Racist clash in central London

By New Worker correspondent

Fascists and racists were out on the streets of London last weekend demanding the release of the former leader of the English Defence League (EDL), who is currently in Belmarsh prison. Scuffles broke out with the police along the march as racist thugs attempted to break through police lines to attack the anti-racist demonstrators.

Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who goes by the name of Tommy Robinson, was jailed for contempt of court after live-streaming defendants outside Leeds Crown Court during a criminal trial on the sexual exploitation of girls in Huddersfield. The former EDL leader failed recently in the European elections to become an MEP in the North West, due to a large, broad-based campaign by anti-racists, of which Stand Up To Racism (SUTR) was central.

Although hundreds turned up to join the racist march, the degenerates were easily outnumbered by supporters of SUTR, the Anti-Fascist Network and the London Anti-Fascist Assembly who rallied in Regent Street to counter the “Free Tommy” rabble.

SUTR Co-Convenor, Sabby Dhalu, said: “Today showed that all the work done by anti-fascists to challenge and expose Tommy Robinson, from counter-demos to election campaigns has a major effect. As Boris Johnson positions himself at the head of a Trump-like movement in Britain, it’s vital we continue to unite against fascist groups and the bigotry that emboldens them.”

This was also stressed by Weyman Bennett of SUTR, who said: “Tommy Robinson has a history of promoting fascist organisations including the British National Party and English Defence League. Days like today show the true nature of his supporters – racist and Islamophobic to the core. Last year they mobilised around 15,000 on the streets of London, now they can only bring out tiny a fraction of that. We stopped Robinson when he was in the EDL. We stopped him becoming an MEP. We’ll stop him again from building the racist street movement he craves.”

Fascists flee at Bookmarks rally

By Theo Russell

standing by Bookmarks at the meeting

Fascists wearing blackshirts with Nazi-style logos were given a taste of their own
medicine when they tried to disrupt a meeting called in support of the London
bookshop vandalised by Nazis and racists a week earlier. A small group of
supporters of the Football Lads Alliance (FLA) and Generation Identity gathered
outside shouting abuse, but they were immediately chased several blocks away by
an angry crowd chanting “fascist scum – off our streets!”.
London comrades joined many other anti-fascists last Saturday to show their
solidarity with Bookmarks, the socialist bookshop which is the official bookseller for
the TUC. Hundreds came for the rally at the nearby Bloomsbury Baptist Church to
show solidarity after the shop was ransacked by a group of Nazis and racists the
previous week.
Three UKIP members have been suspended after 12 men, one wearing a
Donald Trump mask, jeered Muslims and called the shop staff “traitors”.
Noel Halifax, who was one of the two staff in the shop on the day of the attack,
said that the last time Bookmarks had been targeted was in the 1970s. “The National
Front was around then, and it feels like that kind of atmosphere today,” he said, also
pointing to a recent attack on London’s LGBT bookshop Gay’s the Word.
Dave Gilchrist, the manager of Bookmarks, said: “We have emerged from it
much, much stronger,” and pointed out the hypocrisy of the fascists and racists
involved in the attack, who paint their figurehead Tommy Robinson as a “free speech
martyr”.
David Rosenberg from the Jewish Socialists’ Group read a message of solidarity
from Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, whom he called “my MP, an outstanding
fighter against all racism”.
Weyman Bennett from Stand Up To Racism commented on the far right’s “make
Britain great again” slogan, saying: “What’s not great about Britain? The NHS, black
and white, gay, straight and trans people coming together?”
He called for a united front against the threat of resurgent forces of the British far
right, saying: “Tommy Robinson's supporters had 15,000 on the streets – they are
bigger now than before.
“We built the Anti Nazi League, we built Unite Against Fascism – and we're
building Stand Up To Racism.” But he added: “It is not automatic that we will win this
fight – but what is for certain is that we will fight.”
Finally Unmesh Desai, a Labour member of the London Assembly, said: “We
need to create a hostile climate for Nazis and fascists coming into our communities.”

Racist conference collapses

THE FAR-RIGHT group, Generation Identity (GI), which promotes a new version of eugenics, planned to hold a “European conference” in London last Saturday. Details of the venue were kept secret until the last minute to try to foil anti-fascist protests.

Their problems began on Friday when two of the main speakers, Martin Sellner, an Austrian activist, student and the leader of the "New Right" Identitarian Movement of Austria and part of the alt-right movement, and Hungarian activist Abel Bodi Rex, were detained at Stanstead airport and barred from entering Britain.

On Saturday anti-fascists were monitoring venues and tube stations across London. Through the help of trade unionists from the RMT union, various places thought likely to be used by GI were under watch. News came through in the early afternoon that GI were in the Stage Community Arts Centre in Sevenoaks, Kent.

A quick phone call to the trustees of the Stag Community Arts Centre led to the well-heeled young members of GI being turned out by the management just as anti-fascists from London arrived to join local anti-fascists in Sevenoaks.

Ex-Britain First thugs providing security for GI tried to throw their weight around in their displeasure but were rebuffed. Disgruntled far-right individuals took to YouTube to whinge about supposed anti-fascist attacks on free speech.

Scuffles in the car park ensued and were broken up by police as the members of GI wandered around trying to find a new venue, or even somewhere they could get a drink; they found themselves barred from all the pubs in town. The Stag Community Centre people had put the word around.

Sellner was central to the far-right “Defend Europe” campaign last summer, which tried to stop boats attempting to rescue migrants in the Mediterranean. His mission ended in failure – ironically, after getting into distress off the coast of Libya, Sellner and others were saved by a refugee rescue boat.

Despite GI's hype and internet promotions, they attracted fewer than 60 to their “conference”. Overnight, some who had paid the nearly £50 attendance fee complained to GI that they had not received confirmation of conference details. The live feed of GI’s day periodically failed and has few followers.

Overall the day was a disaster for the racists and a success for anti-fascists.

Meanwhile John Meighan, founder of the Football Lads Alliance (FLA), has left the FLA and handed over the leadership of the group to a ‘new Admin team’.

Anti-racists’ activity has clearly played a role bringing pressure on Meighan and the FLA over recent months that has revealed their real agenda.

But they warn that nobody should believe that the threat the FLA poses has weakened or disappeared. If anything, John Meighan’s departure could smooth the tensions that have led to splits and arguments amongst the FLA’s supporters.

Recent articles in the Observer and Times newspapers have exposed the racism at the heart of the FLA project.

The FLA’s turnout on its recent Birmingham march was also a factor in Meighan’s departure. Originally the mobilisation was flagged up as a 20,000-strong protest but in reality they mobilised around 1,500.

This led to increasing criticisms of Meighan’s leadership of the ‘movement’. He also faced accusations of financial mismanagement of funds.

The FLA has moved sharply rightwards since its initial mobilisation in London last summer in the wake of a wave of terror attacks. It initially claimed to be against all extremism, and to be neither of the left nor the right.

But it has moved in an increasingly Islamophobic and racist direction. Posts on the FLA’s secret Facebook wall have included horrible racism and Islamophobia, and violent threats against Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott and the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.

The FLA has been attracting far-right elements, and increasingly John Meighan offered his support to far-right figures and mobilisations.