Not welcome here.
March for England have come to Brighton before.
They have been opposed before
But not like this.
Previous altercations between March for England protesters and Anti Fascist activists have been pretty evenly matched.This was not the case this time.
March for England, who have links with the racist English Defence League and the hooligan outfit Casuals United thought they were going to have a good day out.
They were sadly mistaken.
MFE managed to mobilise about 120 people for their march .
The Anti-Fascists managed to mobilise close to a thousand.
Many local Councillors and local MP Caroline Lucas turned up to support the Anti-Racist protest.
From the outset the Nazis were confronted and harried.Within 5 minutes they were stopped in Church St.
Ad hoc barricades were erected.The Nazis were stopped for a good 20 minutes.
There was a general stand off with people using trash bins etc to stop the police pushing through.When the police did push through it moved off at a different pace.
It did look to some as if we were going to turn them back to the station.
The Police had to reroute the march down side streets.
The agenda was set for the day.
By us.
The march proceeded (due to constant and persistent resistance) at a snails pace.
It was more like a state funeral.
All the while being heckled and drowned out in a torrent of Anti-Fascist abuse.
This was not a March for England.
It was a Crawl for England.
The Police cut short their long march. They were originally planning to march past Brighton Pavilion.
Probably not a good idea.
(They might have thought it an example of creeping sharia and attempted to burn it to the ground.)
They were prevented from marching past the clock tower and along the seafront.
It ended up in the park.
Kettling from below.
The intention was for them to hold their rally there and have patriotic speeches,where they could hold forth in Henry V manner, with us being marched down to The Steine some distance away,out of their sight. However,the Anti-Fascists were not observing the Hendon Police college plan.
We completely surrounded them.They were caged.Clearly there were some faint hearted fascists among their ranks,as some of them left.Their numbers were then whittled down to about 50.They decided to dispense with their speeches and were subjected to surround sound anti fascist chanting,as they were now a captive audience.
This was kettling from below.As Nadia Edmond of Brighton and Hove Unite Against Fascism said:
"March for England/English Defence League were totally humiliated in Brighton today!We put up a good fight to stop them marching through our city despite the police forcing their way through to allow them to march(although a much shortened route!). We outnumbered them 10 to 1, and drowned out their message of hate."
Eventually they were whisked back to the station,where the police dragooned them onto trains and out of town.
Hopefully never to return
One of the factors for the success of the day was specifically due to the way it was built. The decision was made to heckle and interfere with the march itself. It was specifically built on the basis that their march would be the target ,and we would not be organising ourselves into a kettled area designated by Sussex Constabulary.There is a reluctance on the part of many Anti-Fascists to accept Police defined static protests nowhere near Fascist assemblies and marches.
Clearly this is not a template which is suitable for all circumstances,but there has to be a debate within the movement as to when and where it is applicable.
However,there are obviously circumstances where this is the template that should be employed.
Finally: Congratulations to Nadia ,Roland, Paddie and Stacey and all at Hove and Brighton Uaf,Antifa, Solfed and all the other citizens of Brighton who defended their town from this collection of human debris, who hopefully have attempted their last invasion of Brighton for some time.
They certainly can be in no doubt as to how the people of Brighton feel about them.
A fantastic day and a massive achievement!
See you all in Luton 5th May !
Congratulations to all involved!
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