Update: 

Report from Anti-fascists in Hyde 25/02/12

After the disturbances in Rochdale, Asian youth turned out against the wishes of some of the mosque elders to confront the EDL in Hyde. SchNEWS spoke to one anti-fascist who also made the trip.

"The planned route for march through town from the train station didn't happen due to sheer numbers of Asian, around 250-300 youth who gathered outside close to the train station. The EDL had the briefest of marches and were herded along the side of ASDA round a side alley into a car park next to the bus station out of sight of the public.”

Jumping on the bandwagon were  the BNP – with Nick Griffin himself tarnishing the town with his presence. They gathered a motley fifty in a small rally opposite the town hall under the slogan “Hope for England”. Griffin appealed to EDL members and invited them to join in the fun – in fact virtually all the BNP apart from Nasty Nick himself joined the EDL march.

EDL numbers weren’t amazingly high, possibly as many as 600.

According to our eyewitness “As the EDL were dispersing, a group of them made their way across the ASDA car park to confront the youth outside the Mosque. They were chased off after the youth charged .In fact they ended up waiting to be kettled on the other side of the car park. The police eventually moved all the EDL on. Anti-fascists were present throughout the whole day, mixing with the locals but not in enough numbers to make an impact. " 

*For more info see http://brightonantifascists.wordpress.com and http://malatesta32.wordpress.com/

Tomorrow (Saturday 25th) will see another day of fash-lite bullshit from our friends in the English Defence League (EDL).

In Hyde, Manchester a coalition of EDLers, BNP members and BFP splitters will drag their knuckles through the streets in 'defence' of Daniel Stringer-Prince, who was allegedly attacked by an Asian gang earlier this month. This is despite his family telling the EDL they want nothing to do with them and they're against the march. Cue lots of angry EDLers claiming they care so much more than Daniel's family that they are gonna march anyway.

In Glasgow the Scottish Defence League (SDL) are holding a static demonstration in the city centre from midday, a variety of groups have called for a counter mobilisation. While down in London Unite Against Fascism (UAF) will be holding their national conference at Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, WC1R 4RL.

These demos come on the back of a couple of perceived victories for the far right -

On Saturday 18th in Liverpool, around 150 fascists led by members of the openly Nazi British Peoples Party successfully disrupted a march by the Liverpool Irish Republican Flute Band in honour of, Irish republican fighter, Sean Phelan.

On Thursday 23rd, as SchNEWS went to print, 'disturbances' were kicking off in Heywood, Rochdale. In an attempt to get the trial of an alleged 'paedophile ring' thrown out of court members of the EDL and North West Infidels (NWI) roamed the streets targeting Asian owned businesses.

Far right keyboard warriors are claiming that at least one takeaway burnt down and “300 whites blocking the roads”. Greater Manchester Police confirmed that “a group of youths... attacked a local business and clashed with police officers”. The NWI are bigging up the racial aspect of the actions and alleged chants of “National Front Please Protect Us”.

While the far right is not as strong as it was 20+ years ago, neither is the left. A strong militant antifascist network needs to be built now that can put numbers on the streets and travel to where it's needed, before it's too late.

*For more info see http://brightonantifascists.wordpress.com and http://malatesta32.wordpress.com/