Earlier in the week police in Derbyshire invoked special public order laws to restrict the number of people who planned to demonstrate in protest at the BNP festival.
what special public order laws would they be , then? It' s almost as if they are on the BNP's side.
5 mile exclusion zone around the site for those not on the official demo, not allowing more than 700 demonstrators on the official demo, enforcing all the sections under the sun to stop and search people. All the usual stuff.
That said, it pains me to say this, but had the police not been there i imagine that those on the UAF/Union demo may well have got a pasting off the dozens of boneheads who were milling around outside tescos and around the UAF demo. As far as anti-facsist demo's go this was a low point and probably indicative of the amount of ground work that needs to be put in if class struggle anti-fascism is to really get off the ground in this country.
That's true, there was a lot of work for Derbyshire Police to do and anti-fascists kept them busy. I expect the policing of the event cost a lot of money. However i think when you have what is supposed to be a national mobilisation against the BNP that is supported by various groups from the mainstream liberal left through to militant anti-fascist groups and only 300odd people turn up, 33 of whom get arrested, then you are definately looking at a low point. Maybe i'm just being pessimistic, but it certainly seems like a defeat at the moment.
"Earlier in the week police in Derbyshire invoked special public order laws to restrict the number of people who planned to demonstrate in protest at the BNP festival" good on the uaf and antifa for even trying to voice the disgust at the fascists demo. bear in mind that the antifa are a group of militant anti-fascists and are ready to face the full force of the boneheads force. Im not in either groups but can be happy that there was some resistance to the obvious threat from this far right group.
Respect to those who were there. The state put a lot of effort into protecting the BNP's scumfest including the exclusion zone and restricting the number of demonstrators. The (BBC) press reports I've seen today said that there were 700 demonstrators there - the maximum amount allowed. I am pretty sure these days antifa could handle the BNP's boneheads.
Extended list of links for demo and direct action reports...
Local press (Derby Telegraph) Left-wing activists clash with riot police at Denby anti-BNP protest :
http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/news/Left-wing-activists-clash-riot-police-anti-BNP-protest/article-273516-detail/article.html
Audio (Derby Racial Equality Council): http://i.thisis.co.uk/274079/binaries/kirit-mistry.WMA
Audio (Top cop): http://i.thisis.co.uk/274079/binaries/peter-goodman.WMA
(Derby Telegraph) "Never again" call from residents living near BNP festival site :
http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/news/residents-living-near-BNP-festival-site/article-273452-detail/article.html
Front cover of same: http://londonclasswar.org/newswire/media/3/20080818-neveragain.jpg
Audio (Local resident): http://i.thisis.co.uk/274079/binaries/john-lumsden.WMA
(a clear statement that police baton-charged an initially non-violent direct action).
Residents want BNP festival to stay away
(Heanor and Ripley News local press article with deranged BNP comments):
http://www.ripleyandheanornews.co.uk/news/Residents-want-BNP-festival-.4409911.jp
Various indymedia reports:
Demo at BNP festival. Pics & report... http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/08/407025.html
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/08/406886.html
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/08/406880.html
Notts Indymedia photos of demo and march, and of festival:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/nottinghamshire/2008/08/407131.html
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/nottinghamshire/2008/08/407153.html
Indymedia feature prior to demo but with post-demo additions and comments:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/08/405174.html
Lancaster Unity: Red, White and Blue protest pulls in 700 while Martin Reynolds begs police for help
http://lancasteruaf.blogspot.com/2008/08/red-white-and-blue-protest-pulls-in-700.html
Leftie Photos of demo:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bolshie/
To me the overall result has been positive, but if you do read the press reports (independent and mainstream) carefully you'll see the police response to the action was swift and very violent consistent with their approach to other militant activities in recent memory. Noone except the police can be blamed for that negative aspect of the direct action. Stop RWB was never about meeting head to head with fash, rather stopping them organising fest this year or ever again. The behaviour of the trots was also consistent, especially SWP through 'United Against Fascism' front that negiotiated with police behind the back of the existing campaign (resulting in two different start times!), but also other trots who have all but turned Notts Stop the BNP activity against RWB into a mere protest, little different than SWP who cynically abandoned the local campaign in favour of a nationally coordinated UAF/Love Music Hate Racism splash. These other trots obviously became far too interested in competing with UAF for influence over the rally and demo on the day, pissed off that UAF could claim to take the credit for the event when they had done almost nothing to build and support local opposition to the BNP. This can only add to the principled position of Antifa that anti-fascist alliances with the left are a bad idea, and very much justifies those people who took independent direct action. Some further discussion about this would be useful. We'll have to see where this goes, but hopefully people will dig deep for those arrested if and when it becomes necessary- they appear for charges in a few months time and the travel costs alone will be high, never mind what might result from court proceedings. So it was great to hear a report by Guido on Indymedia that they collected £110 for Antifa after the demo by those on London coaches. Lots more may be needed.
Some other postmortem discussion has recently appeared here: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/08/407232.html
Jobless people should "spend nine to five" looking for work or doing community service, or face losing their benefits according to a new government-commissioned report.
A short history of the Barcelona general strike of 1919 which began after the sacking of eight workers, and ended up as one of the most successful working class actions in history.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/derbyshire/7565354.stm
It looks like the BNPs fundraiser will go on for the weekend, though i'm not sure they'll be given permission to hold the event next year.