MVRDER CVLT

** Proud to be anti-fascist - a short report  **

Over 500 of us met at the site of the International Brigades Memorial in Jubilee Gardens, South Bank in opposition to the creeping fascism of the “Free Tommy” mob. After a tough few weeks of organising a grassroots mobilisation in London and beyond, we collectively pulled off an amazing, disciplined bloc on the streets under the banner of “We are all Anti-Fascists!”.

As we marched from Jubilee Gardens to Parliament Street via Westminster Bridge, there was a completely different sense from previous outings, we were powerful on the streets and as we approached Westminster Tube station we finally managed to face down the dozens of fash Tommy supporters. As they blabbed at us with their empty slogans we drowned them out, with the bloc chanting “Working class traitors! Working class traitors!” - you could see the uncomfortableness on their faces. We met up with the SUTR demonstration to loud applause and merged the two demonstrations.

Our objective was to form a defensive bloc at the top of Parliament Street and prevent any large groups of fash attacking the demo. Our presence and the presence of militant anti-fascists ensured an increased police presence which in turn meant no such attack happened in Whitehall. However, further down the road 40 hardcore fascists attacked RMT members including RMT Assistant General Secretary Steve Hedley outside a pub, leaving Steve with a bad cut under his eye.

In one of the best displays of organisation on the streets for a long long time, we sensibly defended our bloc and those around us, produced a strong sense of collective power on the streets and proved that from assemblies to the streets we can all work and co-operate together.

All in all we estimate there were 2,000 anti-fascists and around 4,000-6,000 Free Tommy supporters.

As incidents of violence increase, it is becoming a duty to build bigger and better mass mobilisations, not only for anti-fascists and anti-racists but for all Londoners.

Alfredo Pickman