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The EDL & A ‘Different’ Kind of Racism by ‘Malatesta’

'Malatesta' | 21.06.2010 09:29 | Anti-racism | Birmingham | World

Why is the EDL like a hedgehog? Because although they’re small they’re still a pest and full of pricks.


The EDL have been busy again over the last week or so, what with pelting a handful of Muslims Against Crusades with sausages in Barking, then being escorted out of Whitechapel for their own safety later that day, holding a badly attended rally in Kilmarnock on Saturday and finally being confronted by mass opposition in the East End on Sunday. Meanwhile, the BNP, following the appalling election results, is now facing a semi-serious leadership challenge from Eddie Butler which is gaining a small head of steam. The pro-Griffinite machine is attempting to smear Butler as either gay and/or a frequenter of Belgian brothels. Butler has released a statement containing his ambitions and a list of what is wrong with the party, most notably the financial irregularities, Griffin’s weak point. Cambridge BNP is organising a meeting this week claiming that the BNP is finished. All of which, combined with the fallout of the EHRC case, the changing in rules on membership and general malaise is benefitting the EDL. Never a dull moment eh? However, the EDL represent a ‘different’ kind of racism than the BNP.

Different Racism
Although the EDL have BNP members in their ranks, many EDL have a low opinion of the BNP which is seen as too inactive on the streets and not particularly relevant or useful. The EDL try to be different and trumpet their ‘many’ Sikh and black members but really they amount to very few. Although the ‘leadership’ like to flag this aspect many of the supporters dislike the Sikh feller and the Joel Titus golliwog Facebook incident demonstrates the Neanderthal BNP politics of some of the membership. The EDL draws mainly on football crews and offers the potential of a brawl and a beer without the drastic repercussions of anti-hooligan legislation and heavy sentencing. And it is important to understand this football mentality in order to see where the EDL’s appeal lies.

The modus operandi of the EDL is to take liberties. For football firms, to forcibly occupy an opponents’ end, over-run or destroy their local boozer or take over their manor for a night is a ‘liberty.’ It is a simplistic territorial achievement. And this is similar to what is going on with the EDL. They choose places likely to cause a reaction - Birmingham, Bolton, East London - and being kettled into a local boozer by the cops for a while winding up the locals is deemed as successfully ‘taking a liberty.’

Football teams have often featured visible and vocal support from local black communities such as in Manchester, London or Birmingham and despite the presence of the racist element some black firms have flourished. At Manchester City in the 70s and 80s the NF dominated firm co-existed with the mainly black Kool Kats with any differences being put aside for the team. The Birmingham Zulus gained considerable respect on the terraces and Cass Pennant was one of West Ham’s ICF. There are other examples. Football firms and the EDL represent a spectrum of views: there are some who refuse to applaud a goal by a black player, others who have respect for the black hooligans’ prowess on the terraces and others who have black mates or are not bothered either way. For many supporters, the strong presence of successful black players who have helped take their sides to victory has changed their attitudes. The influence of pop culture has also played its part. The Black community has physically confronted violent racism in the 1950s in Notting Hill and Nottingham, at Lewisham in the 1970s and police racism was one of the causes behind the riots in the 1980s. They have never been seen as an ‘easy target.’ Many casual racists see the black community as ‘alright.’

However, many firm members still harbour resentment against the Asian community and this is well documented in hooligan literature which tends to downplay the outright criminal and fascist elements. They see everyone, whether from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh or India as a ‘Paki.’ They see the local Asian community as isolationist and, despite enjoying a tasty tandoori, see them as an easy target. For the EDL, all Muslims are extremists and privately support terrorism. Which is as simplified as their view of the opposition to their fascist tactics. They naively think that Antifa, local Asian youth and the UAF are all the same and that militant anti-fascists are ‘protecting’ Islam. It is obvious from this week at Whitechapel that local Asian youths are more than capable of looking after themselves. Militant antifascists are there to confront pissed up racist street gangs in their local communities not to attend mosques. The EDL also like to portray antifascists as ‘soft middle class students’: they clearly have not attended a university in the recent years and do not understand the diverse nature of the opposition.

Indymedia Conference
Despite continuing with their absurd claims to be ‘peacefully protesting’ the EDL’s forum contains threads praising violence such as the thread on the Indymedia Conference this Wednesday calling for local members to turn up, sabotage or disrupt the meeting. This could be annoying but we will be well organised to rebuff any serious threat from them. Also, if EDL members hate Indymedia so much, why do they spend so long reading it and posting their ridiculous remarks here? (see below!)


‘Malatesta’

NB: all material by ‘Malatesta’ is copyright free.
Please pass it on to anyone who may find it useful.


'Malatesta'

Comments

Hide the following 7 comments

Hedgehogs aren't pests

21.06.2010 09:48

I realise it was just a flippant remark you probably didn't give much thought to, but hedgehogs aren't pests by any stretch of the imagination. From  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedgehog: "In areas that have hedgehogs in the wild, they are often welcomed as a natural form of garden pest control..."

Next you'll be giving us some sexist or racist stereotypes to go along with the speciesism...

Hedgehogs are beautiful creatures and it's highly offensive to compare them to scum like the EDL.

;-)

anon


Bullshit

21.06.2010 12:45

I was there mate and you are full of shit. One white guy was attacked and saved by marshalls form the mosque from what might have been a serious beating and a van had its windows smashed. I don't know what the spark was for that not that i think it can be justified in anyway, the guy obviously wasn't edl even if he was being a mouthy twat. However that aside there were no other attacks on white people despite a very tense day and the high street was far from a no go zone for white people.
If you want to pinpoint blame for the mood of the crowd then that lies squarely with the EDL and the scaremongers of the UAF who left the area as soon as they could after the end of their "victory" march.

Whitechapel and proud.


white people were NOT being attacked .. don't lie

21.06.2010 21:04

to the wind up merchants of the EDL, white people were walking through Whitechapel all day sunday, past all the youths with no issues at all. There were two incidents when white men took the piss and were attacked. Not good, but a pretty stupid thing for them to do in the circumstances.

Fuck off and do something useful where you live instead of winding up racial tension

And don't give us that bullshit you ain't trying to wind things up. WTF was Joel Titus doing in Whitechapel on Tuesday night? Winding things up. You want to make the world a better place and stop people destroying democracy? well you had better look closer to home

BTW what democracy is there in the EDL?

D02


a bigger crisis

21.06.2010 22:42

Indymedia posters priorities are bizarre: tomorrow with the budget we are going to see the most savage cuts since the 1930's that will decimate public services, slash welfare, create even more mass unemployemnt and yet you fetishise a right wing grouping that is going nowhere. Nowhere at present that is, but unless the left and activistc community start prioritising the issues of insecurity, unemployment, inequality and the devastation this budget will bring to working class communities, then such forces(and no most are not 'nartzis) will grow and become more dangerous, possibly coalescing into a real far right force.

challenger


DIY!

22.06.2010 15:22

I agree with your priorities, but if you want to see more stuff in the newswire about the cuts and related issues, post it yourself! Don't just sit there criticising people who do take the time to write stuff...

> Indymedia posters priorities are bizarre: tomorrow with the budget we are going to see the most
> savage cuts since the 1930's that will decimate public services, slash welfare, create even more
> mass unemployemnt and yet you fetishise a right wing grouping that is going nowhere. Nowhere at
> present that is, but unless the left and activistc community start prioritising the issues of
> insecurity, unemployment, inequality and the devastation this budget will bring to working class
> communities, then such forces(and no most are not 'nartzis) will grow and become more
> dangerous, possibly coalescing into a real far right force.

j


?

22.06.2010 19:58

Can you keep it a bit briefer next time.I got bored half way through.

Bob


Try to keep up ;)

25.06.2010 11:56

"Many EDL have a low opinion of the BNP"? So what? Many BNP supporters have a low opinion of the BNP (that's how internal factions arise). Even then, if some EDL have a low opinion of the BNP, why did EDL organiser Jeff Marsh confirm (on his ArryEDL You Tube) that he supports voting BNP? Why did no less than EDL co-founder Paul Ray confirm that BNP activist Chris Renton is "Commander of the EDL"? There are dozens of examples, but ditto for these videos of the EDL supporting the BNP and Combat 18 etc....

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2ZDy5DvSZo
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-YRwri8S6E

As for the EDL's microscopic black support, I havn't got the URL to hand but there's a photo on a Chelsea Headhunters fan-site showing a black lad Sieg Heling in a group of white Headhunters, at the time when HH were involved with Combat 18. One British Movement Nazi posted on Stormfront about how a black BM hooligan called Zomo was arrested with shaved bleach-blonde skinhead and Nazi armband, supporting a BM demo near Paddington in the early 1980s. Point being there's nothing new about this "contradiction".

A tiny handful of black hooligans join groups that have racist elements because they're a/ thick, b/ desperate for acceptance, c/ just as likely to be prejudiced (against eg - Muslims) as their white friends. The only thing that's changed is that in the past it was not strategically in the Fascist movement's interests to draw attention to this phenomenon, whereas now, given the changes that have taken place in popular culture in the last 30 years, it IS in the Fascism's interests to draw attention to this. The fact that a tiny handful of Joel Tituses are too thick to realise they're backing the wrong horse is no weirder than working-class people acting against their long-term interests by voting Tory.... and there's millions of them

UK Bobsleigh


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