More on the EDL

south west | community | news report Wednesday September 16, 2009 15:17 by antiBNP

The EDL plan to come to Bristol (and now Newport..http://bristol.indymedia.org/article/691002 ) so what ca be expected? There has been some good coverage of the EDL online...

Image from Harrow Protest

In Birmingham they had less than 100 'protestors'...

Despite efforts to promote the event, fewer than 100 were thought to have gathered. Left-wing groups including Unite Against Fascism were alerted to the march and were able to organise a counter demonstration.

One member of the League’s online forum, registered as Adder, wrote: “I support you guys but yesterday was a shambles and you made us English look like an embarrassment. What exactly happened to supposed 'In the high hundreds' who were supposed to turn up? I saw the video and it seemed like there was barely 70 of you.
http://leninology.blogspot.com/2009/08/nazi-scum-out-of....html

In Harrow, 'protesting' at a mosque that has no connection to radical Islam, against radical Islam an another poor turnout;

I believe that only a few dozen of their activists actually made it to Harrow, but I can't say for certain, because I never laid eyes on a single one. Where these fascist provocateurs intended to 'protest' were thousands of antifascists attending the UAF's counter-demonstration. It was a very large, tremendously militant, multiracial gathering. But the leadership came from local Muslim kids.......Yet, I swear, there was no way the police had any real control over this situation. I believe that if they had tried to march these few tens of fascists down that road and outside that mosque, the EDL members would have been torn to shreds. I am not talking metaphorically. Every time there was even a rumour that these scumbags were spotted heading toward the mosque, thousands of these kids bolted toward where the action was presumed to be. They moved like fucking Olympic athletes, vaulting over the barriers and fences, circumventing and breaking through lines of riot police with aplomb. I stress that these weren't big men, like the chunky thugs that the EDL brings along, or the big lads that riot squad retains (probably quite a few fascists among them as well, by the way). They were young men, in some cases not yet men, but they ran with courage and confidence toward a ruckus, risking a beating not only from the fascists but also from the police, because of their numbers and because of their absolute hatred of the fascists. And based on what I saw, I believe they would have prevailed easily, without question. http://leninology.blogspot.com/2009/09/english-defence-....html