And on that happy note, thank you to everyone who texted to let me know what was going on, and thank you to all those who left comments. Apart from a few arrests, the whole thing seems to have gone off reasonably well (for us) and everyone seems safe. If the police do their jobs and kick the EDL out of town sharpish, Luton can relax and get on with being a happily multi-cultural town, despite any crap that David Cameron might want to spout. Thanks, all.
16.11: A fascist is forcibly removed from our side.
16.04: Speaker announces that EDL wanted 8000 but got 2500 [or less]. Hails this as possibly the beginning of the end for the EDL. Also, praises multi-culturalism and condemns Cameron for his comments yesterday. It is suggested that we should take our inspiration from Egypt.
15.59: Everyone being herded back into square by police.
Hope not hate reports, 'I'm really pleased to report that it seems that today has passed off peacefully. The people of Luton have rejected the provocation of the EDL. One of the main reasons for this was the great work done in the Muslim community to keep their youth off the streets. Hundreds of stewards and dozens of mediation teams were out to reduce tensions and refute the rumours that were circulating. Community elders stood hand in hand to calm youngsters down and encourage people not to rise to the EDL's bait. Across the town, faith leaders from the Christian churches in Luton were on the ground to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Muslim community'.
Socialist Worker reports, 'A delegation from UAF has entered Bury Park to cheers, applause and chants. Earlier in the day they had been blocked by police from entering the area. There is an electric atmosphere at both key points on the anti-fascist side. In Park Square, protesters have pushed the police back a number of times'.
15.40: EDL fighting each other. No damage to town immediately obvious.
15.33: A few of ours were arrested when a large group pushed through police lines. No numbers yet.
15.27: Large number of anti-fascists marching through Muslim area.
15.19: It has just been announced that the mosque attack rumour is untrue and that the Muslim area is quiet. There were 1500 EDL and they are now dispersing.
15.17: Some of our side have broken through police lines.
Nick Lowles at Hope not hate reports, 'There are plenty of rumours flying around. First there was a story that a Koran was burnt up on the Farley Hill estate now there's a rumour that a mosque has been attacked in Bury Park. Neither are true'.
15.14: Just heard that EDL threw firecrackers at police horses during their march.
15.05: We are hearing that a mosque has been attacked. More on that as we get it...
14.58: Park Square rally outnumbering second rally point. A large group of anti-EDL protestors have just moved off to one side of the square to see off some fash.
14.25: Things have calmed down a lot and people are listening to the music.
Richard Howitt, Labour MEP for Luton said: “I am deeply proud that Luton is at the forefront of the fight against the EDL who have manipulated publicity about the march and falsely portrayed themselves. They are an ultra-nationalist far right group with Nazi connections. They are Nazis and we say ‘never again’. They attack all Muslims who tell us they feel villified and attacked by the EDL. The EDL lies about the number of its supporters. I was in the operations room at the Town Hall an hour ago and just four coaches had arrived at that time. We will not fall for their propaganda about numbers. The police have stopped a minibus on the motorway and one person was found to be carrying a club. Why would he want to bring a club to Luton today?”
14.08: A Luton football supporter has just spoken, saying that not all supporters are EDL.
14.06: Someone with a Tony Blair mask has a placard, 'War Criminals say They Shall Not Pass'.
14.03: One of the Sikhs has a placard, 'Guramit Singh, lock him up!' There is now a speaker from a local mosque.
13.53: A stand-off with mounted police. No dogs (yet).
13.51: Attempt to march to the EDL blocked by police.
13.50: A lot of our people have moved up to the police lines.
13.48: Vibrant demo against racist and fascist EDL. Bands good, lots of speakers and stalls. The police have kept us apart from the EDL. They rate us the same as the EDL. We are not!
13.46: Speaker describes EDL as Evil Defence League.
13.42: More speakers; MP and Trades Council speaker (Asian guy who remembers opposing the NF).
13.35: Guys in turbans holding banner, 'Sikhs against the English Defence League. Fighting intolerance since 1699'.
13.33: Group tried to get to Bury Park but were stopped by police and returned to Park Square. There are apparently around 1000 at Bury Park.
13.32: 1000 now at anti-EDL rally.
13.28: EDL march has started. Held up by them fighting with their own stewards, throwing bottles and trying to push through the lines. They are chanting 'Muslim bombers off our streets'.
13.24: 200 more just arriving at rally.
13.20: Large anti-fascist march entering rally square to cheers all round.
13.19: 1000 protecting Asian area, 500 UAF at rally itself. EDL not allowed in yet by police.
13.11: Speakers in support of Muslims fighting in Egypt, condemnation of BBC for promoting EDL and of Cameron for his attack on multi-culturalism. Police keeping some EDL at station - not allowing them into centre.
13.08: Great turnout for the demo. The EDL are in a different square. Police helicopter directly above us.
13.00: Good speeches, many attacking David Cameron for his tirade against multi-culturalism.
12.26: Helicopter overshead. An MEP (not Nick Griffin) is speaking to anti-EDL protestors.
12.16: Some guy in a kilt is doing Irish dancing in the square.
12.12: A bunch of our people just moved off with police going after them.
12.03: We are in a square with music and lots of banners.
11.51am: 14 EDL already arrested for drugs and weapons.
11.47am: Plenty of Asian youth out.
11.25am: Police have been telling shopkeepers their property is endangered by Asian youth, not by the EDL.
11.21am: Centre of Luton is full of police with dogs.
11.17am: The proper story is not that the train was prevented from setting off but that UAF protestors have blockaded Luton Station and prevented the EDL from leaving the platform. Police are trying to get them out.
11.09am: Have heard that UAF demonstrators stopped an EDL train from leaving London
"Police have been telling shopkeepers their property is endangered by Asian youth, not by the EDL"
ReplyDeleteIt is as if Stephen Lawrence has not happened.
What with Cameron saying today that old far right BNP chestnut that "multiculturalism has failed", we are in for a very racist four years of Tory/Lib Dems.
You can bet your bibby that cop shop banter is back and as racist as ever since the Life On Mars days of the 80's.
BNP/EDl must be wetting themselves.
The EDL's homophobic rabbi whom they said they were no-longer going to invite to EDL events, is in Luton and about to speak, no-doubt about to call gay people "fags", while speaking about Islam.
ReplyDeleteIt all goes to show that the EDL are only pretending to be pro-gay.
Couldn't make it to Luton so glad you're covering it. Well done LU.
ReplyDelete"EDL march has started. Held up by them fighting with their own stewards"
ReplyDeleteFucking typical. Morons.
Smash the EDL!
ReplyDeleteFascism has no future in Britain.
ReplyDeleteWake up and smell the black coffee, white supremacists!
How come the EDL are allowed to march and yet anti-nazis are not???
ReplyDeleteBBC News24 covered the EDL calling them merelay a "protest against Sharia Law."
Fucking press appeasers of fascism.
Didn't the media of the 30s big up Mosley in the same kind of way?
BBC News have said there are 3000 EDLers, and Sky News 4000.
ReplyDeleteThe EDL most clearly serve an establishent purpose to shore up the war on terror.
Looks less than 2,000 to me.
ReplyDeletehttp://mypict.me/show.php?id=hqc7u
"Why would he want to bring a club to Luton today?"
ReplyDeleteBecause the EDL are thugs and they're only out for violence.
Great speech!
ReplyDelete'Looks less than 2,000 to me.'
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sam. There's a hell of a lot less than 2000 there and considerably less than the 4000 an EDL supporter just tried to tell us before his comment was deleted.
Fascists are a very small number of the population and always will be. Those neo-nazi thugs and football boneheads that spent all their pennies travelling to Luton have totally and utterley wasted their money.
ReplyDeleteWill Yaxley Lennon or Alan Lake refund their fares?
Or are they only in it for the merchandising?
The EDL is a get-rich scheme, living off the wealth of its incredibly gullible members.
I would be well pissed off with Yaxley Lennon if I was a rent-a-racist member.
LOL!
Plus Yaxley Lennon is under the pay of Special Branch.
Go figure.... edlers
From the pic it looks like 1,500 at the very most.
ReplyDeleteSo, another "little big one" then by the Evil & Dense League.
"I would be well pissed off with Yaxley Lennon if I was a rent-a-racist member".
ReplyDeleteIndeed!
Makes you wander if EDLers have enough brains to know they are being shafted big-time by their leaders.
It's hilarious, lol
Hope Not Hate says the mosque attack rumour is untrue, designed by EDLers to work up tensions in the Muslim Community.
ReplyDeletePlease pass on this info, Ketlan!
'Hope Not Hate says the mosque attack rumour is untrue, designed by EDLers to work up tensions in the Muslim Community. '
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads-up.
Well done for publicly correcting the rumour so qickly.
ReplyDeleteThe intention is to get Luton's Muslims to riot, so BBC, Sky News and David Cameron can use this as evidence that multiculturalism has failed.
ReplyDeleteThe fake rumours originate from EDL troll and state provocateurs to work up concerned anti-fascists into a frenzy.
Please pacify matters ketlan by letting people know on the ground.
It's not just the EDL and the BNP now. David Cameron last year jumped into bed with hardline Eurosceptics who oppose multiculturalism, and would love any excuse to paint British Asian people as troublemakers.
Agent procateurs were successfully used both the miners strike and the recent student protests.
Keep up the doog work,
peace and love xxx
The false rumours of burned-down mosques must fall on deaf ears, for the sake of Luton.
ReplyDeleteTheir are dangerous minds at work behind the scenes.
Beware!
Yaxley Lennonn has been contracted to provide info for Special Branch, and also for far more nefarious purposes, thus the failed prosecutions and the 24hour a day police protection.
Keep up the doog work
ReplyDeleteShould read "keep up the good work", lol
Sorry. Can't use my blackberry properly. Keys to small. Fat fingers.
'Please pacify matters ketlan by letting people know on the ground.'
ReplyDeleteThere has been an announcement there and I've received a number of texts from our folk letting me know. Word is spreading quickly.
Thanks Ketlan!
ReplyDeleteConsidering the state of the economy, the routine bigoted pronouncements of mainstream politicians and the "soft" reporting of the EDL in the media the numbers on this march are piss poor. I was expecting something more than the same tired displays of cartoon nationalism.
ReplyDeleteIf this was the 1980s most of these bozos would be content to restrict their posturing to the football grounds of the UK or the odd match in Europe.
'Thanks Ketlan!'
ReplyDeleteNo probs.
'Sorry. Can't use my blackberry properly. Keys to small. Fat fingers.'
Same problem here. :-(
'Considering the state of the economy, the routine bigoted pronouncements of mainstream politicians and the "soft" reporting of the EDL in the media the numbers on this march are piss poor.'
Too right. Weren't these idiots billing this as the biggest demo anywhere ever?
According to HnH there was also a fake rumour about a Koran burning on a Luton council estate, the hope of the far right (and security forces), to get Asian people pouring into a tinderbox white estate to start a civil war.
ReplyDeleteRepeat; there are dangerous minds at work here!
And I don't just mean EDL, but people higher upo the food chain!
If Luton's Muslim population riot, both the racists and David Cameron would win.
ReplyDeleteRealistically the EDL will be very disappointed with numbers today. But then again they took 'hundreds' over to Amsterdam in the 15 seater minibus.
ReplyDeleteAgent provocateurs are always used by the government to tie-in with parlaimentary policy to help shape public opinion.
ReplyDeleteBy getting Luton's Asian population on edge, in a self-fulfilling prophesy, multiculturalism will not work...
Think about it!
David Cameron's Hitlerian Speech:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.activistpost.com/2011/02/david-camerons-hitlerian-speech.html
Cameron did an Enoch powell!
ReplyDeleteCameron joined an oddball Eurosceptic wing rather than the main European conservative group, which included Swiss "Minuete-hating" Islamophobes and former Polish fascists, if I remember right.
It's payback for their support which is why Cameron made his racist speech.
Cameron's sucking Damian Green's cock to get hardline xenophobic UKIP voters to vote Tory, and to curry favour with the Daily Express, Daily Star, not forgetting the Daily Mail!
ReplyDeleteONE OF ENGLAND'S FINEST (PISS-TAKING TIME FROM HnH): -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.hopenothate.org.uk/blog/article/1124/One-of-the-England's-finest
(PLEASE PUT THIS PHOTO ON YOUR BLOG, KETLAN! AN EDL NEONAZI WITH MAN BOOBS, LOL)
DO A CAPTION COMPETITION, LOL
ReplyDeleteBBC now reporting EDL numbers as 1500. That's less than pathetic, for their "big homecoming", their "biggest gathering ever", absolutely laughable. They'd have to double that to even manage pathetic. Fuck off toytown Nazis, you're firing blanks
ReplyDeleteI'm not usually one for conspiracy theories but I'm going around to a lot of the comments here about a section of the State's adgenda.
ReplyDeleteThe timing of Cameron's speech to coincide with the EDL March confirms that for me and Lennon is certainly a State tout (Fuck! He may even be an actual cop!).
I say a part of the State because it wouldn't be in one mind on something like this. The EDL may have friends in one part of the Establishment (MI5, Daily Express etc.) and enemies in another (MI6 and the Daily Mail today still seem very anti). There is a debate going on inside the State about how to guide something like the EDL for their own purposes. A key part of that is keeping Lennon in place and working for them.
All in all though it's good news that the Asian youth weren't provoked. It could have been a lot worse today.
ANTI-FASCISTS BROADSIDE TO THE BRITISH MEDIA: -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_IruLpeCsA
(GREAT VIDEO, PLEASE INCLUDE ON YOUR BLOG, ANTI-FASCIST!)
If nothing else, the presence of so many European Nazis will finally nail the lie that the EDL are anything but out and out fascists.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newsvideo/8305751/Rival-protesters-clash-with-EDL-at-Luton-station.html
ReplyDeleteGood clip from the Torygraph!
Good clip from the Torygraph!
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting. Notice how the EDL guy in the baseball cap retreated pretty sharpish and the others backed off too once the UAF started encroaching.