Pride in Bristol! EDL National Mobilisation Fails as Bristol Says No to Racism

bristol | protests | feature Saturday July 14, 2012 15:42 by imcvol

The much hyped EDL mobilisation in Bristol today resulted in one of the lowest turns outs to an EDL demo yet as around 200-300 EDL trickled into the city. By contrast around 2000+ counter protesters were out and about in the city. The police had sought to move all of the counter protesters to Castle Park, but most ignored the call either gathering at Temple Meads or the Fountains.

The EDLs march into the city was interrupted by resistance constantly from the first moment as huge numbers of police were deployed to separate the groups. Around 100-200 people met the EDL at the station and blocked coaches from arriving while 1000+ gathered at the fountains to show their opposition to the group. Despite the EDL claiming they are only protesting 'radical Islam' the group has been dogged by members overt racism and violent behaviour. This was shown today as the first arrest by police was an EDL member for racially aggravated public order offence. After much resistance the official EDL march of around 250+ got moving at around 1.30pm.

By contrast around 2000 Antifascist protesters marched from the Fountains to Castle Park. In the shadow of this, the Bristol Gay pride event went ahead as planned and was a success with College Green rammed with a multicoloured Mardi Gras vibe. The EDL finally arrived at the pen the police had constructed in Queens Square around 2.30pm and the small numbers meant only around 15% of the allotted space was needed.  After a couple of speeches and tussles the small EDL crowd were marched off to board thier buses and leave Bristol around 3pm.

The police had to push back a determined crowd of antifascist protesters to clear a route to escort the EDL to Bristol Temple Meads. To achieve this a number of charges including by horses were used and a number of scuffles broke out. The EDL were then slowly escorted back to Temple Meads in a ring of police. The EDL also briefly tussled with police twice trying to breakout but were kept in the cordon. Along the whole route the EDL group was subject to abuse from Bristolians who peppered the route in groups intent on telling the EDL what they thought of them. Around 4.30 this larger group was shepherded into Temple Meads via the pedestrian route, still being subject to abuse from locals. A second smaller group of local EDL and those heading to buses were escorted past the Arnolfini and over the bridge, again while a determined crowd of antifascists hurled abuse. By 5pm the large groups were all gone and the main part of the day was over.

The EDL got a poor reception in Brighton recently and needed a strong showing in Bristol to demonstrate the support is still there. However the poor turn-out in Bristol will have dented their confidence in the movements ability to mobilise large numbers in the future.

| EDL Nazi Salutes | EDL push against police line @ Bristol demo (blip.tv) | Timeline of Events | Images from the Day One (flickr), Two | Pride in Bristol! EDL National Mobilisation Fails as Bristol Says No to Racism | Timelapse of EDL marching (vimeo) |