It did warrant a mention on
here.
Fair enough. I did warn I wasn't paying attention. I'm not entirely convinced that the video and the printed speech - though they share a theme - are actually identical.
Be that as it may what still strikes me as curious is that here you have what Griffin describes as a 'false nationalism' being opposed by what O'Hara showed to be a 'false anti-fascism' and why so few on here have anything worthwhile to say on it.
It seems to me the implications could hardly be more profound.
The other of curiousity is the role of the media. I distinctly remember Paxman on Newsnight fairly early on referring to the 'EDL' as if it was of an established vintage and what a contrast it was with the media generally who after twenty years of the 'Troubles' could hardly distinguish their UDA's from their UDR's (republicans might argue that there wasn't much to distinguish them anyway) never mind their UVF's.
So we have a far-right grouping that comes out of nowhere, can put thousands on the streets at a moment's notice and the curiousity of the media ends with uncovering the nom de guerre of Mr Lennon. And that (apart from the digging up of Alan Lake by the Sunday Times) was it. As is now evident Lake himself is pretty small fry, in the wider scheme of things.
Official anti-fascism dosen't come out of it any better pulled hither and thither. Manipulated from within and without. First, the EDL are denounced as an adjunct to the BNP. Then they are cast as an
alternative to the BNP. Nick Lowles announces that they are the 'most dangerous street presence' since the NF in the 1970's, while in fact the EDL were generally law-abiding and compliant with the police and their own stewards (whoever they were?) and all told hardly broke more than a kebab house window, does make comparison with the NF/BM who gloried in all sorts of mayhem, including grisly murders look grotesque.
Then the SWP decide the EDL who arevery publicly pro Israel are 'proto fascist' which is not impossible, but does rather rip up their own Holocaust heavy criteria and propaganda. And on it goes.
On stormfront meanwhile Griffin is described as 'a state agent and sell-out' etc while on here genuine anti-fascists are labelled 'Lumpen Strasserites' by an individual (who to some may well appear 'nuttier than squirrel shit', and I quote) is nevertheless a supporter of, and has had sit down meets with leading figures in Hope not Hate, and is pursuing a strategy on here and on other sites of presenting physical force anti-fascism as having been set up and led by mis-fits and gangsters in a style that is practically indistinguishable from that of say C18.
All I'm saying, is that now might be a good for all concerned to take stock.
