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EDL demo Leeds October 31st

Bit of a relief all round MC5, hopefully they'll run out of steam at some point.

The asian bloke could well have been Indian. i've seen some muppets at least claiming to be Indian slagging off muslims on Youtube comments and stuff. Talk about naive.
 
Just got back to my flat and saw both demos (tho mainly the UAF one). Just now on my way back there seemed to have been some disorder under the tunnels of the train station between the police and some stragglers from the EDL (tho I was able to walk under them and they seem cleared). A few empty coaches were able to pass the opposite way (which has been blocked off all day to vehicles and now just at the city end of the £4.8m "Light" tunnel to pedestrians as well so looks like they've got the EDL somewhere ready to bus them off).

The two demos seemed fairly equal in numbers, maybe 300 - 400 each? Neither demo was particularly large in size. Had a bit of a chuckle at the UAF demo as some guy shouted some pro-Nazi things that only the police heard. The guy tried to get into the UAF demo so the police dragged him away at which point the UAF lot decided to take notice and surrounded the police with their photographers at their "heavy handed" approach and chanted "shame on you" to the police. Shortly after three or four skin heads did the same, shouted some Nazi stuff, but this time the UAF lot did hear them and charged at them! Half the demo seemed to have gotten onto the Headrow as instead of putting the skin heads in a police van they just pushed them a bit down the street so not out of harms way. The police had to form a line and push all the UAF back into the square. Throughout the megaphone man was telling everybody the EDL were planning to come to the UAF demo for a fight and they should be ready (not sure where he got his info from cos it was not true). After quite a while of standing around doing not much, the UAF had a vote to decide whether they should "take back" City Square because Leeds is "their" city apparently (not sure how many of them were actually from Leeds but hey ho). I did think to myself that they're only saying that now cos they've had word that City Square was empty and then he came on the megaphone and said they'd agreed with the police they can march to City Square once it's been cleared! No idea if they ended up marching cos I left but the police had them pegged in despite a charge from the back by not-so-UAF-looking youths who pushed all the other people into the police but that lasted about 5 seconds.

All in all the UAF demo seemed to have passed off very peacefully but like I said, I left before they attempted to march so not sure if they had been given permission, but if not, I expect there will have been some violence directed towards the police if they tried to stop them.

When I first went into Leeds earlier to go to the bookies the EDL were just arriving and a small group (maybe 20) had managed to get down Boar Lane to just outside Yates where they were blocked off by the police and were chanting their usual bollocks. Seemed like complete thugs (as did the rest I saw in City Square later on).

I might pop back out later on and see if the UAF were able to get to City Square but hopefully if they do they'll see it as a victory and disperse before 5pm when the Leeds match finishes because I suspect a large portion of the EDL demo left about 2:30 to go to the match but it gets very busy round the train station after Leeds matches and if the UAF are still around it will get very ugly in that area
 
CyberRose said:
Just got back to my flat and saw both demos (tho mainly the UAF one). Just now on my way back there seemed to have been some disorder under the tunnels of the train station between the police and some stragglers from the EDL (tho I was able to walk under them and they seem cleared). A few empty coaches were able to pass the opposite way (which has been blocked off all day to vehicles and now just at the city end of the £4.8m "Light" tunnel to pedestrians as well so looks like they've got the EDL somewhere ready to bus them off).

The two demos seemed fairly equal in numbers, maybe 300 - 400 each? Neither demo was particularly large in size. Had a bit of a chuckle at the UAF demo as some guy shouted some pro-Nazi things that only the police heard. The guy tried to get into the UAF demo so the police dragged him away at which point the UAF lot decided to take notice and surrounded the police with their photographers at their "heavy handed" approach and chanted "shame on you" to the police. Shortly after three or four skin heads did the same, shouted some Nazi stuff, but this time the UAF lot did hear them and charged at them! Half the demo seemed to have gotten onto the Headrow as instead of putting the skin heads in a police van they just pushed them a bit down the street so not out of harms way. The police had to form a line and push all the UAF back into the square. Throughout the megaphone man was telling everybody the EDL were planning to come to the UAF demo for a fight and they should be ready (not sure where he got his info from cos it was not true). After quite a while of standing around doing not much, the UAF had a vote to decide whether they should "take back" City Square because Leeds is "their" city apparently (not sure how many of them were actually from Leeds but hey ho). I did think to myself that they're only saying that now cos they've had word that City Square was empty and then he came on the megaphone and said they'd agreed with the police they can march to City Square once it's been cleared! No idea if they ended up marching cos I left but the police had them pegged in despite a charge from the back by not-so-UAF-looking youths who pushed all the other people into the police but that lasted about 5 seconds.

All in all the UAF demo seemed to have passed off very peacefully but like I said, I left before they attempted to march so not sure if they had been given permission, but if not, I expect there will have been some violence directed towards the police if they tried to stop them.

When I first went into Leeds earlier to go to the bookies the EDL were just arriving and a small group (maybe 20) had managed to get down Boar Lane to just outside Yates where they were blocked off by the police and were chanting their usual bollocks. Seemed like complete thugs (as did the rest I saw in City Square later on).

I might pop back out later on and see if the UAF were able to get to City Square but hopefully if they do they'll see it as a victory and disperse before 5pm when the Leeds match finishes because I suspect a large portion of the EDL demo left about 2:30 to go to the match but it gets very busy round the train station after Leeds matches and if the UAF are still around it will get very ugly in that area
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Reside in one of Leeds's yuppie flats do we?

I noticed a few individual EDL supporters by the main UAF rally. Let's face it. they weren't there to shake hands and meet and greet people from UAF were they? It should be noted too that I saw a few anti-fascist skinheads amongst the UAF.

The breakaway, mainly revo youth, anarchists and black and asian local youth marched around the block and came back to outside the Art Gallery. UAF organisers were trying to persuade people not to break from the main rally. City Square had not emptied of the EDL at this time.
 
I didn't see any breakaway when the UAF had decided they wanted to march to City Square. When I left the UAF were still pegged in by the police and when I got to City Square (bout 2/3 mins later) it was completely empty.

However, when the four guys who shouted fascist things got charged by the UAF the demo did seem smaller afterwards so it's possible some broke away then (the UAF seemed to split into two due to the buses on the Headrow and a group had formed near the top of Park Row - they might not have made it back to the main rally?)

And yes, I live in a yuppie flat at the mo (tho to cut a long story short I didn't have much by way of choice and would have preferred not to as it's a bit too expensive and as convenient as the city is, it's not really me. Hopefully I'll be moving into one of the burbs after next summer but not sure where, can you think of anywhere nice in Leeds?! :D)
 
taffboy gwyrdd said:
Bit of a relief all round MC5, hopefully they'll run out of steam at some point.

The asian bloke could well have been Indian. i've seen some muppets at least claiming to be Indian slagging off muslims on Youtube comments and stuff. Talk about naive.
Click to expand...

There has also been sites by muslims like SIKH SLAGS which you probably dont know about...That caused a lot of anger among Sikhs and Hindus who hate the way some muslim men look at, talk about and treat women.
 
tbaldwin said:
There has also been sites by muslims like SIKH SLAGS which you probably dont know about...That caused a lot of anger among Sikhs and Hindus who hate the way some muslim men look at, talk about and treat women.
Click to expand...

Having worked in hostels where there were a significant number of women fleeing violence from the men they knew in their lives, I can say that it's not only 'some Muslim men' who treat women in such a way.
 
Didn't see anything except about ten million police cashing in on the overtime. Not that I was looking. Couldn't understood all the people stood around watching, nothing, basically.
 
MC5 said:
Having worked in hostels where there were a significant number of women fleeing violence from the men they knew in their lives, I can say that it's not only 'some Muslim men' who treat women in such a way.
Click to expand...

Who said it was?
 
MC5 said:
Having worked in hostels where there were a significant number of women fleeing violence from the men they knew in their lives, I can say that it's not only 'some Muslim men' who treat women in such a way.
Click to expand...

True. But i think there is a particular problem with some muslim men. And there is also an ongoing problem due to some muslim men looking down at Hindu and Sikh women as slags etc.
 
_angel_ said:
Didn't see anything except about ten million police cashing in on the overtime.
Click to expand...
That's our council tax at work! (And obviously making tunnels slightly less dark than they were before and bizarrely putting some speakers in playing weird noises, not even music!)
 
CyberRose said:
I didn't see any breakaway when the UAF had decided they wanted to march to City Square. When I left the UAF were still pegged in by the police and when I got to City Square (bout 2/3 mins later) it was completely empty.

However, when the four guys who shouted fascist things got charged by the UAF the demo did seem smaller afterwards so it's possible some broke away then (the UAF seemed to split into two due to the buses on the Headrow and a group had formed near the top of Park Row - they might not have made it back to the main rally?)

And yes, I live in a yuppie flat at the mo (tho to cut a long story short I didn't have much by way of choice and would have preferred not to as it's a bit too expensive and as convenient as the city is, it's not really me. Hopefully I'll be moving into one of the burbs after next summer but not sure where, can you think of anywhere nice in Leeds?! :D)
Click to expand...

Yep, there are lots of nice places in Leeds. I can tell you weren't born in the City, as you would know them. Leeds University student I would guess? Up here slumming it?

Looks as though you're referring to an earlier event in the demo. When there was an attempt to march. This was stopped by police near Park Row. The EDL hadn't arrived at this point.

There was a further attempt later however, which spooked the police and the organisers. This breakaway got down to Wellington Street. Police horses were used to disperse those who tried to get to City Square.
 
MC5 said:
Yep, there are lots of nice places in Leeds. I can tell you weren't born in the City, as you would know them. Leeds University student I would guess? Up here slumming it?
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No I'm not from Leeds (and if you've ever looked into the sports forum it's pretty obvious where I'm from!). I came up here bout 5 years ago to do an MA (and stayed ever since).

Looks as though you're referring to an earlier event in the demo. When there was an attempt to march. This was stopped by police near Park Row. The EDL hadn't arrived at this point.

There was a further attempt later however, which spooked the police and the organisers. This breakaway got down to Wellington Street. Police horses were used to disperse those who tried to get to City Square.
Click to expand...
I got to where the UAF demo was at just before 2pm I think? I left about an hour later around 3pm. The guy on the megaphone announced there was going to be a vote on whether or not to march down to City Square to "take it back" (what is it a football stand or summat?!). This was maybe around 2:30/2:45 ish? Whatever time things happened I walked by City Square around 3pm and it was completely of EDL (think they'd been dispersed ready to be picked up by coaches?)
 
MC5 said:
Explains the condescending posting style. :D
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Oh and while you're looking down your nose at people who went to uni, don't forget that a large portion of that UAF demo today were also students (which is true for all leftist organisations)
 
I spent most of the afternoon in City Square taking photos. The EDL were kettled for a good 2 hours with people being allowed in, but not back out again. Plenty of police stopping them from leaving and plenty more stood around watching along with more EDL supporters who were reluctant to go inside the kettle and plenty of onlookers.

Then after a couple of hours they began to let them out in groups of 5 or 10. This went ok, until a few decided to try and break police lines and there was a bit of a crush and the metal fencing fell over and a few people ended up on the floor. None injured from what i could see.

I was harassed and threatened several times by EDF supporters for taking photographs of them. I asked one guy if he wanted a photo of me but he couldn't seem to get his camera phone working :)

Some of them who had been let out formed back together and the coppers escorted them as they made a short march before being escorted back up the street to the train station, which was when i left. I too saw an Indian guy who had joined with the EDF, most odd...
 
few of us went up from sheffield. fucking dull day to be honest, uaf promoting liberal councillor, largely platitudinous speeches, so many coppers (and allies amongst the stewards) there wasn't a chance on hell of getting anywhere near city square. had the whole demo left when the large groujp of us did, there might just have been a chance of getting through (tho even that would be doubtful) but uaf were more interested in 'defending' a square that was never under attack. weyman bennett must either be paid by the cops or the most gullible man on the planet, as he seemed to keep repeating whatever the cops told him without any hint of recognition that it was bullshit. in the end, he admitted that there would be no edl left in city square by the time the uaf marched down (if they ever did), but they'd go and 'reclaim' it anyway.
 
belboid said:
had the whole demo left when the large groujp of us did, there might just have been a chance of getting through
Click to expand...
That's just crazy! There's no way any sizeable groups would have got down Park Row. It's a big long street full of coppers and members of the public going shopping. All you would have achieved is causing a massive fight with the police and putting the public at an enormous risk. You wouldn't have been "protecting" anybody because as far as I'm aware the police did a good job of containing the EDL in City Square. And even if you had managed to get past two police lines and confronted the EDL, what then? What's a bunch of students gonna do against what appeared to be some of the most violent football hooligans from around the country? You'd be putting yourself at an unnecessary risk never mind the public!

The police get paid to protect the public, let them do it, don't make the situation worse for the people you claim to be protecting...
 
I guess there were around 1,000 people at the counter protest at around 12:30pm ( the police say 1,500 - http://www.westyorkshire.police.uk/section-item.asp?sid=12&iid=8669) some got trapped on the outside then the police move in, and then after a put of pushing and shoving they got moved into the fenced off area. A few EDL were hanging around outside the protest, and one got a bit too close for his own good.

After the speeches a breakaway group of maybe 350 anarchists, revolution, asian youth and others made it out the square, and made it down to wellington street way. The police move in to close them in and a grouping managed to link arms and push back one police line, before batons came out, and people were driven back by horses. I didn't see any batons being used, just people getting shoved back, but I did see one protestor injured lying on the floor around this time.

The breakaway group then made it back the square, and after a few more speeches nothing really happened. People started to drift away and there were probably around 500 left around 3pm. UAF were calling on everyone to stay in the square, throughout the day, but eventually they had a vote on whether to march, everyone wanted to, so they said ok well we will in a bit. Then UAF kept trying to stall everyone from marching, saying they had to move busses out of the street etc. Not wanting to attempt to push their way, but rather waiting for the police to let them (which they were never going to do). They got their banner ready to go and when everyone tried to set off UAF stewards were shouting next to the police telling everyone to move back, again people tried to push their way out but failed.

It was obvious UAF were waiting till the EDL had gone before ‘reclaiming’ an empty city square. All the time they said they wanted everyone to stay in the square for safety in numbers, but their lack of leadership and desire to attempt to march meant people just started drifting off on their own in small groups.
 
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