As part of the far-right campaign to exploit and to make political capital out of the murder of Lee Rigby, the EDL and various hard-right splinter groups plan to stage demos all over the UK on Saturday, and the BNP will be marching in central London (assembling in Westminster at 1pm).

Obviously any nation-wide far-right mobilisation is very bad news, but on the plus side, the EDL responded to a situation where the police had a brutal murder to investigate, by turning up in Woolwich soon after, and pelting the police with bottles, pretty much guaranteeing the outcome where Help For Heroes refused donations from the EDL, where Lee Rigby's family called on people not to use his death as an excuse for violence, stating that that "Lee would not want people to use his name as an excuse to carry out attacks against others", and where Lee Rigby's regiment publicly condemned those who try to "exploit the death of one of our Regimental family for a range of self-serving and unhelpful reasons". Also on the plus side, the sheer number of EDL-related demos (estimates vary between 50 and 60 regional events) hopefully means far-right resources might be thinly spread (though don't rely on that). Nonetheless, a few thoughts on how to approach tomorrow's demonstrations...

1. Many far-right and a-political demos will be observing respectful silences in memory of Lee Rigby. Irrespective of who's organising or attending any specific demo, the far-right are desperate for Anti-Fascists to interrupt those silences, so they can smear Anti-Fascists as "anti-patriotic". During WW2 a staggering 2.5 million troops from the Indian sub-continent, including nearly a million Indian Muslims, fought to defend Britain from Fascism, and 130,000 Algerian Muslims fought to defend France as well, while Fascists here in the UK were jailed under a law called Regulation 18b, for being traitors and for siding with Nazi Germany, so if anyone's "anti-patriotic", it's the far-right. In fact the main Anti-Fascist counter-protest (assembling in Whitehall, central London, mid-day Saturday) will be observing its own 1 minute silence for Lee Rigby, however it's critical Anti-Fascists don't (accidentally or deliberately) disrupt ANY commemorative silences! Be observant, be cautious, and be aware of the possible consequences of ill-conceived or hasty actions. Never chuck anything (even in self-defence) unless you're absolutely certain the person it's going to hit is definitely a Fascist, and don't end-up giving the far-right a PR victory by kicking-off as anything but a last resort and in self-defence.

2. The achilles heel of the BNP demo is a long-term Sikh protest currently situated in Whitehall. So, while the less stupid Fascists will be smarming-up to the Sikh protest to try to pretend the far-right aren't really racists, the BNP are terrified their knucklehead element will harass the Sikhs and prove the BNP really are just racist scum. It's also unlikely all the EDL and BNP will be able to resist the temptation to offer racist insults, show-off Fascist tattoos and make Nazi salutes etc - so make sure your camera's ready to capture those moments, at an instant's notice, for posterity and for immediate posting on-line if and when they do (with that in mind be aware also of the possibility of agent-provocateurs). No matter what "side" you might (or might not) take in debate about liberal and/or militant tactics, no-one in even militant Anti-Fascism believes in using militant tactics stupidly, so let's make sure it's the far-right and not Anti-Fascists who screw-up on Saturday, and to do that we need to be respectful, dignified, observant and more than anything very careful.

 http://metro.co.uk/2013/05/30/drummer-lee-rigbys-regiment-urges-members-not-to-participate-in-self-serving-demonstrations-3822991/

List of EDL demos -
 https://englishdefenceleague.org/edl-news-2/1930-silent-walks-for-lee

Apologies for the last-minute posting, and if there's anything anyone needs to add, feel free.