Summer of Hatred?

Did you know that this was going on the same day as Bikezilla ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruSrh58dc6I

I think they kept the time/promotion of it low key. It wouldve easily turned into a full-blown riot if both sides had shown up. Thought it was rather disrespectful to the culturally diverse population of the city many of whom may have been affected by the several IRA attacks over the years, the yard of Ale bombing which claimed 21 lives and injured 182 just metres away from where these yobs were mouthing off. Most of these people were clearly not from the city. It is ingnorance and hatred like theirs which is the root of extremism, they probably share a lot of qualities with 'muslim extremists' which we do not really have a culture of in the city anyhow. Birmingham has been a warm home for huge numbers of immigrants for decades, south asians, Irish, somali or Polish were all just getting along fine defining the heritage & culture of the city. This hatred & extremism has nothing to do with birmingham, IT is the thing which is foreign, alien and certainly not welcome. Piss orff!

They'll be at it again on the 8th of August.

It could be argued that these guys are doing a good thing, but only by a severely (metaphorically) myopic person. After all, who doesn't hate extremism? But dig a little bit deeper, spend a bit of time reading their site and the sites that they link to and it becomes clear these are NF wankers exploiting fear of extremism to push their fascist agenda...

There are a few well-known fascist cunts involved in the EDL - Wigan Mike was there for example. A few violent football hooligans too

We should protest! Maybe against Football extremism, or chocolate extremisim, or Extrimism extrimism.

that would explain all the riot vans and police then.

Totally know what you mean pastry lover. Theyve been really clever in naming the protest. If you were 'opposing' them it would suggest that you support extremism. But their protest & chants had nothing to do with anti extremism. They were in themselves extremist right wing nation front rhetoric/hooligan mob shouting.

There was an anti-BNP rally a couple weeks back during the election but very few people showed in comparison to this. Unsettling.

Yep, it's not an anti-extremism rally, more a 'we don't like brown people' rally. They look like a right bunch of dickheads.

There was an anti-BNP rally a couple weeks back during the election but very few people showed in comparison to this. Unsettling.

A big part of the BNP is getting the media attention. Lots of people are trying the ignoring the BNP route to try and sideline them.
TBF when I saw the anti-BNP rally I got very precious, they were saying that the BNP were natzis because they denied the holocaust, which seems a counter-intuitive to me (natzis would glorify the holocaust, surely).

We've doing research since this demo on the 4th july (can't believe didn't hear about it!!!)

Indymedia link - photos show Wigan Mike(?) and the bloke in the sunglasses has been 'security' for all the bnp demos I've seen in town.
(http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/birmingham/2009/07/433760.html?c=on#comments)

This is some info a friend found out...

*"The English Defence League has been born out of protests by "United
People of Luton" and "March for England", against Muslim protesters
who challenged/verbally abused British soldiers on their home coming
parade. I ran a WHOIS query on their website and the registered
owner is Chris Renton who also appears on the BNP membership list.
Now that the European elections are over the BNP are jumping on any
bandwagon they can to further their crypto-fascist cause.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto-fascism

Thus why Nick Griffin is on the radio today rubbishing a recent
report which has found that asylum seekers do not get preferential
treatment to white people. The BNP backed English Defence League are
using the extremist Muslim protests as a vehicle for Islamaphobia,
to convert "normal" (sic) people to be racist if you like. Most of
EDL's recruits are from football firms, and I think this is not
accident, in all likelihood the BNP are attempting to create a
militant and up-for-it front group to do their dirty work whilst
maintaining plausible deniability.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_hooliganism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hooligan_firms
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plausible_deniability

Since Nick Griffin was egged at the end of the European Elections
and had to be rushed off, I am sure he feels a bit nervous that he
was seemingly so vulnerable to a group of not particularly radical
anti-fascists. This strategy has been used historically in other
European countries by fascist groups, and as a result football
ultras in Italy or Spain are almost always partisan, either far left
or far right.

If you have not seen these videos you should watch them:-

http://www.uepengland.com/bbs/index.php?showtopic=13198&st=0&#entry30614

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

http://www.casttv.com/video/nt7kbr/police-escort-to-whitechapel-protest-english-welsh-defence-league-june-27th-2009-video

I do not think that the idea that everyone in EDL is racist is clear
cut, looking at the video of the protest I saw the odd black face,
and apparently the Zulus (Birmingham city firm) are involved and
they are a mixed race firm. I think some of them will be unhappy to
find out the group is run by a BNP member, as there were seemingly
"No NF" (National Front) banners at the demo, which is perverse. I
don't know a lot about firms but I think they tend to be run by
leaders, so I imagine allegiances would be up to them.

So, how to counter this?

Well, I think a Birmingham Indymedia feature would be a good start,
then I think we should have an national Indymedia feature where we
expand on the Birmingham feature calling out for a mobilisation in
Birmingham on August 8th. We need to call on anti-fascist groups
from around the country. Also, Birmingham is a diverse and
multi-cultural city and I don't think the people of Birmingham are
going to stand for this shit. There is already a Facebook group with
143 members:-

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=100179777051

I have some lefty contacts within Asian communities who we can
liaise with. We also need to actively seek out people from local
football firms who might support this, and also black communities,
and encourage them to mobilise too.

In terms of the politics of this, I think we need a coherent
message. The EDL are a crypto-fascist organisation, and they are
attempting to conflate Islam and Islamic extremism. Although I
generally dislike all forms of organised religion, most Muslims are
moderate and tolerant people, and the freedom for people to practice
whatever belief system they want is a basic liberty. The irony here
is that the BNP who are behind the EDL have a lot in common with
Islamo-fascism; they despise people who do not conform to their
worldview, they are racist, sexist, authoritarian, support the death
penalty, and are imperialistic. So, aligning the BNP with radical
and comparing the similarities could be a good strategy. Demanding
that members of EDL change sides to fight all forms of fascism could
be interesting.

I also think challenging their propaganda directly is important.
Most of the material from the "promotional video" is lifted straight
from the Daily Mail, a paper not known for it's factual accuracy.
Their key strategy appears to be turning a small extremist minority
into some overshadowing spectre, and they are doing this by
suggesting that all Muslims are involved in this 'conspiracy'. There
is also the other side of the coin which is the rise of far-right
terrorism:-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jul/06/far-right-terrorism-threat-police

It is not as if radical Islam is the only threat.

Both are far right, and both are about defending 'their people'. One
is fuelled by British /US/Israeli foreign policy, and the other is
fuelled by the recession. Which is why I think a class analysis is
also needed. British foreign policy is about securing future
resources and markets at the expense of people (in this case
Muslims). The recession is the result of elitist profligacy, our
economy has been sunk by the richest people who are leaching of all
of us, and now they want us (the working class) to pay for this. So,
they bring in divide and rule tactics. They ask the white working
class to blame anyone who is 'foreign'. Any political party which
supports neo-liberalism will basically benefit from the rise of the
far right, who have an interest to mislay the blame."*