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Liverpool Indymedia

Fascists score a win on the streets of Liverpool

Phil Dickens (repost) | 22.02.2012 14:01 | Anti-racism | Policing | Liverpool

On Saturday, , a mob of between 150-250 fascists ran free on the streets of Liverpool. As well as hounding a tiny demonstration against police brutality out of Derby Square, they were able to turn an Irish Republican march way from the City Centre. Yesterday was a definite win for the far-right and underlines the need for a serious re-evaluation of anti-fascist organisation.

I've said on numerous occasions before that we're seeing the return of the traditional fascist tactic of controlling the streets. The British National Party is in electoral decline, whilst the English Defence League's limited strategy of having people shout in a police kettle has disenchanted followers in much the same way as the left's penchant for A to B marches. However the splinter groups, in particular the Infidels, offer those up for it a more genuine chance to run amok whilst being free to be as violent and racist as they like due to the lack of electoral ambition as a moderating force.




The response to this, however, has been at best inadequate. In theory, the fact that we're facing the biggest crisis in a generation and that we're seeing an upsurge in workplace and community struggles should have the left in the ascendancy. Instead, it remains stagnant to the point of stubbornness, with the left sects doing their best to co-opt grassroots movements where the bureaucracy cannot extinguish it altogether. In the midst of which, the threat of fascism is almost forgotten.

Unite Against Fascism, the best known incarnation of anti-fascism, is not up to the task. It never has been, in truth, but over a decade of the fascists being confined to electoralism and moderation after retreating from Anti-Fascist Action had given them some cover. Now, with a renewed willingness from the fascists to take on the left and use physical force, it has become apparent just how hollow a strategy of waving placards inside police kettles, marching away from confrontation, and propping up mainstream politics as a foil for the far right really is.

This is underlined by the fact that UAF has never mobilised against the EDL splinter groups. When they opposed the EDL in Leicester, it was down to independent anti-fascists to mobilise against the Infidels in Rochdale, as it didn't even warrant a mention by UAF. On Saturday, with the Infidels and Combined Ex Forces mobilising to "smash the IRA," the lack of BNP and EDL meant that as far as mainstream anti-fascism is concerned the day might as well have not happened at all. Hope Not Hate, even more wet and mainstream as well as being tied to the security services, give threats to Occupy Liverpool a mention but find Tommy Robinson's Irish heritage more interesting than physical violence against Liverpool's Irish community.

So what of militant anti-fascism, then? It's still here, in the sense that there are still those around who believe in a class response to fascism and direct, physical opposition to their presence on the streets. But the plain fact is that the movement that once existed currently doesn't.

Antifa fell off the radar several years back. The Alliance for Workers' Liberty's Stop Racism and Fascism Network failed to really get off the ground. Manchester Anti Fascist Alliance folded not too long ago. Other groups, such as Liverpool Antifascists and Brighton Anti-Fascists still exist, but certainly in Liverpool the ability we had to punch above our weight due to very active comrades has recently been strained by the pull of other causes in the fight against cuts, privatisation and the wider class struggle.

I say this not with any air of fatalism, but simply because the only way to build up and overcome your weaknesses is to start from an honest appraisal of the situation. The anti-fascist movement is in a dire state at the moment, and there's a lot of work that needs doing. In terms of which, discussions are happening internally, and soon hopefully across the workers' movement as well. We're not about to jack it all in and admit defeat, any more than we would march away from the confrontation and declare a victory where there was none, UAF-style.

One definite mistake made yesterday was that there was no public anti-fascist call out, locally or nationally. Liverpool Antifascists did mobilise, but that we did so amongst ourselves but were severely limited in numbers due to no demo being announced. This meant that any response we were going to offer to fascists who had mobilised nationally was going to be inadequate.

The Infidels, Combined Ex Forces and Casuals United assembled at St George's Hall from 11am, with the intention of going on to Derby Square for a static demonstration. Their reason for being out - the Irish Republican Flute Band march in honour of an Irish republican fighter called Sean Phelan - was kicking off from Kirkdale at 12.30 and marching into the City Centre. Already, the fascists' choice of muster point at Derby Square has hampered their plans and the march now had no idea of its end point.

The wild card in this was a demonstration against police brutality, also set to take place at Derby Square from 12pm. This had been called in response to police attacks on an anti-cuts demo outside the town hall, and was set to largely be composed of young and inexperienced protesters, mainly with a background in the Occupy movement.

In the event, that demonstration's presence in Derby Square largely confined us there as well, since the anti-fascist mobilisation effectively tripled their numbers and nobody would have felt comfortable leaving about ten kids to fend for themselves against a mob of baying fascists.

That was exactly what we faced, from the offset. The crowds pouring past jeered and hissed at the demo, instantly deciding that it was "pro-IRA" and therefore a worthy target. A couple of local boneheads decided to jump in and act like hardmen against the younger ones in the crowd, whilst the broader gathering of fascists only grew in confidence at the sight of this small opposition.

The police, for their part, apparently decided that the fascists were the perfect weapon to use on those demonstrating against them. Two fascists were ushered over to "have a chat" with the other demo, the fascists were allowed to half-surround the anti-police protesters, and the use of cameras by the far right coincided perfectly with a Section 60 AA order for all protesters to remove masks and face coverings. When this was, naturally, objected to, several officers barged into the crowd and started ripping face coverings off whilst threatening arrest.

This, understandably, panicked those who had come to demonstrate against police brutality. Fearing a repeat of the town hall incident, they moved away from the square and down the street. As the rest of us took heed of what was happening and made a hasty attempt to keep people together, they turned it into an unofficial march. Chants of "we won't take police brutality" rang out and a banner was unfurled at the front.

All of this whilst fascists continued to flow past towards their demo, sneering and snarling as they did. The situation had now become unsalvageable, and it was all we could do to intervene when boneheads tried to lunge at demonstrators. Several were able to throw punches, with the police response being to simply move them along, if not ignore them entirely. At the same time, the chants and flag waving continued as if this was all just part of the plan.

Ultimately, we herded the march to News From Nowhere, and disassembled it in the social centre. It was infuriating to concede the streets to the fascists, and a decision that will only see them grow in confidence for future actions, but we were essentially left with no choice in the name of safety. As it was, several passers by were still assaulted by fascists in town, and during the incident that caused police to block the road and turn the Republican march back, several people were assaulted there as well. All in all, an ugly end to an ugly day.

The events yesterday were in turns grim and frustrating, as well as frightening for those new to this kind of activity. But they should also serve as a wake-up call to anybody who claims to oppose fascism. This is not an activity for armchair activists, nor something you can outsource to "specialists." A violent ideology is growing on the streets, and we can only stop it by mobilising as a class to physically oppose them.

To those who would look to someone else to do this, I ask two simple questions: if not now, when? If not us, who? Fighting fascism is a job for us all, and it's about time we got to it.

Phil Dickens (repost)
- Homepage: http://truth-reason-liberty.blogspot.com/2012/02/fascists-score-win-on-streets-of.html

Comments

Hide the following 10 comments

Their weakness

22.02.2012 15:26

How original, another fascist making a website mocking anti-fascism. I see alot of effort has gone into this site, with updates virtually everyday since the start of Febuary.

I'm quite pleased they've done this. It shows their weakness and were having some effect on them. After all, if we were just a bunch of keyboard heroes and students with no support, or chance of gaining support, from the working class they wouldn't bother with such a site. They definitely wouldn't waste time doing a bit of creative writing almost daily, just to get a laugh they and remind people that anti-fascists and the ideas of the left in general are pointless and ignored by the working class. If they've noticed us were having an impact!

We see the various flavours of fascism as a problem, Thats why we organise against them. They pretend that were nothing, yet spend vast amounts of your time moaning about us and occasionally getting a kicking. That speaks volumes!

Our strength


stopping nationalism

22.02.2012 16:32

yes, really looks like your having a major impact on the political right by putting out ten ultra leftists against 300 nationalists

bill


My comment

22.02.2012 17:46

Since the first post (and its link) has been removed my comment above is now out of context. Please ignore it!

Our strength


the link

22.02.2012 18:18

here`s the link to the troll site that strength was quoting, not exactly serious,  http://www.theantifaschista.blogspot.com/

valor


Why Anti-Fascism needs to abandon workerist ideology

22.02.2012 22:50

It's hardly surprising Liverpool cops effectively allowed the Fascists to do their dirty work for them, in terms of letting Fascists attack the anti-police brutality demo, so, whatever their views, congratulations to the people mentioned in this post for having the courage to defend the anti-police demo. The fact that I'm going to take issue with some of the ideological assumptions that underlie militant anti-fascism should not detract from the fact that I have enormous respect for (almost) everyone who's got the integrity and courage to take on these fucking morons.

At the risk of stating the obvious, some facts - there are exactly 55 people in the 1st photo, while the skinhead holding the left side of the Loyalist flag in the 2nd photo is semi-well-known Nazi pillock and EDL protestor Liam Pinkham, the woman with the rat's tail haircut is holding a newspaper of an openly Hitler worshipping shower called the British Peoples Party (a party for "all" British people, except those who think their grandparents shouldn't have been bombed by the Luftwaffe), and the bloke on the far-right (sic) has the emblem of EDL splinter group Combined Ex-Forces on the back of his jacket. If anyone can add more names to faces, please do so.

It's true that "the only way to build up and overcome your weaknesses is to start from an honest appraisal of the situation", and obvious exceptions like UK Uncut, Occupy and the Green Party notwithstanding, some sections of British left (the more ideologically traditionalist sections) are indeed "stagnant to the point of stubbornness", but this incident, and this article, seem frankly indicative of some of the reasons why.

The fact is that (after years of hard work by dedicated, often non-militant) Anti-Fascists, the electoral ambitions of the BNP have been thwarted, after which a return to violence by sections of the far right always was inevitable. As we know from the example of the EDL, the only way Fascists stand even a ghost of a chance of electoral success is by a/ pretending they're not Fascists, and b/ further distracting attention away from their own Fascism by campaigning against people who are even more Fascist than they are (in the case of the EDL, this was achieved by campaigning against Islamo-Fascists and against Muslim terrorism).

Since the EDL have been repeatedly outed as closet Nazis, in macro-scale political and PR terms they're basically defeated, but they remain a small but nasty threat at street level, as sections of their movement drop the charade of relative liberalism and openly return to their core values of Fascism and violent hooliganism.

Of course the Fascists had no interest in distinguishing between an anti-police demo and the (separate) Republican march, but in this specific instance the pretext for a viable Fascist mobilisation was opposition to a march honouring IRA fighter Sean Phelan. Sean Phelan died in 1921, half a century before the Provisional IRA formed in 1969, but he was still an IRA fighter, and if the Republican march hadn't given Fascists the excuse to feel they stood in righteous opposition to terrorist murder then things might have been very different. Whatever the political rationalisations, and no matter how badly the British State treated Irish Catholics, ordinary people are perfectly entitled to despise the IRA for killing innocent civilians, and if any sections of the radical left don't understand that then it's hardly surprising the radical left's not more influential.

Finally of course it's crucial to communicate to disaffected working-class people why it is that Fascist politics are disastrous for working-class interests, all the more so because everyone knows that the Fascists who mobilised in Liverpool are solidly working-class. Traditional hard-left ideology has trouble coming to terms with the fact even a minority of the glorious workers can be genuinely Fascist, therefore seeks to blame Fascism on a ruling-class that almost totally abandoned old-school Fascism after WW2. Because of this ideological blind-spot, sections of the radical left fail to address the more complex causes of working-class, middle-class and upper-class Fascism, and, too boot, the left also alienates large sections of the population who might otherwise be more inclined to help turn militant Anti-Fascism towards real success.

SLF


Liam Pinkham, aka Pino88

22.02.2012 23:15





3rd photo is of Liam Pinkham (right hand side of the photo) protesting with the Welsh Defence League in Wrexham

Dez


LOTS MORE PIX OF LIVERPOOL FASH

24.02.2012 01:44













NB - British People's Party newspapers seen in several of these pix. Much as I hate the IRA, the Nazism that the BPP advocate killed far more innocent people, eg - 4,000 dead in Liverpool alone during the Blitz

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_blitz

Newsday


Names?

24.02.2012 01:46

?

Gin


Liam Pinkham and Nick Griffin in Liverpool

26.02.2012 00:29

Liam Pinkham (with the white shoes)
Liam Pinkham (with the white shoes)

Nick Griffin with Nazi flag waver
Nick Griffin with Nazi flag waver

Nice of the jerk with the flag to put his mask down when Griffin showed up ;)

Jinx


A clue why the Manchester Evening News hates BNP and supports criminals.....

03.05.2012 07:50

Dominic noonan and Paul massey rape young boys and are police informers dirty fenian its scum ,,,red hand man

Done Stagging
- Homepage: http://www.northwestnationalists.blogspot.co.uk/


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