Planned EDL Counter Protest in Bradford fails to raise eyebrows
Lucy Cartwright | 31.07.2010 12:19 | Anti-racism | Culture | Social Struggles | Sheffield
Later this month English Defence League supporters hope to parade their hatred through the streets of Bradford but there is a massive campaign underway to legally stop them. But if the EDL do end up coming, should we really allow a counter protest?
The English Defence League is calling its protest in Bradford “The Big One” and with good reason. There are few other places in the country where an EDL protest will be seen as more provocative. Despite pretending to be opposed only to Islamic extremism, the EDL is going to Bradford to provoke the city’s large Muslim population.
Almost a third of the people of Bradford are Muslim, the second highest proportion anywhere in England outside London. More significantly, the city experienced race riots in 2001 for which 200 people went to prison. The city’s reputation was destroyed, divisions between communities widened and deepened and the only beneficiary was the BNP, which began to make significant breakthroughs in council elections.
The scars of the 2001 riot run deep and the city cannot afford another. That is why we are doing everything now to prevent the EDL protest from taking place.
Speaking out against a counter demonstration often attracts strong criticism. It has been argued by some that by not allowing a counter protest, the EDL are getting free passage in the city, that we are somehow breaking the anti-fascist tradition of No Platform. This is not true.
We fully understand the desire of people to mark their opposition to the EDL and many find a counter-demonstration appealing. Perhaps in some places there might be a case for one but in Bradford we believe there is not.
No EDL protest has actually been stopped by a counter-demonstration so the argument about No Platform does not hold. In almost every instance the EDL has held its static protest regardless of the actions of anti-fascists. More worryingly, some have led to disorder.
To some extent the very fact that the EDL has been able to protest at all represents a defeat. That it has been able to do so regardless of counter-protests suggests that perhaps the tactic of counter-protests is not working.
We also question the impact counter-demonstrations have on local people. Unfortunately much of the media coverage of earlier protests has presented a scene of two groups of extremists. This has especially been the case when there has been disorder or large-scale arrests of anti-EDL protests. The media coverage in Birmingham, Bolton and Manchester presented the anti-EDL protests in a negative light – hardly the best way to win hearts and minds of local people.
We believe that Bradford cannot afford further disorder and we fear that thousands of EDL protesters descending on the city, matched by thousands coming out to oppose them, could well provoke it. And this time the city might not recover.
Most progressive organisations in Bradford oppose a counter-demonstration, including local trade unions, political parties, faith groups and community groups. Last month Yorkshire and Humber TUC added its opposition to a demonstration.
And finally, let us be honest about what happened in 2001. Thousands of people came out to support an anti-fascist demonstration in protest against a planned National Front march. The NF demonstration was banned but a small group came into the city and began making Nazi salutes at the protesters. People had been standing around in hot weather for several hours with nothing to do, no direction and little purpose. They reacted to the racists, disorder ensued and two days of rioting began. Two hundred people, virtually all local Asians, went to prison for a total of 604 years.
Anti-fascists have a responsibility to those attending demonstrations and to the communities we are supposed to protect. Another riot is the last thing the people of Bradford need and we owe it to them to do everything we can to prevent one. And that means stopping the EDL from coming to Bradford in the first place.
The EDL is coming to Bradford to provoke another riot. Let’s not give them one.
Almost a third of the people of Bradford are Muslim, the second highest proportion anywhere in England outside London. More significantly, the city experienced race riots in 2001 for which 200 people went to prison. The city’s reputation was destroyed, divisions between communities widened and deepened and the only beneficiary was the BNP, which began to make significant breakthroughs in council elections.
The scars of the 2001 riot run deep and the city cannot afford another. That is why we are doing everything now to prevent the EDL protest from taking place.
Speaking out against a counter demonstration often attracts strong criticism. It has been argued by some that by not allowing a counter protest, the EDL are getting free passage in the city, that we are somehow breaking the anti-fascist tradition of No Platform. This is not true.
We fully understand the desire of people to mark their opposition to the EDL and many find a counter-demonstration appealing. Perhaps in some places there might be a case for one but in Bradford we believe there is not.
No EDL protest has actually been stopped by a counter-demonstration so the argument about No Platform does not hold. In almost every instance the EDL has held its static protest regardless of the actions of anti-fascists. More worryingly, some have led to disorder.
To some extent the very fact that the EDL has been able to protest at all represents a defeat. That it has been able to do so regardless of counter-protests suggests that perhaps the tactic of counter-protests is not working.
We also question the impact counter-demonstrations have on local people. Unfortunately much of the media coverage of earlier protests has presented a scene of two groups of extremists. This has especially been the case when there has been disorder or large-scale arrests of anti-EDL protests. The media coverage in Birmingham, Bolton and Manchester presented the anti-EDL protests in a negative light – hardly the best way to win hearts and minds of local people.
We believe that Bradford cannot afford further disorder and we fear that thousands of EDL protesters descending on the city, matched by thousands coming out to oppose them, could well provoke it. And this time the city might not recover.
Most progressive organisations in Bradford oppose a counter-demonstration, including local trade unions, political parties, faith groups and community groups. Last month Yorkshire and Humber TUC added its opposition to a demonstration.
And finally, let us be honest about what happened in 2001. Thousands of people came out to support an anti-fascist demonstration in protest against a planned National Front march. The NF demonstration was banned but a small group came into the city and began making Nazi salutes at the protesters. People had been standing around in hot weather for several hours with nothing to do, no direction and little purpose. They reacted to the racists, disorder ensued and two days of rioting began. Two hundred people, virtually all local Asians, went to prison for a total of 604 years.
Anti-fascists have a responsibility to those attending demonstrations and to the communities we are supposed to protect. Another riot is the last thing the people of Bradford need and we owe it to them to do everything we can to prevent one. And that means stopping the EDL from coming to Bradford in the first place.
The EDL is coming to Bradford to provoke another riot. Let’s not give them one.
Lucy Cartwright
e-mail:
lucy.cartwright@live.co.uk
Homepage:
http://www.bradfordtogether.org.uk/
Additions
Independent Action against EDL in Bradford 28th August
31.07.2010 12:23
A Statement from Leeds Anti-fascist Network
The English Defense League (EDL) plan to hold a large national rally in Bradford on the 28th of August. The working class of Bradford, Yorkshire and beyond need to unite in opposition to this racist organization’s attempts to seize the streets and intimidate the Asian population of Bradford.
The EDL claim they are not a racists but just a “grassroots mobilisation against political Islamism”. Some of their members possibly even believe this is true. However their actions in Luton, Stoke and elsewhere show when allowed the opportunity they attack and intimidate people from Muslim backgrounds irrespective of these peoples political views. They have singled out Bradford simply because it has a large Asian population. The ranks of the EDL include open fascists and their chants are often straightforwardly racist. By demonstrating in Bradford they want to drive a wedge between working class people from Muslim backgrounds and the rest of the working class.
The EDL and other racists and fascists (like the BNP and National Front) do not exist in a vacuum. We are living through the greatest economic crisis since the 1930s. Working class people of all racial and religious backgrounds are being made to pay for an economic crisis created by the rich and their friends in government. We are suffering from job losses, massive cuts in public services and a long standing lack of decent housing. The EDL and other racists are feeding on the despair this causes and they grow by scapegoating other working class people who happen to be Muslim or from a Muslim background.
So far the “mainstream” anti-fascists and anti-racist groups have had little to say about the causes of the growth of racism and fascism.
Groups like Unite Against Fascism and Hope Not Hate actually link up with the politicians and millionaires who helped create the poverty and despair the EDL feed off. They work with the state whose racist immigration laws, control orders and stop and search policies have openly discriminated against people from Muslim backgrounds. They also have often courted self appointed “community Leaders” who claim to speak for all Muslims but who in fact only speak in their own self interest. At times they have downplayed the fight for sexual equality and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender rights so as not to offend bigoted religious “leaders”. These politics and tactics are not only wrong they have failed to halt the growth of the EDL. This is why we are organizing independently of these two groups.
Hope Not Hate are circulating a petition to ban the EDL’s rally in Bradford. Whilst we agree with the motivation behind this we cannot rely on the state to ban the rally. Firstly because these laws will be used against the workers movement and the anti-racists ourselves, secondly because we cannot sow illusions in the idea the police will always protect people against the EDL. The only way we can be sure the EDL pose no threat is a mass mobilisations of working class people against them. It is down to us to oppose the EDL on the day and send them home to think again.
That’s why we’re organising a mobilisation against the EDL in Bradford. This is based on independent working class self organisation. We will oppose the racism of the EDL, but we are also against assaults on all working class people by the boss class. We are mobilizing against racism and religious discrimination but also against sexism, homophobia and all other forms of bigotry. We seek to unite people of all ethnic and cultural backgrounds under the banner of working class unity, working class politics and secularism. Bradford needs to be the place where the rise of the EDL is stopped once and for all by a mass united working class opposition.
We will be assembling in inner-city Bradford from 11AM on Saturday the 28th of August.
The English Defense League (EDL) plan to hold a large national rally in Bradford on the 28th of August. The working class of Bradford, Yorkshire and beyond need to unite in opposition to this racist organization’s attempts to seize the streets and intimidate the Asian population of Bradford.
The EDL claim they are not a racists but just a “grassroots mobilisation against political Islamism”. Some of their members possibly even believe this is true. However their actions in Luton, Stoke and elsewhere show when allowed the opportunity they attack and intimidate people from Muslim backgrounds irrespective of these peoples political views. They have singled out Bradford simply because it has a large Asian population. The ranks of the EDL include open fascists and their chants are often straightforwardly racist. By demonstrating in Bradford they want to drive a wedge between working class people from Muslim backgrounds and the rest of the working class.
The EDL and other racists and fascists (like the BNP and National Front) do not exist in a vacuum. We are living through the greatest economic crisis since the 1930s. Working class people of all racial and religious backgrounds are being made to pay for an economic crisis created by the rich and their friends in government. We are suffering from job losses, massive cuts in public services and a long standing lack of decent housing. The EDL and other racists are feeding on the despair this causes and they grow by scapegoating other working class people who happen to be Muslim or from a Muslim background.
So far the “mainstream” anti-fascists and anti-racist groups have had little to say about the causes of the growth of racism and fascism.
Groups like Unite Against Fascism and Hope Not Hate actually link up with the politicians and millionaires who helped create the poverty and despair the EDL feed off. They work with the state whose racist immigration laws, control orders and stop and search policies have openly discriminated against people from Muslim backgrounds. They also have often courted self appointed “community Leaders” who claim to speak for all Muslims but who in fact only speak in their own self interest. At times they have downplayed the fight for sexual equality and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender rights so as not to offend bigoted religious “leaders”. These politics and tactics are not only wrong they have failed to halt the growth of the EDL. This is why we are organizing independently of these two groups.
Hope Not Hate are circulating a petition to ban the EDL’s rally in Bradford. Whilst we agree with the motivation behind this we cannot rely on the state to ban the rally. Firstly because these laws will be used against the workers movement and the anti-racists ourselves, secondly because we cannot sow illusions in the idea the police will always protect people against the EDL. The only way we can be sure the EDL pose no threat is a mass mobilisations of working class people against them. It is down to us to oppose the EDL on the day and send them home to think again.
That’s why we’re organising a mobilisation against the EDL in Bradford. This is based on independent working class self organisation. We will oppose the racism of the EDL, but we are also against assaults on all working class people by the boss class. We are mobilizing against racism and religious discrimination but also against sexism, homophobia and all other forms of bigotry. We seek to unite people of all ethnic and cultural backgrounds under the banner of working class unity, working class politics and secularism. Bradford needs to be the place where the rise of the EDL is stopped once and for all by a mass united working class opposition.
We will be assembling in inner-city Bradford from 11AM on Saturday the 28th of August.
Leeds Anti-fascist Network
Homepage:
http://srfnetwork.org/2010/07/24/action-bradford-28th-august/
Reply to the HnH article line here
01.08.2010 21:42
This reply was was sent to this same HnH article on their website
----------
It is to be welcomed that Nick has openly explained HnH's view and invited debate but I disagree strongly with that view.
In effect Nick calls for those opposed to the EDL's racism to vacate the streets and presumably allow the EDL to do as they please. 'Vacating the streets' would have to be done not only for most of the day but also into the evening for, as we know, the EDL usually leave many gangs of the supporters in the town to try and stir up violence.
HnH, elders in the Muslim community, the police and whoever else backs HnH's call not to challenge the EDL, are simply not strong enough to successfully bring about a de facto desertion of Bradford by Muslim people for the whole day. Many Muslim/ Asian people will not want to cower in their own homes whilst racists go on the rampage in the town. Unless one expects every Muslim to vacate the town many will inevitably be out in the town at risk of being isolated, provoked and attacked by the EDL.
Nick, do you think you can stop all these possible points of flare-ups? I don't think you can. The 2001 events should not be repeated but we have to be realistic about what is possible. If experienced organisers don't shape the response to such provocations then things can get dangerously out of hand. But you won't shape a response by not being there! What we need to do is try and organise a peaceful, well-stewarded and massive multi-racial protest to the EDL with the largest possible working class mobilisation against them.
But if by some incredible fluke you were successful and that the EDL did march and drink their way through an empty town, what would be the result? The EDL would treat as a great victory 'reclaiming Bradford from the Muslims'. And they would be back, again and again until they get the riot they undoubtedly want.
The Tower Hamlets EDL protest was, at least in part, called off because the EDL thought they would be massively outnumbered. Some have speculated that they would call of the Bradford demo for the same reason. Your call at this time will only encourage the EDL to go ahead with their event in Bradford. An anti-racist movement has to find a way of preventing individuals or small groups of Muslims being isolated: recognising and championing their right to be in their own town and not racially intimidated or attacked. This fight against the EDL should not be allowed to become white racists on one side and Muslims on the other.
If multi-racial organisations such as trade unions and Hope not Hate are not there, it only increases the likelihood that what happens in Bradford can be portrayed as a racial conflict and not a conflict about racism. If the EDL are NOT outnumbered by a multi-racial mobilisation on August 28th then they will be back again and again until people in the town can no longer tolerate the continual provocations. There are tremendous challenges for those involved in organising a counter-protest to get people out in sufficient numbers to prevent the EDL having the success they want.
There is a need for a well stewarded and non-violent protest. There has to be an absence of inflammatory rhetoric that was a part of the problem in 2001. The Stop and Racism network
http://srfnetwork.org/ has recently put a statement on our website by those organising in Bradford/ Leeds to oppose the EDL on the streets of Bradford on August 28th. They should be supported.
----------
It is to be welcomed that Nick has openly explained HnH's view and invited debate but I disagree strongly with that view.
In effect Nick calls for those opposed to the EDL's racism to vacate the streets and presumably allow the EDL to do as they please. 'Vacating the streets' would have to be done not only for most of the day but also into the evening for, as we know, the EDL usually leave many gangs of the supporters in the town to try and stir up violence.
HnH, elders in the Muslim community, the police and whoever else backs HnH's call not to challenge the EDL, are simply not strong enough to successfully bring about a de facto desertion of Bradford by Muslim people for the whole day. Many Muslim/ Asian people will not want to cower in their own homes whilst racists go on the rampage in the town. Unless one expects every Muslim to vacate the town many will inevitably be out in the town at risk of being isolated, provoked and attacked by the EDL.
Nick, do you think you can stop all these possible points of flare-ups? I don't think you can. The 2001 events should not be repeated but we have to be realistic about what is possible. If experienced organisers don't shape the response to such provocations then things can get dangerously out of hand. But you won't shape a response by not being there! What we need to do is try and organise a peaceful, well-stewarded and massive multi-racial protest to the EDL with the largest possible working class mobilisation against them.
But if by some incredible fluke you were successful and that the EDL did march and drink their way through an empty town, what would be the result? The EDL would treat as a great victory 'reclaiming Bradford from the Muslims'. And they would be back, again and again until they get the riot they undoubtedly want.
The Tower Hamlets EDL protest was, at least in part, called off because the EDL thought they would be massively outnumbered. Some have speculated that they would call of the Bradford demo for the same reason. Your call at this time will only encourage the EDL to go ahead with their event in Bradford. An anti-racist movement has to find a way of preventing individuals or small groups of Muslims being isolated: recognising and championing their right to be in their own town and not racially intimidated or attacked. This fight against the EDL should not be allowed to become white racists on one side and Muslims on the other.
If multi-racial organisations such as trade unions and Hope not Hate are not there, it only increases the likelihood that what happens in Bradford can be portrayed as a racial conflict and not a conflict about racism. If the EDL are NOT outnumbered by a multi-racial mobilisation on August 28th then they will be back again and again until people in the town can no longer tolerate the continual provocations. There are tremendous challenges for those involved in organising a counter-protest to get people out in sufficient numbers to prevent the EDL having the success they want.
There is a need for a well stewarded and non-violent protest. There has to be an absence of inflammatory rhetoric that was a part of the problem in 2001. The Stop and Racism network
http://srfnetwork.org/ has recently put a statement on our website by those organising in Bradford/ Leeds to oppose the EDL on the streets of Bradford on August 28th. They should be supported.
Dave Matthews
e-mail:
nottmstopbnp@yahoo.co.uk
Homepage:
http://srfnetwork.org
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