EDL dwarfed by bedroom tax demo

Article published: Saturday, June 1st 2013

Just 60 members of far right organisation the English Defence League (EDL) took to the streets of Manchester today in one of several marches across the country widely condemned as an attempt to exploit the murder of Middleton soldier Lee Rigby.

The group, who claim to be “peaceful” protestors against “extreme Islam” and whose members cheered wildly last week when a speaker at a demo in Newscastle ranted “send the black cunts home”, rallied next to the cenotaph at St Peters Square.

The family of Lee Rigby, a drummer in the Royal Fusilers, have called for calm since his assassination in Woolwich on 22 May in a suspected act of political terrorism.

A statement by the family said, “Lee would not want people to use his name as an excuse to carry out attacks against others.

“We would not wish any other families to go through this harrowing experience and appeal to everyone to keep calm and show their respect in a peaceful manner.”

Since Rigby’s death there has been a resurgence among the far right and at least 193 recorded Islamophobic incidents, including ten mosque attacks and the firebombing of a mosque in Grimsby according to the monitoring group Faith Matters.

Upon arrival at the square the EDL were met by an equivalent number of anti fascists, who had earlier gathered in a pen set up around the war memorial before being moved out and shoved away from the nearby tram stop by police.

Four anti-fascist representatives remained at the memorial as the EDL filled the pen to “pay tribute”: Steve North of Salford Unison, Manchester councillor and former Lord Mayor Afzal Khan and two Unite Against Fascism members including anti-war activist Nahella Ashraf.

After the EDL had been escorted out of the square by police Ashraf denounced the attempt to exploit the situation, accusing the racist group of having “muddied the waters between a crime committed by two individuals and an entire religion.”

Ashraf was dismissive of the numbers who took part, saying “that wasn’t massive”, and said she had experienced a “feeling of strength” after standing in the pen with the EDL.

“We were looking out to the anti fascist group”, she explained, before adding that “the government and the media” also needed to “take responsibility” for encouraging the demonization of Muslims.

Steve North agreed that standing in the pen against the far right was “empowering”, adding “we won’t be moved, and they have to know that.”

He argued that “all three main parties” bore responsibility for the rise of the far right in dividing “working class people” and promoting an economic system that forces people into poverty.

No arrests were made, though a revealing Greater Manchester Police statement released later that afternoon claimed that “all the protestors have now been dispersed and it is very much business as usual in all our towns.”

After the rally protestors moved to Piccadilly Gardens, where a much larger demonstration of around 200 people against the Coalition government’s “bedroom tax” gathered.

In several heartfelt speeches, people affected by the tax which slashes housing benefit for social housing tenants with spare rooms – among them, poignantly, an ex-soldier from Middleton – spoke out against what they saw as a war against the most vulnerable.

Maria Brabina, a Salford campaigner hit by the bedroom tax, said the government had “declared war on its own people” in targeting “the sick, the disabled, the vulnerable.” She denounced the policy as worse than Margaret Thatcher’s poll tax, and said for others affected it was not a matter of won’t pay, but rather can’t pay.

Another speaker, Linda, said the tax would force her to leave the home she had lived in for years. “I’ve got my mother’s ashes there. I’m not leaving”, she vowed.

Many speakers paid tribute to Stephanie Bottrill, a bedroom tax suicide victim who killed herself after the government left her with the choice of paying £80 extra a month or leaving her home of 18 years in Solihull, the West Midlands.

One woman under threat of losing her family home thanks to the hated tax said, “They want to get rid of me out of my house where my sons have grown up. I love it there. I’m safe there.”

She pointed out that many people in work were hit by the tax, saying “I‘m working also, and I’m paying taxes. I can’t get full time work. I’ve been at my job for five and a half years and not got permanent full time work yet. So I am trying but why should I leave my home?

“And these people, how many houses have they got? How many bedrooms have they got? That poor lady just killed herself, she went over the edge when she was already struggling. She couldn’t work. She wasn’t well. And now this bedroom tax came in, it knocked her over the edge and she killed herself. It’s just out of order.”

Richard Goulding

Tweet

More: Manchester, News, Policing, Welfare

Comments

1. Shameron’s Mafia have blood on their hands, just as Thatcher’s Mafia have .
   The Electorate had better wise up and never forget this fact .

   Comment by H on June 2, 2013 at 4:34 pm

2. We are only seeing the beginning of this now as the ‘bedroom tax’ begins to bite. Working in advice, I am seeing applications for discretionary housing payments (top ups to housing benefit to cover shortfalls such as caused by the bedroom tax) knocked back for people with severe mental health problems where I have been sure they would get the extra top up to allow them to stay in their homes. But no. The sheer volume of applications for these payments are drowning the system and people are being refused who I think would not have been refused before. So this is no ‘safety net’ just largely a false hope (and even if granted, it is temporary). People who have lived for years in their home now being faced with rising rent arrears. In a years time we will see rising homelessness, more deaths, more hopelessness.. my job has become so much harder and more depressing as there is no answer. There is nowhere for people to go and the need is overwhelming.

   I am seeing real suffering which I won’t elaborate on because of confidentiality but I live in social housing myself. I could lose my job anytime in the insecure funding world of advice, and then I am under-occupying myself and would lose my home too. So I hope you sleep well tonight Cameron and all your friends. There are more of us than of you and we should make this stop.

   Comment by roserat on June 2, 2013 at 4:55 pm

3. This shows that if the intolerant, elitist and authoritarian UAF are kept out of the way that EDL marches can be peaceful and largely ignored by nearly everyone, just as most political marches are, including the one about the cut in housing subsidy for tenants of public housing who under-occupy their homes.

   Comment by pete on June 5, 2013 at 10:40 pm

4. The thatcherites are pure evil

   Comment by Maggie on June 6, 2013 at 1:06 am

5. oh not again pete, UAF are not authoritarian or elitist. A simple glance will tell you that. And intolerant? What the hell are you on about this time?! They fight intolerance for goodness sake, it’s why they exist! Have you ever seen any of these demos? Like in real life?

   Comment by sarah on June 6, 2013 at 10:17 pm

6. the only thing the pigs in power and their housing association/council lackeys are interested in is money,money,money.
   so,why isnt there a mass national campaign of witholding rent?not just by people hit by the bedroomtax but those in full time work as well.
   what would the pigs do then evict thousands?that’d be a vote winner eh?
   time for direct action,they treat us like dirt so lets step up and hit them where it hurts,in their cash filled troughs where their snouts are feasting at.
   remember-we are many,they are few.

   edl,are a weapon of disraction,brain dead idiots.

   Comment by gary on June 17, 2013 at 1:08 pm

The comments are closed.