Though Cowards Flinch

The English Defence League is a strange beast politically. I’m unconvinced that it can be seen as a classic fascist organisation and it has drawn much of its support and organisation from outside the existing far right in Britain, its origins lie in right-wing football firms motivated into political action by anti-Muslim sentiment.

I’ve generally thought it useful to compare the EDL to the previous time football firms entered the political arena in significant numbers, in opposition to Irish Republicanism in the early – mid 1990′s. During this period certain football firms mobilised large numbers to attack events of republicans and their perceived sympathisers, notably the London Bloody Sunday commeration march in 1993. Like EDL marches participants in anti-Republican gatherings were pretty sure what they were against, less sure what they were for.

Recently, this got me thinking about the curious mutual disinterest between two political groupings that, on paper, seem to have a lot in common: the EDL and loyalism.

Far right groups on the UK mainland have always viewed loyalist groups with the kind of wide eyed admiration usually associated with primary school kids meeting Premiership footballers. It was what they aspired to be; successful political groups combined with well organised militant wings to deal with opponents.

It’s worth noting that this admiration was not usually reciprocated but when it was, such as by former National Front member Johnny Adair and his Shankill C Company, British fascists responded enthusiastically. Some went much further than cheerleading from the sidelines and got actively involved in ‘The Troubles’, longstanding NF activist Terry Blackham was jailed during this period for gun-running.

Given that much of the EDL’s support is drawn from right-wing English football fans it’s not difficult to see what they have in common with loyalism. Both like marching, flags, the Queen and some EDL members even enjoy sectarianism (here’s the EDL’s token Asian member Adbul having a sing-song for instance). Chanting ‘no surrender to Al Qaeda’ is not a million miles from ‘no surrender to the IRA’ and the main EDL website is peppered with rhetoric borrowed from loyalism, the repeated use of ‘no surrender’ and the abbreviated form n.s. is a bit of a give away, and the general theme of defending Britain from a terrorist threat.

It’s interesting then that the EDL have made absolutely no effort to cultivate links with loyalist groups in Northern Ireland or on the UK mainland, even those who have previously been closely involved with the far like the British Ulster Alliance (who used to advertise in Blood & Honour magazine). They failed to send any sort of delegation to the Twelfth of July marches or the parade in Southport, a traditional summer holiday destination for British fascists.

There’s also the sister organisation of the EDL the Ulster Defence League. While the EDL has been successful at building up a profile, a sense of momentum and attracting thousands of supporters to marches it’s counterparts in Scotland and Wales have been poor relations, unable to gain any traction and heavily outnumbered by counter-demonstrators on their rare public excursions.

The UDL has not even been able to gain these lofty heights. Apart from operate a rarely updated Facebook page (it’s currently advertising a march in Dudley that took place last April) and briefly running a website it’s not clear that the UDL does anything at all.

This could be of course because they are a sensible bunch who have correctly realised that Northern Ireland has more pressing problems that being overwhelmed by non-existent scimitar-waving, sharia-imposing hordes but I suspect not. The sentiment is certainly there, here’s their mission statement illustrating standard loyalist rhetoric:

The Ulster Defence League highlights the threat to our shores from Militant Islam Extremism.The U.D.L is also highlighting the Extremism we face from republicans in our own Lands. Ulster knows only too well the realities of living with terrorism and its consequences. Our spineless Government prioritise the Human Rights of Terrorists before the basic right for Britons to live without fear in our own country…

NO SURRENDER – HANDS ACROSS THE WATER. FOR GOD AND ULSTER.

Thankfully this isn’t accompanied by any action. Why not though?

It’s not a question of an unwillingness to travel. EDL supporters have made it to Amsterdam, and plan to return there on October 30th, and popped up in New York a couple of weeks ago. A short ferry trip to Belfast is surely not too difficult to organise.

The unwillingness of loyalist organisations to play ball hasn’t much to do with it either. Most loyalist groups were uninterested in an array of British far right groups propositioning them in the 80′s and 90′s and that didn’t stop fascists from repeatedly asking them them out.

Instead, I think that the seeking international allies in the American and wider European anti-Muslim movement and ignoring the traditional preoccupations of the far right shows why it’s difficult to place the EDL in the British fascist tradition. It’s a different beast.

This may not be a satisfactory answer to the EDL ignoring loyalism. Any alternative explanations gratefully received.

Who will defend Ulster? Not the UDL

After all the hype, ominous predictions and sleepless nights for West Yorkshire Police officers with good memories the English Defence League’s self-proclaimed ‘big one’ in Bradford was a damp squib.

The EDL promised what they couldn’t deliver. They wanted a turnout of several thousand and the opportunity to provoke Bradford’s Asian population into a re-run of 2001. Estimates for numbers on the day range between 700 and 1000. Any figure falling within that range is a disappointment for them.

Along with an encouragingly poor turnout, the EDL reportedly fought with police and each other in their giant playpen set up for them in the city centre. More great publicity lads, keep it up.

The turnout at Bradford seems to confirm what I’ve suspected for the last couple of months, that the EDL is losing momentum. The demo received huge publicity in the run up to the event and took place on a Bank Holiday when few people will have had work commitments.

The EDL tacitly acknowledge this, releasing a statement today containing none of the usual boasts about a huge turnout and humiliated opposition. Instead there’s an extended whinge about how neo-Nazis keep turning up to their peaceful demos and causing all the trouble.

Attendance appears to have peaked at the demo in Bolton earlier this year where 2000 turned out. Since then their ‘march and grow’ strategy has run into problems.

Since their first outing in Luton last year the EDL has relied on each demo being bigger than the last. While sister organisations in Wales and Scotland were unable to gain any traction, in a just few months the EDL went from being a serious irritant to residents of Luton to a group capable of calling a demo anywhere in England and expecting to see a thousand people turn up. Where’s it going wrong for them?

More of the same

One of their problems is the same as that encountered by the Stop the War Coalition. Not only are they running out of locations to march in but the demos all follow the same pattern. Endless, similar demonstrations eventually start to demoralise people, no matter how strongly they feel about the issues.

Add to this the fact that most EDL supporters have little previous political involvement and so are more likely to be prone to cynicism and defeatism after setbacks. A dud demo (such as the second outing at Dudley or the failure to show in Whitechapel) can have a big impact. Following the demo at Dudley the EDL leadership in the form of Tommy Robinson (otherwise known as Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) released this complaint:

The mood of members seems to have been somewhat low since the Dudley demo. Ok lets look at this yes we had one bad demo we were screwed over and lied to by the Old Bill. But one bad demo is all compared to how many good ones guys?

Tough luck Tommy, you’re only as good as you’re last game remember.

The other factor which will potentially put the brakes on the EDL is the leadership themselves.

It’s best to characterise the EDL as a loose coalition between elements of the far right and football hooligans. This involves little in the way of organisation, people are mainly mobilised through existing personal contacts and Facebook. Apart from a general hostility towards Muslims there’s little ideology involved.

The EDL leadership are keen to change this and have been trying to link up with the wider anti-Islam movement in Europe and the genuinely deranged right-wing fringe in America. For example, one of their main Stateside groupies is blogger Pamela Geller, whose book they are touting on their website, who actually seriously claimed that Obama was the secret love child of Malcom X. I think the wider agenda of some of these fruitloops will go down like a pint of cold sick with most supporters of the EDL.

Where do they go from here?

Back to Luton. The next big EDL demo is scheduled for the town where it all started. I’d be surprised if this went ahead. All marches in Luton were banned for three months last year following their last mobilisation there. A static demo is more likely.

The EDL isn’t going to disappear. If the momentum doesn’t pick up again in Luton (large-scale confrontations with Asian youth in the town isn’t unlikely) they’ll gradually dwindle back to the status of irritating rather than threatening mob, albeit one with the potential to act as an immediate focal point if something major happens, a repeat of 7/7 for instance. Without the excitement of a big demo less politicised supporters will drift away.

The other possibility is that contacts with the wider anti-Islam movement progress beyond the flirting stage and a smaller, more defined organisation which has a wider range of political positions than ‘Muslim bombers off our streets’. Since they are already infatuated with Dutch politician Geert Wilders it wouldn’t be a huge leap for them to graduate into the political arena.

What isn’t going to happen is a swing to the right. Most of the organised far right has been looking on the EDL with barely concealed envy or salivating at the prospect of all those young men joining a demo with them at the helm.

Eddy Morrison (who comments online as ‘Erik Eriksson’) the current leader of the National Front is fantasising about the latter. Thankfully, apart from the BNP whose interests lie elsewhere at present, no fascist group in Britain has the organisation capacity or the competence to organise a piss up in a brewery. I have more chance of becoming England manager than the hapless muppets of the NF taking over the EDL.

I would tentatively guess that in 6 months time EDL demos will be attracting about the half the number they do now. This shouldn’t be any grounds for complacency. The rapid rise of the EDL could easily be repeated in future and, with the added bonus of brand recognition, there’s no reason why their numbers would stop at 2000.