London: Mass rally to demand release of Tommy Robinson

The difference between the mass demonstration against Trump was extensive and the political effects significantly more far-reaching, Swedish weekly Nya Tider reported from London.

Large numbers of campaign buses were hired on the day before to transport protesters to London before the big anti-Trump demonstration. On a lawn between Westminster Abby and the Parliament House, around 300 people, mostly different socialists and Marxists, had prepared a counter-demonstration against the “fascists” who were gathered less than two kilometres away at the rally for Tommy Robinson.

The anti-Trump endorsement was only a fraction of what they had hoped for, despite a dozen campaign camps that had been set up, hundreds of campaigners who shared information and calls from several speakers to attend the protest.

Mark Thomas. Behind him are hundreds of unused placards. Nya Tider

Their message reached 100 000 people who jointly praised the multitude of cultures and demonstrated their position against “racism” and “fascism”. But it was noticeable that a much larger collection of several thousand participants had been expected and also counted in, as hundreds of unused posters were found stacked along a fence.

A member of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), a Marxist party with Trotskyist (some asserted purely Leninist) revolutionary focus, and previously the largest party left of the Labour Party, Mark Thomas told the Nya Tider reporter that the “fascists” and “Nazis” – the Tommy Robinson protesters – should be silenced locally. “What you have to do, and as we did several times before, is to make sure to stop them locally. When trying to hold meetings or numbers, we look forward to gathering and blocking their premises, exerting pressure on the owners of the premises, and making politicians ban their public meetings.”

Thomas does not believe that these very obvious restrictive measures inhibit their freedom of expression. “They can still talk. But we make it so difficult for them that ordinary people can not understand the message,” says Thomas.

He also warned the reporter that a visible press card would make him a target at the Free Tommy rally and suggested that the journalist stay away. “They do not like the media. So be careful. You’ll probably do the best to stay on the edge of the demonstration, or maybe even better with us where you’re safe.”

At Trafalgar Square, the Nya Tider reporter discovered a completely different mood. “It’s like getting to another world where everything is the opposite,” he says. At the anti-Trump protest there were “tens of thousands, mostly female protesters, who occasionally brought noise in the form of screaming and blowing in trumpets”.

One Swedish flag spotted among the sea of English flags. Nya Tider

The real men had turned up at Trafalgar Square, estimated at around 70 percent of the crowd, with the vast majority of these looking strong and powerful, unlike what the reporter had seen the day before.

The atmosphere at the Free Tommy rally was upbeat and festive and much more energetic than the previous one. The warning given by the revolutionary Socialist Mark Thomas, “seemed increasingly ridiculous” the reporter noted. “I only met with happy faces,” he added.

A lone communist, a heavily overweight man wearing Che-Guevara t-shirt and carrying a Soviet flag, tried to provoke the Tommy supporters, but he was completely ignored. Nobody seemed to care about him.

A lone Communist walking unhindered in the Free Tommy crowd. Nya Tider

Since his arrest, Robinson has been moved to a prison where the majority of the prisoners, 71 percent, are Muslims and he is at high risk of being injured or murdered by them. Many of his supporters believe that the UK authorities want him dead. If Robinson is eliminated in this way, Theresa May’s government probably hope they would not be dirtying their own hands.

The day after Robinson was arrested, the first rally was held, which has been repeated and has been growing in size, even though on Saturday afternoon England had played their crucial match in the World Cup play-off.

An unflattering portrait of London Mayor Sadiq Khan. Nya Tider

Moreover, the Free Tommy rally was a well-organised and extensive arrangement. With a fenced stage scene, large speakers and a giant multi-meter video screen, the fast-growing crowd of listeners could all share the messages and speeches, while the anti-Trump demonstration had none of this.

Among the speakers were Jérôme Rivière from the French National Assembly, former Front National, who held a powerful speech pointing out that Islam is one of the biggest, if not the greatest, threat to Europe’s future ever. US Congressman Paul Gosar talked about the importance of fighting for freedom of speech and said that less countries needed the increasingly restrictive laws seen in Europe.

UKIP’s party leader Gerard Batten talked about the importance of engaging politically in order not only to ensure that Tommy Robinson is released, but that others will not be affected by the same fate in the future. Kent Ekeroth from Sweden compared the political correctness prevailing in Sweden with that in Britain.

Geert Wilders could not attend the rally, as FMW had reported earlier. He was denied protection from the security services and when he suggested bringing his own armed guards for his personal protection, he was denied this without justification by the British authorities. Wilders currently features on every Islamic death list.

When he spoke of the enormous threat he lives under and the obvious risk to his life, he noted that the British authorities was supposed to have taken care of his security detail, a common favour not denied to other threatened politicians.

A festive, energetic and mostly male crowd rallied in support of Robinson. Nya Tider

His touching speech was pre-recorded for the big screen, and welcomed with big applause.

The headlines of the peaceful mass rally for Robinson were anything but truthful: “Tommy Robinson’s supporter with bat.” In reality, leftist hacks chose not to include the pictures that showed that the man managed to break one of the Communists’ sticks and had tried to defend himself against some leftist attackers.

Only one UK newspaper, The Sun, chose to report truthfully about the incident, but at the same time it lied about the number of participants, putting it at only 3 000 – less than one third of the likely number of supporters present.

We managed to get an interview with one of the organisers, Raheem, Kassam.