English Defence League in Oxford

The English Defence League is a fairly new organization set up just six years ago in Luton in a response to an incident in which a military street parade was heckled by a small group of people dressed in traditional Muslim garb hurling abuse at the marching troops. Since then the group has expanded into a nationwide movement geared towards stopping the rise of Islam in the UK. The EDL says that it's non-racist and doesn't consider itself a part of the far right; its membership includes black people, Jews and Asians of Hindu and Sikh backgrounds. It's become renowned for its noisy and disruptive street protests, and today it brought its presence to Oxford in response to the local Muslim grooming scandal, see background links at the bottom for details. The EDL were opposed by a counter protest organized by Unite Against Fascism, an umbrella front of Muslim pressure groups and leftists; it is also affiliated to the authorities and politicians, and senior figures in the trade unions are involved. Some local councillors have made statements supporting the UAF in their demonstration against the EDL. The UAF regard the EDL as a far right racist and "islamophobic" organization no matter what the EDL themselves profess. I received an invitation on Facebook to attend the UAF event and clicked "maybe" before looking at it more carefully. The person inviting me was a friend from the hospital who himself is involved with UNISON, our trade union. When I looked closer I changed my status to "not going". If you recall, I myself have been labelled a "fascist!"; I was reported to the Birmingham UAF for the talk I gave at BUFOG. A person wrote to the UAF to say that I was a racist, far right anti-Semite, see: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/ben-emlyn-jones-live-at-bufog.html. Luckily the UAF did not turn up and protest my event; this person has been leading a hate campaign against me for years and he tried to use the UAF as a lynch mob. These so called "anti-fascists" have targeted innocent people before, see: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/david-icke-loses-lawsuit.html. Are the EDL innocent?

I made my way into Oxford city centre.  What is often called "Oxford" by students and tourists alike, as if the rest of the place just doesn't exist. Immediately I could see something was going on.  There were a row of police vans on Magdalen Bridge and several officers wearing luminous jackets already patrolling the pavements.  According to my declined invite, Unite Against Fascism were assembling the for their anti-English Defence League protest at Bonn Square. More police were waiting there as I arrived and took a seat inconspicuously on a bench. Some were clad in sky-blue waistcoats designating them as police liaison officers, like the ones I met at Bilderberg fringe, see: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/bilderberg-2013.html. A light rain started to fall. I went into Marks and Spencer to use the toilet and when I came back a group of people had set up a stall with fliers and pamphlets on it. A man appeared from Unison with a handcart carrying a Unison banner and set it up; he was somebody whom I did not recognize or remember, and that was mutual.  A man in a mobility scooter had a loud speaker with him and began to play a song by Billy Bragg that is about the battle of Cable Street, this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWBeGK96pVQ. Two policemen came over and told him to turn down the volume. A pair of blonde women turned up and began selling copies of Socialist Worker. They walked up and down the street with the ream of newspapers in their arms like Big Issue sellers.  People joined the event with their faces masked by hoods and scarves; it reminded me of the protests outside the Oxford union when Marine Le Pen spoke there, http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/marine-le-pen-at-oxford-union.html. Things began to look very tense, a column of riot police marched through the square; among them were medics, and then with a clopping of hooves a drove of police horses trotted past. Not long afterwards the first skirmish broke out, a cluster of young men in dark English Defence League dress came around the corner raising their fists in the air and grunting "Eeh! Eeh! EDL!... Eeh! Eeh! EDL!" The protesters in Bonn Square ran over and began hurling abuse at them. Fists flew and the police intervened to arrest several people. I left Bonn Square and headed for the railway station where I knew the EDL would be gathering soon. The English Defence League contingent were very different to the UAF. They were distinctly working class whereas the UAF looked like students and Bohemians. The EDL were about 80% men and all white whereas the UAF were much more mixed. The EDL were also far more cheery; they greeted each other warmly, laughed and shared jokes; there was almost a party atmosphere in the station forecourt. The UAF looked very grave and sombre, frightened and desperate almost. Another difference from the UAF was that most of the EDL wore regulation clothing with their motifs on, in particular a hooded jersey that so many of them wore that it was almost a uniform. A few of them had on novelty masks and one was dressed as a pig; this is presumably because the pig is considered an unholy animal by Muslims. One man wore a balaclava like a bank robber or terrorist. Two more coaches turned up and the contingent grew to about a hundred and fifty people. They had no fliers or other literature to distribute; they just draped their banners on the railings and sung a series of chants like: "We're the famous EDL!" "Let's go fuckin' mental! Let's go fuckin' mental! La la la la!" and: "Allah, Allah, who the fuck is Allah!?" The melodies were all from popular tunes. Then I noticed that they were passing round six-packs of beer and some of them started drinking heavily; they were doing this quite openly, but police didn't seem to mind. The march began and the chanting cheering EDL were guided away from the station, surrounded by a cordon of armoured police with the horses escorting them front and back. To avoid the roadworks in Frideswide Square the protesters were directed down the narrow residential area of Becket Street and Osney Lane; a few people came out of their front doors to watch as the EDL's strident chanting echoed off the overhanging stone walls. I tagged along behind along with several other onlookers who were not involved and just curious like me. As we turned the corner into Oxpens Road a commotion broke out. Some UAF members were standing at the side of the road waving placards and yelling epithets like: "Nazi scum! Off our streets! Fuckin' fascist bastards!" The EDL responded by hurling abuse back and chanting "You're not English! You're not English! You're not English any more!" which goes to the tune of Bread of Heaven. The police horses galloped round like sheepdogs to get between the two sides and the EDL were herded off to the left. On Park End Street another anti-fascist tried to break into the cordon and another punch-up erupted. I was quite close this time and had to press myself against a wall to avoid being knocked down by one of the police horses. One of the policemen was injured and had to be attended by a medic. As we walked up the hill at New Road somebody was standing on top of the old castle mound shouting something down at the marchers. This was a futile effort because he had no megaphone and so his words were inaudible from that distance; however the EDL assumed it was something antagonistic and shouted their "You're not English..." chant at him. For the EDL that must be the worst imaginable insult. The most dangerous part of the march was where we reached the crossroads by the county council offices for two reasons; firstly the council is considered guilty of culpable neglect by the EDL for supposedly allowing the Muslim groomers to commit their crimes unhindered. Also the crossroads is adjacent to Bonn Square where the UAF were holding their rally. A double line of police vans with a demilitarized zone in between kept the two sides apart, but their voices could be heard and a broadside of verbal artillery was exchanged. Through the gaps in the barricade I could see the UAF activists waving their placards in a menacing way. Halfway down Castle Street the pavement was closed so I got separated from the marchers. I strode down Old Greyfriars Street and headed them off at the magistrates court at Thames Street. The police stopped the march at the public toilets so the protesters could relieve themselves. There were so many of them that the men just urinated against the walls and let the women use the cubicles. I imagine they will have needed to go after all they had been drinking; a trail of beer cans clattered in their wake. The cordon at the top of the hill must have been broken because we looked back to see UAF protesters behind a new police blockade at the bottom of Albion Place. Eventually we reached the site of the rally at the bottom of St Aldates between the police station and crown court. I was surprised to see that the speakers included Albert Burgess who had been at the Critical Mass Radio conference, see: http://hpanwo-radio.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/ben-emlyn-jones-live-at-critical-mass.html. By now the UAF had managed to regroup a few hundred yards away by Christchurch and Albert's voice was mixed with their angry jeers.

The English Defence League didn't come across to me as badly as they've been portrayed by the media. They are noisy and boisterous; some of them were drunk, but they were reasonably well behaved when not being harangued by their opponents. One of the curious onlookers was an old lady who was holding a hand-written placard which said: "ONE RACE- HUMAN RACE" and a few of the protesters came over and debated politely with her. One young woman in particular, near the back of the march, regularly stopped to talk to passers-by; she was diplomatic and courteous. Also I saw no symptoms of the EDL being racists; quite the opposite in fact. The young woman who was talking to people outside the protest at one point walked over and affectionately embraced a black woman on the pavement. To call the EDL "Nazi scum!" is slanderous in my view. There was also an incident at the station when I was in the toilets. I was alone in there with an Asian man and a crowd of EDL blokes walked in; I was afraid they were going to give the Asian some trouble, but they were fine with him, even though they were clearly a bit tipsy and very excited. They even held the door open for him with a smile. What they are is very much against militant Islam. This is why they fly the flags of Israel and India as well as the Union Jack and St George's Cross. I've even seen the rainbow LGBT flag on films of their demos too. Their concerns about militant Islam are perfectly legitimate, but their concerns are without awareness. How many EDL supporters ever ask themselves a crucial question: Why has this happened? Why is it, in just two decades or so, we're suddenly beset by millions of Wabbahist radicals? I've spoken to EDL supporters online and the answer you'll usually get is something like: "Because there is so much immigration today from Muslim countries and the government are too lily-livered to do anything about it! And it helps Labour win votes!" But the truth is very different. A lot of Muslim immigrants are being radicalized in British mosques after they arrive in this country, and the government is not just passively allowing radical Wahhabism to grow here, they're deliberately making it happen, as I explain in the background links below. The street mob of angry Muslims in Luton in 2009 which triggered the formation of the EDL was itself almost certainly a government intelligence operation. The leader of it is known to be a UK secret service asset. The EDL themselves are being controlled by many people with strong links to Mossad. They are themselves a controlled opposition. I think they mean well and are sincere people; they're definitely not "fascists!" any more than I am; but they need to become aware of the real rules of the game they're involved in.

See here for background: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/oxford-muslim-grooming-scandal.html.

And: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/islamification-in-asda.html.

And: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/engineered-islam.html.

And: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/poppy-burners-are-shills.html.