Neal, Mark, Pritpal and I joined many likeminded middle-class liberals to spend several hours in a Dudley carpark. It was our bit to combat the fascist scourge.
Less flippantly, there's a nasty little groups called the English Defence League which combines football and fascism. They're a front for the British National Party and claim to be anti-Islamic rather than racist (as though that's OK), and every demonstration they hold turns into a rampage on their part - such as in Bolton and Stoke recently (they're all from, and like to wreck, already depressed towns).
Today was Dudley's turn: in the midst of almost total social and economic breakdown, caused by capitalism (a massive out of town mall destroyed what used to be a thriving market town), they massed to protest against a mosque. Predictably, some of them turned to attacking the rozzers, their own stewards (!) and breaking things - several arrests.
In case you wonder about the intellectual capacities of these types, check out the comments on the Youtube video. Here's a sample:
better to get rid asasp !we are losing our english traits ! churches instead of mosque ? its england not fucking india ! dont like it ? fuck off back
Meanwhile, a large proportion of the 3000 police were employed rounding up and filming a bunch of liberals confined to a car park a long way from the fascists. I particularly despise the myriads of police cameramen, the Forward Intelligence Teams, who illegally film everyone and put us all on a database, rather than gather evidence of actual crimes. More pictures here.
I only saw them search Asians
Multiculturalism in action
If the skills required to fight reaction are sectarian bickering and newspaper selling (a ritual activity at such gatherings), then we're highly trained. Rather than actually doing anything, the myriad groupuscules on the British left would rather argue over arcane ideological points. I think they actually enjoy the arguments and fear the responsibility of power.
I could have bought:
Socialist Worker (SWP: not socialists, not workers, can't party)
Socialist Review
Socialist Outlook
Socialist Appeal (their seller wasn't very appealing - denied being a party but didn't explain who was funding a newspaper)
The Socialist
The Militant
and a range of other papers, one for every two demonstrators. Meanwhile, some ineffective speeches were made and drums were banged. Actually, I found it all very appealingly nostalgic - I used to go on lots of these and loved the familiar slogans, the papers, the whistles, the camaraderie. This one was rather nice: some lads dressed up like the old Black Bloc and occasionally made a half-hearted attempt to rush the police lines, but nothing happened.
Still, they also serve who stand and wait, eh? It was important to turn up and remind each other (nobody from the public or the EDL could see us) that the streets aren't the preserve of the fascists. Delightfully, I found myself on the train with these charming fellows, all sloping back to their holes in Stoke - the closest I got all day.
A flying picket
Wiggum waddles into action
I had a brainwave actually. All these fascists seem to hail from absolute dumps, including my hometown of Stoke. They think that everyone of non-British origin should be sent 'home' (despite the utter impossibility of finding anyone who's 'pure British' - it would mean sending all the Anglo-Saxons back to Germany and the Scots back to Ireland).
Josiah Wedgwood, who founded Stoke's ceramics industry. He often sports a beer bottle, and sometimes a Stoke City shirt.
So. Let's give them somewhere nobody else wants, like Dudley. Fence it off. Give them the seeds of any plant that can be proven 'indigenous'. The same with cattle. Remove any tool, machine and object of foreign origin. According to their racial theories, their community will become a Utopia.
Return in, say, 5 years to check the results. My guess is that it won't be an earthly paradise.
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