Tag: Unite Against Fascism

Protesters and police clash in Nottingham

Police have clashed with members of the English Defence League during a protest in Nottingham, with 11 people arrested.

Some 300 demonstrators from the EDL marched through the city centre shouting: “We want our country back.”

Earlier there was a stand-off between the EDL and Unite Against Fascism, who held a counter protest in the city.

Mounted police held back demonstrators with batons and punches were thrown at police. One female officer and a protester suffered minor injuries.

Many of the EDL demonstrators had their faces covered with hooded tops and scarves and shouted anti-Islamic slogans.

‘Kicked police dog’

Other protesters had Union Jacks and St George’s flags which they either waved or wrapped around their shoulders as a police officer shouted instructions at the crowd from a helicopter circling overhead.

Some of the group waved placards with slogans such as “Protect Women, No To Sharia” and “No Surrender”.

The EDL insists it is not a racist organisation and has no links to the BNP and is simply standing against the threat of Islamic extremism.

A spokesman said they had planned the demonstration for Saturday as the Second Battalion the Mercian Regiment was holding a homecoming parade in Nottingham following a recent tour of Afghanistan.

The EDL and UAF exchanged hostile words in the city’s Old Market Square but large numbers of police officers managed to keep the rival demonstrators apart.

Nottinghamshire Police said they had deployed more than 700 officers, including some drafted in from Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, the West Midlands, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and Humberside.

The force said a 29-year-old Nottinghamshire officer received an arm injury while policing the cordon and was taken to Nottingham’s Queens Medical Centre for treatment but the injury was not thought to be serious.

One of the 11 men arrested on suspicion of minor public order offences was also taken to hospital, with police saying it was believed he kicked a police dog, which then bit him.

The BBC’s Ben Ando said the arrests came when a small number of EDL protesters clashed with police who were containing them near the city’s main railway station.

‘Anti-British’

Thousands of Christmas shoppers gathered to watch 500 troops from the Mercian Regiment parade through the city in the morning.

The homecoming parade followed a six-month tour of duty in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan, where the regiment lost five soldiers and dozens of its men were injured.

A 43-year-old EDL member, a serving soldier who did not want to be named, said: “We came here to support our lads, and the UAF and other militants have turned up.

“I think it’s disgusting. I look at their protest and there’s a Pakistani flag flying with a Muslim symbol. Their protest isn’t against the EDL, they’re protesting against the troops and it’s anti-British.

“They haven’t got one Union Jack or St George’s Flag. I’m not a fascist, I’m not a Nazi but I am British.”

Michael Vickery, from the UAF, said: “It’s not good enough not to have any kind of a response (to the EDL presence) because basically, if we don’t have a protest then it’s letting them come into town and say ‘this is our place for the day’, which it isn’t, it belongs to everyone in Nottingham.”

After the rally missiles were thrown at a breakaway group of the EDL but no-one was hurt.

The EDL marchers were led to the railway station by police and began boarding trains back to their homes at around 1630 GMT.

Nottinghamshire’s Assistant Chief Constable Ian Ackerley said the force had faced a series of complex events but had achieved “a successful outcome to a very challenging day”.

BBC

December 6, 2009
Fights at anti-fascist protest at Leeds

Hundreds of anti-fascism protesters have gathered in a city centre to demonstrate against a planned protest by a far right-wing group.

Minor scuffles broke out between police and protesters as around 400 Unite Against Fascism activists descended on Leeds.

Officers were trying to shepherd them towards a square outside the city’s art gallery to ensure they were kept apart from rival English Defence League demonstrators who are due to meet later this afternoon a short distance away.

A large number of police officers, including a mounted section, were deployed in the city centre to keep the rival groups apart.

A police helicopter circled above while activists from Unite Against Fascism shouted slogans.

Demonstrators carried placards and banners and shouted “Fascist scum off our streets”.

The scuffles broke out as police officers linked arms and moved the protesters towards the gallery.

One protester was grabbed by officers and dragged towards a nearby police van.

Several streets in the city were closed as the demonstrations took place.

Press Association

October 31, 2009
Protesters break up BNP news conference

By Adrian Croft

LONDON (Reuters) – Scores of protesters throwing eggs and shouting “Nazi scum, off our streets” broke up a news conference on Tuesday by the British National Party which has just won its first seats in the European Parliament.

BNP leader Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons, who both won European Parliament seats in the north of England in last week’s vote, had just started giving an open-air news conference outside parliament when they were charged by protesters.

They threw eggs which broke on Griffin’s shoulder and at least one protester hit him with the stick of a placard, a Reuters photographer on the scene said.

Chased by the protesters, Griffin and Brons fled in waiting cars. Demonstrators struck the cars with placards, which bore the slogan “Stop the Fascist BNP,” as they accelerated away.

A police spokeswoman said two people had been taken to hospital after the protest, but she had no more information about them or their injuries.

Police were looking into an allegation of assault on a woman at the protest and investigating reports of a road collision linked to the demonstration, she said. No one had been arrested.

Police guarding parliament did not intervene in the protest.

The BNP, which campaigns for a halt to immigration, voluntary repatriation of immigrants and British withdrawal from the European Union, has won local council seats but is not represented in the British parliament.

It is shunned by mainstream parties which regard its policies as racist. But it has gathered support in urban areas among a working class hurt by the worst recession in decades and competing for jobs and services with immigrants.

It won more than 940,000 votes in last week’s European elections, enough to give it its first two deputies under a proportional representation system.

Griffin said the protesters were a “mob for hire” that included supporters of the Labour Party.

“This is a mob of students, lecturers, probably a few civil service parasites … and hardcore activists and supporters primarily of the Labour Party,” he told the BBC.

An official of Unite Against Fascism, set up in response to what it sees as the rising threat from the extreme right in Britain and which organised the protest, was unrepentant.

“I say to all those people that voted for them: They voted for the wrong thing. They voted for civil war, destruction and conflict in communities and surely that is a terrible thing to happen,” Weyman Bennett, the group’s national secretary, told reporters.

The BNP was helped in last week’s election by a low turnout and protest voting after the major parties were tarred by a scandal over politicians’ perks.

(Additional reporting by Stephen Hird; writing by Keith Weir; editing by Richard Balmforth)

Reuters

June 10, 2009
BNP success ‘damaging’ to Britain

The UK’s international reputation has suffered “real damage” as a result of the British National Party gaining their first seats in the European Parliament, politicians, unions and race relations groups said.

Labour MEP for London Claude Moraes said that a threshold had been crossed after the far-right party won two seats.

BNP leader Nick Griffin picked up the seat in the North West of England region and Andrew Brons won a seat in the Yorkshire and Humber region.

Peter Hain, the newly-appointed Welsh Secretary, released a statement via United Against Fascism which read: “It’s a shameful stain on Britain that we now have racists and fascists representing our country.

“It is vital that everyone now isolates and confronts the BNP and works with United Against Fascism to defeat them.”

At a Unite Against Fascism press conference in Westminster, Mr Moraes went on to acknowledge that the BNP had “jumped upon” Gordon Brown’s slogan “British jobs for British workers” during the election.

He explained: “That phrase was jumped upon by the BNP, they are trying increasingly to look at what mainstream politicians say to embarrass the politicians as a way of getting support.

He added: “There is real damage here to Britain because we have never elected fascists in a national election. Fascists in the European Parliament where I sit have long wanted members from Britain to join this transnational group so for those reasons there is deep concern that we have now crossed that threshold.”

He said that many people would be viewing Britain as a “nastier” place than they had prior to the election. The BNP wins came as the party appeared to attract significant numbers of disaffected Labour voters.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people voiced their anger at the election of the two BNP members to the European Parliament. Simultaneous protests took place in Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Preston and York in the wake of the far-right party’s propulsion up the political ladder.

Press Association

June 9, 2009