Yesterday saw members of the EDL and anti-fascists face off at Manchester’s Cenotaph as the far-right attempted to capitalise on the murder of soldier Lee Rigby.

We began the day with a rally by the cenotaph, which was surrounded by fences. The only entrance was by the tram stop, complete with a six-foot drop. Instead of setting up inside the pen and keeping the crowd in the area, Unite Against Fascism (UAF) organisers set up a microphone and sound-system outside the pen and encouraged the 80-or-so attendees to stay away from the monument.

Several fascists turned up and were immediately huddled by the police towards the cenotaph. Both sides, clearly wary of starting a fight on the cenotaph, kept to murmured insults and threats, rather than direct confrontation.

Over the course of an hour, police were able to gradually filter anti-fascists out of the square, and despite an attempt to prevent the entrance being given over to the police, we were eventually forced off the platform and the square was handed over to the similarly-sized crowd of fascists who had arrived.

In an attempt to save face, several UAF members remained on the steps of the cenotaph surrounded by the EDL, producing the uncomfortable spectacle of UAF and EDL simultaneously commemorating memory of Lee Rigby. The EDL dropped their flowers and wondered off, and anti-fascist speakers claimed this was a victory, even invoking the phrase ‘no pasaran.’

Unfortunately, the only success of yesterday’s demo was that no one on our side got attacked or arrested. Anti-fascists willing to take direct action were not organised enough or in large enough numbers to offer an alternative to the ‘symbolic protest’ strategy of the UAF leadership.

deadken posted:

uaf-style antifascism is really just a foil for the wider liberal racism of capitalist societies

This is such a daft over philosophical point about what the uaf are and what they represent that it completely misses what occurred over last weekend with the style of protest that the edl attempted to do.

They exist as a coalition of various forces on the left including social democratic parties which sit alongside the more militant sections of the anti fascist movement which is focused around anarchist and the younger (largely more part time) left.

By and large they are led by the active sections of the trade unions, the swp and the broad left labour. Due to the particular configuration of lee rigbys death alongside this leadership they have been unable to properly deal with their opposition to the edl when they are not being openly 'disrespectful' of the standard narrative that exists around the army.

Because of this on a region by region basis balance of forces within uaf have approached the problems in different ways but in every case we were unable to produce a satisfactory answer because of the particular configuration of uaf.

Furthermore the more militant section of the movement were unable to get numbers out because the plan of the edl itself was difficult to confront. Furthermore the debate within uaf on a local level really hallowed passion. Especially since the weekend before had been far more sparky where everyone got to reuse structures for confrontation which had been dormant since the edl slowed down.

This is what produced this daft show in the worlds most fabulous city which is not helped by the fact that the cenotaph is in a none public area (next to town hall off where the shops are and not on any key routes especially on a sunny day) and furthermore which has a heavily loyalist swp branch (who is pushing a 'respectful' reaction and is heavy on building relationships) plus a strong left labour movement including the labour party who would have made a compromise like this easy to take.

That is the reality of uaf and that is the reality they represent. I get what you are hinting at but its such a smarmy academic point which borders on the useless for analyzing how all this actually works in real life. For sure what you are saying can help us understand why anti fascist activity has been able to become 'mainstream' within liberal society and why it appears in an 'apolitical' form but if we reduce it to an ideological point separate from the movement as a reality it misses the real vitality of marxist analysis of ideology.

deadken posted:

teh duck monstar was really into antifa stuff lol

He still posts stupid stories reminiscing about banding together with a diverse group of people to fight the cops and save the magic Woolabah tree in western australia in the 80s, and then two posts later is bragging about all his connections within the police so he can dob in fascists

deadken posted:

ultimately things like this are just two groups of political obsessives shouting at each other in a city square for a few hours. good fun for all involved but its not revolutionary praxis, its football with pretensions

anti fascist events are one of the few events we can get the actual British working class to turn out to you fucking loon

unless your revolutionary praxis involves the famously useful task of writing sweet positions then you might actually want to be involved in defending communities and dealing with reactionary positions in the white sections of the actual British working class

deadken posted:

no not really the one point that emerges is 'edl scum off our streets' which of course i agree with but it doesnt change anything and isn't really as worthwhile as other leftist pursuits such as tweeting incessantly and drinking two bottles of red wine every night

of course it is because those activities are for well embarrassing well educated children who wouldn't know organizing if it was knocking at their doors and even worse its a choice that is giving an entire generation of the left space to ignore the boring mundane struggle which eventually needs to change if we want to do something

luckily those people become irrelevant except in their only little fairy land unless they are lucky enough to be smart enough to play the academic game and eventually contribute to Marxism in a sidelong way and not just be arrogant self affirming upstarts

+

the edl are not going to create a fascist state in britain, that is a fact, but challenging them provides a space for discussing reactionary positions, it produces situations where we can train comrades in dealing with violent situations, it allows us to connect with communities who we are almost completely cut off from due to the social construction of the leftist milleu, it gives us an area to challenge the traditional leftist structures especially in an area where we meet working class communities and where younger comrades get exited

what more do you want revolutionary praxis? (of course the above is only one part but its a valid and necessary part reacting to actual circumstances)

social democratic parties which sit alongside the more militant sections of the anti fascist movement which is focused around anarchist and the younger (largely more part time) left.

don't troll

unless your revolutionary praxis involves the famously useful task of writing sweet positions then you might actually want to be involved in defending communities and dealing with reactionary positions in the white sections of the actual British working class

Fwah look at that sentence there. The boy went to uni haha.

SovietFriends posted:

deadken posted:

no not really the one point that emerges is 'edl scum off our streets' which of course i agree with but it doesnt change anything and isn't really as worthwhile as other leftist pursuits such as tweeting incessantly and drinking two bottles of red wine every night



of course it is because those activities are for well embarrassing well educated children who wouldn't know organizing if it was knocking at their doors and even worse its a choice that is giving an entire generation of the left space to ignore the boring mundane struggle which eventually needs to change if we want to do something

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unite_Against_Fascism

Unite Against Fascism is an anti-fascist pressure group in the United Kingdom, with support from MPs of all mainstream UK political parties - including the current Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron. It describes itself as a national campaign with the aim of alerting British society to a perceived threat of fascism and the far right.

Translation: UAF are useful idiots who are supported by the Tory Party to enforce establishment limits on approved discourse against people who offer popular alternatives to unrestricted finance capitalism and social atomization.

I don't support the EDL, but their muckracking and shenanigans are the sounds of what the good Dr King called 'the voice of the voiceless'.

But in the interests of dialogue SovietFriends, could you outline a scenario (not a revolutionary platitude) where multiculturalism and mass immigration lead to a stable and prosperous Britain?

deadken posted:

birmingham is the, uh, the melbourne of britain

Well Melbourne has 4 million people and like skyscrapers and a river and beaches and stuff. It's always seemed incredible to me that in a country as crowded and populous and industrialized as Britain, they couldn't build a second city with any sort of grandeur or power. I get that London is so dominant that it has historically sucked up all the development and prestige, but between the jet-setters and asylum seekers and the City it's not even British anymore. And you can't even run away and reinvent yourself like you could in a big country because everywhere you go is filled with the same tabloids, the same pinched little houses, grey skies and despair-masquerading-as-eccentricity. Paul Theroux described it as 'less like a nation than a small parish' but really it's more like 60 million people being born into life sentences in a medium security prison but with worse food and maybe a better rec room so you can at least put a donk on your misery.

deadken posted:

donk comes from wigan