by Phil Dickens..For the English Defence League, today was undoubtedly a spectacular flop. After months and months of hype about “marching into the lion’s den” in Tower Hamlets, they managed only to get 600 people to the final demo point – and that outside of the Tower Hamlets borough! Meanwhile, huge crowds of anti-fascists turned out to defend the streets.
The EDL found themselves unable to enter Tower Hamlets when the RMT threatened to close Liverpool Street Station if they were allowed to muster there. They then closed Kings Cross station when the fascists gathered nearby, and they had to get a police escort to Aldgate……….
……Anti-fascists are unanimous in declaring the day a victory, but not so much in what was responsible for said victory. In his only acknowledgement that not all anti-fascists agreed with a state ban, Nick Lowles claimed “today has proved that [the ban] was the right decision.” Unite Against Fascism laid the credit at the feet of “the greatest possible opposition to the racists and fascists,” who “ensure[d] the [EDL] could not threaten the borough’s multiracial, multicultural community.” Tower Hamlets ALARM largely agrees, saying that “a mob of locals and antifascists” defended the area and saw the fascists off…..
It was the solidarity of the RMT (effectively threatening illegal strikes to shut the stations down) which saw the EDL’s movements interrupted and foiled rather than any legal measure. And of course the “mob” was the best protection Tower Hamlets could have had.
The Free 