The English Defence League & why they must be smashed

The English Defence League shot to prominence over the summer with marches in Birmingham, Harrow and Luton. Their core membership is a mix of football hooligans, racists and BNP and National Front members. They claim to have formed in response to disturbances in Luton around home-coming parades by soldiers returning from Afghanistan in May.

Their website and spokespersons repeatedly state that they are not anti-foreigner, but exist to peacefully protest against the spread of ‘Islamic extremism’ in the UK.

However, the true nature of the EDL has been exposed each of their demonstrations with many of their members making Nazi salutes and attacking Asian bystanders and businesses.

Much has been made of the relationship between the EDL and the BNP. While the EDL has made attempts to distance itself from the BNP and NF, and the BNP has publicly stated that ‘no member of the BNP can also be a member of the EDL’, this is a superficial disclaimer, as it is known that several prominent BNP activists are heavily involved in the EDL. With well-known BNP members seen on EDL demonstrations, and the fact that the EDL website is designed by a BNP member, we can presume that the BNP is providing a sizeable amount of financial and organisational support to the EDL.

BNP support would account for the EDL’s exceptionally fast rise and ability to transport members around the country to demonstrations. However, although the BNP is certainly keeping its fingers in the EDL pie, their efforts to disassociate themselves politically is a reflection of fundamental differences between the Nick Griffin’s aspirations to political legitimacy and the EDL’s core origins amongst fascists disillusioned with the BNP’s transition to an “respectable and electable” image – swapping boots for suits.

As a fascist street-fighting force the EDL are distinct from the BNP in several areas. Firstly, they do not aspire to political power. This means that the activities of their members are not restrained by the need to attract votes, or even a particularly favourable media profile. This makes them a much more violent and unpredictable force. Despite all their claims to the contrary, the actions of the EDL in fact represent the embryonic rebirth of the presence on our streets of the National Front skinheads who terrorised Black and Asian communities into the 1980s.

The EDL have mainly concentrated their demonstrations in peripheral towns such as Harrow and Luton - building up their media profile over the summer. Although they held marches in Birmingham, it is not a city which is well associated with the far-right. The demonstrations in Harrow and Luton can be seen as preparation for their move into Leeds and Manchester - areas where the BNP has a significant foothold.

So when this is the nature of the English Defence League, why have they been able to attract members, and keep growing?

With NATO forces losing the war in Afghanistan, the government is deploying an increasing nationalist sentiment in order to shore up public support for the occupation. The EDL are using this nationalism to appeal to people who might have voted for the BNP in local and European elections, and potentially mobilise them on EDL demonstrations.

Some people suggest that the EDL should be allowed to demonstrate, and that the right to assemble, protest, and express your views should be extended to everyone, regardless of however vile you might find those opinions to be.

However, the EDL is not a legitimate political tendency. As an organisation, their aim is to use terror and intimidation against anything they consider contrary to their twisted conception of Britishness, and to mobilise gangs of violent thugs to act as the foot-soldiers of fascism with the aim of ‘re-claiming the streets for ’British people’’.

A group that exists to sow fear and mistrust in our communities by violent attacks on ethnic minorities cannot be permitted to have a presence on our streets. While the EDL might still be the lunatic fringe of mainstream fascism, if left unopposed we can expect a return of the tactics adopted by the NF in the late 70s, where provocative marches through mainly black neighbourhoods, and systematic attacks on immigrants were the hallmarks of British fascism.

As an increasingly well-organised fascist organisation that can count on at least the tacit support of the BNP, the EDL must be given no opportunity to spread their disgusting lies and hatred from a public platform. Most importantly this means countering their demonstrations with massive anti-fascist mobilisations involving workers, youth, and oppressed sections of society like ethnic minorities and the LGBT community.

The importance of organised community and demonstration self-defence is a crucial one in our approach to anti-fascism. While the fascists will attempt to hold larger city-centre demonstrations as their confidence grows, they also aim to terrorise communities away from the glare of the media spotlight. From the experience of decades, we know that we cannot rely on the police to protect our demonstrations or communities from fascist attack. The police will always defend the fascists from people’s legitimate attempts to drive them out of our towns.

An effective anti-fascist response means forming local anti-fascist committees which draw in members of the community and which link up with workers organisations. We cannot rely on state bans to stop the rise of fascism – this simply reinforces their hysterical claims of victimisation. In Luton, the government has imposed a three month ban on all demonstrations. This is completely unacceptable. A state ban would prevent demonstrations by Trade Unions, Anti-war groups, and those fighting back against the privatisations, job losses and cutbacks sweeping the UK. If the lecturers at Tower Hamlets college could not demonstrate in support for their indefinite strike, it is possible they would not have been successful.

Learning from the lessons of the NF in the late 70s and 80s, we know that the tactic of blockading and breaking up their marches with well-organised counter-demonstrations is the best way to drive the EDL scum off our streets. After a series of anti-fascist mobilisations culminating in the Battle of Lewisham in 1979, the NF was decisively beaten as a street-force, and the high-visibility presence of fascism disappeared from Britain’s streets for the next 20 years.

We saw this lesson in practice in Harrow and twice in Birmingham at recent EDL marches. While some anti-fascist groups merely called a counter-demonstration or rally on the other side of the city, local youth were instrumental in physically confronting the fascists and humiliating them on the national stage. The Socialist Workers Party called a counter-demonstration before the second EDL march in Birmingham after it became clear that community leaders and other anti-fascist groups were not prepared to sanction physical no-platform. The fact that the EDL were completely unable to demonstrate proved that this was absolutely the right tactic and provides an example of what can be achieved.

As with most of our privileges and democratic rights, we cannot rely on the state to be an ally in the fight against fascism. The nature of fascism means that it can only be defeated through co-operation, co-ordination and self-defence between communities at a local and national level.

While organisations like the Anti-Nazi League its successor Unite Against Fascism are valuable in mobilising people and raising awareness at a national level, they have consistently proved unwilling to take the necessary steps towards physically confronting fascism on the streets. In the run-up to the EDL's march in Manchester on the 10th, they have called a peaceful rally to protest the EDL, while calling for the city council to ban the march.

what workers, youth and the oppressed in our society need is a Anti-fascist defence league democratically organised in our communities which can fight day-in, day-out wherever fascism appears in the workplaces, the towns, and across the country.

The youth and workers organised in such an organisation would also need a political formation to combat the BNP from a electoral perspective. A revolutionary workers party grounded in local action committees, which give people the democratic means necessary to unite and fight against fascism and the devastating consequences of the capitalist’s economic crisis. This party would be able to provide a revolutionary socialist answer for workers and youth, and prevent the BNP from posing as a legitimate political alternative.