Author Archives: Gerry Gable

Swedish anti-fascists report massive ant-fascist protest defeats the Nazis

The report below first appeared on the Unite Against Fascism website on 2 October.

Big thanks to Asa and David for their contributions, below; hats off to Swedish anti fascists!

Asa – Last Saturday was a brilliant victory for anti-fascists in Gothenburg, where over 10 000 people gathered and successfully stopped the Nazis from marching through the city. It was the biggest anti-racist protest for a long time led and organised by the left. The Nazis did not get to go a single metre of their intended route and were stuck outside a supermarket for hours.

To understand why the Nazis were marching it is important to know something about what has played out in the last year.

Gothenburg is host to an annual book fair with around 100 000 visitors in September. This is a commercial event where various publishers promote themselves, and it is an arena for many literary and political seminars. In 2016 the book fair decided to accept a far-right magazine called Nya Tider (New Times) as an exhibitor. This provoked much criticism and an intense debate followed.

In August 2016 a real circus ensued where the book fair’s invitation to the Nazis was withdrawn and then given back again several times over, until the final decision to let New Times in was announced. This really showed that the leadership of the book fair were clueless how to deal with them and incredibly politically naïve.

The ongoing book fair debate has been framed around the issue of free speech. However, the people who initiated a boycott of the book fair have responded with increasingly sharp arguments about why it is not really about freedom of speech, and perhaps a local activist said it best; Nazism is a crime – not an opinion.

After the book fair in 2016, a boycott was set in motion by several authors. In 2017, a video surfaced in which journalists are visited in their homes by fascists and told to stop investigating the far right.  Behind the camera is the editor of New Times. Still, the book fair believes that New Times should be welcome as exhibitors in 2017.

Allowing the Nazis back to the book fair again this year was the final straw for many, and the boycott grew and the work with the alternative book fair intensified. It was called the Book mass (instead of the mainstream event Bokmässan).

The violent Nazi group Nordic Resistance Movement, (Svenska motståndsrörelsen), which has connections with New Times magazine, said that they would hold a march near the book fair, on the main day – Saturday 30 September.

Two weeks previously, 50 Nazis marched around in the centre of Gothenburg, like a rehearsal of what they wanted to do on a bigger scale at the end of the month.

No antiracist organisations knew about this and no real counter demonstration could be mobilised in time. They marched in uniforms and with symbols connected to the far right so the police could have arrested them for hate speech but chose not to. The Nazis were confident and boasted that 1,000 of them were going to come back and march down the central avenue in two weeks’ time.

They applied to the police for a permit to march. The police gave them permission which provoked outrage. It would also be the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur, that day, and the Nazis would be marching very near the synagogue. The permit to march was appealed by several groups and the courts decided that the police had been too generous with the Nazis and shortened and moved their route. 

The media backdrop, familiar to anti-racists in many other countries, was that the counter demonstrators were portrayed as a problem, being described as almost as bad as the Nazis.

There were endless headlines about an extra prison being built, that hundreds of dangerous, anti-racists were going to travel here from other countries, that it was going to be a repeat of the Gothenburg riots 2001 – all trying to scare people away from coming on the protests. Fortunately a lot of people ignored that.

It turned out to be a beautiful Saturday where over 10,000 people from many different walks of life gathered at a football field adjacent to the Nazis intended route. There was an upbeat atmosphere with music, homemade placards, book stalls and a tent belonging to the alternative book fair. There were also many people a few hundred metres down the road, surrounding the place where the Nazis were gathering, shouting anti-racist slogans.

In the end the Nazis were only 400 and remained stuck in a little grassy triangle outside a supermarket for 5 hours. After attacking the police their leader and over 20 other Nazis were arrested. They were eventually forced by the police to walk back to the supermarket car park and go home. It was a humiliating defeat.

This was the biggest antiracist protest for some time in Gothenburg. It was very diverse, and for many it was their first demonstration. There was real joy when we marched down what was supposed to be the Nazis’ route shouting: Inga nazister på våra gator! No Nazis on our streets! meaning it in a very literal way.

This was a significant victory for anti-racists and for the left, even though we are going to have to continue to fight a growing, far-right movement. The left has also begun to win the argument that Nazis should not be given a platform and that there is a connection between racist words and racist deeds. If you invite fascists and racist parties into public arenas you will get a trail of racist violence in their wake.

It is important to point out that the Nazis were stopped because we enormously outnumbered them with a very lively counter demonstration. As it was, it would have been politically and physically close to impossible for the police to fight a way through all those anti-racists to clear a route for the Nazis. The Nazis attacked the police, journalists and photographers. We shouted, we blocked the road and we won.

David from Sweden, adds:

It is worth saying that hundreds of riot police mobilised with dogs, horses, pepper spray and plain clothes snatch squads to curb anti-fascists, but were overwhelmed by the numbers.

The broader context is that the media and the political establishment are divided over how to respond to the electoral success of the far-right Sweden Democrats, who have neo-Nazi roots and hold the balance of power in parliament.

With elections due next year, the Sweden Democrats are threatening to become Sweden’s second largest party, with 15%–20% of the vote.

Traditionally other parties have refused to collaborate with them, but this consensus is breaking down. After accepting 163,000 refugees in 2015, Sweden has slammed the borders shut and the media and politicians have competed to be hard on immigration and asylum.

This has created a climate in which Alt Right publications like New Times are treated respectfully, and outright Nazis like the NRM are allowed into the political mainstream in the name of freedom of speech.

This is despite the fact that three NRM supporters were recently jailed for planting bombs in Gothenburg. An interesting footnote: all the media call the NRM “Nazis”, so always and everywhere the party is referred to as “the Nazi NRM”. This may be the result of a recent court judgement.

Football Lads Alliance: the far right march, plus six things you need to know

This article, by Tash Shifrin, Martin Smith and James, first appeared on Dream Deferred on 8 October 2017.

The FLA demo stretches up Piccadilly. Pic credit: Dream Deferred

London witnessed the largest demonstration of the far right in generations on Saturday 7 October 2017. This was the second outing of the Football Lads Alliance.

And it was not the usual sort of protest demonstration. The FLA mobilises through a secret, invite-only Facebook group. Its publicity was put out via a paid-for PR firm.

The FLA was started by “football lads” – this is what members of football hooligan firms call themselves. This time they were joined by Veterans Against Terrorism – and the FLA has also succeeded in boosting its numbers by pulling in some ordinary football fans, although the bulk of the marchers were clearly attached to hooligan firms. It was an overwhelmingly white, male demo.

In the run up to the demo, groups of hundreds of supporters of the FLA gathered in pubs around central London. Other large groups were on the Tube, dishing out occasional racist abuse.

Thousands then gathered at Park Lane, near Hyde Park Corner to hear speakers from the top of a double-decker bus. As with the FLA’s first outing in June, speakers were careful to use a dog-whistle technique rather than explicit racist statements. But patriotism, nationalism, opposition to immigration were repeated themes. Labour MP Diane Abbott, who is black, was a particular target.

Missing from the speakers list this time was Toni Bugle, the “counterjihadist” Islamophobe with previous connections to the EDL and links to other figures across the far right. Bugle spoke at the FLA’s 24 June demo – a fact we exposed in our eyewitness report at the time – but the FLA cancelled her at the last minute this time, citing PR advice.

Mohan Singh, another EDL associate and close ally of its former leader Stephen Yaxley Lennon (aka Tommy Robinson), who also spoke in June, was also absent.

It’s just as well all the speeches were at the start, because by the time the demo reached Trafalgar Square its numbers had dropped noticeably. Unlike most demonstrations, the opening rally was the key element of the demonstration.

As the march moved off it was very disciplined – the FLA’s no banners, no chanting rules held up for a while. But as it moved up Piccadilly, marchers were already peeling off and heading for the pubs.

Despite the lack of banners, aimed at maintaining the unity of the different football firms and keeping the fascist element under wraps, it is clear there were fascists among the FLA marchers, including members of the English Defence League identifiable by visible EDL tattoos and the March for England group.

True nature

The true nature of the FLA was exposed when the remains of the demo moved down Whitehall, where campaigners from Stand Up to Racism were peacefully handing out leaflets appealing to marchers to reject racism. The FLA marchers responded with hostility, racist abuse, the odd flying bottle and can and chants of “We want our country back,” and “You’re not English any more.”

Estimates of the size of the demonstration vary from between 5,000 and 20,000. The FLA, of course, is claiming far more. We feel that there were around 10,000 or so there – a sharp increase on June when the FLA mobilised up to 5,000. By the time the march reached the end, these numbers had fallen significantly.

But even taking numbers at the lower end of this scale, the FLA demo was a serious mobilisation and the biggest protest of the far right since the Second World War.

FLA founder John Meighan (right) on the march. Pic credit: Dream Deferred

The FLA leadership was buoyed by the turnout and is planning a third protest in the north of Britain.

But the FLA is still a new organisation and in a state of flux. It faces a major dilemma, driven by sharp internal contradiction. Its leadership have argued that maintaining its public stance of not allowing open racism, and staging demos without flags, placards or chanting has allowed it to grow. But many FLA members, also lifted by the size of their mobilisation, are openly frustrated by the softly, softly approach.

The FLA’s leaders risk demoralising the FLA’s core racist, hooligan support unless they harden their nationalistic and racist rhetoric – something that in turn could disillusion their softer supporters.

But we saw with the EDL’s “march and grow” strategy that the growing size and increasing violence of its early demonstrations gave the fascist elements inside the organisation the confidence to gradually harden up the racist street movement and widen its targets. A key feature of all racist and fascist street movements is that if left unchecked they can grow very fast – it is important to take the threat of the FLA seriously.

Six things you need to know about the FLA

The FLA claim to be the birth of a new movement. But what kind of movement is it?

Dream Deferred observed and reported on the FLA’s first demonstration in June. Our article described the FLA as an emerging far right street movement, based on football hooligan firms, which was able to draw into its ranks some genuine football fans. The article also highlighted the FLA’s links with racists, and the fascists trying to build in its midst.

Since we produced the article we have been asked a number of important questions about the FLA. Here we try to answer a few.

  1. What are the origins of Football Lads Alliance?

The FLA was launched in the wake of the London Bridge, Manchester and Westminster terrorist attacks. Up to 5,000 people joined its first protest on 24 June in central London. The vast majority of the marchers were from hooligan firms based in London and the South East of England. The second demo brought in more people from the midlands and the north of England.

The FLA is based on “football lads” – the term the hooligan firms use to describe themselves. This is not the same as groups of “football fans” or “football supporters”, who have often got together to campaign around real football issues, such as the Hillsborough disaster or ticket prices.

Historically fascist organisations such as the National Front, British Movement, British National Party and the EDL have attempted to organise and recruit hooligans to their groups, and attract genuine football fans as well.

The ultra nationalism and glorification of violence of many of these hooligan groups meant that many were susceptible to fascist and racist ideas. And the firms are used to operating under the radar to avoid the attentions of the police. While the FLA has developed out of the football firms, it is not a football fans’ movement and it is wrong to treat it as such.

  1. How is the FLA trying to recruit it to its ranks?

The FLA has used secret Facebook groups to build up its support, and is trying to use genuine online football fans’ forums to promote its demonstrations. They have brought FLA banners into a number of club stadiums already this season and FLA supporters have leafleted some grounds.

The FLA is trying to widen its support, by claiming that it now has a “Football Families Alliance” and a “Football Ladies Alliance”. It is working with some military veterans’ organisations. Saturday’s march included members of Veterans Against Terrorism and some Gurkhas.

  1. What kind of organisation is the FLA?

Since its inception we have argued that the FLA is a far right racist street movement in which fascists are organising. Despite its claims not to be racist, it uses Islamophobia – anti-Muslim racism – either openly and explicitly or more covertly.

Publicly the FLA claims it opposes all forms of “extremism”. The founder of the FLA, John Meighan, claims that the group is neither “left or right” – a slogan widely used by fascist organisations in the past. But this is an organisation whose inner circle is secretive and tries to hide its political associations.

It has spent a great deal of time and energy refuting the accusations that it has links to the far right – yet Meighan readily gave an introductory interview to far right Islamophobic website Shy Society. And the FLA twitter account has also retweeted material from US “alt-right” nazi outlets.

The FLA’s first demo on 24 June. John Meighan (centre, green cap) and pals hold the banner

A look at the Facebook profiles and activity of key figures in the FLA, such as those on the platform and holding the banner at its 24 June demo, shows several are followers or friends of Tommy Robinson, fascist Britain First leaders Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen and the like. So are many of those involved in bringing their own hooligan firms into the FLA coalition.

A number of political viewpoints are common to most of the FLA’s followers. Firstly racism – in particular Islamophobia – plays a central role in their world-view. Second they despise Jeremy Corbyn and the racist invective and vitriol aimed at Diane Abbott by many of these people knows no bounds. Finally they are cheerleaders for the military and Britain’s imperialist exploits in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The FLA leadership may make great efforts to hide its racist agenda, but its supporters are not so secretive. Many on social media make openly racist comments, happily re-tweet posts by Donald Trump, Tommy Robinson, Nigel Farage and Katie Hopkins and other far right demagogues.

  1. But the FLA say they’re not racist…

Well they would, wouldn’t they? Almost all far right populist and fascist leaders from US president Donald Trump, to French fascist leader Marine Le Pen claim they are not racist. They understand only too well that if they were to proclaim their true beliefs they would remain in the political wilderness.

No one should forget that when the EDL was launched in 2009 it boasted that it had black and Asian members and was only opposed to “radical Islam”. Its slogan was “Not racist or violent but no longer silent” – although racism and violence rapidly became its calling cards.

The EDL even produced a video showing supporters – including its early few black members – burning a Nazi flag.

The EDL staged a stunt to “prove” it was not racist or fascist – but the truth soon became clear

But within a year its leadership links with the BNP were exposed, its members were often engaged in violent attacks on Muslims and mosques, and its leader “Tommy Robinson” was bragging that it would break up the Occupy Camp at St Paul’s Cathedral and sort out student protestors. EDL members were also engaged in attacks on socialist and trade union meetings.

You also have to judge the organization by the company it keeps. As we highlighted in our first article on the FLA:

“Before the march, there were speeches, including a token Sikh – remarkably, exactly the same token Sikh, Mohan Singh, who spoke at Lennon’s [Tommy Robinson’s] demo in Manchester a fortnight ago…

“Another speaker was Toni Bugle, founder of the far right Islamophobic organisation Mothers Against Radical Islam and Sharia (Marias), who has previous links with the EDL.”

Bugle was invited to speak to the second demo as well – her invite was cancelled only the day before for what the FLA admitted were PR reasons. On twitter, the FLA was still expressing hope that Tommy Robinson’s ally Mohan Singh would turn up again for the October demo just days beforehand.

The FLA has also described its own relationship with Tommy Robinson as one of “mutual respect”.

The argument that the FLA is only opposed to “Islamic extremists” and not to Islam itself was exposed as a lie in a twitter exchange between the FLA admin and a supporter. The Lone Ranger said: You need to tackle Islam to defeat Islamist extremists or we will all go around in circles forever… bottom line. And the Football Lads Alliance replied: Yes we will as part of our agenda buddy.

It is clear from this comment that the FLA leadership is not just concerned about “radical Islam” but wants to target all Muslims. This is Islamophobia – anti-Muslim racism.

The real attitude to racism among key FLA figures is also gruesomely illustrated by this photograph, showing central FLA figure Phillip Hickin and his cronies dressed up in antisemitic costumes designed to mock orthodox Jews. The photo was also posted on Facebook by at least two more of the FLA’s banner carriers, who also appear in it.

Key FLA leader Phillip Hickin (centre, arms wide) and friends in antisemitic costume stunt
FLA leaders John Meighan and Phillip Hickin
  1. How do they finance their organisation?

One thing is crystal clear: the FLA is putting serious resources into developing a major FLA merchandising operation. It now sells FLA hoodies, T-shirts, badges and banners.

Merchandise sales raised large amounts of money for nazi organisation such as Combat 18 and the EDL. The FLA seem to have gone one step further in its money making enterprise. John Meighan has in fact set the FLA up as a limited company, with himself as director.

  1. If we ignore the FLA will it just go away?

Some in the antiracist movement argue that it’s best just to ignore the FLA and it will go away. Others say the football firms will be unable to work together and will end up fighting each other, so the FLA will eventually implode. We believe that waiting for the FLA to disappear or self-destruct would be a mistake.

It is true that all far right street movements are unstable and prone to splits. The same arguments were used in relation to the EDL. But as we have seen in countries such as France and Hungary, if you ignore the rise of far right populist and fascist movements, they can take root and pollute the political climate.

The first FLA demonstration was 5,000 strong; Saturday’s was much bigger. This is already the biggest far right wing street movement Britain has seen. It took several years of hard campaigning to break the EDL. If the FLA is allowed to grow unopposed now, it will be even harder to defeat.

The first stage in combating the FLA has to be to expose its far right racist agenda and to warn the antiracist movement, trade unions, community groups and faith groups of the danger it presents. This is essential to broaden the forces that can come together against the FLA. This task is of the utmost urgency.

Opposition grows to EDL founder’s book launch in Greater Manchester

MPs, MEPs, councillors and trade unionists support anti-fascist statement, Unite Against Fascism has announced.

Opposition to a book launch being held, in Greater Manchester, by the founder of the far right English Defence League – ‘Tommy Robinson’ – is being organised by anti-fascist coalition Unite Against Fascism (UAF).

Signatories to a statement organised by UAF, in opposition to the book launch on 3rd November, include: MPs Kate Green, Dan Carden, Andrew Gwynne and Afzal Khan; MEPs Theresa Griffin, Julie Ward, Wajid Khan; Deputy Mayor of Trafford Tom Ross; Leader of Trafford Labour Group Andrew Western; a number of Trafford Councillors; North West Regional Secretaries from the following trades unions: the FBU, GMB, NUT, PCS, UNISON and Unite; Gerry Gable, Editor of Searchlight Magazine; North West Stand Up to Racism; and others.

UAF say that ‘Tommy Robinson’ – real name Stephen Yaxley Lennon – has a history of organising ‘fascist’ groups, including the BNP, British Freedom Party, and the English Defence League (EDL), which he set up in 2009. One section of UAF’s Unity Statement says that ‘Robinson’: ‘… organised a series of Islamophobic EDL demonstrations across Britain, which involved racist chanting, violence and Nazi salutes. Only in June 2017, Robinson attacked an Asian male at Ascot Races.’

The Statement also says: ‘Robinson recently organised an anti-Muslim Demonstration in Manchester on 11th June, in an attempt to exploit the recent, horrific terror attacks at the Arena, in order to scapegoat Muslims. Our thoughts are with all those affected by these terrible attacks. Greater Manchester is a proud, multicultural area which is made up of people of all races and religions and we will not be divided – Islam is not to blame for terrorism. We oppose antisemitism, Islamophobia and all forms of racism. At the centre of the 11th June demo were fascists who have been members of groups such as the National Front, BNP and Combat 18.’

The EDL founder said in August that he will hold the book launch at The Bowlers Exhibition Centre in Trafford Park on November 3rd. Following adverse publicity for the venue – including the ticketing service Ticket Quarter’s decision to cancel selling tickets for the launch – ‘Robinson’ has since said that the event will be elsewhere. However, UAF have also expressed concern over connections between members of The Bowler’s Management to far right organisations, and have said that UAF will protest against the book launch wherever it takes place.

Kate Green MP for Stretford and Urmston said: ‘Mr Robinson’s political opinions are vicious, divisive and dangerous, and he is not welcome in our diverse, multicultural and friendly communities here in Greater Manchester. I abhor all forms of discrimination, including anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and all forms of racism, and I warmly support Unite Against Fascism in their campaign against this event.’

Paul Jenkins of Unite Against Fascism said: ‘The EDL founder’s book is a racist one. We reject his attempts to try to blame Muslims for the terrible attacks in the Arena and elsewhere. The majority of people in Greater Manchester oppose racism. ‘Tommy Robinson’ is not the first fascist to write a book – Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf helped him to build the Nazi Party in Germany and to carry out the horror of the Holocaust. We say ‘Never Again’. We urge everyone to support Unite Against Fascism’s statement and protest against ‘Robinson’s book launch on 3rd November.’

Rare courage of a Soviet refusnik

Masha Slepak was, along with her husband, a central figure among the Moscow refuseniks of the 1970s, Colin Shindler wrote in The Jewish Chronicle on 15 September.

Last Sunday Masha Slepak was buried in Jerusalem’s Har HaMenuchot cemetery alongside her husband, Vladimir. For virtually the entire duration of the Soviet Jewry campaign in the UK, they were the central figures among the Moscow refuseniks. For Jewish “tourists” to the USSR, their apartment on Moscow’s Gorky Street was a fixed destination.

Masha’s name is always indelibly linked with that of her husband, but she played a full role in the refusenik movement in signing collective letters and taking part in protests.

Yet often women activists had the added task of keeping family and home together. They had to keep calm and carry on despite the repeated arrests of their husbands, the searches of their homes and the harassment of their children. They were strongly supported by countless thousands of women in this country.

Masha was born Mariya Rashkovskaya into an assimilated Jewish family in 1926. She graduated from a Moscow medical institute in 1951, met and married Slepak, a specialist in radio electronics shortly afterwards.

This period of their early married life, Stalin’s last years, was characterised by a vehement antisemitism. Masha’s father-in-law was a loyal Old Bolshevik who named his son after Vladimir Lenin and his daughter after Rosa Luxemburg. He justified both the Nazi-Soviet Pact (1939) and the Doctors’ Plot (1953) in which mainly Jewish doctors were accused of poisoning the Kremlin leadership.

This event provided the first stirrings in Masha’s mind that something was not quite right in the land of communist pioneers. Israel’s victory in the Six-Day War changed her perception of herself forever.

Although the Soviet Union cut its diplomatic ties with Israel during the war, it began to allow emigration again in August 1968. The Slepaks decided to leave and became involved in the first collective activities of the refuseniks. They were given the task of photocopying copies of the first Zionist periodical, Iton, compiled in Riga and distributed throughout the USSR to sympathisers.

Masha, her husband and their two sons Leonid and Sanya, first applied to leave in April 1970.

They were finally informed on October 14 1987 that they could emigrate. The years in between were ones of frustration and despair, resilience and stubbornness. They were determined not to give in, not to give up.

At the end of 1972, Masha and Vladimir were told by a Soviet official: “It is in the interests of the State not to let your family out now. When it will be in the interests of the Soviet State, then you will be let out. Perhaps you will be let out next year, perhaps in two years, perhaps even this year. I might add, perhaps never… the same concerns your sons.”

In 1975, they decided that it would be best for Masha and their sons to try to leave separately as Leonid was due to be conscripted into the army in 1976. They decided to divorce to facilitate this plan. They were refused once more. Andrei Verein, the head of the Moscow visa office said they should count themselves lucky — “Twenty years ago we would have shot you”.

British support came in the form of weekly telephone calls from the then Labour MP Greville Janner and his wife Myra, who were prominent in the UK Soviet Jewry campaign. One hundred and seventy MPs signed a siddur for Leonid’s barmitzvah, and Masha’s mother paid a visit to Britain where she was greeted by campaigners.

In 1977 the elder son, Sanya was allowed to leave. In 1979, Leonid who had “disappeared” to avoid conscription was also granted an exit visa.

In between, the Slepaks and other leading refuseniks became the targets of renewed oppression.

On June 1 1978, Masha draped a banner over the balcony of the family’s apartment which read: “Let us go to our son in Israel”.

This demonstration touched a raw nerve. A hostile crowd gathered below and cauldrons of scalding water cascaded from above.

The protest earned Vladimir five years exile in the remote village of Tsokto-Khangil, 3,000 miles from Moscow, on a charge of “malicious hooliganism”.

Masha was given a three year suspended sentence but joined him in exile. On returning to Moscow in December 1982, Vladimir gained employment as a lift operator while Masha was unemployed.

Before his death in 2015, Vladimir revealed he had been the only non-party member of a state commission for selecting the USSR’s anti-aircraft and anti-missile defence systems. This probably formed part of the rationale for the continual visa rejection, but it did not explain the refusal of other activists who did not hold such high-level security positions.

After finally leaving the USSR, the Slepaks lived quietly in Kfar Saba and spent their last years cared for by their sons in New York.

A poster depicting the Slepaks at demonstrations often included the slogan: If you turn your eyes from us, even for a moment, we will cease to exist.

In this country and others, eyes were not turned away during those 17 years. On a daily basis, ordinary British Jews were remarkable in their work for the Slepaks and their comrades.

Dostoyevsky asked “What makes a hero? Courage, strength, morality, withstanding adversity?” Yes — and more — as the Slepaks demonstrated to all of us.

Colin Shindler is a historian who worked for the UK campaign for Soviet Jewry between 1966 and 1975