Good to see a good turnout of anti fascists from Bolton and beyond. Nice to outnumber the EDL and see them leave the square. Their finest "men" could only manage to throw a few plastic bottles and lighters, before they were herded back out of Bolton. Bunch of tossers!
The UAF protest was attacked by armoured riot police and police dog handlers. Using dogs is a more agresive tactic against protestors armed only with placards than shields & battons. The protesters respondied by giving the dogs food. The dog handlers tried to stop the dogs from eating. The dogs won this and ate the food. The dog handlers also tried to get the dog feeders arrested but didn't manage this.
It was the UAF who behaved like they had rabies. The UAF were throwing coins and bottles of urine at the EDL. They had no proper arguments and just shouted "BNP. EDL. National Front" at us who were on the other side of the barriers like a scratched record.
The thing is the UAF have really got it wrong this time. The EDL are not racist.
It's groups like Islam4UK and Hizb-ut-Tahrir that are racist, fascist, homophobic, misogynistic and dangerous bigots.
The rubbish spread about the EDL by the UAF has turned me against the UAF permanently.
I went to Bolton and was impressed by the EDL who were friendly, professional, welcoming and willing to speak to me about why they were there in a real and intelligent way.
They are not racist...a Pakistani member of the EDL told me how he was worried for his community, especially for the women and girls..not because of the EDL but because of militant Islam. He said that militant Islam poses a real threat to his community where he lives. He supports the EDL.
The EDL has Black and Asian members. Racist they are not.
As for the SWP/UAF...the SWP try to hijack every campaign and movement there is and behave like thugs and bullies. The leadership tell the people who support them [and pay them monies] to clump together on protests and then stand back to watch them get arrested.
Having initially and briefly supported the UAF [to my shame] I have been won over by the EDL and had a very positive experience in Bolton.
This is a genuine post from a very recent EDL convert so please refrain from the stupid "this is the troll" remarks. It would be good to have a proper debate about what the EDL are really saying. Indymedia have been making this one sided...if you think that the EDL will just go away you can think again. There were nearly 2000 EDL people on that march and they had the support from the ordinary general public lining the streets who were pleased to see them which should tell you something.
The speeches on the day were well thought out and the EDL have upped their game.
"EDL represents part of a new phenomena maybe call it “culturalist”, that is it isn’t based on white supremacism but a reaction and counter to islamic supremacism." (written by 'Alex', commenting on an article on Ian Bone's blog).
The EDL have at one and the same time both proved to be both able to articulate a sophisticated argument that they are not racist and are singularly opposed to the advance of Islamic values at the expense of cultural values that people living in UK society have become accustomed to, as well as also being really careless in allowed themselves to openly associate with openly racist and fascist groups of individuals.
The idea that EDL are not racist is completely misinformed. They have flirted with a racist agenda through their provocative choices of location for their rallies, in keeping with their conflation of Islamic extremism being associated with anything Islamic, they enjoy organising marches against local mosques (the next one in Dudley claims to be against the building of what will be one of the UK's largest mosques). The conflation of islamic extremism onto anything and anyone considered islamic is perverse, and this ideological rational plus it's courting of the base of it's support amongst the ranks of Casuals United - a social network of past and present football hooligans all over the country who each used to belong to football firms of their own clubs is akin to the elementary beginnings of Nazism in Germany during the 1920s with the the Sturmabteilung (Brownshirts, or SA). The latter point is observed in EDL's courting of the base of it's support amongst the ranks of Casuals United - a social network of past and present football hooligans all over the country who each used to belong to football firms of their own clubs. Throughout the 1980s, the NF put resources into canvassing support on football terraces; it's paper 'Bulldog' ran a racist league table where supporters competed to earn the title of most racist in the country.
The EDL may claim they are not racist, but the fash have more and more come out in large numbers to their demos, particualrly in Nottingham and in Stoke. In Stoke, the only time there hasn't been a large counterdemo by the UAF, fash ran through the town and smashed up asian shops.
While the EDL may publicly pronounce they reject racism and these fascists (and maybe even have started to tell them not to join their rallies), it is clear that the EDL have courted racists, use a veil of legitimacy in denouncing racism while demonising anything Islamic as extremist, and are seemingly happy to opportunistically exploit public sympathies to the natural waryness of the extremes of the practice of Islamic faith, and in so doing, like The Sun & Hate Mail, stir up rising Islamaphobia in society. It would appear that in Bolton, they have upped their game and sophisticated their image to increase their public appeal further.
anon. Don't take us for fools. If you seriously believe what you posted, just check out the comments from racists / nazis supporting the EDL rally in Bolton on Stormfront. Or check out YouTube videos from BNP activists and look at all the racist comments from EDL / BNP / NF supporters.
Comments
Hide the following 8 comments
state coverage
20.03.2010 14:12
lynx
what
20.03.2010 17:28
though i did notice the only side that the battons and sheilds where drawn where edl, peacfull group my arse
ballz
EDL seen off....
20.03.2010 19:54
Bolton wanderer.
@ Ballz
21.03.2010 11:50
against their handlers
The UAF did the attacking...not the EDL. The EDL attacked nobody.
21.03.2010 19:19
The thing is the UAF have really got it wrong this time. The EDL are not racist.
It's groups like Islam4UK and Hizb-ut-Tahrir that are racist, fascist, homophobic, misogynistic and dangerous bigots.
The rubbish spread about the EDL by the UAF has turned me against the UAF permanently.
I went to Bolton and was impressed by the EDL who were friendly, professional, welcoming and willing to speak to me about why they were there in a real and intelligent way.
They are not racist...a Pakistani member of the EDL told me how he was worried for his community, especially for the women and girls..not because of the EDL but because of militant Islam. He said that militant Islam poses a real threat to his community where he lives. He supports the EDL.
The EDL has Black and Asian members. Racist they are not.
As for the SWP/UAF...the SWP try to hijack every campaign and movement there is and behave like thugs and bullies. The leadership tell the people who support them [and pay them monies] to clump together on protests and then stand back to watch them get arrested.
Having initially and briefly supported the UAF [to my shame] I have been won over by the EDL and had a very positive experience in Bolton.
This is a genuine post from a very recent EDL convert so please refrain from the stupid "this is the troll" remarks. It would be good to have a proper debate about what the EDL are really saying. Indymedia have been making this one sided...if you think that the EDL will just go away you can think again. There were nearly 2000 EDL people on that march and they had the support from the ordinary general public lining the streets who were pleased to see them which should tell you something.
The speeches on the day were well thought out and the EDL have upped their game.
EDL 1
UAF 0
anon
"This is a genuine post from a very recent EDL convert..."
22.03.2010 00:14
yeah, right...
Elvis Presley
Racist roots of EDL
22.03.2010 01:20
The EDL have at one and the same time both proved to be both able to articulate a sophisticated argument that they are not racist and are singularly opposed to the advance of Islamic values at the expense of cultural values that people living in UK society have become accustomed to, as well as also being really careless in allowed themselves to openly associate with openly racist and fascist groups of individuals.
The idea that EDL are not racist is completely misinformed. They have flirted with a racist agenda through their provocative choices of location for their rallies, in keeping with their conflation of Islamic extremism being associated with anything Islamic, they enjoy organising marches against local mosques (the next one in Dudley claims to be against the building of what will be one of the UK's largest mosques). The conflation of islamic extremism onto anything and anyone considered islamic is perverse, and this ideological rational plus it's courting of the base of it's support amongst the ranks of Casuals United - a social network of past and present football hooligans all over the country who each used to belong to football firms of their own clubs is akin to the elementary beginnings of Nazism in Germany during the 1920s with the the Sturmabteilung (Brownshirts, or SA). The latter point is observed in EDL's courting of the base of it's support amongst the ranks of Casuals United - a social network of past and present football hooligans all over the country who each used to belong to football firms of their own clubs. Throughout the 1980s, the NF put resources into canvassing support on football terraces; it's paper 'Bulldog' ran a racist league table where supporters competed to earn the title of most racist in the country.
The EDL may claim they are not racist, but the fash have more and more come out in large numbers to their demos, particualrly in Nottingham and in Stoke. In Stoke, the only time there hasn't been a large counterdemo by the UAF, fash ran through the town and smashed up asian shops.
While the EDL may publicly pronounce they reject racism and these fascists (and maybe even have started to tell them not to join their rallies), it is clear that the EDL have courted racists, use a veil of legitimacy in denouncing racism while demonising anything Islamic as extremist, and are seemingly happy to opportunistically exploit public sympathies to the natural waryness of the extremes of the practice of Islamic faith, and in so doing, like The Sun & Hate Mail, stir up rising Islamaphobia in society. It would appear that in Bolton, they have upped their game and sophisticated their image to increase their public appeal further.
chattel discourse
@ anon
22.03.2010 10:50
northern lass