THE LAST COUPLE of months has been a great time for anti-fascists, mainly due to the comic demise of the Stella-soaked storm-troopers of the English Defence League (E.D.L.). For those not in the know, the E.D.L. claim to be a force of proud ‘patriots’ opposed to ‘muslamic’ extremism. Scratch just underneath the surface however, and it becomes obvious that the group is riddled with hardcore fascists and racists, and made up of footie hooligans who need a new excuse to kick off now that Old Bill keep an eye on them at football. For the past three years, they’ve turned up uninvited in numerous towns and cities, smashing up Asian businesses, assaulting Sikhs mistaken for Muslims and generally making a nuisance of themselves. Recently however, things have gone downhill for them, with humiliating defeats and ever dwindling numbers at demos in Brighton, Bristol and elsewhere. Then, enter Walthamstow, where less than 200 meagre Ee-ee-diots were outnumbered 16-1 by angry locals, who blocked their march route, occupied their stage, pelted them from first floor windows and forced a full-on retreat. Being a sucker for punishment, and having taken one too many blows to the head, leader Tommy Robinson immediately announced a re-match in Walthamstow, due to take place on Oct 27th… later banned by the cops. Despite online bragging that they would turn up anyway, the E.D.L. pulled a no-show, while over 1,000 anti-fascists held a victory party in Walthamstow, not a single bigot in sight. Meanwhile in Westminster, 70 demoralised E.D.L. members held a static ‘mass national demo’ outside a Wetherspoons. In an attempt to shove a bit of white spirit up the noses of the addled rabble, big man Tommy tried to smuggle himself and 50 ‘loyal’ organisers into a mosque in the back of a removal van. The plan unravelled when at least three of the chosen few grassed – two to the police, one to Unite Against Fascism! – the result being a mass arrest of Tipsy Tommy and co, ‘tooled-up’ and wearing balaclavas, miles from any mosque (but near a pub!).
While in the nick, plod discovered that Tommy had travelled to America on a false passport (the real one being confiscated for footie hooliganism). Taken alongside his previous convictions for fraud, tax avoidance and assault, Tommy is now stuck in the big-house, dining on halal prison food, waiting for an extradition to America in January. Mind you, this may come as a relief, as, after going bankrupt and being booted out by his wife, without access to his kids, Tommy has been living with his uncle, and fellow E.D.L. ‘top boy’ Kev Courtney in a caravan behind a Sainsbury’s in Luton!
The decline of the ‘League has already given rise to literally a dozen tiny splinter-groupsicles who are, for the moment, too weak to do anything but bicker over who gets to play fuhrer. While they may have one or two mini-demos left in them, their downfall is evidence that, besides their own brain-cell deficit, opposition on the streets (as well as taking the time to counter and defeat their arguments) can and does work, when it comes to giving racists the literal and ideological kicking they so richly deserve.
