BBC3 broadcast a TV documentary called "Young British and Angry" about the EDL. You can always criticise a documentary for something it did not show, but overall this film was pretty good, and it did try to be balanced, showing both racist thugs and decent people in the EDL. As to whether all these EDL supporters are letting themselves be USED by Fascist provocateurs however, "Young British and Angry" did not show any of the dozens of photos of EDL making Nazi salutes, they ignored videos of EDL calling police "Paki loving Bastards", and ignored evidence of BNP activist Chris Renton's role as Commander of the EDL. The programme showed unprovoked EDL violence and rioting, and showed EDL supporters chanting racist abuse.
The film made good points about links between EDL support and poverty, but failed to ask whether poverty's much of an issue in the life of millionaire EDL backer Alan Lake. It's also unclear what EDL stunts like vandalising KFC restaurants, harassing their staff, and attending sectarian rallies in Ireland have to do with opposing Islamist terrorism.
"Young British and Angry" also showed the tiny number of ethnic minority supporters in the EDL. When it comes to using football fans as cannon-fodder, right-wing provocateurs are just as happy to use gullible black people as they are to use gullible whites. As a case in point, the programme showed EDL poster-boy and Asian Rangers fan Abdul, who made very sensible comments. However (much as I despise the IRA) the programme did not say anything about the context of sectarian bigotry among some Rangers fans, and did not show Abdul singing sectarian hate-songs which celebrate mass-murderer Michael Stone and which talk about punching and knee-capping "Taigs" (Catholics)...
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9 comments:
Did the Doc also include Nick Griffin's now infamous (and paranoid) observation about EDL being a "Zionist False-Flag" operation?
Don't know about 'Young, British and angry'.
All the EDL'rs I know are fat, bald, middle aged and angry.
I find nothing 'decent' nor 'sensible' about the EDL and its followers. What we have with the EDL is a savvy PR machine which likes to project an particular image across the media. When the PR mask slips you see the true nature of these thugs.
The reference to "decent" EDL supporters is to the ordinary people who've been fooled by the same EDL PR machine that an earlier comment refers to (this reference is not making any excuses for the EDL organisation itself).
This wording is also intended to not demonise and alienate EDL supporters who may have got involved because of "honest" opposition to Islamist terror, but who may also (hopefully) be getting cold feet about the EDL's own Fascist links.
If you accept that the EDL have "a savvy PR machine which likes to project an particular image across the media" then it also follows that some punters are, in good faith, likely to be taken in by their PR.
Just insulting these people without offering them any prospect of a warm welcome within genuine Anti-Fascism, if and when they ever see the light, is not necessarily the most psychologically effective approach for persuading people to stop supporting the EDL
Someone really needs to have a word with the coloured lads involved in this group. Don't they realize these people hate them, and are just using them.
Q; Whats got 300 legs and an IQ of 150?
A; the EDL
It would help if Anonymous WATCHED the video before commenting on it, as (like it or not) the statements made by EDL supporter Abdul WERE "sensible". However the You Tube video description links to another video where Abdul shows his true colours - singing violent sectarian hate songs (LU have not so far included that link in their posting however) -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB-QJUVQD9U
Laters ;)
Previous BBC exposes of the far right have aired on either BBC1 or BBC2 in prime time (albeit just after the 9pm 'watershed') - Whistleblower, Under the Skin of the BNP etc.
However I did happen to notice that this particular programme on the EDL was shown at 11.30pm on BBC3, away from the mainstream. Yet more BBC leniency towards racism and racists.
I just saw this programme and decided to do some research on it, and once again came across this blog.
I have a question that I hope someone from the UAF can answer: what do you think is the best tactic for tackling the EDL? Is campaigning with banners and placards that equate them to the BNP and nazism really the most constructive way to combat what for the most part seems to be uneducated, poor, hooligans whose racism isn't perhaps on quite the same level of 'sophistication' as the BNP's?
You might say, racism is racism, but I think there's a tactical distinction to be made between BNP and EDL. Often it seems that branding the latter as Nazis seems to inflame the situation without getting to the root of what makes the EDL attractive to a deprived underclass.
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