Report on the Antifascist Coalition Meeting on the 3rd of July 2010

an advert for the meeting was posted here:  http://sheffield.indymedia.org.uk/2010/06/454079.html

Having (badly sheffield.indymedia.org.uk) advertised a public meeting in Leeds to oppose the EDL, the clueless idiots of The Anarchist Federation didn’t bother to organise any form of security whatsoever. Entirely predictably, the EDL took advantage of the open target and walked into the meeting. The AF have no pedigree whatsoever in terms of antifascism, and in handing the EDL such an easy victory, have shown themselves to be a liability and an embarrassment.

The Leeds branch of the Anarchist Federation have little or no history of antifascist activity. Yet their ambitions to form a new ‘militant antifascist alliance’ to take on the EDL led them to publically announce such a meeting.

Not that they put much effort into advertizing the meeting, and they certainly didn’t invite any of the existing antifascist groups operating in West Yorkshire.

Bearing in mind the nature of the meeting, and the recent record of the EDL in turning up uninvited to anti-EDL meetings, one might have expected a certain amount of security.

As it was, when the meeting was held, on Saturday July 3rd, and despite the AF being tipped off about EDL plans to attend, there was NO SECURITY WHATSOEVER.

This appalling negligence allowed a small group of EDL activists to simply walk into the meeting, from which the Anarchist Federation showed no stomach to evict them. The EDL have not stopped crowing since. In one stupid blunderous move Leeds Anarchist Federation have not only handed the EDL an easy victory, they have undermined the hard work put in by real militant antifascists in Leeds over the past two decades.

We should all be in favour of more meaningful anti-fascist activity, but what possibly made Anarchist Federation think they had the ‘authority’ to organize this sort of meeting?.

From what we have seen most of them seem to be daft young kids. It should have been obvious that a public meeting of this type (not that we saw it advertized anywhere) needed to be secured, particularly in light of recent EDL activity. Anarchist Federation have been embarressment to anarchism for to long are we now going to take serious the thret they pose to working class unity?

We definitely think we need to build a mass alternative to the UAF/SWP, but this level of organisation and security hardly inspires confidence. Leeds Anarchist Federation ought to learn to walk before they try to run, otherwise they risk looking arrogant as well as stupid.

Members of Anarchist Federation where warned that this would happen, (and it should be common sence) yet still, no security.

Several Anarchist Federation members have serious security issues regarding them… no real Antifascist or Anarchist would touch them with a bargepole.

Also well done to the “guy in the back t-shirt” but still, how many people where at the meeting? on 4 guys? If you are incapable of defending a meeting against 4 guys… maybe you should reconsider your efficency in the “anarchist revolution” and indeed your role as an antifascist organisation.
The words “man up” seem to ring well.

Its also worth pointing out that several of your members are such fucking wankers that half of Leeds is probably upset with them at any given time.

Lastly as has been pointed out a certain bittersweet irony in the fact that you “Called for an Anti Fascist Alliance” and organised this event without inviting any of the organisations that currently oppose fascism in the area.

Dave, I don't know anything about AF Leeds or whether this meeting was well advertised locally (it was on UK Indymedia). However, even leaving aside these specifics I have to take issue with this:

"The AF have no pedigree whatsoever in terms of antifascism.."
[...]
"...what possibly made Anarchist Federation think they had the ‘authority’ to organize this sort of meeting?"

Who the hell are you to dictate who can and can't call a meeting? There seems to be a mentality amongst some experienced anti-fascists that they have right to some sort of monopoly on anti-fascist activity.

"The words “man up” seem to ring well."

To me, those words seems symptomatic of the macho culture that plagues anti-fascist groups. Newcomers are derided because they don't match your criteria. What hierarchical bullshit.

The Leeds Anarchist Federation are out of their depth when it comes to the EDL. Other anarchists have messed up when it comes to fighting the EDL. Basically most anarchist groups are out of their depth on this. You are nice people and mean well but....

It's taken Leeds AF a week to put this together (during which time IM have taken down about 10 threads) n it still reads like a fairy story. They knew the EDL planned an attack? Yet their 'security' was still so shit n they let the EDL walk in and out! That fucking Snowy was even sticking up for the AF on one of the threads. This statement is total bollocks. Leeds AF are a joke, nobody trusts them n they couldn't fight a dead hamster.

Finally (not including the bumbling first attempt that was swiftly ‘hidden’ on Indymedia), at long last, Leeds AF have issued a statement about the incursion of 5 EDL members into a ‘militant antifascist’ meeting they held on July 3rd. Unfortunately, it raises more questions than it answers. And their post on the main UK newswire won't accept comments!

Bearing in mind the importance of this incident, and the acrimony that has surrounded it – the boastful crowing of the EDL, the numerous (around a dozen) ‘hidden’ threads on Indymedia, the derision of other antifascists – not to mention the embarrassment caused, it really is pretty poor that Leeds Anarchist Federation have taken so long to issue this statement.

Obviously, we take all posts and comments by the EDL with a very large handful of salt, but there have been numerous posts and comments on Indymedia, which are clearly made by genuine antifascists, and which do not paint Leeds AF in a flattering light. What we can say about the meeting for certain is as follows:

1) It was not very well advertised.
The only place it was advertised appears to have been Sheffield Indymedia. Since only 10 antifascists apparently turned up, including Leeds AF themselves, it was very clearly not well known about.

2) No other local antifascist groups appear to have been invited.
Leeds has a good reputation for militant antifascism, with an established Antifa group and numerous old AFA members active in the city, but these people were not there. Had they been, things would have been very different. Comments on some of the ‘hidden’ threads appear to indicate that they were not invited.

3) Security for the meeting was very poor.
There was no re-direction for the meeting and it was held at the pre-advertised location. There was no security, either at the venue entrance or at the door of the meeting room itself. Five unknown individuals (who turned out to be the EDL) were ‘buzzed’ into the meeting simultaneously.

4) At some point the EDL announced who they were. They were not confronted physically. Nor were they physically ejected, but left of their own volition after having had their say.

Leeds AF now appear to be trying to sugar-coat this disastrous meeting – badly conceived, badly advertised, badly attended, and badly secured. That does not change what actually occurred, an incident quite shameful for antifascists with pretensions of militancy, which has wider implications for antifascists outside their group. To characterise the EDL incursion as “at most a mild inconvenience” is not only shameful, it is fundamentally dishonest.

It might be regarded as trying to run before they’ve even started walking, but in view of the fact that Leeds AF claim to want to build (or at least ‘head up’) an antifascist coalition in the city, why did they not first of all establish their own antifascist credentials and enter into talks with other antifascists operating within Leeds? Not to have done so smacks of both arrogance and stupidity, not to mention sectarianism. Perhaps the truth is that they simply have SWP-like aspirations for recruitment, and did not want to be ‘shown up’ by the attendance of more experienced antifascists. That said, bearing in mind the numerous dismissive and derogatory comments about Leeds AF on the many ‘hidden’ Indymedia threads, perhaps any approach would have been rebuffed, possibly for good reasons. Why did the AF not at least put some substantial effort into advertising the meeting, beyond a post on an Indymedia site in a different part of Yorkshire? Considering their lack of effort in this regard, they can hardly be taken seriously.

Since this was a meeting called to discuss a militant antifascist response to the EDL, and considering that the EDL have a recent track-record of turning up mob-handed to anti-EDL meetings, not to mention the track-record of West Yorkshire police, it really is inexcusable that security for the meeting was so incredibly lax. Incredibly, Leeds AF are now claiming they “were aware of the EDL’s intention to attack the meeting” prior to it taking place! Yet they still did not employ any proper security measures, thereby endangering anyone who might have turned up. Frankly, their belated claims to ‘preparedness’ sound like bullshit. One wonders what the AF’s response would have been if someone outside the AF (assuming there were actually other antifascists there) had done what they shamefully failed to do themselves, and confronted the EDL. Would they have been backed up, or restrained and even thrown out? More than likely, none of these, they would have simply been ‘on their own’.

Whatever occurred inside the meeting, and one might be inclined to take both AF and EDL accounts with a large pinch of salt, the AF got off very lightly, and things could have been far worse. However, in view of the fact that no ‘re-direction’ was employed and that the meeting took place in the advertised venue, the possibility that the meeting may have been monitored by the police cannot be discounted.

Nationally, AF policy is supposedly to take on the EDL “head on” – physically – so the belated weasel excuses of Leeds AF for not physically confronting the 5 EDL members who provocatively walked into their meeting sound rather pathetic. Just what kind of ‘militant’ antifascist ‘coalition’ is this?

Judging by the numerous comments of those within the city of Leeds who know members of Leeds AF, the fiasco does not come as a surprise. The group appear to have a poor reputation locally, and so it is perhaps unsurprising that so few antifascists attended their meeting (bearing in mind that the total number was around 10, one wonders how many of those attending were not in the AF.)

Leeds AF may have been able to manipulate Indymedia coverage of the incident, but undoubtedly the truth is out there, and what has occurred has only further damaged the reputation of a group that seems to have been “piss-poor” to begin with. If we are to genuinely confront the EDL, both in terms of what they pass off as ‘politics’, and on the streets, we are going to have to do a lot better than this. Genuine antifascists might well consider looking elsewhere, or working autonomously, before they compromise their security and their personal safety by being taken in by a group with no apparent experience of confronting fascist groups and no idea of how to go about it. Leeds AF appear to be a shortcut to a kicking or a jail cell, and are at best a waste of time.