‘United people of Luton’ organised a march through the town – over 500 strong – ‘against Muslim extremists who preach Sharia Law and abuse our troops’.
There were clashes with the police and a Muslim owned busines was attacked. ‘The Summer of Rage’ may not follow our script………..
33 Comments
May 25, 2009 at 4:09 pm
Can’t deny that’s a very disturbing image. But then how ‘united’ can ‘the people of Luton’ be if they can only muster a bunch (white, male) of knuckle-dragging numbskulls (wardrobe: JJB Sports)? I couldn’t see a single woman or Asian in that picture, and some of them seem to be getting off on some Johnnie Adair, loyalist paramilitary fantasy, judging from the fancy dress – how many are actually from Luton, rather than rentanazi? After seeing such a miserable parade of prisoners of their own prejudices I took a step outside and looked up to see the freewheeling antics of our African visitors, the swallows. Free as a bird, eh?
May 25, 2009 at 9:14 pm
Id love to see more people on anarchist demos wearing clothes from a high street shop like jjb rather than dressing up in their “povo” clothes they were insipred to wear after they got back from india.
We need fightback in our communitys NOW. no more fucking community gardening/critical mass or we will see more demos like this one. SEIZE THE TIME.
May 25, 2009 at 10:21 pm
Ian,if you and your supporters ever want to know why you have trouble getting the working class to jump aboard the goodship ‘Anarchy’-look no further than Simons comment.
You have identified a valid point though that is something the entire movement should take into consideration;…”…the Summer of rage may not follow our script…”
It won’t.
May 25, 2009 at 11:51 pm
I should’ve known that an innocuous comment about swallows would spark the impotent rage of a couple of armchair ‘national anarchists’ wanting to out-BNP the BNP. The connection between the promotion of imperialist war and sport is pretty well-documented, like the WW1 propaganda aimed at Millwall fans in 1914 – ‘Make the Lion Roar in Europe – Join Up’. It’s a pity that the militaristic shit of having ‘our boys’ parade in every town, like Luton, was only confronted by Muslims, but let’s not try to compete with modern day ‘Church and King’ mobs with shit for brains – they are NOT synonymous with the working class. Take a deep breath, recognise the beauty that’s around you (even in the least promising circumstance), because rage without imaginative application (rather than slavish imitation) will just eat you up…maaan.
May 26, 2009 at 10:45 am
Yeah,that’s right,you should of known that a few comments about swallows would garnish such a childish,right wing response.
But,I took your advice,and when I got a break,I took a walk around and recognised the inherant beauty of my surroundings.
And I once again realised that all that is good about english working class culture,and its potential for violent resistance to the state,and the establishment of autonomous working class zones,is every bit threatened by Muslim Sharia law,as it is by the BNP or the phoney left wing apologists inbetween.
Try applying the imaginative application of your upper hemispheres to the obvious fact that you personify to the absolute degree,the degeneration of the political mind once it becomes disconnected from the only class that can effectively end the subjugation,exploitation and oppression of us all.
You are destined to rot on the compost heap of the ultra-liberated,political elite,who just like yourself-despise the working class,because their interests and agenda,don’t correspond with your own.
May 26, 2009 at 10:56 am
First of Simon go drown in a pile of your own shit. We dont need people like you, your a hindrance.
Next: Yes the images are worrying etc but its not that much of a big deal and quite frankly this was a fuck up for the far right, this was hot button issue and comparing the less then four hundred (As has been reported throughout the media) people who turned up compared to the massive crowds at g20. That and remember that most working class people dont like seeing people directly protesting against the troops and so quite frankly on a small amount of the protesters would have being fash and only a very small amount went on to do violence (Yet violence is very good at getting itself printed).
If it was something along the lines of the Bradford riots in the current economic fuck up then I would be shitting my pants. But its not thank fuck.
May 26, 2009 at 12:30 pm
@joe
I disagree. If you looked at the run up to Bradford riots there were maneuverings by the far-right before hand that sparked trouble. The issue of islamic extremism is strongly felt in Luton and there have been a number of attacks against mosques and churches. If anything else happens in Luton over the summer you can expect asian people (and gangs) to mobilise to voice an opposition to the xenophobia of some of the participants of that march. This is the same as what happened in Bradford and a far-right nutters wet dream – they would love for it to kick off big time.
The question is what do we do? Can we re-occupy the anti-islamic extremism tendency and bring to a wider condemnation of all religious terrorism (and all terrorism) and denounce it as fundamentally opposed to the wider working class interests. I mean you just need to look at the Islamic Republic of Iran to see what effect theocracy can have on workers fighting for rights.
There is also another issue of our ‘glorious’ soldiers. 600,000+ dead civilians, many millions displaced and traumatised. Whats so glorious about that?
May 26, 2009 at 12:43 pm
If you have a look at the video of the protest you’ll see that it aint all white faces, you’ll also see a couple of banners saying ‘NF go to hell’….
May 26, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Come on – get off it! This was not a sign of things to come, this was not a show of force of the far right, not was it the potentia of the english working class.
Anyone can see that it’s a group of organised casuals – hence the high street chique, and mainly male audience – or do you think Lutoners wear their Sunday clothes to protests?
Just check out the facebook groups for this event and you’ll see posts coming from ‘hooligan’ sites, advertising it as a casual meet-up.
May 26, 2009 at 2:03 pm
Al,I don’t think that the Bradford riots were sparked by the Right.
And the burning issue here,isn’t dead or ridiculed returning soldiers.
There is a problem here,the width and thickness of a solid brickwall,that is to do predominantly with working class culture,in this country,and the lefts complete lack of understanding of it,and its complete unwillingness to relate REAL street level radical politics to it.
And when I say,”left”,as much as I dislike to,I include anarchists in this bag as well.
I don’t want to.
How I feel about this,I’ve said a few times here in the last year or so.
And the sole reason I rabbit on about it,is that we have an army at our disposal here-just waiting to go into battle with the forces that constrict their daily lives and desires.
And we don’t seem to be able to make a solid connection with them.
Proof…?Think of all the run down working class areas the length and breadth of this land,and consider the possibilities of a nationwide uprising.
In the present economic and political climate-they are fucking good!
But would the politics of merry pranksters and fair weather protest revolutionaries be taken seriously by a class that feels betrayed and caste aside by the
very people that purport to champion their liberation through a complete take over?
We are hopefully in the process of a political metamorphosis though-hopefully.
May 26, 2009 at 2:29 pm
NF go to hell would be an appropriate banner for BNP to have, a bit of far right rivalry it seems. One black face amongst a sea of whites doesn’t mean it wasn’t a racist march, uncle toms confused about their identity have always existed. Luton has always had a very large black population so the absence of any significant number of black people says all i need to know about this racist, white males march. The fascist blogs and sites are very pleased indeed about it all which also says a lot.
May 26, 2009 at 3:51 pm
Of course the fash blogs are pleased there pleased when they manage to shit without covering the seat. The march itself did seem to be organized by people from luton firms and and response by the Muslim community is likely to be channeled though the Fundies so I dont think we will see a “race war” or anything.
The Answer to this stuff is to get off our arses and do something if you look at what the left has been known for doing recently its not unionism its not community organizing its a whole bunch of uni twats locking themselves into a room as if it will effect a war on the other side of the world. Quite simply we need to get in there , how many anarchists are there in the luton area , if so start organizing and dealing with the issues on a community basies which included both the white working class and the Asian working class. (swp style fetishing islam is an appaling tactic)
However it does appear to be alot of hot air and im hardly shitting myself over a couple of hundread people protesting on what we knew would be an issue that would get alot of support.
May 26, 2009 at 4:07 pm
A similar march ‘against sharia law extremists and in support of our troops’ planned for Barking on July 4th
May 26, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Meh opportunities like this are pretty rare the troops are only going to come home so many times and less than four hundred people is a shit showing considering how much support counter protesting against protesting against troops has. I dont suppose july will be much bigger.
May 26, 2009 at 9:40 pm
Sure, this is possibly so much macho posturing and a call to arms by the BNP and their agitators, and as such was largely disregarded by the liberal media. However, from personal observation, the working class rage traditionally mopped up by “Old” Labour is now trickling towards the BNP and growing larger week by week. The question is what is the credible alternative for these disillusioned voters?
May 27, 2009 at 12:41 am
Similar sort of march on 5th July planned. Meeting at Tavistock Square, they claim it’s something to do with 7/7. I hope all three of them enjoy their little picnic.
http://s15.zetaboards.com/March_For_England/index/
May 28, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Since a couple of hundred turned out in Luton I think they’ll be more than 3.
May 27, 2009 at 1:06 pm
My question precisely for jolly jarvis’s:
What is our alternative?
WE HAVEn”t got one!!!
All the fucking people who are pissed off are heading BNP,not Class War!……and it should be the opposite
YOURS IN TOTAL DISGUST EHD! !!
May 28, 2009 at 12:15 pm
a lot of people on this blog write a lot of sense, but a lot of you dont see that people can only do so much. how can we talk of a movement when people like joe are slaging off students who actually do something. ill tell you what the reason is for the lack of a movement, people who only post on the internet attacking people in the anarchist community who actually do stuff. because no matter what it is it will never be good enough for them, it will never be ideologically pure or some other bullshit. that it the only problem facing the anarchist community in the uk, so either do something or shut the fuck up, im sick of hearing it, do something, support those who do stuff and stop complaining about not having anything to give as an alternative, the alternative will be built as you start organising, so untill people do this there is nothing. at least produce a free sheet and leave it in pubs, just something!
May 28, 2009 at 6:15 pm
@whatever,
here, here.
Lets see examples of positive political/social action, others this is getting very dispressive as all people want to talk about is how shit things are – that attitude has never produced anything apart from the Platform! :-0)
May 29, 2009 at 12:35 pm
No,I’m sorry but I do NOT have to support people DOING SOMETHING-OR SHUT THE FUCK UP.
That is just NOT the way things work.
It’s obvious wots gotta be done.
And,whether,we like it or not:we are going to have to venture into the ‘danger zones’,ie-working class areas,with some sound ideas that don’t wreak of leftie overture.
Anarchists are good at sticking to their guns….they’re just not good at loading their guns with the appropriate ammunition…
I want someone to tell me why I am wrong…!
May 29, 2009 at 4:56 pm
Yeh agree the anti-NF sign was important also the fact that there were blacks in the crowd. This is a mixed situation where widespread anger is trying to be exploited by fascists. Like with the energy strikes the left sit on the sidelines talking to themselves. Shat on people are turning to the BNP not us cos we’re not out there making our position known. We fucking hate Islamist scum too so lets not let fascist filth be the only ones putting their politics out there.
May 30, 2009 at 9:10 am
ehd, i dont want to argue with you when we should be working together on one project or another. but you asked for people to tell you why you were wrong, this is why you are wrong. because you refuse to accept the idea of divercity of tactics, you refuse the right of other anarchists to try and organise and create an alternative in the way they see it. you want the “revolution” to look the way you want it to be or not to happen at all. you talk all the time about going into working class areas and danger zones, in london where i am it is hard to find a street which isnt a mixture of working class and middle class, apart from kensington and chelsea so doing something anywhere is a good start. but my point is that all your rhetoric is useless when it is used against those who oppose the same things as you but in a different way to you. so i will repeat, either start organising and agitiating in your local community, give support to those who are already, or SHUT THE FUCK UP with your armchair anarchist bullshit because not only does it not do anything towards building the anarchist movement/community/what ever you want to see, but it also does diservice to those who give up a lot of time and effort only to have themselves not only attacked by the police but also by those who should be supporting them.
now tell me why i am wrong in what i say.
May 30, 2009 at 2:43 pm
whatever, you’ve got a point, though I doubt that ehd is someone who can be worked with as an ‘anarchist’ – assuming anarchist is taken as meaning ‘libertarian’ and ‘communist’. Reading ehd’s posts, I’d say he’s none of the above – I think ’social nationalist’ is a more accurate description. As for his fetishising of the muscular casual/hooligan ethos – have there never been working class gardeners, birdwatchers, dare I say it…’bohemians’? If anyone’s guilty of patronising ‘the class’ it’s ehd and his ilk with their one-size-fits-all populism – it hasn’t ‘worked’ has it?
May 31, 2009 at 1:15 pm
To ‘Whatever’;you are probably correct,when you said I should;”… shut the fuck up”.
I don’t agree with anything else-but you won’t find me negating your right to sling mud if you feel it needs to be slung.
We obviously have very different ideas-and we obviously live in very different areas.
My politics are borne out of where I live,my life experiences,and involvement in different struggles over time.
But,yeah,I think I have repeated myself far too much on this blog and I think that I might of had a tad too much blind faith in some vain hope that a genuine working class movement could be grafted onto/from class war.
But good luck in attempting to build the anarchist movement-I don’t want to take away from that.Anarchists have a staunch tradition as fighters,and it wasn’t my intention to seem so negative about every idea and action suggested and undertaken.
I wanted to see something different attempted-to hopefully build support in places and with people who don’t fit into the protest subculture.
But good luck,I sure as fuck would love a revolution in my lifetime.
May 31, 2009 at 4:18 pm
A lot of the disagreements on this blog seem to stem from the same frustrations that the anarchist and socialist movements have suffered over the last 100 years or so.
That is; why won’t the working class see the necessity and urgency of establishing a classless, propertyless and stateless society? A system of production for use and not profit. A system where we take what we need from the common store, not rationed through the scurge of money.
Is it possible that by concentrating our energies on anti-this or anti-that campaigns, or worrying that we need to be ’street’, that we are narrowing-down what it is to be a worker and being sidetracked away from getting across what kind of a world we are fighting for?
June 1, 2009 at 11:24 am
i was going to reply to what simon said saying that given what ehd has said on lots of previous topics i think this is my only real disagreement with him. but i thought id wait for his response too. and my response is that which i have been saying the whole time, we are all of the same thinking, we all want near enough the same things, the working classess to get what their owed and whats due to them. so lets get back to the matter at hand and push things along, i doubt the “rev” will happen in that way but i think there is nothing to loose from even the smallest amount of community empowerment, and a whole lot to gain!
June 1, 2009 at 2:23 pm
i think people should look to warn their neighbours and areas where bnp are popular about the history of the far right and how it’s mainly been people seeking power (from whatever class background but usually upper) and lying to working class people to gain support. they tend to highlight problems in capitalism and then just attribute them to race. eg we’re getting ripped off by govt/bosses….it’s black peoples fault! the bnp and national front rail against the trots and marxists and their alliance with far right islam as much as anarchists do. its just they dont neccesarily see anarchism as an alternative cos noones promoting that message. thats why local groups who do papers etc are important in dispelling myths and educating in a non over academic way. im not sugesting the national front say anything of merit but this is an interesting segment from their website-
” So why are Zionist leaders so keen to swamp Britain with Muslims? We put this question to a veteran anarchist who was watching the Pro-Palestine demonstration.
This is his reply : ” Muslims have been brought to Britain by connivance of Zionist-led groups that cannot be denied. Those behind this so-called immigration programme live in ivory towers, in safe areas. Jews who reside in towns and run the risk of being killed in terrorist attacks, are viewed as expendable by Zionists who are plotting the Islamification of Britain. Muslims are being given every opportunity to inflict damage on the British nation, for the benefit of Zionist extremists.
However, the global Muslim threat does not unduly bother the world controllers, for it could be rapidly terminated at any time by using American and British armed forces to bomb Arab States into submission. It is a case off a small band of Zionists attracting Muslims to Britain, and then inciting them to attack. Those doing the scheming live in safe areas. Those doing the scheming live in safe areas, leaving the ordinary Jews to bear the brunt of any attack. If you take a careful look at those creating problems around the world who purport to being Jews, you will generally find they are not Semites, do not follow any religion or have any moral values, so to all intents and purposes they are not Jews at all.” Here we have an anarchist giving his views which have been formulated over a lifetime. The surprising thing is that they are not that much different from our own. ”
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
and this quote you’d think was straight from an anarchist rag-
”Quite often, a group of people, concerned about some injustice will organize a peaceful demonstration. The subject may be GM crops, safety of children at school, closure of a hospital, or the proposed building of an airport. Recognising that the protest will likely gain public support, Marxists and Trotskyites latch on to the activity as if it were their own. ”
but thats also from nf. think about it..
June 1, 2009 at 10:13 pm
@ East Ham Dave and What Ever – looks like we’ve all had ‘a little think’ (including me – I got on my high horse a bit in me last post, though I’m not of the equestrian class). I suppose I took strong exception to being labelled some middle class liberal. I don’t know where the phrase comes from – ‘Bread and Roses’ – but I imagine it means something along the lines that ‘the revolution’ includes, but is also much more than, bread-and-butter issues. And I agree, it would be good to see rowdy, working-class mobs turning their ire on ‘the real enemy’, and these things do happen, just not always when we’re wanting it, often when we don’t expect it, but always welcome. Best wishes to you all.
June 2, 2009 at 9:11 am
So what? A bunch of thick cunts in Luton donned ballys and smashed some stuff. Fuck them and Fuck advocates of Sharia Law?
Pretty shocking how people here are so intimidated by some dudes in tracksuits with ballys on!!! FFS
June 3, 2009 at 6:14 am
I don’t think people are scared of them, I think people are worried about what the implications are and what it means if the far right feel they can get away with this.
June 3, 2009 at 1:52 pm
Why no mention of the 300+ mob of local asians that firmed up and were stopped by police from finding these silly little chavs. If these ridiculous chancers worry you then you really do have problems.
June 3, 2009 at 5:32 pm
here’s an interesting article in the independant today-
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/luton-fights-back-against-rightwing-extremists-1695485.html
last paragraph farasat latif calls for white working class people to actively oppose the far right idiots just as the muslim community in luton have opposed the extremeist elements claiming to be muslim.
”
Mr Latif, meanwhile, hopes that their decision to turn on the extremists within their own community will now prompt Luton’s white community to do the same.
“I believe people on all sides are sick of the extremists,” he said. “I now hope the white working class will weed out the fascists and hate mongers just like we now have. Otherwise things will only get worse.”
”