20/12 london protest called by EDL; destructive political rumour-frenzy!!!

An explanation of what went wrong with the 20th of december london protest and what implications this might have for future protests...

It is now widely accepted by left-wing online forums, online newspapers and organisations that the protest called today is "at best a fake, at worst an EDL front designed to discredit student demonstrations or even ambush peaceful protesters" (

http://lolrevolution.wordpress.com/2010/12/18/2012-march-of-resistance-an-edl-front/#comment-18)

This information, as much as it was originally based on some factual evidence, is WRONG.

The rumour only started (and spread rapidly) when the young, idealistic and somewhat naive organiser of the event lied about having the support of various trade unions and student groups. People obviously became suspicious and questioned his motives for calling the march in the first place, which was followed by further evasiveness on his part. Please read this brilliant peace of research by Adelaida Morales on the true identity of the organiser:

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"Please see the following conversation:

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/images/2010/12/470670.jpg . Does this mean that John Abrahams is a BNP fanatic/ supporter? I think this might be the case, however perhaps there are two John Abrahams. This is after all, a very common name.
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The creator of this site [the facebook event for the march] changed his name recently into John Abrahams (working under the name here of "UK People's Initiative: March of Resistance). His real name is Angel Versetti (try and see for yourself: en-gb.facebook.com/people/Angel-Versetti/100001855624976?). Angel Versetti is in contract to John Abrahams quite a rare name.
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Now we know who has created the site, I have found this in Google's mighty cache:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3AtcDswqK7HxIJ%3Ais-is.facebook.com%2Fpermalink.php%3Fstory_fbid%3D476528996977%26id%3D95873726977+bnp+%22Angel+Versetti%22&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&client=firefox-a . (Angel: "Such people [i.e. BNP MPs] should not be allowed to go into politics. I'm really glad they didn't win a single seat in the parliament").
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Angel Versetti is perhaps indeed an Austrian name (of originally Italian decent). This get confirmed when you read the following forum post:

http://www.virtualvienna.net/main/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=11072 . Thus, we can conclude that Angel is probably from Vienna, while his email address is now known to use as well. His (grand)parents (at least one of them) were probably economic refugees from Italy in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s or perhaps political refugees in Il Duce's Italy.
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Angel also created the "Cambridge University Further Education Summer School course 2010" (

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3AYPpYx1cgjqUJ%3Awww.hs.facebook.com%2Fgroup.php%3Fgid%3D126767094020564%26v%3Dwall+http%3A%2F%2Fis-is.facebook.com%2Fangel.versetti&cd=8&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&client=firefox-a) . Hence, he is probably a Cambridge undergrad or a language students (he studied English in Britain).
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Plus the guy has been writing against the cuts already for month (e.g.

http://angel-versetti.livejournal.com/tag/angel%20versetti).
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Ergo, I think his persona is completely legit. It was just a silly move of his to organise this without union or organised support. However, I reckon Angel to be idealistic, young and motivated, which maybe explains it all a bit."

She argues futhermore:

"I think Angel position is an interesting one. I hypothesise the following:
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I personally don't think he is Swiss actually, he might originally be from Italy (the chapel in the background is St Peter in Rome:

http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/76/m_f590bf402e054bb2ab9b85a604dda747.jpg). However, I think (50 percent sure) he is originally of Georgian descent but born in Russia. Why? Because he knows Russian (

http://www.podgotovka.ru/detail.php?siteid=8475&catid=7 (translates as "Teaches English in Moscow")) and because Versetti called be a Georgian name (translated from Cyrillic). Finally, he said somewhere in a link that he only since recently has been living in Vienna (that was October 2008).
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He is not the kind of person that the EDL would consider " proper British" or even "European", so it is unlikely that he would want to be associated with them. He does however support Wilders, which not means he automatically support the EDL. Remember that Geert Wilders openly denounced an EDL demonstration some months ago in the Netherlands and said "I share nothing in common with the EDL and would not in any way want to be associated with them". Angel Versetti could support Wilders, given cultural upbringings (mostly religious maybe), naiveté etc.
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Why he not openly said to be Angel Versetti? I reckon he could be thrown out of the country... UK immigrations laws are horrendous (personal experience)."

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BLESS HIM, he just doesn't know what he is doing and it was too much to handle for him :)

The whole thing ended in a political rumour-frenzy culminating with veterans and various left-wing groups issuing statements that the EDL called this march in the first place, when, in fact, the organiser is completely innocent. The EDL are most likely to be there (since they promised to attend future student marches) but let's be honest, what real threat can they pose to our movement. LET THEM COME, as long as they are not organising any marches in our name. This event was NOT a fake or called by the EDL, however they most likely caught on and are USING IT TO THEIR OWN ADVANTAGE NOW.

It's a shame, it really is. Of course the organiser can take some blame for this as he lied to people in the first place; but I am sorry, it literally is just the mistakes of a 17 year old who is, at worst, not mature enough yet to take on responsibility for an event of this size. I have, however, NO DOUBT as to his good intentions when creating this event. I feel bad for the kid and while I think people had more than enough reason to be suspicious we should NOT have gunned him down the way we did.

This has some serious implications for further marches that may be organised independently, I have a yet unconfirmed anxiety that everyone is going to be afraid to attend anything that isn't "officially" backed, never mind all the bitter internal bickering and arguing that i saw online over the last few days.

What I saw repeated over the last few days, even weeks (we had slightly similar ideological divides at the Goldsmiths Occupation) in online discussions could be boiled down to this (please correct me if I'm wrong): An argument in the left between groups of people on one side saying that marches do NOT need to be organised (Anarchists?) and people from all sorts of backgrounds on the other side arguing that they do (Socialists?). Sorry for generalising here if you are neither an anarchist or a socialist, but I'm sure you get my drift.

I'll leave it to you to discuss this in full with whatever side on the left it is that you are bickering with at the moment, but could I please ask for mature, rational discussion in the light of the common aim: SOLIDARITY WITH ANYONE WHO IS AGAINST THE CUTS.

We need to pull together, have some sort of dialogue about any ideological issues at hand and then get down to practicalities; the age old problem of that split in the left whenever the right is on the rise springs to my mind once again. This is how Hittler came to power in the 1930's when the socialists and communists in Germany couldn't get their act together...

We have a COMMON ENEMY, can we work on that basis?

FriendlySquatta
e-mail: Ron_wulf@yahoo.de

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20.12.2010 16:57

"SOLIDARITY WITH ANYONE WHO IS AGAINST THE CUTS."

You lot are too busy fighting the cuts that you don't realise that Britain is being Islamified.

Does it matter?

The Art of Seeing.

20.12.2010 17:54

What has happened is indeed tragic, but also par for the course.

Once again we see socialists trying to own everything (on behalf of the Labour party) and once again we see the extreme right wing EDL trying to do the same on behalf of the Conservatives. What we see here is street politics being coopted by the hierarchical two main political parties and the end result we are left with...complete inaction in the face of political policies both parties are fighting to be the ones to implement.

The Socialists and the EDL are different faces of the same coin. Archetypal opposites working together to take the sting out of the 'power of the people'.

The Socialists are there to hijack ANY movement that shows promise and the EDL are there to chill the Socialists by bullying any movement into submission in order to prevent them forming on the streets. They do this by threatening to smother any movement in violence by showing up and subverting the peace of the crowd.

What this young man in the article has encountered, is the current environment and nothing else. He is not connected or affiliated with any hierarchical group so he has been robbed of his right to organise by a conflated mixture of right and left and the end result is failure.

The message?

You will not organise unless you have our permission.

It is the political tyranny of the political set.

Joyriders and vandals the lot of them (oh, and war criminals too)

There is only one way to organise in this environment and that is to recognise that the adversarial and competitive bipolar character of Parliament is in the process of being injected into our world. Street protests are in the process of becoming a mirror of our two party political state. The Socialists on the left and the EDL on the right. A carbon copy of the hierarchical Parliament for the tactical benefit of Parliament. If this 'policy' is successful, Parliament will then be able to successfully manage us all and our time will be over.
We must begin to organise free of all hierarchical political camps and structure our cells free of socialism and far right mindless loyalism. We must recognise that the people of this country despise Parliament and correctly assume that it is simply a collection of self interested manipulative self regarding proles feeding from the public purse.

Recognise the public mood and recognise that to act on it is to empower our democracy for the benefit of all.

Smash the two party state.

Knot-eyed Jaguar.

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twat

20.12.2010 18:18

i will reiterate - you are a twat

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@ Does it matter?

20.12.2010 18:20

Sod off Oswald!

Mishmash

Yes it does :)

20.12.2010 18:21

That is news to me. I am aware that many people are worried about British Culture dying out, especially Pubs; I don't think that Britain is being "islamified", however.

I guess you are part of the EDL? Let me quote someone who has put it better then I ever could:

"I can't be bothered to hate people simply for being uneducated and having the misfortune of being exposed to Rupert Murdoch's all consuming media-machine. We all think stupid things when we have hangovers, and I imagine if you live in squalor, have a hangover every day, read the Sun where it is saying "FREAK OUT, TERRORISTS EVERYWHERE", and being told by many people that the reason you can't get a job is because Poles have taken them - in this case you might feel attracted to an organisation such as the EDL."

FriendlySquatta

Read his statement today - http://peopinitiative.livejournal.com/478.html

20.12.2010 19:36

Angel Versetti/John Abrahams/Sally Droid (who is not 17 but maybe in his early 20s) is a fascist or at least a nasty anti-working class Tory though probably not EDL but not for the reasons stated above. I suspect he is very middle class.

This he wrote today, here -

http://peopinitiative.livejournal.com/478.html

"You know what? I now think you have got what you deserved. The Conservatives are right – why the hell should you be educated, when you don’t even know how to use your brains? You are fed lies and stupidly, gratefully devour them and then lick fingers of the hand that feeds you and then you are ready to bark and bite whomever the hand gives you command to bite and bark at. You lose any rudiments of rationalism and personality that you have, when you become part of a mindless herd.

Why should I or anyone else try to defend you? I now understand why those, who become rich, turn away from their poor background: they are ashamed; ashamed to see how uncouth their former peers are. Look at you all who shout on streets as they shouted on the event’s page! You are savages – you don’t care twopence about education or universities

EMA has been cut? Big deal! Most of you spent it on alcohol and cigarettes anyway! This will teach you how to spend money that you earn. The government paid you to get drunk and then you bothered your local doctors with your liver cirrhosis and hangovers, whilst people, who needed treatment and did not self-inflict their illnesses, had to wait longer. Who paid for these externalities? The society, the taxpayers!

I am very glad that this whole movement’s engine had failed before it took off. I now know what you are worth and I can now return to my, perhaps uneventful, life, but life of striving for perfection of intelligence. It was an interesting experiment for me at any rate.

P.S. Following my long-term political neutrality, due to these events, I have joined the Conservative Party of the UK.

P.P.S. I did and still continue to support multiple points raised by Geert Wilders in his campaigns. I have never supported any violence targeted at any particular ethnical, religious or social groups. I do not support violence to this day, but I support Geert Wilders’ vision of cultural vulnerability of European cultures to external influences. I have explained myself clear. If you call that fascism, it’s your choice."

abraham lincoln

Unite people and be forgiving

20.12.2010 20:38

Thank you for posting this; to call it a "brilliant peace of research" makes me blush. I have to admit that I am rather modest and boring than smart :)

I hope Angel will soon forgive the injustice that has been done to him. I personally would like to shake his hand next time I see him at a demo!

@Angel, in a recent article (

http://peopinitiative.livejournal.com/478.html) you said you were thinking of joining the conservative party. I think however that this will not in any way help you to channel your justified frustration and disappointment.

You did a good job and motivated hundreds of people! Although, I don't share your respect for Geert Wilders, I think I understand why you appreciate his ideals. His policies in the Netherlands, being in a position of a minority coalition are however dubious in the least (many broken promises and a whole range of his MPs are convicted criminals).

Please keep in mind to always be critical of your political views (regardless of whether they are centred, rightish or leftist), that is what I also do and which is the reason why I have chosen to support a version of anarchism in support of individuality and love for the other(s).

Adelaida Morales

@ Abraham Lincoln & jaguar

20.12.2010 20:39

@ jaguar:

While i agree that socialism could be said to be the other side of the coin in contrast to the EDL, i never once in my article tried to get that sort of point across. I also have a lot of respect for the NCAFC, the SWP and especially claire solomon in kickstarting this whole movement. We should be grateful towards them but carefully monitor also that they do not become to over absorbed in their position of power. Their notion of "do not attend any demo which is not backed by a responsible organisation" i find at first responsible but secondly a tad naive.

@ Abraham:

I read his statement before i wrote this article. I wouldn't take any of it too seriously; it has to be viewed in the light of his character and in the way that his character was consistently attacked and ridicouled over the last few days.

There is no doubt whatsoever that he is somewhat of a confused soul, that he took to lying and deceit instead of verbal dexterity to defend himself and that he created multiple fake online profiles to support his own increasingly desperate attempts at fighting back the hordes of people trying to tell him that he is a fascist. Even his statement he continues to lie and twist truth to his advantage.

I still honestly believe that he set out with good intentions but that he did not have the willlpower, maturity or life experience to make the most of the situation that he was in. It was furthermore quite irresponsible of him to create an independent "organisation" in calling the 20th, his worst atrocity committed possibly being the fact that he accused NCAFC of blackmailing his event. You reap what you saw, as the saying goes.

I think it's quite good in the end that it didn't go through as planned. We can't afford any "party lines" to divide our movement at this crucial stage. The NCAFC is an umbrella of an incredible variety of organisations and people and is as thus not even appropriate for a general attack. I do however find the attitude of the SWP in this whole movement slightly worrying.

That being said I think he set out with good intentions, and, to be frank I find it quite disgusting how an army of seasoned activists and ADULTS tore him to pieces, are at work even now to tear each other apart.. Quite revealing in terms of human nature. I find it pathetic. And did you ever take into account that he might just look older than he is? Judging from his actions he is 18 or 19 at the most, if not physically then at least mentally...

FriendlySquatta

Hierarchy on IM.

20.12.2010 21:17

"While i agree that socialism could be said to be the other side of the coin in contrast to the EDL, i never once in my article tried to get that sort of point across. I also have a lot of respect for the NCAFC, the SWP and especially claire solomon in kickstarting this whole movement."

My first appearance on the "scene" was on June 18th 1999 with the RTS. Since then I have seen every movement in the UK and the SWP and its political clone the STWC are organisations I have nothing but contempt for. They will always show tremendous energy on any given cause but make no mistake and mark my words...they will ALWAYS put the Labour party first and above any and all causes.

Whatever it is you want to achieve, the Labour party will step in at some point and take it away from you when they perceive the time to be right for them.

The SWP/STWC are the reason Blair survived and continues to enjoy his liberty. Every step of the way through the campaign waged against his awful tenure, the STWC were waiting in the wings to take the credit for his misery. They even took credit for him calling off his book signing events (they played NO part in that!)

They think nothing of betrayal and will exact their agenda no matter what.

So if you are involved with the anti-cuts movement...the SWP will support you until the coalition are defeated, then they will drop you, take power and continue with the cuts regardless. The only thing the SWP want is power to govern because power to govern is a royal road to the public purse.

Nothing else matters to them.

In terms of ideology, you will not find a more strident Capitalist than the traditional British Socialist.

Unless, of course, that is your original intention and the reason you are writing articles on IM?

Knot-eyed Jaquar.

SWT

20.12.2010 22:28

Jaguar, please don't confuse an intellectual attack with a personal attack. I think I got a bit confused with your phrase "the young man in this article", thinking you were making a reference to me and my article (I am a young man, by the way), so please see my response in that light. I just didn't want this to be an attack on the SWT but rather the way in which the movement as a whole has responded to the 20th.

To be honest with you I have not completely made up my mind on the SWT. I definately agree with you on the fact that whatever this movement will achieve, just like the NUS did with the student movement, the Labour party will try to associate itself with the fruits of our labour as soon as they are reaped but not put in an inch of work into planting the trees & grass roots in the first place.. In this light the whole of the movement and the development of the power structures therein reflect our society at large, and, in that sense, your analysis is quite spot on, and I will not attempt to put it into my own words since you so aptly described what is happening :)

I am also secretly harbouring the thought that it might well have been the SWT or NCAFC that blackmailed the event in the first place, the problem is of course, where is the evidence for that? It will be more than easy for them to rebuke it all on the basis of the "questionable" character of the organiser of the event. Furthermore, I decided not to speak my mind on this in the article for the sake of unity. I am an Anarchist at heart and I despise the SWT's attitude towards the whole thing and I have by now heard more than a handful of times that "They think they are running this show: They are not, nobody is, this is a people's movement."

I am honestly undecided on the issue. I am not sure if we can pull this off without the SWT or the NCAFC; then again i said the same 4 weeks ago just after the occupation of tory HQ about the NUS. Look where we are now, we outraced them, and they have to keep up with us!

I hope that you can see that I am not writing with any particular political or personal aim on my mind. This is my first article on IM and I wrote it to highlight the injustice done to Angel, and to highlight what I perceive to be pressing issues "on the scene". Apologies if I offended you in any way :) What are your thoughts on the possibility of SWT blackmailing this event? Would it be worth investigating and bringing up somewhere?

And while I am all up for bringing this stinking government and it's outdated political system DOWN, I cannot conceive of any way in which we, on the left, can make this look like actual progressive change to the brainwashed-Rupert Murdock's-b***shit eating- public... any thoughts on that? I'll be more than happy to hear them. No one person has all the answers, I certainly don't!

FriendlySquatta

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LOL! ORGANISER'S A PUSSY WHO CAN'T DEAL WITH GIRLS!!!

20.12.2010 23:50

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1464451

THIS IS THE ORGANISER AS CAN BE SEEN BY HIS SIGNATURE ADVERTISING THE EVENT! HE'S A PUSSY WHO CAN'T DEAL WITH GIRLS. JUST READ WHAT HE WROTE!

AND THIS PRICK WANTED TO BE A LEADER! HAHAHA!

ANTIFA888

Squatting the Landlord & other tips.

21.12.2010 02:08

I can't disagree with anything you have said and have to take your comments in the spirit in which they are given. I don't take any offence to your comments.

My comments are simply a warning that your allies, in the end, are self serving and will take the first opportunity they can to relieve you of your labour in order to further their own agenda. They will be quite ruthless in doing this and will not think to give an apology or explanation. On every occasion, they will seek to take the credit for what goes right and will give no assistance at all if it goes wrong.

The only thing I can say to you is that the students you are involved with have a cause and like all causes are meant to achieve a goal. For the most part the people you are working with will speak your language...but there will come a day when the advice they are giving seems curious, bereft of logic and too tactical.

That is the moment they turn.

When that happens, you have been betrayed.

Fix your sights on a goal and work toward it steadfastly. Anything that doesn't make sense in your gut is a sign that another presence has successfully involved itself. That presence will be the Labour party hierarchy.

No matter what assurances, promises and conviction they give to you...they will break it the moment they have power.

They have a saying in the halls of power in Westminster. "No matter what card you choose, the house always wins". You are as likely to hear that from a Conservative as a Labour party member.

The house is Parliament and inside that house, are only tenants. The tenants do not set policy, they are simply there to execute the policy.

You could have Mickey Mouse as the PM representing the Disney Party as the British Government...and you will still have a programme of austerity cuts. It is the IMF which sets domestic economic policy in the UK. The Conservative and Labour parties are simply the difference between the red or the blue pill!

That is what you are fighting.

Knot-eyed Jaguar.

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@antifa888

21.12.2010 09:53

yea your right mate....he's .a wussy pussy wuss boy who wants to be a "leader" .. a wannabe lol....

If you hate the Empire...

21.12.2010 14:43

...Then have more faith in the one being crucified than the people crucifying him, 'coz it's the empire which crucifies people. The people who still have a hold on their souls are just trying to live and struggling hopelessly against this great machine. They've got the body bags ready for political insurrectionists, make the inner revolution and manifest a better world out of your own life and being, out of your harmony.

One person losing faith is nothing but a process they have to through, we all have to go through, but on a wider level it's an example of quite how absurd these attempts to fight against the Babylon have become. Time is circular, time moves in cycles. Lots of people here talk about indigenous rights but they don't understand the indigenous teachings, to them, we are in the last and darkest cycle at the end of days. There's no hope of defeating the empire except that we just let it fall, it's a house of cards anyway but a house of cards made of heavy bricks, guns, cluster bombs and prison cells.

We'd just better be out of the way when it falls down, making our own revolution, digging the land. Wasn't this all we wanted in the first place, just to have a piece of land to grow? To have the love in our hearts which money and the worship of materialism makes flee from us? Because the people who are caught up in materialism can't love, we can all see that - have you ever poured your heart out to a person who loves only television and the dominant values of this society? They don't understand the sufferings of the people who suffer for all of this, the people who still have some humanity.

So let's cast off all the chains of material oppression! No half-solutions, by avoiding half solutions we will find fullness and healing. It may not be 'the done thing' on the Indymedia forums to suggest this, but I say we should all start chanting the Holy Names and thereby make an inner revolution against the Babylon system. Because for now we are all caught up in it spiritually, mentally, we need to purify our hearts of all the binds and chains we have accepted on internal level.

Lets 'return to our original position' as the Hare Krishna folk are fond of saying. Because right now this 'activist' thing is little better than the society at large, let's face it. 'You will know them by their fruits' and how are we going to make a better world if we don't even have a better social life than the people around us? We are just as engaged in fighting, complexes, self-hatred, gossip and bitterness - let's set ourselves free from that and a better life will grow out of us, will flower very naturally out of our hearts and minds.

Hare Krishna.

Zarathustra
Homepage: http://www.gnosismaitreya.tk

John Abrahams

23.12.2010 10:29

The fact that demo "organiser" John Abrahams reaction to all this is to say he's joining the Conservative Party - the party that's responsible for the cuts he claimed to want to protest against, more than proves the point.

I don't think anti-cuts protests are or should be any sort of exclusive club for left-wing radicals but this man is clearly a total muppet

Libertarian Left

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