page 3 We’ve stopped them before CELEBRATING THE PROUD HISTORY OF LONDON’S EAST END , CENTRE PAGES
The Norway killer The Norway killer BREIVIK'S LINKS TO THE Photo: David Hoffman www.hoffmanphotos.com
ENGLISH DEFENCE LEAGUE
TOWER TOWERHAMLETS HAMLETS STANDS STANDSSTRONG STRONG AGAINST AGAINSTEXTREMISM EXTREMISM Where the EDL has marched before there has been trouble. They have attacked people and property and whipped up a climate of hatred that lasts long after they have boarded their buses home. This is the last thing that Tower Hamlets needs. The HOPE not hate campaign has been set up to oppose racism and hatred. We oppose all extremism from whatever quarter it comes from. We are calling for the authorities to ban the EDL march and for the people of the East End to once again stand together against extremism.
Photo from flickr: A-Pillow-of-Winds
IN JUST A FEW WEEKS’ time the racist English Defence League is set to invade Tower Hamlets with a message of fear and hatred. We say that they are not welcome here.
● BAN THE EDL DEMO: SIGN THE PETITION, BACK PAGE
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HOPE not hate
HOPE not hate BY NICK LOWLES
THE ENGLISH DEFENCE LEAGUE wants to come to Tower Hamlets to stir up trouble. They plan to divide communities, whip up fear, and provoke violence. They will either bring the trouble themselves or incite locals to carry it out. Either way, they and their politics of hatred are not welcome here. Worse still, they want us to pay for it. The policing of an EDL demo is likely to be £2m and we, as local taxpayers, will have to foot the bill. The EDL’s links to the Norwegian killer shows where this politics of hate can lead. It is a hatred that the people of Tower Hamlets do not need. Extremism helps no-one; it can only bring more trouble. The HOPE not hate campaign is clear. We oppose all extremism – from whichever quarter it comes. We oppose Islamist extremism just as we oppose the EDL. That is why we say “a plague on both their houses”. We believe that everyone has the right to live in peace and without the fear of abuse or violence. Whether you are white or Asian, male or female, straight or gay. The authorities need to ban the EDL march and the local community needs to stand together in the face of hatred and extremism. The East End has a proud history of opposing extremism. We have done it before – and we can do it again.
EDL: VIOLENT, EXTREME AND DANGEROUS THE ENGLISH DEFENCE LEAGUE (EDL) is a racist organisation that seeks to whip up fear and tensions between communities. Many of its demonstrations end in violence. They want to come to Tower Hamlets to cause trouble.
RACIAL VIOLENCE The EDL claim to oppose “Islamic extremism”, but in reality they target all Muslims, as well as other non-
VIOLENT THUGS The EDL are a group of thugs who use violence and intimidation. They have their roots in violent football hooligan gangs. They have regularly racially abused innocent bystanders. They have smashed up shops, attacked local people and burnt cars. At dozens of EDL demonstrations there have been hundreds of arrests.
white groups. After an EDL protest in Leicester, hundreds of EDL thugs went on the rampage, trying to intimidate the local community. EDL supporters have attacked and vandalised religious buildings and been implicated in arson attacks. Many members of the EDL have been arrested for inciting racial hatred.
RACISTS, FASCISTS, EXTREMISTS As well as hardcore football hooligans, EDL demos are attended by hardline fascists and racists. These include members of the British National Party and the National Front as well more extreme Nazi groups who support terrorism, such as Combat 18.
EDL fight police in Leicester
www.hopenothate.org.uk
Join the movement for HOPE p8
Why we are calling for a ban Q: Why are we calling for a ban?
Q: What about freedom of speech?
Q: How do you achieve a ban?
The English Defence League are coming to Tower Hamlets to stir up trouble and incite violence. The potential for trouble is too great for us to allow this to happen. The last thing Tower Hamlets people need is a group of violent racists marching through the neighbourhoods.
We do not call for a ban lightly. We should cherish our right to freedom of speech and our right to demonstrate and protest against the things we don’t like. These are fundamental rights of living in a democracy. However, with rights come responsibilities, and it is not right for a small group of people to be allowed to deliberately whip up fear and violence against others. It is the right of a community to live in peace and not be scared and intimidated.
Only the Home Secretary can ban a march, and only then when she is convinced that there is a real threat to public order. The normal process is for the police to ask the local authority formally to request a ban. It is our job to demonstrate the threat to public order of an EDL march and through our petition show the strength of feeling of local people.
✎✎ To sign our petition for a ban see the back page ✎✎
C M Y K
HOPE not hate
page 3
COMRADES IN ARMS The Norwegian killer and his friendship with the EDL
SICK COMMENTS: Bill Baker
EDL AND VIOLENCE THE EDL CLAIM to be a peaceful organisation but its actions and the views of its supporters prove otherwise. Here is a selection of comments made by leading EDL supporters in recent weeks:
DAVE DAVIS: “Ratkoa ● Mladic is our friend. He killed 8,000 Muslims.”
BILL BAKER: “know [sic] we ● need to kill or be killed and no mercy for anyone once it
kicks off. Die or leave is the only choice they should have.” BILL BAKER: “If our ● Government won’t act against Islam and terrorism
then we must arm and protect ourselves.”
Anders Behring Breivik had links to the EDL (inset) ELD supporters on a demonstration
THE MAN WHO committed the appalling massacres in Norway was a supporter of the English Defence League. Anders Behring Breivik shared their hatred of Muslims, was in contact with leading members of the EDL shortly before his killing spree, and was involved in their Norwegian sister organisation. Breivik appalled the world when he ignited a car bomb outside Government buildings killing eight people before executing 69 young people who were attending a Norwegian Labour Party youth camp. Only months before Breivik went on his murderous killing spree he exchanged several messages with leading EDL supporters. In one message he wrote: “Hello. To you all good English men and women, just wanted to say that you’re a blessing to all in Europe, in these dark times all of Europe are looking to you in search
of inspiration, courage and even hope that we might turn this evil trend with Islamisation all across our continent. Well, just wanted to say keep up the good work it’s good to see others that care about their country and heritage. All the best to you all.” In another message Breivik admitted to being involved in the Norwegian Defence League. EDL supporters were keen to have his support. One replied to him: ‘Bravo ... admire your views and courage. No surrender and welcome.”
FRIENDS Breivik was friends with dozens of EDL supporters on Facebook and sent his 1,500 page hate manifesto, where he excused his murderous behaviour, to 250 people in Britain only an hour before he ignited his car bomb. Dozens of these were to EDL supporters. Another leading EDL activist has even admitted meeting Breivik on a demonstration. More importantly than his friendships, Breivik shared the same ideology as the EDL. It is clear he read, digested and disseminated information from a wide range of neo-nazi, nationalist and anti-Muslim internet sites before embarking on his terrorist plot. Many of the websites that inspired Breivik are today actively supporting the EDL.
NORTH WEST INFIDELS: ● “East Belfast is up in flames, our loyalist brothers certainly
know how to riot. Imagine [if] we could [do] that against militant Islam.”
ROGER FIRTH: “Something ● has to happen mate (and I don’t give a shit if the old bill are
clocking this). For too long we have let ourselves be penned, while this scum do as they please, patriots being arrested, well today was the final straw, time to get violent.”
And on the Norwegian massacres
JONATHON SIMON: “I was ● condemning them at first but that was before I found out
it was a commie socialist jew hating youth camp, fuck em, I hope they rot in pieces.”
ALAN LAKE on the ● Norwegian massacre: “It was chickens coming home to roost.”
BILL BAKER: “If he had ● attacked an extremist Mosque he would have been
a hero.”
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HOPE not hate
CELEBRATING A PROUD HISTORY OF
WE’VE STOPPED THEM B AND WE’LL DO IT AGAIN T
HE EAST END has a proud and long history of opposing racial hatred. This year that tradition will be celebrated as we mark the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street. On October 4 1936, Sir Oswald Mosley’s fascist Blackshirts planned to march through the then largely Jewish districts of the area. In spite of massive local opposition – which implored the government to ban the march – the powers that be shamefully refused to act. It was left to local people to defend their community. Hundreds of thousands of people turned out at Gardiner’s Corner (opposite where Aldgate East tube stands now) and the surrounding area to prevent the fascist march. Six thousand police including London’s entire mounted police division tried to clear the area, striking local people with batons with extreme brutality. But the people stood their ground, and when it became clear that Mosley wasn’t going to be able to march through Commercial Road, Cable Street became the chosen route. Barricades were hastily erected in Cable Street. The street’s Jewish and non-Jewish residents, alongside Irish dockers from Wapping, put up fierce resistance to police attempts to clear a path. With no route left through East London the Metropolitan Police Commissioner told Mosley to take his fascists west and out of the area. A great victory had been won by the people of East End, one which is still talked about today.
BRICK LANE With the new influx of Bangladeshi immigrants came a new wave of prejudice and hostility. In the 1970s and early 1980s racists goaded local Bengalis with taunts of “Paki” before attacking them. Film maker Ruhul Amin, remembers the period well. “Every time I walked under a council block I had to be alert. Someone could jump me or throw something down on me. Bangladeshis were concentrated within about 1 square mile of Brick Lane back then and venturing out of that area was very dangerous. At the time the defence of the community was crucial, in 1978 Altab Ali, returning from work, was murdered in Adler Street. “The only way to be safe was to move around in groups. We formed the Progressive Youth Organisation in the mid 1970s and eventually I became chairman. We organised to defend ourselves because we had to, but also participated in cultural activities.
As the new generation learned English and went to school together things slowly improved,” he says.
ISLE OF DOGS It may have seemed like much of the old bigotry was slowly dying out until the East End suffered a major setback in the 1993, when Derek Beackon got elected to the council for the racist British National Party, when he stood in a Millwall by-election. Jean Geldart was a local official for the public sector union Unison at the time. She remembers how the campaign was built to ensure that Beackon did not retain his seat the following year. “He was elected partly because of complacency. We had to get a big campaign together, to expose what the BNP stood for. At the time tension in the area increased massively and racist attacks went up 100%. “There was a lot of mobilising of the local community but there is one thing that sticks in my mind in particular. There was a threat of closure to a GP’s surgery on the Isle of Dogs. That would be bad anywhere but the Isle of Dogs is quite isolated and it would have been a disaster for local people. There was a big campaign which united many local people, regardless of the colour of their skin. That, plus the massive canvassing and leafleting of local people made all the difference. Beackon failed to get re-elected.” Jean says.
TODAY And now today, a new organisation plans to come along to whip up more trouble. This time it is the English Defence League, which portrays all Muslims as dangerous extremists. Amin says that that the EDL extremists have to be opposed – just as racists before them were opposed – but the existence of an extremist Muslim minority cannot be swept under the carpet either. His many years of film making has led him to do much research on the history and traditions of the Bengali people. “The Bengali culture is a beautiful culture with a rich folk tradition going back thousands of years. Our traditions and religion embraces other peoples and cultures. It is a tradition that is very tolerant and one that is not compatible with an extremist version of Islam. “All peoples have their extremists but integration breaks that down on both sides. It is a credit to the East End and the British people that each new community eventually becomes part of it.” Amin says.
(above) The black and Asian communities fought racism in the 1970s Photo: David Hoffman www.hoffmanphotos.com (below) FACE OF HATE: Derek Beackon
HOPE not hate
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F THE EAST END OF LONDON
BEFORE
(main picture) STOPPING THE FASCISTS: 4 October 1936, barricades erected in the Battle of Cable Street
A Trip Down Memory Lane
HOW WE WON MAX LEVITAS can recall events from long ago in East End history. Which is not surprising for a man who is 96 years old. Sitting in the café on the top floor of the Idea Store in Whitechapel, the borough’s modern flagship library, he points out various sites of struggle of yesteryear as he looks out the window onto the streets below. “You know we were so proud of the residents of Cable Street for what they did,” he says, playing down his own role as a runner on the day. “It was a great victory but it did not stop the fascists. It was the work that was done in the local community afterwards that stopped them,” he adds. Pointing down at Brady Street, Levitas recalls how when he lived there he led two rent strikes in 1936. Later, many more were organised under the umbrella of the Stepney Tenants’ Defence League (STDL). Levitas was one of a number of communists who played an important role in the STDL and was elected to the council – along with eleven others – as a result of their standing in the local community. But the STDL was much broader than the small Communist Party. Its president was Father John Groser, vicar of Christ Church, Watney Street. By 1940 the STDL boasted 11,000 members. These strikes united Jewish and non-Jewish residents. The STDL campaigned for lower rents and against evictions by slum landlords. When fascist tenants found that all that their leader Mosley could provide was hot air, while local Jews and non-Jews in the STDL prevented their evictions, they famously tore up their fascist party membership cards in protest. Levitas has seen Tower Hamlets change many times over the years he has lived there. “I have to stop myself from calling it Stepney”, he claims. However, even after all these years and the gains that have been made Levitas believes that the basic issues remain the same. “Over the years we won many good things by uniting local people in struggle. Recently the economic position of ordinary working people has got worse. Thousands of people in Tower Hamlets need new homes that they can afford. This is the kind of issue that has to be fought for today,” he says.
ABDUL SUBHAN (“Gadu” to his friends), is a legendary squatter, restaurateur, & antifascist from Brick Lane. He owns Cafe Bangla one of the oldest and most popular restaurants now on the lane. My father came to Britain after the war. He worked in Birmingham in the steel industry before returning to what was then East Pakistan. I moved to London in about 1968. I first started working in Brick Lane when it was dominated by the rag trade. Everyone around this part of the East London was from somewhere else. I remember the Jewish community, black people, the Irish. It was a real mix of accents and smells and noises, there was something quite frantic about the Lane too. In the mid-70s the National Front appeared on the Lane on an almost daily basis, shouting hatred, attacking people, trying to drive us out. We had friends who came to help and there began a sort of defence of the community. I got involved in 1978 when Altab Ali was murdered. He was a Bengali like me, murdered by racists coming home from work because they did not like the colour of his skin. There were lots of large empty buildings left over from the days of the rag trade. The NF was attacking homes where Bengalis lived and it was impossible to rent or get on the council waiting list. There were almost daily racist attacks and so we “opened up” some of the buildings. It’s when we said “we’re here to stay. You will not drive us away”. That’s when the first Bengali eateries opened. The NF and the BNP kept selling their papers at the top of the Lane. There were clashes all the time through the eighties and nineties. They’d make the occasional trip down the lane on a Sunday when the market was on. I opened my first restaurant in September 1993. It was at the same time the Quddus Ali was almost kicked to death by racists and then the BNP got their first councillor in Millwall.
PROUD We are very proud of what we have achieved here in Brick Lane. I pay my taxes, watch the England football team, and I go to the chippy on Commercial Road for fish and chips whenever I can. We are a very different people from those timid Bengalis the NF found here in the 1970’s. There has been too much blood spilt here by racists. The history of this Lane is one of resistance to racism and poverty. It is a place for old friends and new friends.
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HOPE not hate
Local voices A broad coalition JACK GILBERT (Co-Chair of Rainbow Hamlets) THIS YEAR we have faced both the Islamist gay-free zone sticker campaign, and the far right infiltrated attempt to create a culture war under the guise of a gay rights’ march. Throughout we have stood our ground against prejudice and intolerance in all its forms and from all sources equally, and worked hard to find mechanisms for constructive dialogue and building awareness between communities. Now, disgustingly, the EDL proper are trying to appropriate the same anti-gay sticker campaign in their propaganda. That’s why we are proud to be part of United East End. Our recent Forum meeting voted unanimously to support the HOPE not hate call on the Home Secretary to ban the EDL March. Speaking personally, my grandparents were on the streets on and around Cable Street to stop Mosley and his fascists. Eighty years on, their successors are not welcome either. And we are calling on LGBT people and groups nationwide to join us in celebrating diversity in opposition to the EDL at the United East End event on 3 September. If you live, work or have a close association with the borough get involved in Rainbow Hamlets by emailing info@rainbowhamlets.org We are developing all sorts of social, cultural and sporting activities to build community life locally alongside this kind of essential work. For more information about 3 September specifically please contact 3sept@rainbowhamlets.org * The Rainbow Hamlets forum is the independent voice of LGBT people in Tower Hamlets. We champion and celebrate the diverse lives, needs and experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, community groups and businesses who live, work or are otherwise associated with the borough.
We stand united PETER FLATTERS THE ENGLISH DEFENCE LEAGUE (EDL) are extremists who should not be allowed to march through Tower Hamlets. They pretend to be the guardians of democracy, but they only spread hatred. They claim Islam is a threat to British values, but the real threat is the kind of intolerance they themselves preach. During the Second World War the people of the East End sacrificed much in the fight against fascism, against the type of ideals that the EDL stand for. Their planned march would be an insult to that great British generation who fought to protect our country from bigotry and hatred like theirs. The EDL talk about English culture, but know nothing about the culture of our area. Tower Hamlets has a long, proud history of multiculturalism and diversity, from the Huguenots and the Jews and the Irish, over the centuries, to the Bangladeshis more recently. It has changed much over the years, with people from all backgrounds drawn here because of its unique character and vibrancy. And there have always been people who have tried to exploit these differences; to try to divide us along racial and religious lines. But we have always stood up to these extremists. We have always rejected the politics of division. We will not be divided and our cohesive community spirit will always win out. The EDL are a threat to the unity of the East End and they are not welcome.
“
I dont think its right for them [the EDL] to come here, to come here and march. To bring division between people living and doing business here – we dont need them. Thats why as Londoners we should all sign the Hope not Hate petition to get the EDl banned from Tower Hamlets.
”
SHOEI, Local fashion businessman and Fireman
Photo: Flickr bixentro
“
Keep them away! Keep them at arms length! Keep them as far away as possible!
”
ESTHER, Local Resident and LGBT Activist:
HOPE not hate
page 7
Photo: Flickr bignoseduglyguy
“
Our community encapsulates all colours, all faiths, a real mixing pot of cultures and thats exactly why we don’t want the hatred of the EDL on our streets. You can’t say that their tactics haven’t been used in the past, and that they won’t again, but we cannot allow our young people to take the bait! The EDL coming into an area like this is unacceptable – and if the authorities let it happen, they should be made culpable. NAZ, Local youth worker and Resident:
”
We are an example to the world LEON SILVER I AM THE SENIOR warden and honorary officer of the East London Central Synagogue, the only purpose-built synagogue remaining in the Stepney/Whitechapel area. I am also on the steering group of the Tower Hamlets Interfaith Forum & am the Jewish representative on Tower Hamlets SACRE. As the third generation on both sides of my family to be involved in voluntary activities in our community, I feel honoured to be following in their footsteps. Born and bred in the East End, I have lived here all my life apart from three years away as a student. The Stepney I knew as a young child in the 1950’s was still devastated by the Blitz. Many of the buildings were war-damaged & there were bomb-sites everywhere. There was still a substantial Jewish community, but the great exodus to North-West London and later Ilford & Gants Hill was well under way. Home-grown extremists were a fact of life and the Jews were their primary targets. Mosley and his British Union of Fascists tried marching through the East End in the 1930s but were prevented from doing this in the famous Battle of Cable Street. Next came the loathsome and unlamented Colin Jordan and his World Union of National Socialists, succeeded by the National Front which morphed into the BNP and now the EDL. Before us had been the Huguenots and then the Irish, after us came the West Indians and then the Asians, predominantly Bengali, and most
PLAGUE ON BOTH THEIR HOUSES
Islam4UK extremist
EDL extremist
Photo: Mike Tsang
recently, the East Europeans. Our borough has always known poverty but has been inordinately wealthy in its splendid diversity of religion, culture, ethnicity, creed and colour. Herein lies our strength. We are united in our diversity, we are enriched & ennobled by it. It is to be embraced & celebrated, and in this we should be an example to the World. How dare the extremist EDL seek to come into our borough, our home, and seek to sow the seeds of hatred and division amongst us. How little they understand the East End spirit. Cockney, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, whatever, you name it. We are better than that. We have nothing to learn from them and want nothing to do with them Let them keep away.
SUSPICION breeds fear. Fear breeds division. Division breeds violence. Violence breeds extremism. Extremism breeds extremism. LET’S BREAK THE CYCLE. The English Defence League are a bunch of violent thugs who dislike all Muslims. They attack their mosques, their houses and ordinary Muslims in the street. They claim to be defending Britain against Islamic extremism but all they are doing is stoking up the extremism they say they oppose. Islamist extremism is also wrong – in terms of both the terrorism it celebrates and the intolerant society it wants to create. But we must remember that the numbers in these extremist groups are tiny, and their views are rejected by almost all Muslims in this country. The vast majority of people in Tower Hamlets – regardless of ethnicity or religious belief – want to live together in peace. There have been some violent attacks attributed to Islamist extremists in Tower Hamlets and we condemn them as we do the EDL. They are part of the cycle of violence that divides communities, whips up fear and increases violence. You do not fight one form of extremism with another. This only leads to more extremism, division and violence. Tower Hamlets has a proud history in opposing extremism – now is the time for us to show the world we can do it again.
Searchlight is the magazine of the HOPE not hate campaign
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Every month, for 36 years, Searchlight has been exposing the far right in Britain and abroad. It carries out investigations, reports on fascist activity and highlights our own campaign. It is the first port of call for activists, academics and journalists. The EDL hates it. If you want subscribe to Searchlight please visit www.searchlightmagazine.com.
STOP STOPTHE THE MARCH MARCH OF OFHATE HATE
Please sign the petition and return to: HOPE not hate, PO Box 67476, London NW3 9RF. Name Email Address
We will be handing in the petition to the police in Tower Hamlets in early August.
“We, the undersigned, call on the authorities to ban the proposed march by the English Defence League (EDL) in Tower Hamlets on Saturday 3 September. The EDL is a violent racist organisation that seeks to vilify Muslim communities and damage community relations. Its planned march is designed to whip up fear and incite violence. We reject entirely the EDL and its anti-Muslim racism and we don’t see why the people of Tower Hamlets should pay for its march of hate. We are proud of Tower Hamlets, a vibrant multiracial area, which has a long and proud history of immigration and resistance to racism. From Cable Street in the 1930s, to Brick Lane in the 1970s and to Millwall in the 1990s, the people of Tower Hamlets have come together to see off racism and fascism before. We will now stand united against the racist and anti-Muslim EDL. We believe that everyone has the right to live in peace and without the fear of abuse or violence. We stand against all prejudice, whether it’s racism, Islamophobia, antisemitism, sexism or homophobia. We oppose all extremism – from whatever quarter – and we recognise that extremism breeds extremism. We condemn the extremist EDL just as we condemn Islamist extremism. We say a plague on both their houses. We believe that the people of Tower Hamlets should be allowed to live without the threat of violence and fear. This is why we are standing together with the Muslim community against the hatred of the EDL and Islamophobia more generally. We believe in HOPE not hate. That is why we are calling on the authorities to ban the EDL march of hate.”
Name Email Address
Name Email Address
Name Email Address
Or sign the petition online at http://action.hopenothate.org.uk/ban-eld-march-of-hate
Join the movement for HOPE The HOPE not hate campaign mobilises everyone opposed to the politics of hate. It has the support of the Daily Mirror, trade unions, celebrities and community groups across the country. If you reject the politics of hate then please get involved. Whatever the time you can give, there is something for you to do. Together we can make sure that HOPE triumphs over hate. To get involved please visit our website or email us at cathy@hopenothate.org.uk
This newspaper was produced by the HOPE not hate campaign. We believe that racism is fundamentally wrong and that Britain’s diverse society should be celebrated. To find out more about us and to add your support, write to: HOPE not hate, PO Box 67476, London NW3 9RF. Name Email Address
Postcode Return to: HOPE not hate, PO Box 67476, London NW3 9RF. Or fill in the form online at
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