The news that the far right ‘English Defence League’ plan to demonstrate in Preston fills me with foreboding.

This group has held protests up and down the country, and everywhere they go, they bring violence and division.

Many of their members are convicted soccer hooligans, and they seem to enjoy nothing more than provoking trouble, whether it is with Asians, Anti-Fascists or the police.

With the continuing disintegration of the BNP, the EDL now see themselves as the spearhead of the far right in Britain.

The group has timed their visit to coincide with a Preston match Vs Milwall.

Local Community and Trade Union leaders have rightly warned people not to let themselves rise to this provocation by reacting violently. We need to show demonstratively that we all stand together, whichever community we come from, to reject hooliganism, racism and violence.

The EDL try to pin the blame for the problems our town faces, of poverty, bad housing, unemployment, an appalling lack of opportunities for our young people, onto the Asian community. They’re trying to distract us from the reality that these problems have been caused by millionaire financiers and a crazy economic system that is ever widening the gap between the rich and the rest of us. They want to see us divided and fighting among ourselves, instead of uniting to build a socialist alternative to the barbarism their system creates.

In opposing the EDL march, we will need to build and strengthen ground level bonds between our communities, bonds which are stronger and longer lasting than the racist ranting of the EDL.

Reposted with thanks from River’s Edge