Tommy Robinson and Kevin Carroll Quit the EDL

[The Feral Underclass]

It's not an April fools. It is actually true.


“I have been considering this move for a long time because I recognise that, though street demonstrations have brought us to this point, they are no longer productive. I acknowledge the dangers of far-right extremism and the ongoing need to counter Islamist ideology not with violence but with better, democratic ideas.”

Sky News (http://news.sky.com/story/1151663/edl-tommy-robinson-quits-far-right-group)

Quilliam Statement (http://www.quilliamfoundation.org/press-releases/quilliam-facilitates-tommy-robinson-leaving-the-english-defence-league/)

Tommy Robinson's twitter. (https://twitter.com/EDLTrobinson)

[bricolage]

To join the acceptable face of racism.

[The Feral Underclass]

UKIP beckons.

[The Idler]

I hope the polls will disabuse him of this more effectively than the streets.

[Bronco]

Find this very surprising, especially after the complete failure of that 'British Freedom Party'

[Left Voice]

Apparently there is more to this that meets the eye, specifically to do with Quilliam. We shall see, I guess.

I don't have enough posts to be able to post links, but the New Statesman have published an article that sees this more as simply a 'tactical retreat' after seeing their more 'assertive' approach alienate the general public. Given the success that their fellow racists, UKIP, are seeing through the ballot box, that would make sense.

[bricolage]

Find this very surprising, especially after the complete failure of that 'British Freedom Party'
The British Freedom Party was a fringe organisation that was never going to win any kind of political power, Quilliam Foundation is a professional think tank with intelligentsia support, government funding and a direct line to policy makers. Complete different situations.

[brigadista]

Apparently there is more to this that meets the eye, specifically to do with Quilliam. We shall see, I guess.

I don't have enough posts to be able to post links, but the New Statesman have published an article that sees this more as simply a 'tactical retreat' after seeing their more 'assertive' approach alienate the general public. Given the success that their fellow racists, UKIP, are seeing through the ballot box, that would make sense.

here is the link for the article referred to by Left Voice

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/10/tommy-robinsons-resignation-edl-just-tactical-retreat

Seems TR wants to go legit and follow the Griffin route or UKIP (as above) and there is more money in it for him..after all he is a "businessman"

[bricolage]

Yeah I mean the thing to understand is that the leadership of the EDL have always espoused an essentially mainstream racist perspective, really no different to what right leaning think tanks and a whole host of mp's churn out on a daily basis. The difference was that they pursued 'respectable' goals through 'non respectable' means and due to the latter were then lumbered with the white power/fascist types who then actually made up a really large part of the EDL. So yeah the EDL are straight out racist and tommy robinson and kevin carroll are fucking racist as well but their racism is far more linked to say tony blair than to oswald mosley or historic british fascism.

[Left Voice]

When you consider the that the Tories continue to send racist 'go home' vans into areas with a large amount of minorities in order to scare immigrants to leave the UK, you realise that the mainstream right wing in the UK isn't actually that far removed from the likes of the BNP and EDL.

That's exactly why the Tories, UKIP, and the rest of the more established mainstream right wing have bent over backwards to distance themselves from the far right. The likes of the BNP and EDL represent the right wing's immigration policies carried out to their conclusion. Same policies, but with a parliamentarian (rather than far right populist) face.

[bricolage]

But see I think you need to make a distinction between BNP and EDL (or at least the public face media leadership of EDL). In many ways the BNP are an extension of traditional historic British fascism but the reason I said the EDL are more Blair than Mosley is that their racism is one wrapped in pseudo-liberal language of, for example, women's rights or gay rights. Obviously this is a complete cover and a way to give an acceptable face to Islamophobia but it's all part of Clash of Civlisations discourse that got filtered down through post 9-11/7-7 'exporting freedom' politics. That they attract a whole load of similar followers to the BNP and that adhere to confrontational politics (that on the streets the EDL has been infinitely more successful at, does not take away from the fact that people like Tommy Robinson and Kevin Carroll frame their racism in a way that Nick Griffin would never bother to do. To me this is a fundamental difference.

The racist vans that got mentioned are really important, because despite the fact that the EDL can get however many people onto a street demo they don't have and won't have the power to kick down doors looking for 'illegals', to militarise borders, to allow racist stop and search police powers, to subcontract surveillance services to private firms with limited regulation and known racists, to send bombs halfway across the world to 'the other', and so forth and so forth. The real racism, as ever, comes from the state and its armed wings.

[bricolage]

Here's a bullshit statement from Weyman Bennett,


“The resignation of Tommy Robinson, Kevin Carroll and other leading members of the English Defence League (EDL), is a vindication for Unite Against Fascism (UAF), and those that joined us opposing EDL demonstrations over the last four years. UAF mounted a tireless and relentless campaign against the EDL.”

And here's a much better statement from someone on my facebook,


While the EDL has fortunately just suffered a devastating blow, it's important to bear in mind that the far right has taken on various different organisational forms before (NF > BNP > EDL) and the strength of the ideas that underlie it will make sure this happens again. The UK far right doesn't need swastikas or the Horst Wessel Lied, unless you think racism is something foreigners do. The supreme cultural arrogance of Britain (and its pride in its liberal/humanitarian interventionist record), the state intimidation and deportation of immigrants, and the social breakdown that naturally results from the convulsions of the capitalist economy, all create an ongoing toxic brew of which the EDL is but one minor expression.

[The Feral Underclass]

^This is a typical SWP tactic.