SDL and BNP: Smashed out of Glasgow!

22.9.10

A last minute mobil­i­sa­tion of anti-fas­cists on Sun­day saw off both the BNP and the Scot­tish Defence League, who both attempt­ed to hold sep­a­rate pub­lic activ­i­ty in Glas­gow city cen­tre.

With fears that the SDL were attempt­ing a ‘flash-mob’ style protest, in the vein of what the EDL organ­ised in Old­ham last week­end, SAFA activists were already keep­ing an eye on the city cen­tre, when they came across the BNP set­ting up a stall around 1pm.

SAFA activists – plus peo­ple from left-wing stalls else­where in the city cen­tre – were able to quick­ly mobilise to con­front the BNP. Around 1.45pm, a large num­ber of anti-fas­cists descend­ed on the stall, which was kicked over and the con­tents of it torn up or seized. With a large crowd now gath­ered around, the BNP were left stand­ing beside the ruins of their stall as up to 100 onlook­ers and anti-fas­cists chant­ed at them. The police showed up around 15 min­utes lat­er and attempt­ed to gain con­trol of the sit­u­a­tion, but in the end were forced to remove the BNP mem­bers for their own safe­ty.

Mean­while, the SDL were begin­ning to gath­er in The Goose pub on Union Street. They indi­cat­ed that they would head­ing to George Square at 5.30pm, for an assem­bly at the Ceno­taph – their full inten­tions were unclear. By the time the 15 SDL sup­port­ers showed up, around 100 anti-fas­cists and local youth were gath­ered in the square. A brief con­fronta­tion ensued, with one SDL sup­port­er arrest­ed, along­side a 14 year old, who alleged­ly threw a punch in the direc­tion of the SDL.

The SDL were denied the use of the Ceno­taph, and the police were again forced to step in to remove the fas­cists from our streets.

All in all, a huge­ly suc­cess­ful day of direct action against fas­cism – let’s hope they got the mes­sage and don’t return any time soon.