A couple of left-wing websites have noted the English Defence League’s new target: union power and Communism. A couple of days ago the EDL’s site told us that
The EDL know that unions have a part to play to protect workers’ rights, to ensure that employees are treated fairly in the workplace. However it would seem that these unions have become more powerful, more influential and more militant in the political sphere, this is where vested interests infringe upon a democratic political platform, so much so that democracy seems to be ebbing away right before our eyes and its replacement………COMMUNISM!!!!
Great Britain doesn’t do Communism, it never has, yet Communists are afforded more influence and more power as the Labour party look to fund its upcoming election campaign.
Lenin’s Tomb and Barrykade suggest that this is the organisation’s “true colours”, and this is shows that the EDL has an agenda beyond simply opposing “Islamic extremism” – attention is drawn to the fact that the EDL has a millionaire businessman sugar-daddy.
There are, though, a couple of other factors: It’s clear that the EDL would rather people support parties such as UKIP or the English Democrats over mainstream parties, and Labour’s association with the Unite union is a topical knocking-point. Perhaps we are also seeing the importing of rhetoric from the USA, where the crudest 1950s-style anti-Communist posturing has enjoyed a renewed lease of life over the past year or so. I recently noted Pamela Geller’s reference to Obama as the “mad Commie clown”, and this kind of thing is now commonplace among the “teabaggers” – Geller has written posts commending the EDL to American conservatives, and the EDL in turn has directed traffic to her site.
More widely, Communist groups have shown up at Unite Against Fascism anti-EDL events waving around hammer-and-sickle iconography, and the Trotskyist SWP looms large within the UAF. Naturally, just as the UAF denounces the EDL of having semi-hidden far-right links (a subject I have also written on), so the EDL will point to the UAF’s far-left links, as a matter of tit-for-tat. There are also, of course, actual links between far-left groups and Islamists.
Meanwhile, EDL members are also planning a rally on a “Not Compatible with Britain” theme, attacking the BNP along with neo-Nazis and Communists. Anarchists don’t get off lightly, either…
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Great Britain doesn’t “do” Communism? One British prime minister, when student rector of Edinburgh University, enthused about Antonio Gramsci (founder of the Italian Communist Party).
He wrote: “Gramsci’s relevance to Scotland today is in his emphasis that in a society which is both mature and complex, where the total social and economic processes are geared to maintaining the production of goods and services (and the reproduction of the conditions of production), then the transition to socialism must be made by the majority of the people themselves and a socialist society must be created within the womb of existing society and prefigured in the movements for democracy at the grass roots.”
And who was that person, writing this, back in 1975? Gordon Brown.
Probably move to one world government and banking system – which will be socialist based. The population
will go for it since no one likes taking risks once jobs become scarce or lost. Escatology can supply the answers .
Do you mean escapology or eschatology (the concepts that religions invoke re: End Times and the judgements of souls after death)?
sorry eschatology – about end times prophecy which
points to a one world government and religion.
Socialism is an easier route to a one world system
since individualism will be eroded.
Bit dim of the EDL to be opposing Nazis – does that mean we’ll see a mass suicide at their next demo?
I came across one EDL tweeter talking about UAF demonstrators as “upper-middle class commies”, which is about as daft as the union leader who accused Ian Hislop of quaffing champagne and lobster. The anti-anarchist thang is interesting, since my website is openly Muslim and anarchist and has attracted EDL attention due to my anti-nazi stance.
Maybe, Julaybib, your website has attracted attention from the EDL because some of your pious pronouncements – as made here – are a bit “dim”.
There are many things that the EDL are, and many that they are not. I regard them as not particularly helpful socio-politically, giving fuel as they do to the UAF and creating conflict where there should be objective analysis and discussion.
But one thing they are not – and if your intellect was at great as you profess on your blog – is Nazis.
This canard is equally obfuscatory, and while people throw around misleading terms, true discussion does not happen.
I regard the EDL and UAF as unhelpful. But I would never call them Nazis. They are just frustrated people who are angry that Britain appears to be changing its politics to accommodate Islamism (much of it Saudi-funded and much of it acting against the democratic interests of British society).
But then again – do I expect a self-professed “Muslim anarchist” to even begin to consider the political ramifications of having unelected Deobandi, Jamaat-e-Islami and Wahhabi “community leaders” (who believe in sharia law, the killings of homosexuals, polygamy and women having half the rights of men) calling the shots as “advisers” and “partners” of the elected government?
Do not expect the EDL to either be articulate or helpful in creating peaceful political solutions, but do not insult everyone’s intelligence by joining the UAF bandwagon and calling them “Nazis”.
Perhaps – if this is not against your “Anarchist” beliefs – you should read up on real Nazis. Tthen, perhaps, your cheap jibes may gain some value.
Richard – you seem to be getting frequently attacked by spambots.
Adrian I’m afraid the EDL does attract National Socialists (Nazis), Fascists, Racists, Homophobes, Islamophobes and sectarians. Now it would be wrong to label the EDL as Nazis but it would not be wrong to say the EDL has Nazis within their ranks.
Nazism is so close to socialism – Hitler and Stalin
which one would you prefer
Hi Yasser.
I admit that there are “reactionary” elements, including a few fascistic knobs from the BNP who fill out the ranks of their street protests, and Richard Bartholomew has been good at exposing some of the weirder and whackier elements that gave birth to the group.
But these are fellow-travellers who appear on their protests and are not – as far as I can ascertain – the core membership.
The official line of the EDL is not fascistic, though it is reactionary.
I just get very annoyed when people jump onto bandwagons and start labelling the EDL as “Naz” without taking into account any of their stated aims (whether all members live up to any group’s stated aims is another argument).
To falsely label a reactionary group as Nazis, as our “Muslim Anarchist” (a contradiction in terms?) has done is to simplify in a reductio ad absurdam manner what is quite an important issue.
The EDL are generally not-too-well educated individuals from (mostly) working class backgrounds, who feel aggrieved and also left out of the process. Their ranks are mostly drawn from the white “underclass”, the people that political parties like Labour once supported.
They feel aggrieved and left out of society. How much their perceptions are justified is a matter of dispute. But they feel that their grievances are real. To belittle their grievances and to call them Nazis (as the SWP-infested and constitutionally racist UAF do, and as our “Muslim Anarchist” friend does) is not only insulting to their feeling of “exclusion” from society – it is dishonest. And such silly terms further isolate and exclude them.
Maybe – if this damned government got on with the business of mending the economy and providing jobs and incentives, rather than playing politics and encouraging patronage – there would not be any grievances in the first place.
This government has played upon divisions – encouraging “multiculturalism” instead of multiracialism, offering handouts to those who can identify themselves as “different” from the mainstream, rather than treating everyone fairly.
When people make stupid remarks about “Nazis” they are belittling the very same grievances that cause people to become reactionary and to join groups like the EDL. The problems that the working class feel need to be addressed seriously. Too often they are dismissed as Chavs or the “Asbo generation” by educated so-called “socialists”.
Such venomous dismissal of their lives will only draw people into reactionary, rightist positions.
The centre ground needs to be kept clear of silly taunts of “Nazis” and “Commies” (unless one refers to real Nazis or real Communists) in order to keep avenues of communication and discussion open.
In the USA right now there is a media civil war going on – with labels being thrown at each other by Republicans and Democrats. We are in danger of falling into that futile and destructive polarisation here.
The UK & USA will certainly accommodate Islam just as they have accommodated Judaism, but I am not sure who these Saudis are since the majority of Muslims have escaped the cruelty and ignorance of their absolutist elites back in Asia or Africa.
Do you care to tell us the difference between Islamism and the Judaism which sees the American House of Representative schedule Jewish holidays just as Christian holidays?
Finally, I can concur EDL is no Nazi, because they whine like all these other effeminate groups whose pursuit in life is to shout lauder than the next guy. Real men would have faced up to the fuglies of Hizbu Tahrir, rather than marching in Asian business districts to maximise damages just in case in turns out violent.
seen this?
http://casualsunited.webs.com/newbookbyjeffmarsh.htm
It is often said that England is the birthplace of modern democracy, that the civilised world has followed us, adopted our methods when establishing their own systems of law and looked to our temerity for inspiration in the face of tyranny.
There are names, some remembered and worn on stones in our churchyards, many more consigned to eternity, forgotten in all but the deeds we know they have done on our behalf.
There are tales of men at sea, shielding us from the evil that devious enemies would wreak upon our noble people, images emblazoned at the very fore of our minds of redcoats on the fields of waterloo, of common men from the shires on the battlements of old Jerusalem.
The sufferings of our people, whether by plague, famine, work or war have all been met and faced down so that we, the people of today could be free.
Whether god fearing or otherwise, they lived by a code of morals based on the teachings of Christianity, with fathers respected, mothers adored and children raised to do right by others.
There is, still in the memories of the old, an England where your neighbour was as good as kin, where those in authority, by demanding allegiance had offered theirs to you in return.
Then, you would be applauded for holding aloft your flag, more so for offering yourself to dangers in defence of those who would hold it with you.
That was then, when we knew ourselves and were prepared to declare traitors as enemies rather than as ‘people of alternative conscience’ as the politically correct would have us call them today.
That England, world renowned and admired by all who seeking liberty, have sought to emulate our freedoms, is gone.
There lies now, off the coast of Europe, a group of islands riddled by the shells of injustice firing broadsides from its bastion of totalitarianism, its society broken and bowed under the incessant hammering of ‘progressiveness’, a new term coined to thinly veil the works of communism, oppression, enforced servitude, and obedience without question.
It is a shadow of its former self, where those who remember our past fondly are considered to be bigots, even extremists and that is even before our mouths open to speak.
To question the ideological legitimacy of a suicide bombers actions, you are open to accusations of islamophobia being levelled at you, to say that a woman has the same rights as a man you are culturally insensitive, to demand English customs and laws have precedence over imported customs and laws you will be labelled a xenophobic racist.
To display a Union jack in your window is to invite a tirade of abuse, orders to remove it for fear of upsetting those who have chosen to come here and enjoy the life we have built for ourselves.
The irony is in the fact that somebody fleeing their homeland and seeking refuge from their own nation would be encouraged to wave here the flag of the nation that persecuted them back home, why?
We have been forced to watch silently as everyday a new law is passed, another Briton jailed, another fine for not abiding by the idiocy imposed, another jihadist terror cell is uncovered and the terrorists released without charge to enjoy free homes, food and healthcare at the expense of the people they seek to kill whilst ex-soldiers settle down to another night of danger, sleeping rough on the streets.
That is the new justice, how dare we speak against it.
Many of you will have neighbours who are recently arrived here, some illegally, but that makes no difference, they are still considered by those who rule us to be our betters.
Some of those neighbours will be hardworking and appreciative of the refuge they have found, many will hate you and the way you live, a few will harbour sympathies for those wishing to end your life.
Some of them, not the ‘handful’ as the policy makers claim, but according to Scotland yard, up to 4,000 will have been trained in islamist terrorist training camps and are here waiting for an opportunity to kill you.
This is not scaremongering, it is the inevitable conclusion of appeasement, of policies created to change the face of Britain without the consent of the people, of blind faith in experimental ideas forged in the bowels of a self flagellating, ideological movement headed by the failed and universally rejected minds of the far left, and we are not safe as long as it is here.
We can argue that it is unfair, and be deemed to have misunderstood the reasons for atrocities committed against us, they will say you were bombed for being in Iraq, ignoring the fact you have never been there.
They will say, you have excluded them and they are expressing anger at a society that ignores them, when the fact remains, they have ignored or otherwise cursed you for the infidel you are.
They will accuse you of being stuck in the past when you declare that change is not always a good thing, when the truth is that they are stuck in the past, you have already changed and the beliefs they wish to force upon us are in any civilised society, best left in the past.
They will say, your society is unclean and immoral, forgetting that the breakdown of our society is a direct result of our leaders willingness to abandon it, wandering in search of a new social utopia, and to readily criminalise national pride stemming from the very foundations upon which society is built
We cannot hope to resurrect the order and sense of community we had if it is a criminal offence to criticise, or even question those who wish to destroy what remains of it.
For many, this sad state of affairs will be a new phenomenon, but to those who have been forced from their homes by followers of ranting Imams in less than a generation to make way for Islamic ghettoes, it is all too familiar.
On July 7th 2005, those who crossed many nations to reach Britain, chosen by them for its reputation as a nation where all could be free, were preaching hatred against us as their followers were busily engaged on a journey to paradise and 72 virgins as a reward for murdering in cold blood, those who had provided that refuge.
It would be naive to assume that all Imams were preaching this hatred, but when upwards of 90% of Imams in British mosques are immigrants born in countries known to harbour hatred for the west and openly rejecting the society they now live in, we can only guess at how much damage has already been done to the minds of impressionable young British muslims.
There is no way of measuring the number of potential terrorists in Britain today, perhaps if our security services had been as lax as our leaders in their duties, we would have a truer understanding of just how serious the threat is.
Many more concrete pillars would be needed for the memorial garden.
We know, there is no doubt now as the evidence is overwhelming, that a considerable number of mosques in Britain are funded by organisations sympathetic to the wahabi interpretation of Islam with Imams who preach this version of it sent here in abundance to lead them.
Wahabiism is not, by any reasoning, an ideology able to exist in harmony with the society we seek to defend, it is if anything, completely at odds with it.
Perhaps in a moment of madness, maybe out of fear, our leaders had until 7/7 forged a covenant of security with the more extreme followers of wahabiism.
They were allowed to live here preaching hatred and plotting atrocities abroad on condition that they did not attack Britain, the folly of this covenant is evident when counting the dead of that fateful day.
Omar Bakri, Abu Hamza, Anjem Choudray and many others have declared us to be the enemy, not because we as individuals have wronged them personally but because they had until 7/7 met no resistance, their views were unchallenged, they began to feel invincible, it was inevitable that a view unchallenged would, from a seed sown by ignorance bloom into a sense of righteous entitlement to commit, or otherwise encourage others to commit, acts of terrorism.
Still, a sense of fear stalks the corridors of parliament, few are willing to challenge a doctrine which answers criticism with violence, Pim Fortuyn and Theo Van gogh are laid down as examples of what may arise as a consequence of vocalising discontent.
To some, it would seem that the preference of the afraid is to stifle the voices of others who are unafraid by enacting new laws under the guise of defending communities from hate, to challenge the rhetoric we are threatened by is to invite criminal charges on the grounds of islamophobia.
To even assume that this method works is to ignore 7/7, it encourages it because a voice against it is not only considered wrong, it also demonstrates an apathy to the fact that it is likely to happen again.
There is a fork in every road, and every pendulum must one day swing to a halt, that fork will lead us to either freedom or the loss of it, the still pendulum will signal the end of our democracy or the end of terror.
As a nation, all races and religions united under the banner of freedom, we must choose now whether or not we place ourselves at the fork and block the path to terror, we must be ready to wind the cogs to ensure that when that pendulum comes to a halt, our freedom is given new life.
I have chosen my path, I know the dangers, I know the reward and I am not cowed by the thought of opposing terror when I see a glimmer of hope for the nation that has made me the man I am.
I feel, as do the many thousands of all races and religions who have shown courage in joining the English defence league, that somewhere in parliament and in homes the length and breadth of England, people are listening.
I feel proud that we as an organisation have taken to the streets together in defiance of those who label us Nazis and bigots, I know that the beacon is alight and it is fixed on every hill in England for all to see, those who were afraid and began to believe they were alone, now see that they are not.
We must, as a nation stand together, we must root out the extremists as one.
Christians, Hindus, Jews, Sikhs, Muslims, Pagans, Buddhists and atheists, black, white, yellow, brown, gay or straight, it is of no importance who you follow if you too believe that our right to live free, happy and prosperous lives supersedes all else.
I believe in the EDL, I believe that this is our time, ignore the shouts of ‘racist’, ‘uncle tom’ or fascist and STAND UP NOW!!!!
Freedom is not free.
LONG LIVE THE EDL
LONG LIVE FREEDOM
REG74
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