The EDL and Mainstream Society

History repeating itself...?

"Mosley attracted members from other right-wing groups such as the British Fascisti, National Fascists and the Imperial Fascist League. By 1934 the BUF had 40,000 members and was able to establish its own drinking clubs and football teams. The BUF also gained the support of Lord Rothermere and the Daily Mail."

 http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Pfascists.htm

With the EDL marching on our streets and the BNP on Question Time, it would be easy to dismiss this resurgence in extreme-right feeling as the product of a minority group on the fringes of our comfortably democratic, free-thinking, liberal society. But if we really want to “Smash the BNP” or the EDL, as the banners proclaim, we need to realise that this particular form of hate doesn’t just spring up out of the ground – it has its roots in mainstream society, whether we want to admit it or not.

The EDL put a premium on explaining to wider society that they are not a racist or fascist organisation, but are, instead, dedicated to opposing all forms of “radical Islam” in our society. This is clever marketing if nothing else; effectively, they have re-branded their own special form of racist thuggery as the opposing force to something that many people in Middle England fear. This explains why the links on the EDL website are not to some niche rightwing website or a blog written by someone decorated with swastikas, but to the Daily Mail website.

The Daily Mail and their tabloid equivalents exist to stoke the embers of racism within mainstream journalism, and their influence is undoubted, if undesirable. Headlines such as “Now Muslims Get Their Own Laws in Britain” (Daily Express, 30 April 2007) stir up the precise kind of “otherness” needed to encourage people towards the EDL way of thinking, encouraging feelings of being threatened and confirming all their worst prejudices. The placard proclaiming “Labour: Stop appeasing the minorities and start appeasing the majority”, carried by one EDL protestor, could easily have decorated the top of the Daily Mail or Daily Express.

But the Daily Mail wouldn’t have the fuel for their fire if it wasn’t for the government. Reactionary anti-terror legislation and clumsy attempts to “combat Islamic extremism” have contributed to creating exactly the same kind of “other” that the Daily Mail uses to sell copy. As one UAF protestor put it: “the government of the day has massaged the environment to make conditions suitable for this particular kind of hate…it’s easier to fight abroad to avoid having to fight at home”.

Not only have deliberate government efforts managed to misfire so dramatically, but their incompetence is helping to push groups towards minority extremism. Many protestors last month were quick to blame the recession, as “it’s easier to blame someone of a different colour skin than blame the bankers”. But as the European election result in the Northwest showed, when Westminster politics seems only to encompass talk of duck islands purchased with taxpayers’ money, the ground is laid for the BNP and the EDL. One UAF protestor recounted how a policeman yelled out “Why can’t you all just write letters to your MP?” as he stood between the two groups.

Police handling of the EDL-UAF confrontation did nothing to help these kinds of problems. Standing outside the police “lockdown” of Piccadilly Gardens, a policeman explained to a passer-by: “There are two rival factions in there and they’re just fighting each other,” as to why he couldn’t access the Gardens. “I guess we should just leave them to it then” was the reply.

Police efforts to ensure that members of the public were kept away from the Gardens and what was happening within, as well as making it seem as though both groups were something apart from wider society didn’t just undermine the efforts of the UAF to show that opposition to the EDL is widespread, they made the police active participants rather than a peacekeeping force. If Manchester residents think of the UAF as a group just as extreme as the EDL it won’t help the turnout or the perception next time around.