Walthamstow: 3.55pm
The racist English Defence League suffered political humiliation in Walthamstow today as their bedraggled demonstration of under 100 was massively outnumbered by thousands of anti-fascist demonstrators. The size of the anti-fascist march, which united local unions, community groups and anti-fascist activists from across London, forced the re-routing of the march round deserted backstreets to finally get to the town hall. EDL leaders had hoped that their demonstration would occupy the central shopping areas in and around Hoe Street; instead these were taken over by the anti-fascist and local community demonstrators. As the anti-EDL demonstrators chanted: "Whose streets? - our streets!". As this is posted police are still holding back anti-fascists from a direct confrontation with the EDL mini-march.
After the cut: pictures of the demo and the EDL tent at Walthamstow town hall.
It's true that we forced the EDL to reroute their march. But the "deserted back streets" were only deserted because people were intimidated indoors. Families enjoying the garden sun were shocked to find drunken fascist hordes roaming their streets, with no prior warning. Lesson for the future: we must prevent the police ordering or enabling such rerouting.
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