Not normally a fan of the police, but there were at least two times they saved mine, and my comrades from a beating of the EDL.

I have been on few anti EDL demos, and that was the most able mob I have seen of them.
I know a few anti fascists who tried to confront the EDL and got chased off by them.
I don't think we will see some of those anti fascists on an anti EDL demo again, some anti fascists were given a bad beating of the EDL.

Don't know if the last poster is genuine or an EDL troll, but really the numbers EDL actually fighting anti-fascists was small, and mostly it seemed to be aggressive chanting and swearing with the occasional punch (or bottle) thrown. The videos clearly show some who had a go at the cops on the their 'march' to the Castle but having a go at cops when you are hemmed in is different.

Sure there were incidents of greater violence, but I don't think it's helpful to treat EDL as a homogenous mass of streetfighters. They were not. We shouldn't be so afraid of them as people, rather be afraid of what it means in general to have racists and misguided patriots able to roam on our streets without anyone else apart from a few hundred organised anti-fascists and local people prepared stop them. Most people seemed content to wave placards, straightjacketed by the likes of UAF who seem more about making a statement for the media that will only really give future political gain for the trotskyist party that dominate them.

More people of Nottingham and the other towns where EDL have held events or will hold future events, need to think what role they could play in the future so these events are not continued. It's good at least that not everyone heeded the Council, Police and Imams call to stay at home (or continue Saturday shopping as usual).

Not normally a fan of the police, but there were at least two times they saved mine, and my comrades from a beating of the anti-fascists.

I have been on few EDL demos, and that was the most able mob I have seen of them.
I know a few EDL who tried to confront the anti-fascists and got chased off by them.
I don't think we will see some of those EDL on a demo again, some EDL were given a bad beating of the anti-fascists.


[c'mon, the previous comment is an obvious troll!]

and "bad beating of the EDL" suggests someone whose first language isn't English.

Can all of the neo-nazi EDL and BNP trolls who hang out on Indymedia, piss off back to Stormfront. You never get anti-racists and anti-fascists posing as trolls on Stormfront, thus we expect Indymedia to be free of stupid brainless fash bullshit.

It's called respect!

In response to previous poster (assuming you're not a fascist or a cop, which you may be!) - it is true that at one point a line of police prevented a large gang of about 200 EDL from getting to a much smaller (40?) group of antifascists at the bottom of Maid Marian Way. If the police hadn't been there, the EDL would certainly have attacked. It is also true that many of the EDL are very keen for a ruck (many of them are ex- or current football casuals, or at least from that culture, and they *like* getting pissed and starting fights - it's almost a long-standing hobby for most of them. Most of us, on the other hand, have better things to do with our saturdays!). They are mostly reasonably hefty blokes, not exactly brain-of-britain material, had been drinking all day, and fired up with aggression and hate - no wonder many people find them intimidating! Being in a large gang of similarly pissed and up-for-it morons will also embolden your average EDL member further. They were a nasty bunch.

However, I was impressed that many anti-fascists were prepared to stand up to the EDL intimidation, and often take them on in scuffles; there were some brave lads fighting back well in one nasty ruck outside a pub (started by a beer glass attack by the EDL), where one antifascist briefly got kicked unconscious (he's fine now) - and believe me, the EDL didn't get away without feeling they'd been in a fight after they scurried back into the pub. There were also groups of antifascists challenging the EDL as they strutted round the streets in small groups earlier in the day. I was also impressed at the attitude of the youth (often very young!), both asian and white together, who were running around later in the day looking to resist the EDL rampage, and getting some blows in. They weren't intimidated by the racists.

My point, however, is this : it's all very well getting in to some macho discussion of who were the best fighters on the day, but that doesn't achieve much - and, whatever the EDL may or may not be, we can't deny they're generally good at fighting. What matters isn't how "hard" you are, it's about your attitude, courage, strategy, solidarity and politics. I think anti-fascists can be pleased that in the face of an intimidating fascist provocation, we stood up to them and didn't let them "own" the city centre as they said they would.

Seems like the two last messages above are referring to a troll email that the Indymedia mods have removed, so the comment that is just above them is not a troll even if it looks like it now!