You have to hand it to the EDL that they are daring in their tactics in a way that anarchist/leftist groups are not. We could learn from them. At the weekend five EDLers strolled into an Afed organised ‘Stop the EDL’ meeting in Leeds and asked how they were to be stopped. The EDLers didnt know in advance how many anti-fascists would be there or how combative they would be. They’ve done the same to a UAF meeting in Bristol and a George Galloway meeting in Birmingham. As a result semi-hysterical rumours circulate about the EDL bogeymen -‘fifty EDLers attacked the SWP’s Marxism event at the weekend’ another writes that ‘they were faced down’. Where’s the evidence for this happening outside of some paranoid minds? Where will they appear next?
Their whole marching strategy has some dynamism and coherence to it. They set the agenda and we can only react to it as can the Left. The UAF can now only define itself in opposition to the EDL.Our own anarchist politics are again about to be defined by anti-fascism – hope of setting a coherent agenda for radical change ourselves too easily gives way
They post regularly on left/anarchist forums (including here) and allow opponents to post on their own so they are certainly not afraid to debate. On their forum about Leeds they even salute the bravery of ‘ the bloke in the black shirt who had some bottle’. I’m sure if you’re in the EDL it’s exciting not only to march but to catch up on what your new best mates Marshy, Tommo, Snowy and Joel are up to – i’m getting keen myself! Compare good ‘ol Snowy’s occupation of the Dudley Mosque site – which made sense in the EDL strategy- with most of the things anarchists occupy which are nonsense. Before I get an avalanche of posts accusing me of being a closet Nazi – I’m talking daring and tactics here. Stick your head in the sand or wise up comrades. More of the same just aint working.
Ian Bone 
If somebody makes the flag and pays for enough booze to anaesthetise the pain, Tom C says he’ll walk between the EDL and UAF lines carrying our St George (Barrett) flag…
Just kidding Tom! But it would be bloody good to see 😉
Attempts by the Anarchist Federation to organise an anti-EDL meeting in Leeds Sat failed dismally.
Having (badly sheffield.indymedia.org.uk) advertised a public meeting in Leeds to oppose the EDL, the clueless idiots of The Anarchist Federation didn’t bother to organise any form of security whatsoever. Entirely predictably, the EDL took advantage of the open target and walked into the meeting. The AF have no pedigree whatsoever in terms of antifascism, and in handing the EDL such an easy victory, have shown themselves to be a liability and an embarrassment.
The Leeds branch of the Anarchist Federation have little or no history of antifascist activity. Yet their ambitions to form a new ‘militant antifascist alliance’ to take on the EDL led them to publically announce such a meeting.
Not that they put much effort into advertizing the meeting, and they certainly didn’t invite any of the existing antifascist groups operating in West Yorkshire.
Bearing in mind the nature of the meeting, and the recent record of the EDL in turning up uninvited to anti-EDL meetings, one might have expected a certain amount of security.
As it was, when the meeting was held, on Saturday July 3rd, and despite the AF being tipped off about EDL plans to attend, there was NO SECURITY WHATSOEVER.
This appalling negligence allowed a small group of EDL activists to simply walk into the meeting, from which the Anarchist Federation showed no stomach to evict them. The EDL have not stopped crowing since. In one stupid blunderous move Leeds Anarchist Federation have not only handed the EDL an easy victory, they have undermined the hard work put in by real militant antifascists in Leeds over the past two decades.
We should all be in favour of more meaningful anti-fascist activity, but what possibly made Anarchist Federation think they had the ‘authority’ to organize this sort of meeting?.
From what we have seen most of them seem to be daft young kids. It should have been obvious that a public meeting of this type (not that we saw it advertized anywhere) needed to be secured, particularly in light of recent EDL activity. Anarchist Federation have been embarressment to anarchism for to long are we now going to take serious the thret they pose to working class unity?
We definitely think we need to build a mass alternative to the UAF/SWP, but this level of organisation and security hardly inspires confidence. Leeds Anarchist Federation ought to learn to walk before they try to run, otherwise they risk looking arrogant as well as stupid.
Still got a good fucking kicking in Cardiff. You English need to man up and give them the pasting they deserve. end of.
..and what ‘good fucking kicking’ was that? the only kick off was between footie lads and that was due to the fact that the ‘WDL’ had a propensity of Bristol/Walsall lads who used it as an excuse to somehow give it the big ‘un in Cardiff.
We are Cardiff and we don’t give a fuck if you are left-wing/right-wing if you think you can come to our city giving it all that you best be ready for a livener!
Apart from the minibus of wdl/edl latecomers getting caught out by the traffic nothing happened unless you think a bunch of gobshite coloured youth running around bouncing is a result I’d hate to have you by my side in a REAL row.
you clearly weren’t there young ‘un.
Most of the footie lads never made it to the minibus, some even failed to rush the police lines.
I can vouch for that, back in the mid-90’s it was a regular occurance down my neck of the woods that we would attend Reds’ ‘anti-c18’ meetings, only a handful and never aware of who (if any) Reds (and so-called anarchos) would be game but always sure to let the comissars know who we were.
I can tell you why the EDL’ers et al have such a groundswell of ACTIVE support, it is because they are genuine working class lads and lasses who have always ben patronised by ‘their betters’ and have always had their voices stifled and never been given an opportunity to articulate their message.
Reds and Anarcho’s on the other hand are wanky/scruffy ‘drop-outs’ who leech on the backs of the working classes.
And yes, fair play to any who are game enough for a good go, but as you are well aware yourself Ian, there is quite a disproportionate amount of gobshites on your side but they sure do dress the (stereotype) part.
Don’t make me laugh they are an undisciplined assortment of wanabe’s , with a few fantasists thrown in the mix. Some also like spilling the beans to the Sheffield old bill. The NF used to strut about like this during the 70’s. They eventually met their match and were booted off the streets back into the gutter from whence they came. The working class don’t attack other working class people, they join forces to attack the real enemy, some of whom are your financial backers. So do fuck off with your Jackanory bollocks.
a starting point would be to drop the hysterical bogeyman routine (the kind you find on indymedia – the sheffield effect, in essense).
There’s a mass of interesting dynamics going on within the edl all of it missed as the shouty experts of NAZI ANTIFASCISM clog up the internet, and cloud every conceivable dialogue with their shouty expert opinion.
The radical movement has had 10 untroubled years which means a generation of people have grown up not knowing how to approach, let alone deal with, the reactionary elements within the working class.
For many anarchism is an argument to be had on a bulletin board, a good subject to latch onto during their time at uni, a simple statement couched in the intellectual bravado of a sniggering middle class public school education.
What the edl have done, and continue to do, is highlight just how redundant we are at being useful as political subjects.
There is something mildly amusing about the notion of EDL members casually strolling into a UAF/SWP meeting – imagine the sense of shocked indignation from the assembled lefties and ‘student vanguard’ at the arrival of manual workers: ‘Is that some sort of vulgar white van outside? Is that brick dust on his nylon clothes..? Is that the ‘Sun’ on the dashboard? My God, how dare they come here. Tarquin, call the Police, immediately!’
I imagine that for the average Trot activist meeting somebody who actually works for a living (outside of local government) is probably analogous to an anthropologist meeting an indigenous tribal. ‘Nigel, I’m afraid these people are all very well in books and magazines, but the romance simply evaporates when one is subjected to their ridiculous beliefs and habits, let alone their lamentable standard of personal hygiene.’
Poor darlings. What are respectable members of the Labour Party to do in the face of such gratuitous beastliness?
Dora fucking spot on oh how you are so right, so you been to lefty meetings then?
Back to the subject much the same for AFED i could here those in Leeds saying the same, to be frank lets not kid ourselves we have a lot of Middle Class baggage as Anarchist time to give them the order of the boot, I mean how can a bunch of white Middle Class AFED types up against The Feral youth and olders of The EDL
Our word feral comes from the Latin root fera, or “wild beast,” but it also has a connection to another Latin word, feralis, literally: belonging to the dead.
Thanks. I’m glad to say I haven’t been to many lefty meetings. Unfortunately, however, lefties have a tendency to turn up at meetings I’ve either helped to organize or attended myself.
The self elected ‘vanguard’ are usually around to either wreck/control/manipulate or otherwise obliterate any meaningful attempt made by people to challenge the forces fucking up their lives. The whole miserable history is too well known to bear repetition, but I suspect that the Trot left (with a few noble exceptions) has done more to sabotage social movements than the entire clandestine apparatus of the State or the best efforts of the ‘leaders’ of the TUC.
They should be encouraged to stick to Labour Party branch meetings; Labour Representation Committees; lobbying TUC conferences, and other traditional, ritual activities which have no effect whatsoever, but have the benefit of providing research opportunities for anthropologists and keeping these people out of the way of everybody else.
Beautifully put.
I imagine that for the average Trot activist meeting somebody who actually works for a living (outside of local government) is probably analogous to an anthropologist meeting an indigenous tribal.
You’d be welcome to come along to a Socialist Party branch meeting or one of our national events and see if that silly stereotype holds true for long.
It was a meering of ANARCHISTS dora, do keep up. The funny thing is that your stereotypical account of what you think the typical swp/uaf member is, is also exactly what the typical anarcho is. Most anarchists I have ever met have usually been well spoken uni types, even the mockney accents don’t hide their middle class roots. Get 20 edl supporters in a room and I bet the number who went to university would be practically zero, no mockney accents among them either.
REAL, as opposed to theoretical, members of the working class have found a voice. And it’s not the working class voice some beardy twat from germany banged on about 150 years ago when writing about rural working class russian peasants that worked in fields and rode around in horse drawn carts!! Ideologies from 150 years ago and tactics from the 1980s will not work against this very 21st century movement. Which is the whole point of this post by Ian. So trying to ridicule other lefties is a bit silly considering your lot ain’t much better or different from those you ridicule. Basically, get modern or else rot in your self contained leftie ghetto full of misfits and outsiders where one swp/uaf oddball is no different than some anarcho oddball except they read different books by long dead beardy russians/germans who have no place in modern 21st century life.
I Think Dora knew that, and your right in what you say placed in context, however those long dead beardy Russians/Germans who you say have no place in modern 21st century life, well forgive this i feel they do, but then Emma Goldman was not beardy though she was Russian, read living my life as relevant now as it was then we learn from history or make the same mistakes from history, anarchist fail to talk about the end of Des Capital as do the lefty’s come to think of it, it is due the fact Marx is open to say through true Communism you reach Anarchy and are we not all desiring some socialism at the end of the day?
when i went to university (well Polytechnic) working class people went because we were excited by all the things we could find out about – it beat working in a factory and/or and office. We also wanted to equip ourselves with the skills to change the world. We had pride in what we achieved, not just for ourselves but for everybody like us – we could show that although we had been excluded from education for centuries we were just as good or better than all those people who got into university because they went to a posh school or their parents paid lots of money to the university.
We might have been escaping from shit work for a year or two, but we didn’t turn our backs on where we came from. If you don’t understand that you don’t understand the working class.
Nice trot stereotype, but as someone who knows a few trots and ex-trots I can tell you you’re wide of the mark. As an ex trot myself I was often seen with a copy of the Sun as I ate my bacon sarny in the morning as I wormed my way through a dusty building site avoiding tripping over the bricks bricks. Nylon overalls were in short supply at the time as the employers didn’t give two shits then about issuing protective clothing to it’s workforce, one of whom died on site when the scaffold he stepped on collapsed and he fell to the ground killed outright. You might want to watch “Boys from the Blackstuff” again as a reminder?
Bollox.
The Edl are marching against Islam, invading bullshit lefty or anarchist meetings and offering subsidised days out drinking to wanna be football hooligans under the glorious flag of st george.
Their dynamism which is reactionary begins and ends there.
Its easy to mobilize empty headed pricks behind behind bullshit ideas.
I tend to agree, although I see Ian’s point too.
“It’s easy to mobilize empty headed pricks behind bullshit ideas” – exactly.
The EDL can appear to have “dynamism” and “numbers” because they’re (a) appealing to the lowest common denominator which has already been set up by the Daily Express, Mail, Sun etc. etc. etc. and (b) they tap into an already-existing network of footie fans/hooligans.
Ian’s right about anarchos and lefties being reduced to merely reacting while they set the agenda, though.
PS I might not have a “big stinking rocket launcher” but still “me is a youth with a bad temper”… and the lack of affordable ganja ain’t helping! Ganja farmer, please flood the market with some propa bone-dry buds and bring the price down and the quality up, I beg you…
LOL grow yer own and stop being a slave to big business sugar-shakers n wet bud purveyors then
ps (come to Noahs bar on 1st aug n I’ll gladly help you out with your lil prob…. 😉 )
I found myself in Hamburg recently at the Harbour Festival and the amount and visibility of Antifa was immense…it was in St Pauli, like, so stating the obvious really…but I’ve never seen anything like it in the UK…I’ve been to mainland Europe a few times in the last year or so and it’s pretty much the same everywhere…..there’s some right catching up to do over here, at least in ‘presence’ and organisation.
I reckon one thing is that antifa in the UK is perceived as a ‘punk’ thing, fair enough it’s a bit like that on the mainland too, but not ‘exclusively’. Now, that’s off putting to a lot of people.
It somehow needs to be expanded to be a community thing, pretty much as Combatter rightly says that the EDL rank & file are genuine working class ladies and gents. Where we’ll disagree though, is that the organisation itself is statist, so, as working class lads & lasses, they’re shooting themselves in the foot with all that good energy. Hearts are in the right place, but their heads aren’t
I don’t think their hearts are in the right place either. They’re a bunch of twats looking for a scapegoat. Working class, so what. So are the police, so are Combat 18 (gunshot), etc. Loads of white working class don’t fall into their scapegoating trap. They do NOT represent the working class or even the white working class.
A few might be able to be won over to the right side but not most of em.
I’m not saying that the edl represent the working class (white or not) as a whole or that the majority of them are anything but knob heads…the fact that, whatever their intentions, all of them are happy to associate with racists an fascists, makes them that by default.
What I am trying to say, evidently not very clearly, is that (some of) the working class have a) found a voice in the edl with which they can express their general discontent; b) they do operate with energy and are very much making their presence felt; c) their energy is misdirected.
When I say their hearts are in the right place all I mean is that they get off their arses and get out on the streets en masse, which has to be a good thing (in itself). When I say their heads are in the wrong place, I mean that, with all they’ve got going for them r.e. activity/energy, ultimately it’s mis-spent as it’ll work against them in the end because the statism they are supporting always does for the working class.
Maybe some of them will either be reached or not. I also think a some will just get bored
Antifa in Cardiff isn’t very ‘punk’. Counter demo against islamic fundamentalists this saturday organised by muslim antifa members.
Maybe it’s just England that’s shit?
I think you’re very probably right there, maybe it IS just england ….I’m generally just wondering how antifa can reach the people and communities that it would benefit the most that may currently be finding a voice of general discontent via the EDL…I think one hurdle is the stereotype for people not yet involved with antifa or anarchists as a whole is that we’re scruffy punks/hippies
What puts most people of anarchism is that anarchists spend too much time slagging each other off instead of doing something practical themselves. All anarchists seem to do lately is criticise everyone else for “not being working class” enough or not being the right bit of the working class, or not being the right sort of anarchist. I guess this kind of denunciation of heretics comes from political impotence.
Agreed to an extent Tony, but in Euroland there is a more overt fascist prescence as well as a history of actually existing fascism .. . . as for hearts in the “right place” regarding EDL “members”. . . thats true but only by the law of averages, I’d wager most working class lads n lassies think the EDL are a bunch of pricks.
The EDL are also funded by a certain middle class individual from north london.
But presuming that the majority of the EDL are sound they have just been lead astray is a non starter for me.
Ganja, that’s exactly it, Euroland’s felt fascism’s effects first hand…anyone that’s suffered that directly is bound to be more keen to oppose it
I’m not sure whether it’s the majority or minority edl who’s heart’s are in the right place, but the fact that they’re funded by Lake suggests that, as much as they appear and maybe feel like a true working class voice, while the energy is all theirs, there’s middle class cash and influence steering it (to the right)…as far as the people in the driving seat are concerned, they’re just willing cannon fodder. as ever.
“As a result semi-hysterical rumours circulate about the EDL bogeymen -’fifty EDLers attacked the SWP’s Marxism event at the weekend’ another writes that ‘they were faced down’. Where’s the evidence for this happening outside of some paranoid minds?”
I don’t know where you got the information that ‘fifty EDLers attacked’ Marxism. However, it would be by no means paranoia to suppose that they might try to attend the event, where there was a meeting about the EDL on Sunday afternoon. Given that they have previously gone to meetings they have had an interest in, in (IIRC) Newcastle and Leeds and where Galloway was speaking, there seems to be an obvious pattern. Equally, it is not unknown for proper fascists to be in the area during Marxism: I remember the NF turned up there several years ago, and another occasion when a lone fascist showed his face and was chased off by a prominent (now former) member of Class War. This same fascist was also ejected from the Anarchist Bookfair by the same CWer. In short, the presence of lots of SWP does not have the deterrent effect on their opponents one might suppose.
Nor is it hysterical. As I’ve shown there is a pattern of EDL members attending events in which they have an interest. I was told about the EDL and Marxism on Sunday night. Having talked to people who were at Marxism, it seems that this was no idle fear, that they were in a heightened state of alert with stewards about the place. What I’ve been told, also suggests that there were concerns on the part of the police that something might happen. The information I have is that there was certainly something afoot.
As to evidence, all I can offer is the words of people who were there, who told me that there were a load in a pub nearby who were seen off. As this was a) plausible, b) fitted into a pattern of events across the country, and c) came from people whose word I trust, I felt it reasonable to circulate – although prefixing the first report with ‘apparently’ and including ‘investigation suggests’ in the second following further questioning, as I do not have all the details I should like. The reticence of both sides is understandable – if this happened the way I’ve heard it, it doesn’t reflect too well on the EDL, while there has long been a policy within the SWP of not publishing this sort of information; I’m sure I’m not the only person who recalls their policy of silence concerning BNP attacks on their paper sales in the 1990s.
“Hamburg, Harbour festival, mainland Europe a few times in the last year” .. oh dear..irony anyone?
“to be frank lets not kid ourselves we have a lot of Middle Class baggage as Anarchist time to give them the order of the boot, ”
regards to Sheff project for the crystal ball.
A government proscribed street reaction can hardly be described as statist! one minute their all a.c.a.b tattooed casuals, the next, statists, “immense”.
The genuine working class ladies and gents ARE the organisation, try and be a little more patronizing next time, good energy, hearts, right place,..jeez
Ganja farming and “dynamism” two words rarely seen together..
Naaarttzi scum, off our stre….zzzzzzzzzzz, skin up Tarquin we have to see orf the fash before tiffin.
Right
Back to the workhouse.
eyup tool!
call me an american but I don’t see the irony, I was just there and there was a festival…I have that effect sometimes. And the antifa presence WAS immense, I dunno how else you’d prefer me to describe it, er, ‘big’?
ultimately you chaps and chapesses are statist, the politicised ones anyway, you don’t seek to get rid of the state, just to create a different one so it’s no surprise the current one would proscribe the fuck out of you.
You just keep telling yourself you ARE the organisation as much as you like, then it’ll just miraculously come true, and the good old fascists will be nice to the working classes and all those naughty gays and coloureds and we’ll all live happily ever after
I will try harder to be patronizing if that’s what you’d like, I’m here for you man
“A government proscribed street reaction can hardly be described as statist! ”
AFAIK the EDL is still a legal organisation and so not proscribed.
David Cameron described the EDL as “dreadful people” and said the organisation would “always be under review.
Chinless c*nt that he is.
I think we can agree he’s a kinnlose fotze as they say in Hamburg
The Real English Defence League
1) renunciation of nationalism its only purpose is to divide the working class
2)immediate abolition of the monarchy establishment of a peoples republic, executions if required though firstly ryanair tickets will be offered to all royals to a european destination of their choice
3)new “national” anthem to be decided via X-factor style tv show
4)sky sports to be taken over and offered free to the masses, football players capped and match ticket price to be brought into line with our german friends
5)maximum price per alcoholic unit
6)decriminalisation of all drugs,
7)hard drugs and rehab to be offered to all in need
8)immediate establishment of cannabis growing cooperatives to grow the country out of recession
9)housing garenteed to all
10)the abolition of work to be replaced by free productive pastimes
11) street parties, fiestas and nottinghill style carnivals to be established in every neighbourhood that should so wish
12)eviction of the landed gentry and all lands should be held in common for the people to use, respect and enjoy
13) immediate investigation into the british army leadership and ministry of defence for crimes against the working class and withdrawal of all british troops globally and demobbing of forces to peace time activities
14)peace conference to be chaired by bill hicks, noam chomsky, yer woman from the slits and rick tomlinson.
15)secular rejection of all religion, respect the right of whoever to worship what they want.
16)reassessment of what is a good education and the provison of it freely to all
17)the phased release of all but the worst prisoners back into society
Whatever… I think it’s great that the EDL are such good Christians. I mean, how could they be racist? They proclaim their reverence for the Arab Saint George. I just wonder which church they go to. Are they Anglican or good auld Scots Presbyterian – which would mean no marching on the Sabbath. And, are they all circumcised as the Bible demands?
Not sure about their working class credentials either. True, there are some neds and trolls but also many middle-aged office workers looking for aggro and excitement.
Ave Maria…
Unfortunately, I think you are mixing your Old with New Testament, circumcision is in the Old.
St. George was a Turk…they are not Arabs!
I guess from your signing off that your a Taig?
Nope. St George wasn’t Turkish. Catholic scholars place his birth in an area which is now Isreal.
That implies he was an arab.
I’ve never been convinced about all that dragon stuff either. Have a sneaky suspicion it might be made up.
He was born in what is now modern day Israel actually, though one of his parents was of Turkish origin, besides as he was a respected serving roman soldier during the multi-cultural roman empire he was to all intents and purposes Roman, as that is what he lived, fought, and died for.
Its easy to mobilize empty headed pricks behind behind bullshit ideas, i agree The SWP/UAF have been doing it for some years and failed likewise have AFED and the only people that come close was Class War, then along come AFED the class traiters they are and when the state organised aginst Class War (1986) where was AFED of course on the fucking sidelines shouting abuse.
But it dose not stop there they do much the same with NO WAR BUT THE CLASS WAR but this time from within and begin to spread lies and misinformation, the paranoia set in, and what was a very well organised group of people set about itself.
Due there lies, neither do we forget the roll of SOL-FED (Sheffield/Manchester) in all of this, but it dose not end there AFED Leeds/Sheffield continue to spread lies this year they called me a racist, and why because i said i would sooner The Community in the front line on my side than The White Middle Class in fighting The BNP/EDL, it is a Working Class problem we deal with, has not Leeds proven me right once more?
In short The SWP/UAF and AFED mobilize empty headed pricks behind behind bullshit ideas they have, is not time we take now or stay the same?
& what ‘bullshit ideas’ have CW used to mobilise ’empty headed pricks’?
“Attempts by the Anarchist Federation to organise an anti-EDL meeting in Leeds Sat failed dismally.”
Load of rubbish. How so?
Because EDLers found the place? So what! It was a public meeting, as it should have been – the moment you skulk in private, you’ve lost. This has completely blown out of proportion to what happened. If we need to learn anything, it’s to think more about security not to cancel community meetings against the far right.
And the targetting of the AF is highly amusing – coming as it does from one person re-posting the same drivel. Anyone who genuinely knows members of the group will recognise how opposed they are to the politics and methods of the SWP. Folk in the AF want genuine working class solidarity against the racists and any others whose job is to divide us and keep us from fighting our real enemies: the bosses, politicians and landlords!
Sectarianism amongst anarchists ain’t the way forward.
well, i am truly stonisheld by the power and accuracy of the kaplan prose style! this is a worthy peice that should be hailed across the place..my wish is that, as someone who once was capable of such laudable polemic, YOU should lead the way unto a better way of doing things. we are old, and by the nature of nature, stupid..lead on Dora Kaplan!!
No matter how much one wants to deny it, the proof is in the pudding, just consider how many comments any mention of the EDL draws Ian, and not just for this post but for all previous ones, so obviously there is concern about their potential/activity.
The key to the successful application of anarchist ideas lies in the full understanding of the tactics,application of ideas,opportunism,and target audience of the EDL.
Knee jerk reaction marches,meetings,rehetoric and sloganeering fit snuggly into leftie,middle class political ghettoisation,and will only attract middle class political vermin.
Fail this test and fail the working class, anarcho.
P.S.AntiFa don’t work here-ideas for a UK resurrection,a waste of energy,and lets face it,that’s what we all have limited amounts of.
Bottom line;If you’re ideas don’t strike a chord with the working class where you live,don’t dump the ideas,change the application….
Rasta’s action list 2 weeks ago holds water.Just omit patronising leftie tossers involvement-barricades will be guaranteed after there ommission.
Fuck Ian,you have some fucking awefully fucked up middle class contributors…!
can i just say that this above argument is fucking twattish, really nauseating stuff about whos more working class than each other. wheeey, well done boys.
now anyway as being a member of security at marxism i can tell you there was groups of 8 or 9 boneheads all around the festival, including at the royal george in euston. them lot were fucked off, and the WDL leader turned up – he met an embarassing end chased off the streets by three of the student cadre of the swp (so enough of that “bloody students” shite, youve probs all been to uni anyway but think your somewhat different to them) after he pulled a bottle out on one of them – they just ran it him, he dropped the bottle, and made a speedy get away. a tad sad. dunno why they think theyre hard, theyre middle aged fat cunts…
but yeah, get a grip, the edl have a strategy of violence + confrontation and the “good ones” will either disappear when season starts again or will get worse + find a purpose in this shite… so stick your oar in and do something about it rather than trying to organise ‘anarchist divisions’ of the edl or whatever
Alright mate? I was on security too. Just trying to work out who you are! Are you from North of the border or London? I’m from the North East.
The problem with anarchists,is not the world they want to create-it is the baggage they saddle up with to try and get there.
Middle class political people are not our allies, they are our assailants.Yet they bulge the ranks of our movement, and continue to deviate the natural course of aggressive revolutionary tendency which undiluted anarchist revolutionary dynamite politics adheres to.
Some people would have us swim in circles forever,and those people sometimes swim along side us….
Actually Dee Dee,you are on the money;Does anyone think anyone gives a fuck about the royal family-as a way to galvanize the working class against the establishment.The only ones who had some success with it were the Sex Pistols.You might as well be trying to aggravate support by mentioning the colonisation of India by the British Upper Class as way to spring board the working class to uprising.
No more top hatted toffs in the cross hairs,no more aristocratic historic injustice trips down through the cob webbed chapters of history,from you Ian.You know that the problem can’t be solved with such anachronistic imagery or theoretical left wing anchoring in the black and white world of the past.
It’s about practical application and street smart revolutionary opportunistic action NOW.You are the only sheet on the zillion chapters in the quagmire of the internet worth contributing to.
TELL THEM ALL WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNT IN YOUR 50 YEARS OF INVOLVEMENT SO FAR, AND HOW IS BEST TO MOVE FORWARDS….IT’S TIME TO CUT SOME CORNERS..!!!!!
haha the WDL leader actually lost his bottle….
EDL press conference
‘You’re not working class, you’re middle class!’ ‘I’m not middle class! I’m working class! I’m more working class than you are! You middle class lefty!’ ‘What a load of middle class shite!’ ‘You’re the one who’s middle class, not me!’ ‘You’re not working class, you’re middle class!’ ‘I’m not middle class! I’m working class! I’m more working class than you are! You middle class lefty!’ ‘What a load of middle class shite!’ ‘You’re the one who’s middle class, not me!’ ‘You’re not working class, you’re middle class!’ ‘I’m not middle class! I’m working class! I’m more working class than you are! You middle class lefty!’ ‘What a load of middle class shite!’ ‘You’re the one who’s middle class, not me!’
Repeat until anyone even remotely interested in anarchism, socialism or any sort of radical politics gets bored and goes home.
Pathetic isn’t it. Anyone that dares disagree with the likes of east ham dave is automatically branded middle class. We’re the poorest, no we are. We’re the hardest, no we are etc. MUGS!! the lot of you. You’re all using modern technology to communicate your testosterone fuelled rants at each other, technology that a goat herder in the third world hasn’t got, so to him you’re all pampered rich middle class tossers anyway.
Would anyone want to live in a future society that any of you lot (mostly all males I notice) helped to shape? I seriously doubt it.
Just all arrange to meet up and indulge in some serious homo-erotic male bonding, maybe you could invite your fellow macho pricks in the edl.
While there is an element of ‘who’s the proliest’ on the thread, it’s by no means true that everyone on this thread has indulged in that.
Given the choice, I’d prefer not to live in the shit society we currently have. As all of us have some (usually small) influence on the future of society, all of us help affect it to some extent, you’re likely to have to put up with a society in ten years time that everyone on this thread’s contributed to: whether you like it or not.
And I’m not too sure about your final sentence. If I encouraged anarcha-feminists to have a lesbian bonding session to get over themselves, people would have a pop at me – and rightly so. Yet you seem to be suggesting something along those lines…
In my opinion, the epitaph of the E.D.L. will be that they destroyed the myth of what the U.A.F., in reality stood for. Who would have thought that that on the streets of this land, the British public would see an entire left wing organisation opposing all white Fascist movements, but refusing to condemn their Islamic counterparts?
The U.A.F./S.W.P. are finished but they just don’t realise it yet. You may mock and scoff, disagree, but the only question that I perceive unanswered at this time, is: are the rest of the Antifa movement naive enough to allow themselves to be taken down in line with Weyman and Co?
Your choice.
As someone who was in the SWP and the ANL in the 70’s and who also met leftist Iranians fleeing the mullahs in Iran, you’re attempt at trolling is pathetic.
The usual workerist bollocks from Dora… and what the fuck is this obsession with ‘getting on the street’? If you wanna improve life, in the short term and build for the future organise, in your place of work! FOR FUCK SAKE, capital is all our enemy, attack capital and we might get somewhere… or ‘get on the street’ and achive FUCK ALL
In my humble opinion getting out on the street and being visible picks up momentum for people to get involved. It’s also a euphemism for ‘being active’ itself….for me, ‘getting on the street’ could be ‘getting off your arse’, or as you said ‘organising’
i think maybe its time everyone who is coming from the more sound perspective on here arranged for some sort of meeting with the edl. you know who you are. i’ve been mentioning it here in london for a while now.
p.s. i’m the hardest cunt on here.
Projectsheffield, if you’re going to accuse AF members of being middle-class, don’t mention that you’re the manager of 2 businesses, don’t say that you’re middle-class, don’t pay for 16 people to have a slap-up meal including all of us ‘middle class types’ who couldn’t afford it,
and whatever you do, if you’re going to call our shit on anti-fascism,
do NOT boast that you’re a local antifa member in front of several people who have local antifa members as close friends. It doesn’t take two minutes to do a bit of calling around until you get respected members going “HIM?!?! THAT LOSER?”
You’re a troll.
Fucking hell, it’s raining in paradise again. Think I kind of agree with DFK etc and ‘count me out’ – without the hostility bit to Dave of course. Dave’s great. Only trouble is, it sounds a bit like he feels like he’s on a train that’s either crashing, or just not moving. If you’ve got somewhere to go – a destination in mind – that’s fucking frustrating. Drastic action needed. Who’s driving? Can you drive, Ian? Part of the problem is that none of us really agree where to go or the best way to get there. I think it’s probably best to just make sure we all enjoy the fucking ride, know our real enemy and try to stop squabbling like little kids. I don’t want to wake up and find EDL Anarchist in the driving seat tomorrow, see?