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Casuals United: the next generation of British fascists

Phil Dickens | 18.07.2009 18:37 | Analysis | Anti-racism | Social Struggles

As the BNP move to appear more "mainstream," new groups are arising to continue the violent street thuggery that they claim to have left behind. Casuals United and the English Defence League are two such groups.

Recently, on my Facebook account, I received some rather bizarre threats. This in itself is nothing new, as I receive rambling threats from neo-Nazi goons on a semi-regular basis, usually threatening to put me on Redwatch or some similar action. That putting my face on an internet site won't be too daunting a prospect for somebody who uses Facebook in the first place is a concept that seems utterly lost on some people.

However, the threats I'm referring to here were of a somewhat different flavour. After a brief exchange on a Facebook discussion board for the activist group No Borders, wherein I suggested that somebody claiming that the UK was 20% too overcrowded had "pulled the figures out your arse," I received the following message;

you've insulted a member of Hur al'Ayn
Between You and Sakinah Malik
Sakinah Malik
17 July at 00:19
Report message
please take it back, on the board. you have to speak to us as you would if were speaking in person.
yours sincerely
Sakinah

Although bemused, I thought nothing of it until I received a similar response on the No Borders group, to which I responded that "I'll speak to anyone however I please, that's one of the beauties of free speech, so please don't fucking PM me about this trifling shit again cause I'll ignore it." To which I received the following reply from a like-minded Facebook troll;

OK here's another PM
Between You and Lady Terror
Lady Terror
17 July at 16:44
Report message
I'm not a troll, I'm a member of the Hur al-Ayn and you should show people a bit more respect. you're only being rude coz ur 200 miles away behind a keyboard. Apaologise to Charlotte or face the consequences.

Aside from the obvious irony of somebody calling themselves "Lady Terror" and claiming to be of the "Hur al-Ayn" (Maidens of Paradise, the Islamic "72 virgins") whilst simultaneously insisting that they are not a troll, there is also somehing sinister in the phrase "or face the consequences." Sure enough, a member of Lancaster Unity who was also a member of the No Borders group alerted me to a group titled "Uk[sic] Casuals United," on which my own details have been published by the "Charlotte" (Charlie Wadia) whom "Sakinah Malik" and "Lady Terror" were defending via Personal Message.

This group was set up after a similar group, "Hooligan Central," was hijacked. I wrote about this earlier incarnation in an article titled "Riots in Luton and media apologism for fascist violence," about the fascist ties and thuggish antics of the groups who marched through Luton in opposition to earlier Muslim demonstrations at an armed forces homecoming parade. [ http://truth-reason-liberty.blogspot.com/2009/05/riots-in-luton-and-media-apologism-for.html] The Casuals United homepage confirms that "Casuals from around the UK started coming together in protest at these hatemongers, and the way the police arrested two people who were rightly outraged by their disgusting protest" but insist that they are "non political, non racist, non violent protest groups."

However, the fact that their stated purpose is to "stop the enemy within," namely "these people, whos [sic] agenda is to dominate Britain, and make it an Islamic State," and the "politically correct traitors ... who have brought us to this terrible state of affairs," says otherwise. Such rhetoric is transparently fascist in origin, as are the doctrinal precepts which underlie it. This is not to mention, of course, that posting up the details of opponents - I am not the only one to receive such treatment on that particular group - has obvious echoes of sites such as Redwatch.

Groups such as Casuals United, and the affiliated English Defence League, represent a new strain of fascism. They are as virulent as traditional groups such as the BNP, the National Front, or the Orange Lodge, and antifascists need to organise physical resistance to them as they try to bring fascist violence back to our streets.

Phil Dickens
- e-mail: mutantbumblebees@hotmail.com
- Homepage: http://truth-reason-liberty.blogspot.com

Comments

Hide the following 6 comments

redwatch

18.07.2009 20:40

is a joke getting your face on there just shows your getting out and about a lot

ballz


typical fascists...

19.07.2009 07:28

... so typical of fascists... anyone else notice their main video on youtube happens to end with a quote from a convicted peadophile who happens to be also be a major white nationalist and outright nazi?!


haha


Casuals United

19.07.2009 11:58

Well the video is farcical on one level, but still interesting - just analyse the text which is written on a baby-blue background with soothing Mothercare style font....for example:

"British people, of all races, decided enough was enough".... - so the people involved in the struggle consider themselves a vanguard, an elite, representing the British people who are a 'race'. This has absolutely no basis in any kind of fact, but certainly has a populistic appeal for some.

"We really are second class citizens in our own land".... - well this is more interesting as an argument, because I have recently heard this view espoused by people who do not consider themselves right wing in anyway - such a director of a small youth NGO. Although not a mainstream view, it is certainly considered OK to hold this view by more people. This would seem to be a key area that anti-fascists should work on - data, and campaigning to disprove this. On the other hand, most of us on IMC would agree that the state is actively involved in attacking free speech and freedom of expression in various forms, so it is not at all surprising that this is also used by those who are politically opposed to us as well.

"Football Casuals from around the UK have started to forget their petty rivalries [queue - picture of a football riot/crowd invasion] and come together in a nationwide movement to oppose those who would enslave or kill us and our children. Those who worship Hitler and wish a 9-11 style attack upon us [queue photo of banner stating "Anglian Soldiers go to HELL" & "God Bless Hitler"]. Then there is a great little logo of a man on his horse (perhaps St George - a Georgian - ) superimposed on St George's Cross, with text around it saying "No Surrender to Al Qaeda".

Well obviously you can't take the analysis very seriously. It's straight out of the Sun/Express, etc.... I mean, if England were facing a civil war, with 'Al Qaeda' roaming the streets in armed gangs, then you can imagine people saying this stuff and needing to defend themselves. But instead, to think that the UK is about to plunge into Sharia Law - well its straight out of the imagination of MI5/Blair/Brown/the pigs - an abvious consequence of some terrorist attacks by a tiny minority, and a mainstream demonisation campaign by the media tycoons encouraged in the most part by the government.

I wouldn't say that the group is actually fascist - because the don't consider themselves revolutionary, at least they don't state this in their video (which may be quite reasoned in comparison to what they say privately to each other)....but they are certainly fascistic in nature, since they see themselves as a nationalist vanguard and elite (mentions of hooliganism, etc) saving the country from the forces of decadence or threat -'Al Qaeda' and 'liberalism' in this case (you could insert the words, homosexuals, anarchists, communists, Jews, etc in here as they are more historical forces of decadence identified by fascists).

Krop


Farcebook wars

20.07.2009 07:53

Doesn't anybody actually go outside any more?

Concerned of Halton Moor


The EDL and BNP

20.07.2009 13:07

The EDL/Casuals United claim that the presence of mixed race lads in their group means they can't possibly be racist or fascist, even though this argument is absurd as it's perfectly possible for a someone who is mixed race to hold prejudices against people from a certain religious or national background.

They obviously don't have much about them politically, like someone else has said they come across as a group fo people who read the Express/Mail or Sun and have taken the articles to heart and genuinely believe the propaganda of the likes of Anjem CHoudary who thinks the UK will be an Islamic state within the next 30 years.

I think their emergence is interesting if you put it in the context of something that was mentioned of the BNP's Lee Barnes' blog quite recently.

 http://leejohnbarnes.blogspot.com/2009/06/transition-point-for-nationalism.html

Do the EDL/Casuals United represent the sort of group Barnes was calling for?

This lot will be back on the streets of Birmingham on 8th August, i'd suggest that any anti-fascist wo can make it turns out against them. Providing a critique of the EDL as well as fundamentalists like Choudary is essential if we want to undermine the recruitment of people to these kind of groups.

BruisedShins


motives

20.07.2009 17:22

Sorry but it seems you are one of those people thats gets off on this kind of thing. If you hang around in forums of this nature of course you are going to get these kind of responses. Its just a shame you a) pretend ignorance of this fact & b) pretend you don't actually enjoy the sparring and posturing.

I'm not saying its bad. Just do claim ignorance and go "ooooo.... look at all these racists". Most of it is just people's opinion - which fortunately we still have a right to even if you people try your best to quash free thinking

mike