SCOTLAND UNITED AGAINST RACISM & FASCISM
SCOTTISH DEFENCE LEAGUE CALLS MARCH ON EDINBURGH
FIRST MINISTER, PARTY LEADERS, TRADE UNIONISTS
JOIN CALLS TO STOP THE SDL
The Scottish Defence League along with its English
counterpart has called a march and rally in Edinburgh on the
10th September, one day before the 10th anniversary of the
9/11 attacks.
In 2009 and 2010 several thousand marched in
the Capital city as well as in Glasgow under the banner of
Scotland United opposing the bigotry and racism of the SDL.
Once again under the banner of Scotland United,
the First Minister, Party Leaders, Trade Unions and civic
society have mobilised to condemn the proposal which will
be considered at the Licensing Sub Committee on 19 August
2011.
A copy of the letter sent to the Regulatory
Committee is attached below. Quote from organiser of Scotland
United- Aamer Anwar “Neo Nazis masquerading under the flag
of Scotland are not welcome in our capital city. Once again
Scotland is united in demanding that any march be refused
by the Council. These violent racist thugs have never been
allowed to incite hatred against any section of our communities.
As the only place in the UK that has successfully stopped
these thugs marching through our streets, we repeat our message-you
are not welcome in Scotland. The Police and the Council should
not confuse freedom of speech with allowing racist groups
the human rights to inflict a message of hatred and violence.
We demand a robust refusal by the Council and Police as we
cannot allow these racists to march and rally. “
Ian Tasker Assistant Secretary- STUC- “The SDL
should not be allowed to exploit the deaths of innocent individuals
and the pain and suffering of their loved ones to promote
their far right aims, aims that we would add are based on
a flawed understanding of the Muslim faith and a lack of respect
for our civilised and multi-cultural society.”
Notes for Editors: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/8525939.stm
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/their-demonstrations-have-triggered-violence-on-english-streets-now-they-re-heading-for-scotland-we-go-inside-the-english-defence-league-1.925370
http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/features/Businessman-bankrolls-street-army.php
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/comment/Hatred-on-our-streets.6070663.jp
http://news.scotsman.com/edinburgh/Thousands-to-take-to-the.6078949.jp
COPY OF LETTER SUBMITTED AS OBJECTION- WITH
SIGNATORIES ATTACHED AT THE END
15th August 2011 URGENT -PLEASE COPY TO ALL
MEMBERS OF THE REGULATORY COMMITTEE & CITY COUNCILLORS
Dear Cllr Rob Munn
URGENT- SCOTTISH DEFENCE LEAGUE NOT WELCOME
IN EDINBURGH
We the ‘undersigned’ are horrified that the
racist Scottish/English Defence League intends to demonstrate
on the Streets of Edinburgh on the 10th September. One day
before the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, but also
only weeks after the horrific attacks in Norway. They have
applied for the right to march through the city culminating
in a rally.
The City Council is due to meet on the 19th
August and take a decision on whether to allow this march
to take place. The Defence League terrorises people from ethnic
and religious minorities across Britain, specifically targeting
Muslims.
The Scottish Defence League was set up in 2009
by the EDL to imitate its successes in England. Scotland United
an umbrella group was launched by campaigners, trade unions
and political parties as a response to this threat. The SDL
intended to march on the Glasgow’s Central Mosque, but after
the launch of Scotland United over 3000 anti-racists, religious
groups and political parties in partnership with the Council
denied them the right to do so and this success was repeated
in 2010 in Edinburgh.
Recently the Norway killer Anders Behring Breivik
was inspired by the poisonous politics of the English Defence
League, boasted of his links to them. The EDL’s true politics
were exposed after their funder and strategist Alan Lake was
exposed by the media. The EDL a vicious anti-Muslim organisation
has a strategy of welding together football hooligan firms
– who now make up the EDL’s hard core – into a unified fighting
force of racist thugs.
Lake’s shocking comments that the Norway massacre
was a case of “chickens come home to roost” were followed
by a story in the Guardian newspaper reporting a post made
by Lake on his 4Freedoms website in May 2010, which discussed
the merits of killing prime minister David Cameron, Deputy
Prime Minister Nick Clegg and the Archbishop of Canterbury
Dr Rowan Williams.
He claimed that “in 20 or 30 years the UK will
start to fragment into Islamic enclaves” adding- “It’s time
we decide… who we will force in the Islamic enclaves (and
who we will execute if they sneak out.) By forcing these liberal
twits into those enclaves, we will be sending them to their
death at worst, and at best they and their families will be
subjected to all the depredations, persecution and abuse that
non-Muslims worldwide currently ‘enjoy’ in countries like
Pakistan…It will be great to see them executed or tortured
to death.”
The organisation has increasingly “hardened
up” its position, with more frequent attacks on traditional
fascist targets such as trade union demos, socialist and anti-racist
gatherings as well as against Muslims and other ethnic minority
communities EDL demonstrations have regularly descended into
violence, rampaging through town centres attacking Asian and
Black people, smashing windows of homes, shops and cars, attacking
mosques and in one case a Hindu temple.
Considering the widespread condemnation of the
inner city riots, one wonders why an organisation with a track
record of violence should be allowed to march on the streets
of Edinburgh. Up until now the only reason they have not marched
in Scotland has been because of the sucessful mobilisation
of thousands of people from across the political divide by
Scotland United- demanding that the Police and Councils do
not grant them the right to march or protest.
In Edinburgh, Glasgow, Kilmarnock, Lockerbie
and Irvine the SDL were repeatedly denied the right to march,
often being corralled in pubs and frog marched onto buses
by the police and escorted out of the area. Freedom of speech
is policy that the vast majority of decent minded people support
but it also carries a responsibilities which the Defence League
are unwilling to abide by. We the undersigned believe that
any request by the SDL to march on our streets but especially
on the 10th September should be refused by the Council.
As the STUC recently stated –“The SDL should
not be allowed to exploit the deaths of innocent individuals
and the pain and suffering of their loved ones to promote
their far right aims, aims that we would add are based on
a flawed understanding of the Muslim faith and a lack of respect
for our civilised and multi-cultural society.”
We would urge the Council and the Police to
deny the SDL the right to march or rally in the City of Edinburgh
on the 10th September.
Yours in Solidarity
Aamer Anwar- Human Rights Lawyer & organiser
Scotland United, Grahame Smith General Secretary STUC, Dave
Moxham Dep Gen. Sec. STUC, Ian Tasker- Asst. Sec. STUC, Mike
J Kirby, Scottish Secretary-UNISON , Lynn Henderson PCS Scottish
Secretary, John Duffy-Scottish Regional Chair Fire Brigades
Union, Edinburgh & Lothians Regional Equality Council,
Councillors: Derek Milligan, Council
Leader Midlothian Council, Paul McLennan Council Leader- East
Lothian Council, Councillor Gordon Buchan,City of Edinburgh
Council, Margot Russell, Councillor Midlothian Council, John
Williamson, Councillor, East Lothian Council, Stuart Roy McIvor
Councillor City of Edinburgh Council, Gordon Munro Councillor,
City of Edinburgh Council
The following Party Leaders: First
Minister Alex Salmond MSP- Leader of the Scottish National
Party, Iain Gray MSP- Leader of Scottish Labour Party, Annabelle
Goldie MSP-Leader of Scottish Conservative Party, Patrick
Harvie MSP- Leader of Scottish Green Party,
MSPs: Humza Yousaf, John Finnie, Aileen
McLeod, Elaine Murray, Annabelle Ewing, Angus MacDonald, Neil
Findlay, Joan McAlpine, Mark McDonald, Linda Fabiani, Alison
McInnes, Dennis Roberston , Bill Kidd, Roderick Campbell,
Richard Lyle, Siobhan McMahon, Kevin Stewart, Claudia Beamish,
Christina McKelvie, Margaret McDougall, Colin Beattie, Jim
Eadie, Brian Adam, Jackie Baillie, Jenny Marra, Elaine Smith,
Michael McMahon, Anne McTaggart, Graeme Dey, Richard Simpson,
Jamie Heburn, Johann Lamont, Lewis MacDonald, Richard Baker,
Patricia Ferguson, Sarah Boyack, Kezia Dugdale, Alison Johnstone,
Margaret Burgess, John Park, Stuart McMillan, Ken Macintosh
Pauline Rourke Branch Secretary, Dundee
Clerical Branch, Tom Morrison, Clydebank TUC, Kevin Buchanan,
Secretary, Glasgow General APEX Branch GMB, Mary Senior, Scottish
Official, University and College Union Scotland, Paisley and
District Trades Union Council Unite Against Fascism, Foysol
Choudhury, Chair, Shami Khan, Vice Chair Edinburgh & Lothians
Regional Equality Council, Sandra Deslandes-Clark, SEMPER
scotland, Rebekah Gronowski (Dr), Member of Edinburgh Women's
Interfaith Group (EWIG) and the Jewish Community in Edinburgh,
Huda Ahmed, Sheila Rutherford, Mrs Hui HiangMcCulloch, Donald
Laing, Emma Crawshaw, John Ballantine, Shabnam Hussain, Joy
Barlow, Kim Wong, Chairperson of Edinburgh Chinese School,
Wing Yee Li, Maggie Morrison,University of Edinburgh, Dave
Edwards , Lyndsey Maricic, Fife Council, Keith Wimbles, Chief
Executive, Voluntary Action Fund, Dr Ken McCulloch, Senior
Lecturer, University of Edinburgh, Niki Kandirikirira, Engender,
Khalida Hussain, Community Organisation for Race Equality,
Saiqa Mujeeb, Fife Community Safety Partnership,