by bristolantifascists -

Anti-fascist festival in Manchester this weekend

This weekend will see a 3 day anti-fascist music festival in Manchester.

0161 Festival is being held to raise money for anti-fascists throughout Europe, with a huge variety of music and activities going on throughout the weekend. It is to show that regardless of the music and style we are all united through the anti-fascist banner.

Over 60 punk, ska, Oi, hardcore, acoustic, hip-hop and rap acts will play on 3 stages over the weekend.

02/03/04 May 2014 at the Moston Miners Community Centre.

For more info visit the 0161 Festival facebook page. For tickets go to ITS Records website.

 

by bristolantifascists -

Hunt Saboteurs Association announce affiliation with Anti-Fascist Network

Bristol Antifascists would like to show its support for the recent statement from the Hunt Saboteurs Association (which you can read below) and for the local hunt sab group, Bristol Hunt Saboteurs.

“The Hunt Saboteurs Association (HSA) is pleased to announce its affiliation to the Anti-Fascist Network (AFN).

The HSA has always had a policy of inclusion, welcoming anyone into our ranks regardless of race, creed, gender, religion or sexuality, and has been forced over the years to confront and exclude people who have been proved to be racist or fascist. Our active members have for years been the subject of racist (and sexist) abuse from the hunting community which only highlights that our struggle to end hunting also promotes a more ethical attitude to both humans and animals.Anti-Fascist Network Logo

Both the HSA and AFN promote a policy of confronting those engaged in racism and hunting respectively, on the streets and in the countryside. To not only stop such activities continuing but also to highlight them to the wider public. While other organisations hide their heads in their hands, hoping that a few leaflets or email shots will make the problems go away, we are clear that the only way to end both hunting and racism is confront it head on, so those who partake of such actions and attitudes are clear that we will oppose them until they stop.

For any further enquiries please contact our Press Officer here.

huntsabs.org.uk

antifascistnetwork.wordpress.com
“

by bristolantifascists -

Another ‘March for England’ wash-out

article taken from schnews.org.uk

“They have become the fools in a carnival of anti-fascism” Stop MfE protestor.

Yesterday Brightonians once again played the unwilling hosts to the moronic March for England. As they have been for the last three years they were once again shown the door in spectacular fashion. They were on the wrong end of the full spectrum of resistance, from insults from passers-by to violent confrontations with autonomous anti-fascists – they were heckled and harried every step of the way. By 5 p.m the centre of town was entirely fascist free.

Sussex Police spent half a million quid to facilitate this dismal racist and homophobic trudge along the seafront. Without the cops the march wouldn’t have even started. “This march is all about hatred for the very town it takes place in – the EDL weren’t allowed into Tower Hamlets so why does Brighton have to put up with the March for England every year?” said one demonstrator we spoke to. “They’ve had their free speech – six years running now, and got the same answer every time”

The day began with most of the marchers in the Wetherspoons, getting pissed up. The gathering hordes of antifascists confronted them until  forced away by policeant. All the weird and wonderful of Brighton were amassing right along the 300 metre route of the march, wondering whether they’d all got out of bed for the 3 men with ten flags at the start of the march. A little behind schedule, due to some scuffling, the rest of the marchers were escorted into their pen.

From what SchNEWS saw the march has been whittled down to a hardcore of racist and homophobic thugs. Once the cops had pushed a brief anti-fascist blockade out of the way with the use of horses the parade was underway. Barely 70 of them mustered for the actual demo and were shouted down by a crowd of 1000 or so with whistles and placards. One lone trombone player drowned out their speeches. A banner was hung out of a seafront window reading “Racists go home” to be greeted with rapturous applause by the counter-demo. They came, they squelched four hundred yards in the pouring rain from a pub and they squelched back again.

Meanwhile little skirmishes were breaking out across town as groups of nationalists tried to make their presence felt. More militant antifascist groups roamed the town seeking to confront them. It was clear that quite a few fash had made the decision not to even attend the march. A significant proportion of the counter-demo therefore hung back awaiting events. SchNEWS has heard of a string of punch-ups and kick-offs happening all over town during and after the main march. Eventually the nationalists – almost all out of towners were corralled together by cops. Laughably some of the opposition actually came through with their promise to dress up as Antifa, well nice try fellas, but as one anti-fascist quipped “You walk among us – then you crawl away”.

Even though most of the official counter-demo made it’s way home to get dry Brighton still had a few surprises up it’s collective sleeve. Around 100 fash were boxed in on Queens Rd as the cops tried to clear the way back to the railway station. Roadworks barriers were hastily converted into barricades. The force of numbers and a still vocal counter-protest meant that the cops had no alternative but to force the fash onto trains and buses and get them out of town.

The March for England could have had a worse day out in Brighton… but not by much. The road they were supposed to be marching on partially collapsed two days before; they were harangued in the pub before the march, thousands of people turned up to drown out the 80-100 boneheads shouting about England; their special undercover forces were sussed and chased out within seconds of arriving; they could not drink anywhere in town without anti fascists turning up; and it rained. But at least they got to wave some flags at the commie scum.

 

Altogether there were twenty seven arrests – fourteen of those were anti-fascists. Please do not post footage on the internet without thinking carefully about what it shows.

If you witnessed an arrest or have any useful information then contact stopmfe@ymail.com

For more on Anti-Fascism http://antifascistnetwork.wordpress.com/

by bristolantifascists -

Victory for anti-fascists in court!

article taken from antifascistnetwork.wordpress.com

wmin court

Today was due to be the first day of the trial of the remaining 5 defendents from the June 2013 demonstration against the BNP in Westminster, which successfully stopped the fascists marching on the Cenotaph to exploit the death of Lee Rigby.

There was a solidarity picket outside Westminster magistrates court this morning to support the defendents on trial. However, the case has now been dismissed and thrown out of court in a clear victory for anti-fascists against the police. Despite having months to prepare the case, the prosecution claimed to have no evidence as their key witness was on holiday!

 

On the 1st June, the police attempted to push the BNP march through a crowd of anti-fascists blocking the street and employed a strategy of mass arrests to allow the fascist parade. Despite the police violence – which resulted in one anti-fascist with a broken leg – the fascists did not pass and had to skulk off home with their tail between their legs.

However, 59 anti-fascists were arrested on that day – a high price to pay, and a foretaste of the 286 arrests used in Tower Hamlets in September to contain anti-fascists and stop them getting to the EDL. The mass arrests in Westminster were clearly planned in advance before anything had even happened as the police had booked buses to transport the arrestees in.

So out of 345 anti-fascists arrested on those two demonstrations in London last year a grand total of NONE have been convicted of anything and most were not even charged.

The police took everyone’s details in a giant fishing operation of intelligence gathering and imposed bail conditions preventing those arrested from engaging in any protest activities. Most likely they knew the majority of arrests were going to come to nothing and the intention was to get people out of the area, punish them through arrest and bail conditions, collect intelligence and impede future anti-fascist work with restrictive bail conditions.

Hopefully this strategy of mass arrests by the Met will unravel as anti-fascists are now sueing the police for the arrests at both Westminster and Tower Hamlets demonstrations.

No officer has been held to account for breaking Amy Jowett’s leg on 1st June.

For further info see:

Open letter published in the Guardian yesterday

Defend the Right to Protest

twitter.com/righttoprotest

Justice for the Anti-Fascist 5

Justice for the Tower Hamlets 286

by bristolantifascists -

AFN National Callout: Stop the March for England April 27th

Humiliated in previous years in Brighton, the racist March for England are this year calling on as many EDL splinter groups and outright Nazis as they can to bolster the numbers on their annual parade.

Accordingly the Anti-Fascist Network is urging all anti-fascists to head to Brighton on the 27th April to support the mobilisation to Stop the March for England.

Brighton has become a line in the sand for the far-right. Because Brighton is a relatively liberal cosmopolitan city, they see it as a hotbed of “anti-English activities”. They hate Brighton and they know that Brighton hates them, but they keep coming back because they cannot be seen to back down.

This year’s March for England has the added significance that it is a national outing for the newly formed far-right alliance the United British Patriots, which hopes to be the successor to the EDL on the streets. Now is the time to stand up to them before they have the opportunity to achieve this ambition.

A big show of strength in Brighton will send a clear message to this new alliance of fascists and to the far-right in general that the people of Brighton will never accept a far-right parade to go through their town unopposed.

All anti-fascists should mobilise to support them. All out for the 27th in Brighton!

Details

Meet Sun 27th April, Palace Pier roundabout, Brighton seafront to line the route of the march.

Time TBC nearer the date.

Contact your local AFN group for details of any transport to Brighton.

For information from the streets in advance and on the day:

Twitter: @stopmfe

Facebook

Web: stopmfe.wordpress.com

Phone: 07870 306788

Email: stopmfe@ymail.com

by bristolantifascists -

Swansea ‘White Pride’ swan song

article taken from antifascistnetwork.wordpress.com

swansea crowd

In Swansea on Saturday extreme right-wing National Front “White Pride” demonstrators numbering about 40 were opposed by a crowd of 100-200 anti-fascists. Swansea for some reason seems to have become the unfortunate venue of choice for this neo-Nazi celebration. Last year the demo was followed by a Blood and Honour gig at the Valley Commandos Motorcycle Club (which drew much larger crowds than the demonstration). This included dressing in Klan uniforms and a mock-lynching of a golliwog, for which Christopher Philips got himself imprisoned.

This year there seems to have been no repeat of the gig, meaning the Nazis merely ‘marched’ about 60 yards from the pub for their rally before finding themselves served with restrictions by police, and being ordered to disperse after only an hour. They then skulked in various city centre bars before getting on the train out of Swansea.

With this far-right demonstration there was no ambiguity about whether these people were perhaps just ‘patriots’ and not really racists after all. These were totally unreconstructed white supremacist Hitler-worshippers. Their demo was called in the name of the National Front. Although today shrunk to a tiny remnant of the numbers it could claim in it’s late ’70s heyday, the NF is still one of the longest running and most notorious far-right organisations in the world.

swansea banner2There was confusion when Swansea UAF who had been mobilising to counter the NF, at the last minute declared victory and called off the counter-demo, encouraging their supporters to go to Cardiff for an anti-bedroom tax demonstration instead. They claim this was based on assurances from the police (which the police have since “categorically” denied they ever made) that as the NF had not agreed to any of the locations provided by the council for their demo that they would not be allowed to meet.

This shows once again the foolishness of relying on politicians or the police to stop fascism for us. The NF had said nothing about calling off their demo and so even assuming they were not to be allowed to demonstrate officially, a large crowd of fascists could reasonably be expected to be turning up in Swansea. It is vitally important to show large scale public opposition to the far-right – perhaps a better response would have been to go ahead with the anti-fascist mobilisation anyway and if no Nazis showed then turn it into a victory rally.

Swansea UAF have now said that “next year (if they choose to come back) we will organise a counter protest in Castle Square and under no circumstances will it be cancelled”.

In any case activists from the Socialist Party, Swansea Trades Council, Llanelli Trades Council, South Wales Anti-Fascist Action and other groups turned out to oppose the fascists and outnumbered them 4 times over.

 

welshprideNumbers on both sides were down – last year saw about 60 fascists opposed by 400 or so anti-fascists. So it’s good news that there are half as many white supremacists than last year. No doubt the lower numbers on the anti-fascist side can be attributed to the confusion over the UAF mobilisation being cancelled at the last minute.

The two sides were mostly kept apart by the police until near the end of the demo when up-for-it anti-fascists made an audacious raid through the neo-Nazi ranks and snatched one of the ‘White Pride’ flags. A number of boneheads gave short chase and for a moment there looked like a possibility of a major outbreak of trouble, as other anti-fascist protestors ran towards them. This incident ended in a couple of anti-fascist arrests and a possible arrest of a Nazi.

The fascists hid in a couple of city centre bars – Ice and then Static, where anti-fascists kept watch from behind a police cordon. A phone blockade was organised, and the bar’s management in Bristol responded by travelling to Swansea in order to have the racist crowd removed. The NF were then quickly marched by police to the station and made to get on a train.

South Wales Antifascist Action sum it up:

 

“We had a 30-strong bloc and we opposed them every step of the way. It seemed like some kind of pathetic racist pub crawl facilitated by the police, who seemed content to turn a blind eye to all the harassment the NF were causing to Swansea residents. Officers could even be seen exchanging handshakes with NF supporters outside Static.”

 

“Unless we oppose them they will feel like they own this town, and their influence will spread. They falsely blame migrants for the economic problems created by capitalism, and try to spread hatred and violence against everyone who isn’t exactly like them. Being seen as the ‘white pride capital’ is nothing to be proud of, and doesn’t reflect our diverse, vibrant city at all. We have to come together against these ideas.”

Well done to all who stood up to oppose the Nazis!

For more information please contact:

South Wales Antifascist Action: 
swafa@riseup.net

Twitter: 
@swafa05