Here are a few videos from a quick trawl on YouTube. I’ve included one from a pro-fascist in which a cop gives the state’s rationale for their operation and one showing the fascists entering the square. It does look like the balance of forces was very unfavourable to the anti-fascists, a fact the police exploited with their decision to arrest Weyman Bennett and Martin Smith.
The report underneath is taken from Permanent Revolution. Even if you don’t agree with the political conclusions it’s self-evidently a strong eye witness account.
I was in Bolton, and I want to write a factual and reasonably unbiased account of what I saw, leaving commentary and criticism to others, but I don’t think I’ll be able to give an honest account of what happened without criticizing UAF. I know it’s a cliché to blanket criticize the SWP, but on this occasion I think their conduct deserves it….writes Bolton anti-fascist….
Police out of control from the start
Firstly, the police were heavy handed and violent towards us from the outset, with little or no provocation that I could see. Before anyone criticizes any of their comrades about what went wrong in Bolton, just remember that the police were completely out of control. The dogs were set loose on people for no reason, I saw one person get bitten just for having the rotten luck to be in the dogs path, and subsequently get taken to hospital with quite serious arm injuries. These initial ructions began at 9:30 and carried on for the next 2 hours.
After assembling in the square and seeing the barriers and portaloo’s they’d provided it was quite clear that we were going to be kettled all day, so some people tried to keep the exits to the square open and not let the police box us in so easily. The EDL had been sneaking people into our crowd through these exit points the police had set up, so early on I stood on one of the exits with a few people, trying to spot potential EDL and point them out. I feel the Police allowed people who were clearly EDL into our section of the crowd and put a lot of innocent people in danger by doing so. I also think that the UAF stewards, with a few very important exceptions, were too busy trying to set up their stalls and PA systems and get the generators going to cover the exits and keep an eye on what was going on. Despite trying to keep the exits clear, any attempts to get freedom of movement were short lived, and after about 10am all attempts to get out of the kettle were met with hostility from the police. The police manhandled anyone who tried to move through the choke-points they had created, and this is what led to the hostile atmosphere between the UAF and the police early on.
Between about 10-12 the police gradually became more and more hostile, refusing to allow groups of protestors from getting into the kettle to protest, resuting in chants of “Let them in” from the UAF PA system. As the situation was getting more heated, the police made the decision to arrest Martin Smith and Weymann Bennet by sending two snatch squads of riot police into the crowd to pick them up. I saw people putting up a brave fight in front of the police to prevent them being nicked, but the subsequent reaction of the SWP Martin Smith loyalists after this happened was problematic. A lot of them fell to bits, the only thing I saw them do in response was try to provoke chants of “let Martin go”, which seems like a pretty weak strategy to fall back on when your leadership has been arrested. It appeared that the SWP leadership, including Weyman Bennett before his arrest did not have much of a strategy. Weyman’s arrest was an outrageous provocation for the entire movement. We need to demand that all those arrested yesterday have the charges dropped now, they are an attempt to intimidate us all and we must unite to fight them together.
After the arrests
After the arrests, the SWP contingent were angry and leaderless, so the UAF stewards started to tell everyone to link arms and “hold the line” against the police, thereby ignoring the EDL gathering on the other side of the barriers. People were being encouraged to stand away from the EDL and direct their anger at the police. I could not for the life of me think why we should’ve done this, and I had it out with a few red-shirted stewards making this very point. There were no EDL on the other side of the police, only our own protestors who were just as hopelessly kettled as we were, and the police were allowing people to leave in ones and two’s if you needed to get out. I remember getting dragged into a pushing and shoving match with the police, out of pure herd mentality, then walking off around the side of the police lines and getting behind them without any hindrance! Then they let me back in! What’s also telling is that the UAF only attempted to do this when they knew the police were in sufficient numbers to handle it, they were not so keen to do it when they had a realistic chance of getting out of there through police lines. I personally feel they just wanted to link arms and push the police, partially out of revenge for their leader being arrested, and partially because I think they feel that’s what constitutes direct action, a bit of “we shall not be moved” and linking arms. Just going through the motions. There’s no point linking arms and chanting “we shall not be moved” when you’re kettled and unable to move anyway! It also led to people being needlessly arrested, good comrades of mine spent the night in jail and some of them are looking at serious charges for getting involved in that pointless waste of energy.
In the meantime the EDL were on the other side of the fence, having a smoke, walking around unhindered, throwing lighters at people and generally being the sort of fascist scum you can imagine. Their numbers were very small for most of the day and those who did stand there and chant at them, rather than needlessly fight the police, did a good j
ob of unnerving them. It was certainly more constructive than perpetually charging the police lines in the circumstances. By the time the main EDL contingent had arrived a lot of our best people had been arrested and others had been pushing and shoving the police for 3 hours and were dead tired. We were tired, demoralised, rain-soaked and bruised by the time they showed up.
EDL not so big
Their numbers weren’t that big, 2,000 was an exaggeration I’d say around 1,300 for them and around 1,500 for us, and for most of the day they only had around 100-200 Bolton inbreds stood gormlessly on the other side of the fence. Also, when me and my contingent left town, we were confused with being EDL by the police and sent down the street to where they being held. A group of about 12 of us had to walk through 60 EDL outside a town centre pub, who’s name I don’t want to mention, and despite their huge numerical advantage we not only walked through them unharmed but even stood and gave them some abuse, all without any hindrance or threat of retaliation. Their average age was about 17 and when I stood there and said to them, eyeball to eyeball, they were fighting on the same side as Adolf Hitler, they just looked at the ground and said nothing. Without their hardcore off the coaches, who I assume are footie hooligans, the EDL were not at all scary, and every face to face encounter I’ve had with them they’ve bottled it.
The local Asian youth were up for it this time, although they didn’t come ’til later, they seemed much smarter and better organized than the UAF. They didn’t get kettled, and they didn’t spend 4 hours in the rain being battered by the police. They arrived later, in small mobile groups with cars and backup, and cleared Bolton of all the stray little groups of EDL that were lurking down the side streets. I don’t worry about the banner that says “Allah is the greatest”, it’s just something to wind them up a bit, the same way they have American and Israeli and Anti-Nazi flags to piss us off. Not all the Asian youth were associated with that banner anyway, some I heard even objected to it. It isn’t for me to judge to be honest.
UAF has failed
If we can take one thing from Bolton it is that the UAF has failed and the the SWP may well go down with it. I do not think putting the hopes of militant anti-fascism into the hands of a dying and outdated organisation, riven with factions and bitter personal disputes, is a smart idea. People should build demo’s locally, involve their trade unions, and when in the town centres try to be peaceful and co-operate with the police. If you want to confront fascists physically, do it in small groups, away from the peaceful protests, or even better do it before they even get into town. Small autonomous and mobile groups that have no names, no banners, no PA and no way of being kettled. That’s the way forward.
I want to apologize to all the staunch comrades who I know in the SWP who were there that day and who weren’t responsible for the terrible strategic mistakes that were made. I’m not directing what I say here at the whole SWP, and I hope the good ones salvage something out of the organization. Lions led by donkeys is a phrase that springs to mind.
Liam redux 
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