"Redwatch" - Do we care? Do we f**k!

Antifa England | 06.05.2008 15:15 | Anti-racism

Taken from the first issue of 'No Pasaran!' the newsletter of Antifa England. More on the Antifa website.

Kevin Watmough - Fascist 'hard man'? We don't think so!

Redwatch' is a so-called fascist ‘hate-site’, where members of the far-right post pictures of the enemies they will ‘one day make pay’. While the site is undoubtedly designed to intimidate, as with many myths by and about fascists, and often circulated by the pseudo antifascist entity Searchlight, the reality about 'Redwatch', is very different to the fascist wanking fantasy they would like us to believe.

Experienced antifascists have long realised that fascist fantasies about ‘Aryan hard-men’, also long propagated by Searchlight, were far from the truth. The reality is that most fascists are snivelling little cowards.

So it is with 'Redwatch', the reality is very far from the myth Searchlight have helped to create. The site is filled with photos taken from Indymedia and suchlike, showing trade unionists, anti-war protestors, students, and liberal anti-racists. Along with the photos are a sprinkling of contact details gleaned from public sources. Much of this information is out of date, and frankly drivel.

Included in the glaring lack of information posted on 'Redwatch', mixed in with pictures of people who happened to go on a demo at some point in their lives, are pics of a few militant antifascists. But so what?

Do we really care that Kevin Watmough, the main architect of Redwatch, knows what a few of our comrades may look like? Do we f**k! Watmough, of 58 Abbeydale Oval, Leeds, LS5 3RF is typical of the fascist reality - A pathetic degenerate, who when he leaves his bedroom, shambles about in his dirty, un-ironed clothes, afraid to take his eyes from the pavement.

'Redwatch' may be violence by proxy, but there’s a big difference between Watmough cackling in his bedroom because he’s taken a new picture from Indymedia, and any threat. Despite the occasional secret gatherings of inbred swastika-wearing morons, the far-Right are not in a position to carry out their pathetic fantasies.

If it were not for the likelihood that we’d be inundated with unwanted pizza, and we thought these cowards would actually come to us for a change, we’d post up our addresses ourselves, so that we didn’t have to spend so much time chasing gutless Nazis.

The reality is that we know more about the fascists than they ever will about us, and unlike them we have the guts and determination to act. While we advise all antifascists to take their personal security seriously, 'Redwatch' is a joke.

Despite their well-publicised antipathy, the state manipulated bogey-man 'Redwatch', and the state affiliated Searchlight, enjoy an almost symbiotic relationship. If 'Redwatch' didn’t exist, then Searchlight would probably invent it - that’s if they didn’t anyway!

Antifa England
Homepage: http://www.antifa.org.uk

Comments

Hide the following 46 comments

ok nice post but lets stick to the facts, no need to slander searchlight

06.05.2008 15:39

even if searchlight is slagging of Antifa & have worked with bad parts of security services or have been infiltrated in the past or now, we must focus on dealing with fascist perverts with a united front & searchlight et al must get out the way or work with us.

james

Searchlight are State

06.05.2008 15:55

Searchlight have been known for over 20 years as state collaboators - passing information on leftists and anti-fascists to the security services - They have admitted as much. They have had a very corrosive and malign influence in British anti-fascist politics, which is why AFA eventually opposed them. So why would any anti-fascist with an ounce of intelligence want to work with Searchlight? Searchlight are poison and Antifa are right to continue the work of AFA in exposing them. THis isn't sectarianism, it just common sense.

Mal

So?

06.05.2008 16:11

Plenty of people have become targets thanks to Redwatch. Anti-fascists have suffered violent attack and attacks on their property and cars, to say nothing of frequent and obscene pro-Nazi phone calls. It might be okay for tough guys like you to ignore Redwatch but for some of us it's frightening to be on the receiving end of all the crap. If Searchlight, UAF, Lancaster Unity and other similar groups are taking on Redwatch, that's fine by me. If Antifa is doing its bit to fight Redwatch, that's fine too but let's not slag off one way of opposing Nazi trash because we personally prefer another.

Jace

FH

06.05.2008 17:29

"Searchlight have been known for over 20 years as state collaboators"

According to the Nazis - a ridiculous statement that AFA, Antifa and Larry O'Hara seem happy to repeat ad nauseum.

Dead bloke

Don't be intimidated by these clowns

06.05.2008 17:34

The point is that the main purpose of 'Redwatch' is as a form of intimidation, something which the likes of 'Searchlight' consistently bolster. The reality is that, as an anti-racist, trade-unionist, activist, or whatever, you are no more likely to have bollocks from the Fash because your picture is on 'Redwatch' than if it isn't. The two people who are generally cited as an example of violence caused by 'Redwatch' were attacked by someone directly linked to 'Redwatch', the same person who had put their details there in the first place, so their inclusion on the site was neither here nor there. Antifascists should always take their security seriously, always be prepared to defend ourselves against fascist attack, but let's not get hysterical about this stupid site, and do the fascists' job for them. If you actually look at the content of 'Redwatch' it's a joke, and shows how LITTLE these scum know about us rather than how much.

Belt&Braces

Searchligh ARN'T working against redwatch

06.05.2008 17:41

But the whole point is that searchlight, Lancaster UAF etc are not doing anything to protect people from searchlight. They just build it up to be something way bigger and scarier than it is. I'm sorry if you have been on the recieving end of fascist intimidation, but half of the UK is on Redwatch, and most of us havn't had any bother from them. Groups like searchlight build the nazis up into something theyre not and paint us as poor little victims so that they can portray nazis as the only violent ones, because they think that most of society frowns on violence (which it doesn't - its just most lefty placard holders and paper sellers that do).
I'm half way through a book called white 'riot' by Nick Lowles of Searchlight, telling the story of combat 18. It is frankly the most depressing thing ive ever read, painting them as hard as fuck muscle men and condemning them for bullying poor defensless lefties - ignoring the fact that most of them were all mouth no trousers bedwetters who never really posed a serious threat to anyone except their own 'comrades' who they frequentley fell out with before all getting nicked and fading into obscurity.
Dont be afraid of these bastards, dont let searchlight make you afraid of them!

(A) Sab

Wake up!

06.05.2008 17:50

"The wording of Mr Gable's memo suggests clearly that he was engaged in a two-way transaction with his security sources. The nature of the official material received and recorded by him - interleaved with considerable quantities of random gossip suggests that much of it was coloured by phone-tap information and informers' reports. What is firstly conspicuous about it is that it consists almost entirely of libellous untruths about a group of 'target individuals."
'Destabilising the Decent People' by Duncan Campbell, Bruce Page, Nick Anning, New Statesman 15/2/1980.

"The answer to your question, do we monitor anarchist groups, is no in general and yes in individual cases."
Gerry Gable, publisher of 'Searchlight', 27/1/1986

"I have now given the names I have acquired to be checked out by British/French security services, especially the French and German stuff is being checked by Geoffery Stewart Smiths Institute. He has strong CIA links."
Gerry Gable, 2/5/1977

"It is a documented fact that Gable has been passing information to Special Branch, MI5, and foreign security forces for 20 years; acting as a conduit for misinformation and 'black' propoganda between MI5 and the media, aimed in at least one case in affecting the course of criminal proceedings against fellow journalists."
Anarchy magazine, No 36.

All this, long before AFA, where we saw first hand the malign and destructive influence Searchlight had.

Not so green

Searchlight should NOT be trusted

06.05.2008 17:56

But Searchlight and the UAF AREN'T working against 'Redwatch' Jace, that is the whole point. What they have done, at most, is created another daft campaign to divert antiracists, asking us to appeal to the state, to cops and MPs, to introduce legislation to ban sites like 'Redwatch' - Legislation, which if it were ever to be introduced, would not be used against fascists, but most likely against animal rights protestors and environmental activists. Fascism will be defeated by us, the working-class, on the streets, not in cop-shops or in parliament.

AntiBNP

And?

06.05.2008 18:03

@ Not so green

So Searchlight passed names along to their contacts to get them checked out. Makes sense to me. The arch-tosser Tim Hepple infiltrated all kinds of groups including Green Anarchist. If they'd thought for one minute to ask their own 'intelligence metwork' (meaning other local activists) if they'd known anything about this guy, they could have saved themselves a lot of bother.

It's about time some people learned something about intelligent networking and stopped throwing stupid statements about which just cause unnecessary problems.

Bertanernie

What would you have them do?

06.05.2008 18:14

"But the whole point is that searchlight, Lancaster UAF etc are not doing anything to protect people from searchlight."

I assume you mean Redwatch at the end there? What precisely would you have them do? I know the people involved in Lancaster Unity (formerly UAF) and they're just ordinary folk who do what they can. Searchlight I don't know but we can hardly expect them to provide bodyguards for everyone.

"Dont be afraid of these bastards, dont let searchlight make you afraid of them!"

Searchlight doesn't make me afraid of them. I can give as good as I get. But a lot of people can't and you can see why they worry. You only need one of these fuckers to go off at half-cock (Robert Cottage anyone). And if people are getting phone calls and shit, well, that's intimidating. Maybe not to you or me but to a lot of people, especially those with kids and especially if you've watched stuff like the Secret Agent with those nazi twats talking about rocket launchers.

Lancashire Lad

FAO Bertanernie

06.05.2008 18:28

Searchlight, and Gerry Gable in particular have TRADED information on anarchists and left-wing activists to Special Branch, MI5, etc. Moreover, they have done the state's bidding in all sorts of unscrupulous ways, not least in smearing prominent 'Class War' members as fascists. Any activist who works with them, being that they have already been exposed time and time again, is being very foolish indeed.

Not so green

Never Again!

06.05.2008 18:33

Those defending Searchlight on here are entitled to their opinion, no matter how deluded. Those of us who were in AFA however, saw first-hand the huge damage this state entity can cause (and you only have to read some of thie comments above to see the job Searchlight do in intimidating people on behalf of the fascists.) Within Antifa, we will not be making the same mistakes again, and will do everything we can to shun these fake anti-fascists and the state agenda they promote. 'Redwatch' is as powerful as the strength of Kevin Watmough's typing fingers, we should never expect help from the state in defeating fascism.

Antifa member

Redwatch ARE a joke

06.05.2008 18:43

I'm sure you mean well Lancashire Lad and Jace, but those are exactly the sort of comments a sad little wanker like Kevin Watmough feeds on. Seriously, your words will probably be up on Redwatch tomorrow. People shouldn't be afraid of Redwatch, look at how many people are on it. The Nazis have got fuck all street presence and some of us are determined to make it stay that way. If all they have to do is take our photos to scare us, they've half won already.

Roger Jolly

Fingers

06.05.2008 19:06

'Redwatch' is as powerful as the strength of Kevin Watmough's typing fingers...

So break his fucking fingers. You know where the little shit lives.

Non

I am laughin

06.05.2008 19:10

Even those who don't want to thump these wankers should at least be taking the piss out of em!!!

Felix

Don't tell him your name Pyke!

06.05.2008 19:14

Or the sad little man will put it in his sad little - Redwatch - book!

Scary stuff!

Laughin 2

Fingers

06.05.2008 19:17

I'm with you Non. Well actually in Southhampton, are you any closer?

Big up the Non!

Watmough's address

06.05.2008 19:20

He's now staying round at his girlfriend's most of the time. Don't think he's told Income Support about that one 'cos he'd be committing benefit fraud (again.)

In the know

Don't be scared of fascists, whatever their size

06.05.2008 19:48

See the Nazi standing behind Watmough in the pic with the original post?

This is him 5 minutes later!

STILL laughing

The Searchlight "campaign" against Redwatch

06.05.2008 23:32

For all their fuss and bluster about "stopping" Redwatch, what's the best that Searchlight and the UAF have come up with (and you can verify this on their own site?) You can write and complain to that well-known anti-racist the home secretary! That's it!

This dummer than dum campaign was only launched to fill a vaccum as Searchlight studiously avoided reporting the closing down of the BPP's Leeds Mailbox address by the 635 Group and the hospitalisation of veteran Nazi Eddy Morrison. With a glaring gap in the magazine's coverage of what it likes to call the 'Yorkshire Crazy Gang' that month, we were instead told to watch out for a new campaign in the next issue. What we got was their pitiful anti-Redwatch campaign, and 2 years later all they've come up with is that you write to the home secretary!

People say they read this rag to find out info on the Fash. Since when did it ever contain any quality info of use to genuine antifascists? Instead, it contains a load of bollocks about various Searchlight elevated bogey-men such as C18, trying to pass off every drooling Nazi degenerate as a street-hardened psychopath. There's more concrete information on fascists in the 8 pages that make up the first issue of 'No Pasaran!', which is free, than you'll ever find in a £3+ copy of Searchlight. For some, fascism is just an industry. No wonder, like the likes of the SWP, they don't want things hotting up and spoiling their business. Searchlight is for mugs.

Auntie

One from the files

07.05.2008 00:01

Kevin Watmough

Before he went off the rails, our boy was rich, as seen by the £789 tub, with genuine British Steel trimmings.

The boat is a genuine 100/1 scale model of the SS Derflinger which was captured by the British at Port Said in 1914, and used as a troopship. Kevin often re-enacts the final ill fated journey of those brave white men, in his bath. A scrubbing brush or a bar of soap is used to represent the British sub which crept up on the unaware Krauts.

Its quite a moving moment.

This photo was taken from a hidden camera fitted onto a shaving socket.

Clever eh?

MFI Agent

Ring me you wankers

07.05.2008 08:19

My number is 07707514691 if you nutzis dare to ring me.

Mark Barnsley

Watters In The Bath

07.05.2008 08:44

whoever did the cut and paste of Ugly Kev got it seriously wrong as the balding chump hasn't been near a bath in years.....Seem to remember a time when he waliked into the fenton looking for Reds and ended up with a face full of red pepper foam ,Boy was he screaching like a baby [ or so I was told]...poor sod also got a full wine bottle bounced of his noggin one incident ....Maybe head shots don't do any good due to lack of a brain.....concentrate on the fingers as the previous poster suggested, regards C.O.G

concerned of gipton

Ratface calling?

07.05.2008 08:47

Don't know who's that number is, but it certainly isn't mine. Tell Robin Steel to try harder next time Ratface. Really shows what a joke your outfit are. LOL!

The real MB

Am I worried

07.05.2008 09:13

As someone who appears on the Red Watch site - the pictures were lifted from IndyMedia I think from the Wrexham Hope Not Hate march report of a few weeks ago.

Do I care / am I worried? NO!

I find myself in some good company :-)

landale

Well Said

07.05.2008 09:56

Well said Landale.

Antifascist

Watmough

07.05.2008 10:11

I have always found this to be the best picture of Watmough. Probably wouldnt recognise him though if he wasnt covered in blood and his own shite.

Danski

Watmough

07.05.2008 11:12

Yes Danski, he has certainly spent a lot of time hiding behind coppers.

Antifascist

Manchester

07.05.2008 15:00

I have heard alot of rumours and seen the usual dirge of Stormfront, but what happened to the Anti-fascists in Manchester and who were attacked? Who was responsible and can the attack be linked in Red-watch?

ANTIFA AND ANTICHRIST

Fuck all...

07.05.2008 15:53

...some fash got smacked in the mouth and his six mates ripped the leaflets out of some lass' hand. It was a Revolutionary Communist Party stall with a couple of female students selling their journal Fight Racism Fight Imperialism.

I think the fash are trying to sell it as a massive victory against Antifa, even though the two groups are a million miles from each other.

Rudeboy

Manchester

07.05.2008 16:11

The incident in Manchester involved the Revolutionary Communist Party, who produce 'Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism!', and who were doing a stall in Manchester city centre that day, and 5 neo-Nazis, most notably Adrian Brookes of Stockport, AKA 'Kruger', who had been on a Loyalist march. None of those involved in the incident have anything to do with Antifa. Mr Brookes will find that out when we meet.

Antifa

I should clarify...

07.05.2008 17:33

...this was in no way an 'organised assault'. These prats were basically in the area for a 'loyalist' march, felt brave enough to go and harass a leftie stall and got punched for their trouble.

Rudeboy

Laugh a minute

08.05.2008 09:53

It always amazes me how fascists have no understanding of the left...no wonder they keep getting smacked!

Rev Communist groups have sod all to do with Antifa!

Simone

No Pasaran!

12.05.2008 07:54

This article is not taken from a corporate news site, it is from the first issue of our new newsletter 'No Pasaran!' We hope that Indymedia readers will be interested in reading 'No Pasaran!' in its entiriety, and should they wish to do so it can be downloaded free of charge from our website. In the meantime, we hope this article is of interest, it gives readers an idea of what they can expect in 'No Pasaran!', and we think it stands up as an article in its own right. We are unable to see why anyone, other then members of the far-Right, or perhaps 'Searchlight' and the UAF, would consider its posting on Indymedia controversial.

Antifa
Homepage: http://www.antifa.org.uk

What an utter load of piffle.

18.05.2008 10:38

So Redwatch is a joke, you're not remotely worried about it etc? If that is the case, why oh why do you so ardently bleat about it? Why oh why are you all so embarrassingly desperate to get it closed down? If Watmough is some docile half-wit, why oh why do you feel it sooooo necessary to mention him at any and every opportunity? Why oh why, dear God oh why if none of this has any impact whatsoever as you imply, are you so bothered? I'll tell you why. Because appearing on Redwatch means you appear on the radar of every White Nationalist in the UK. Appearing on Redwatch means the whole of the UK can see what dirty, unwashed, filthy, traitorous, drug-addled, cretinous imbeciles you all are. Appearing on Redwatch gets you dismissed from your cushy little job at HMRC, haha!! Here's a solution to your problem - if, as you fervently proclaim, Redwatch is no threat whatsoever, shut the fuck up about it, it truly is becoming tedious and drivelsome. You're all full of shit, one of your fools makes random claims on the B+H Guestbook, apparently Antifa from Glasgow/Leeds frequently spots the lads from the BPP in Leeds yet his ip never moves outside of Oxford - yet another fact indicative of the general shite that spouts from these idiots mouths. If it wasn't so pathetic it might actually be amusing.

The Hills Have Eyes

Sure the hills have eyes and ears

18.05.2008 12:33

If Antifa can move away from engaging with you at this level then you will have little to debate. Some of your points are accurate, and Leeds Brad has been undermined by someone outside. But you will not get your race war, instead you will get race peace. And you will be marginalised into the hole you dug for yourself whenever it was that you found it impossible to communicate with your fellow species. But we will wait for you to evolve, and eventually you will love us like we love you. Don't give up.

Harlequinade

Can any of you idiot nazis actually read?

19.05.2008 08:12

We are NOT trying to get Redwatch shut down 'The Hills Have Eyes', did you manage to make your way through the article above. Redwatch gives us a good laugh and shows just how little you idiots do actually know. Not that we care less about being 'on the radar' of a bunch of gutless cowards who gob off on the internet. Kevin Watmough is a good example of your 'ubermenschen' reality, what do we have to fear from a bunch of in-bred idiots like you?

Antifa member

Antifa member....

20.05.2008 16:28

If, as you suggest, you have nothing to fear...then why need to use violence?

Zaazaa

Wotnomates

23.05.2008 10:39

Is it me or does the picture of Wotnomates at the top of this article remind you of the thick kid at school presenting the picture he's been painting all afternoon to his parents, the facial expression - mix of mental simplicity and pride - as he holds the badly drawn and crumpled warercolour of "Mi mummee and daddyeez howse by Kevun Wotmow 3C" is funny as fuck.

I Hate The Fash

"Inbred" seems to be a favourite slur in Antifa articles/comments

24.05.2008 19:56

I find it a bit ironic. Comments such as, "Please remember that the people who post on Stormfront have an extra finger and shrunken cranium" and various other innuendoes of in-breeding and physical deformity appear Antifa articles and comments.

I dont see what the offspring of incestual relations have done to deserve association with Nazi scum.
I guess some anti-fascists believe the vile hatred and stupidity of Nazis can be explained by "bad eugenics", or at least believe jokes that imply such are acceptable.

Maybe antifa members would view an activist with a physical deformity and a history of cousin-cousin marriages with more suspicion than they would view someone with "perfect features" and a history of "good breeding" ?

Maybe measure some skulls before we accept someone as a worthy militant ?

Sam Langford

"I hate the fash"

24.05.2008 22:28

Totally in agreement with above posting. (Sam Longord)

"Is it me or does the picture of Wotnomates at the top of this article remind you of the thick kid at school presenting the picture he's been painting all afternoon to his parents, the facial expression - mix of mental simplicity and pride - as he holds the badly drawn and crumpled warercolour of "Mi mummee and daddyeez howse by Kevun Wotmow 3C" is funny as fuck."

It's you. What, were you the school bully? Did you used to laugh at the scruffy kids with bad spelling? You know, the ones who used to do woodwork and gardening? The "thick kid?" Nice. Your posting is very insightful, of you, and somehow you even manage to come out worse than those you belittle. That's one hell of a feat, to take a noble cause to the other end of the spectrum. Go on - how much farther can you stoop?

Harlequinade

Harliniquade

25.05.2008 21:18

No, I wasn't the "school bully" anything but. I find that most people who were are now fascists, or BNP supporters, no suprises there then.

What I was doing was making Wotmough a figure of fun, something to make fun of. The less seriously these people are taken the less likely they are to find followers and supporters.

I would have thought that that was quite obvious, obviously not.

Now then to more important matters, are you a self righteous Liberal or a Fascist scumbag?

I Hate The Fash

It's good to eliminate our own prejudices and strive to think more progressively

26.05.2008 13:27

I'm no self-righteous liberal or someone who thinks being obssessively politically correct is the answer to all society's problems.

BUT I agree with Harlequinade's comments.

To mock the Nazis by rallying around prejudices that make fun of the "unfortunate", "the thick", "the ugly", "the inbred" or whatever, is hardly diametrically opposed or broken away from the very ideology that we are supposed to be opposing.

Either it is okay to make jokes about "the thick kid", the inbred, and people with physical or mental deficiences or it is NOT.

For me, it is not.

sam langford

I love the fash

27.05.2008 00:18

“Now then to more important matters, are you a self righteous Liberal or a Fascist scumbag?”

So, you consider the highest priority to be whether I am a “self righteous liberal” or a “fascist scumbag?” That’s the most important matter, right? I thought your priority was towards fighting racial division in our communities.

I don’t have to justify myself – you do. You have to justify using the language of “the enemy.” You have to justify belittling people on the basis which you have chosen. Intelligence, breeding, status? You have to justify your position, because you are the one who is speaking the language of war. Is that what you want? War? Are you not simply trying to polarise the argument? I think you are.

Now, if what you’re really after is a good set to, then you only have to phone up your fascist chums, arrange a place and a time, and you can knock ten tons of shit out of each other. You have my blessing – go for it. You’ve done it before. But don’t try to justify your activity as being in any way related to the vigilance which our communities continue to express towards self obsessed sado masochists like you.

Think on it.

Harlequinade

Harlequinade

28.05.2008 09:09

That'll be self righteous Liberal then.

Seriously though, I don't like violence BUT
And this is a very big but. The fascists use violence, they assault people in the street, throw bricks through windows, burn houses. Waving yellow paper lollypops at them is bloody useless, it doesn't work, I wish it did believe me but it doesn't, sad but a fact of life. I'm not a sado masochist or anything else you accuse me of just a realist. When people are frightened to walk the streets merely because of the colour of their skin, or are not safe in their own homes then something has to be done at a grass roots street level basis. Its not good, its not nice but its a reality.
Would you make the same comments at those who rose up in the Warsaw Ghetto, at those who fought in the Spanish Civil War, those who fought Nazism in WW2, or various European resistance/partisan movements 1939 - 1945? I doubt it.
I have seen friends suffer at the hands of these thugs purely because of their race. I have lived in an Asian area and come home after a nightshift to find that BNP supporters have stormed down the street putting people's windows through. I heard kids crying the next morning too scared to walk to school. Two Asian men were battered with iron bars a short walk away merely because they were Asian.
I don't why you so vehemently oppose militant antifascism, maybe (and yes I'm surmising here and if I'm wrong I apologise) you live in a nice safe middle class area where that sort of thing just doesn't happen, or maybe the thought of organised working class resistance scares you, I don't know. But the fact is the fascists are a real threat, to the working class of all races, "nationalities" genders and sexual orientation, and just a small threat, but to the people at the brunt end of it a very dangerous and terrifying threat.
And they have to be stopped.

I Hate The Fash

Hatred as a negative

29.05.2008 12:07

God, where would you be without your labels - OK, well I was privileged enough to witness the police initiated riot at Welling when we tried to close the BNP bookshop, lots of people covered in blood being charged by pigs (I don't use this term generically but only to describe those attendant on the day) on horses as these people were trying to get AWAY from the riot. I was in Brighton when Ali Ibrahim got murdered at the top of our street. A couple of African friends narrowly escaped with their lives after they were stabbed in the chest and neck in a racist attack - they were ANC, BTW. So, call me what you want, but green behind the ears I ain't.

The incidents you describe are horrible and not to be tolerated, absolutely. Self defense and solidarity with targeted communities are wholly appropriate front line responses - I think posters have said as much in the past. But not violence for violence' sake. And not premeditated attacks.

And we're not talking about Warsaw, or any of these other places where people were literally fighting for their lives. The kinds of contexts which are applicable are, say, apartheid, albeit at a much smaller and less institutional level, or similarly US Segregation. In both these equivalent cases victory came about by passive resistance - I know ANC had an armed wing but they were pretty inactive for a very long time. And we all know about MLK. And it's because they occupied the moral high ground.

Equally, coming from a position where you are already on the moral high ground then you have a responsibility. Because you are better than the people who run down streets putting in windows and attacking people with iron bars. So you don't need to resort to these kinds of tactics. And that includes the language you use, especially when that language is highly prejudicial and characteristic of those you oppose. Same with this putting up of mug shots (read into that what you will) - if Redwatch wanna do it, let them. So what, as you say. But don't stoop.

And a good last example is Northern Ireland. How many years of tit for tat, and for what? You beat the thugs by marginalizing them. You push them to the side. Let them show what good upstanding citizens they are, or not, as we all know the case to be. But that also means you don't lump every person who has voted BNP into the one boat, unless you really do want a war.

Personally, I have no taste for war of any flavour.

Harlequinade