Swastikas at EDL Whitehall march

 by New Worker correspondent

 

NEO-NAZI veterans were welcomed as they joined a march by the Islamophobic English Defence League in Westminster last Saturday. One notorious Nazi, Eddie Stampton, was brandishing a red flag carrying a version of the swastika surrounded by the words: “Englisc We fear no foe”.

The march was called in the wake of the Rotherham child abuse scandal, which has given a boost to the EDL and other fascist and racist fringe groups, who try to scapegoat the Muslim community in Britain with responsibility with all child sex abuse crimes, even though the vast majority of Muslims in Britain abhor such crimes as much as the rest of the population.

It is a cynical excuse the EDL uses to intimidate all Muslims and peddle their thinly-disguised race hate – while prolific child abuse by some prominent former celebrities, politicians and Catholic priests is ignored.

But there was no attempt by Stampton to disguise his Nazi sympathies and he was not the only one. Other veteran fascists present sported swastika tattoos without shame or reservation.

The fascists began assembling opposite Downing Street and in Trafalgar Square from about 11am.

At the same time anti-fascists from Unite Against Fascism and Antifa assembled in a separate area opposite Downing Street – with police barricades between fascists and anti-fascists – also from 11am.

At first the fascists had just a handful while the anti-fascists far outnumbered them. But as time passed a larger group of fascists assembled in Trafalgar Square, including many ageing National Front and BNP veterans along with current leaders of the EDL.

They did not start to march until after 2pm and as their supporters quit pubs along Whitehall to join the march it swelled to a couple of hundred strong.

By then many anti-fascists had given up and gone home but there were still plenty left to ensure the racists and Islamophobes got a really noisy welcome, singing: “There are many many more of us than you; We are Black we are Asian, White and Jew; There are many many more of us than you.”