EDL: IT TAKES ONE TO E1

AS SCHNEWS SIZES UP ANTI-FASH OPTIONS FOR TOWER HAMLETS BASH

“Any chance we can do away with all the paki’s and indians, they ain’t no good to man or beast” - Brian Brison Rotchell, London supporter of ‘human rights organisation’ EDL.

Despite Home Secretary Theresa May announcing a ban on all marches in Tower Hamlets, Newham, Waltham Forest, Islington, Hackney and the City of London for 30 days – the far-right English Defence League (EDL) will still be attempting to stage their biggest demonstration yet, in the heart of London. As anti-fascists, anti-racists, socialists and anarchists we should ensure we are there to greet whoever turns out on 3rd September (see SchNEWS 785).

Despite the draconian nature of the ban – it stops any protest marches in much of London for 30 days – it is not possible (yet) to ban static demos. The EDL have now announced ‘muster pubs’ of O’Neils and The Euston Flyer both on Euston Rd, NW1. From 2pm they are going to be marched in small groups to a heavily policed static demonstration, however most of their rank’n’file are unlikely to be satisfied with this – statements such as “we’ll march wherever we fucking want” and (unfortunately) “whose streets?” are now commonplace on EDL forums.

TROUBLE BREWING

EDLers tend to meet up in pubs before hand then stumble to the demo start points to be marched around their city du jour in a mobile kettle before being deposited back in the drinking houses to toast their massive success. Given the media attention on the EDL, the small number of pubs still willing to host them (they made do with 2 that are more than 3 miles from their demo this time) and their well documented inability to drink a pint of Stella without shouting “Allah is a paedo!” it is somewhat surprising the hierarchy have stuck by this strategy – albeit with the march (officially) replaced by a static shouting contest at an unannounced location, believed to be near Aldgate East tube station.

Police will most likely build a massive pen and devise a strategy to funnel the fash into it. What happens on the day though will depend on police tactics as well as EDL and opposition numbers.

If they get a large turnout they will attempt to get near their ‘targets’ (mosques, lefties, libraries), in which case it is up to us to stop them. Alternatively the EDL may be (physically) fragmented – either by choice or by baton. In this scenario smaller groups of boneheads may try to make their way into Tower Hamlets where locals and antifascists should be ready to run them out of town.

UNITE MARE

The only thing that is certain is that the greater the numbers on the streets to oppose them, the higher the chances of inflicting one last humiliating defeat on Tommy’s Boys. Much of the soft Left has been calling for people to “not [rise] to the provocation”, “turn our backs” and “stay at home and let the police deal with any visit by the EDL”. Well we say f*ck that! You can’t talk about how great Cable Street was and, in the same breath, discourage the community from opposing fascism on their doorstep.

Having brought the ban about, Unite Against Fascism (UAF) have spent the last few days bitching that it shouldn’t apply to them. They’ve now (sensibly) moved their assembly point from Weavers Field to the corner of Vallance Road and Whitechapel Road, at 11am. This is the same area autonomous groups had been calling for people to gather and, while the increased numbers are welcome, they will likely come burdened with a police pen of their own as well as UAF stewards attempting to control the crowds.

Although it’s always preferable to avoid being kettled, if we are contained in the very area the EDL want to be it will still be a victory – of sorts. However our ability to stay mobile without being picked off is our greatest strength.

* More at http://malatesta32.wordpress.com

KICK ASS MOVES

With the prospect of a squatting ban just around the corner the Advisory Service for Squatters (ASS) have released their annual report in the style of subvertised News of the World (available at http://ompldr.org/vYTU5Zg/).

With at least 20,000 squatters in the UK, you’d think it’d be easy to find volunteers to run the ASS’s invaluable service – alas you’d be wrong. They looking for more people to help out so if you’re a squatter, ex-squatter or sympathiser just drop in to their office at 84b Whitechapel High St, East London Mon-Fri, 2-6pm and find out how to help.

If you do end up volunteering there try not to go the way of Kath Hibbert. The ex-journo decided to live free for a year so she could write a book about it – basically hundreds of pages of ‘Guardian reader gets excited by finding sandwich in skip’ anecdotes.

During her time slumming it with the rest of us, she also helped out at ASS.  Ufortunately she has used this experience for evil and has now setup her own anti-squat company – charging people slightly cheaper ‘rent’ in order to act as live-in security for empty properties.

These companies have been on the rise recently and should be avoided at all costs (checkout the Dutch documentary Carefree Vacant Property - http://vimeo.com/9649993 for more info).

* For all you need to know about squatting or how to help out see www.squatter.org.uk/

DALE OF RECKONING

On Wednesday (31st) a last ditch attempt to stop Dale Farm (see SchNEWS 738, 763 & 785) from being evicted failed in the high court.

With bulldozers expected any day now, Camp Constant – the new activist presence on site – still needs more bodies, so what are you waiting for? If simply defending the country’s largest traveller community (or a chance of bumping into Vanessa Redgrave) isn’t enough to tempt you, Dale Farm will be hosting a number of events including:

Saturday 3rd Sept, noon – Jewish Solidarity visit – Jewish rabbis, citizens and activists will be on a special blockade

Sunday 4th September, 2pm – a workshop by No One Is Illegal on ‘Freedom of Movement and the Right to Stay!’

Saturday 10th September, 1pm – Mass demonstration against the eviction.

If you are planning on attending, bring useful stuff too; supporters have issued a tat wish list  including wood, barbedwire, tyres, tools and more. See http://dalefarm.wordpress.com

LEAKY ARGUMENTS

Who’d want to be Julian Assange? The whole WikiLeaks thing, whereby Jules tried to find a way to go public with a ton of secret sensitive data without getting bumped off or locked up, must have been a bit stressful to say the least.

He could have chosen to put it out there on the web anonymously right away, knowing his part in the story would be over, the information therein could never be stopped or removed, and the 250,000 cables would quickly get thoroughly combed by a distributed multitude.

But he didn’t. We assume that was because he was aware that amongst the data, any number of people – from informants, to political figures to underground activists, could have been identified and their lives could literally be at direct risk from recriminations... And not ‘cos his ego loved all the attention, fancied controlling the saga for as long as possible, and thought ‘man of the century’ had a nice ring.

And this meant that he tried to keep control, negotiate (with fear for his life probably) with the US government for ‘sanitised’ gradual release of information and a deal with big newspapers, knowing they were covered by agreements not to publish material the military / intelligence services can label ‘national interest’. No professional journo would risk his career for it. (A so-so bargain for transparency perhaps; one can imagine the censoring of plenty of material other than only the life- threatening revelations about undeserving people).

And the media, establishment and legal shit storm whipped up since this thing blew has certainly left Assange feeling hounded and under pressure from all quarters.

A sign of the strain telling, perhaps, was the announcement by WikiLeaks this week that they are taking legal action against the Guardian for er, leaking. (Well it’s just not c-wiki-t!) They allege that a book by two Guardani hacks published a few months ago contains reference to a secret password that has caused them to lose control of all of the data. This is despite the fact that full unredacted version of the cables has been available to bittorrent online at various times ever since WikiLeaks first went public. The Guardian also retort that Assange told them the password in question was only a temporary one, shortly to expire be deleted - and that it any event only relates to one unidentified file and was not a golden key to the whole shebang.   

But with little irony about dancing with the devil, a WikiLeaks tweet declared; “We have already spoken to the [US] State Department and commenced pre-litigation action.” - in a bizarre twist the people he has most pissed off are the only ones even more keen to stop unredacted cables circulating than he is. Strange bedfellows indeed – but merely attempting to deflect pressure by pointing the finger at the Guardian is never going to save his skin, if it needs saving, nor win many new friends.

But, thanks in part to Assange, this genie can’t  ever be put back in the bottle. For years it will provide hard evidence of all kinds of Realpolitik in action; some shedding light on the real elite agendas we know to exist round the world but are rarely officially acknowledged... (And the US will redouble efforts to terrorise their subjects out of ever daring to whistle-blow in the future.)

But we do worry for poor old Jules...

SEEDS OF MORE RUCTION

The Israeli military has begun supplying settlers with tear gas and stun grenades in anticipation of Palestinian protests. The arming of settlers is part of ‘Operation Summer Seeds’ – the Israeli Defence Force’s (IDF) response to Palestine’s application for UN recognition (see SchNEWS 784), which is expected to go through in September.

Although the US will veto full membership of the UN, Palestine is expected to gain the title of non-member state. This is unlikely to have much effect on the day-to-day life of a Palestinian, but Israeli authorities are expecting it to act as a trigger for further demonstrations like those seen in May (see SchNEWS 772).

Worried by the prospect of mass, non-violent protests the IDF obviously feels vulnerable (despite having one of the most advanced armies on the planet) and has been stepping-up the training of ‘civil defence teams’ – effectively settler paramilitaries. Although they’ve been told to “avoid killing civilians” the Israeli security forces have drawn up red lines around settlements, once a Palestinian crosses this line, it’s fair game to shoot at their legs.

Human rights group B’Tselem has reported 42 cases of settler violence so far this year, including the murder of two Palestinian teenagers. Meanwhile Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s foreign minister, has been firing up the already trigger happy settlers saying “The PA (Palestinian Authority) is planning bloodshed the likes of which we’ve never seen before”.

The Israeli government has ordered petrol stations and supermarkets to stockpile supplies in preparation for “mass disorder” from 19th September. This siege mentality and arming of fervent Israelis is unlikely to calm an already volatile situation.

HIDEOUS KHIMKI

Recently Russian anarchists have been upping the ante – with the politicians, the police and big business all on the receiving end of some fairly serious heat. In the latest action a bomb was detonated on Sunday (28th) night in a police parking lot damaging several cars and the nearby police station.

Other attacks have included the petrol bombing of a police station and the arson of construction equipment in the Khimki forest where Vinci (see SchNEWS 785) are building a massively destructive highway.

Resistance in Russia tends to be of a more clandestine nature; open protests and vocal opposition are often brutally crushed by the state and fascists groups. Earth Liberation Front, Anarchist Guerilla and RATS (Red & Anarchist Terror Section) are amongst those to have claimed responsibility for some of the recent actions.

For more action reports, some arson tips and some videos of stuff being burnt checkout  http://blackblocg.info/ (the text is in Russian but the fire is universal)

TUCKERS LUCK

Respecting the recently deceased hasn’t lasted long as Brian Haw’s demo camp protesting against the illegal Iraq war was dismantled by a police raid in the early morning of Wed 31st August.

At 8am a team of about 20 police and government Policy Enforcement Officers stole Brian’s display from Parliament square, where it had been for the last 10 years. They claimed that had authorisation under the SOCPA (Serious Organised Crime and Police Act) and protesters in the square tried to vain to argue that there is no provision in this act for power of seizure, but to no avail.

Since Brian died of lung-cancer in June, his spot had been occupied by Barbara Tucker. His last words to her were, “Babs, our work is not finished” and she’d manned the site since up until her arrest on 11th August, on charges of ‘obstructing a search’ of the site (which she claims was illegal), and assaulting a police officer (which she denies). She was then not allowed to have her requested representation whilst on remand, and so refused consequently to leave her cell for her hearing.

The ‘judge’ (Nicholas Evans) was not to be denied however. He came down to to her cell to ask her for her plea, which she refused to give. So back in his courtroom he held a one-sided court case with himself – entering a plea of ‘not guilty’ then declared her guilty and sentencing her to nine weeks in Holloway!

David ‘call me Dave’ Cameron was interviewed in July 2009 about his vow to get rid of the site, which had previously been granted permanency by the High Court. He stated “ I don’t have all the answers... I’m all in favour of free speech, the right to demonstrate, the right to protest... I’m all for demonstrations... but my argument is enough is enough.”

Babs alleges that after this, the police sergeant and judge were out to persecute Brian and herself  from that point on - although the inept Sgt. David Cole didn’t foresee being caught on Brian’s camera during a stitched-up arrest during the State Opening of Parliament in May 2010.

Nonetheless, the dismantling of the site was enabled because Babs was not present and the site was deemed ‘litter’ as it wasn’t occupied. As Babs points out, if you were protesting in Libya, the UK and NATO would give you a machine gun, a rocket launcher, and arrange arial bombing so that people can, in their own words, “take matters into their own hands”.

* See www.brianhaw.tv

AND FINALLY

The Prom season sounded a bum note by inviting the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra to play on Thursday (1st) evening at the Royal Albert Hall, which went ahead despite protests due to the cultural boycott of Israel and the orchestra’s self-proclaimed partnership with the IDF.

The first interruption came in the form of a 15-piece choir standing to perform a free Palestine number. Once security had managed to haul them all outside, the orchestra carried on, no doubt relieved the disruption had ended. Unfortunately for them they were cut short once again as four protesters began shouting from the stalls. The BBC continued to broadcast for a couple of minutes, before deciding the right to free speech had gone too far and went off air. Eventually the four were forced to join the harmony on the pavement outside, but satisfied that at least they’d staved off a cultural propaganda attack and scored a minor victory without the need for a cadenza. (OK. we’ll refrain from any more...)