My friend and I arrived in the city centre around mid-morning. We had heard at least one of the three groups who were in opposition to EDL’s presence were meeting earlier than all the others which suggested there may be some action before the marches were due to start.
We had a quick look around town checking the key locations and some of the groups already beginning to take shape. The Trade Union Congress (TUC) had a static rally and performance stage at Monument and around 50 – 100 passive, friendly trade unionists were there most of the day listening to music and speeches.
The EDL were beginning to gather opposite Central Station and by about 11 o’clock I would estimate they had around 400 people, mostly men with either a flag or a drink in their hand singing football songs.
We thought about walking up to where Unite Against Fascism (UAF) were meeting but it was quite a way out of the city centre and when we saw a much more interesting group of about 50 to 70 people coming back into town from the UAF meeting point, we decided not to bother!
This third group were North East Against Racism (NEAR) who, as far as I’m aware, was an ad hoc group made up of mostly very young people not affiliated with the ‘official’ opposition. We decided to see where this group were going and followed them through the streets.
The police were shadowing NEAR and trying to influence their route presumably to keep the opposing groups apart but when the police stopped them on Westgate Road it actually forced the group turning off the road and down to where EDL were gathering!
This was the first and most significant confrontation of the day. NEAR managed to confront the EDL supporters face to face where they shouted abuse, held up their banners and let the EDL know they weren’t welcome. The EDL didn’t seem to know what to do until the Police arrived and started pushing NEAR away to the opposite pavement. These kids were heavily outnumbered by EDL and when you consider EDL’s core supporters are 30 and 40 year old football hooligans the fact that NEAR still got right in their faces took a lot of bottle and they should feel proud of themselves for having a go instead of just chanting from 500 yards way across 10 lines of police like UAF would later do…
NEAR were eventually pushed back towards Clayton Street and we lost them for a while. We did another scout around the City but the only people we saw were groups of young men on stag weekends who were bemused at the amount of police attention they were getting! Nothing was happening so we took an opportunity to review the pictures we had taken so far and plan our next move.
We talked to quite a few cops during the day and the post-Tomlinson softly-softly approach was very much in evidence – we were only physically stopped from doing and going where we pleased twice during the whole day. There were police from many neighbouring forces and definitely more than are used for the Sunderland Newcastle football derby which is usually the regions biggest public order exercise. The police were very well organised throughout the day and if anyone wanted to know who ‘won’ then it could be argued it was them!
WE had just grabbed some food when we saw NEAR coming back down Westgate Road but by now there was over 100 of them. Once they had streamed past and we were just about to follow them we noticed a small group of young EDL supporters swaggering down the road full of bravado. We also noticed the NEAR group had started coming back up Westgate Road so we decided to stay and see what happened. Before anything could happen the now subdued EDL youth were helped across the road and into a doorway by the police while NEAR were moved on. I admit I couldn’t help but have a laugh at the young EDL supporters’ loss of face.
We lost track of the NEAR group and the police told us the UAF march had been delayed by an hour so we went back to the EDL meeting point to see what was happening there.
By now the EDL had grown to about 1,000 and were getting ready to march off in Bewick Street. The police held them for a while so it was a good opportunity to get some shots of the flags and banners. The crowd were singing a mixture of football and anti-Muslim songs and the majority appeared to be intoxicated somewhat. This included the EDL’s stewards who, unlike every other steward I’ve ever seen before, were openly drinking.
The march set off and we got some pictures of them leaving and then cut through the side streets to get in front of the march as it headed down Westgate Road. There were some EDL stragglers still leaving the pub and they were a bit worse for wear, singing to themselves and staggering about.
Before we left the march to see what was happening elsewhere there was two incidents where the EDL spotted people photographing them who they obviously knew and didn’t particularly like. One EDL man with a posh accent tried to attack a photographer with his flag and a few minutes later another man had a whole section of EDL chanting at him. I asked a few EDL what is was about but they didn’t know. The EDL went round the corner into the Bigg Market area where some band was playing and then they had their speeches but we didn’t fancy being penned in so we left them to it.
The EDL had their own photographer taking shots of anyone in opposition along the route and doing his best to look mean:
We then decided it was time to check what UAF were doing. We found them up on Newgate Street where they stood listening to speakers and doing the odd chant. They were quite a mixed bunch; young and old, male and female with the biggest identifiable groups being the UAF/SWP types and a group of Asian lads. The speeches were a little dull and there wasn’t anything happening – the EDL were 500 yards away past 10 rows of police and dogs. We decided to go back to the Police blockade at the junction of Newgate Street and Grainger Street via the TUC demonstration at Monument as there seemed to have been a little bit of a scuffle at the police blockade earlier.
The TUC demonstration was still quiet with a friendly atmosphere (though we got a few funny looks!) and it turns out some EDL had tried to attack the TUC group but this had been quickly squashed by the police before they got anywhere near Monument.
We headed back to Newgate Street and soon the cops let everyone through and it was all pretty much over. The EDL got back on their trains and coaches, the police got back on theirs and by mid-afternoon you wouldn’t even know anything had happened at all.
*I am obviously against the EDL but what I hope to show with this article is that I did my best to cover both sides because I'm interested in facts as much as my own views. Some of the numbers and stories that I've seen described by all sides elsewhere have been off the mark to say the least. People who are seriously against groups like the EDL should remember that bullshit often comes back to haunt you!
** Faces of known anti-fascists have been blurred even though a few on the day said they didn't mind having their faces on the net! I have also blurred the faces of the kids that some idiots brought to the EDL demo. How irresponsible can you get? At least one of the parents was pissed as a fart too...
Words and pictures copyright BuzzKill, England, 2010.
COMING UP: A LOOK AT THE GROUPS, WHAT THEY SAID AND DID AND WHAT IT ALL MEANS.
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Thanks Buzz for a great post. Look forward to part 2.
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