February 10, 2010

EDL neo-Nazis Plan Bradford Race Riot

The scene after the Bradford race riots in 2001
Following on from the violent racist rallies of football hooligans and hardcore Nazis up and down the country, accused of bottling out of their invasion into Bolton, the drunken racist thugs of the English Defence League have decided to go all out to cause a race riot at the city where the National Front triggered rioting nine years ago on 7 July 2001, Bradford

On Sunday the 30th of May 2010, chanting racist chants and making stiff-armed Hitler salutes, disguised with face masks, armed with hammers, chisels and bottles, the racist private army known as the EDL will march from Bradford Interchange Railway Station to the Turls Green Lloyds Bar (Wetherspoons) in Centenary Square, the exact site of the rioting nine years ago, (a bar ironically used by Asian as well as white customers) intending to cause the mother of all race riots, aiming to destroy what remains of Bradford's undeveloped city centre.

Behind the spin doctoring of Portsmouth-based mouthpiece Trevor Kelway, while denying they are neo-Nazis at every juncture, the EDL have shown their true colours with racial attacks exemplified by Luton, by openly saluting Adolf Hitler, smashing windows of Asian shops, and most incendiary of all, attacking mosques and destroying Muslim graves on the days leading up to their protest.

Visits to Manchester, Nottingham and Stoke have all resulted in widespread disorder, with arrests for various different crimes, but anti-racist campaigners have criticised police forces for failing to arrest EDL mobs for openly chanting racial abuse in public. If the forces of law and order were, by negligence, to fail to arrest EDL thugs shouting the word "paki" in public, the West Yorkshire Police would once again be viewed by Asian people and anti-fascists as taking sides with the neo-Nazis resulting in Bradford's final riot.

It has taken years for Bradford's multicultural communities to move on from the last race riot, and since then, public enquiries have been carried out, reports written, and new community initiatives have been conducted to help heal the scars, but much of Bradford's city centre has failed to recover. Shops still lie empty, pound shops and charity shops all that remains of a once-thriving city centre economy. Half of Bradford's city centre now resembles a bomb site, since the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition allowed the Westfield Shopping Centre to collapse, and the Odeon row rumbles steadily on, public discontent with Bradford Metropolitan Council at an all-time high.

Trevor Kelway and millionaire far right backer Alan Lake have exploited a loophole in the laws of the land which allow static political protests, albeit peaceful ones. The actions of the EDL are anything but peaceful, and compared to the purely vocal extremism of Islam4UK, they are a much greater threat to both community and public safety with their rampages of uncontrolled physical force, and yet, despite regular complaints from anti-racist and mainstream faith organisations including the Muslim Council of Britain, the Labour Party continues to turn a blind eye to their violent Islamophobia.

Conspiracy theorists have argued that in treating the neo-Nazi EDL with kid gloves, the government is utilising their disgusting campaign of violent hatred as a tool of patriotism, keeping Muslims in their place to shore-up the War On Terror, defend the government from the fall-out of the Iraq enquiry, and mute protests against both civilian and military casualties from the War in Afganistan. For their violent racist actions which include racial attacks, attacking the police, smashing up Asian businesses, the EDL could be banned in a matter of minutes, however Britain's far right groups are never ever banned, regardless of the crimes they perpetrate. This sadly is a historical fact which leads some people to suspect the EDL are state-funded either by special branch or MI5/6.

Bradford's home grown Pakistani Muslim community is religiously moderate, and times have changed significantly since the Salman Rushdie protests many years ago. If the EDL were seriously choosing genuine hotbeds of Islamic extremism to target with protest, Bradford should be way down the list. All of Bradford's mosques work with the police and social workers to ensure young Muslims are not radicalised, and if it is all a question of patriotism, consider this: - In December, 1000 of Bradford's Muslims in Thornbury raised £5 each for the floods in Cumbria, including money for the family of a policeman who died rescuing householders from danger.

In the words of Canon Andy Williams, Bishop of Bradford said: “The president of the mosque and the Imam spoke positively about their aim of strengthening ties between the Muslim and Christian communities, saying we all live in the UK and need to support one another.” And only last week, Manningham's Muslims set up a well-attended scouts and cubs group. And still the likes of the EDL and the BNP accuse Asian people of refusing to integrate. Of course, any such measures by Bradford's Asian community to prove they are as British as white people fall upon deaf ears when the EDL plan acts of racism and public disorder. Their hatred of Islam is in-fact a hatred of non-white people, a racist loathing that four or five "Uncle Toms" cannot brush under the carpet. Using violent football hooligans as their hired muscle, the EDL are a serious threat to community harmony let alone public safety. When are our elected politicians going to protect us from the imminent dangers posed by such groups? Bradford's Asian community has moved on in leaps and bounds since the last riot, and young generations of Muslim Bradfordians are optimistic, self-confident and hopeful for the future, assuming there would never be a far right march through Bradford ever again, however along comes the EDL, aiming to turn the clock back.

If the Prime Minister, the Home Secretary, Bradford Council and the West Yorkshire Police insist on allowing the EDL the freedom to create havoc in Bradford under the false premises of "free speech", officialdom will lose any last vestige of credibility with Bradford's populus, who will hold the powers that be soley responsible for washing their hands of social responsibility, in standing back and allowing another race riot to happen. A preventable race riot, if the government and intelligence services do their homework. All Bradfordians (regardless of race or creed) were hoping to never to live to see race riots in their own backyard ever again, but unless the EDL are banned from gathering, another riot will most definately ensue, triggered by the explosive actions of an army of football thugs and hardcore Nazis getting drunk in Lloyds Bar, before rampaging through Centenary Square en-masse.

Bradford has been at the hub of radical English political activism for over a hundred years, as the centre of Britain's woollen industry. Staunch trade unionism has recently been complemented by social centres such as the 1-in-12 club. If the EDL's violent neo-Nazi element are allowed to break through police lines as has happened elsewhere, and go on the rampage, smashing up the city centre and Bradford's multicultural inner city areas, punching and kicking every Asian passer-by they come across with vitreolic hate, the spirit of Bradford's strong tradition of defiance, reflected in its punk and hip hop bands such as Fun-Da-Mental, which rallied for working class unity against fascism, will ensure the EDL's street fighting tactics are met with a firm counter response.

Bradford's marginalised Asian community has a history of taking direct action to fightback against the far right that stretches back to the 1970s. Ironically for the EDL's fake "cause celebre" of protesting against Islamic extremism, a sizeable number of Bradford's young adults are not particularly religious, and will not heed calls from Imams to stay at home when their community is under threat from violent fascist extremists. Unlike in Nottingham and Stoke, police and religious leaders will thus find difficulty in persuading concerned Asian people to stay away from their beseiged city centre.

In Stoke, the EDL's neo-Nazi hooligans broke loose and rampaged through a majority Asian neighbourhood, attacking shops, homes and cars, and if the policing in Bradford was to be just as shambolic, angry young Muslim people will not stand by idly while drunken racist football hooligans go on the rampage. Militant anti-fascists will also stand their ground when the EDL's bully-boys break away from the police's kettle, however if the numbers of neo-Nazis are indeed large, and they storm through the streets of Bradford with inpunity like SS-stormtroopers, if the police are seen as defending the racists and allowing them to racially abuse and assault Asian people at will, all hell will break loose.

A recent press investigation by the Daily Mail spoke to one particular Bradford resident who was rubbing his hands with glee at the opportunity to join in another Bradford race riot - Kevin Watmough. As always, Trevor Kelway and PR-distorting chums will tell the local media they are simply opposing religious extremists, claiming that most of their supporters are peaceful, will regulate their drink, and are only in Bradford to make speeches, however there will as always be the offensive and inflamatory banners calling for "NO MORE MOSQUES", racist chants will echo for miles, and just about every hardcore racist rent-a-thug including the whole of the BNP, BPP, British Freedom Fighters and the National Front will be in Bradford, getting a piece of the action.

Regardless of what lies Trevor Kelway tells he media before their visit to Bradford, he knows full well that EDL's Bradford Demo will attract Britain's most extreme racial bigots like flies to a steaming pile of dogshit. Many of the roads into Bradford are lined by Asian takeaways, clothing shops and other small businesses. Expect smashed windows and racial attacks-a-plenty as cocksure racists jump at the chance of destroying Bradford. And don't forget an attack on a mosque or two on the week before the event, after dark.

The cowardly thugs of the EDL, like Adolf Hitler's Nazis whom they secretly (and openly) support, know the value of instilling fear upon minority communities. Bear this in mind - Last time around, a measured number of National Front members arriving in Bradford were enough to trigger a riot. This time there could be thousands, the EDL's biggest ever turn-out. Everybody sharing any sort of diverging far right ideals will readily put aside their rivalries, heading to Bradford by coach, train, car, and van hellbent on swarming into Bradford and waging all-out racial warfare, unless they are prevented travelling to Bradford.

If you think these concerns are sheer alarmism, cast yourself into the mindset of a bored hardcore racist who missed out on the action nine years ago, and is now given a chance to get involved in a far more catastrophic repeat of history. On one particular online football forum, members discussing a possible EDL visit to Bradford believed there would be deaths if another riot took place. Whether or not fatalities will happen, alarm bells should be ringing in the distant hallows of Westminster.

Sunday the 30th of May follows the upcoming elections, which, if polls prove correct, may herald in the political instability of a hung parliament. What better time for the far right to make the impact of its presence felt (whether or not Griffin wins a seat for Barking), by causing Britain's worst ever race riot to back up their claims that "multiculturalism is not working". Forget the EDL's regular drunken boneheaded supporters for a moment. An open EDL gathering in Bradford City Centre is every hardcore neo-Nazi fanatic's wet dream come true. Every racist Tom, Dick and Harry will most surely make their way to Bradford to join in the fighting. If EDL numbers exceed official expectations, reaching the 2000 mark, the drunken EDL mob will be uncontrollable, smashing up Bradford's Lloyds Bar (Wetherspoons), perhaps setting it on fire, before triggering an uncontrollable series of events to provoke minorities and antifascists into a violent reaction, with the police in the middle wading in with dogs, riot shields and batons.

For years Nick Griffin, Simon Darby and Lee Barnes, and others in the BNP/NF and BPP have talked about a racial civil war taking place. Now is the chance for every potential Copeland-style Aryan terrorist lunatic to get their ass down to Bradford and join in the EDL "protest", putting their terrifying plans into action. Even if there are no fatalities, violent street confrontations will inevitably come at a devastating price for the livelihood of the city and the further loss of retail jobs.

Since the tragic National Front-ignited riots of 2001, many small businesses have closed and numerous shoppers have stayed away from the city centre, leading many to describe Central Bradford as a "ghost town", an image not assisted by the upcoming demolishment of the Odeon cinema, the Westfield hole in the ground saga, and a ghetto of pound shops and charity stores.

Since Bradford's last riot, trust between communities has inevitably suffered, revellers and clubbers have travelled elsewhere, university admissions periodically declined, and all across the world, Bradford became world famous as a city of racial tension alongside Los Angeles. Even today, tell a stranger at a bus stop that you come from Bradford, especially an older person or pensioner, and they will look at you with sympathy, and many won't believe you when you tell them how Bradford has moved on.

Bradford has sadly become internationally synomymous with racism and riots, an image impossible to shake-off, and unless the EDL are prevented from gathering in Bradford under emergency anti-racism, anti-terror and public order laws, the city's inage as a hotbed of racial violence and disharmony (far removed from reality), will persist for an eternity. If record numbers of EDL fascist thugs turn out, defiling Bradford with their raw hate, a million pounds of police budget will not be enough to prevent sporadic violence from kicking off big-time. At previous events, the police have taken a softly-softly approach towards EDL rioters, with minimal arrests.

If ineffectual, hands-off policing allows the racist mob to do as they please, and Asian vigilantes take to the streets to defend their own communities from attack, anything might happen. An emergency government or police ban is an absolute necessity to prevent World War III from erupting in Bradford, and race relations being set back fifty or more years. Bradford is a city of promise, ambition and hope amongst its young, diverse population, with communies represented locally from far afield as Eastern Europe, the West Indies as well as Asia.

Bradford has been through a lot, and truly deserves it's chance to get off the floor and bounce back to life, without being kicked back down by the drunken jackboots of a neo-Nazi lynch mob given free reign by feckless governments, local politicians and the police, to destroy one of Britain's most multicultural cities without rebuke. In Stoke, the EDL hoodlums copied Loyalist terror tactics by phoning up taxi companies making death threats against Muslim drivers. Day by day, month by month the EDL are getting far more menacing.

Whether Nick Griffin and the BNP are pulling the strings, as the National Front did in 2001 with its Northern riots, the grounds on which to make the EDL illegal are steadily strengthening, and yet the silence from officialdom is deafening. In the United States of America, KKK marches are frequently stopped from marching through African-American communities, and in Belfast, Orange Order parades are usually now re-routed away from Catholic areas, so why are is officialdom turning a blind eye to such a blatant disregard of community sensitivities, by allowing a cavalcade of racist chanting and violence in Bradford's Centenary Square? Answers on a postcard, please.

Bradford is not Nottingham, Manchester or Leeds. As the BNP-supporting white supremacists on Stormfront gleefully ackowledge, Bradford will not survive another full-scale riot! If the EDL aren't banned from marching in Bradford as a matter of national security, this will be the end of our once-proud city. Guaranteed! (With historical significance from the English Civil War, the last time the city was on the verge of being ransacked by an invading force of pseudo-patriotic outsiders), "PITY POOR BRADFORD!!!"

Bradfordian at Northern Indymedia

26 comments:

Anti-nazi said...

"In December, 1000 of Bradford's Muslims in Thornbury raised £5 each for the floods in Cumbria, including money for the family of a policeman who died rescuing householders from danger."

Thats excellent. All Nick Griffin did was get himself a photo-op with some of the workers.

Mister Aitch said...

Every racist in the whole of the United Kingdom will travel to Bradford with the aim of igniting the world's biggest ever race riot.

The EDL will deliberately give an under estimate of 7-800 or so people to the police, and when over 2000 people turn up, too many to stand in Centenary square, they will disappear into the inner city and cause unchecked chaos.

Expect BPP, BNP, NFF, BFF and Blood and Honour thugs there in the biggest ever nazifest to happen in the UK.

And they won't all be travelling together. Some will arrive in small cars and minibuses and cause trouble at mosques etc. BEFORE joining the main neo-Nazi rally!

Bradford will never recover from this.

sadly true said...

Britain's racists finally get a chance to destroy Bradford.

Just one racial attack or burst of racial chanting will ignite a riot which will last way into the night.

In previous rallies, the police have stopped Asian vigalantes from taking the law into their own hands, but this won't happen in Bradford, especially when young people don't visit the mosque.

Yes, there will 100% be a race riot on Sunday the 30th of May 1010.

stop 'em said...

Chilling yet highly believable if an unprecidented number of drunken racists are allowed to gather in Centenary Square.

The ASBO-clad EDL are allowed to get away with lots of crimina offenses at each rally which is why they are masked.

paula said...

I wander if Lee Barnes is in contact with the EDL, helping them choose cities to march into: -

http://news.scotsman.com/farrightintheuk/BNP-turns-on-Griffin-with.5764794.jp

The Scotsman News Archive
BNP turns on Griffin with 'white riot' call
Date: 26 October 2009
By Craig Brown

NICK Griffin's efforts to portray the BNP as part of mainstream politics were derailed yesterday when his own party criticised his performance on BBC1's Question Time and a senior member called for "white riots" across the country.

Lee Barnes, the BNP's legal officer, said that "perhaps there needs to be a few 'white riots' around the country à la Brixton riots of the 1980s before the idiot white liberal middle-class and their ethnic middle-class fellow travellers wake up". Mr Barnes made the comments on his own website as he attacked his party leader for "failing to press the attack" during his controversial TV appearance last Thursday.

Anonymous said...

"In Stoke, the EDL hoodlums copied Loyalist terror tactics by phoning up taxi companies making death threats against Muslim drivers."

Ulster groups like the UDA and UVF have always provided inspiration for far-right football hooligans. Slogans like 'No Surrender' are shouted and Loyalist 'red hand' flags have continued to be flown at EDL demos.
The situation which existed in Ulster between 1969 and 1994 is one, I'm sure, the EDL would like to replicate on the mainland.

Anonymous said...

"Britain's far right groups are never ever banned, regardless of the crimes they perpetrate. This sadly is a historical fact which leads some people to suspect the EDL are state-funded either by special branch or MI5/6."

I doubt they are funded but they could be encouraged by State agencies. The Italian Security Services certainly provided support to fascist groups in the 70's and 80's in the so-called 'Strategy of Tension'. A scaled down version of this could be happening today in the UK in order to keep Muslims in line and drive politics even more to the Right.

Doom Day said...

The resulting race riot will be catastrophic and the police will be only expecting less than 1000 people but double the number of people will turn up, when all the country's nazis turn-up and join in.

Expect serious bloodshed. If the police and council say it's okay, they can handle it, they are talking complete and absolute bullshit. Nobody will be prepared for what will happen.

It is important to view Bradford as a special case.

Anonymous said...

Bradford's had a tragic history of race riots, which is why it cannot handle another far right gathering. If you know the geography of the city, as the article says from Bradfordian, you will see that there is no space for a large number of Nazis. Too man turn up, go off marching where they please, kicking and beeating-up Asian shoppers including families and BOOOOMMMM!!!!!!

IT IS INDEED GONNA BE WORLD WAR III

theydidntseeitcoming said...

I can see this indeed happening Bradfords worst ever race riot. there wont be anything left of the place after firemen and police cleans up the charred ashes from burning buildings and the broken glass.

Which public school educated school Tory law lord will head the post-riot enquiry?

Perhaps this would make an interesting LU Poll.

Anonymous said...

"most incendiary of all, attacking mosques and destroying Muslim graves on the days leading up to their protest".

Will the police be watching every mosque and Islamic grave stone on the weeks leading up to the protest from arsen and vandelism? Will there be a budget for such policing?

In Manchester and Nottingham there were attacks on mosques and cemetaries by EDL nazis before their official protest, to which the evil lying EDL denied all responsibility.

Extreme acts of racism and violence will happen before, during and after the riot.

Oh, and don't expect Asian young people to stay at home because the authorities tell them to do so.

Because of stop and search, there is still alienation of young non-white people in Bradford towards authority, and allowing Bradford to become a haven for the UK's biggest ever fascist gathering, will make the government, the council and the police less popular thann ever with young Asians.

A ban for national security purposes is the only option.

Anonymous said...

Driving through the streets of Manningham weeks with loudhaler vans warning people to stay at home before the EDL's invasion of Bradford isn't gonna work either.

The coppers will get the finger.

Cos of institutional racism, few young Asian people still have full trust in the authorities.

Protecting fascists and refusing to arrest hitler saluters and racist attackers/chanters, will let Bradford's Asian people know the score.

Centenary Square is a public space, not a space for criminal racist acts to be committed by the EDL's neo-Nazis without arrest.

david said...

Absolutely sickening.

If the government allow a so-called "static protest" to happen, Bradford's long-suffering people will pay the consequences.

The government must use anti-terror leglislation to ban the edl like they did islam4uk.

blem said...

Nick Griffin must surely be part of this plot to destroy Bradford.

If only this could be proved before the general election. The BNP would then be well and truly fucked up the jacksy.

Anonymous said...

One of two things will happen - either a ban or a riot.

2000 nazis in Bradford City Centre will guarantee trouble.

shipley said...

Kelway must be charged with plotting racism and violence. There's plenty of arcaic laws from the days of Guy Fawkes or the English Civil War outlawing private armies which can be recharged to stop the EDL in its tracks!

Anonymous said...

Bradford City Centre is so small compared with other cities. Centenary Square, where the last riot happened, and where there's the lloyds bar is tiny and not big enough to cope with lots of nazis.

Hope another riot won't happen but i can't see it not happening.

dotdash said...

The cops have never waded in and made mass arrests when the customary "we hate p*k*s" racist chanting starts.

I thought racism in public places was a serious criminal offence.

Anonymous said...

The future of Bradford lies in the hands of men in starched shirts. suits and ties.

Static protests can be banned under other laws, including public safety laws, health and safety, terror, etc.

Bradford won't be the same if it goes ahead. A ban for whatever reason is the only way bradford won't go up in smoke.

Free speech my fucking arse. The EDL are only interested in causing large scale race rioting as a way of making them infamous which is why they are coming to Bradford.

What the EDL do and say are two different things, as they speak to the press and say one thing but when it comes to one of their racist rallies they conduct racist attacks a plenty.

Worrying thing about Bradford is, it won't just be EDL regular soccer thugs. Everybody from the whole far right scene will be involved.

The BPP are amongst the worst in terms of violence and hardcore naziism. They are based in bramley, Leeds, only a short bus ride away from Bradford city centre.

I have lived in Bradford for twenty six years and lived through two riots but this will be the last straw.

gloria f said...

Politicians don't give a shit what happens in Bradford, as it's so far away from London Westminster doesn't give a shit if it all goes up in flames.

Islam4uk didn't beat up random white people but yet they were banned for merely offending people's sensitivity by planning to march through wootten bassett but in stark comparison, the EDL have not been banned for attacking Asian people in actual physical racist attacks, beating up and trampling the police, and now plotting Britain's biggest race riot.

Anonymous said...

The EDL shouldn't just be banned for plotting a riot. They should be made illegal and Scumbag EDL Fuhrer Mr Kelway should be charged with serious criminal offences and jailed for a heck of a long time.

Anonymous said...

"IT IS INDEED GONNA BE WORLD WAR III"

There is a lot of people on here with suspect motives seeking to play up the possibilties of a riot.

The local community should not rise to either the EDL's or the Anarchos baiting. They have to live there afterwards while everybody else will retreat back to their home towns. A quiet dignified anti-fascist protest is what is called for.

Anonymous said...

I also remember lunatic Lee Barnes openly calling for race riots just a few months ago. Griffin must be thinking he's a lose cannon in admitting he supports the EDL's tactics.

I reckon we've rattled Lee Barnes's cage by reminding potential BNP voters that LLB is in favour of race riots.

Doesn't Barnesey Babes believe in little green men??????

La Di Da Gunner Graham said...

While I agree that this event should not take place; rather than appealing to the authorities to ban it we should counter-mobilize in the largest posible way. Trade unions and anti-fascist roups should work to ensure that a national anti-fascist mobilization brings in enough people so we can stop the fash in their tracks in Bradford, just as we did at Cable Street and in Southall.

No Pasaran!

Anonymous said...

A ban would be the best option, but the second best option would be for the police not to turn up at all. The EDL might end up receiving more attention than they bargained for.

Anonymous said...

u lot planning to come to bradford i recon we dont cause i just think we will just get battered coz these young paki lads no how to fight and im nt sure if we can match thier number >>>.....