one EDL march -- great job guys!
Bradford is a special case in many respects, given the race riots which happened there in 2001. But simply calling for the EDL to be banned does not get around this -- the main catalyst for the disorder in 2001 was a march by the National Front. A march that, as it happens, was banned by the authorities from taking place. But this ban didn’t stop some of the Nazis showing up anyway -- and similarly, a ban on the EDL’s march isn’t going to stop a large amount of their support showing up either. They’ve been building up this demo for months, constistently referring to it as ‘the Big One’ and one that ‘one wont be for families’. It doesn’t take long to figure out what they want: a ruck with the local Asian youth (with one third of Bradford’s population being Muslim).
It’s particularly shameful that the local trade union council has come out against any planned counter-demo, alongside “most political parties, faith groups and community groups”, according to Hope Not Hate. In effect, all they’re doing is alienating those that will come out to oppose the EDL -- abandoning any local youth who come out to defend their community from attack by the thugs of the EDL. The local labour movement should be at the forefront of direct action to stop the EDL, not cowering at the back cause they’re scared they might get hit. A broad, united anti-fascist demo would send a clear message to the EDL, and people watching from all over the UK, that Bradford stands against them. Sitting at home and abandoning the local Asian youth to defend their city is exactly what will lead the media to portray the whole thing as a ‘race riot’. And that’s what we all want to avoid.
The racist Scottish Defence League took a trip to Kilmarnock this morning and were met with fierce opposition from local people and anti-fascists from across Scotland.
Although the SDL claim to be protesting against Islamic extremism and in support of free speech, their past record shows that they’re nothing but a bunch of racists and hooligans.
The SDL planned to assemble at the Rabbie Burns statue at Kilmarnock Cross at 11am and then march across town to spread their message of hate and intolerance.
Anti-racists occupied the space from 10am to ensure that the SDL didn’t get a foot in the door. There was a heavy police presence who pushed us into a small area of Kilmarnock Cross and didn’t allow us freedom of movement. We heard from various sources that the SDL had been herded into a nearby alley. A few of our number managed to break off and sneak away for a look, by following the sound of their vile chanting. As we approached we saw that the small number of SDL protesters were entirely surrounded and outnumbered by police.
At the SDL events in Glasgow and Edinburgh at this stage in the day, due to pressure from huge numbers of anti-fascists, the police stopped the SDL from having freedom of the streets and prevented them from their spouting racist abuse, by keeping them in one location and then removing them in buses.
This was not the case in Kilmarnock, however. Despite the SDL seeming quite happy to stand where they were and shout horrible things whilst waving Union Jacks, the police approached the group and told them that they would facilitate their “peaceful” demonstration, had identified and were happy with where the SDL wanted to go, and then invited them to march to Kilmarnock Cross.
Separated by only a few metres and a couple of lines of stony faced cops, the SDL shouted anti-Muslim slogans and made violent and threatening gestures at the assembled group of anti-racists, whilst we told them what we thought of them (and reminded them that even their own organiser thinks they’re all “wankstains”).
This went on for around 30-40 minutes – far longer than the SDL have ever been given free reign before. The SDL were eventually escorted away from the town centre. Rather than bothering to protect the people of Kilmarnock from the racist scum, the police instead focused all of their efforts on preventing us from pursuing the SDL. They were ultimately unsuccessful, as a small group of anti-fascists broke free and ran through multiple police lines to maintain a presence outside the hotel that the SDL had ended up in.
When we approached the hotel, a huge number of police officers swarmed around us and tried to pack us tightly into a small space on the pavement and didn’t allow us to move. The sun was blazing hot and we were stranded without food or water as the police desperately tried to persuade us to abandon our outpost and join the tokenistic rally in favour of multi-culturalism, organised by local trade union and political bureaucrats, that was being held near by.
Some of those anti-fascists who hadn’t managed to run past the police lines had been herded into the rally in park, where they discovered around 35 people nonchalantly lying in the sun, without even any speakers or political message being espoused. The speaker and the singer that were booked had both neglected to attend. One councillor made a half-arsed attempt at a speech and waffled a wee bit about how multi-culturalism is good. (Aye, that’s all well and good, but how come you’re too feart to say that racism is bad?) Whilst the fascists were being given free reign to roam the streets of Kilmarnock, the smug folk in the park were patting themselves on the back and talking about organising dancers and singers for a pro-multi-cultural event two months away in August.
Some anti-racist campaigners, frustrated at the lack of action, called on the people at the park to join the others outside the hotel in taking action against the fascists. Six polis on bikes immediately sped towards the group attempting to make their way to the hotel and LIED to their faces, telling them that the SDL were absolutely not in that hotel on that street. A couple of undeterred demonstrators pressed on, followed by the cops on bikes, only to be denied access to the street by more cops. Errr… but if the SDL aren’t there, as your colleagues claimed, how come we’re not allowed down this street? Confronted by their own lies, the police then attempted to intimidate the protesters and demanded their names and all of their personal details.
We continually faced harassment from both the police and the few SDL members who dared to show their faces outside of the hotel to attempt to goad us. After it became clear that the SDL were being allowed to leave the hotel in small groups unescorted by the police, we attempted to follow them down the street to ensure that they were contained and not posing a threat to local people. The police reacted forcefully and physically prevented us from moving. After a heated argument they realised that if the SDL were being allowed to disperse and go home, then they would have to allow us to the same.
As we walked down the street, we saw that a group of unaccompanised fascists had walked right past a few of the protesters that they had been threatening earlier on that day, as the police continue to hassle and harass us. It was potentially a very dangerous situation, that thankfully passed without violence from the racists. Understandably, we were a little shaken up and pissed off at the way the police failed to protect peaceful protestors from potentially violent thugs.
We were talking amongst ourselves about the scandalous behaviour of the cops, when one of our number said something about a “fat jolly policeman”. He was immediately grabbed by the arm and pushed against a wall and told:
“If you say anything else, it’ll be the last thing you say today. Do you understand me?”
When the shocked protestor failed to answer immediately, the cop pushed him further the wall and repeated the questions, whilst his colleagues tried to block anyone else from seeing what was going on.
The police turned their video camera on the protestor and pressured and intimidated him into providing them with his personal details, whilst refusing to answer any of his questions. After being asked multiple times if he was being threatened, arrested, detained… the police said that he was required to give his details because he was a suspect. A suspect of what, exactly? They refused to say until they had been asked a dozen times, and it was clear that the rest of us were not going to leave – they then claimed he was suspected of breach of the peace. Pfft. The police forcefully pushed the rest of us away, in order to better intimidate the lone protester, despite the fact that he had been nothing but respectful – even apologising to the police, saying: “I’m very sorry if I caused any offense to you in the heat of the moment.”
It was a beautiful sunny day in Kilmarnock, there was great participation by local people and we had a degree of success – the fascists’ attempt to spread their message of hate was drowned out by our songs, and we certainly showed them that they were not welcome in Kilmarnock.
There are some things that could have made the day a lot better - if there had been more protestors willing to confront the SDL, and if the police had stop trying to restrict us whilst the fascists do what they wanted, for example.
No doubt the SDL will proclaim today as a success, but to the vast majority of the people of Kilmarnock, they came across as nothing but a bunch of pathetic racist thugs.
One thing’s for certain, it was a confidence booster for the SDL, and they’ll be back.
What are you gonnae do about it? Wherever they rear their ugly head, we need to be there to let them know that their racist rhetoric is not welcome in Scotland.
The last time we saw the Scottish Defence League – a few dozen thugs, football hooligans and out and out racists – all the way back in February, they were being bussed away by Lothian & Borders Polis, en route to being dumped in a field somewhere near Linlithgow. As the cavalcade of 500 cops and 40 SDL aboard a couple of doubledeckers swept by us, the hundreds of anti-fascists who’d been keeping them penned inside a pub all day said their farewells with chants of ‘The SDL are finished, the SDL are finished, na na na naaa’.
And for all intents and purposes, they were. Edinburgh was their second attempt at a demo, and an even bigger failure than their first ‘protest’ in Glasgow last November. After that, all they could scrape together in terms of a public assembly was a minuscule photo-op in Lockerbie, a ‘vigil’ that most of their own supporters were not even made aware of. More recently, however, they’ve threatened to arrive in Kilmarnock, penned in for Saturday 19 June.
However, over the past two days, the SDL have been plunged into yet another crisis. Their main organiser in Scotland, ‘Gusty’, has walked out on the “wank-stains” , “wankers” and “mouthy c*nts” that apparently make up a large element of the SDL’s support – a shocking new revelation of the far-right’s composition in itself! Clearly, there’s a huge amount of frustration within the SDL, particularly among their inner core, at their failure to replicate the EDL’s successes down south. There’s a number of reasons for this – the still relatively prevalent sectarianism within Scottish football that overrides any of the ‘casuals united against a common enemy’ pish that’s the backbone of the EDL. The SDL knows this, and, for all their rhetoric about just being against ‘militant Islam’, have consistently tried to sidle up to organised loyalism. This too has failed, and the SDL have yet to make any signficant inroads into the Orange movement. However, perhaps most importantly, the SDL have been given no room in which to grow by anti-fascists. From day one, mass anti-fascist street mobilisations have effectively put a stop to any SDL aspirations of becoming a movement with any kind of momentum. Few, if any, EDL members will be making the trip up to Kilmarnock this weekend, given that those that did were less than happy with their SDL experience in Edinburgh.
This Saturday has the potential to be decisive in seeing off the SDL for good. The organisation is now leaderless, without direction, and lacking any solid base of support beyond a few keyboard warriors, has-been casuals and NF-wannabes. However, there is no room to be complacent in this. The SDL have effectively been handed over the town centre of Kilmarnock by East Ayrshire Council and the police – who’re denying the trade union led ‘Kilmarnock & Loudoun United‘ demo the right to assemble there. Meanwhile, the SDL are being allowed to hold what they claim is a 45 minute, peaceful static demonstration. If this works for them, they’ll keep doing it – in small and medium sized towns across Scotland. While their Glasgow demo in September has been thrown into disarray by their organiser leaving, others have mooted the possibility of demos in places including Perth, Alloa and Stirling.
The type of non-violent direct action that was so successfully used against the SDL in Edinburgh can now be used to finish them off forever. This is why we need anti-fascists from across Scotland to come to Kilmarnock this Saturday and stop the SDL for good. No Pasaran!
ASSEMBLE 9.30AM AT KILMARNOCK CROSS, SAT 19 JUNE
Kilmarnock is 40 mins by train from Glasgow Central – trains at 0807, 0837 and 0912
Following the relative success of their wee day out to 
The racist Scottish Defence League took a trip to Kilmarnock this morning and were met with fierce opposition from local people and anti-fascists from across Scotland.
We were talking amongst ourselves about the scandalous behaviour of the cops, when one of our number said something about a “fat jolly policeman”. He was immediately grabbed by the arm and pushed against a wall and told:
It was a beautiful sunny day in Kilmarnock, there was great participation by local people and we had a degree of success – the fascists’ attempt to spread their message of hate was drowned out by our songs, and we certainly showed them that they were not welcome in Kilmarnock.
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