Liam redux

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Tower Hamlets unity demonstration

Glyn Robbins, not one of life’s optimists, reckons about 3000 people marched through the streets to oppose the racist EDL. Reliable sources tell me that 823 speakers were listed on the running order for the assembly rally in Stepney. For some odd reason a lot of the local young people started to get a bit…

Liam
1–2 minutes

Glyn Robbins, not one of life’s optimists, reckons about 3000 P1000933people marched through the streets to oppose the racist EDL.

Reliable sources tell me that 823 speakers were listed on the running order for the assembly rally in Stepney. For some odd reason a lot of the local young people started to get a bit impatient after the 19th orator and there followed a renegotiation of the day’s schedule with the cops.

In effect there were two demonstrations. A spontaneous contingent of Bengali youth placed themselves at the head of the main body of demonstrators. Their slogans included “Allahu akbar” – understandable because they had the correct impression that a bunch of racists who hate their religion wanted to attack it. “EDL pussyholes” is what Stepney kids unfamiliar with feminist ideas on language say when they want to be disrespectful to the far right.

P1000932The only incident which came to the attention of stewards was the broken windscreen of a vehicle whose occupants are alleged to have said something critical of the demonstration. Compared to what the EDL typically do that’s chickenfeed.

Most of the marchers preferred a more sedate pace and resembled a typical demonstration in Britain with the difference that the bulk of them were Bangladeshis walking through their own streets to keep out a bunch of hostile visitors.

A lot of useful lessons can be taken from the day’s events.

A successful demonstration has to be built by a well connected local leadership. Their views have to be deferred to on tactical questions like when and how things should happen.

Lively demos need serious planning for stewarding arrangements. A double row of stewards who’ve had a clear briefing about how to respond helps.

A clear idea about what happens at the final assembly point and what the organisers hope to achieve is always useful.

Today’s march represented an absolute defeat for the English Defence League. They has set out to provoke and divide. All they did was to turn thousands of people onto the streets who despise them.

26 responses to “Tower Hamlets unity demonstration”

  1. Phil Avatar
    Phil

    Flynn Robbins, not one of life’s optimists

    Be fair, he’s not such a miseryguts as his brother Glynn.

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  2. David Ellis Avatar
    David Ellis

    I reckon someone could make a few bucks if they manufactured a T-shirt for these occasions with the slogan `Some People are Muslim: Get used to it’. Philosophy Football?

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  3. Liam Avatar
    Liam

    A pretty good account is here

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/davehillblog/2010/jun/21/tower-hamlets-english-defence-league-march?showallcomments=true#end-of-comments

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  4. Socialist and Secular Avatar
    Socialist and Secular

    ” “Allahu akbar” – understandable because they had the correct impression that a bunch of racists who hate their religion wanted to attack it. “EDL pussyholes” is what Stepney kids unfamiliar with feminist ideas on language say when they want to be disrespectful to the far right”

    Does this pass for radical socialism these days: apologising for religious chauvinism and out-and-out male chauvinism? Pathetic.

    “They has set out to provoke and divide. All they did was to turn thousands of people onto the streets who despise them.”

    I think Galloway also enjoys provoking and dividing communities for his own political gain.

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  5. tony collins Avatar
    tony collins

    It is absolutely joyful to watch people who are scared of brown people making such terrible excuses for entirely absenting themselves from the movement.

    Don’t worry your fragile political head though. The boys and girls of Tower Hamlets aren’t looking to you for any kind of leadership*, and your absention makes it even less likely that they would ever listen to a word you have to say.

    (*They’re not looking to me for leadership either – they built the demo themselves, stewarded it themselves, called truces between gangs without needing white people to plead with them, and will do so again, with or without your help. The diffference is, if they need any support from me or other socialists, we’ll be there to offer whatever we can)

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  6. martin ohr Avatar
    martin ohr

    tony collins: “It is absolutely joyful to watch people who are scared of brown people making such terrible excuses for entirely absenting themselves from the movement”

    you mean people who say things like this:

    “Using this latest EDL threat to the local community, it is clear to us that the IFE brigade is trying to terrify the most vulnerable in our community – the Bangladeshi women and children into joining their ranks under the banner of ‘defending the Ummah’. It has come to our knowledge that IFE and its operatives have sent out mass e-mails, text messages and visited members of the community including young children in primary schools ask them to join forces and defend Muslims and East London Mosque from imminent threat of destruction.”

    “All progressive forces must realize that the gut reaction to EDL is to defend everybody including IFE because they might be accused of being Islamophobic. But we boldly proclaim that it is not Islamophobic to have no trucks with the heirs of Fascist Jaamat. It is not Islamophobic to denounce the anti democratic credentials of IFE and their Saudi patrons. It is not Islamophobic to show solidarity with the Muslims of Tower Hamlets and their diverse representative organisations without marching under the leadership of IFE. We cannot be consistent in fighting the fascist EDL if we elect the “fascist” IFE as our Imam. In line with the best in the Islamic and Bengali tradition we reject the siren calls of IFE as we prepare to organise against EDL.”

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  7. josephine Avatar
    josephine

    you fukkin jelous bastards mind your own business and try challenging us with your religion if thats the case
    get over yourself theres many other religion in this world and these nothing you fukers can do about it

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  8. josephine Avatar
    josephine

    your all pussios thats why you need to come in groups
    you people should mind your own business and get a life

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  9. Liam Avatar
    Liam

    A persuasive point well argued or maybe not. Josephine if you want to leave further comments on this site you’ll need to abide by the comments policy and preferably write in standard English. There is a banned list for people who use that style of argument and language here.

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  10. chjh Avatar
    chjh

    “It has come to our knowledge that IFE and its operatives have sent out mass e-mails, text messages and visited members of the community including young children in primary schools” The evil bastards. Won’t somebody please think of the children!

    Incidentally, would Martin Ohr like to comment on the fact that several signatories appeared on that statement without their knowledge, and that others appear to have been invented for the event?

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  11. martin ohr Avatar
    martin ohr

    chjhjhchch: I merely reproduced a statement from a community group to refute Tony Collins claim that anyone who opposes his methods is somehow a closet racist.

    I don’t know anything about the signatories, what I do know is that the writers of the statement know a f.king lot more about racism than Tony.

    MARTIN, I CORRECTED YOUR TYPO. LIAM

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  12. Rachel Avatar
    Rachel

    CHJH – the issue about the text messages and the terrified children isn’t something to be laughed off. Children really were really frightened, some were saying that ‘the English’ were coming to stab them in their beds, 2 million EDL were coming to attack Muslims, and so forth. Schools were having assemblies to try to calm things down, while UAF was doing the opposite.

    I couldn’t persuade Bengali mums from my school to go to Victoria Park as they do other years for the wonderful free festival that was there over the weekend – they planned to stay home to avoid the EDL! And indeed my impression of the festival was that very few Bengali families attended, making it look like something taking place in Surrey. Well done, UAF, for succeeding in Tower Hamlets, where the EDL is failing, to divide people along ethnic lines.

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  13. Rachel Avatar
    Rachel

    As for the IFE, need to look outside of Tower Hamlets a bit to try to understand this. In a place full of immigrants we need to try to understand how the global impacts on the local and, in this case at least, vice versa.

    It’s not all about one press statement, or this demonstration…these issues go back decades here, it’s not hard to find people who can tell you about ’71, but that’s not to say it’s all in the past.

    For example here’s an article from a Bangladesh newspaper yesterday:

    http://www.bdnews24.com/details.php?cid=2&id=165375&hb=top

    You may not have the time or inclination to learn all about what’s going on with the war crimes trials, but please, no more claims of ignorance. SR/Respect are now taking up positions in relation to these debates, so you should be prepared to argue why.

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  14. ID Avatar
    ID

    “It has come to our knowledge that IFE and its operatives have sent out mass e-mails, text messages and visited members of the community including young children in primary schools ask them to join forces and defend Muslims and East London Mosque from imminent threat of destruction”

    Shocking! Calling on people to defend the immigrant community from racists – real bully-boy tactics that!

    “I don’t know anything about the signatories, what I do know is that the writers of the statement know a f.king lot more about racism than Tony.”

    The passage quoted above shows that the authors are completely disoriented about racism today, and are denouncing the IFE for doing things that are supportable and basic to running any anti-racist campaign. This alone discredits them.

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  15. martin ohr Avatar
    martin ohr

    Ian: “The passage quoted above shows that the authors are completely disoriented about racism today, and are denouncing the IFE for doing things that are supportable and basic to running any anti-racist campaign. This alone discredits them.”

    Ian- why don’t you organise a public debate with the authors of that statement, I’d love to see you explain to militants from the bangladeshi community about their disorientation and about how the IFE are really not all that bad.

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  16. ID Avatar
    ID

    If the IFE is carrying out basic anti-racist activities of the kind they are denounced for in the passage quoted above, then those activities deserve support.

    Maybe you Martin should organise a ‘debate’ with them to explain why Zionism and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their own country is ‘not that bad’.

    Incidentally, I wonder if the Terry Fitzpatrick who signed the statement is the same person using the same name who posted comments on the Socialist Unity blog a while ago saying it would be a good thing if Gaza were to be nuked.

    I have no idea if they are the same person, but if they are, then a de-facto alliance between him and the likes of Martin Ohr would seem logical. I wonder if the various Bengali nationalists and the like who have signed this statement would feel comfortable about being co-signatories with such people, assuming the individuals do coincide as to the names used?

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  17. ID Avatar
    ID

    “Socialist and secular”

    Presumably, if I say that Nick Griffin is a ‘c**t’, then I must be definition be a male chauvinist.

    That’s rather a big leap of logic, isn’t it?

    You may say that that language represents underlying backwardness, which undoubtedly exists, but you seem overly concerned that politically raw people don’t share your sensitivities about language as applied to fascist lowlife. Or it only Muslim youth that would ever consider abusing fascists in this way? You should get out more.

    And I’m not entirely sure how the phrase ‘Allah Akhbar’ represents religious chauvninism. Chauvinism against whom? The EDL?

    You ain’t socialist and you ain’t secular either. Socialists do not equate the religious sentiments of immigrant communities with chauvinism without concrete evidence that it is directed against other communities. No such evidence exists here. And ‘secularists’ defend those targetted by the dominant chauvinism of this society irrespective of their religious views.

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  18. martin ohr Avatar
    martin ohr

    Ian, you just descend into bizarre rambling as always:

    “zionism…socialist unity blog…nuking gaza…martin…de-facto alliance…Nick Griffin…EDL…etc”

    you’ve become the ex-spart-turned-stalinist equivilient of Richard Littlejohn.

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  19. ID Avatar
    ID

    Zero political response then. As usual.

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  20. Mark Victorystooge Avatar
    Mark Victorystooge

    Fitzpatrick definitely expressed delight on the Socialist Unity Network with the Israelis killing Turkish people on the Gaza flotilla on May 31. He now has some legal troubles, I understand (not related to that).

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  21. David Rosenberg Avatar
    David Rosenberg

    its sad that what could be a useful discussion on the positive as well as the negative aspects of last week’s march, which I was on, is being detailed by guilt by association.

    It is possible to believe that the initiative to continue to hold the march after both the Troxy event and the EDL march were cancelled was still the right one. But that didn’t necessarily mean that the fundamentalists of IFE needed to have such a central role in a coalition of a diverse East End community, confronting the racists and fascists of the EDL and trying to undercut any support they might attract from people who feel powerless and disenfranchised by the mainstream political parties, and open to the EDL’s narratives.

    it is also possible to feel a great deal of sympathy for longstanding Bengali and other community activists and groups expressing dismay at the turn of events and the blindness being displayed by anti-fascists of those who divide communities in other ways – by providing a platform for homophobic, misogynist, antisemitic speakers etc – and a blindness towards the links with jamaati- e -islam and what that entails.

    These oppositionists undermined some of their better arguments by adding signatures to their statement without permission – but that doesn’t invalidate all their arguments. I tried unsuccessfully to persuade some of them – whatever their reservations – to support the coalition’s march, and continue to argue their point while in community solidarity against the EDL.

    What Liam described at the front of the march – also happened at the back (I was near the back holding one end of a trade union banner). There a group of – not “Bengali youth” – but exclusively Bengali boys and young men – about 300 strong deliberately held back from joining the demonstration of the “United East End” created a very large gap between themselves and the rest of the march and effectively had their own separatist march that arrived at the destination some 25 minutes after the rest of the march. That ought to be cause for concern if we are trying to build a united coalition. As should the near total absence of women and girls from the Bengali community – a community I know, from project work in local schools, has many assertive and confident young women in it. it didn’t help that one of the text messages doing the rounds before the demo fabricated a story that two local Muslim girls had been raped by EDL.

    this won’t be the last time the EDL (or BNP) organises a provocation in the East End, and with the cuts set to cause further misery for the Bengali, Somali, Caribbean, English, Irish, Jewish, West African, East European and more residents of this area finding ways to bind us together in practical unity and solidarity are going to be essential. Certainly those in the orbit of the IFE’s activity are part of the equation but there is much more to be done to build unity than deferring to them.

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  22. David Rosenberg Avatar
    David Rosenberg

    Sorry that’s ‘derailed’ not ‘detailed’ in first para!

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  23. Hoom Avatar
    Hoom

    @ ID/Mark

    It’s the same Terry Fitz, for definite.

    Although as he’s a prominent Searchlight activist, it would be more accurate to say that he’s actually in a de facto alliance with HnH supporters like Andy Newman.

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  24. ID Avatar
    ID

    Postscript on this business:

    It appears that what was said above about the ‘closet racism’ of some of those who tried to derail the Tower Hamlets unity march now been borne out by events.

    According to Harry’s Place, the Terry Fitzpatrick mentioned earlier in this discussion has now admitted to sending foul racist emails to Lee Jasper. See:

    http://hurryupharry.org/2010/08/05/terry-fitzpatrick/

    What Harry’s Place do not spell out, is that these emails contained liberal use of the epithet ‘nigger’. And it is very strange that they say that it is a ‘tragedy’ that Fitzpatrick has done this.

    A tragedy for them, perhaps, as one of their contributors, a fellow Zionist and ranting Islamophobe has now been exposed as a gutter racist. Fitzpatrick was once, apparently a decent enough anti-racist militant. But that was before 9/11 and the rise of Islamophobia. He appears to have been a poisonous presence on the left for several years, increasingly ranting incoherently in favour of killing Arabs and Muslims and trying to put a ‘socialist’ gloss on this, as a supporter of ‘Searchlight’, who will no doubt now have to denounce him as HP have done.

    He is living proof that the adage of various sophists that those who exhibit Islamophobia are not racists, but only attacking a religion, are hypocrites and liars. Islamophobia and racism are closely related, and Islamophobia is in so many cases a hypocritical, because deniable, manifestation of racism. Or at least a slippery slope leading to outright, clarified, open racism.

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  25. ID Avatar
    ID

    Also see Lenin’s Tomb:

    http://leninology.blogspot.com/2010/08/hp-sauce-in-racist-harrassment-shocker.html

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  26. Slight Avatar
    Slight

    Terry Fitz is neither a prominent activist with Searchlight or Hope Not Hate and neither (other than in his mind,) has he ever been.

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