The Socialist 24 March 2010

Strikers can beat BA bosses

BA cabin crew can win

Message of support for striking BA workers from Socialist Party MEP Joe Higgins:

Striking British Airways cabin crew pickets speak to The Socialist

Support trade union and socialist alternative: Workers reject main parties

Trade unionist and Socialist Coalition

Salford: The growth of 'Hazel Must Go!'

Woolwich and Greenwich: For a workers' MP on a worker's wage

Stoke Central: Fighting for the millions not the millionaires

Trade unionist and Socialist Coalition general election launch rally

'MPs for hire' scandal

Hewitt's big business alliance

New workers' party needed

MPs: in it for the money

Far-right EDL outnumbered in Bolton, police try to even the odds!

EDL attend anti-racist meeting

Nottingham anti-EDL anti-BNP conference

Sussex: Students gain a victory - but fight must go on!

Cuts to higher education announced: Students fight back

Socialist Party youth meeting

On the march against cuts

March 1990 anti-poll tax demonstration

Massive rejection of Sarkozy's policies presages a 'third round on the streets'

Obama's neutered health bill limps through

Nottingham council targets the vulnerable

Dickens is back: Implications of poverty revealed in London

Barking council: Late developers

Battling against school academies in Hastings

HP workers take further action

Rail safety disputes

Previous issues, etc

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EDL attend anti-racist meeting

A public meeting called by Unite Against Fascism (UAF) in Bristol was attended by local trade unionists and anti-racist activists.

However, a Bristol trade unionist has reported that up to 15 supporters of the English Defence League (EDL) also attended. They attempted to film, photograph and disrupt the meeting.

When the man who appeared to be the leading EDL member spoke, he argued that they were not racists or fascists but were 'anti-Islamic extremists'. The meeting then deteriorated. Insults were flying around and people were going chest to chest. The police were eventually called.

Complicated

While waiting for the police a trade unionist spoke to one of the EDL members and found they had no political argument to back up their attacks on Muslims. He couldn't explain what the EDL meant by Islamic fundamentalism.

They took offence at being called racists or fascists. One was a plumber who had been out of work since last May. It appeared to the trade unionist that they were being manipulated by racists for their own political aims and objectives.

This shows the complicated and confused nature of those attracted to the EDL. It is crucial that genuine and democratic discussion and debate takes place on how to challenge racism and the far-right.

This event shows that increasingly there is a need to properly steward such meetings.

In this issue

Strikers can beat BA bosses