The Far-Right Hate Cult now building in Britain.(QAnon/Save Our Children.)

 

 

 Photo: Habib Rahman(Portsmouth News.)

A variant of the QAnon movement has been launched in Britain. Much of their stuff has been on the Internet over here for several years, however, this has now gone through a significant rebranding exercise. Until now it has largely been an Internet movement, but it now appears to be morphing into a street movement as several protests have been announced recently. It is specifically centring on the issue of child protection and anti-paedophilia. Those who opposed the English Defence League will remember how obsessed they were with Paedophilia when they felt it could be linked to Muslims. Similarly, QAnon is similarly focused and their belief system is oriented around blaming it on the left and liberals. It will come as no surprise to find that many of the same people involved in EDL are involved in this project. This is aligning with the anti-vax and the anti-mask protests which are also a feature of QAnon.

Whilst, on the surface it may sound radical, and even to some, leftist, it is essentially a far-right conspiracy movement. Which frequently leads to one of the oldest conspiracy theories of them all. At its root is a myriad of antisemitic theories involving the Rothschilds. It also incorporates anti-muslim, homophobic, anticatholic rhetoric, and inevitably stuff about the Illuminati.   

  

 Before we explore what is going on with the British grouping which is working under the flag of convenience of  "save our children" I think it is worth analysing what the politics and the campaigns of QAnon have been, and their specific campaigns and focus. (If you are well versed in them please skip to the last section.) I will deal with the specifics and the disturbing politics of SOC(SaveOurChildren) a little later. I must warn people some of the posts I have obtained from their private groups are pretty revolting.

It is tempting to dismiss these people as cranks, but they clearly represent a genuine societal threat.  

Pizzagate. 

This was a precursor to QAnon but has now been adopted and integrated into their belief system.

Originating during the 2016 presidential campaign, the story claimed that emails revealed by Wikileaks showed Democrats with ties to Hillary Clinton had been running a child-sex ring from the basement of a Washington, D.C. pizza parlour.

It was all nonsense. However, it had consequences. A North Carolina man travelled to D.C. to investigate the matter. He fired his rifle in the restaurant before he was arrested and later imprisoned. No one was injured.

 In 2019, the FBI declared QAnon a domestic terror threat, saying that conspiracy theories encourage “both groups and individual extremists to carry out criminal or violent acts”.

Who is Q?

QAnon started with a mysterious figure calling himself "Q Clearance Patriot"  claiming to be a high-ranking intelligence officer revealing "Deep state conspiracies."

"Q," has continued to publish mysterious posts with coded language.

Paedophile Networks.

They are very active in the anti-mask and anti-vax movement arguing that microchips are going to put into COVID vaccines by Bill Gates along with claims the 5G network is causing the virus, or sometimes the virus doesn't exist at all. However, It is their ramblings about Paedophilia that are the most dangerous and outrageous aspect of their campaigns.

The EDL exploited the issue and similarly used the reality of child abuse and public revulsion it to attempt to silence their critics.

These problems exist. Child trafficking, paedophilia and the murder of children are concrete realities. They maintain that if you are criticising them you are defending child molesters.

However, their campaign is rooted in fantasy.

They maintain that there are elite networks of paedophiles abusing children. Not only this but the organisations are involved in murder and cannabilism.

They go further and maintain those child victims are used by elites in Satanic rituals which involve the harvesting of adrenochrome from the pituitary gland of dead children. They assert this is a powerful drug much used by Hollywood celebrities.

They also maintain the drinking of the blood of children is a feature of their ceremonies. This sounds like one Clive Barker reboot too many.

If this sounds familiar it should: the infamous blood libel.

An anti-Semitic canard which accuses Jews of murdering Christian children to use the blood as part of religious rituals.

This was one of the ideological building blocks for Hitler's genocide of the Jews.

The leader.

In cults, it is usual to have an infallible leader. In this one, it is Donald Trump. In their mythology, it is the American president who is the leader, they see him as leading a crusade against Paedophiles and the deep state.

It is a feature of American popular culture to have a billionaire savant. This is central to the novels of Sam Crescent who has secret billionaire bikers rescuing the victims of trafficking. There is also, of course, Bruce Wayne (Batman). In a recent reboot of Sinbad on TV, he was changed from a working-class sailor to a shipping magnate.

The idea of Trump (whose wealth is clearly exaggerated) as saviour is clearly not going to travel and he has been largely excised from all the public SOC sites over here

 

One of the problems with Trump being hailed as an enemy of the traffickers is that his policies have inadvertently helped them.

His policy of Border Control scooping up illegal immigrants and dumping them across the border hands them over to the gangs.

SONALI KOLHATKAR https: writes:

Dr. Amy Cohen, executive director of Every Last One, explained to me in an interview that under the Trump administration’s so-called “Remain in Mexico” program, “the United States has been essentially feeding vulnerable migrant children and families to cartel traffickers in Mexico continuously.” The program, officially known by the Orwellian-sounding title of “Migrant Protection Protocols” (MPP), sends immigrants seeking entry into the United States across the border to Mexico to await the adjudication of their cases. While the Department of Homeland Security claimed that MPP would “decrease the… ability of smugglers and traffickers to prey on vulnerable populations,” in fact it does the opposite.

Cohen elaborated on this horrific phenomenon, saying, “migrants are dropped off with nothing on the other side of the border, with no shelter, with no protection, with no food, with no money. And within minutes, they are picked up by cartel gangs that are waiting.” As a child and family psychiatrist who works closely with traumatized migrant children, she did not mince words, saying that families are, “kidnapped and used for extortion, which is a form of trafficking. Sometimes they are tortured. Sometimes they are raped. Children are compelled to watch. Sometimes children themselves are raped.”

How QAnon spreads alarm.

The reality is that one abused and murdered child is one too many. However, QAnon wants to portray a nightmarish world, which forces many working in child welfare to react to their manufactured panics rather than doing their jobs of protecting children.

As HuffPost reported.

 Polaris, which runs the national human trafficking hotline, warned in July that unsubstantiated claims “can spin out of control and mislead well-meaning people into doing more harm than good.” In August, after the century-old charity Save the Children issued a public statement to distance itself from QAnon’s leeched “Save Our Children” front, the nonprofit World Without Exploitationfollowed suit, casting QAnon promoters as “grifters with a hero complex.” Days later, KidSafe Foundation denounced them as “parasites” who threaten to “tarnish our reputations and harm our good works.”

But QAnon is notorious for launching mob harassment campaigns against its perceived adversaries, and other anti-trafficking groups — having already witnessed or experienced such abuse — have declined to speak out against it.

The potential risk of publicly condemning QAnon and provoking its fury versus the harm of letting its conspiracy theories proliferate unchallenged is the subject of discussions playing out inside child welfare organizations across the country. Severalemployees who spoke to HuffPost declined to comment on the record for fear of triggering a backlash.

“We have had conversations internally about [QAnon], and just threading the needle on trying not to anger a very mobilized group,” said a senior employee at another human rights organization headquartered in Washington.

In Britain, it seems they have not used the SavetheChildren tag for fear of litigation from a respected charity, and are using SaveourChildren.

They are still using alarmism to fuel their base. They frequently point out that 118,000 children go missing every year.

That number is reported as missing, but it does not mean they stay missing.

To fire up their base they need to construct a scenario of a Gulag Archipelago of abducted victims across Britain.

Full Fact reports:

Generally, most missing children incidents are resolved quickly without harm to the child being recorded. In 98% of recorded incidents involving missing children in England and Wales, no harm was recorded, although police data does caveat this by saying that this just means cases have been closed without harm being reported by the missing child. The data behind this figure represents around half of the police forces in England and Wales. The data isn’t available for the others, nor for police forces in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The majority of resolved incidents (52%) end within eight hours, with 80% being resolved within 24 hours. This doesn’t include the small number of cases that are unresolved. 

The UK Missing Persons Unit records that 1,514 children are long-term missing, which means they have been missing for longer than 28 days in England, Wales, and Scotland (data for Northern Ireland isn’t available) and remain unresolved. Cases can remain open for a significant amount of time. 

The reality is that sadly there are about 50 child murders a year, nearly all of them caused by the child's parent or step-parent. 

Although it is important to point out that children have to be street-smart and aware of Stranger-Danger the overwhelming number of sexual abuse cases against children involve someone with a familial connection.

There is obviously no room for complacency when it comes to the welfare of children, and conversely, there is no room for hysterical nonsense.

This group is what is called a digital cult. It operates differently to the way the cults we are familiar with, but there are some obvious similarities.

The people in them have a slightly superior attitude, in that they maintain they are better informed than their critics.

"Wake up, Sheeple!"

They question the motives and morality of those who question their assertions.

Your criticisms are an attempt to tear them away from their higher moral purpose.

Most cults are eager to recruit not the gullible, but the articulate with a high moral sense.

You don't get to know entirely what you are signing up to until you are in, very, very, deep.

They have their own internal language and morality.

Leaving their orbit is dangerous.

 

What goes on inside their Facebook groups.

I spent a little time inside their private FB group. This is the one that is supporting the SaveourChildren demo in Portsmouth on 10th October and is building for future demos in Liverpool and elsewhere, it has also built for protests in Leeds and London etc.

I had better warn people that some of the screenshots are upsetting and contain antisemitic and racist material, and other hate speech.

To avoid confusion, it's masthead was changed by them from Save Our Children to s.o,c.f.m. (Save Our Children From Monsters). They did this to pre-empt their possible expulsion from FB. This is due to Facebook removing other SOC pages. So there is a combination of both. They chose to change it to avoid removal.

 Amongst the figures involved are some familiar ones for those who monitor fascist activity online. One of their main admins has Pie and Mash squad posted on his masthead and also has some association with the North West Infidels, an EDL breakaway. There is also the person who ran the March for England group. There is a clear far-right presence in the group which is understandable.

This post basically explains their world view. Where society is run by a cabal of the Royals, Rothschilds and Rockefellers and of course the Vatican. All the bogie figures are seen as "liberals".

COVID is seen as a hoax, "Plandemic", merely a form of social control.  

Which is why they are so prominent on anti-mask demos.BLM of course is just a distraction caused by our secret rulers.

One World Government and New World Order will be familiar to observers of right-wing groups.

Also, it has to be said anyone who thinks the Rothschild family are big players in international high finance has not been out of the house since 1925. They are old money from the pre-war period. People who bang on about the Rothschilds do not tell us anything about the world, but they tell us plenty about themselves. 

From RT

"Elon Musk is being accused of anti-Semitism by some social media users after the Tesla chief's Twitter response to a journalist amid a growing conflict with the media.

The founder of an online publication The Online, Joshua Topolsky, asked Musk: “Do you think it's in the interest of powerful people to A: support a free press that exposes their lies, or B: tear it down so their lies are easier to tell?”

Musk responded: “Who do you think *owns* the press? Hello.”"

Save Our Children posted this:

This clearly shows that they sign up to the old school antisemite view that the entire media is controlled by a group of powerful Jews.

Is anybody beginning to see a pattern here?

The one below is particularly loathsome. Ron Jeremy the porn star has been arraigned on charges of rape. Matt Young the most active admin on the page chose to share this. The posting from a far-right page feels it necessary to call him "Jewish Filth" and make a reference to him preying on gentile women. This is, of course, classic antisemitism, the claim that Jewish men are predatory towards gentile women and was a feature of Nazi propaganda,  most notably the film Jew Suss in which the central Jewish character rapes Gentile women.

The misspelling I believe is not out of ignorance or artfulness but to confound FBs checkers.

 

Some EDL type Islamophobia.

This has been lifted from American sites, where drag queens reading stories in libraries is apparently a thing. However, it promotes the idea that LGBT rights are really a trojan horse for paedophiles.

It also clearly pushes the line that Trans Rights are a threat to children.

Some of their blood rituals/ Adrenochrome ramblings.

Another post which is clearly marked as suspect, by independent fact-checkers which libels Kamala Harris and Planned Parenthood, a respected organisation.

 

Matt Young, their admin making clear where his loyalties lie.

Needless to say, they have no time for Black Lives Matter.

This was the organiser of their recent demo posting about them.

 

The FBI maintains that 97% of BLM protests have been peaceful. BLM is an organisation which seeks to achieve structural change through peaceful means. The Ku Klux Klan is a terror organisation and is a white supremacist organisation which used murder to terrify the black community, and is believed to be responsible for about 2,000 murders.

To imply moral equivalency is disgusting.

Mother Teresa

It is not just, of course, the Clintons, the Obamas, the Queen and the Rothschilds who are involved in their fantastic conspiracies, there are other famous faces.

If you thought Christopher Hitchens was rough on Mother Teresa of Calcutta in his Iconoclastic "The Missionary Position" these guys can play a whole lot rougher.

I was not a great fan, many of her homes were badly run and the level of medical care was pretty lousy.

However, these people are accusing her of child trafficking and worse.

Apparently, she was trafficking children for Jeffrey Epstein.

Oh, and 

Dr Fauci is her secret love child.

The fact she knew Hillary Clinton apparently proves her depravity.

We must stop treating them like cranks.

We must not imply they are mentally ill, nor are they the harmless cranks of organisations like the Flat Earth Society. It may be tempting to write these people off as "a bunch of whimpering loonbuckets", and just laugh at them but that would be a mistake.

QAnon represents an integrated world view.

The idea of a ruthless cabal running the world due to an evil secret agenda is fine-but only if you're watching a Bond Movie.

In reality, it offers no real analysis to problems, and many of these people see the solution in somebody like President Trump-a man standing on a mountain of corpses waving a Confederate flag.

It validates weary resignation and disempowers people.

It offers no real solutions to any problems, it does not really offer a way of collectively organising to achieve change. However, it offers a way of grouping together and building the QAnon Cult, until it can be mobilised for some purpose.

The idea that Jewish socialists and Jewish businessman were plotting together and ran the world was absurd in the 1920s, and many thought it was so silly that no-one could buy into it, but many did with results we are all too aware of.

15 Republican candidates in the November elections in the U.S.A. are said to be supporters of QAnon

There is a torrent of hatred in this stuff and we have recently seen these people coming together in large protests in Trafalgar Square and elsewhere, where we saw others joining them, from New Age types to people waving Mosleyite flags from the 1930s.

The conspiracy theories they promote could build a movement that could quite easily fall into the lap of a nascent fascist movement like a ripe peach.

They have a hierarchy of villains in their repertoire to vent their hate on, but they have no record of seriously opposing them, but they do like venting their anger on people who oppose their views, by violent means on occasion.

They are also aggressive towards abuse survivors whose lived experience does not coincide with their world view.

I was recently informed that they are trying to make people go to their online colleges to get diplomas from them on how to spot abusers.

They are also saying they want to get into the schools. I am going to be reaching out to the NEU(National Education Union) and I am sure the Unions and the education authorities will construct a firewall to keep them out and warn people about them. Nonetheless, I am sure serious damage may be done.

This is a Hate Cult.

It must be exposed for what it is.

It must be stopped from growing. 

Ultimately it must be defeated.

Tommy Robinson's Self Martyrdom Reinvention and the Football Lads, a Wake Up Call !.

looking increasingly that "Tommy Robinson" 's latest persona, that of incarcerated Martyr to a cause might well play rather well. He has used so many names, Tommy Robinson is just the one he has decided to stick with. His real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon isn't really good for a street fighting man, and I think I'm allowed to say as a gay man sounds a little bit whoopsie. It sounds like a presenter on the Chelsea Flower Show or that nice young man who comes round to do your gran's hair. He chose the name of a football hooligan and that act of self-reinvention speaks volumes.

I imagine most people reading this will know his past, here I want to deal with his present, his future plans and the challenges they present.
His most recent large-scale public appearance politically was at the Democratic Football Lads Alliance event The Day for Freedom, and I think it's useful to look at his effective self-incarceration
Mr Yaxley-Lennon's recent incarceration might be a good career move.

It is looking increasingly that "Tommy Robinson" 's latest persona, that of incarcerated Martyr to a cause might well play rather well. He has used so many names, Tommy Robinson is just the one he has decided to stick with. His real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon isn't really good for a street fighting man, and I think I'm allowed to say that as a gay man myself it sounds a little bit whoopsie. It sounds like a presenter on the Chelsea Flower Show or that nice young man who comes round to do your gran's hair. He chose the name of a football hooligan and that act of self-reinvention speaks volumes.

I imagine most people reading this will know his past, here I want to deal with his present, his future plans and the challenges they present.
His most recent large-scale public appearance politically was at the Democratic Football Lads Alliance event The Day for Freedom, and I think it's useful to look at his effective self-incarceration in that context. I don't think he was planning to be banged up for 13 months but I think he was certainly hoping it would be 3 or 4. What he did was a flagrant contempt of court which inevitably would result in him getting banged up, he probably thought his guilty plea might mean he would get substantially less.

 For a full analysis of the legal reasons he got himself into jail, I'd refer you to the excellent article by the Secret Barrister here.

His Honour Judge Norton laid it on the line when he did exactly the same stuff at a previous trial.

 “This contempt hearing is not about free speech. This is not about freedom of the press. This is not about legitimate journalism; this is not about political correctness; this is not about whether one political viewpoint is right or another. It is about justice, and it is about ensuring that a trial can be carried out justly and fairly. It is about ensuring that a jury are not in any way inhibited from carrying out their important function. It is about being innocent until proven guilty. It is not about people prejudging a situation and going round to that court and publishing material, whether in print or online, referring to defendants as “Muslim paedophile rapists”. A legitimate journalist would not be able to do that and under the strict liability rule there would be no defence to publication in those terms. It is pejorative language which prejudges the case, and it is language and reporting – if reporting indeed is what it is – that could have had the effect of substantially derailing the trial. As I have already indicated, because of what I knew was going on I had to take avoiding action to make sure that the integrity of this trial was preserved, that justice was preserved and that the trial could continue to completion without people being intimidated into reaching conclusions about it, or into being affected by “irresponsible and inaccurate reporting”. If something of the nature of that which you put out on social media had been put into the mainstream press I would have been faced with applications from the defence advocates concerned, I have no doubt, to either say something specific to the jury, or worse, to abandon the trial and to start again. That is the kind of thing that actions such as these can and do have, and that is why you have been dealt with in the way in which you have and why I am dealing with this case with the seriousness which I am.”

In case he hadn't got the full measure of it, the Judge really spelt it out.

"You should be under no illusions that if you commit any further offence of any kind, and that would include, I would have thought, a further contempt of court by similar actions, then that sentence of three months would be activated, and that would be on top of anything else that you were given by any other court.

In short, Mr Yaxley-Lennon, turn up at another court, refer to people as “Muslim paedophiles, Muslim rapists” and so and so forth while trials are ongoing and before there has been a finding by a jury that that is what they are, and you will find yourself inside. Do you understand?”

I think this is where the expression "walking into it with your eyes wide open" becomes quite apposite. 

It is really no surprise he got a heavy sentence(although he will probably be out in about six months), what he did was to seriously threaten the right of a fair trial. 

Judges can get very touchy about anything that impedes the judicial process, like serious contempt or   interfering with witnesses.

They get angry when you start messing with their shit.

Let's cut to the chase here, his actions could have the effect of wrecking an important criminal trial and potentially ensuring that those guilty of serious offences against children go free.

He doesn't report on paedophiles walking free in our communities, his reckless actions help to facilitate it.

I think it's worth looking at the recent attempts to build popular right-wing/fascist movements and the specific rebranding of these movements as defending liberal western values from Islamists and "cultural Marxists."

The whole schtick is how they defend liberal values:free speech,LGBT rights and feminism from the onward march of militant Islamism.

There is a "Free Tommy Robinson" demo coming up on Sat.9th in Whitehall. opposition to it has been called by Stand Up to Racism and Unite Against Fascism, it is important that we have a huge counter-protest. 

This is going to be one amongst many.

The Tommy Robinson DFLA protest in May showed how things have moved on for the far right. There were about 5,00 attending and larger forces than the rump of the EDL were present.
The politics of Génération Identitaire and the Identitarian wing of the fascist movement were very much on display. The presence of Milo Yiannopoulos and a Drag Queen on the platform was indicative of pushing a slicker variant of "inclusive" right-wing populism, although this was clearly not appreciated by many in the audience. In fact as soon as Vanity Von Glow, the drag artist started to sing a large contingent marched off to the pub.
As GQ reported:

"The first incident of the day that highlighted how confused many of the Day for Freedom attendees actually are about the notion of free speech happened about 20 minutes after I arrived. The radical Christian speaker suggested that “God even loves paedophiles” and a group of men there for the march began screaming at him that he “couldn’t say that”. So, it seems there are some limits to free speech."

The line that was being propagated was that it was Tommy and his friends who were the true defenders of free speech rather than the leftist PC mafia. What we know is what they want is the right to be racist but not get called out for it.

One of the problems they have is that they all seemed to enjoy using their freedom of speech to say some thoroughly unpleasant things, but I didn't notice anyone getting carted away by the police for doing so, even when they were shouting "Muslim loving scum" at a WPC.

Amongst the speakers were Gerard Batten, leader of UKIP and Anne Marie Waters of the For Britain Party. This is interesting, as the idea of a UKIP leader sharing a platform with Tommy Robinson would have been unthinkable a few months ago, also of course AMW stood for the UKIP leadership but was too racist even for them. There is, of course, some jockeying for their supporters as their vote has recently collapsed and at the recent elections, they were revealed to be marginally less popular than inflamed haemorrhoids. There has been clearly been a fairly fluid relationship between UKIP and the far right which has been extremely worrying.

The whole thing looked very different from the EDL demos of old. A large screen showed slickly produced videos whilst there were security men mobbing around Tommy Robinson wearing high vis jackets emblazoned with his website logo.
Money had been spent on this. The whole thing was polished, thought out and focused. This was a far cry from the old EDL demos.

I was with the 400 or so others who were at the counter-protest the other side of the cenotaph called by Stand Up to Racism. At one point we were invaded by a group of Robinson's supporters. I was informed afterwards that they were the Chelsea Headhunters.  Someone observed that for a short while our area seemed to be Gammon Central. Whilst the whole thing could have looked like an advert for this summer's Jacomo collection directed by Fellini, it was more serious than that.
We were under attack. People defended our space and they were eventually removed. However, there is a more serious point, to the whole incident. Firstly to dismiss our opponents as "gammon" or "thickos" is too lazy. It could be regarded as offensive to the porcine community and frankly a bit snobbish. Secondly, the people from Breitbart and the Alt-Right are well-heeled and well-connected folks and the people they are attempting to recruit from football supporters networks they regard as their shock troops. Show Racism the Red Card and others are doing sterling work at preventing football supporters from being sucked into the "Football Lads" orbit. You cannot have a coherent argument with people by gratuitously insulting them. This is The Guardian approach to being loftily anti-working class.  People need to lay off the offensive labels.

An Essay In Fascist Tactics.

The whole thing, however, was a revelation of Tommy Robinson and the mechanics of fascism. Whilst he was bleating about freedom of speech and his liberty and the rights of "Freeborn English men", his bully boys were attempting to punch up his opponents having a peaceful protest literally behind the stage he was pontificating from.

If this was a scene from a left-wing Costa-Gavras film of the mid-sixties people would roll their eyes.

Could there be a more glaring analogy of the values and tactics of Nazism?



As his old comrade, Nick Griffin once said when talking of a by election victory for the BNP in 1993.

"The electors of Millwall did not back a postmodernist rightist party, but what they perceived to be a strong, disciplined organisation with the ability to back up its slogan "Defend Rights for Whites" with well-directed boots and fists."

When we discussed the demo afterwards in the pub absolutely nobody felt that what was required was me to write a witty yet observant article about the events of the day. (Extraordinary.) The main observation could be summed up with the expression:

"There aren't enough of us."

There was, of course, the Windrush demo the day before, however, although there were plenty of Trade Union and community banners there was not a sufficient turnout. The black bloc who were mobilising 120 plus for demos on Kent a couple of years ago also hardly mustered 20. The whole thing was reminiscent of the movement's reaction to the emergence of the English defence league some years ago.

There were people then who argued that we must solely concern ourselves with the BNP and that the EDL was a public order problem that should either be disdainfully ignored or left to the Police. Unite Against Fascism had to have prolonged arguments at the time to get people to wake up to the threat. It was only through a prolonged war of attrition of repeated counter protests that the movement was able to break the back of the EDL.

This week there was a large demo in Whitehall in support of Mr Yaxley-Lennon and support for him all over social media. At the protest, one speaker compared him to Nelson Mandela and another-I kid you not-read out the Pastor Niemöller poem.

Whilst it may be tempting to snigger at this, the support he's getting is another matter. About half a million people have signed online petitions demanding his release. Even Samantha Markle. Meghan's half-sister has signed, and people thought her dad was going to be the embarrassing relative. On the plus side, it means Prince Philip will have somebody to talk to at family get-togethers.

I remember how we thought that the EDL had died a death and suddenly their fortunes were  lifted by the perfectly understandable public outrage over the brutal murder of Lee Rigby. I know the comparison between TR and Lee Rigby's death is tasteless, however, I am making it due to the hysteria over Robinson's incarceration and its exploitation by the far right.

There is the very real possibility of a Nazi breakthrough in Britain. We have seen the consequences of Theresa Mays "hostile environment "and the scandalous treatment of the Windrush generation and the weaponisation of the Brexit vote by racists. Donald Trump's "very fine people" comment about Nazis in Charlottesville and his demonisation of football players taking the knee as "sons of bitches".
In Europe, there is not just the spectre of Marine Le Pen in France, but also the rise of a huge fascist movement in Poland and the use of antisemitism by the far right wing populists in Hungary. There has been a huge growth in Fascism across the whole of Europe.

Wake Up and Smell the Vitriol.

There is a real potential for a Nazi revival, whether it is from Football Lads Alliance, DFLA or some combination, or even some completely new grouping coming forward. We have many of the ideological factors necessary coupled with the immiseration of many due to government austerity policies.

There is clearly an attempt to use Europe style Fascist Identity Politics of the Generation Identity type to fuse it all together.

It is important not to just debunk TR's phoney victim status by disseminating excellent posts like the one by the secret barrister but to get serious mobilisations off the ground again.

Sharing antifascist memes about Charlottesville and what's going on in Europe or even articles like this is a good start but it's only a start.

It is important to get numbers out on Saturday but that must be just a beginning.

There needs to be a serious debate within the Labour movement and within Trades Unions and our community organisations.

All the fascist organisations that have been defeated in this country have been defeated by pressure from outside. The NF by the Anti Nazi League in the 1970's and the BNP and the EDL by UAF in recent years.

There is now the urgent task of everybody working with Stand Up to Racism and UAF in building a fightback.

It's time to get organised again.

It's later than you think.

Football Lads Alliance get had by Poppy Hoax

The FLA are amongst many who got royally taken by a twitter hoax
The usual round of "Theirdisrespectingour poppies-sportourtroops!" cockwomble is upon us.This time as an obvious hoax. A fake Wetherspoons twitter account says they are banning poppies for "cultural reasons".
Clearly code for "Don't upset the Muslims."
This is part of the usual campaign to demonise the Muslim community.
A handful of Islamist protesters led by Anjem Choudary burned some poppies several years ago and this has become part of the mythology that all Muslims are disrespectful of the armed services.

Apart from the fact that large sums of money are raised from the Muslim community for various services charities,there is something else going on here. It basically takes the position that white Europeans fought in all our main wars (they are the host community)and there are ungrateful disrespectful Muslims (guests) who moan about poppies etc.
This is one of the reasons why this particular hoax has been shared enthusiastically amongst the white nationalist community.

Wetherspoons have clarified that it is of course complete nonsense.

The Muslim community is incredibly active in supporting a whole range of causes including services charities.

It's worth remembering that the British people owe a debt of gratitude to Muslims who fought for the allies during the two world wars.



Many soldiers from the Indian subcontinent fought in both world wars.around .
More than 3.5 million served in both wars.

400,000 Muslims fought in the first world war.

At the outbreak of war, the Indian army was 1.3 million strong, with the ranks including 100,000 Sikhs and 800,000 Hindu troops.

Of that massive force, 62,060 were killed in action. They gave their lives at epic battles such as the Somme and Ypres.

Hundreds were killed in a gallant, but futile, engagement at Neuve Chappelle.

More than 1,000 of them lost their lives at Gallipoli and nearly 700,000 sepoys fought in Mesopotamia.

I am not going to dwell on any of the questions about Churchill and British Imperialism here,I only want to talk here about unsung contributions to the war.

Churchill on the contribution of Indian servicemen.

"But all this is only the background upon which the glorious heroism and martial qualities of the Indian troops who fought in the Middle East, who defended Egypt, who liberated Abyssinia, who played a grand part in Italy, and who, side by side with their British comrades, expelled the Japanese from Burma…. The loyalty of the Indian Army to the King-Emperor, the proud fidelity to their treaties of the Indian Princes, the unsurpassed bravery of Indian soldiers and officers, both Moslem and Hindu, shine for ever in the annals of war….

Upwards of two and a half million Indians volunteered to serve in the forces, and by 1942 an Indian Army of one million was in being, and volunteers were coming in at the monthly rate of fifty thousand…. the response of the Indian peoples, no less than the conduct of their soldiers, makes a glorious final page in the story of our Indian Empire."

Muslim servicemen made up 40% of troops from India ,but only 25% of the population.

The recent movie Dunkirk had no Indian troops there, when there were not just Indian troops ,but also all Muslim divisions.(It also made no reference to Belgians or Canadians.)



The story of  Noor Inayat Khan is one of the more inspirational stories of female courage during World War 2.

"A Sorbonne-educated child psychologist and children’s book author, Khan was recruited to one of the most dangerous positions within the intelligence world, Churchill’s covert Special Operations Executive. Khan’s deep spirituality — influenced by her Sufi Muslim leader father — meant she believed in service for a greater good and couldn’t sit by while Hitler committed his atrocities.

Helping the French resistance, Khan evaded capture for four months, changing locations even while the Germans tracked her whereabouts. During that time, she helped to save Jewish lives as well as single-handedly arranging the rescue of downed British and American pilots, before being captured in October 1943 and executed a year later.

It’s no surprise that she received the highest honours for civilian service in war from both Great Britain and France. David Cameron recently praised her “inspirational self-sacrifice” and “indomitable courage.”

As amazing as Noor Inayat Khan’s story is, however, hers is just one story. There are many others yet to tell, and many that have been ignored. Hollywood still struggles with its portrayal of Muslims, all too often reverting to stereotype, even when real-life roles include sacrifice, courage and loyalty. The contribution of Muslims to our war successes is also glossed over in classrooms and in many history books."

A 1987 mini-series was based on her work for SOE in which she was portrayed by Barbara Hershey a white American.
This is what they call in casting circles whitewashing.

Christmas is just about to be upon us so the usual rubbish stories of "Now the Muslims want to ban Christmas !" will be rehashed in the tabloids.

Please Football Lads Alliance and others:

 Don't Fall for it !

A recent survey showed that only  2% of the population have an accurate knowledge of the Muslim contribution to the fighting forces in WW2.

Whether you buy a remembrance poppy or not, when the two minutes silence comes on Armistice Day please use it to respect All those who died in the struggle against Fascism and tyranny.

Football Lads Alliance.Where are they Marching to ?

Photo: Peter Marshall.

On October 7th the FLA (Football Lads Alliance) held their second demo.This march was so white it couldn't cast a shadow.

Perhaps slightly cheap.This was not an exclusively white march ,in fact amongst others some Ghurkas were on the march.However it was predominantly white, and more so than most protests.

Many have written that this was the working class on the move. However,it was overwhelmingly white and "the lads" attending were 50 somethings  from the football firms of the 70s and 80s.It was also very male.
The first thing to point out is FLA is not a Fascist movement ,nor is it overtly racist.The real worry over the marches they have held is their lack of coherency.

Their first one back in June  attracted over 5,000 ,this one attracted anywhere between 7-10 thousand.It was clearly better attended.The nature of these demos is what many are speculating about.The concern is that many look back to The United Peoples of Luton demo some years ago, that quickly morphed into the EDL(English Defence League) . If you remember the EDL's original slogan was "Not Racist-Not Violent-But No Longer Silent."
No racist declares their racism anymore. It's been a standing joke for some years that most racists prefix bigoted comments with "I'm not racist but...."

Strangely the media are never interested in what working class people are thinking unless its something regressive and unpleasant. (They also increasingly like to talk of the white working class ,a term which should be rejected, which has become a divisive and snobbish term to legitimise  racism within one community.) When they declare it is the "authentic voice of the working class", the latest missive on this score comes from Brendan O'Neill editor of Spiked, writing in The Spectator.. The online magazine Spiked was launched after the Revolutionary Communist Party's Living Marxism magazine went bankrupt after losing a libel action with ITN News.The RCP's particular schtick was to see what the rest of the left was saying and take an opposing viewpoint from a hard libertarian position.He has followed this through by opposing amongst other things, victims of Jimmy Savile speaking out,climate change, and the current campaign for equal marriage in Australia. He has also taken the position that the BDS (Boycott Divestment and Sanctions) is antisemitic and has spoken on a Stand with Us platform. It is obviously completely legitimate to involve yourself with Israel Advocacy groups but this is one of the more rabid ones.He has taken the position that racism and homophobia on the terraces is basically letting off steam.

Noticeably The Spectator article has been shared and reposted amongst the far right twitter-sphere and Facebook groups.

The problem with FLA is that they claim to be against all forms of extremism, but this is not borne out in practice.If you go onto their FB pages little is said of the murder of Jo Cox or the outrage at Finsbury Park Mosque,or the many attacks on Muslims across the country.

The platform at their first demo was truly appalling. It featured Mohan Singh, who made Islamophobic comments and has appeared on EDL platforms and Toni Bugle of Mothers Against Radical Islam and Sharia Law (MARIAS), who has long established links with the EDL and the British far right.

The platform looked less like a broad coalition and more like the Cantina Bar scene out of Star Wars .

At the 11th hour Toni Bugle was pulled from the platform for the second demo with the begrudging comment from John Meighan the FLA's founder that he was "taking advice on the PR Front." Mohan Singh was thankfully not on the platform either.

Walking With the Wounded ,the forces charity ,withdrew from working with the FLA in September after SUTR voiced concerns about the organisation.
John Meighan was forced to concede:

"The screenshots they(SUTR)produced (of recent posts)were racist,and leave me with no argument".

The eventual platform seemed to be dominated by ex squaddies and the more right wing the pronouncements got the wildest and most enthusiastic reception.
Calling for the reintroduction of internment without trial or deportation on the grounds of suspicion were rapturously received.When internment was introduced into Northern Ireland it was a disaster,and was referred to as the recruitment officer of the IRA.

Photo Peter Marshall

The most well received speaker was Phil Campion a former member of the SAS. Who introduced his speech by lambasting political correctness and then proceeded to make some pretty silly remarks about standing up for Britain including some obligatory Churchill quotes.
He was representing a group called Veterans Against Terrorism, which defines itself as being a campaigning organisation against Jihadi terrorism and not other forms of terror.
He apparently has a distinguished military record, his autobiography is called Born Fearless, so whatever character failings he does possess false modesty is not one of them.

The Anti PC routine has become a game for right wing ideologues. You create the spectre of the all powerful "Gay Mafia" or "Race relations industry" and then you claim that making racist, anti-gay or illiberal  remarks is an act of courage.A typical example being when complaining about refugees is to say:"Of course you're not allowed to say that anymore !" When of course you are,in ,The Daily Mail,The Daily Express,The Daily Telegraph,The Daily Star,The Times and of course The Sun.
This is the world where straight white men are the silenced ones,the victims.

John Meighan, the founder of FLA, with a history of hooligan related activity to his discredit, used his speech to launch into an attack on Diane Abbott.This is significant , Diane Abbott is without question the pre-eminent  black politician in Britain, and also the most vilified and racially abused public figure in the country. No-one has received more unpleasant and threatening tweets. It raised questions about why she should be specifically targeted.

The video below gives some flavour of the speeches.

  

During the rally there was much singing of "We want our Country Back."
From Whom ?
I think we can guess.

Stand Up to Racism Leaflet.

Photo Peter Marshall.

Stand Up to Racism decided to have an intervention to voice our concerns, it was not a counter protest. We merely wanted to hand out a  leaflet. The details of which are here.

There was a group of about 150 people from SUTR and also Show Racism the Red Card along with Kevin Courtney NEU education union joint general secretary,was present

“You can understand expressions of outrage against terror attacks that have taken place,” he said.

“But when I look at the first march there are some with racist and Islamophobic views—it could be a recruiting ground.”

“It’s important that the reaction isn’t to blame the majority of Muslims, to see that it has nothing to do with Islam.

“But some in the FLA seem to have the reverse response”.

Whilst the conduct of the front of the march was fine there were elements within the march whose conduct was extremely aggressive.

There were shouts of "I hope you get bombed", "you're not English anymore", "paedo Scum". For anyone who has spent anytime opposing fascist marchers these comments were horribly familiar.

There were also volleys of beer cans thrown.

Some of the abuse Stand Up to Racism activists were subjected to:

It's important to note that many or indeed most of the people on the march were well behaved and came with floral tributes in their team logos,but there is a nasty hardcore within the organisation who clearly have links with the far right.

Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, or Tommy Robinson as he likes to call himself was told by the organisers he was unwelcome on the march.When he turned up there were people who made it clear he was unwelcome.

However,there were others who rushed forward to shake his hand and have selfies taken with him.

The way he was feted was the kind of reception  you see afforded to Meryl Streep on BAFTA night. 

Leading figures in FLA have subsequently come forward to condemn his presence on the march.

It's worth noting however,that there are people even further down the food chain than Tommy Robinson.

Gary Raikes from the  self identifying Fascists of The New British Union was on the march and others were present.They base themselves on Mosley's British Union of Fascists,and are a proudly Fascist organisation.

It's pretty clear that most genuine footie fans  gave him short shrift , the problem is that people like him feel confident to be there.

The problem with FLA is that the leadership has built the organisation not on it being broad based but merely vague, they see this as it's strength,but increasingly it seems to be becoming more stridently right wing.

It is the inchoate nature of the organisation that make it an appealing host for all manner of far right groups.

It now seems to be evolving into a right wing populist body that presents itself as an inviting host for fascists to infiltrate. 

It appears to be an organisation with no democratic structures for genuine football fans to intervene in.There seems to be a serious investment in merchandise ,although nobody seems to know where the money is coming from.

John Meighan has now registered Football Lads Alliance as a limited company with himself as sole director.

Large sums of money are likely to be raised from the sale of hoodies,T shirts and enamel badges.

To misquote Billy Bragg "The Counter-Revolution is only a T-Shirt away."

If it is indeed becoming a cash cow it begs the question:

Where is the money going?

Many of the people involved seem to have a romantic attachment to the 70s and 80s when football grounds were an unwelcoming place for women,who now make up 25%of attendees at football matches.(This is not reflected on these marches) Football was  not a welcoming place for the LGBT community,as well as being  a time when racist abuse was not uncommon. The situation is now far from perfect ,but huge gains have been made.

We are going to have to see how the situation develops,but it is essential that not only antiracists but  the wider football community starts to ask some pointed questions as to what the values and motivations of the FLA are, and what they really stand for.