 |
| Weyman Bennett in the middle of the police kettle |
by New Worker correspondent
WESTMINSTER was buzzing with protests and
demonstrations last Saturday: there were people demanding affordable housing
and an end to demolition of council estates with the removal of low income
residents to all points of the compass far from London, to make way for grand
developments of luxury flats that will be bought for £millions and then stand
empty as investments.
There was a women’s
right march and there were people demanding justice for the victims, survivors
and bereaved of the Grenfell fire, with the full death toll still not known,
and fearful that the tragedy will add their numbers to those being forced out
of London.
And there were people protesting
at the shameful deal being stitched together by what is left of Theresa May’s
Tory government with the extreme right-wing bigots of the Democratic Unionist
Party (DUP). This is to create a coalition that would have a tiny majority in
the House of Commons to try to ward off Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s promise
to waste no opportunity to bring this government down.
These four honourable
causes merged into one protest in Parliament Square whilst not far away, at the
top end of Whitehall and the corner of Trafalgar Square, anti-fascists from
Unite Against Fascism (UAF) were assembling to express solidarity with the
victims of the Finsbury Mosque terrorist attack and to try to block a planned
march by the Islamophobic English Defence League (EDL), which was the EDL’s
response to the terrorist attack near London Bridge and Borough Market a couple
of weeks ago.
There were not as many
of the UAF as usual because many comrades were engaged in other protests: bad
housing is killing and injuring more low paid workers, including Muslims and
other minority ethnics, than all the shades of fascism, racism and terrorism
put together.
Meanwhile the racists
were gathering in the Lord of the Moon pub at the top end of Whitehall as usual
with the entrance to the pub guarded by a triple cordon of police.
To top it all there
were serious roadworks outside the Houses of Parliament – Big Ben /The
Elizabeth Tower was swathed in scaffolding – and all along the Victoria
Embankment a new giant sewer is being installed to replace the one built by
Joseph Bazalgette after the Great Stink of London in 1858 forced Parliament to
close.
This meant that traffic
in Whitehall was choc-a-bloc and the usual crowds of tourists from all over the
world were sweeping back and forth like herds of confused wildebeest, packing
all pavements as they were forced into long detours to find somewhere safe to
cross the road.
And the Metropolitan
police were out in great numbers telling everyone where they could and could
not go.
Large
numbers of police forced the UAF demonstrators on to the Embankment, where a
special pen had been prepared to keep them kettled in one place. They included
UAF joint general secretary Weyman Bennett and former Anti-Nazi League leader
Paul Holborough.
The kettling was to clear
the way for the EDL to march, also to the Embankment. But as they marched
crowds of young anarchist anti-fascists ran alongside, jostling the police
protective cordon and filling the air with chants of: “Fascist scum, off our
streets,” and music blasted from huge loud speakers in a trailer pulled by
bicycles.
For a while all was
confusion and noise until superior numbers of police finally managed to force
the anarchists into the same area as the UAF anti-fascists, nearly doubling
their numbers.
The EDL turn-out was
very low, between 40–50 as they huddled under trees under the sudden first rain
London had seen for a few weeks. They made their Islamophobic speeches close to
the boarded-up sewage replacement excavations as the ghost of the Great London
Stink emanated from drains and manhole covers.
The EDL had intended to
march on Parliament but their way was firmly blocked by the assorted
anti-fascists and they were forced to leave in low spirits.
Not long after that the
UAF and other anti-fascists left, heading towards Parliament and singing
“Refugees are welcome here” to the tune of Camptown
Races, to join the other demonstrators from Parliament Square, who had by
this time marched up Whitehall to stand opposite Downing Street.
