SENT TO COVENTRY

Combining the oafish violence of football hooligans with the nutty, bent right-wing views of the BNP, beer gut aficionados the English Defence League once again returned to the streets of Birmingham last Saturday (5th) and were, once again, met by groups of local Asians, supported by anti-fascists. What followed was an afternoon of chanting, scuffling and missile throwing which ended in 90 arrests.

Having been banned from protesting in central shopping area the Bull Ring by the home secretary following last month’s confrontation (See SchNEWS 687), the action instead took place around New Street Station. As the anti-fascists confronted the EDL at every turn the afternoon unfolded in the style of an away game at Millwall with lots of posturing, grunted threats and minor violence before police blocked a majority of the EDL in a pub until buses arrived to move them to a new site to continue their ‘protest’.

In typically dimwitted fash-fashion, the thugs of the EDL were displaying exactly what kind of English values they stood for with a bit of mindless hooliganism - smashing up the seats and pissing on the buses they’d boarded. Meanwhile unbeknownst to the EDL, these buses were redirected to Coventry where they were held until after midnight. Having missed the last trains and buses they were then stuck there until the following morning.

A freelance journo on the scene told SchNEWS that there was a heavy police presence throughout the day, co-ordinated by FIT teams shipped in from London, but that they spent most of their time time documenting the press instead of monitoring the action.

* For an eye witness account see www.revleft.com/vb/anti-fascism-f42/index.html