Well, what a wash-out. After months of trumpeting and blether the English Defence League’s band of hooligans and ‘chav scrotes’ were humiliated in Amsterdam yesterday, attacked by antifascists and Ajax fans and harried by the cops. At least they didn’t have time to fight amongst themselves as they usually do. There is some interesting YouTube footage, involving some shaky camera work, of them running around cluelessly, pursued by Dutch Antifa and plod. At one point there seemed to be more photographers than EDL all believing the hype that this was going to be another Bradford ‘little big one.’ In the end it was ‘the little little one.’ The images show a faintly confused bunch of fat blokes in hoodies wandering about. One of the EDL vans was trashed and there were 34 arrests. They had a little stage and Tommy Robinson AKA Steven Yaxley-Lennon, ex-BNP and jailed for assaulting a copper, gave a ‘rousing speech’ to his mates and then they went home. No surrender? They did. Completely.
According to Hope Not Hate about 60 turned up to ‘support’ Geert Wilders, the anti-Islamic Dutch MP who has publicly distanced himself from the lager swilling, loud mouthed hooligans for obvious reasons. So if that is the case, why did the EDL bother? So they can get their necessary media injection and show their mates in the pub how famous they are. This kind of behaviour shows the EDL as a vanity operation, boosting the egos a of a few nobodies with criminal records.
Battered
A poster on the EDL website said a group of EDL turned up on Friday night and the following day were attacked by Ajax fans who told them to go away in no uncertain terms. The EDL are now making threatening noises about revenge should Ajax come to the UK. We shall see … One hapless EDL got battered and ended up with a shattered leg. He had the misfortune to have no travel insurance either and had to travel back to the UK in considerable discomfort. The ‘Malatestas’ have had a whip round and will be sending 50p to the EDL as fast as possible. The poster admits that the public were also opposed to the EDL presence – which comes as no surprise. The EDL seriously think that ALL the ‘public’ and ALL football fans have the duty to support them. Well, they don’t: lots of people despise them or are merely bored by their posturing. The Dutch authorities didn’t want them there either and throughout the week the demo was moved about and they ended up with an out of town spot at the Western docks. In his ‘rousing speech’ Yaxley-Lennon criticised the mayor for moving the demo – as if a gang of drunk hooligans with a violent reputation should be welcomed with open arms wherever they go. The Dutch will have seen what the EDL have done in place like Stoke, Bradford and Leicester and have the absolute right to move them wherever they want. Would the EDL like the Ajax fans to demonstrate in the middle of Luton?
A Successful Failure
The Gates of Vienna website has declared the event a success but this is difficult to reconcile with the facts. The EDL had a poor turn out. The local football supporters attacked them. The person who they were ‘supporting’ publicly rejected them. The general public were hostile. The media coverage was negative. And the hope of uniting with other anti-Islamic factions and footie fans did not materialise. Well done. They had difficulties in getting the numbers for various reasons, mainly that the DSS won’t pay for ‘chav scrotes’ to go abroad on a jolly. One poster wrote: ‘I’m going, most people will be meeting round the red light district where the bars are next to the canals. I’m going on my own my mates cant afford it or aren’t allowed by there Mrs.’ Which just about sums them up.
What Price Fame?
What is more alarming than the EDL’s ‘international mobilisation’ is the relationship between Tommy Robinson and Katie Price. There was a picture of them schmoozing widely circulated on the net but now Katie is doing a desperate PR job distancing herself from the EDL. Meanwhile on the EDL web forum there is anti-Katie consternation and it is difficult to tell who is disowning whom. Both seem embarrassed by the turn of events. As they should be.
Anyway…
Despite all the photos of the EDL seig-heiling, and the dual membership of fascist groups by key members – Jeff Marsh, Steven White, Luke Pippin (Combat 18) etc. – they are still going on about being non-racist and this process of denial is sounding politically weak. The next ‘big one’ scheduled is in Preston on 27th November but there could be a few flash’ demos on the way.
Malatesta
November 01, 2010
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12 comments:
Good to see Ajax fans protesting against the EDL.
Ajax have a position similar to Spurs in the UK where their supporters have traditionally included a Jewish element, whether accurate or not, they have, like Tottenham, suffered anti-Semitic abuse from rival fans and it's telling that Ajax have seen the EDL for what they are.
Whoever hired the van for the trip is in for a nasty surprise when they drop it off back at Practical Vans.
Could it be that the infamous 'sheffield meeting' and edl decision not to march in sheffield is due to a similar reason? Prehaps the sheffield plod told Tommy that The Blades (a large multicultural footy firm) would treat them exactly the same way as Ajax did this weekend.
Appologies to Holland for having to put up with these pityful excuse for englishmen and well done for the way you handled them!
The Gates of Vienna is one of the biggest spewers of crap on the blogosphere. They do nothing except repeat the same tired lies about Islam over and over again. They talk about sharia law in Britain, when there is not even sharia law in Pakistan! Absolute scaremongering! They also support Israel. We should refute their posts every chance we get.
Waxy Lemon said...
Could it be that the infamous 'sheffield meeting' and edl decision not to march in sheffield is due to a similar reason? Prehaps the sheffield plod told Tommy that The Blades (a large multicultural footy firm) would treat them exactly the same way as Ajax did this weekend.
The Blades is Sheffield Uniteds nickname. The hoolie firm we have the displeasure of having to share our ground with are the BBC.
Any chance of alink to the youtube of the bozos being run about
I went to have a look at the 'demo'. No way there were 60 EFI/DDL supporters, including the 15 or so EDL. There were about 30 as half of what had turned up were just people wanting to have a look and press. In all the whole group was outnumbered something like 200 to 1, and if you consider the anti-racism demo that was going on in the centre of Amsterdam you could consider it 700-1. It was generally clear that Amsterdam really didn't want any of it. Amsterdam still mostly considers the PVV provincial, as something from the South, or worse, 'Rotterdam' and that's that.
The DDL is considered 'Rotterdam' in Amsterdam/ Ajax eyes (As was Pim Fortuyn, as is most of the active PVV, as is Bert Jansen, spokesman for the DDL). So for Ajax AFCA supporters that means Feyenoord means the enemy. AFCA is the most leftwing of the three supporters clubs that forms the Ajax Fside. It's considered something of the fanclub of Basque player Oleguer Presas. There are overlaps between AFCA and Antifa supporters. Not hard to mobilise. Though no-one could have anticipated that the turnout would be so massive.
Tommy Robinson crassly interrupted the alliance speaker of that moment to bark about their van and how 'British police' (?) had advised them they had to 'retreat' for their own safety. For the onlookers that came across as more than a little ridiculous considering the overkill of police present and his little speech was mostly met by more laughter from the sideline and shouts of 'bye bye Kabouter Tommy'. (For the Dutch onlookers could now see that T.R. is not very tall. 'Kabouter Wesley' about a stupid, foulmouthed, aggressive little garden gnome happens to be a popular Dutch tvcartoon at the moment so this added to the merriment and the EDL leader came away with an Amsterdam nickname at least)
The police of course is still part of the general Administration of Amsterdam that had made clear they didn't want the EDL about and didn't see the point of the demonstration as a whole as they've been lumbered with all the security etcetera of the whole Geert wilders process trial these last few weeks and weren't waiting for this as an add-on. The police organisation was very visibly clear on that. Plenty of M.E. (riot unit) to seperate Fside and Antifa from the demonstration and arrest those actually throwing things on to the field below from the metro flyover but the noticably multicultural and unwilling uniformed plod by the side of the "stage" mostly stood sniggering with the press and onlookers and had to be explicitly asked by the speakers and the organisation to take action every time they needed assistance rather than do it out of their own accord, and dragged their feet doing it, such as when someone took the microphone away etc.
However rightwing and islamophobic Dutch politics on the whole are becoming, including the PVV in this cabinet, I don't think the Dutch Defense League or extreme right (right of the PVV) has any chance of growing whatsoever, and I think we've seen the last of the EDL. What we saw wasn't a demonstration, it was an abortion.
Almost felt sorry for them, but I'm well proud of my city again for once.
Thanks to British Antifa and the Unity Blogs for all the info on the EDL that provided the ammunition to snuff the DDL in the bud.
Skaface said...
Any chance of alink to the youtube of the bozos being run about
here you go.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLrNofJQ7DM&
What's all this 'chav scrotes'? You can't combat racism with class racism...
What has being a chav got to do with class? I thought if you were a chav you had no class ;)
...and don't tell me that chav scrote Waxy-Barnett is working class.
Robinson Gets owned!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TgDLVmpovY
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