EDL fail to make progress in Leicester

Icon_article Star-blue1 Published: October 10, 2010 12:01 by Anarchist Antifascist |

Tagged as: anti-racism edl
Neighbourhoods: leicester

The EDL are already crowing about what a good time they had in Leicester yesterday. It certainly turned out better than Bradford for them, but Bradford was so pitiful that that isn't saying much. They never got to Highfields or St Matthews which were well defended by the local community. They were rounded up onto their coaches by 4.30 and sent home. Most of the local community were disgusted by their presence, as reflected by the diversity of the people who came out to protest.

The first thing that was noticeable on the day was how dead Leicester city centre was. There was an almost total absence of black and Asian people on the streets. It wasn't just the threat of a mob of racists coming to town that had made some people stay at home in fear but also the disgraceful scaremongering that had been waged by the police and the local council. It seems messages had been sent round all the schools, community centres, places of worship and even hospital staff, that people should stay at home. It's just as well not everyone did or the EDL would have been rampaging through their streets. As usual Searchlight/Hope Not Hate contributed to the state's strategy by organising events on the days before and after the EDL's riot.

It was clear from fairly early in the day that most of the EDL were kettled in a few pubs near St Martin's Square. We skirted round the Humberstone Gate area and headed to Highfields to see what was going on there. Hundreds, probably thousands of local people were gathered along all the entry points to the area from town. People we spoke to said that the local community had spent days preparing to defend themselves and working out a strategy to protect their neighbourhoods. Fortunately it wasn't necessary.

Meanwhile the EDL were kicking off with the police in town and smashed the windows of the International Arts Centre. Cheers lads, that's really one in the eye for Islamic extremism. Some of them broke out of their pen sometime between 3 and 4pm and fought with riot cops on Charles Street before heading out towards the ring road and (surprise, surprise) Highfields and one of the city centre's biggest mosques. A group of mostly Asian and black local youths who had been waiting outside police lines tried to get down to the ring road to confront the EDL. I don't know how many actually broke out of the kettle but by this point there were less than 100 of them. That was more than there were in the anti-EDL group who retreated up Humberstone Road where they had plenty of back up. The EDL chased after them but were soon beaten back and ended up trying to go through the retail park where they got beaten up by riot cops. As far as I know that was as far as the EDL got. There were still groups of stragglers drifting around, giving it the big one to local Muslims whilst protected by cops with batons.

There was a tense stand off whilst police kept back the angry crowds of locals on Humberstone Road and locked down all access roads into Highfields. We tried to help isolated groups of local people caught in the wrong place at the wrong time: an Asian mother and her daughter trying to get home to Highfields from town and a couple whose car was on the other side of the police cordon and needed to get home to Loughborough. Once again it was clear that the biggest effect that the EDL coming to town had had was to make people who weren't white afraid to walk around in their own city. This is the real reason they are a threat, and the reason that the tactics of the authorities and community leaders help the EDL.

As we waited for an opportunity to get through the cordons and head back to where the EDL were chased, more and more small groups of locals youths were coming back to the ring road. The police had begun bussing the EDL out of town and the coaches were attacked by missiles and abuse. One of the coaches stopped at some lights and EDL began pouring out to attack the locals but quickly turned tail and jumped back on for their own safety.

That was pretty much the end of the day's events. We wandered back to Highfields to make sure that no EDL members had got through which they hadn't. The police were trying to get people to go home but the locals were, unsurprisingly, suspicious of police claims that the EDL had all gone home.

So the street fighting faction of the EDL will, no doubt, be pleased that they managed to get a good ruck with the OB and march around town. They even got to chase a few local people (sorry, "MDL") for a few seconds before getting chased back again. That might be enough to stop them attacking their own stewards next time. The keyboard warriors are already mythologising what happened as honest Englishmen defending their country from hordes of Islamic extremists rather than a bunch of racist thugs from out of town turning up to attack a local community.

But what are their leaders really playing at? They are trying to have it both ways, making a lot of fighting talk about how they are refusing to work with the police before leading their members into a big steel cage again. They said they would march one way or another and they did get to break out but that was in spite of deals made between the leadership and police. The EDL is full of internal contradictions: "peaceful protesters" who always fight the police, "anti-racists" who try to chase and attack non-whites, "the voice of the working class" who attack working class communities and call everyone who criticises them "commies". They are just managing to hold it together for now but we can exploit those contradictions.

A few things are worth noting for future info. We spotted a few coach company names on the day. A lot of them were from Confidence's Coaches, a Leicester company, which could have been hired by the police to take them, but we also saw a Ribble Valley Coaches (Preston, Lancs) one. It is probably worth making some polite objections. There were also a lot of very obvious EDL spotters wandering around town and even in small groups on bikes with mobiles. Might be worth thinking about a strategy to deal with them in future.

Comments

Good Point

Comment Published: October 10, 2010 13:28 by Worker

According to the BBC there were 2500 EDL supporters and a few hundred UAF. The general public are actually concerned about islamic extremism which is why the uaf has such little public support

video please

Comment Published: October 10, 2010 14:53 by anyone

can you pleas post the video of the local youths chasing the edl thanks

Also Durham City coaches

Comment Published: October 10, 2010 15:55 by Moing

Probably carrying the Seaham contingent.

check out the leicester mercury site for video + pics of coaches etc

The EDL are living in a dream

Comment Published: October 10, 2010 16:49 by @@

"According to the BBC there were 2500 EDL supporters and a few hundred UAF."

Let's have a look shall we:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-11510138
"Seventeen people were arrested on Saturday after about 1,000 English Defence League (EDL) supporters held a rally in the city"

EDL bullshitting again.

Not too interested in the number of people on the UAF protest. Most of the anti-EDL crowd weren't anywhere near it.

"The general public are actually concerned about islamic extremism which is why the uaf has such little public support"

The UAF has so little support because they are a front group for the Socialist Workers Party, because they cosy up to all the political parties and because they have a history of shopping anti-fascists to the police. Jog on troll.

The general public don't subscribe to the same paranoid loony fantasies that the EDL do and most recognise a racist mob when they see one. That's why Leicester rejected you.

Out of interest, how exactly did the Leicester demo fight "islamic extremism"?

Disagreed...

Comment Published: October 10, 2010 17:30 by Anchoredwunderlust

I was stood at the point they broke out of. It was shitly guarded, but there were waaay over a hundred broke out easily. I'd say quite a few hundred. They chased about 30 local Asians and the first lot were followed by about another 60 but then there were tonnes more EDL. They were like a tsunami of signs and traffic cones up in the air. They started trying to pick off the locals that weren't trying to engage with them. They tried to hit my mate who was taking photos coz he is Asian as they ran but I butted the edl guy out the way. Luckily he carried on running. I say "luckily" because there were certainly no UAF around. Only about 20 anti fascists dotted around. The ones I was with were not really fighters and of a certain age. As I saw one of them hit a black/Asian man who was on the phone on his own, they ran and shouted "kill the nigger". There were about 20 chasing him. I started to run but all the locals were way ahead, and looking behind me noone was following but the EDL so I stopped. It wasn't till about 5 minutes on that the police moved from the spot and a good ten before the vehicles followed them. I honestly thought it would riot into the night. It's a shame in a way that they didn't get to highfields because if they had then they would have been outnumbered. Perhaps not entirely by people willing to fight but they don't have to know that!

The Racist Road Show

Comment Published: October 10, 2010 21:30 by Gerard

How could the biggest Police operation in 25 years lose control the way they did?

There seems to be a repeated pattern here. Every time they go somewhere they break out and the police only intervene when the EDL are getting the worst of it, which they often do.

If you ask me they were allowed to rampage, if not why did the police take so long to react and then so lightly?

Watch this video it will make you very very angry...

EDL vs Human being, 1st time in history EDL attack Muslim Kids and ladies .
http://www.youtube.com/comment_servlet?all_comments=1&v=rt12IHOf6fA

More analysis...

Comment Published: October 10, 2010 22:03 by someone who was there

At the end of their alloted time, around 15:30ish, the EDL broke out of the kettle to the rear of Humberstone Gate East, (the other end from the UAF demo), and charged into the city centre indiscriminately attacking anyone who wasn't white.

There were some ugly scenes on Charles Street, with very few (if any) anti-fash or locals able to defend the city against the mob. Around the same time a sizable group of locals, (around 40-50, of which nearly half were female), appeared at the far end of the police cordon from the EDL, (Dysart Way/St Georges Circle), saying the EDL were rampaging through the city and trying to find a way through.

The local group moved off north up Dysart Way towards the train station and then came running back down the road, scattered and pursued by 100-200 EDL, who were being led on their pogrom by none other than 'Tommy Robinson' and Kevin Carroll!

A few of the locals got hurt, but the majority managed to make it back to the edge of St Matthews where reinforcements were guarding the entrances to the estate, (which has a number of halal butchers etc).

The EDL then turned north of Humberstone Road and tried to force their way into the Highfields, (specifically the mosque), but again the locals managed to hold them back until the police intervened and kettled them under the railway bridge for their own safety.

The only good thing to come from the day was the fact that the community wasn't provoked into Bradford style rioting, and that is thanks to the amazing work of the community leaders who kept calm in the neighbourhoods and had absolutely fuck all to do with the few anti-fash who actually bothered turning up!

The community of Leicester defended itself against the EDL, with virtually no support from anti-fascists...and with the EDL outnumbering the police the stage was set for the sort of scenes seen on Charles Street, Dysart Way and St Georges Circle Retail Park.

Some videos of the EDL rampage:--
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GKW65ToaCM&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHfL8iwlP7M&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7uhEu5wZYo&feature=player_embedded

Genuine 'militant' anti-fascists should ask themselves some serious questions about whether they're serious about resisting the EDL, or whether they're just going to use Indymedia to big themselves up and leave the resistance to the affected communities.

I agree with the last 2

Comment Published: October 11, 2010 09:29 by Laurel Dearing

It's all very well those who went to show solidarity, but there were very few anti fascists there, making it impossible for those of us who were to do a whole lot. I don't think that women should be lumped in with children though. The locals sounded like they wanted a fight as well if they got their hands on them. It just goes to show that those like the EDL who banned women from their Bradford march can't stick to their shitty beliefs. Actually it's the most EDL 'angels' I've ever seen at a demo. The locals defended Leicester. Pretty much single handed. Outnumbered. Little help from antifascists. No help from uaf whatsoever. No help from police for a good 15 minutes. It was brave but at the same time it was pathetic. The only win from it is that whether EDL or locals injured the most people, they lost because of what they made themselves look like to the city and the TV. Fuck them.

In that case

Comment Published: October 11, 2010 12:43 by Anchoredwunderlust

Stop attacking people based on race! Don't be hitting my mate coz he's Asian (atheist btw) and chasing a guy on the phone on his own shouting "kill the nigger" and attacking a mother out with her daughter for being Asian. I'm White and nobody tried to hit me. Or the people I was standing with who were also White. This is stuff I witnessed. There were plenty of locals who WERE up for a fight so why hit every brown civilian you pass if not racist? Why break out the van if not racist? Were you planning on running up to them and asking one by one if they promoted sharia law? Because there were a lot of unveiled women with them holding up signs, so I think you could have read it as that group not being militant islamists. Tbh I didn't think that the majority of EDL were truly racist. Just ignorant or hooligans or in the wrong group, but i'll be damned if at least a third of the demonstration didn't break out.

It would have been very different

Comment Published: October 11, 2010 22:16 by le2

If all the people in Highfields had come down. I know for a fact there were a lot of serious people up there, but hardly any of them were seen in town, at least not where I was. They and most of the MDL made a serious mistake staying too deep for much too long and got kettled at Kent Street and Conduit Street. There seems to be recriminations and they need to get more together. Honestly, if they'd have joined us in the centre the edl would have been run ragged.

They did get run for a while near to the market place by a local group all races. And I mean all. Black, asian, white, Turkish, some east-europeans. There was a stand off for a bit with only a few coppers trying to get between each side before the horses came in and the edl got pushed into the market and kettled, but the antis lacked that little bit of spark and leadership which could have pushed them straight into them. On the other hand some of the top edl did nothing but mouth off either.

There were a lot of local blacks out on our side, I knew some of them, 40 year olds and more than capable of handling anything, but each group split up too easily and there was never the 100 plus to get up a real charge anywhere. Part of that was no idea where the edl were, partly the police splitting groups up. The edl have this fantasy that blacks and muslims can't get on, but Leicester is nothing like that, I grew up with them ffs. I'm white, ex-highfields.

But antifa were nowhere to be seen. Don't big it up then not show up, do they actually exist outside the internet and a few St Pauli shirts? I'd rather not look a mug by telling locals that somebody is turning up if you're not. I won't make that mistake again.

The mdl youth had a good go but were outnumbered and sometimes completely out of their depth. Despite the edl roundly mocking them all over the internet I thought they did ok, they were up for it and won't be forgetting about the edl in the future. Give them some leadership.

A couple of things. Some of the edl tried to get across the road to the crowd on the other side of Charles Street, away from the UAF demo. Locals tried to steam into them, including some rough looking whites who looked like football lads to me. There are rumours the Leicester baby squad attacked the edl later on, can't say for sure. The cops stopped that one and pushed us all back. Leicester likes a fight and even fifty year olds were looking for it then!

Just after, I was about 10 yards away when that group of edl ran into the Haymarket, and I thought they were antis. They had black hoodies, for a minute they looked like anarchists and I nearly followed them in, lol. They broke some windows and the shutters came down, fuck knows what happened to them. There were edl spotters and snides everywhere, including the Haymarket roof. I saw one infiltrator start a confrontation that got physically stopped by a priest! Certainly a strange and paranoid day, you were never too sure who was who.

Later at the station there were groups of 10-20 locals, including somalians, looking for edl. Lots of paranoid cops trying to get them away. You could see edl in threes and fours skulking through and jogging into the station, but none of them got done in that I saw. A Somalian lad had two beefy retro skinheads up, and they shit themselves and scooted off to the police.

After that I was off home, sirens everywhere and small mobs looking for the enemy, but they had long gone, some ending up in the Lamplighters I was told. Shit place, so makes sense.

Summary - it had potential but lack of numbers in the right places and no leadership turned it into a general pain in the arse and a failure. Antifa is gone? The positive was the amount of different races involved and the fact that it did bring a lot of people together. And they'd be very unwise to come back, the mood is dark.

Independent not International

Comment Published: October 12, 2010 12:14 by Stu

Just like to point out that it wasn't the International Arts Centre that got it's windows broken it was Fabrika Independent Arts Centre, I was in there when it happened. I've seen this in many reports, sloppy reporting I'm afraid please get it right. The International Arts Centre is an entirely different building.