Bolton: antifascist bravery as English Defence League march cut short

by joe g Tue Mar 23, 2010 17:08

I don’t think the EDL will have seen their day out in Bolton as a defeat . They were able to mobilize large numbers to the town , and the UAF didn’t have the forces to drive them off the street . That would be a victory as far as the right-wing group was concerned .
A Bristol meeting of the UAF had been seriously disrupted by EDL members a couple of nights previously according to an eye-witness account on indymedia Bristol . The eye-witness describes how on March 17 ,thirty anti–fascists allowed ten thuggish and half- drunk EDL supporters to intimidate and film their meeting which was all about “standing up to the fascists” .

The chair on the night allowed the fascist group’s spokesperson - a serving soldier - address what was an obviously scared gathering . The serving soldier said that he and his friends were driven by fear of Islam : he had come to the meeting “ because he had serious problem with UAF campaigning against them and that they were not racists or fascists the (sic) were anti-Islamic extremists .” Eventually the anti-fascists called the police to remove the fascists from the venue.
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2010/03/447904.html?c=on...45115

The only people to come out of the Bolton demo smelling of roses were predictably the “over-stretched and under-resourced police” .The thin blue line intervening between rival groups of mindless extremists who had nothing better to do than disturb and disrupt the lives of ordinary law- abiding Boltonians going about their peaceful weekend activities. That’s how it was spun in the corporate media

Indymedia UK has surprisingly little to say about last weekend’s events . It suggests to me that the Islamophobic EDL has taken the left in Britain by surprise . Not the local Muslim youth fortunately – their intervention salvaged the anti-fascist honour on the day .

by Luka Broom Sun Mar 21, 2010 21:00

All that is fine but does not reflect that the UAF came out looking just as bad. The UAF is an organisation that allows the left to focus on Anti Racism but it is supported by the Tories and big business so there is more to that. It is a quid pro quo arrangement. The establishment does not have to worry about the left agitating about economic injustice, while the SWP/UAF receive funding and a very public platform.