It’s All Fall-Out With The Infidels!

One of the continuing difficulties faced by the far right is their complete inability to agree on anything for very long. Massive fallouts and accusations of ‘grass’ and ‘backstabbing’ (with the occasional ‘nonce’ thrown in) are frequent on their internet forums and it seems that the Infidels are no different. In case you don’t know, the Infidels split off from the English Defence League because of Mr Tommy’s ‘pro-Zionism,’ multicultural racism and being over-friendly to the gays. The Infidels boldly declared their fascist agenda on Facebook and had their first ‘National’ demo in Leeds which was a piss poor turnout as evidenced by the photos posted on the net of them gurning whilst holding beer cans in the drizzle and being outnumbered by plod. This was bizarrely deemed a ‘success’ which was subsequently soured by internal criticisms over the fact that they looked like a bunch of beer swilling racists. Which is what they are. Following the demo some ended up in the Slug And Lettuce for a cup of tea and a bun whilst others headed off to the Hourglass Bar for something a bit more exotic. For ironically, the Hourglass is a gay bar and rumours that there is now a Gay Division in the homophobic Infidels are untrue.

North East Infidelity

Their next demo was in Newcastle where they hooked up with the tiny Scottish Defence League (6) – who are also anti-Tommyistas – and a little contingent of ageing racists from the National Front (8). This brief alliance descended into a drunken brawl over internal differences and was yet again symbolic of their complete inability to be agreeable. They all want to be Elton, no-one wants to be David! Fact! To make themselves feel better the few that weren’t too bruised or comatose went on to manfully jostle the peaceful folk at Newcastle Occupy. Given that Occupy is protesting corporate greed and social inequality we can only assume that the Infidels, like the EDL, are happy with that and are a scab organisation doing the work of the ruling classes for them. The Infidels then called a demo in Durham but no one turned up because it was a bit chilly.

And that’s about it. But now the Infidels, like the recently defunct Combined Ex-Forces, have imploded with the usual venomous recriminations and accusations of ‘grass’ and working for Special Branch. For there be two factions of Infidels, the North West and the North East and both of them are faring less than well. The NEI have just seen several members jailed for attacking the Newcastle Irish Centre. What happened was that the SWP had called a meeting at the Centre along the lines of ‘Smash The EDL’ which was a proverbial red rag to the bullshitters of the NEI. The SWP then cancelled the meeting after threats had been made but this did not deter the brave Infidels who turned up anyway and attacked the bouncers. Sadly for the Infidels, the whole thing was filmed on CCTV and many of the Infidels were consequently rounded up and sent to the choky, including failed BNP candidate Alan Spence (who is 46! Crivvens!). Spence was arrested with his son and will now be tucking into the Christmas turkey twizzlers behind bars. Shame. Plod has released images of the remaining gang members who are no doubt currently shitting themselves over their inevitable prison sentences. The SWP are not that astute when it comes to security and using inflammatory statements like ‘Smash The EDL’ is a bad idea. Wise up Trotskyites and try reading the bearded one on worker’s anti-fascist defence. Oh, I forgot, we can’t endorse ‘squadism’ can we?

And it goes on …

The NEI are accusing one Colin Bell of grassing up the Irish Centre attackers and he is currently ‘maintaining Facebook silence.’ No doubt when the thugs are let out next year they will seeking out Mr Bell to help ‘clarify the situation.’ Meanwhile, over the Pennines North West Infidel John ‘Snowy’ Shaw has been hoofed out of his Facebook pages and has fumingly started up another one (11 likes so far and counting!). Snowy, (llama farmer, no charmer and bad karma) carries the whiff of the prison yard about him and is best known for the early EDL rooftop protest in the Midlands. Mr Tommy raised funds to help Snowy the ‘political prisoner’ which are allegedly ‘unaccounted for,’ just like the money Mr Tommy raised for crack and cocaine using child porn aficionado Richard Price when he was arrested. Not only that, but the NWI are mourning the fact that their big man Mr B, or Bernard Holmes of Blackburn, was refused bail this week. He is currently serving a sentence for attacking someone and leaving them with brain damage. Nice man. To make things worse, Connor McCoy has threatened to pull the plug on their page unless he gets the Infidels/SDL flag back from Blackburn Division and he has fallen out with Snowy.

So it’s all fall-out with the beleaguered Infidels: shite turnouts, internal violence, several members jailed, people being ostracised and accused of being grasses and an alarming lack of unity all round. All in all a typical day for the far right then. Well done.

STOP PRESS: 2 EDL jailed for 10 years each after arson attempt on a mosque. See our friends at EDL News for further details.

Thanks to Malatesta for the article.

EDL take on #Occupy, while new light is shed on their supporters

A couple of reports on the English Defence League that have been published by the think-tank Demos recently make for interesting reading.

The first argues that far-right populism is on the rise across Europe, pointing to the new breed of rightwing, anti-Muslim nationalism represented by the EDL, various populist groups and parties, and “lone wolf” terrorists such as mass-murderer Anders Behring Breivik (whose connections with the EDL were broken on this site before the Grauniad picked up the story). The specifics of this political tendency has already been detailed here.

More interestingly, the second DEMOS report argues that the EDL is very much a (post)modern phenomenon, which is utterly reliant on the internet and social networking to survive. As we've pointed out previously, the EDL – despite claims to have hundreds of thousands of members – have no membership process at all, count membership through Facebook “likes” and forum membership, and have a self-appointed leadership. To a degree this is mirrored on the other side of the political spectrum by the global #Occupy protests, which have been largely organised and propagated online, even if they have actual democratic decision-making structures in place on the ground. Only around half of the EDL's members have been on a demo, and the authors conclude the theoretical maximum they could mobilise in one go is 12,000 (their highest attendence at a demonstration has been 2000-3000). Under a quarter of those surveyed have travelled further than 100km to protest.

The second Demos report, Inside the EDL, consists of a survey of over a thousand social media supporters on their opinions and concerns. There are a few things of casual interest: for example, despite the leadership's attempts to distance themselves from the BNP, around a third of EDL “members” vote BNP. They form the most popular political party for EDL supporters, followed by UKIP and the Tories. Despite the EDL's claims to be a “counter-jihad” movement and nothing else, it's surveyed supporters see immigration as a bigger problem than Islamic extremism.

Inside the EDL has this to say about the basic ideological makeup of its support base:

Quote:

The EDL appears to be symptomatic of a new brand of loosely
nationalist movements across Europe, which finds common cause
in opposing a perceived Islamification of secular liberal and
Christian societies. These groups lay claim to the mantle of the
enlightenment, espousing support for fundamental liberal values of
free speech, democracy and equality, which they seek to defend
from the threat of Islam. It is hard to know accurately when this
language is being used as a cover for more sinister or intolerant
views, and when it is genuine. There is little doubt that the EDL
contains some racist and openly anti-Islamic elements – but this is
by no means true of all supporters. The task ahead is to engage with
those who are sincere democrats, and isolate those who are not.

Of course, the idea that the UK is at risk of “Islamification” is total nonsense, and this needs to be opposed rather than engaged with. What is interesting though is that this group of casual supporters appear to be gradually dissapating (or at least refusing to leave cyberspace) as the EDL see diminishing returns on their national demonstrations. It seems that many can't be bothered with demonstrations that consist of being surrounded by an army of police in a car park. As a result, the hardcore appear to be turning to a strategy of “controlling the streets” which resembles that of traditional fascism while the wider support increasingly stay at home.

This “controlling the streets” strategy has been the model of the more openly racist EDL splinter groups North West Infidels and North East Infidels for a while. The groups split from the main EDL due to political differences and “too many chiefs, not enough Indians” syndrome. Importantly, they've pursued a strategy of threatening to attack anything they consider “lefty”:

Quote:

We have decided to put all our efforts into opposing everything you do regardless of the issue at hand its your organisations we oppose. Unlike you we won’t be announcing it all over internet when and where we will be, neither will we post your details over the net even though we may have them. Every event you hold will be a potential target along with your meetings, fund raisers and social events.

So says leading light of the Infidels, “Snowy”, who also moonlights as an anti-Irish loyalist bigot.

This strategy has also been used by EDL groups to attempt attacks on various left and anti-racist events. We have detailed some of their attempts to attack “left” events previously (which had largely been unsucessful), and won't do so again here. However, more recent events have been more serious.

EDL and National Front supporters recently attacked the Occupy Newcastle protest camp, hospitalising one person and bragging of the attack on Facebook afterwards. This weekend Liverpool EDL tried to attack the offices of the trade union Unite, but were seen off by officials. They then headed to News From Nowhere bookshop, which has become a target due to its “support for illegal immigrants”. This follows their recent appearance at an anti-cuts rally to heckle and abusing recently sacked workers laid off from a bust outsourcing company while "patrolling for leftys."

Most recently, police arrested 156 EDL supporters in London at the weekend, with reports variously citing theft from the pub they were drinking in, racial abuse of its staff, and threats made to attack the Occupy London protest camp at St. Paul's cathedral. The argument could be made that the police are looking to show some political parity following the heavy policing of last week's student demonstration (and threats to use baton rounds against it), and the banning of Islamist micro-group Muslims Against Crusades. However, actual threats had been made online:

In reality the Met likely wanted to avoid the PR catastrophe fighting between the EDL's finest and the Occupy protests on the steps of St Paul's on Remembrance Sunday would represent.

Given the Newcastle attack, it would make sense to view the threat to Occupy London as a genuine one. Which leads onto the main point of this blog article

What's the point?

At a time where living standards in the UK and across the world are facing the greatest attack in generations, and we are seeing a broadly anti-capitalist, grassroots protest movement developing around the globe, the question could be asked whether there's any point to discussing the likes of the EDL beyond political trainspotting.

It's no doubt true that investing huge amounts of time and energy into opposing the EDL to the detriment of community and workplace organising is a waste of time. However, it is becoming clear that as the EDL “boil down” to a core of activists targeting anything “left”, and in particular the burgeoning anti-austerity movement, we need to be prepared for confrontation with them.

Part of the problem is that the likes of the SWP and UAF have thrown rhetoric around about “smashing the EDL” without having anything near the muscle or political willingness to back up the threat. There's something farcical and embarrassing about EDL activists being able to turn up and disrupt anti-fascist events without suffering any real consequences. As a result their confidence has grown to the stage that they feel they can attack anti-austerity protesters at night and put them in hospital.

Anti-fascism and physical confrontation with the right shouldn't be fetishised, not should we promote getting into a gang war with the EDL or other groups.

However, there's now a clear need to be much more security conscious, both at our events and during anti-austerity meetings and demonstrations. Politically, the sacrifice in autonomy represented by gladly accepting police protection rather than organising our own defence is very problematic. There needs to be an increase in security consciousness and planning for anarchist groups, anti-cuts groups and events like bookfairs and conferences, and an awareness and planning for the fact that the right are going to attempt to intimidate us.

libcom.org

Thanks to NewsHound for the heads-up

Hobson's hatred.

A former senior member of the English Defence League who was once linked to the Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik and investigated over threats to kill George Galloway, has joined a secretive facebook group set up three months ago to post death threats to the Irish and Catholics in general but in particular, Celtic manager Neil Lennon.

Daryl Hobson aged 43, who is no stranger to the courts and controversy was disowned by the far-right EDL earlier this year after he allegedly boasted of the group’s links to Anders Breivik, the right wing Norwegian terrorist who murdered 77 people in two terrorist attacks in Oslo dring July of this year. In the same month as the attack, Hobson was then investigated over death threats posted on the internet about the former Respect MP George Galloway.

Hobson, from Worthing, Sussex only last week had an appeal turned down relating to a conviction he received in Aylesbury last year after EDL an demonstration where he was arrested for abusing police officers. The court heard how Hobson was also chanting and glorifying Harry Roberts who is an infamous London bank robber jailed for the killing of three Police officers.

Hope Not Hate can now reveal that Hobson has continued posting hate messages and threats on facebook and even joined a secret facebook group of just two hundred hardline neo-nazis and Loyalists administered by other former members of the EDL. The seretive group is dedicated to promoting and encouraging sectarian hatred and violence. “Orange Order & Loyalists” which is accessible by invitation only, is administered jointly by Max Graham, a Scotsman living in Merseyside, and former crack addict and Llama farmer John “Snowy”. Shaw from Knaresborough, a market town in North Yorkshire, runs a rival group to the EDL known as the “Infidels” who broke away from the EDL criticising its leaders for among other things, their Irish heritage and Catholic faith.

Shaw, who plays the flute for a Yorkshire based Flute band, “Leeds Crown Defenders” is also a close associate of former London UDA boss Frank Portanari and is one of a number of former EDL members that has drifted towards the hardline Loyalist National Front as the EDL begins to fracture and show signs of fatigue.

For Hobson however, there appears to have been no let up in his hateful activities on or off line no matter what group he is involved in. Posting on the group’s secretive wall Hobson wrote last Sunday that “the only way to cure a man of catholicism (sic) is a good burning. FGAU” [for God and Ulster].

Hobson also wrote last month “Kill all Taigs” (Catholics), and posted up an image that he had created himself of Celtic manager Neil Lennon with the message “Target The Taig, one magazine is not enough” peppered with what would appear to be bullet holes.

Celtic manager Lennon has been living away from his family and under police protection after receiving death threats and bullets through the post. He was even physically attacked on the pitch by a football supporter during a Celtic match away at Edinburgh based club Hearts in May.

Another member of the group is Gina Adair, the former gun-toting wife of former Loyalist terror chief Johnny Adair. Last month Gina was photographed with a group of well known English neo-nazis who had been previously associated with the neo-Nazi terror group Combat 18.

The hatred of Irish Catholicism is nothing knew to the British far-right. For years and years the NF, BNP and C18 gave support, money, members and arms to Loyalist terrorists, but not always with great success. Although the BNP in particular has attempted to play down its history of sectarian hatred, that organisation has seen a small number of hardline deserters move into the previously moribund National Front, which shares as well as a hatred of the Irish, a hardline anti-Semitism.

There have been a number of cases recently of people being prosecuted for inciting hatred on social media. The police in Scotland have also reacted to threats against Lennon and the wider and growing problem of sectarianism with a series of arrests.

The likes of the EDL, "Infidels" and the National Front are a repetition of some of the darkest and most dangerous days of British fascism.




Hope not Hate

Redneck roundup

The axe falls on another day's racism and violence

400-500 hundred EDL thugs made their way for an afternoon's racist chanting in Birmingham today. Attacking photographers, police officers and setting off thunder flashes being somehow their way of demonstrating their patriotism.

This was the smallest national demonstration that the EDL has held in over two years, but no means their least violent. Once more journalists and photographers were targeted by these moronic thugs. Their numbers are shrinking not just because of the growing internal divisions inside the group, but also because of the large number of then (them) who end up arrested.

Newcastle actually witnessed the worst of these thugs today. Yesterday a decision was made to postpone the "Rise against Islamaphobia" event in Newcastle town centre. This did not stop the EDL, the Scottish Defence League, the National Front and the Infidels descending on the town to terrorise innocent shoppers. The atmosphere between the EDL and the Infidels is always frosty, particularly as their leader "Snowy" decided to make an appearance. The Infidels decided to hide behind local NF thug Simon Biggs and his crew of thugs, while the EDL and SDL were more interested in drinking and planning trouble.

After a few hours trying to intimidate people taking part in the "Occupy Newcastle" protest, the combined gangs of alcoholics, drug dealers, thugs and football hooligans made their way to the Union Rooms pub in Central station where the SDL hooligans then decided to settle a few scores with the Infidels. First to get blooded was local Infidel leader Peter Duffy who fell on the stairs and was attacked. He only managed to stand up when "Snowy" Shaw magically appeared assuming it that it was safe for him to do so.

The fighting continued in the streets for a good twenty minutes as the fascists decided to put months and months of internal bickering behind them.

This picture shows exactly how serious the intent is now between the rival fascist groups in the North East.

Hope not hate

Aylesbury woman reprimanded for racist attacks

A woman from Aylesbury has been given a 12 week suspended sentence for a year and 200 hours unpaid work, for her part in racist attacks against a mosque in Hartlepool and Asian-run businesses near Sunderland.

Nineteen year old Charlotte Christina Davies admitted conspiracy to commit racially aggravated criminal damage, after her text messages to her boyfriend - Easington Colliery man, Anthony Donald Smith - offered encouragement for his intention to vandalise Asian property.

Twenty four year old Smith, of Rydale Court, Trimdon, was a member of right-wing group, The English Defence League at the time. He carried out the attacks last November, with fellow EDL member, Darlington man, 32 year old Steven James Vasey, of Eden Crescent.

The crimes were committed by the pair on the eve of Muslim festival, Eid, in response to an incident on Armistice Day in Luton where poppies were set alight by extreme Islamic groups.

Vasey , Smith and an accomplice were masked as they scaled a fence at the Nasir mosque in Hartlepool. They spray-painted the letters 'EDL' and 'NEI' (North East Infidels) along with the phrase, 'no surrender' and images of poppies and the St. George flag.

In Shotton Colliery two Asian-owned businesses suffered vandalism. A store had a window smashed with a brick and a nearby guest house was sprayed with graffiti similar to that of the mosque in Hartleypool.

Smith - a taxi driver - was arrested the following day after his vehicle was linked to the scenes of crime. Text messages on his phone between him and his then girlfriend Aylesbury woman Charlotte Christina Davies referenced going 'Muzzy bashing' and giving the mosque a 'makeover'.

Davies, Smith and Vasey all admitted conspiracy to commit racially aggravated criminal damage. Smith and Vasey have been given a one year custodial sentence.

The trio claim they have severed their ties with the EDL.

mix96

Thanks to NewsHound for the heads-up