ARN rally in belfast

by fo 2 Sun Oct 31, 2004 23:58

A job well done.

Much more organising needs to be done to keep anti-f activity safe. These scum like to attack lone victims in the middle of the night but if they feel they might have the chance to pick off people at big events they will try their luck.

Again well done.

by timeshavechanged Mon Nov 01, 2004 01:40

"i also had to protect the Sein fein contigent which was directly infront of us"
The 'lads' are not what they used to be! Or are you just trying to wind Barry up?

Also some creature stands in the crowd and yells 'long live fascism' and NOBODY reacts? I would love to see him try that in O'Connell Street.

by ARN Mon Nov 01, 2004 13:05

A good day
Dear friends over 2500 people attended the ARN rally against racism and for Diversity on Saturday.
Dear friends over 2500 people attended the ARN rally against racism and for Diversity on Saturday.

A lively march came down from South Belfast which met up with a larger feeder march that came down from West Belfast. The WARN {West Against Racism Network} was lead by 15 foot flags and streamers with people carrying various banners and Placards. Loud, lively and colourful it then together marched around to the Art College to join up at the main meeting point.

The march itself stretched from Belfast City hall down Royal Avenue and beyond and putting aside the 10 minute delay at the front it took almost an hour for all to come in from the short walk.

Banners from Trade unions - trade union branches and community organisations joined human rights banners and home made, and solidarity banners, amongst others. The atmosphere although fun, loud, lively and colourful was at the same time sending out a strong message against Racism.

Many thanks to the activists who put in the work on the ground to bring this about, a collective team work approach by ARN activists ensured a good day, a positive result, and seeing the largest such Anti Racism rally to date. Therefore not only was a clear message {s} sent out but also many joined the ARN.

Local Networks will be meeting again shortly and pictures and a video shall go up on the site. If persons have any pictures that they wish to go up send them across to antiracism_ni@hotmail.com All the Best, D

by Wee Sammy Tue Nov 02, 2004 02:08

lol- it says a lot about the type of people the ARN are recruiting when they say they want to dive in to a crowd and beat people up.
Sounds like the typical behaviour of fascists if you ask me :O)-So tell me is anti-fascism the new fascism??
Has the thought not crossed your humourless little minds(obviously completely lacking any sense of irony) that the bloke in the crowd was just winding youse all up.
I can just picture some nutter goose stepping up royal avenue in full ss regalia giving nazi salutes -but then would that be any more objectionable than the nutters I meet every saturday in life in the city centre enthusiastically promoting their own brand of totalitarianism whether its the Socialist Party,the World Socialist Party,The Socialist Workers or whatever -and most of them are probably in the ARN as well.
I fully agree that attacking people because of their race ,skin colour or whatever is unacceptable behaviour in a civilised society and should not be tolerated,but neither should vigilantism or mob rule of any sort.
I really don't think that these marches will do anything to stop racially motivated attacks.The only thing that can stop them is police action to bring the perpetrators to justice.

by . Tue Nov 02, 2004 09:13

What city centre are you in every Saturday when you meet the World Socialist party????

by boulcolonialboy - Organise! (personal capacity) Tue Nov 02, 2004 11:05

While a 'lone faceless fascist' shouting 'long live fascism' is something that would understandably enrage anyone taking part in the march who heard it and could obviously intimidate the marchers cleosugar mentions.

There may also have been some abuse at the junction of North Street but lets be clear the march was not set upon by fascists by any stretch of the imagination. There may only have been four stewards on the smaller feeder march from south Belfast but I saw more than four stewards on the main march. But the origonal report seems to make the mistake of seeing a need for stewards to police and 'protect' the rest of the march. The march was unlikely to be attacked due to the numbers taking part, even if it had have been considerably smaller this would still have been true. Many of the marchers would be extremely patronised by your heroic attempts to protect them which you seem to think can only be done by stewards - a bit of a false division there.

"My first instinct was to dive into where the fascist was and beat the shit out of him, but I had to stay with the disabled marchers to protect them from attack and let the fascists attack first, i also had to protect the Sein fein contigent which was directly infront of us, it took all my will power to hold myself back as I do jujitsu and taekwondo."

Come on, one fascist turns into attacking fascists (plural) in the space of a sentence - a bit of melodrama here. Protecting the Sinn Fein contingent directly in front of you may make it seem that your section had not been left very far behind at all and is a little short of ridiculous. Were Sinn Fein aware of your protection of them? Would it not have been more likely that they and others would have protected your section of the march had there been a real threat of attack from fascists - as many other marchers would have undoubtedly done whether the wore dayglo bibs or not (stewards were of course wearing these type of bibs).

Also you say that you met up with the West Belfast feeder parade of a couple of thousand, the West Belfast feeder parade made it way to the Art College prior to the start of the main parade. There were some very impressive red West Against Racism Network flags at the head of this group (all very Maoist looking actually) and there was an impressive contingent of a couple of hundred people on it. The couple of thousand I'd guess was closer to the size of the overall march (put at 2500) that set off from the Art College to the City Hall with the West Belfast contingent making up a part of it.

Yeah march organisers should have provided better means of communication for stewards if only so people were aware of what was going on or potentially going on along the length of the march.

jason

by boulcolonialboy - Organise! (personal capacity) Tue Nov 02, 2004 11:13

Some of the comments I've made relate to a longer version of this report posted to the class war anti-fascism forum on the enrager anarchist forum. This is where the author is listed as cleosugar and were the couple of thousand strong west Belfast feeder march are actually mentioned. Just thought I'd clear up any potential confusion.
The bit about even one fascist heckler beingone too many isn't on the other version and while undoubtedly true does this nutter really warrant the disruption to the march that running off to give him a kicking would have caused. Ya wanna take on fascists and thats great I'm not sure that in these circumstances that it would have been the best occassion for doing this. Ye probably made the right decision in holding back. Cameras to take photos of these fuckers would have been a good idea however.

jason

jason

by Davy Carlin - Ind Socialist Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:40 carlindavid at hotmail dot com

Four Filipino nurses have left their home after it was attacked in West Belfast's Fall's Road on Sunday night. A local community response has been organised and the local WARN group are calling on supporters to show solidarity and support and to attend a protest tonight. The protests shall take place at Violet Street / Springfield Rd tonight at 7.30pm.

As Jason had said the West Belfast feeder parade was colourful and had build up a good contingent, with various local community banners and activists in attendance. Many also had come down from the West and had joined up with us at Castle Street and other entrances as we arrived in town, {as they had missed the start of the feeder march}. Such visual support for WARN's call for a feeder march from within the local community, we call also for tonight, as so to stand shoulder to shoulder with the local community at this time.

by Caz Tue Nov 02, 2004 13:09

Hang on, 25 from Shaftesbury Square but 2000 from West Belfast? A typo surely?

by Typo Tue Nov 02, 2004 13:59

If 25 came from Shaftesbury square, which has not been disputed. Then when it joined with the West Belfast march and arrived at the Art College it had a couple of hundred on it. It is a typo. They probably meant 200 not 2000

by Casius - Black Liberation Movement Tue Nov 02, 2004 17:01

Having been in this part of the world for a few months, I hail from Florida..I can say that the march on Saturday in Belfast was surprising..

where were the people of colour ?

was this just another march to get recruits for Trotskyite organisations or to give white liberals something to be proud of...

black men and women you are behind enemy lines here in Europe..make yourself seen and heard.

by rooster Wed Nov 03, 2004 13:35

A South Belfast bar was at the centre of a race row today after admitting that staff dressed in Ku Klux Klan robes during a Halloween fancy dress party.

Doormen at Vaughan's bar and grill on the Lisburn Road donned the sinister outfits just hours after 1,500 people took to the streets of Belfast to protest against racist attacks in Belfast.

One irate father told today how he refused to allow his daughter to go into the bar after seeing bouncers dressed in white cloaks and hoods checking ID on the doors.

However, the bar has defended the bouncers' outfits as "just a bit of fun" and said they had not received a single complaint on the night.

One Belfast father, who did not want to be named, said: "My daughter wanted to go to Vaughan's on Saturday night so I drove her up to the door.

"When I got there I saw that all the doormen were dressed in white robes and pointy hats with KKK written on the chest.

"They were stopping people at the door and checking ID.

"I could not believe what I was seeing, it was absolutely abhorrent. I refused to let my daughter go into the bar because it just was not right.

"I thought it was unbelievable in the current climate of racist attacks in south Belfast and the fact that the anti-racist march was in the city centre on the same day."

Vaughan's is near the loyalist Village area which has seen a concentration of racist incidents reported in the last year.

Vaughan's general manager Jacqui Keenan said: "We did not mean to offend anyone and we had no complaints on the night.

"We had people dressed up as Ian Paisley, Adolf Hitler, German soldiers, nuns and bishops - it was just meant to be a bit of fun.

"The doormen only wore the hooded tops for the first part of the night and then they took them off because it was too hot.

"We have people of all races who come here and everyone who was here on Saturday night had a great time and no-one was offended."

But Davy Carlin, of the Anti-Racism Network, said: "This has huge connotations of overt racism. I think it was insensitive to wear such outfits.

"I don't think white supremacy should be encouraged by any business. You can't walk into most bars wearing football strips and yet here's someone at the door in KKK attire."

by Archivist Wed Nov 03, 2004 15:41

What paper is that report from, if you could let me know, thanks.

by crowing rooster Wed Nov 03, 2004 23:44

the Irish News I believe