Poor showing against the EDL today
Simon | 03.09.2011 19:19 | Anti-racism | Culture | Migration
So, the EDL didn't reach Tower Hamlets and had a lower than expected turnout of only around 1200 attend their "big one" demo but, despite the UAF/SWP's bragging it was hardly a great day for Antifascists either. Battle of Cable Street this wasn't...
First the UAF managed to get not only the EDL march banned but their own counter demo and any protest in London in the next 30 days including a planned march against the cuts. Nice work UAF!
As for the turnout today, I was disapointed. I'd say around 1500 UAF/SWP at the main site, a third of which seemed to be locals, the rest of which seemed to be from outside of London. This, wasn't good. Especially for all the bragging by Antifascist groups that they were going to "smash" the UAF and this would be the "second battle of Cable Street"
Fact is the turnout was poor. The local Asian youth were largely nowhere to be seen, bizarrely only emerging in force once the EDL had all gotten back on their buses and left London in order to fight with the Police in Stepney.
Then there's the UAF/SWP/Antifa who in the 70s could muster thousands against the NF. Now, we could barely scrape 1500 together :(
Basically, it was the Police who stopped the EDL today, not Antifascists. We had a poor turnout, spent most of the time penned at the demo sight and did very little to stop the fascists hurling abuse at tourists, attacking Asians and from marching in London.
I only expected better, at least 3000 from Antifa, SWP and UAF alone with similar numbers from the local Asians.
It was disapointing and in future, we really need to do better.
As for the turnout today, I was disapointed. I'd say around 1500 UAF/SWP at the main site, a third of which seemed to be locals, the rest of which seemed to be from outside of London. This, wasn't good. Especially for all the bragging by Antifascist groups that they were going to "smash" the UAF and this would be the "second battle of Cable Street"
Fact is the turnout was poor. The local Asian youth were largely nowhere to be seen, bizarrely only emerging in force once the EDL had all gotten back on their buses and left London in order to fight with the Police in Stepney.
Then there's the UAF/SWP/Antifa who in the 70s could muster thousands against the NF. Now, we could barely scrape 1500 together :(
Basically, it was the Police who stopped the EDL today, not Antifascists. We had a poor turnout, spent most of the time penned at the demo sight and did very little to stop the fascists hurling abuse at tourists, attacking Asians and from marching in London.
I only expected better, at least 3000 from Antifa, SWP and UAF alone with similar numbers from the local Asians.
It was disapointing and in future, we really need to do better.
Simon
Comments
Hide the following 20 comments
Agreed
03.09.2011 19:39
So what went wrong? Why is it we can't mobilise en masse any more? We need to work this out right now.
$$$
Y
03.09.2011 19:54
"I only expected better, at least 3000 from Antifa, SWP and UAF alone with similar numbers from the local Asians. "
"So what went wrong? Why is it we can't mobilise en masse any more? We need to work this out right now."
Can you not see how the 'political' organisers have already distanced themselves from the 'local Asians'? As a starter for 10, I would suggest talking to people that are involved in, and affected by, the events.
sgdbsdvf
None of you there then?
03.09.2011 20:25
Sonic
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sonic@sonic.com
Comment
03.09.2011 23:52
To say it was poor showing when the EDL were prevented from gathering at sainsbury's carpark, train stations, pubs and didn't actually manage to make it into Tower Hamlets (I hear that a few stragglers tried to sneak in during the evening) seems like a good result to me.
I was suspecting a massive turnout, so perhaps room for disappointment, but lots of locals were hanging out in side streets rather than main demo or 'on call' as it were (I mean if the EDL had turned up in Tower Hamlets a lot of people were ready to go out onto the streets at short notice)
Commentator
Return route of EDL coaches caused the fighting in Stepney
04.09.2011 00:27
Gerry
were any of the above commentors in london today
04.09.2011 00:34
does it matter
Comment
04.09.2011 00:49
Commentator
Comment
04.09.2011 00:59
Commentator
Good point
04.09.2011 01:11
Uninspired
Simon is wrong
04.09.2011 06:41
The mixed crowd at Aldgate East may well have been larger than theirs. If not, it was close. It included quite a few local youth. It is described in an equally inaccurate account on Indymedia London as "a breakaway". How can you break away from something you've never been to? Is atheism a "breakaway" from the Church of England?
It is a pity that most of that crowd didn't try to get round the side of the EDL via Commercial Street, Wentworth Street and Middlesex Street which remained possible for as long as the slow-thinking and obviously not local cops left that route open. People preferred to be sort of facing the EDL, even though they were out of sight and guarded by an impenetratable army of cops on Whitechapel High Street. Quicker thinking and flexibility would have got us there.
Lessons for the future:
Have maps if you're not local
Send scouts to investigate what's not obvious
Act quickly if there's an opportunity. There is little debating time.
The area by Aldgate station seems to have been the cops' third choice of site for the EDL rally. They had previously started to mass at two other places, but then retreated from them.
Adding up the estimated numbers, it's hard to make the total EDL presence more than 900.
As for local youth allegedly "not tuning out". Well, they have also seen the irrelevance of the UAF. I assure you, they were out alright, for the most part extremely well organised, and dispersed in guarding various areas. They were on the streets in numbers and highly visible. Nowehere in Whitechapel, Wapping, Stepney or Bethnal Green was safe for the EDL, whether en masse or as mere stragglers. It was thanks to people NOT going to dance to the UAF's tunes that this was the case.
In the evening, many of them moved to Whitechapel Road / Mile End Road, as things kicked off there with the EDL coach. (Coaches? Not sure. Wasn't there when that happened.)
In general, the ALARM blog is a much more comprehensive account of the day's events than Simon's restricted-view-went-home-early miserableism.
If either the UAF or Hope not Hate claim credit for getting the march banned they are in cloud cuckoo land. After the riots last month, it was always going to be banned anyway. Will they claim credit for the weather, too?
Stoppyoldgit
More details and a bit of history
04.09.2011 07:23
I congratulate those who had the initiative to move west from the UAF rally to try to confront the EDL, especially those who took no notice of the stewards and DID join the main crowd at Aldgate East. It would have been good to see you sooner, comrades, but better late than never. Next time, eh?
History note:
Aldgate East isn't Aldgate. The old name for that spot, where Commercial Road meets Whitechapel High Street, was Gardeners Corner. It was here in 1936 that the drivers parked their trams nose-to-tail to form a barricade against police and fascist attempts to reach Cable Street. The police did get there by routes further south but were comprehensively trashed after prolonged fighting. So the fascists never made it at all and were dispersed through the City from Tower Hill, where they'd been waiting for the police to "clear the route". Some of them got caught by anti-fascists streaming out of the Cable Street area to chase them after their police protection was broken.
Stroppyoldgit
1936
04.09.2011 09:30
Stroppyoldgit
EDL Nazi Salutes in London yesterday
04.09.2011 09:57
Warwick
Stupid, inaccurate post
04.09.2011 11:18
It would ALWAYS be better if more people attended any anti-racist demo, but whoever posted this thread IS talking shite because Antifa didn't even exist in the 1970s, ditto for the rest of their analysis
Marcus
not that bad really
04.09.2011 11:27
I'm pretty confident if they had of broken their kettle they would have been run - the police were protecting the EDL from the community. Having been to a few EDL more often than not it is the other way around - we need to sort this out.
Stoppyoldgit was pretty much spot on with his account as far as I'm concerned. Not so sure we could have got around the sides so easily though. Although at first those roads were open, we didn't have the numbers, by the time we had any crowd worth moving cops had massed on corners. The couple of times we did manage to move a sizeable crowd cops started grabbing people and mosque stewards told people to go back. Unfortunately the locals kids are gonna listen to them more than some random white guy in a black hoody.
Yes if we had 3000 up for it antifascists we might have been able to do more, but that aint the reality and anyone who expected that obviously doesn't have a clue. To get anywhere near that requires networking and lots of boring work.
Local autonomous antifascist groups need to form - even just 5 mates in a pub is enough. Get an email and phone number, start doing some research, put on a benefit gig and contact other antifascists groups in your region (including the UAF - you don't have to like them to coordinate with them). Next EDL demo organise transport and go - just a car or two, or group train tickets is fine, you're less likely to get pigged anyway.
If every keyboard warrior does this there will be thousands next time, but I won't hold my breath...
bob
First of all I was there...
04.09.2011 12:55
Okay, I will admit their were some successes. The setting off fire alarms to disrupt the EDL was good work for example but it wasn't as big a success as some are trying to claim.
Low numbers, the EDL did march, the EDL not confronted until after the demo when one bus was attacked. Fact is it should have been much bigger and much worse for the EDL than it was.
It was basically a walk in the park for them with no sense of urgency or threat at all which is only going to encourage them to march in more pre-dominantly Asian areas since they'll think they're untouchable.
Simon
troll post?
04.09.2011 13:03
anon
doubtfully EDL troll
04.09.2011 15:01
Non of this bullshit posturing - networking, traveling and building for next time.
EDL had a bad day really. From what we saw they just about managed 4 figures. For their "big one" that needed "two years of warming up" that's pretty shit. They're mostly trying to argue that they got about 2 inches into TH.
bob
@ Simon
04.09.2011 16:07
The EDL bus was stopped because there were people mobilised all along Whitechapel and Mile End Roads, and it only took a couple of phone calls from Whitechapel for them to be up and waiting.
No, local youths and others were NOT going to leave their areas wide open to fascist or police attack just because the UAF turned up with a sound system on the back of a truck and, I presume, some (no doubt very boring) speeches. People were out, active and ready over a wide area and many of those who came from other areas went to help where their friends were or to do pre-arranged jobs in places it sounds like you were never at.
The extent of autonomous organisation for territorial defence yesterday was greater than I anticipated and very impressive indeed. You should try to catch up with what really happened and what people were prepared for if it had happened, rather than bemoaning what didn't happen and was never going to, for good reason.
Stroppyoldgit
Homepage:
@Simon
Definite troll
06.09.2011 08:35
Martin