Hardcore Nazis Invited To Attend EDL Rallies

Liam Pinkham posting on the hardline national socialist chat site VNN, has just posted an insight into why the himself and Hitler-loving cohort Wigan Mike are always seen on EDL marches. His allegations are fatally damaging to the repeated "we are not neo-nazis" propaganda that Trevor Kelway and friends post regularly throughout the internet.

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The Allegations

While discussing the dirty habits of the EDL pissing on Westminster Abbey with former Blood and Honour administrator Beverley Kerry, convicted violent thug and regular straight-armed saluter on EDL rallies, hardcore unreconstructed nazi Liam Pinkham (Pino) posting on a thread on VNN, happened to let it slip that the EDL leadership from on-high, regularly telephones himself and bosom buddy "Wigan Mike" Heaton, (well aware of who they are), begging them to publically attend EDL gatherings.

The URL of the conversation is: http://www.vnnforum.com/showthread.php?p=1107755 Just in-case Chris Renton and a certain boggle-eyed far right pig farmer exerts immediate pressure on Bev Kerry to have the thread pulled, a screenshot is included with this article so you can see for yourself, and make up your own mind on the EDL's secret yet bizarre relationship to Pinkham and Heaton.

The more one considers the allegations, there seems little reason for Liam Pinkham to make such claims up in the context of the situation (regardless of his personal misgivings with the EDL set-up), which suggests, if true, the EDL's shadowy bigwigs don't just tolerate hardcore neo-Nazis. They actively encourage their presence.

Logically, the EDL leadership strive for their controversial racist and violent street gatherings to appeal to the traditional far right community of anti-black Jewish-hating, and Holocaust-denying skinheads, to which Pinkham and Heaton fall point-blank into this category.

Judging by the rammifications of the discourse on VNN, Pinkham himself personally regards the telephone callls he received from the EDL's big cheeses as evidence of the Islamophobic organisation's government backing, in-line with popular far right conspiracy theories about the EDL being a machination of the state, however if you have read the recent Searchlight articles about the EDL, or more damningly Lionheart's videos about the EDL leadership actively encouraging known neo-Nazis to attend EDL events, the allegations (if true) are totally and utterly damning, leaving EDL claims that they are not nazis or racists, totally and utterly discredited.

There has been plenty of recent debate on Indymedia and other antifascist forums about why exactly when the EDL repeatedly claim not to harbour nazi sympathies, highlighting scuffles with Combat18 and speeches condemning Blood and Honour, do they turn a blind eye to the involvement of the ultra-violent quasi-terrorist British Freedom Fighters and other hardcore neo-Nazis in their events, however Pinkham's startling claims that the EDL leadership physically ring up both Pinkham and Heaton, pestering them to attend rallies, startlingly implies that the EDL go out of their way to ensure hardcore facsists are part of the furniture.

To ignore the random presence of people who openly declare their love of national socialism (Pinkham/Pino88) attending EDL rallies is one thing, but actively inviting them to take part, is astounding. Whether or not Pinkham would wish to go public on the phone calls, if he has stored the messages, is another matter, especially if there is no truth in claims of the EDL being a government-sponsored "black-op". Nevertheless, if the calls could somehow be retrieved, the dictatorial EDL leadership team would be resigned to history overnight, causing a change of leadership in the organisation.

As VNN is fervently pro-BNP in outlook, and Bev is on speaking terms with Nicholas Griffin Esquire, judging by the strangehold Paul Ray alleges the BNP exacts over the EDL (via Chris Renton), such a damning stake through the heart is unlikely, however merely considering the possibility of the EDL leadership making regular phone calls to Pinkham and Heaton, makes the mind boggle, and adds an extra dimension to the understanding of what the EDL has become, and where it is aiming to go.

Let's hope these alarming allegations can be investigated further, rather than being swept under the carpet, as usually happens in far right circles.

Truth Seeker via Indymedia London

"Fumble For The Fatherland" - Boxing's Fascist Fight Night

The sport of legends Muhammad Ali and Amir Khan, is being hijacked this weekend at the world-famous Caesars Nightclub venue at Streatham in South London. This coming Sunday, the 28th February 2010, a team of eight fascist-friendly semi-professional English boxers will supporting the neo-Nazi EDL, entering a boxing ring displaying EDL logo shorts and flags for an official EBC prizefighter contest.

This far right boxing night promoted in conjunction with Mean Machine Promotions, in the nation's capital, is designed to raise the profile of the cowardly racist political organisation whose last rally in England involved storming through a predominantly Asian area of Stoke, smashing up cars, windows and passers-by in what has been described by onlookers as an anti-Muslim pogrom.

Rather than being being a cage-fighting event in a derelect warehouse akin to criminal hoodlums, the EDL's event is being held in one of London's most famous boxing venues, Caesars, advertised as "London's largest and most luxurious nightclub", and is sanctioned by the European Boxing Council (EBC).

Caesars has hosted the likes of Lennox Lewis, Lloyd Honeyghan and Gary Mason, and outside of boxing, has been used to film scenes Footballers Wives (ITV) fight sequences from the movie "Snatch" starring Brad Pitt, chat-show goddess Trisha, Big Brother's Big Mouth (Channel Four), and Most Haunted (Living TV), with their legendary Christmas parties regularly featured on Sky.

Caesars is indeed a celebrity-frequented venue, and not some backstreet dive, all the more shocking when you consider that the BNP have to make do with the less than glorious surroundings of the New Kimberley Hotel for their shenanigans.

On their social networking web pages, self-confessed boxing fan and psychotic fascist thug Liam Pinkham devotes plenty of space to the merits of his "Great White (Supremacist) Hopes" of boxing, aiming to prove to the world that Aryans pack the best punch. Following the EDL's showcase sporting event, Caesars are laying on an "exclusive afterparty" where hardcore neo-Nazis Pinkham and steroidal busom buddy Wigan Mike can chase around siliconised Page Three models all night long, demonstrating the pro-active feminism of the EDL.

Over forty EDL members have already bought tickets. Tickets for the "Fumble For The Fatherland" are being sold on Ebay through the EDL's "merchandise shop" alongside their paramilitary hoodies and assorted nationalist and racist tat at £45 each, as well as other outlets.

(Like their "multiracial nationalist" idol Nick Griffin in the BNP, the EDL seem happy to rip off their own members by charging £5 for postage per ticket).

From Bolton to Sheffield, Cardiff to Brixton, boxing gyms all across the country pride themselves in offering sports and fitness training to young people from under priviledged backgrounds. Go in any inner city gym, and you will see black, Asian and white kids training together with mutual respect and admiration. The ethos of equal competition is one sadly lacking in most other sports, and for that reason, boxing is part of the government's sports development strategy to coincide with the forthcoming 2012 London Olympics.

Despite the EDL's recent setbacks, organised racism and religious hatred is steadily increasing year-in, year-out with the spirit of fervent Islamophobia fostered by politicians, state institutions and the scaremongering tabloid media who worryingly have turned their attentions from hooked-handed foreign bogeymen to British Muslims (the "enemy within"), to shore-up public support for the War On Terror and silence critics of an extremely unpopular and bloody Afgan war with casualties on all sides.

It is the misguided belief fostered by the rightwing newspaper industry and black ops foreign office "leaks" (the whole of the Taliban have Brummie accents) that has created the environment for a resurgence of the British far right exploited by violent neo-Nazi groups such as the EDL.

Egotist and publicity whore of the EDL Trevor Kelway sees mileage in turning media attentions from race riots to ringside aggression. Eight shameless racist boxers will be taking to the ring this Sunday in London for what the EDL leadership see as both a moneymaking opportunity and a cynical PR exercise, a chance to appeal to a wider fan base who might not otherwise warm to their hardcore Hitler loving British Freedom Fighters or the EDL's violently destructive racial football hooliganism.

Whilst a handful of potential boxing starlets of tomorrow fritter away hopes of fame and fortune through mutual association with English fascism, sweating tears of endurance as lackeys for an Islamophobic masterplan, spare a thought for Alan Lake and the EDL's other weathly far right backers who will be sipping extravagantly on champage on ice, playing millionairre war games with people's minds while the cancer of organised racism takes a foothold within the grassroots sporting world.

Since the defeat in the rematch of Max Schmeling by Joe Louis (Schmeling himself refusing to join the Nazi party or sack his American Jewish manager, and hiding two Jewish boys in his apartment during the Kristallnacht pogrom), with the rise of Jewish, black and Asian ring fighters, boxing has had an estranged relationship with fascism, and may seem like an unlikely target for the EDL.

Since the New Millenium, the Lonsdale boxing brand became momentarily popular with the European far right in the Netherlands, Belgium, northern France and Germany, especially because a carefully placed outer jacket leaves the letters NSDA showing; an acronym of Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter (National Socialist German Worker), and one letter short of NSDAP, the German acronym for the Nazi Party, however the boxing world has generally embraced non-white people and immigrants (including Muslims) into its gymnasiums, alongside the white working class.

One thing's for sure, the undeniable patriotism and steadfast patriotism of Amir Khan who dedicated his victories after 7/7 to the victims of Islamic terror, will be affronted by the poisonous bile and misdeeds of the EDL, who, despite claims of being "only against religious extremism", regularly create disorder, race hatred and chaos in the city centres of England, Wales and Scotland with straight-armed Hitler salutes, banners calling for the banning of mosques, incessant racist chanting, and behind the scenes, plotting deadly large-scale race riots.

During recent invasions into British cities masked paramilitary followers of this violent anti-Islamic far right gang have physically and verbally attacked innocent (non-extremist) Muslims in the street, vandalised Islamic gravestones, and threatened Muslim taxi drivers with death, (hardly the behaviour of a genuine anti-religious extremist group).

Whatever are one's personal thoughts regarding boxing, with the Olympics approaching, it is important that anti-fascists everywhere show our massed opposition to hate-peddling British fascist bootboys infiltrating the corporate sporting world.

You can register your disapproval of the EDL hijacking boxing by contacting the venue direct and asking them to cancel the Prizefighter event (please be polite and courteous in all correspondance!!! Thanks!):

Contact:

Mr Fred Batt (Owner)
fred@caesars.uk.com
info@caesars.uk.com
Caesars Nightclub,
156-160 Streatham Hill
London
SW2 4RU

Or speak to Club Manager Vickie on 020-8671-3000
Fax: 01306-711660
http://www.caesars.uk.com/
vickie@caesars.uk.com

Mean Machine Promotions

Indymedia

English Defence League cracks begin to show

The English Defence League was born in 2009, but as we begin 2010 Simon Cressy wonders whether the EDL is about to self-destruct

The year 2009 could be described as a seesaw year for the newly formed English Defence League. Responding to a protest in Luton in March by the extreme Islamist al-Muhajiroun group against troops of the Royal Anglian Regiment returning from the war in Afghanistan, local football hooligans organised a counter-demonstration under the name United People of Luton. They in turn linked up with hooligans associated with a variety of football clubs across the UK.

Using social networking websites such as Facebook as their means of communication, the hooligans concluded that Islamism was a national problem and they had to put aside club rivalries. By the summer the English Defence League had been born and was holding demonstrations across some of the major cities of England, with smaller ones in Wales and Scotland as the embryonic Welsh and Scottish Defence Leagues.

Hands up all you nazi boys: Liam Pinkham (left) and Jerry “Wurzel” Watson

All seemed to be going well for the EDL, but evidence has emerged that splits and divisions are rife within the organisation.

The EDL has always insisted that it is not nazi or racist, even going to the length of holding a sham press conference complete with a pre-planned burning of a swastika flag. However elements in the EDL leadership are quite prepared to accept members of nazi groups as long as they behave themselves, much to the chagrin of more moderate members.

Joel Titus, the violent teenage leader of the EDL’s youth wing, has voiced loud concern, along with several other members of “the inner circle”, over the glib acceptance of known nazis such as Liam Pinkham of the British Freedom Fighters. Pinkham and his mentor Mike Heaton have been regulars at EDL events since Luton. The EDL inner circle has been well aware of this, yet has refused to distance itself from them.

Pinkham received a four-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, with 200 hours’ community service and two years’ supervision back in July after he burst into the News from Nowhere community bookshop in Liverpool and threatened the female owners. Pinkham, from the Wirral, was taking part in a British National Party march through Liverpool city centre at the time. The women, who were justifiably terrified, testified that Pinkham threatened to “burn down the shop”.

This comes on top of Heaton’s arrest in December by the North East Counter Terrorism Unit. Heaton is currently on bail charged with soliciting murder and using threatening, abusive or insulting words likely to stir up racial hatred. That will no doubt stick in the craw of Titus, who is of mixed race and claims Martin Luther King is his hero.

Following a recent demonstration in London, EDL supporters led by Titus clashed with Nazi-saluting Chelsea hooligans, leaving one of the Chelsea fans hospitalised. It is reported that Titus now wears a stab vest in fear of reprisals following threats made on the Stormfront nazi web forum.

A closer look at the EDL inner circle reveals why its members may be reluctant to jettison their nazi friends. One of the global moderators on the EDL internet forum is Sean Corrigan of St Albans. Posting under the moniker “Road Rage”, what Corrigan fails to tell Titus and the more moderate wing of the EDL is that he is a gold member of the BNP.

(left to right) Chris Renton, Joel Titus, Matthew Kaplan and Leisha Brookes

Another in the EDL inner circle is Chris Renton, a BNP activist from Weston-super-Mare, who now appears to be using the online name “John Sheridan” and controls a large number of EDL Facebook groups.

One who recently fell foul of Renton is the veteran Bristol EDL activist Jerry “Wurzel” Watson, whom Renton blacklisted following allegations, strongly denied by Watson, of theft of a charity box. This led Watson to side with Paul Ray, the increasingly flaky self-styled “spiritual” leader of the EDL. Ray has formed his own St George’s Division of the EDL and has titled himself “Grandmaster Ray”, despite being disowned by the official EDL.

Another leading EDL activist now sidelined is the bullish Leisha Brookes. An ever visible member of the EDL, Brookes has led the women’s division and acted as the group’s police liaison officer. However, her abrasive nature is not to everyone’s taste in the EDL. One person in particular who has had numerous clashes with her is Matthew Kaplan, a Jewish student from Seattle who is studying history at King’s College, London.

Kaplan is the paid EDL publications coordinator, responsible for leaflets and press releases. He has been seen at several EDL demonstrations complete with Israeli flag. He has clashed on several occasions on the official EDL Facebook group with Leisha Brookes and her supporters for a number of reasons, mainly because he is an American.

Brookes has declared that she doesn’t trust him and accused him of working for the police. Kaplan revealed that Brookes and her colleagues threatened to attack him if he turned up at the Nottingham EDL event on 5 December.

Other leading EDL members have accused her of posting racist comments on the EDL internet forum. Whatever the truth behind the fallout, Brookes has definitely been removed as the EDL’s police liaison officer and is no longer in charge of the women’s division.

It is believed that the new EDL police liaison officer is none other than Corrigan, the BNP gold card carrying member from St Albans.

Hope not hate

Wirral BNP supporter admits threatening female shopworkers during far-right march

A BNP sympathiser has admitted threatening staff at a bookshop during a far-right march. Liam Pinkham, 21, was taking part in a BNP march through Liverpool city centre when he burst into the News from Nowhere community bookshop on Bold Street.

Liverpool crown court was told the skinhead was dressed in stereotypical far-right clothing, including a bomber jacket and jack boots and was abusive to the two women workers inside. They claimed he threatened to “burn down the shop”.

Pinkham yesterday admitted intentionally causing harassment, although his barrister Philip Astbury insisted he had only threatened to “shut down the shop”.

Pinkham, of Leeswood Road, Woodchurch, Wirral, had originally been charged with criminal damage and racially aggravated intentional harassment, but he pleaded to the lesser charge on the day his trial was due to start.

Geoffrey Greenwood, prosecuting, told the court Pinkham’s victims were extremely frightened of giving evidence and his pleas were acceptable.

Mr Astbury said Pinkham had now moved away from supporting the party. He said: “This was a fairly radical establishment which was obviously anti the organisation with which the defendant sympathised with.” He added: “He has tried to take himself away from that sphere of interest.”

The court heard Pinkham had been subject to a community order at the time of the incident on November 29 last year. Judge Bryn Holloway said: “On any view this was an extremely unpleasant incident.”

He adjourned sentencing until July 31.

Liverpool Echo