Islam4UK Off! By ‘Malatesta’

The recent announcement by Anjem Choudary for a demonstration at Wootton Bassett has caused the intended media flap and reactions from many sides. Knight in White Supremacist Armour Nick Griffin of the BNP is going to manfully oppose it by physically blocking the road with Richard Barnbrook and Andrew Brons. Given the amount of free lunches Griffin is now swilling down at the EU trough, he could probably do this by himself. The English Defence League (EDL) immediately issued a call to arms and their forum claims 1200 new members following the announcement; Gordon Brown said that the march would be “completely inappropriate” (Steady on!); members, families and supporters of the armed forces were understandably insulted; and the Muslim community is under enough pressure without this unnecessary provocation raising more anti-Islamic sentiment.

A Facebook group set up and gathered ½ million members claiming that it is “not an anti-Muslim group. This is a non-political group.” The creator Jo Cleary is a supporter of British troops but Michael Parker, one of the admins, is an admirer of Nick Griffin and Stuart Toman, another admin, is a member of “If you live in England, speak English” group. Whatever Cleary’s intentions, it is clear that the event is going to be hijacked by members of the far-right and not only Griffin but the more extreme and violently racist crowd.

Choudary has done this kind of thing before but on a much smaller scale. In October Islam4UK announced a march in central London which they then called off following ‘threats.’ An interesting side note is that the EDL and Combat 18 turned up to oppose it and had a slight spat which ended in one C18 member getting hit with a fire extinguisher and this has caused bad blood ever since between them.

Islam4UK
Islam4UK are connected to the illegal Al Muhajiroun who advocate Sharia law and are pro-Al Qaeda. I4UK also kicked off the fuss in England about the Danish cartoons which only helped circulate them more widely. Most people would never have seen them if he had not started on about it. That deliberate provocation is part of Choudary’s strategy (whatever that may be) is clear by the group’s antagonistic choice of name. He knows that the decision to march is an inflammatory one and that it could well be banned. If it goes ahead it will certainly be closely contained by the cops and massively opposed by local residents, ex-members of the armed forces, their families and their supporters. The BNP and the EDL have already announced their intentions. If it is banned then Choudary will have achieved a pretty unique media scoop by simply writing a letter. It is not necessary to be a fervent militarist to see that this march is 1/ stupid, 2/ deliberately calculated, 3/ publicity guaranteed and 4/ that it will end in tears.

The Islam4UK website is currently down but the Telegraph quotes some unrealistic demands that seem suspicious. They want to turn Buckingham Palace into a mosque, ban alcohol and flog drunks: they have more chance of opening a McDonalds in Mecca. All these demands are impossible and clearly provocative which begs the question, what are they actually doing and for whom? Without getting too conspiracy theorist, do they really think they can make the UK an Islamic state? Are these actions for publicity? And if so for what purpose? To publicise the ‘Islamic movement’? Magnify the ego of a vain Messianic? Or does the publicity attract violent extremists into a context where they be easily monitored by the state in the same way that Combat 18 was alleged to have been. That Choudary is in direct pay of the state is unlikely, although he does sign on, but it is not a difficult task to infiltrate and coerce a group using agents. It is documented that state agencies have been trying to recruit Muslims faced with legal difficulties, prison sentences or deportation orders to spy on their communities. Or perhaps the state agencies know that these groups often form, fragment and crumble by themselves with only a little ‘guidance’ to prevent mass outrage. Are they sitting back observing an essentially deluded gang of idiots full of sound and fury, signifying nothing?

Nazi Chat
As usual the Nazi forums have got a lot to say on the matter. On NWN one said:
“could Mr Choudary be working for the secret services to whip up enough hatred against them that the British people won’t bat an eyelid when our army bombs Iran?”
And another replied:
“My thoughts exactly, whatever the reasoning, the march shouldn’t be allowed.”
Over on VNN one poster fretted about possible negative publicity: “EDL and co – PLEASE stay away. A photo of one of you lot giving Roman [sic] salutes behind Nick, Andrew or Richard is NOT NEEDED!”
Nick Griffin’s publicity statement co-opts the Spanish anti-fascist No Pasaran! which has annoyed some posters and the National Front are miffed at Griffin’s stunt claiming that this was “our idea first” before accusing Griffin of being a “splitter.” They then ask that the BNP stand with them on the frontline but the idea of Nick Griffin joining hands with the likes of Eddy Morrison and the NF is as bizarre as it is unrealisable.

At the time of going to press Choudary has said he will call off the march if I4UK can meet Gordon the Brown to discuss Afghanistan. Again, this is dancing in the media spotlight to a very feeble tune: the idea that Brown would talk to him is clearly a non-starter and Choudary knows it. After all, he represents very, very few people. And so does Choudary. This impossible demand will keep Islam4UK in the spotlight that they crave. If the march goes ahead there is the potential of violent altercation between marchers and protestors, EDL/BNP doing battle with the cops or each other and any other counter-counter-demonstrators that turn up. Choudary’s actions will only encourage more racist sentiment in the UK and do little to hinder the cause of the BNP. Alongside the publicity for Islam4UK will be that for the BNP and the EDL who will capitalise on areas of racist tension for their own nefarious ends. It’s a publicity win/win for all concerned: Choudary gets his; the BNP and EDL get theirs, even the NF were on the front of the Swindon Advertiser. The far-right want this kind of thing to happen to ‘unite’ in a ‘common cause’ with people who ordinarily find their views abhorrent by showing “the true face of Islam.”

Conclusion
Does Choudary really think the UK will convert wholesale to Islam? And if it won’t, which it clearly won’t, then why waste all this time and effort? And if the UK is so bloody awful why stay? Given these unrealistic demands, what is he really doing and who for?

Anarchists and radical leftists should treat Islam like any other religion or repressive ideology. Condemning fundamentalist Islam and Islam4UK is not ‘racist’: Islam is an ideology not a race. Anarchists and radicals must see Choudary as an intolerant ideologue. We support neither Islam4UK nor the right wing who will make this protest theirs.

‘Malatesta’

We’ve also witnessed the return of nationalists to our streets with the BNP influenced English Defence League taking their crusade against Muslims to cities around England, Scotland and Wales.

The recession has seen a right shift in politics with race, religion and immigration taking an all too prominent place in political discourse. We’ve had religious fundamentalists appearing on GMTV and right wing football hooligans roaming our streets, looking for confrontation with Asian youth and increasingly any anti-fascist who opposes them.

It is in this climate of rising jingoism and the continuing normalisation of the divisive politics of the BNP that Fashwatch has been re-launched but the purpose this time is subtly different.

The Original Fashwatch

When we first appeared we were distributing stickers asking for information on fascist activity and saying this was to be passed onto Antifa and other militant antifascist groups. This wasn’t the entire truth about our activities.
When information we received concerned a specific area it was passed on to a relevant group and we published the email addresses of various groups at their request so information could be passed directly. It was clear to us though that any information given to us anonymously by email was virtually impossible to verify and probably less than worthless.   The BNP and other groups of course could not be sure what was being passed to us and what resources we had to analyse it. What we aimed to create and did so quite successfully was a time sponge for the BNP during local elections. The resources of the first incarnation of Fashwatch were entirely focused on producing and distributing stickers. More than 10,000 were sent all over the UK. This gave the impression we were a much larger and well-resourced organisation than we really were.

During the 2007 local elections we were at our most active. In Birmingham over 1000 thousand stickers went up around the city between March and May. The BNP instead of concentrating on their election effort were organising patrols to find us and worrying themselves about what information we had been passed. In streets where we knew a BNP activist lived we made sure a large number of stickers were displayed. That we already knew they were there didn’t seem to occur to them, we diverted them from winning elections with scary looking bits of plastic.

With the emergence of the leaked BNP membership lists the personal details of BNP activists are now more widely available than ever before and anyone can, if so inclined, use those details.

The New Fashwatch.

It is clear now at the end of 2009 that traditional forms of antifascism have failed. Tactics such as distributing propaganda and organising mass protests employed by the UAF have had no discernable effect on the trajectory of the BNP and while the militant form advocated by Antifa has achieved small victories in some areas this approach clearly has it’s limits and obvious drawbacks.
What is required is a new approach, or maybe an old approach depending on how you look at it. An article in Red Pepper recently titled  Antifascism isn’t Working laid out a realistic assessment of the current situation and more importantly how best to proceed. In a nutshell the model of exposing the BNP and it’s leaders past should be replaced by exposing the ineffectiveness of their policies in tackling social problems and building alternatives. Paul Stott in a speech Giving up No Platform to the Anarchist Book Fair this year argued for the same approach.

It is as part of this current of thought that Fashwatch has been re-launched. Again we’re asking for details of fascist activity in your area but this time we don’t want names or phone numbers. We want details of their political activity, what they’re doing to win votes and the arguments they’re using.

In our section on antifascists we want to detail grass roots organisations that are working in their areas to improve conditions and that have an antifascist stance such as Haringey Solidarity and the IWCA and less well known groups such as the Pits n Pots a radical news site in Stoke on Trent and the Hereford Heckler.

The aim is to use Fashwatch as a resource for analysing the BNP and other far right groups and opposition to them. To look at the initiatives that have been employed by local groups who are opposed to the BNP.  What has been successful and what has been less than successful.

While the BNP has cooled on it’s policy of recruiting from football grounds the emergence of the English Defence League has pushed nationalism back into the limelight at some football grounds and the group has drawn much of it’s support from right wing casuals. While the vast majority of people who go down the football treat the group with nothing but contempt and many casuals find the group divisive and misguided the involvement of a number of firms in the group shouldn’t be ignored. Despite claims to the contrary the group has attracted a number of old heads formerly involved with Combat 18 and other violent far-right gangs. The recent scuffle in London that the EDL has described as a fight between EDL vs C18 and used as an example of the groups opposition to the extreme right, was it seems more likely to be a fight between factions based around London football clubs as opposed to politics.

With the reemergence of such groups at football it’s good to hear that supporters at some football clubs are taking a stand. In the 1990’s Combat 18 made a concerted attempt to recruit supporters at Villa Park but we’re repelled by a concerted campaign by anti-facsist Villa supporters and casuals together with members of Anti-Fascist Action. Today the demonstrations by the EDL in Birmingham have reignited this anti-fascist tendency and a group calling themselves Aston Villa Anti-Fascists have been formed.

The group aim to combat any attempts by the EDL or BNP to recruit from the stands of Villa Park or the pubs around the ground and with a handful of right wing supporters who follow the Villa already involved in the EDL the timing couldn’t come sooner.

Asked about the group one die hard Villa fan commented “As an ‘Old Skool’ Villa Anti-Fascist, it’s excellent to see younger Villans taking up the fight against fascists at the Villa, every time they raise their ugly head in or around Villa Park they need to know that there is always going to people who will stand up and oppose them, as they should know from past actions. Fascists and racists have nothing to offer Villans.”

Fashwatch would like to hear from other anti-fascists who attend the football and would also appreciate any news on the EDL or BNP recruiting at your local club.

Since their debut in Luton the group have gone on to stage demonstrations in Birmingham, Leeds, Swansea, Wrexham, Manchester, Glasgow and Nottingham. When the group have managed to leave the comfort of the local Weatherspoons violence has invariably flared. During their demonstrations in Birmingham, Manchester and Nottingham scuffles broke out between local youth, anti-fascists and EDL supporters.

While the claims of some anti-fascists that the outstretched arms of EDL members in song are Hitler salutes are often far-fetched and tedious, there is little doubt as to the the groups links with the far-right. The group was co-founded by BNP member David Cooling, BNP activist Chris Renton and Paul Ray who has recently developed a friendship with German former neo-nazi Nick Greger himself a close friend of the UVF’s Johnny “Mad Dog” Adair.

While the EDL have done their utmost to veil their links and similarities with the established far-right they have been unable to silence the more overtly racist elements at their demonstrations. In Birmingham members sang “dirty Muslim bastards” at a group of Asian lads while in Swansea supporters sang “we hate Paki’s more than you” and burned an anti-fascist flag. More recently the EDL have turned their attention towards anti-fascists as well as local Muslims with EDL supporters and anti-fascists clashing in the streets of Nottingham.

The EDL have made various token gestures aimed at convincing the general public that they aren’t a racist or fascist organisation, in a well choreographed publicity stunt members of the EDL appeared on Newsnight burning a flag emblazoned with a swastika. They have also strenuously denied any links to the BNP while the BNP have also done their best to distance themselves from the group realising that any connection could spoil all their hard PR work in presenting themselves as an “acceptable political party”. While the two groups seek to distance themselves from one another it is hard not to see the similarities in the language of the two. Like the BNP the EDL know the importance of avoiding the accusation of racism. The EDL say they are not against ordinary Muslims but rather Islamic fundamentalism, however quite how going on the piss and chanting “dirty Muslim bastards” and “we want our country back” combats Islamic Fundamentalism is anyone’s guess. This strategy of scapegoating Muslims is one that has worked wonders for the BNP over the last 10 years and one that the EDL know will attract people to their cause. The group attracts some people who are genuinely concerned by the spread of political Islam, a threat which does exist but that is over hyped by the mainstream media and made more noticeable by the current war in Afghanistan. That said the role of the group in reality can be little more than to stoke up racial and religious tensions in the country.

Quite what the long term strategy of the EDL is apart from stirring up trouble between Asians and whites in local communities is unclear at the moment. What is clear is that they taken nationalist politics back to the streets and that the involvement of some British football firms in their actions shouldn’t be ignored. Around the same time that the EDL emerged BNP activist Lee Barnes wrote an article on his blog entitled “The Transition Point for Nationalism” in which he called on the National Front (NF) to abandon electoral politics and concentrate on street activism. On his wish for the NF to turn to street politics Barnes wrote;

It could take all those Nationalists that have rejected the demands required for electoral politics, for whatever reason, and train them up and deploy them as street activists to counter the reds on the streets.

Now while the NF have not disbanded as a political party nor play a leading role in the EDL, though their members have appeared on EDL demos, it isn’t hard to see that the EDL are filling this role as a nationalist street mob who’ve increasingly taken to looking for fights with members of the anaemic UAF and other anti-fascists. The BNP could never mobilise in this way since it goes against their new image of family friendly, suited euro-nationalists, however another group of nationalists not attached to the BNP fulfilling this role not only takes the pressure off the BNP from more militant anti-fascists who may be drawn into confrontation with EDL but it also opens up the possibility of a second front for nationalism in the UK

The growth of the party has come about following a period of cosmetic modernisation under current  leader Nick Griffin who has abandoned a policy of open anti-semitism for anti-immigration and Muslim bashing.  He has also made the party more PR savvy with talk of “identity”, “heritage” and “freedom” preferred to overt racism. The reasons for this change were elucidated by Griffin himself in a talk in the US in which he shared a platform with former KKK member David Duke.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04QolIvfQEw

While the BNP poses as a radical alternative to the political establishment they are often the staunchest supporters of the existing order. In 2003 the party opposed the firefighters strike asserting that firefighters should not have the right to strike action regardless of any issues regarding pay or working conditions. Meanwhile in Broxbourne their councillor voted to block a motion to allow pensioners to have free bus passes. These kinds of actions show the BNP for what it really is, a party that cares no more for working class people than any of the mainstream parties do. Then again we shouldn’t expect anything less from a party run by a Cambridge educated landowner whose father was a prominent Tory Party member!

Looming large on the BNP’s hit-list of new folk devils  is Multiculturalism. However while the BNP position themselves as opponents of Multiculturalism they are really one of it’s main benefactors. The promotion of political Multiculturalism  has accentuated and created divides in communities where none previously existed (in the article How to Make a Riot Kenan Malik outlines the policy of Multiculturalism).  What the BNP is really against is a multi-racial society. The BNP’s claim that they represent “white” or “indigenous” Briton’s should leave most of us rolling on the floor in fits of laughter, indeed why would someone with pale skin have different interests to someone with darker skin? However the promotion of a political Multiculturalism which allocates resources and recognises people based on their ethnicity, nationality and religion gives such ridiculous claims as those made by the BNP greater credence and has given their racism a veneer of politically correct acceptability.

Despite their new found PC sugar coating the BNP retain most of their fascist ties. In 2007 Councillor Chris Beverley gave a speech to a gathering of the European National Front which brings together some of the most hard line fascist and anti-Semitic parties around Europe. More recently this year the party deputy leader Simon Darby attended a meeting of prominent fascist and neo-nazi groups from Europe in Milan. He was joined by convicted terrorist and close associate of Nick Griffin Roberto Fiore who was convicted of being part of a terrorist organisation which bombed Bologna train station in 1980 leaving 85 people dead. The party has also made links with the Hungarian anti-Semitic party known as Jobbik who can lay claim to have their own private army known as the Hungarian Guard. The family friendly face of the BNP is one that is very much used for the UK public market but not one that reflects any meaningful change in their politics.

The stated long term aim of the party is to repatriate non-indigenous (read non-white) Briton’s, reintroduce national service and bring in the death penalty for anyone involved in acts of “terrorism”. In the short term the only thing the party achieve is to divide working class communities along lines of race, religion and nationality, weakening community cohesion and diluting the fighting power of a fragmented working class.

With their election to the European Parliament giving them access to funding and publicity, the lingering recession, the continuing ineptitude of the mainstream political parties and the ongoing attacks on working class communities by the government we can expect the BNP to continue to slowly grow over the next couple of years.

The barmy bunch hope to establish Sharia Law in Britain and the dominance of Islam across the world. Choudary himself once said on the BBC on the subject of killing non-Muslims that;

At the end of the day, when we say “innocent people” we mean “Muslims”. As far as non-Muslims are concerned, they have not accepted Islam. As far as we are concerned, that is a crime against God

This sort of language has given him plenty of air time but little support amongst the general population or Muslims in particular. His group is thought to have around 40 members, some of whom are most likely in the pay of Scotland Yard, Choudary himself included. While the vast majority of Muslims shun his group and see them as utterly irrelevant lunatics the likes of the BNP and EDL have taken particular interest in the group, mainly in an attempt to vindicate their notion that their is a global conspiracy to implement Sharia Law and undermine British culture.