Nazi Boxing Fundraiser at the Circus Tavern Essex!
anon@indymedia.org (Muhammad Ali Fan) | 21.08.2010 08:22 | London
Following their planned "Fumble For The Fatherland" bout in February at the Caesars Nightclub venue at Streatham in South London, the neo-Nazis of the EDL are planning a boxing fundraiser on Saturday the 4th of September at 7PM at the "world famous" Circus Tavern in Purfleet, Essex.
The sport of proud Muslim legends Muhammad Ali and Amir Khan is being hijacked by EDL's Essex organisers to raise the profile of the violent fascist organisation, and will happen just days after they destroy Bradford with their self-styled "World War III" in Bradford the previous weekend.
Advertised by EDL Facebook admins as an official EDL Fight Night, starting at 7pm, a EDL's boxing poster-boy from Luton will be tainting the non-racist sport of boxing with vitreolic violent Ismamophobia, the crowd to include some of the countries most objectionabe racist football hooligans including convicted knife thug Jeff Marsh who stabbed Manchester United fans for fun (who runs the Casuals United blog), and they have already sold 100 tickets, and expect to have several hundred far right thugs in the audience.
Like most fascist organisations, the EDL is run as a business, and tickets are retailing at £32 each, with the EDL taking a sizeable cut of ticket sales:
http://www.defenceleagueclothing.com/index.php/english-defence-league-edl/edl-fight-night-boxing-ticket.html
Hosted by the hard man, former drug dealer and notorious East End criminal (and born again Christian) who calls himself Boxing's Pirate Promoter Alan Mortlock, a regular at hosting unlicenced fights at London venues, this evening of racism and boxing will be accompanied by the EDL's version of Skrewdriver "Alex And The Bandits", and Luton boxer will be entering the ring displaying EDL logo shorts and flags for the contest.
From Bolton to Sheffield, Cardiff to Brixton, boxing gyms all across the country pride themselves in offering sports and fitness training to young people from under priviledged backgrounds. Go in any inner city gym, and you will see black, Asian and white kids training together with mutual respect and admiration. The ethos of equal competition is one sadly lacking in most other sports, and for that reason, boxing is part of the government's sports development strategy to coincide with the forthcoming 2012 London Olympics.
Despite the EDL's recent setbacks, organised racism and religious hatred is steadily increasing year-in, year-out with the spirit of fervent Islamophobia fostered by politicians, state institutions and the scaremongering tabloid media who worryingly have turned their attentions from hooked-handed foreign bogeymen to British Muslims (the "enemy within"), to shore-up public support for the War On Terror and silence critics of an extremely unpopular and bloody Afgan war with casualties on all sides.
It is the misguided belief fostered by the rightwing newspaper industry and black ops foreign office "leaks" (the whole of the Taliban have Brummie accents) that has created the environment for a resurgence of the British far right exploited by violent neo-Nazi groups such as the EDL.
Egotist and publicity whore of the EDL Trevor Kelway sees mileage in turning media attentions from race riots to ringside aggression, himself, Jeff Marsh and the rest of the EDL leadership viewing openly-fascist boxing matches as a both a moneymaking opportunity and a cynical PR exercise, a chance to appeal to a wider fan base who might not otherwise warm to their hardcore Hitler loving British Freedom Fighters or the EDL's violently destructive racial football hooliganism.
Whilst potential boxing starlets of tomorrow fritter away hopes of fame and fortune through mutual association with English fascism, sweating tears of endurance as lackeys for an Islamophobic masterplan, spare a thought for Alan Lake and the EDL's other weathly far right backers who will be sipping extravagantly on champage on ice, playing millionairre war games with people's minds while the cancer of organised racism takes a foothold within the grassroots sporting world.
Since the defeat in the rematch of Max Schmeling by Joe Louis (Schmeling himself refusing to join the Nazi party or sack his American Jewish manager, and hiding two Jewish boys in his apartment during the Kristallnacht pogrom), with the rise of Jewish, black and Asian ring fighters, boxing has had an estranged relationship with fascism, and may seem like an unlikely target for the EDL.
Since the New Millenium, the Lonsdale boxing brand became momentarily popular with the European far right in the Netherlands, Belgium, northern France and Germany, especially because a carefully placed outer jacket leaves the letters NSDA showing; an acronym of Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter (National Socialist German Worker), and one letter short of NSDAP, the German acronym for the Nazi Party, however the boxing world has generally embraced non-white people and immigrants (including Muslims) into its gymnasiums, alongside the white working class.
One thing's for sure, the undeniable patriotism and steadfast patriotism of Amir Khan who dedicated his victories after 7/7 to the victims of Islamic terror, will be affronted by the poisonous bile and misdeeds of the EDL, who, despite claims of being "only against religious extremism", regularly create disorder, race hatred and chaos in the city centres of England, Wales and Scotland with straight-armed Hitler salutes, banners calling for the banning of mosques, incessant racist chanting, and behind the scenes, plotting deadly large-scale race riots.
During recent invasions into British cities masked paramilitary followers of this violent anti-Islamic far right gang have physically and verbally attacked innocent (non-extremist) Muslims in the street, vandalised Islamic gravestones, and threatened Muslim taxi drivers with death, (hardly the behaviour of a genuine anti-religious extremist group).
Whatever are one's personal thoughts regarding boxing, with the Olympics approaching, it is important that anti-fascists everywhere show our massed opposition to hate-peddling British fascist bootboys infiltrating the underground sporting world.
Prize Ring Boxing can be located at www.myspace.com/prizeringboxing
The Circus Tavern, Purfleet, Essex: Address: Mead Corner, London Road, Purfleet, Essex, RM19 1TS
Phone: 01708 864 001
(Please be polite at all times)
The Circus Tavern was revealed earlier this year as employing Combat 18 bouncers Big Jacko and Wilf the beast Browning.
Please contact the venue, the Circus Tavern, and Prize Ring Boxing, to stop this shameful fascist boxing fundraiser from going ahead.
No Pasaran!
London Antifascists
anon@indymedia.org (Muhammad Ali Fan)
Original article on IMC London:
http://london.indymedia.org/articles/5423