Anti-Fascist Protest

Today the EDL were associated with the burning down of an Islamic community centre in London. They have a nationwide membership of 35000. They need to be drowned out by a peaceful, secular show of numbers.

Clearly most people in Britain, and I would think everyone on this forum, finds the EDL repulsive and their growing prominence worrying. But the sane, peaceful, tolerant majority are not in the headlines. The fascist lunatics are. And that is why they are growing.

I have never taken part in any form of protest before. I dont know many people on here personally. But I know there are a few people who have organised and taken part in protests. LFGSS is the largest group of people I can speak to at once (less that 100 friends on FB).

Does anyone have any advice / ideas? Is anyone a member of any active anti-fascist groups?

Some people might think 'oh piss off with your self righteous political rubbish its a bike forum'. But they're trying to start a war in the town where I grew up and I wondered if anyone else wanted to do anything about it.

Cheers.

Unite against fascism counter demo anything the EDL does.

Thanks Roolbg. Have been following them, they are doing this;

DON’T LET THE RACISTS DIVIDE US
VIGIL
THURDAY 6 JUNE, 6-7PM
BRAVANESE CENTRE
116 COPPETTS ROAD, MUSWELL HILL N10 1JS

Anyone else want to come?

I was thinking of something big, central, on the scale of the student protests, but without the agressive idiots.

Aggressive idiots are likely going to turn up regardless of intent unfortunately. You can always turn up dressed as badgers and scare trouble makers away though.....

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/473597/20130601/bnp-edl-hate-fascist-badgers.htm

Today the EDL burned down a Mosque in London.

Did they? I mean, did they actually claim it? Or did there just happen to be EDL written on the side of it before/after it was burned down? I honestly don't know and think the EDL can go fuck themselves but is there any proof? It could've been a clever insurance job.

#devilsadvocaat

Didn't know the devil was fond of advocaat.

Thnx Hippy. Shall we organise a protest against insurance scams too just to be on th safe side

Not sure people will say if they are part of direct action groups such as AFA/ANTIFA etc...

Didn't know the devil was fond of advocaat.

This one one is.

Thnx Hippy. Shall we organise a protest against insurance scams too just to be on th safe side

Thanks for not answering my question. Don't let facts get in the way of a good protest though. Wait, that sounds a little bit like the EDL way..

Maybe someone from within the EDL did it but I doubt it was specifically EDL action - stupid fuckers probably couldn't organise something like this and probably wouldn't have the balls to go through with it anyway. They can't even keep neo-nazis out of their own rallies....

My post about the insurance scams was slightly tongue in cheek, hippy. The Vigil tomorrow night is simply a show of peaceful solidarity with the muswell hill community.

Whether they burned down this particular mosque or not, I would like to join a large scale protest against the EDL.

They can't even keep neo-nazis out of their own rallies....

They are neo nazis. It is through trying to give violent fascism a presentable facade that they hope to pervade society.

Anyway, the EDL is all about disco baby.. drown them out with Donna..

In the news all day the EDL have been associated with this event, so whether it was officially organised by them or not they have suceeded in gaining massive publicity from it. We need to make sure tolerance and non-violence have the same or more publicity.

It was not a mosque.

They are neo nazis. It is through trying to give violent fascism a presentable facade that they hope to pervade society.

Ah, you know what I mean - the ones that set themselves one or 2 orders of evil more extreme than the EDL or BNP etc... the kind of bastards that murder and rape, at random, for fun. Ross Kemp had the misfortune of documenting them for a week once.

Cunts.

Anyway, like I said before: Badgers. They're the way forward.

It was not a mosque.

The Bravanese centre is used for worship, but is primarily a community centre. I take your point, and Hippy's, that inaccuracy and hyperbole could undermine the argument. OP edited.

Bump. I guess people on here dont feel as strongly about this as I do. That's fine. I got scared yesterday, I have a cousin who lived in Bradford for a while and is turning into a racist, the whole thing seems insideous and I wanted to do something about it, but maybe this isn't the place.

Would be great if anyone wanted to come to the vigil this evening. Details upthread and in the news thread.

I think pretty much 100% of us are Antifa, it's good that you're willing to get out there and do something though.

Bump. I guess people on here dont feel as strongly about this as I do. That's fine. I got scared yesterday, I have a cousin who lived in Bradford for a while and is turning into a racist, the whole thing seems insideous and I wanted to do something about it, but maybe this isn't the place.

Have you called out your cousin though?

Argued with him one night for about 6 hours. The thing is he's not stupid, but he has been exposed to deep racial animosity, and he can't see past his own anger.

What are the protests against the EDL hoping to achieve? Who are they hoping will listen/what possible good outcome could there be?

The EDL are just another minority group from a country of millions, there are very few protests against any of the other minority groups in this country or all the terrible people in the world. Everyone knows they do not represent the whole so standing on the pavement holding a sign with their name on it doesn't really make sense to me.

If people feel a certain affinity with a particular community or just want to help them then that's really nice & I'm all for it - help them re-build either with time or money (or both) but making a point of saying "They're not with us" seems counter intuitive.

Didn't know the devil was fond of advocaat.

he loves a good snowball Clerks: 37 Dicks - YouTube