EDL Outnumbered in Manchester Protest
Article published: Sunday, October 11th 2009
Clashes between police and protestors took place in Manchester city centre yesterday as the neo-fascist English Defence League (EDL) attempted to hold an anti-Islam demonstration. The EDL were met by a large anti-fascist counter demonstration, centred around Unite Against Fascism (UAF).
Greater Manchester Police have claimed a turnout of around 2,000 demonstrators in total, with anti-fascists outnumbering EDL by around three to one. Despite this, the EDL’s turnout was far greater than previous demonstrations, numbering in the several hundreds. Unlike past counter-demos too, young Muslims were conspicuously a small minority, after many local Asian leaders advised their communities to stay away in light of the negative coverage given by the mainstream media.
With the city centre closed down by hundreds of riot cops, 48 arrests were made during the day “on suspicion of public order offences” several of them “racially motivated”, and 10 people were injured, one seriously.
Anti-fascist protesters began to gather in the town centre from 10am, having been informed via a press release that the EDL would be assembling in the Wetherspoons in Piccadilly from midday. A UAF rally was scheduled for the same time.
Around 12.30pm a group of EDL protesters formed in front of Wetherspoons holding placards decorated with phrases such as “No More Mosques in the UK” and “This is England NOT Englishistan”. They were met with a line of anti-fascists from around the Northwest region. For the next four hours, the situation became a slow burn cat-and-mouse chase around Piccadilly Gardens, with the police in the middle.
Eventually, GMP’s finest imposed a “lock down” on the whole area meaning both groups were confined to the centre section of the gardens to trade insults. Scuffling between police and protesters on both sides broke out as attempts were made to break lines and confront opponents. EDL supporters are reported to have thrown bottles, planks and coins, and engaged in racist chanting and Nazi salutes. Several anti-fascists were injured by police as they attempted to reach the EDL, with one person being badly mauled by a police dog.
The standoff continued until around 5pm when the Police escorted the EDL on their march through the Northern Quarter. Many EDL supporters rushed out of surrounding pubs to join the rally, having previously stayed inside in order to avoid the police. They were then ushered onto transport to aid their return from Manchester.
The EDL have since released a comment on the protest stating that they had participants of all backgrounds and races as part of their march, despite the only evidence to support this being the Israeli flag carried by one protester and as few as two women spotted among the EDL ranks. When asked by MULE about his motivations for attending the protest, one EDL supporter (a white, middle aged man) explained that “he just felt like coming down, really…I felt like a day out”.
Many Manchester residents not directly associated with the UAF turned out to express their disgust at the EDL’s choice of Manchester as the site to protest. One local resident explained that he had felt the need to attend as he “[doesn’t] believe they are what they say they are”, the reality being a “motley crew of thugs” who are unwelcome in Manchester in any form. “Not in my town,” he added.
UAF have claimed victory, with spokesman Mike Gilligan stating that it was “a tremendously successful day for the anti-racist movement. The EDL were run out of town, they were not very powerful, they completely failed.”
More: Manchester, News
Comments
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What a pathetic bunch the EDL – all their protestations about being a ‘peaceful’ organisation who are only against extremist islamism, seem pretty ridiculous now – if anyone ever took them seriously in the first place.
One interesting thing from the demo, there weren’t as many asian people out to counter the EDL in Manchester as when they marched in Harrow, why was that?
Comment by lou on October 11, 2009 at 8:42 pm -
No there wasn’t many asians there however a few young asian lads did make their way into the gardens by Cafe Nero and proceeded to goad the police line wanting to know why they were not allowed to go forward and deal with EDL because ‘They wanted to fight them!’ When they got no response from the police they then took out their mobiles and called their friends. An hour later about 60 asian youths stormed through the police line at the One Piccadilly line and into the gardens, some then proceeded to hijack the sound system and mic in order to stir up trouble. however this was avoided by the UAF personel in charge of the system. But trouble did not come souley from the EDL side at least three attemps were made by the UAF supporters to break through the line at various points. As for the police! Well when they decided that the best cause of action was to herd the 2000 UAF supporters down a narrow walkway one was left to wander if they had ever heard of Hillsborough!
Comment by JoshuaKaitlyn on October 12, 2009 at 12:02 am -
You say the UAF dealt with the Asians who came well and stopped them from stirring up trouble.
I know there is a debate about whether or not violent confrontation is effective or not, but this approach seems a bit patronising to me. It’s their communities that are under attack by these thugs, don’t they have a right to defend themselves? While it’s great that people are standing in solidarity with Muslims against the EDL, surely anti-fascists shouldn’t be telling them what to do?
Comment by Free Movement for All on October 12, 2009 at 10:34 am -
That is the biggest load of bollocks ive ever read , you need to go back to school and retake your GCSE Maths son!
there wer at least 1.000 members of the EDL in Manchester that day !
the muggy UAF juSt shit themselves and hide behind the OB!FACT!
Comment by youdontknowme on October 12, 2009 at 12:24 pm -
I think the fact there wasn’t a lot of Asians there was due to a variety of factors. It’s true that local Asian and muslim leaders did advise people to stay away from the demo. This was certainly the case in Longsight with imams at local mosques warning young men not to attend. I think after the Birmingham and Harrow demonstrations there was a lot of negative press about the Asian men who came out to represent and defend themselves.
There were many Asians who did intend to attend the demo and did attempt to but were being told by the police they would not let people in after 10am and they were keeping the numbers down, therefore people would be turned away.
Obviously I don’t think the police should have intentionally turned away Asians, but at the same time I don’t want the coverage of the demos to show how all these “asian youths” have come out gunning for a fight against the EDL’s “peaceful protesters” (HA!)
I think that the mainstream press coverage of the EDL has been too soft and they’re given too much of a platform.There was a huge awareness of the demo amongst the Asian community, one of the biggest British Asian channels DM Digital had non stop coverage of Saturdays event with a roving reporter speaking to people there.
I would normally encourage other Asians to attend an anti fascist demo but I understand why people would not want to attend the EDL ones. I think the press coverage of the Harrow one was very sympathetic with the EDL as they were massively outnumbered by asian men.
Comment by Rubs on October 13, 2009 at 2:52 am
I’m an Asian woman who has attended many anti fascist demonstrations over the years but quite frankly I was too scared to attend the one on Saturday. There was a massive police presence but I don’t believe they were there to protect and serve me. -
As an ”asian” and an active protestor for many other causes. I chose not to attend this protest. My simple reason for this was due to the negative press coverage at the last two.This is not a white, asian conflict,a view, that is perpetuated by some in the media. The polarization of asain and white does not help the cause and tends to smokescreen the reality of their racist ideology. This is another form of extremism that needs to be challenged by all. I wonder… was this how the nazi’s began their persecution. Damned if you do and damned if you dont.
Comment by an ''asian'' thought on October 13, 2009 at 11:15 am -
youdontknowme# I think it’s you talking the bollocks and that’s the police’s numbers anyway. There’s not a chance in hell there was 1000 EDL protesters, I doubt there was even 600.
As for the UAF being hiding: when the EDL tried to break into the Gardens from the bus station looking for fight, 300 anti-fascists tried to give them one but the EDL ran away! After the police stepped in and started giving the EDL a taste of horses breath the best they could come up with was to throw a water bottle into the crowd – real fucking brave!
You need to retake your GCSE English as well; your spelling’s atrocious and you don’t seem to know the meaning of the word ‘fact’ (hint: it’s something that happened, not your own opinion).
Comment by MancunianSpirit on October 14, 2009 at 10:52 pm -
You write: “With the city centre closed down by hundreds of riot cops”
What a load of rubbish! The city centre wasn’t closed down – Piccadilly Gardens was the only part of town affected. Anywhere else and you wouldn’t have known anything about it. I was at the Food and Drink Festival in St Anne’s Square and didn’t see a thing. This site really does talk rot!
Comment by paulio on October 16, 2009 at 4:20 pm -
It wasn’t just the Piccadilly it was all the surrounding streets as well…. perhaps not the whole city centre, but a fair portion of it.
Comment by Brian on October 20, 2009 at 9:41 pm -
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THE EDL ARE RACIST, FASCIST SCUM. WHO THE HELL DO THESE LOW LIFE BEER DRINKING SCUM THINK THEY ARE- OH YES THATS RIGHT- ENGLISH! BRITISH! WELL IF ONLY BEING WHITE AND INSIGHTING RACIAL HATRED IS BRITISH, THEN MAYBE YOU ARE. BUT THATS NOT THE FACT, I AM A PROUD BIRITSH MUSLIM, ITS RACIST EVIL CORPORATIONS LIKE THE BNP AND EDL, WHICH DRIVE MUSLIMS TO HATE AND INCREASES THE CHANCE OF THEM BECOMING EXTREMISTS. ITS ALL YOUR FAULT! PATHETIC DRUNKEN, VIOLENT SCUM, THINK YOUR ENGLISH, UR PATHETIC
I’VE HAD ENOUGH OF BEING LABELLED A TERRORIST FOR NO REASON, IT’S RACISM, SIMPLE AS
Comment by PROUD BRITISH ASIAN on June 3, 2010 at 8:58 pm
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