It happened again today, but this time the reference isn’t to Gates of Vienna, it’s to the International Civil Liberties Alliance — and that’s close enough for MSM work. The interesting thing about this news story is how much the Granudia is relying on the ICLA website for its reportage on the upcoming demonstration in Amsterdam in support of Geert Wilders.
Here’s what the comrades had to say today about those nasty WAYCISTS of the English Defence League. I’ve bolded a few bits here and there for closer attention:
‘Defence Leagues’ Plan Amsterdam Show of Support for Geert Wilders
Far right groups modelled on the English Defence League have been set up across Europe and are planning to demonstrate in Amsterdam in support of the Dutch politician Geert Wilders.
French and Dutch “defence leagues” will join the EDL and several other anti-Islamic organisations on 30 October to coincide with the end of Wilders’s trial for hate speech and inciting racism.
About 2,000 EDL supporters are expected to demonstrate in Leicester tomorrow. Home secretary Theresa May banned marches in the city this week but the EDL said its protest would go ahead, raising fears of unrest.
The EDL, formed in Luton last year, has become the most significant far-right street movement in the UK since the National Front. It claims to be a peaceful, non-racist organisation protesting against “militant Islam”. Many of its demonstrations have descended into violence and Islamophobic and racist chanting, attracting known football hooligans and far right extremists. At its most recent demonstration in Bradford, in August, 1,600 police officers tried to contain EDL supporters as bricks, bottles and smoke bombs were thrown. There were 13 arrests.
Notice the carefully contrived comparison with the National Front. The Grinaadu could just as easily have used some other, more recent street-fighting group — say, one of those revolutionary communist groups that sprouted like mushrooms in the sixties and seventies.
But no, that wouldn’t do. The objective here is to make sure that readers come away absolutely certain that the EDL is a direct descendant of Sir Oswald Mosley’s fascists. That’s their story, and they’re sticking to it.
Also, by saying that EDL demos have “descended into violence”, they elide any agentive, thereby neglecting to mention that it is the anti-fascists who actually initiate the vast majority of the violence — and most of the rest is conveniently provided by agents provocateurs.
As for “racist chanting” — I haven’t heard any in the videos I’ve seen. Can our British readers provide examples of what this refers to?
The article continues:
Critics say the demonstration in Amsterdam is a sign of the EDL’s growing influence among far right and anti-Islamic groups in Europe and the US, and part of its self-proclaimed “international outreach work and networking”.
This is an interesting gloss on what’s happening now in Europe. The continental countries that have organized their own versions of the “Defence League” brand have done so because it’s a really good idea, and a workable model. The EDL didn’t “influence” the other versions — all Western European countries are forming their various grassroots Counterjihad groups in response to the simultaneous Islamization of their own regions. It’s simply an idea whose time has come.
It’s like when frost forms on all the windowpanes in the house. The kitchen window doesn’t “influence” the curlicues on the bathroom window, but there is a common cause.
The EDL refused to answer the Guardian’s questions today but its leader, who uses the pseudonym Tommy Robinson, wrote on the group’s website that the Amsterdam demonstration would “take the English Defence League global”.
“The EDL has been in contact with our European brothers and sisters and we have decided that on Saturday 30th October the European defence league will be demonstrating in Amsterdam in support of Geert,” Robinson wrote. “We hope that all of you will be able to join us for this, what promises to be a landmark demonstration for the future of the defence leagues.”
The Amsterdam protest will see EDL supporters join other activists from countries including Germany, Belgium and Switzerland for the launch of what is being called the “European Defence League”.
This sort of thing is obviously very, very worrisome for the representatives of the ruling oligarchy all across Europe. With the exception of the explicitly anti-jihad parties, politicians of every persuasion — Communists, Greens, Social Democrats, Christian Democrats, and “Conservatives” — are united in their loathing of the EDL and its brothers-in-counterjihad.
The growth of the EDL and similar groups is of growing concern, says the Labour MEP for London, Claude Moraes, who chairs the all-party European parliament group on anti-racism.
“The EDL’s racist and Islamophobic message is resonating across Europe as we can see from the formation of these groups,” he said. “This is particularly dangerous because they are using this virulent Islamophobia as an excuse to promote what is a dangerous agenda of hate and division.”
The European connections are part of a number of international links forged by the EDL in the past year…
Last month Robinson and at least seven other EDL supporters flew to New York to attend a protest against the community centre near “ground zero”.
Why put “ground zero” in scare quotes? Has the phrase been used in error? Is there something vulgar or pretentious about it? Have the more benighted sections of American public opinion gone a bit overboard in their reactions?
Are we colonials maybe a tad hysterical about all this Islam stuff?
But now we come to the best part:
In April EDL supporters attended a demonstration in support of Wilders in Berlin, and in June EDL delegates spoke at a “counter-jihad” conference organised by the International Civil Liberties Alliance in Zurich, where they gave a presentation entitled The Anatomy of an EDL Demo.
Yes, they got that one exactly right: the EDL sent representatives to Zurich, and they gave a bang-up presentation with a slideshow of the recent demo in Durham, if I recall correctly. It was an excellent production.
In need of an expert opinion, the Gurdiana turns to an Antifa representative for a definitive explanation of what the EDL is really all about:
Nick Lowles of anti-fascist organisation Searchlight said: “The EDL is operating on two levels. There are the violent street demonstrations that have brought fear and division to towns and cities across the country, then there is the political wing of the organisation that is partly inspired by Christian fundamentalism and is making links and inspiring other groups in Europe and elsewhere.”
First of all, where does Mr. Lowles get this “inspired by Christian fundamentalism”? Is it because of Lionheart? Or is it maybe the EDL’s fondness for Crusader gear and the Cross of St. George?
And yes, of course the EDL organizes “violent street demonstrations”. Sure it does. That’s the meme, and it’s here to stay.
If the EDL organizes a demo, and the UAF starts to beat them up, they have two choices:
| 1. | They can resist and fight back, in which case they have brought about a “violent street demonstration”. | |
| 2. | They can remain passive. Then they get the crap beat out of them and end up in the hospital, or dead. |
Some choice. That’s what you call a lose-lose proposition.
Or, to put it in psychological terms, it’s a “double bind”.
And we all know what happens to a person who gets put into a double bind for an extended period of time: he goes berserk.
Wait for it.
