At the end of September, they had stood with the BNP at a demonstration outside the filming of Question Time after telling their members: “Liverpool City Centre will be swarming with UAF, LiverAF and Trade Unionists tonight. Get Involved and Enjoy. On Thursday as 100+ people demonstrated against the City Council’s plans to cut another £50 million in jobs, welfare and public services, two EDL came along to heckle. The following day they announced that they were “patrolling for leftys” [sic] and soon found some “protesting outside the LMH building on Lime St/London Road.” These were workers who had been laid off by the council after an outsourced company went bust and had been holding regular demonstrations since the end of August.

Clearly, any working class person standing up for a cause has now become fair game for Liverpool EDL. No matter where they are from or what they are protesting, they are “lefties” and it is their duty – as they put it yesterday – to “do the cunts.”

This all fits in with the agenda announced back in March by “Snowy” – a member of the EDL splinter group, the Infidels – whereby the fascists would “put all our efforts into opposing everything [left-wingers] do regardless of the issue at hand.” As I noted at the time, it was clear that “the fascists have thrown their lot in against organised workers,” and Liverpool EDL have been more than willing to follow that example. They are now promising to put all their energy into counter demos and “run the streets like a mob.”

The EDL, and their Liverpool Division most explicitly, are enemies of the working class. This fact was already apparent to many, but an open declaration of war against organised workers willing to stand up for their interests only underlines this fact. By taking such a stance, they have put themselves firmly on the same side as the bosses – as fascists so often do at times of heightened class conflict.

This point renders the need for working class unity against fascism more urgent. Fighting the far-right is not a specialised task to be outsourced to specific groups, but a job for all of us who do not wish to be divided by bigotry and violence. When the BNP, the EDL, or any other fascists are on the streets, working class people should be out there ready to stand up against them. This means countering their propaganda and making our voices louder than theirs. But it also means being prepared to physically resist them when they attack us or invade our communities.

¡No Pasarán!