Are the EDL coming to Bristol?

[Lyev]

I was wondering if anyone had any dates or anything on it. This is the nearest place to me so I'd like to go but I'd also like to ask a few questions first, cos I've never really been to a proper protest before. I think the EDL are doing a tour kind of thing, (they were in Leeds yesterday, right?).

One of my questions is; is it better to dress in all black, for the black bloc thing, and furthermore, is it desirable to hide your identity from the police? If you don't hide your face with a scarf or bandana they'll know who are and might label you as a troublemaker for future protests, but if you do hide your face they'll probably label you a troublemaker anyway.

This kind of leads onto my main aim for this post. I was just reading Ranma's post on the anti-EDL march in Leeds and it seemed to be a bit of flop. It seems police presence just makes things worse and, if anything they add to the tension and they become the agressors. If anyone is going to stop the EDL from marching around and beating up any vaguely foreign-looking person up it's going to be the anti-fascists. So my main two questions/discussion points are:

1) What are the aims and priorities of the anti-fascist protestors, also, how do the police get in the way?

2) What lessons can we learn from previous protests that have apparently failed? (ie. the Leeds protest a few days ago)

I'm a tad in-experienced with this kind of thing, so all comments are very much appreciated. Thanks comrades.

[Partizani]

My first protest was G20 so i dont have masses of experience.
Black bloc only works when theres about 50 of you, dressing up in black and covering your face is generally what i try to do (except when i got inside the bbc building it was way to hot to keep it on).
- Camera presence is HUGE at all the protests ive been to, in the front you can except more photographers than antifascists.
- Be aware of UAF, as other comrades have posted they are scared of anarchists and rat them out to the coppers.
- The coppers form lines to seperate one from hitting the fash but you can still throw stuff over them.
- Dont get kettled, if the police try to encircle then break out. its obvious when they try to kettle you (October 22nd they fucking had special fences for us and made it very very blatant that we were going to be kettled so we broke out)

[Pogue]

I was wondering if anyone had any dates or anything on it. This is the nearest place to me so I'd like to go but I'd also like to ask a few questions first, cos I've never really been to a proper protest before. I think the EDL are doing a tour kind of thing, (they were in Leeds yesterday, right?).

One of my questions is; is it better to dress in all black, for the black bloc thing, and furthermore, is it desirable to hide your identity from the police? If you don't hide your face with a scarf or bandana they'll know who are and might label you as a troublemaker for future protests, but if you do hide your face they'll probably label you a troublemaker anyway.

This kind of leads onto my main aim for this post. I was just reading Ranma's post on the anti-EDL march in Leeds and it seemed to be a bit of flop. It seems police presence just makes things worse and, if anything they add to the tension and they become the agressors. If anyone is going to stop the EDL from marching around and beating up any vaguely foreign-looking person up it's going to be the anti-fascists. So my main two questions/discussion points are:

1) What are the aims and priorities of the anti-fascist protestors, also, how do the police get in the way?

2) What lessons can we learn from previous protests that have apparently failed? (ie. the Leeds protest a few days ago)

I'm a tad in-experienced with this kind of thing, so all comments are very much appreciated. Thanks comrades.

Well for the main bulk of anti-fascist protestors, thus far the main objective has been to prevent the EDL from being able to march or rally. This was succesful in Harrow, Birmingham and Swansea. The EDL in theselocations were completely unable to do what they wanted to do, because anti-fasciss physically occupied the area where the EDL intended to go.

This tactic has been repeated in a number of places, and where it has been less succesful has been where there have been too large numebrs of police or where the anti-fascists have been kettled. I beleive this is something like what happened in Manchester and it is what happened to UAF but not the anarchist anti-fascists in Central London.

I think outside of being a militant group of people actually trying to do the EDL over before they managed to group the best you can do is that tactic above, as long as you make sure you don't let yourself get kettled or taken away from the main task by useless stewards.

The lessons I think we can learn are a) If the police are trying to kettle you, maybe as you walk towards the EDL or whatever, split up and make sure they don't. There are obvious safety precautions you need to know sudh as don't dress obviously or walk around on your own.

Another one is that the EDL are not as tough as they want you to think, I certainly have never been physically overwhelmed by them because they are not all that, so don't be intimidated if it comes down to it like it did in Birmingham.

I don't think Leeds and Manchester failed as such, as in, given the current context of anti-fascism I don't think there was anythnig that could have been done that wasn't so much, although I would comment on how UAF have fucked things up by trying to be too 'orderly' (working with police) or by not being militant enoguh in their approach. However often the protestors manage to by pass the leadership anyway.

So yeh don't be scared, don't let yourself get kettled, and basically be intelligent, i.e. don't give up any space for the EDL or listen to some UAF hack try to lead you astray.

[Lyev]

Thanks very much Pogue and Partizani, very useful. I'll probably be going with an anarchist friend and a fellow Marxist; all my other friends are apolitical and just don't care about this kind of thing.

If we do go I'll make sure to stick with them. So has anyone got any dates, or does anyone know a site with any dates on? I'm fairly sure they are coming to Bristol, I think it's their last of perhaps 6 locations.

So, if you have been kettled, is the only option to physically barge the police out of the way?

[Pogue]

Thanks very much Pogue and Partizani, very useful. I'll probably be going with an anarchist friend and a fellow Marxist; all my other friends are apolitical and just don't care about this kind of thing.

If we do go I'll make sure to stick with them. So has anyone got any dates, or does anyone know a site with any dates on? I'm fairly sure they are coming to Bristol, I think it's their last of perhaps 6 locations.

So, if you have been kettled, is the only option to physically barge the police out of the way?

Yes it is possible to do this if you try hard enough.

[Lyev]

Aha, found this on the EDL's website;



Future Dates

2009


5th December 2009: Nottingham City Centre. After some confusion, this date has been confirmed.
More dates are being arranged for protests. Join the forum (http://s1.zetaboards.com/EDL_The_Forum/index/), or watch here for more details.


Past Dates

2009


24th May 2009: Luton
This was the awakening of the people of England, when the UPL (United People of Luton) marched through the centre of Luton in protest at the Militant Islamic mob, organised by Anjem Choudary, who hurled abuse and brandished banners with slogans like "Butchers of Basra" aimed at our Hero Soldiers from the 2nd Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment (The Poachers) who had just returned from duty from Iraq. Police arrested 3 people, neither of these were connected to this Radical Muslim mob, but English Patriots standing up to these Muslim Extremists. As predicted by government officials (as they sat and did nothing) This led to the formation of the English Defence League.
27th June 2009: Whitechapel, London
This was the first march by the English Defence League. Whitechapel was chosen, as this has been converted into a "mini-Islamic State" by local muslim extremists. This is our capital City, and anyone who has visited Whitechapel, and the market areas lately would have noticed this.
4th July 2009: Wood Green, London
Anjem Choudary, the UK's spokesperson for Al-Qaeda had the nerve to announce on the website, Islam4uk.com, that he was going to stage another of his "roadshows". This was not long after he converted a bewildered looking young English boy to Islam in Birmingham. The boy had to recite passages in Arabic, a language the boy had obviously no knowledge of. We had to stop this, and due to our presence in Wood Green, he was forced to cancel his Militant Recruitment event.
4th July 2009: Birmingham City Centre, the Bull ring
I think everybody now knows that most of the Militant Islamic activity in England, and probably Europe originates in parts of Birmingham. Birmingham has the most no-go areas for non-Muslims than any other City in England. We had to show our solidarity with the local people powerless to stop the spread of militant Islam in the heart of Al-Qaeda in England. We are returning on the 8th August due to the popularity of the protest, and lack of coverage by the media. We hope this will be another peaceful protest, despite threats from Muslim hatemongers.
8th August 2009: Birmingham City Centre.
I think everybody now knows that the turnout for this Demo was very poor. This was due to the police restrictions on numbers, and the UAF staging a Violent counter demonstration, stating that we were racists, and a BNP front in the spot we were allocated to Protest. We will be returning to Birmingham on the 5th September and hope this time around for a peaceful protest
5th September 2009: Birmingham City Centre
We have decided to stage another protest in Birmingham City Centre again, as our last protest was disrupted and deformed by the UAF, telling locals that we were the BNP, who i hope everybody knows by now that we are not associated with them in any way. We hope for a peaceful protest, but if the police allow another counter demo by the government funded UAF, i doubt that will be the case. Details (http://www.englishdefenceleague.org/details-of-the-English-Defence-League-Demonstration-in-Birmingham-on-5th-September.html) and Statement (http://www.englishdefenceleague.org/english-defence-league-demo-5th-september-2009.html)
13th September 2009: London
The Home Office bent over backwards to ban us from Luton, yet Hezbollah (http://www.cfr.org/publication/9155/), a Muslim Terrorist Organisation's supporters are due to march through London this coming Sunday. I wonder if we have missed the Al-Qaida March? We urge everybody who can to come to London to oppose this. We will be meeting around Trafalgar square.
10th October 2009: Manchester City Centre (http://www.englishdefenceleague.org/10-10-09-English-Defence-League-EDL-Demonstration-in-Manchester-10th-October.html)
31st October 2009: London City Centre (http://www.englishdefenceleague.org/31-10-09-news-EDL-demonstration-in-London.html), Piccadilly Circus, 12:00.
31st October 2009: Leeds City Centre (http://www.englishdefenceleague.org/31-10-09-English-Defence-League-Demonstration-in-Leeds-31st-October-2009.html), City Square 13:00 - 15:00.





This is all I could find; I'm fairly sure they'll be going most places, but in the quite far off future.

[Steveo78]

Well for the main bulk of anti-fascist protestors, thus far the main objective has been to prevent the EDL from being able to march or rally. This was succesful in Harrow, Birmingham and Swansea. The EDL in theselocations were completely unable to do what they wanted to do, because anti-fasciss physically occupied the area where the EDL intended to go.

This tactic has been repeated in a number of places, and where it has been less succesful has been where there have been too large numebrs of police or where the anti-fascists have been kettled. I beleive this is something like what happened in Manchester and it is what happened to UAF but not the anarchist anti-fascists in Central London.

I think outside of being a militant group of people actually trying to do the EDL over before they managed to group the best you can do is that tactic above, as long as you make sure you don't let yourself get kettled or taken away from the main task by useless stewards.

The lessons I think we can learn are a) If the police are trying to kettle you, maybe as you walk towards the EDL or whatever, split up and make sure they don't. There are obvious safety precautions you need to know sudh as don't dress obviously or walk around on your own.

Another one is that the EDL are not as tough as they want you to think, I certainly have never been physically overwhelmed by them because they are not all that, so don't be intimidated if it comes down to it like it did in Birmingham.

I don't think Leeds and Manchester failed as such, as in, given the current context of anti-fascism I don't think there was anythnig that could have been done that wasn't so much, although I would comment on how UAF have fucked things up by trying to be too 'orderly' (working with police) or by not being militant enoguh in their approach. However often the protestors manage to by pass the leadership anyway.

So yeh don't be scared, don't let yourself get kettled, and basically be intelligent, i.e. don't give up any space for the EDL or listen to some UAF hack try to lead you astray.


MY understanding is that the EDL fascists never had any intention of marching in any location as I don't think the police allowed them to.

So I'm not sure what our comrades achieved really.

Those EDL boys seem really tough and I think we'd be toast if it came to a rucky.

[Pogue]

steveo, i reckon just about anyone could fuck you up mate

[Steveo78]

You think?

I was certainly scared of those EDL boys on Saturday! Think we all were lol.

WE need to stop being scared and smash these nazis.

[Pogue]

You think?

I was certainly scared of those EDL boys on Saturday! Think we all were lol.

WE need to stop being scared and smash these nazis.

ok mate.

[Steveo78]

Were you there comrade? Will you be in Nottingham?

[Sasha]

peeep peeep peeep.....
whats that sound?
oh wait, i forgot to turn off my troll radar when i entered.

[Ravachol]

Were you there comrade? Will you be in Nottingham?

http://knowyourmeme.com/i/1072/original/Trollface.png


Yeah, really tough lads those EDL tossers, 'stiff nipples tough' that is :laugh:

http://www4.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/English+Defence+League+March+Through+Birmingham+tA va-LSg2qDl.jpg


Edit: Bloody hillarious, just saw this:

http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/9081/lolfp.jpg

[Moon23]

You think?

I was certainly scared of those EDL boys on Saturday! Think we all were lol.

WE need to stop being scared and smash these nazis.

Some EDL are islamaphobic or racist and others just working class people getting annoyed with extremism and not having any other outlet. Nazi's were a historic group of people who racially thought themselves superior and persecuted Jews. Nazi's actually worked with some Islamic countries against Jews, so they are certainly not Nazi.
My advice would be to cover up and avoid getting on any databases, leave your phone at home and get a new one to take if you must have one there. Don’t get yourself nicked by the police or your head smashed in by a football hooligan that doesn’t like being called a Nazi.

[Sasha]

http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/9081/lolfp.jpg

almost as cool as the interacial gay dating advertisement on the blood and honour RVF site.
gotta love google ads....

[Moon23]

Yes although they say above it they are not Islmaphobic, so the leadership would not claim a problem. The fascist within their ranks, which are a minority must hate it though :laugh:

[Ravachol]

Yes although they say above it they are not Islmaphobic, so the leadership would not claim a problem. The fascist within their ranks, which are a minority must hate it though :laugh:

'Ha ha I am defending the EDL and I think I'm getting away with it'.
Honestly, claiming you are an 'anti surveillance anarchist' (whatever that may be) and having all other posts, again, relate to the EDL isn't gonna work.
Now i'm gonna say it one more time, we aren't gonna stop fighting the EDL, period. The fascists in their ranks aren't a minorty, their leadership consists of BNP members and you are the goddamn worst troll i've ever seen.

Now I would suggest to the mods to ban these fruitcake trolls on sight.

[Moon23]

'Ha ha I am defending the EDL and I think I'm getting away with it'.
Honestly, claiming you are an 'anti surveillance anarchist' (whatever that may be) and having all other posts, again, relate to the EDL isn't gonna work.
Now i'm gonna say it one more time, we aren't gonna stop fighting the EDL, period. The fascists in their ranks aren't a minorty, their leadership consists of BNP members and you are the goddamn worst troll i've ever seen.

Now I would suggest to the mods to ban these fruitcake trolls on sight.

"When you stare into an abyss for a long time, the abyss also stares into you"

If you want to have a purge of anyone not confirming to party lines then ban me, if you want to engage like an adult then lets contiune.

An anti-survillance anarchist, is an anarchist who campaigns against state survillance as a mean of social control. Which is why i'm also posting about ID cards, and will happily debate other things as well.

I agree they have some facist in their ranks, and Islamaphobic people, which is why we can't let these working class people think their model of opposition to Islamist facism is the only solution. We need to build a geniune Antifa movement that combats all forms of facism including these exterme Islamists.

PS
I was at leeds opposing the EDL, which Is why I investigated more about them. I have videos and pics of being there FFS

[K.Bullstreet]

To answer the original question, I think they are/were planning on a Bristol demo soon . However, this may be under a different name (but still the same people), as the EDL apparently have an agreement with the police there not to march this year. I'll keep you posted and get back with specifics ASAP.