A-Infos (en) UK, AFED: HULL: CLASHES WITH FANATICS AND COPS (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

This was the first Far Right rally in Hull since the riot on 3rd August 
in response to the Southport murders. It was partially organised by the 
same people: John Francis and his group, the Hull Patriotic Protesters. 
He was joined by Scott Pitts, from Lincolnshire, the two knowing each 
other through past involvement in the EDL. They called this 'Stop the 
Boats' protest for Saturday 5th October. ---- We heard about this rally, 
titled 'Rise of the Footsoldier' on their promo, in early September, 
giving weeks to organise. During this time, the coalition of Hull 
Against Hate met to begin planning. It had formed in response to the 3rd 
Aug counter-protest. Before we made promo for this action public, Hull 
and District Trades Council called a counter- protest. It was great to 
see such an active response from the Trades Council.

Public callout for the 'Stop the Boats' rally was at 12:30. The 
counter-protest had a public callout for 11:30. In anticipation, the 
organisers and stewards were meeting ahead of time at 10:30. As I was 
walking into town with a comrade, I saw a message that we were 
rendezvousing at Savile Street, due to the Far Right group already 
having already set up on the platform in Queen Victoria Square. We 
located the group and joined them. My friend agreed to steward and was 
handed a Trades Council hi-vis.

Beyond the end of Savile Street, the platform and monument was draped in 
English flags and a banner. However, it didn't look like there were many 
figures on the platform. In a moment, a comrade joined us and confirmed 
there couldn't be more than 10 of them there. There were already 20 of 
us. One person argued we could take the platform from them with force of 
numbers, but another pointed to the already large police presence. The 
police had already been spoken to: they knew Trades Council were due to 
hold a rally at 11:30, but the cops were determined to "protect[the Far 
Right's]right to protest too". I handed round a few bustcards and 
waited. By the time about 30 of us were gathered, it was announced that 
the organisers would request the police to escort us onto the platform - 
the traditional position of any Hull Trades Council demos - or we would 
get as close as we could, likely settling for the steps on the side of 
the platform.

We waited. The Far Right began speaking from a PA system, the sound of 
it drifting over to us but too broken to catch what they were saying. 
Another friend of mine joined, who had travelled into Hull to support 
us. A cop came back with the answer from a senior officer. They would 
not escort us to the platform. They would be holding us back from it 
instead.

We entered the Square. We fanned out. I took up position on the right 
and at the front. The men on the platform noticed us. I saw John 
Francis, microphone in hand. On the 3rd Aug, I'd glimpsed him from a 
distance but there had been hundreds in the crowd then. Now he had only 
a few others around him. I had an umbrella in hand in case they fancied 
showering us with eggs again.

The Trade Union led counter-demo
We met on the steps. One man punched my friend who had travelled into 
Hull I held up
my forearms to defend against him shoving against us. A cop shoved me 
back. "They're shoving me! They're shoving me," the man who punched my 
friend started shouting. "Assault!" He was rigged up with body cams and 
holding his phone. "Don't forget to like and follow." The police made a 
line on the edge of the platform, most of them facing out at us. I 
sometimes managed get closer, but the police would then intervene and 
get me to back away.

Behind the fence of cops, the fascists prowled. Some of them started 
asking my friend whether their mother knew they were there.
"Is that your girlfriend?" one asked, pointing at me.
A bald man, possibly Scott Pitts, called me a slut. I did a double-take. 
He seemed confused by my reaction. I met eyes with Francis and he strode 
to stand in front of me. He made kissing sounds. "My daughter would love 
to get her hands on you." That was beyond unexpected.
"I don't even know what that means." It was the first time I spoke.
"Oh, you're a guy! I thought you were a girl."
"That's a guy!" a few of them joined in. Now, the man who called me a 
slut did a double-take.

They kept asking me and my friend, in various ways, what gender we were 
(both of us being non-binary). Asking my name, then asking "A Jay or 
Jane" when I didn't answer.
"You're a funny-looking one," Francis said to me at some point. A lot of 
this was into the microphone so played out over their PA. He kept 
falling into monologuing. "Some people have called me a homophobe, a 
transphobe, a racist," he strode around the platform, without an 
audience around. "But I'm none of those things. My friend's son used to 
be a girl. He's a good lad. A happy lad." He paced back to me and my 
friend. "But he's honest about what he is.  That's what we're asking 
for: honesty."

Francis continued to swap between monologuing and insults. He focused on 
the trade unions. "Cancel your union membership," he called out to the 
square, more or less empty except for our two groups. "My son has 
cancelled his. This right here is what your fees pay for." "I'm not a 
bigot," he continued. "My daughter became a lesbian. I have a 
step-grandson who's half-Arabic. My daughter-in-law is from Thailand. 
I'm not a racist. But we are calling for no more illegals. No more 
terrorists. No more pedos predating on girls." The diversity of his 
family was a topic he kept returning to throughout the whole thing. The 
members of his family tree seemed to grow each time.

"You're a bunch of pedophile-protectors. All nonces," Pitts was yelling. 
Each time I looked behind me, more of us were gathered. A small forest 
of Stand Up to Racism placards grew. Beside me, another comrade arrived. 
When she drew the ire of Francis, he subjected her to horrendous abuse 
on his PA system, calling her a "nutcase" and referencing her personal 
mental health history extensively. To the average passer-by, surely this 
would clearly show him for what he is. It did highlight - as awful as it 
is - the possible benefit to antagonising fascists with our presence. As 
my friend beside me said, "they incriminate themselves." The facade drops.

The hight of the fascist rally

I can remember the last focused interaction Francis had with me. It went 
something like this. "I don't care what happens to me. I could die today 
for all I care. I spent four years unable to move. Unable to speak. 
After a stroke. I've been stabbed. I've been threatened. The police came 
to me only last week, to tell me my life is under threat. I'm unafraid." 
I watched him.
"I don't threaten," he stepped slowly back from me. "I don't make 
threats. I take action. And I know your face now." I made a curt nod. He 
stepped away from me to focus on someone else.

The Trades Council were setting up speakers on the steps to the left of 
me. Our rally began. The crowd had likely reached a hundred and a few 
more of my friends had joined. As the Trades Council organisers welcomed 
people from our PA, a siren noise began. Pitts stood right above, 
leaning between the cops, to play his megaphone over the speakers. 
Thankfully our speakers were powerful enough that we could hear, but the 
megaphone was annoying.

The next altercation began as they started their rally and speakers 
around 12:30. It became clear they were holding theirs from another side 
of the platform. We began moving round. This was when the police began 
getting aggressive. There was one particular police liaison officer who 
started shouting at me for being too close to him. I gestured towards 
the Trades Council steward beside me. "I'm with the others." "Don't 
speak back to me," he yelled, reddening. "This is not a conversation. I 
am telling you to move back." I stepped back and the steward moved in 
front of me.

As they started their rally, we moved our speakers to the edge of the 
frontline and started playing songs. Both them and the police were 
irritated by this, but the Trades Council stewards stepped in and 
pointed out they had been allowed by the cops to subject our rally to 
noise disruption. This continued for awhile, then all of a sudden there 
was a tussel over the fascist's banner. The fascists were screaming, 
cops ran at a group of protesters from ourside, who were dragging the 
banner away. In the end it was the police who grabbed the banner, and 
one of our protesters!

"Legal observer!" Many of us began shouting. I started filming the 
police as a particularly aggressive liaison officer shouted at the 
protesters, and someone from the Independent Legal Observers Network 
(ILON) tooko notes. Thankfully, my they ended up with an unofficial 
warning and weren't arrested. A member of SUTR noted to the liaison 
officer that they'd had placards and banners destroyed by the Far Right 
for years and they've never received this kind of police response.
After this, the fascists packed up and headed away, although once out of 
Queen Vic Square, one of them, Antonio Leeming, was arrested on the 
grounds of a racially aggravated public order offence.

Afterwards, one other person in the organiser group described this 
counter-protest as a partial success and I agree that describes it well. 
Turnout on both sides was lower than I expected, but we did notably 
outnumber them. During the height of their rally, they had perhaps 30-40 
in a crowd, whereas for most of the whole event there were only about a 
dozen of them. Meanwhile, there were around a hundred of us. I wish that 
we could have taken the platform, but we would have needed a higher 
number of people able to be on the frontline. We may have had the 
numbers, but many people were not prepared and ready to risk attacks 
from the fascists and the police.

The police response was unlike what I've experienced personally in Hull 
before. This change in behaviour has to be in reaction to the riot on 
3rd August. They were far more aggressive and heavily moderated our 
behaviour, whereas usually in Hull they let a lot more happen, short of 
physical altercation. They break apart fights, but - for example - they 
allow both sides to go for flags and banners of the other side. One 
friend who is experienced at protesting in London said their behaviour 
today was more like that of the Met

As always, we fight on. Hull will not be defined by the Far Right. We 
will continue to face them whenever they emerge to publicise themselves.
__________
This Saturday, October 26th, 'Tommy Robinson' is organising a large hate 
rally in London, and opposition is encouraged:

http://afed.org.uk/hull-clashes-with-fanatics-and-cops/
_________________________________________
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