Three weeks ago, someone spray painted a four-foot swastika on the side of the Essex Road library. This isn’t the sort of thing that’s welcome in North London. Today, several local antifascist decided to set up a stall to talk to our neighbours and spread awareness. We initially set up outside the library with a table and lots of materials, informing people about issues like the Kill the Bill movement and anti-raids solidarity. After a little while, we agreed to move to the market and hand out flyers. This was really fun and we engaged with plenty of people. Finally, we set up the table again outside Angel station and handed out most of the rest of our flyers.
When doing antifascist activism, it’s easy to fall into the trap of focusing on fascists. In fact fascists are a tiny minority and the majority of people are either uninterested or actively on our side. Today, not one person on the streets of Angel objected to what we were doing, and many went out of their way to express support. In fact, a few had even seen our posters and were happy to finally meet us in person.
As antifascist activists, we feel safe and supported in our community. We don’t need to disguise our true ideas and motives with dog-whistles. We don’t have to hide from our neighbours. Because we know they’re with us. Can the fascist who spray-painted the library with a hate symbol say that?
North London is antifascist. Always was, always will be.
If you want to help us keep it this way, get in contact.
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