How to deal with the EDL?

[Benjamin Hill]

On this week's CPGB podcast (part 6) (http://cpgb.podbean.com/2010/03/21/the-english-defence-league-in-bolton/), they talk about how to deal with the English Defense League. I think it makes a good analysis on this question, what we can learn from the past, why the left in general has a wrong strategy and the need to mobilise the local people (as opposed to simply bussing in activists).

[vyborg]

The article is very critical about the SWP conduct of business. I cant say who did it right. For sure, fighting against fascism is not something you can leave to "ameteurs"...

[Timebomb]

The EDL are thugs i'd rather new recruits to the right are in the streets with people who are clearly thugs than in suits trying to get into my townhall.

[Sasha]

@ ranma, maybe dont post drunk :)

@ danny bohy, dont post stupid one liners, verbal warning

[<Insert Username Here>]

The UAF method of fighting fascism has failed miserably. Fascism is on the rise, we have the real danger of a fascist being elected to parliament, and the street fighting wings of these groups are also growing. What are the SWP and UAF going to do? Say things in a slightly raised voice?

We need to show the fascists that they don't speak for the British people, they don't speak for the working class, and that they aren't welcome. Cable street style.

[Antifa94]

Exactly. At this point, A mass production of anti-fascist proletarian literature( fliers, pamphlets, etc.)should be initiated. Also, if possible, try to appeal to bourgeois liberals ( UAF) to take it up a notch through literature.

[Benjamin Hill]

Not to mention off topic. Perhaps I should've chosen a more provocative title for this thread, but I was wondering what your (all of you) opinions were on the piece by the CPGB? They're a party, I remind you, that is of the opinion that the no-platform tactic is pretty useless in the current circumstances. I know that is controversial, hence this thread.

[vyborg]

Ok, let's go back to the topic.
I think you must fight fascists also on the streets but profesionally..I mean if you face them and you are wiped away by police...this is hardly a good step for anti-fascism.

Of course, the so called radical antifascism sometimes becomes a reason for life for the most street oriented part of a group. It happened in Italy but it also happened in UK (if the book "No retreat" is worth something).

So yes to street confrontation but only with politically consciouss people, a clear programme, a clever tactic etc

If i understand correctly the article, the police came and arrested the chief of UAF. Now if you are not even able to defend the general of the army...it is better you stay home

[Sasha]

trashed all the offtopic stuff, antifa94 verbal warning for you know what.

[jmlima]

trashed all the offtopic stuff, antifa94 verbal warning for you know what.

I fail to see how my post was either offtopic or could be understood as a provocation. Maybe you care to shed some light?

[Bitter Ashes]

The trashed posts are all, or relate to, a certain somebody posting some serious cop-bait.

[harry roberts]

yer man is right about this recent EDL nonsense should be seen as a diffrent thing to the growth of fascism in Germany and Italy etc.....

his also right to question what fascism is....the EDL arn't 'fascists' in the traditional political force

his critique of UAF/SWP i would say is quite decent

but he talks bollocks about forming the working class into a 'political party'.... what is more important is community activity, community action and community organising. the emphasis shouldn't be about mobilising the people of bolton it should be about helping the people of bolton to take hold of their own lives and start dealing with the problems in the housing estates and schemes.....

[jmlima]

The trashed posts are all, or relate to, a certain somebody posting some serious cop-bait.

Afraid not. One of them was mine.

[<Insert Username Here>]

but he talks bollocks about forming the working class into a 'political party'.... what is more important is community activity, community action and community organising. the emphasis shouldn't be about mobilising the people of bolton it should be about helping the people of bolton to take hold of their own lives and start dealing with the problems in the housing estates and schemes.....

Unsurprising from CPGB, which is exactly why Antifa won't work with them. Antifascism is a serious struggle in it's own, not a chance for CPGB to recruit new members. That is opportunism and an abuse of the circumstances.

[Benjamin Hill]

but he talks bollocks about forming the working class into a 'political party'.... what is more important is community activity, community action and community organising.
I think that emphasis was made right at the end of the podcast and I agree with both of you. The only way to fight against for upir class interests is by organising the class.


the emphasis shouldn't be about mobilising the people of bolton it should be about helping the people of bolton to take hold of their own lives and start dealing with the problems in the housing estates and schemes.....I don't think many CPGB members would disagree with what you're trying to say. Yes, the goals should be to organise the class as a class in its own right, but this is done better by organising the people from Bolton than by bussing in activists. I'm not sure why you're presenting the issue as an either-or. It is not either fighting fascists or organising to take a hold of your own life. The two stand completely in the same line, be it they deal with different issues at hand.

[Benjamin Hill]

In Weekly Worker 810 two articles appeared on the Bolton demonstration. The first is a report on the demonstration itself (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker2/index.php?action=viewarticle&article_id=1003860):


Police ran riot in Bolton

The mobilisation against the English Defence League was attacked and kettled by a well planned police operation. Sinead Rylance and Chris Strafford report

After postponing its demonstration from the original date of March 6 due to Hindu celebrations in the town centre, the English Defence League marched in Bolton on March 20. In the run-up, the march and counter-demonstration were widely publicised by the EDL and Unite against Fascism, although I understand that a good part of the UAF leadership was against the action and that UAF refused offers to help with stewarding from other organisations. Whatever was going on behind the scenes, UAF leaders were publicly claiming this would be the Lewisham or Cable Street of our time. It wasn’t.

In the days before the demo rumours were flying around Bolton. That the EDL had attacked a mosque. The EDL were marching up Daubhill. They had attacked a Muslim woman. There was a strong suspicion that these rumours were part of a concerted attempt to discourage people from attending the counter-demonstration. As happened before previous EDL demonstrations, mosque leaders did precisely that, warning Muslim youth they would be arrested if they were to attend.

On the Monday before the event Bolton police organised a community meeting to inform residents of their plans for the Saturday. There were calls for a local socialist activist to be allowed to speak, but the police said they would leave the meeting if this were to occur. But people stayed on afterwards to listen to the speaker. The meeting resulted in taxi drivers calling for strike action against the EDL and for their own safety.

Demonstrators travelling on the bus from Manchester for the counter-demo were told by the SWP that the plan was to occupy the square to stop the EDL assembling. But the centre of Bolton was barricaded by huge portable steel fences with hundreds of police operating out of the Town Hall. Town-centre shops were closed and in the evening most pubs were too.

So we were corralled into our “assembly site”, which consisted of half the square, fenced off and closely guarded by police. By late morning there were over 1,000 of us. There was a peaceful attempt to occupy the other half of the square organised by ‘unofficial’ stewards from other left groups. The attempt was short-lived and police in riot gear, with horses and dogs, attacked the demonstration, arresting and injuring several comrades. A member of Permanent Revolution was badly bitten on the arm and was later arrested when he tried to get medical attention! The police were up for a fight and were goading and provoking the crowd. They repeatedly attacked with the kind of brutality we saw at the G20 last year. In response to this onslaught people fought back and defended the demonstration, shouting “We are Ian Tomlinson” and “This is not a riot”.

The police kept wading into the crowd throwing punches and using their batons. A comrade from Manchester had her shoulder dislocated after repeated strikes on her left arm by one out-of-control copper, who then went on to punch an elderly women in the face several times - demonstrators and other police officers pulled him off. Eventually they pushed us back into a smaller area, crushing several people against the fence. They then began sending in snatch squads of heavily armoured police to take SWP leaders and identifiable ‘troublemakers’. They arrested SWP national secretary Martin Smith after breaking through our lines - the stewards, clad in red vests, were not numerous or trained enough to be of much use.

Police then attempted to arrest SWP central committee member Weyman Bennett, who is the best known UAF leader and had just addressed the crowd. But some of the smarter and more experienced SWP/UAF stewards managed to organise lines four to five deep to defend the demonstration. Comrades pushed back the police four or five times, but eventually they got through, dragging comrade Bennett the width of the square and carrying him off to a police van.

By early afternoon our numbers had swollen to around 2,000. They never let us all actually come together until after the EDL had left the square. Police and mainstream media estimates of the day’s numbers were extremely biased towards the EDL. Not even taking into account our comrades separated from us, we equalled them and may have still outnumbered them, looking at the video footage of the day. Some people carrying a banner claiming that “Allah is the greatest” were eventually allowed to join our ranks, and this sent the EDL, who had been shepherded into the other side of the square, into a frenzy.

Whilst most of the left spent their time trying to fend off police attacks, others were taking on the EDL with chants and placards. Some local protestors seemed to be becoming disillusioned, saying, “We didn’t come here to fight the police.” The UAF speakers failed to explain the situation, instead repeating, “Hold the lines” and “Comrades, we need more people on this side.” The mood picked up when a couple of hundred Asian youth joined our ranks.

EDL members had met in a pub in Deane and made their way to the centre for 1pm, at which point there seemed to be about 300 of them. By the time their coaches had arrived, their numbers were around 2,000. They were holding up British, American, Israeli, William of Orange, Ulster, Polish, Dutch and anti-Nazi flags and banners. The crowd showed their total support for American imperialism and the ‘war on terror’. There were a lot of coins, bottles and other items thrown at us by the EDL. A UAF speaker, who had just finished speaking about Cable Street, told us not to throw things back at the EDL.

Some EDLers attempted to get at the UAF demo, but the police pushed them back. This went on until about 3.20pm, when the EDL had begun to leave their assembly point, as agreed with the police. A large group did not move off with the stewards and attempted to get round via the town hall steps to the UAF demo. At this point riot police were deployed with shields at they attacked the EDL demo until they moved off from the square.

We finished our own rally at around 4pm and after being let out by the police we were escorted around Bolton city centre to our coaches. There was fighting between, on the one side, Asian and anti-fascist youth and, on the other, EDL and small neo-Nazi groups in parts of the city centre.

Greater Manchester police condemned the UAF protest as violent (on their Twitter account!), whilst praising the EDL stewards. The reality was the EDL protestors were drinking, throwing missiles at the anti-fascist protestors and attempting to tear down police barricades to attack the protest. The ‘violence’ of the UAF is apparently confirmed by the 54 arrests made on our side out of a total of 78. These arrests, however, were mostly conducted by snatch squads, who entered the peaceful area specifically set aside for children and those who did not wish to engage in confrontation. Police made no mention of injuries on our side. EDL organisers also praised the police on their handling of the rally, saying this event had been the best they had attended in terms of policing. From our side it seemed to be the worst, in terms of the number of unprovoked police attacks.

As far as Bolton’s demographics go, as is the case in most towns, the poorer parts of the population are more integrated. These integrated sections were those that turned out in support of the counter-demonstration. But they were not presented with any political answers.

Following the protest, many people travelling back deemed it a failure. Some SWP members shared this opinion, with one commenting that the day had been a disaster and predicting Socialist Worker would claim a great victory. True to form, the paper led with the headline, “EDL racists are forced to back off in Bolton”. When we were released from the kettle, this was because “we decided to march on a victory lap through the streets of Bolton” (March 27). There seems to be a general feeling that UAF’s tactics will not cut it any more.

The police violence on the day underlined that the number one enemy of the workers’ movement is the capitalist state. Carrying on with the UAF’s strategy is a one-way trip to failure. What we need to aim for is a working class party that can be built in the communities - not just at election times, but permanently - so that we can provide a genuine alternative to the mainstream parties. In short, we need a Communist Party.

UAF co-secretary Weyman Bennett was arrested on “suspicion” of “conspiracy to organise violent public disorder”. Our movement must rally to the defence of comrade Bennett who, for all our differences with him, is a committed anti-racist activist and socialist militant who is being targeted by the state to discredit the left and the anti-fascist movement. We demand that all charges be dropped immediately against Bennett and other anti-fascists who were arrested on Saturday.

[Benjamin Hill]

The second article (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker2/index.php?action=viewarticle&article_id=1003857) is on the arrest of Weyman Bennett and the need for solidarity on his case:


Weyman Bennett should be criticised, not charged

The sorry farce in Bolton once again demonstrates that the anti-fascist left is not only disorganised, but politically disorientated, writes Eddie Ford

Predictably, Saturday’s ‘No pasaran’ demonstration in Bolton against the English Defence League - organised by the Socialist Workers Party through its front, Unite Against Fascism - turned into a sorry farce, even if it was not a complete disaster. Far from being a magnificent display of anti-fascist and leftwing unity manifested through a display of solidarity with the local Asian population, it instead showed nearly all the worst political vices of the opportunist left - disorganised, amateurish, irresponsible and shot through with the SWP/UAF’s trademark mixture of naivety and cynicism. In short, those sincere anti-fascists/racists - whether inside or outside the ranks of the SWP - being led up to Bolton by the Grand Old Duke of York generals of the UAF were at times like lambs to the slaughter.

One casualty of the Bolton fiasco turned out to be UAF’s joint secretary, Weyman Bennett, a member of the SWP central committee. Now, it cannot be denied that the comrade has a motor-mouth - prone to making rash, ill-considered statements. Not to mention a long history of sectarianism in his capacity as a SWP arch-loyalist: the party is always right even when it is palpably wrong. However, there is no doubt whatsoever that comrade Bennett was one of the victims of targetted police attack on that day. In his own words: “Officers came up to me as soon as I arrived and said they would arrest me. I have been to more than 200 demos and never been arrested”. Comrade Bennett was indeed arrested on suspicion of “conspiracy to organise violent disorder”. This is a dangerous allegation, for which the comrade could face a potential jail sentence of up to 10 years. That is, of course, if he is actually charged and then found guilty by a jury.

It is obvious that the police carefully planned the whole operation, including the ‘snatch’ of comrade Bennett, the SWP’s national secretary Martin Smith and Manchester UAF’s Rhetta Moran (who was arrested as she tried to read out a message of support from TUC general secretary Brendan Barber). None of this happened spontaneously. No, they were carefully picked out by the authorities in a clear attempt to intimidate or tame UAF and the left as a whole. There were 74 arrests in total, only a small minority being EDL supporters and happy-hour hangers-on.

Any trumped-up charge against Weyman Bennett would be a naked attack on democratic rights - especially the right to association and freedom of expression. By singling out UAF leaders in such a manner, the police were in reality attacking all of us on the anti-racist/fascist left - not just UAF/SWP. All charges or potential charges on comrades arrested on the day must be immediately dropped.

Furthermore, we ought to demand that the UK’s conspiracy laws be scrapped - given the fact that in the legal aftermath of the Angry Brigade trials, these laws were reformulated. In 1976 and 1977 the definition of ‘conspiracy’ was made so vague that almost any individual could be caught in its grisly ‘catch all’ net if and when required. Accordingly, if a person “agrees with anyone else to do an unlawful act, then they are both guilty of the crime of conspiracy” - even “if nothing at all is done towards carrying out the agreed act”. Indeed, “it is not even necessary to establish that the act they contemplated was criminal” - on the insidious basis that, although “the conspiracy” may be to “commit an act which is neither a crime nor a civil wrong”, it is still one which “can be calculated” in some not explicitly worded manner to somehow “injure the public”. In other words, any judge so inclined can decide that ‘a nod’s as good as a wink’ as far as the individuals before them are concerned and send them down for a long time.[1] (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker2/index.php?action=viewarticle&article_id=1003857#1)

However, having said all this, communists are obligated to pose the fundamental and unavoidable political question - what was the purpose of UAF’s excursion to Bolton? Or, to put it another way, are the tactics and strategy deployed by UAF - and all those who broadly support its approach, whether inside or outside the SWP orbit - correct and will they be effective in countering the EDL or British National Party? Well, the obvious answer must be no. Indeed, the unfortunate truth is far worse than that - the orientation of the likes of UAF and the SWP is counterproductive, based as it is on a complete and eminently self-serving misreading of the political situation in the UK.

UAF loyally trooped to Bolton to “smash” the EDL, but instead found itself in a clash with the police, which it inevitably lost. Suffering arrests, bruises and dog bites, in the process. Now, of course, the EDL is a wretchedly reactionary outfit - a motley collection of nakedly chauvinist Islamophobes, deeply unpleasant lumpen and far-right elements, and generally pissed-up football hooligans and assorted semi-criminal riff-raff naturally attracted to a bit of a barney (especially if the game is going badly). Inevitably, given such an unappealing composition, there was a limited overlap of membership between the EDL and the BNP to begin with - much to the latter’s annoyance, of course. Hence the BNP’s swift declaration that the EDL is a “proscribed” organisation - ie any BNP member found to be in the EDL is threatened with expulsion.

It goes without saying that communists want to see such a vile organisation - and movement insofar as it is a movement - defeated or “smashed”. That is, politically annihilated. But we do not for a moment imagine that squaring up to a bunch of boneheads is a central or overriding task. The EDL is but a symptom of the alienation engendered by the decaying system of capital, defended and promoted by the whole bourgeois establishment and its state. And to take on the latter we need to begin by uniting the existing organised left around a partyist perspective and hence take a decisive step towards what the working class really needs - a mass Communist Party of hundreds of thousands and millions.

The profound problem being, of course, that this is almost the exact opposite of the approach adopted by the SWP/UAF and others. Deliberately, and with a certain degree of cynicism, such groups constantly present the threats and dangers posed by the EDL and BNP in such an exaggerated way as to justify the construction of the widest possible popular front - which turns out to be the SWP and assorted liberal personalities, vicars and trade union officials. To appease and keep on board such august company the programme of anti-capitalist and socialism considered dangerous, provocative and therefore inappropriate. Instead UAF calls upon the capitalist state to ban far right organisations and demonstration. Failing that, the SWP considers itself duty bound to physically confront those such as the EDL wherever they happened to appear on the streets. What this amounts to in practice is not the mobilisation of masses of local people, but bussing in a few thousand leftwingers. Then follows the inevitable confrontation with the riot police.

The SWP has been shell-shocked by recent events. Respect left it traumatised and deeply divided. The Left Platform comrades grouped around John Rees and Lindsey German have now decamped to Counterfire, where the SWP in exile hope to ‘do an RCP’ and erect a big, inviting tent from which they can systematically infiltrate and inveigle themselves into the bourgeois media - maybe even make a modest career from being “available for interviews, commissions and quotes” and generally being “sensitive to the needs of 24-hour news”.[2] (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker2/index.php?action=viewarticle&article_id=1003857#2)

So, demoralised and frustrated, the SWP leadership needs an easy enemy. It can no longer fight the BNP on the streets as in the good old days, now that the latter has gone respectable under Nick Griffin’s relatively successful stewardship. So the EDL has been a blessing. Manna from heaven. All one needs is a political analysis that owes more to hysteria than Marxism and turning the tactic of no platforming into a rigid principle and there is no end of the mobilisations the SWP can organise. The next attempt to “smash the EDL” will be in Dudley on Saturday April 3.

Well, it is about time that the SWP took a reality check - as should its co-thinkers on the left. Like comrade Bill Jeffries of Permanent Revolution, the increasingly bad-tempered and supposedly ‘sensible’ split from Workers Power, who wants us to believe that “state-directed” or “state-sponsored” fascism - apparently in the “form of the EDL” - is being “unleashed on us”.[3] (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker2/index.php?action=viewarticle&article_id=1003857#3) Or comrade Anita De Klerk, who must surely get the wooden spoon for the most juvenile left comment uttered yet on this question: “If the BBC continue to give air time to Nick Griffin as they did on Question time and recently on Radio 4 they can only be reaffirming their position as the mouthpiece for the racist, fascist state that it is!”[4] (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker2/index.php?action=viewarticle&article_id=1003857#4)

No, fascism is not just an organisation of a few thousand brain-addled thugs. Fascism, as the German communist, Clara Zetkin, famously remarked, is a “punishment of the proletariat for failing to carry on the revolution”.[5] (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker2/index.php?action=viewarticle&article_id=1003857#5)
Disappointing though it is, there is no revolutionary or pre-revolutionary crisis in this country at present. The working class in Britain is not in any position to take power away from the bourgeoisie and, regrettably, we have not yet advanced to a situation where the working class is on the verge of making revolution but then flunks it: thus inviting fascist counterrevolution.

Notes


For a reasonable explanation of the legal background see www.muthergrumble.co.uk/issue14/mg1406.htm (http://www.muthergrumble.co.uk/issue14/mg1406.htm)
www.counterfire.org/index.php/press (http://www.counterfire.org/index.php/press)
www.permanentrevolution.net/entry/3004#comments (http://www.permanentrevolution.net/entry/3004#comments)
My emphasis - www.counterfire.org/index.php/news/61-reports/4287-bolton-residents-and-uaf-attacked-by-police-and-fascists (http://www.counterfire.org/index.php/news/61-reports/4287-bolton-residents-and-uaf-attacked-by-police-and-fascists)
www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1923/08/fascism.htm (http://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1923/08/fascism.htm)