Nonviolence, the most potent weapon against oppression

Martin Luther King said that "nonviolence was the most important weapon in the fight for freedom and justice in the face of oppression." In these times of rising fascism and violence it might seem like 'human nature' to fight fire with fire.

An eye for an eye will only serve to leave the world blind.

On Saturday May 5th 2012 the English Defence League (EDL) held a rally in what they call their 'home', Luton, but faced stiff opposition from a counter rally taking place at the same time made up of people both locally and nationally. The counter rally was organised by a group of people that both live and work in the town from across all the communities.

The group are called 'We Are Luton'.

Lindsey German

We Are Luton (WAL) have been busy in recent weeks organising not only a counter rally but also a public meeting the week before, where big name speakers included Unite Against Fascism (UAF) Weyman Bennett, Yvonne Ridley from Press TV and Lindsey German from Stop the War Coalition. The evening was quite a success with all the speakers making valid points on the issues facing not only Luton, but the UK as a whole regarding the rise of fascism. Yvonne Ridley struck a chord with me particularly when she commented on the lack of positive news in the media when it comes to Muslim's and the creeping of Islamophobia in the news. Ridley also explained how the medieval laws that are being passed in Europe on the niqab have led to an increase in sales in London, where wealthy Saudi's now flock to do their shopping. I do not know if this has made it into the mainstream news but find it highly unlikely that anyone is going to report on a positive story of women wearing niqab.

Following the success of the public meeting the next target was the counter rally. It was well attended by people from Luton and areas around the country that have been affected by the presence of extremism at either end of the scale. People began gathering in the Wardown Park area from around 11am and talked amongst themselves whilst coaches began to appear with supporters from further afield, when the police then dropped a clanger by guiding in an EDL coach to the park. This was only a minor hiccup and they were quickly ushered away and to the far side of the town centre where they were due to congregate with the rest of the misguided EDL followers.

We Are Luton on the march

The first phase of speeches were held, followed by the march through town and back again, to the stage to finish up with more speakers. The speakers took to the stage with passion on the reasons why we had gathered and included local MP Gavin Shuker and Councillor Sian Timoney, who sported a rather fetching jacket. The WAL rally was well attended throughout, watching it on ITV in the evening gave a true sense of the numbers in attendance on both sides; these images seemed to suggest that the true figures in attendance were at odds with the police press release statement. The numbers quoted here of 3000 EDL to 1000 WAL have been hotly disputed by community members that oversaw the event from the central control area who believed it to be more the other way around.

The cynical amongst us may suspect that the police need to exaggerate the extent of the EDL numbers so that they can justify their claims to be left alone during times of austerity.

The press rounded up its coverage of the day with the police by focusing on a small group of United Against Fascism (UAF) protesters that broke away from the WAL march. In this small and misguided act by youngsters, the police and the media focused on the apparent disorder of the UAF, without having too much to say about the smoke bombs, flares and bottles thrown by the EDL at both the police and the protesters as they made their way under a bridge along their route.