Soas Anti-fas Leaflet[1]

Stop the Fascists from Marching in HARROW & NOTTINGHAM PASS LABOUR’S EQUALITY BILL NOW DEFEND THE RIGHT of MUSLIM COMMUNITIES TO WORSHIP AND LIVE AS FREE AND EQUAL CITIZENS BUILD THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT WIN EQUALITY, DIGNITY & PROSPERITY FOR ALL On September 11, the English Defence League (EDL), an openly racist and fascist organisation, threatened to shut down Friday prayers at the Mosque in Harrow during Ramadan. Our community mobilised in defence of the right of the Muslim community to pray in peace and to protect the right of everyone in our society to enjoy religious freedom. Our integrated, mass mobilisation of thousands of people in Harrow scared the fascists off, stopping their march and rally before they ever got started. Our mass mobilisation in Harrow and the mass youth led militant mobilization in Birmingham at the end of the summer, decisively defeated the fascist efforts in those two communities. The key to our success was that in both Harrow and in Birmingham, the Asian communities turned out in force to defend our rights with young Muslim woman and men providing militant leadership to the very large and integrated anti-racist and anti-fascist demonstrations.

STRATEGY MEETING 5-7pm Friday

20 th Nov Room B102 SOAS Russell Sq A pre-NUS Black Students’ Conf erence fringe meeting . Organised with SOAS Unison Black M embers Officer & S.U Black Students’ Offi cers’ MfJ: 07930 30 22 63 [email protected]

While Harrow and Birmingham provided excellent examples of how the civil rights movement needs to mobilize to stop local fascist marches and rallies, our successful efforts were not enough to demoralize and prevent the EDL from holding other rallies. We also did not prevent them from continuing to get significant behind the scenes financial backing. On Sunday 13 December the fascist are planning to try and march and rally again in Harrow. They are also planning to march in Nottingham on Saturday 5 December. Our aim must be to use these two EDL events to politically orient and organize the antiracist, anti-fascist civil rights movement so that we can deal the fascists the kind of defeat that will prevent them from trying to march and rally anywhere in Britain in the foreseeable future. PASS LABOUR’S EQUALITIES BILL NOW TO STOP THE FASCIST MOBILIZATIONS The quickest and simplest way to demoralize the fascist and stop their marches and rallies would be to win immediate passage of the Labour sponsored Equalities Bill before Parliament. An aim of the EDL mobilizations is to prevent passage of the Equalities Bill prior to the spring elections. The fascist understand that passage of the Equalities Bill would not only extend new and important anti-discrimination rights and protections to the Asian and black communities, it would demonstrate how dynamic, powerful and important these communities are to the future of the society. If the Equalities Bill is put up for a vote before the spring elections the majority of Tory and Liberal MP’s will support it even though that would increase Labour’s popularity and chances for victory next spring. And while simply passing the bill will not in and of itself secure broad new rights for minorities and women, having every major political party feel that they had to enact some of the most far reaching new employment and civil rights protections for all British workers would embolden the Asian black and immigrant communities and give new life and confidence to the whole British left. If however, Labour delays passage of the Equalities Bill so that they can cynically use it as an election plank to garner more Asian and black votes or because they fear offending white voters, there is a real danger that the Equalities Bill will not be passed at all in the near future and that the racist will gain an important victory. The EDL’s tactic of making anti-Muslim racism seem like a popular political trend with real support among white youth is an electoral tactic aimed at strengthening the far right wing of the Tory Party with in the party itself. The openly racist right wing Tories who do not support their Parties current stance of having to give tacit support to Equalities Bill can not prevail prior to the elections because the Tory

majority does not want to give up the chance of getting some electoral support from Asian and black voters. If there is no vote on the Equalities Bill prior to the elections and if the EDL simply persists in holding local public rallies and marches, no matter how lame they are, the racist right wing of the Tory will have a basis to argue that the Tories should adopt more openly racist politics to attract sections of the society that are supporting the fascists but should and could be Tory voters. The EDL policy of creating the false impression that support for anti-Muslim sentiment is growing among youth who do not identify themselves with the fascists is a part of this manoeuvre. If no vote occurs now on the Equalities Bill there is a much greater chance of the Tory Party moving to the right and the whole right wing including the National Front gaining some dynamism. This would make it much more difficult for the anti racist civil rights movement to isolate, demoralize and defeat the fascist. On the other hand if the anti-racist, anti-fascist movement can make the Labour Party hold the vote on the Equalities Bill now, we can hand the EDL a real defeat, strength the power of our movement and the communities we speak for and move British politics in progressive left ward direction. While it is essential for us to mobilize integrated mass actions to stop the fascist mobilizations planned for Nottingham and Harrow, it is at least as important for anti-racist, anti-fascist activists and organizations to be building an independent civil rights movement capable of mobilizing support to get the Equalities Bill passed now. ORGANIZE THE ASIAN BLACK MUSLIM IMMIGRANT AND ANTI- RACIST WHITE YOUTH TO STOP THE EDL FROM MARCHING IN HARROW AND NOTTINGHAM In Harrow and Birmingham the mass mobilisation of Asian and Muslim youth was the key element in the decisive defeat of the fascists. In both communities Muslim religious leaders urged the youth to come out and participate in the anti-fascist, anti-racist demonstrations. The militancy, determination and pride of the large number of Asian, black, Muslim and immigrant youth inspired our communities and discouraged many would be fascist supporters from attending future events. In Birmingham, Dr. Muhammad Naseem, a prominent Muslim leader in the West Midlands, refused to condemn the actions of the Muslim youth who stopped the fascists cold, and refused to ask the youth to stay home when the fascists threatened to return. This made Birmingham the only place that the fascist are saying is too dangerous for them to return to. Dr. Naseem’s urging Asian youth to “vent their feelings about the fascists” and his cautionary advice to the youth to go to anti-fascist demonstrations in large groups to assure their safety, are sound, common-sense directives that need to be repeated everywhere the fascists are attempting to march or rally, most immediately in Harrow and Nottingham. The EDL are hoping that the Mosque leaders in Harrow, who mobilised worshippers in September to protect our community, will not call on Muslim youth to mobilise to stop the EDL march in December. They are also hoping that the massive pressure that has been applied by the media and liberal/progressive politicians and groups on Muslim leaders to tell the youth to stay home will influence what occurs in Nottingham. The civil rights movement must build mass mobilisations of the Asian, black and immigrant communities to deny the fascists a platform, even if religious leaders or other Asian or black community leaders are urging the youth to stay at home. The EDL mobilizations in Harrow and Nottingham will fail before they commence if we can get the young leaders of the Asian and black communities organize and mobilize our communities. JOIN MOVEMENT FOR JUSTICE BUILD BECOME A LEADER OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT The Movement for Justice exists to build a civil rights movement and to develop the new young integrated leaders of the movement. We are not scared to speak the plain truth about racism and we relish the opportunity to organise the enormous social and political power of the oppressed communities. Britain needs change and it needs it now. We know that too many self-anointed leaders of the Asian and black communities, the unions and progressive community organisations and virtually every politician fears the power of the Asian and black communities. They are more scared of organizing and unleashing our power than they are of what we will face if the fascist prevail. We have no leaders who speak for us. And so we need a new generation of optimistic and proud young leaders committed to building the civil rights movement to step forward and fill the void of leadership. Cynicism and fear must give way to hope and determination. To win we need a new youth leadership to emerge, and this struggle provides us with a great opportunity to advance this process. The next phase of history is going to be so exciting. It is our moment to lead and shine. We can inspire everyone to action, to be ourselves, whether as Muslims or members of other religions or of none, and whatever our national background or culture. We can make a new Britain and WE CAN WIN!