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FRFI Participates in March Against National Front 15.04.07

Police form a screen across the front of Weatherspoons and push protestors back, away from the fascists

On Sunday 15th April FRFI activists took part in the counter-protest against the National Front's fourth consecutive annual march through Newcastle, which they claim is to celebrate St George's Day on 23rd April, but which others have suggested is to celebrate Adolf Hitler's birthday on 20th April.

The counter-demonstration was called by the trade unions, and as usual was dominated by Labour Party lefts attempting to use their opposition to a bunch of 50 thugs to distance themselves from the racism of their own party. FRFI comrades called them out on their party's own war against asylum seekers, and on the record of their party in terrorising Muslim communities today just as they did the Irish in the 1970s and 1980s.

The Labour lefts could think of nothing to say in their defence, but members of the Socialist Worker Party jumped to their aid and pointed out how totally inappropriate it was to be talking about racism at an anti-fascist demonstration.

As happened last year, the organisers marched the demonstrators 100 metres down the road into a police cordon, waited for the fascists to make it safely to the pub, and then announced the counter-demonstration over, around 30 minutes after it had begun. Throughout the demonstration FRFI comrades used leaflets, chants, one to one discussions and the megaphone to draw attention to the role of the police in protecting the fascists, without whom the 300 counter-demonstrators could easily have dealt with the 50 fascists. This was the British state exposed in its defence of organised fascists, yet the Labour lefts and their supporters in the SWP, Socialist Party, etc, seemed very upset at this exposure, and made every effort short of physical violence to shut down and drown out what FRFI was saying.

When the demonstration was declared officially over FRFI activists went with others to Weatherspoons, where the fascists were getting drunk under the protection of the police. Protestors formed up outside but were gradually forced back by the police using horses, one of the cops reaching out to rip the cord out of the back of a megaphone. Protestors continued to chant, exposing the cops with 'Labour's bobby on the beat Protects the fascists on the street!' and slowed down the police by linking arms and repeatedly sitting down.

When they were eventually forced back into the city centre a core of protestors headed to the police station to protest against the police's defence of the fascists. The police quickly formed a line in front of their door, and imposed the ridiculous condition under the Public Order Act that the protest could only continue for 4 minutes, after which they dispersed the protest.

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Mounted police push protestors further down the street away from Weatherspoons


Police impose conditions as the protest is taken to their doorstep



Leaflet handed out by FRFI on the day:



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Discussion: See the Indymedia posting of this report for some discussion of the action.

Below is an email sent to us by 'Steve', posted with his permission, followed by our reply:

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Please send me no more e-mails about the events that you are organising.

The reason for this request is simple: the behaviour of some of the FRFI North East representatives on the anti-fascist march last weekend.

The aim of the march was clear and simple - to show that we wanted fascists off the streets of Newcastle; that's what we were all there to say. So to cause dissension amongst us was counter-productive and just plain silly.

Your reps may have a point about the racist effects of Labour Party policy. But Sunday's march was not the place to raise them - least of all when invective was chucked at Nigel Todd. True, he is a member of the Labour Party; but he doesn't agree with New Labour's policy on race, asylum, etc., etc., and he has worked strongly over many years in the inner west to deliver a clear anti-racist, ant-fascist message. If you can't distinguish between Nigel and Nick Griffin, you need to refine your politics.

So please delete my name from your mailing list.

Steve

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Dear Steve,

No problem, we can certainly take you off our mailing list. In response to your comments:

Was the intention of Sunday's march only to show that we 'wanted' the fascists off the streets, or was it to prevent them from marching? Do you really think that if we just express what we want loudly enough the fascists are going to go away? The fascists need to be physically prevented from marching. Several times on previous years this has come close to happening, but standing in defence of the fascists every year are the police, and holding people back from any confrontation with the police are the opportunists in the Labour Party, backed up by the SWP, etc. It was in this context we argued that to fulfill the aim of the march as we saw it - to prevent the fascists from marching - required also confronting the police and opportunists.

You criticise us for heckling Nigel Todd. Your accusation that we were 'chucking invective' is simply untrue. What was said on Sunday to Todd was: 'If you're really against racism why don't you leave the Labour Party? What about what the Labour Party's doing to asylum seekers and Muslims?'. To stand as a Labour councilor and speak against racism is not sending a clear message, it is misleading people, and spreading illusions that there are two Labour Parties - the 'old', anti-racist Labour of Nigel Todd, and the 'new', racist Labour of Tony Blair. In reality there is only one Labour Party, and it has always been racist. As we pointed out in our leaflet on Sunday, many of the same tactics being used by 'new Labour' to terrorise Muslim communities today are identical to the ones used by 'old Labour' to terrorise Irish communities in the 1970s. The common thread is Labour's commitment to crushing any resistance to British imperialism. 'Left' opportunists like Nigel Todd play a crucial role in covering up for this, and need to be exposed if a serious movement against racism and fascism is to be built.

You finish by accusing us of not seeing any difference between fascists and the Labour Party. Again this is not true, we have never said that. What we have said is that the policies of the Labour government give credibility to the arguments of fascists, and at the same time the activities of fascists are used by the Labour Party to justify being even more racist - an argument essentially coming down to: 'We have to be racist, otherwise people will vote for the BNP'. This is what we mean when we say they work in harmony. History has shown time and again that when a social democrat government is really under pressure, they are fully prepared to use fascist organisations to back up the forces of the state. I see no reason why a Labour government would be any different. Because of this, it is pointless to try and fight the rise of fascist groups without taking on state racism at the same time, and you're certainly not going to manage it in alliance with the state. Hopefully it's clear now how different that is from saying that the fascists are identical to Labour, or that fascism is no different from social democracy.

Tom
for FRFI North East

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