UK anti-fascists stage counter-protest against EDL
Hundreds of anti-fascists have marched through the streets of Cambridge, northeast of London, as a counter-protest against the far-right fascist group, the English Defence League (EDL).
Up to 1,000 trade unionists, socialists, campaigners and Muslim Council members protested in the Cambridge city center on Saturday, in a demonstration called by Unite Against Fascism (UAF).
Only around 40 members of the EDL gathered in a pen in Christ’s Pieces Park for their small protest, which was organized to voice opposition to plans to construct a new mosque off Cambridge’s Mill Road.
Expressing support for the counter-protest against the extremist group, Cambridge University Students’ Union (CUSU) said, “The EDL is an organization espousing xenophobic and racist ideology, and past demonstrations have made students afraid of venturing out in the city.”
The EDL’s previous attempt to protest in Cambridge in July 2011 was also met by protests, under the supervision of more than 670 police officers.
Two years later on February 23, 2013, over 400 officers from Essex, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Suffolk and Norfolk police carried out patrols in the city. The police also arrested three English Defence League protesters and a member of UAF’s anti-EDL demonstration.
The anti-fascists were holding posters reading, “Smash the EDL & BNP”, “Keep Cambridge fascist-free!” and “Racist EDL not welcome here”.
In October last year, more than 1,000 people attended a victory rally in Walthamstow, a district in northeast London borough of Waltham Forest, days after the British Home Office accepted a police request to ban all marches by the far-right group EDL in the area amid fears of violence on the streets.
