They were on their last legs in 2012. Then 2013 brought the killing of Lee Rigby and their numbers swelled that summer on the Newcastle demo. As shit as this turnout was there's still a lot of support when there's the right (or wrong) turn of events.
I couldn't make it to the counter demo as I have childcare duties most weekends and this one I couldn't avoid because of other stuff going on. TSM, NEAF and SWP opted for a UAF style approach afaik which imo doesn't really challenge anything. Not that militant pavement work would though. These people need their ideas challenging directly and this has happened with some TSM and Swappies on a previous occasion.
There simply is no mass militant anti fascist movement, & so the question is how we get there? From a standing start the Boro mobilisation was great for a number of reasons, and lets be clear about this, direct action simply is not in itself the long term political community and movement building that we need to swell the ranks of militant anti fascism. This is not to say that we are UAF, certainly not, & we hopefully are a synthesis of previous approaches, recognising the weaknesses of both whilst retaining the positives.
Here's a good quote from AFN which sums the current situation up;
The counter-demo to the EDL was made up of local people, whereas the fascists had come from all over – some from as far away as London and Scotland.
According to North East Anti-Fascists: “approximately 95% of the anti-fascists were from Teesside. Compare that with the EDL group made up of approximately 90% non-Teessiders. They made no significant inroads into the local population with this national demonstration – we built our strength and so it is us who are left in a stronger situation as a result of the fascist EDL national demonstration in Middlesbrough… We organised locally and did excellent outreach work, bringing new people into our organising networks”
It is this ongoing hard work of talking to people and getting out in the local area that sets down roots, building a constituency of opposition to the racists. This becomes vitally important if the EDL ever decide to come back to the area.
Onward and Upward
The next mobilisation for anti-fascists in the North is in
Berwick-upon-Tweed this coming Saturday as the local TUC, supported by other anti-racists and anti-fascists organise to oppose a demo by the Scottish Defence League and the North East Infidels. Both these groups are even smaller and nastier splinter groups of the EDL."
