Why Luton Matters:Building the Demo against The English Defence League/British Freedom Party's New Threat.

 The suits
The protest in Luton against the EDLs demonstration is of crucial importance to Anti-Fascists.May is an important month for Britains nazis.
For the BNP it is not so much  make or break time,but a matter of survival. Over the last 3 years their fortunes have collapsed.They have suffered massive electoral losses. Their heartlands of Stoke and Barking,once a source of pride to them,have been taken away from them. They are wracked by mismanagement and scandal .
They still have their seats in Europe however the relationship between the two incumbents, Nick Griffin, and old school Nazi, Andrew Brons  is far beyond strained.Their relationship has been analogous to the bloodletting within the BNP itself. It has gone from being Band of Brothers to a National Socialist version of Whatever happened to baby Jane ?

The BNP is only standing a fraction of the candidates they have previously done.

It will only be standing around 130 candidates for the local elections on Thursday 3 May. The number of BNP candidates is well down on the 268 it stood last year and less than a quarter of the 612 they stood when the same seats were up for election in 2008.
The battering they have recieved due to constant campaigning by Anti-Fascists has brought them to this.The internal divisions that are tearing them to pieces would not have occurred if their electoral fortunes were on the rise.The final humiliation for Nick Griffin will probably be in the High Court.It is important to emphasise the impact of work by anti-fascist activists  as the press will probably see the demise of the BNP solely due to the utterances of an elderly gentleman in a horsehair wig.


 The boots
The fortunes of the EDL have not been so cataclysmic .The EDL to a large extent have been kept in their box.But they certainly have not been crushed.On occasions the mobilisations against the EDL have not gone as well as we hoped.The important thing is that nowhere have their protests been unchallenged.
They have frequently been assisted by the local constabulary who have been excessive in affording the EDL every courtesy.
The most significant event in the opposition to the EDL was of course Tower Hamlets.

The combination of a dynamic campaign in the community by UAF and United East End  provided an almost perfect storm for the fascists.When they arrived they had been excluded from all the pubs and the  RMT had announced it would not allow them on the tubes.The plan to allow the EDL to use a supermarket car park were scuppered due to local anger.In the event they were forced to hold their assembly outside the borders of Tower Hamlets.
There were other aspects to what happened in Tower Hamlets.

However.To cut to the chase : They did not pass.





Subsequent to that they have had difficulty in mobilising in the thousands .However,they can still mobilise in the hundreds ,and clearly that could change.

The economic situation is propitious towards the growth of Fascism. With the recession proceeding unabated and cutbacks and redundancies about to kick, in the political climate could be very favourable for a new fascist movement.Nazis feed on misery and we only have to look across the water to see the possibilities.
In Europe a burgeoning  islamophobic "counter Jihadist" movement along with scapegoating of the Roma is paying dividends for the Nazis.The growth of Jobbik an old school Nazi movement in Hungary is it's most extreme manifestation.

Some months ago there was the announcement of the  coming together of The British Freedom Party and The English Defence League in a new political formation.The BFP is largely old BNP activists who were tired of Nick Griffins leadership.This was met with not much enthusiasm from some members of either parties.
However things may now have changed.With the period looking better for the growth of far right politics this might just be the life raft disillusioned members of the BNP are looking for

  Stephen Holden of Reuters said in a recent article quoting Tommy Robinson : "The British political anti-Islamist party will be launched in may at our Luton demonstration."
"At the Luton demonstration the whole country will hear an anti islamist political party that gives everyone an opinion in a non racist way-the opposite of the British National Party."

It also refers to something called British Freedom.It is unclear whether this is a typo or whether there will be some sort of rebranding.

Suits and boots.

This is the danger.This will potentially create a classic Fascist Party,with a political wing and a street army to attack it's political opponents and "undesirables." This is a model which clearly mirrors Jobbik and the National Front from Britain in the seventies.

The march in Luton should therefore not be seen as the EDL  merely returning to their comfort zone.It could see the emergence of a new Fascist party
.
This represents a very real and concrete danger.


A political threat and a physical threat.



This is why it is of the utmost importance to have the largest possible mobilisation for the counter demo.We could really throw them back if we mobilise sufficiently.

This is the most important demo since Tower Hamlets.

Everything must be done to build for it.

Transport details available from UAF.