On 10 May, FRFI published a report of a sexist attack by SWP and TUC officials on FRFI supporters who attempted to attend a meeting of Newcastle Unites against the EDL on 7 May (SWP and Newcastle TUC: sexist thugs defend Labour, 7 May 2013).
On 13 May, Newcastle Unites responded – not on the issue of its violence towards us, but instead claiming that we had endangered their organisation by naming the venue in which they were secretly meeting. Let us be clear: this is hogwash. The TUC centre has been used for all sorts of left-wing, anti-racist and anti-fascist meetings. The TUC itself has taken a public stand against the EDL. There has been no EDL attack on the premises. Meetings of Tyneside Community Action against Racism (TCAR) have been publicly advertised at the same venue and have not been attacked.
FRFI has shown itself to be committed to defence against EDL attacks. Following a fascist attack on an anti-jubilee protest in 2012, it was FRFI that called a meeting that brought together groups and individuals from across the left in Newcastle to discuss mutual self-defence of protests and meetings against fascists. Leading members of UAF/SWP attended this meeting – no problem.
The attack on FRFI supporters on 7 May was not an isolated incident. In 2010, the last time the EDL held a national march in Newcastle, UAF announced that a meeting they were organising was under threat from an EDL attack. Two FRFI supporters attended to help defend the meeting, but they were physically prevented from entering the building by the chair of Newcastle UAF. On that occasion SWP District Organiser Yunus Bakhsh was only prevented from punching an FRFI supporter when he was held back by another UAF member. Bakhsh is just a sectarian thug. In November 2010, he was caught on CCTV in a shop in the West End removing posters advertising the Northern March against Racism, which had been called by TCAR and was supported by over a dozen other organisations and trade union branches, and replacing them with posters for a UAF event.
The main public face for Newcastle Unites is Labour councillor Dipu Ahad. Councillor Ahad has told FRFI that he does not wish to be associated with Bakhsh’s and Simpkin’s behaviour on 7 May, and that he is going to confront Bakhsh and fight for FRFI to be included in future meetings of Newcastle Unites. He has even suggested that he will leave Newcastle Unites if Bakhsh’s behaviour continues. However, he wants FRFI to agree to certain conditions for our participation, one of which is that we must not mention state racism. We will not agree to this political condition. Councillor Ahad has a problem: he needs the likes of Bakhsh and Simpkin to protect him from being challenged over the misery being imposed on thousands of working class people in Newcastle by himself and other Labour councillors, but when Bakhsh and Simpkin get desperate, their thuggery threatens to tarnish the councillor’s respectability.
The Secretary of the Newcastle Central branch of the Unite union has informed us that Bakhsh is now threatening that FRFI supporters will be thrown off the march against the EDL on 25 May. The question is, who will do this? Will it be Newcastle Unites, who clearly have no roots in the working class and who are therefore unsure of their ability to defend their meetings from fascists, and instead threaten violence against other anti-fascists? Or does Newcastle Unites intend to call on the police to kick FRFI off the march? And what will councillor Ahad do if Bakhsh engages in his usual thuggery in front of so many people? FRFI will of course participate in the march and other mobilisations against the EDL, and we will do so without selling out the working class for an alliance with Labour.
