THE INDEPENDENT ST UDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1947
ISSUE NO.
FRIDAY 22nd FEBRUARY 2013
766
900 to protest against EDL rally byEMILY CHAN Deputy News Editor
CHRIS WILLIAMSON
Protesters surround Union as Le Pen struggles to be heard • 200 turn out to protest against French far-right leader’s invitation • Le Pen’s talk beset by communication problems
Around 200 protestors gathered outside the Cambridge Union on Tuesday afternoon as Marine Le Pen delivered a talk countering accusations of racism. The French far-right leader was met with chants of “Nazi scum off our streets”, “Le Pen, Le Pen - never again” and “Follow your leader, shoot yourself like Adolf Hitler”. The Union building was surrounded by private security guards and around 50 police officers, holding back some demonstrators who attempted to make their way into the building. Those attending the speech were given tickets allocated by a random
ballot and attendees were thoroughly searched, with students prevented from bringing in cameras and mobile phones. Police officers were jeered with chants from the crowd of “Who protects Nazis? Police protect the Nazis”. French protestors chanted “Vichy, Vichy - jamais plus!” as French television cameras and reporters looked on. Shortly after 3:30, a Holocaust survivor addressed protestors outside the building, telling the crowd Marine Le Pen was a “new symbol of fascism” in Europe. Inside, Le Pen’s speech was beset by communication and audio problems with students struggling to hear the MEP’s words as they were relayed by a translator. As the afternoon went on, the number of protestors outside thinned and as darkness fell, smaller groups of activists were attempting to block some of the Union building’s exits. At 6:45, Le Pen left the venue, hurriedly exiting through a side door, as demonstrators continued to chant
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byPHELIM BRADY, LOUISE ASHWELL & EMILY CHAN
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against her. Chris Page, CUSU Welfare and Rights Officer, said: “I think it’s a good thing to see so many people out on the streets because they have taken the view that fascism and fascist ideas should not be part of mainstream political discourse. There’s a lot of arguments been made about freedom of speech in this case... but my own personal view is that with speakers like Marine Le Pen who stand for a political ideology that advocates discrimination and violence towards disabled people, gay people, people from ethnic minorities - we shouldn’t be dignifying that as part of normal political discourse.” “If we want to learn about fascism, we don’t have to learn about it from the mouths of fascists. We should be learning about it from the people who have actually spent years fighting fascism.” “In the last few years we’ve seen the Union bring in a number of speakers who seem to be primarily there as part of courting cheap controversy - we’ve
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seen Dominique Strauss-Khan, we’ve seen Julian Assange and now Marine Le Pen.” “[A] friend of mine who is a Muslim woman, when she heard Marine Le Pen was coming to Cambridge, she was terrified because she had left France to avoid the kind of Islamaphobia that Marine Le Pen stands for. And when students are saying those kind of things, I think the Union has a responsibility to not invite speakers of that kind.” As demonstrators scuffled with police protecting the Union building, a fine art student from Anglia Ruskin University held a sign that read “Was there really no one else available?” and asked protestors to write down the names of other women that should be invited to speak instead. Suggestions included Beyoncé and Hilary Clinton.
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Calls for students to join an anti-English Defence League march through Cambridge this Saturday have heightened following Marine Le Pen’s visit to the Cambridge Union earlier this week. It was revealed in December that the English Defence League (EDL) would be staging a demonstration against the building of a new mosque on Mill Road. Police confirmed last month that the far-right group would be holding a “static protest”, rather than marching through the city. The Cambridge branch of Unite Against Fascism (CUAF) responded by calling for a counter-demonstration on the same day. More than 900 people have said on the Facebook event page they will be attending the anti-EDL protest. Cambridge MP Julian Huppert announced yesterday that he would be joining protestors: “I feel very strongly about the need to make it clear that Cambridge stands together against fascism and racism. “I want to make it very clear that [the EDL] are not welcome here. I hope their demonstration will pass peacefully and the fact that they are to be contained in one place, will hopefully go some way in helping to achieve that. “We are fortunate in Cambridge to have a multi-national mix of people who make our city a vibrant and unique place in which to live and visit. They have diverse qualities and share their cultures, living and working together for the good of our communities and our city generally. I don’t want to see anything that could detract that. If we were to lose that mix, Cambridge would be a far poorer place in which to live.” The march will begin near the Parkside Swimming Pool, Petersfield at 12pm, with the planned route taking protestors past the Grafton Centre through Burleigh Street and Fitzroy Street, down Sidney Street, Green Street and Trinity Street towards the Market Square, before looping back round to Norfolk Street, Gwydir Street and Mill Road. The route will see protestors marching twice past Christ’s Pieces, where the EDL rally is set to begin at 2pm. More than 400 officers will be policing the EDL demonstration and the counter-march.
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