EDL Attack Newcastle UAF Meeting
Snowball | 08.04.2010 02:28 | Anti-racism | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements
Leon Gloating Over Attacks
Picture of Leon Britain
EDL members, including Police Liaison Officer 'Tony Williamson', disrupted a UAF meeting on how to defeat the EDL yesterday causing a heated argument and the meeting to be called off. This follows the violent disruption of a Manchester UAF open meeting by 'Leon Britain', also a Police Liaison Officer for the EDL, who led a gang of 8 men who attempted to boot down the door of the refugee centre and attack elderly comrades and students inside (see screenshots). A Bristol meeting was also disrupted.
'Leon Britain', who holds a high position in the EDL ranks, is based in Stockport and is an Orange Order member originally from Belfast. He left for the UK under dodgy terms. The West Midlands Police paid for both Tony and Leon to stay in a hotel for 3 days so they could discuss the Dudley protest, all expenses paid of course.
Videos can be viewed on the following URLs;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcsKqYkY-O0 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RqZyRh3O_Q
'Leon Britain', who holds a high position in the EDL ranks, is based in Stockport and is an Orange Order member originally from Belfast. He left for the UK under dodgy terms. The West Midlands Police paid for both Tony and Leon to stay in a hotel for 3 days so they could discuss the Dudley protest, all expenses paid of course.
Videos can be viewed on the following URLs;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcsKqYkY-O0 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RqZyRh3O_Q
Snowball
Comments
Hide the following 32 comments
Evidence of Police Liaison Officer
08.04.2010 06:28
I have no reason to doubt the truth regarding the involvement of Police Liaison Officers with EDL, but if you could forward irrefutable proof to me I will arrange a letter writing campaign to the Chief Constable of West Midlands Police with a view to pressing them for an investigation regarding the impartiality of the Police in matters to do with the EDL.
This kind of evidence should also be sent to Liberty at 21 Tabard Street, London, SE1 4LA
Thank you in advance - by all means send details to my email address
Beds. HOPE Not Hate
e-mail:
beds.hopenothate@live.co.uk
truth only please
08.04.2010 07:54
swp doesent represent the working class
videos
08.04.2010 08:45
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcsKqYkY-O0
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RqZyRh3O_Q
Weyman shaman
Ehem...
08.04.2010 09:18
[chokes on coffee] lol. Ehem...Belfast is _in_ the UK. He may have left for _Britain_ under dodgy terms.
Jim
how was it an attack?
08.04.2010 11:13
also the manchester one was a definite attempt to attack old people, women & students, everyone had been saying whos the orange man & now ppl know, just need his real name
eric
Will this finally push UAF towards a militant anti-fascist approach?
08.04.2010 11:41
They have a physical agenda which needs to be met physically too, maybe uaf will now realise that chanting, placards and the like do sweet fuck all.
We have to kick these fuckers off our streets.
SMASH THE FASH.
AberAnarcho
10 factors against
08.04.2010 12:35
2. the frankly weird internet warriors of anti-fascism cannot simply beat their chests and not expect to get a response.
3. Most anti-fascism is in fact 'radical liberalism' - "we can deny the edl a voice because we are politically superior to them".
4. Martin smith is genuine scum and will get a lot of students beaten up if they continue to follow his party line.
5. edl need to be understood before they can be confronted. Simply shouting FASCIST from the safety of the internet is not a strategy and it is not working
6. The far right continue to operate unhindered as the uaf throw all their resources behind opposing the edl
7. a strong anarchist movement should be able to distance itself from both the uaf/swp and militant islam.
8. There is a lot of chinless wonders involved in anti-facsism. These people need to go
9. For the anarchist movement the problem of the edl starts with the problem of the swp
10. it is going to get worse before it gets better. The swp can only make it worse
Anarchist
@eric
08.04.2010 13:46
@eric
@@eric
08.04.2010 14:05
also lol @ orangemen carrying any weight in manchester, they can bully old folks and students but name one serious head in manny who isnt either republican or black
@@eric
no fan of swappos but...
08.04.2010 14:17
''Mario Jbc: Socialists in action! They will be holding several meetings with regards to stopping the EDL. Check it out:
.
14th April - 8pm DUDLEY
14th April - 7.30pm LONDON
22nd April - 7pm NOTTINGHAM
22nd April - 7.30pm SOUTHSEA
29th April - 7pm SOUTHAMPTON
29th April - 7.30pm BIRMINGHAM
29th Apri...l - 7.30pm BRIGHTON
29th April - 7.30pm BRISTOL
4th May - 7.45pm SHREWSBURY
.
It would be nice if local EDL members could pop up just to see what they have to say, no?"
no fan of swappos but
*sigh
08.04.2010 15:08
1. uaf have brought this on themselves
2. the frankly weird internet warriors of anti-fascism cannot simply beat their chests and not expect to get a response.
3. Most anti-fascism is in fact 'radical liberalism' - "we can deny the edl a voice because we are politically superior to them".
4. Martin smith is genuine scum and will get a lot of students beaten up if they continue to follow his party line.
5. edl need to be understood before they can be confronted. Simply shouting FASCIST from the safety of the internet is not a strategy and it is not working
6. The far right continue to operate unhindered as the uaf throw all their resources behind opposing the edl
7. a strong anarchist movement should be able to distance itself from both the uaf/swp and militant islam.
8. There is a lot of chinless wonders involved in anti-facsism. These people need to go
9. For the anarchist movement the problem of the edl starts with the problem of the swp
10. it is going to get worse before it gets better. The swp can only make it worse
Anarchist "
If this doughball is not a spy or a nazi in disguise he must be the dumbest Anarchist in existence.
Whatever you may think of the SWP this is a time for us all to stick together, do you think these right wing thugs are going to leave you alone "Anarchist"?
Sonic
e-mail:
Sonic@sonic.com
Rememebring Kronstadt kids?
08.04.2010 15:40
Any decent working class anarchist should not sympathise with their political dilemma - a dilemma that they, and only they created.
Anarchist
Research
08.04.2010 16:30
Liam Patient
Hardly looks like the EDL casual hardman and attends Bolton 6th form college.
IHTF
Keep it up sockpuppet
08.04.2010 16:35
We read your sites as well and know there is a link from the EDL forum directly to this post.
"Decent" you don't even know how to pretend to be a Anarchist.
Sonic
e-mail:
Sonic@sonic.com
LOL
08.04.2010 17:00
You're still part of the problem mate.
Anarchist
why it's OK for us to attack fascists but not vice versa
08.04.2010 17:02
Fascists and the crypto-fascists in the EDL are scum and so deserve to get harassed and beaten. People trying to stop fascists are doing society a favour and don't deserve to get attacked.
There, wasn't that difficult to understand, was it?
anon
25,000 Stoke fans chose NOT to support the EDL
08.04.2010 17:17
As with the BNP, the strategy of accusing the EDL of being a bunch of Fascist thugs isn't perfect and does have obvious weaknesses. However there is no such thing as a perfect strategy (and anyone who claims to have one is either deluded and/or lying). The main weakness here is that there are enough people out there who are thugs and/or Fascists ALREADY that publicising this aspect of the EDL attracts rather than discourages those people from joining EDL actions. This factor easily accounts for (figuratively speaking) 95% of EDL support. That doesn't mean the strategy has failed, it means the strategy has succeeded - as measured by the stunningly huge majority of eg - football fans who DON'T join the EDL.
Put it this way, everyone knows EDL's core support comes from hooligan firms. EDL's top crowd has been estimated to have been around 3,000 in Stoke. Stoke City's Britannia Stadium has a capacity of 28,000. Even if we assume, for the sake of argument, the hypothetical / worst case scenario that ALL the EDL supporters who attended their Stoke rally were locals and that none travelled in from other regions, that would still mean up to 25,000 football fans chose NOT to support the EDL - presumably because they think the EDL are a bunch of dodgy fuckers. Why do they think the EDL are dodgy fuckers? Because the strategy under discussion has effectively discredited the EDL for most ordinary people.
Obviously parallel strategies are needed to deal with increasing EDL violence, but under no circumstances should Anti-Fascists ever drop the on-going campaign of exposing EDL's Fascist links...
Logic_Bomb
25000 stoke fans
08.04.2010 17:31
25000 stoke fans
Sockpuppet
08.04.2010 17:36
Sounds like you have never even met an Anarchist Socky, I don't know who you are trying to kid here. I've been on plenty of anti-nazi protests with swp members and anarchists standing shoulder to shoulder against the likes of you.
(ps you are a little silly to be boasting about "hacking Indymedia" on your EDL forum at the same time as posting here)
Sonic
e-mail:
Sonic@sonic.com
Sonic, mate
08.04.2010 21:18
"We should never forget that these organisations [swp et al] are not, and never will be, on our side and like all political rackets they'll sooner or later have to be abolished as part of the fight for a free society"
Anarchist
Homepage:
http://www.eco-action.org/dod/no9/seattle_vampire.html
I agree...
08.04.2010 21:29
Rudeboy
Replies
08.04.2010 21:47
@ Jim, apologise for the geographical error.
We need a working class anti fascist organisation. The UAF is wet and liberal. We need an organisation that will fight the EDL and BNP with working class politics.
Snowball
@rudeboy
08.04.2010 22:11
fresh prince of wales
no need for violence!
09.04.2010 04:54
both of them in power would love to throw anyone who reads indymedia in jail.
I've said before, the EDL aren't all racist, they got a problem with the "islamifaction of britian", but they got a really bad problem with PR. true some of the people in charge are racists who want a pogrom, let the police deal with that.
but i think a lot of them are not card carrying nazis
just like the EDL, I'm concerned about extremist religious groups (all power hungry wankers concern me!),
but I'd rather go and chat to them down the pub and try to work out why they're pissed off, instead of calling them all "gorillas" like the rest of the radical liberatarians!
dfdgf
I don't claim...
09.04.2010 08:12
Rudeboy
If you make a bed you may as well lie in it...
09.04.2010 09:19
I remember hearing that militant anti-facsists used to provide security for the likes of the SWP when boneheads from the BNP used to target their meetings. I really can't envisage this happening now because the likes of the UAF have their heads so far up their own backsides that they wouldn't know a rational strategy for dealing with the EDL if it waved a placard in their face. This, coupled with the fact that they've cooperated with the police to sideline anyone who actually follows through on their hot air means that they're viewed with a mix of scepticism and outright derision by many anti-fascists.
Back to the drawing board ladies and gents, if you're going to tackle the far right you've got to do it ideologically and if necessary physically, the UAF are doing neither.
BruisedShins
25,000 Stoke Fans
09.04.2010 19:59
That only 300 people supported UAF's Stoke protest has nothing to do with logic - it's a fact. That only a tiny minority of football fans have been successfully agitated by the EDL also has nothing to do with logic - it's also a fact. Most people - including football supporters - want nothing to do with the EDL. That's also a fact. Where logic comes into this is in realising that because UAF have failed in one place does not mean all aspects of their approach fail in all places.
Either way, while I stress I do NOT like either UAF or the SWP, and no matter how poor UAF's performance in Stoke objectively was, now I'd like you personally to tell us all exactly how many people you think any of the UAF's hard-left or Anarchist rivals could have drawn to oppose the EDL in Stoke, because my guess is their best efforts would have been even WORSE than UAF's?
Am I wrong?
Or do you (or any of the other workerists posting on Indymedia) actually have a magic wand stuffed down your wizardy cape that you can use to conjure up thousands of highly-motivated and battle-hardened working-class Anti-Fascist militants?
Einstein was a Stoke fan
Bunch of dicks vs another bunch of dicks. Hope they all lose.
09.04.2010 23:52
09.04.2010 09:19
I'm with "Anarchist" and "Rudeboy". While the use of the word "attack" seems spurious in the context of this event (was anyone actually attacked?) it is silly to think that if you threaten to physically confront a group of jingoist casuals that they won't come after you. This isn't condoning the EDL it's just common sense.
I remember hearing that militant anti-facsists used to provide security for the likes of the SWP when boneheads from the BNP used to target their meetings. I really can't envisage this happening now because the likes of the UAF have their heads so far up their own backsides that they wouldn't know a rational strategy for dealing with the EDL if it waved a placard in their face. This, coupled with the fact that they've cooperated with the police to sideline anyone who actually follows through on their hot air means that they're viewed with a mix of scepticism and outright derision by many anti-fascists.
Back to the drawing board ladies and gents, if you're going to tackle the far right you've got to do it ideologically and if necessary physically, the UAF are doing neither.
BruisedShins "
_________________________________________________
Yeah, I agree both Anarchist & Rudeboy have a grasp of what's going on here.
The SWP / UAF have been a cancer in the British left for years, and have probably done more to ruin the left than any far-right group could have dreamed of. Fact.
Basically SWP, here's a simple lesson - if you're going to hold a 'public' (snigger) meeting about disrupting someone else's public activities, WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK IS GOING TO HAPPEN?!?!?? And how difficult is it to steward your own meetings properly? (pretty hard I guess since you're a bunch of chinless posh students...)
And that vidoe actually made the EDL seem quite reasonable. How are you gonna deal with that?
Now I can't stand the EDL - they're a dangerous and divisive presence and nothing good will come of them. But if your answer to the EDL is to get some social workers and students to stand around screeching "NAARRTZII" at them, then you've lost the argument.
EDL, SWP, both a sack of shit.
Yorkshire SHARP
Working Class Against Nazis
10.04.2010 13:10
scum
steve WCAN
e-mail:
swellbelly@hotmail.co.uk
Bicker, bicker, stab,stab, no wonder street antifascism isnt growing!
10.04.2010 16:20
Many in UAF are abit uneducated, they are no way as bad as NAZIBNP linked fascist groups though, they dont have much to say when you point out Lenin was given a tonne of gold & a sealed train to Moscow by the Kaiser to takeover the revolution, in turn not for peace, but for half of russia including the Ukraine.
I have family from Ukraine& Germany who were v.active against the nazis& stalin,
but I will definetely defend UAF locally if I can as I know in nottingham their mostly people like us who hate injustice. Many of them slagged off the idiot who helped arrest a anarchist comrade, though was it astation arrest or detention?
PLease dont make me quote that German Pastor bloke as well about who they come for 1st,,FFS
lets unknot this thread from continuing to descend into another black monty python SKETCH, please!
sugar,
cherries
Maknovista
EDL are the bosses' tool
12.04.2010 15:42
giuseppe pinelli
EDL Grasses
26.04.2010 08:38
Wander how the betrayed hoolies will feel towards the EDL when the truth comes out?
EDL = STATE CONTROLLED COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARIES
Jiff Lemmon