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Monday 3 September 2012

"They shall not pass." History repeating: why I am actually proud to be English today



"The creepy English Defence League [EDL] took their campaign to defend our land from the menace of creeping Islamification by getting drunk and shouting at people in Walthamstow this weekend." - Vice, 3rd September 2012

On Saturday, about 300 EDL members attempted to protest the presence of Islam in the UK in Walthamstow, East London, and this happened:


Even this little chap wasn't cool with their racism


Local residents barred the EDL's path, chanting "they shall not pass!" and pelting them with rubbish and bricks.

"They shall not pass" is not a reference to Lord of the Rings but rather to the Battle of Cable Street, East London, 1936, apparently one of the biggest disturbances of the peace in English history in the 20th century, at which a march of 7000 British Union of Fascists members (the "Blackshirts"), led by Oswald Mosely (who later left Britain, calling it a "dung heap"- erm, way to be a nationalist) met with over a quarter of a million anti-fascist London residents.

I like to imagine that they all had waxed moustaches and tweed sock suspenders and said things like, "this dashed racial prejudice is simply not on, you chaps!" while throwing empty ginger beer bottles.


Fascism was seen as "the enemy of the people abroad and at home" and the Blackshirts were pelted with rocks and chair legs by the men blocking their path, and from above with houshold rubbish and the contents of chamber pots by the women and children. The Holocaust hadn't happened yet; the concept of political correctness was not current; the residents protested the demo because they all got on reasonably peacefully with each other, most of the time, the English, Irish and Jewish residents, and didn't want that ruined by a bunch of thugs. Being anti-racist and pro-multiculturalism is not new.


76 years later and this particularly proud English tradition is still being kept alive.

Peace,

Anita xxx

PS: I will get back to posting pictures of latex and boobies soon. I just wanted to share this