It has been announced by a group called the National Defence League (NDL) that they will be holding a demonstration today at 5pm at George Square. They talk about how they want to stand up against the apparent “division and anarchy” of the extreme left, how they want to protect the war memorial from vandals.
Do not be mistaken- It is no coincidence that this demo by the NDL is being held at 5, just one hour before a demonstration by the No Evictions Campaign is due to take place at George Square. This demonstration by the No Evictions Campaign is organised and led by those asylum seekers so cruelly forced into unsafe hotel accommodation by Mears, the company currently holding the Home Office’s contract for housing asylum seekers. In these hotels, the asylum seekers have been faced with the withdrawal of their financial support, with cramped living spaces that make social distancing impossible, and with undercooked, mouldy food. It was amid these squalid conditions that Adnan Olbeh, a young man seeking refuge from Syria, died on the 5th of May.
It is no surprise, then, that 20 asylum seekers at the Ibis Hotel, McLays Guest House and Park Inn have begun refusing food in protest of their barbarous treatment by Mears. And it is for the memory of Adnan Olbeh, and for the safety of everyone trapped in the hotels, that the asylum seekers and their allies in the No Evictions Campaign are putting on the demonstration at 6pm, demanding:
- An Immediate change to food in the hotel
- The reinstatement of weekly financial support
- The ending of hotel detention and the provision of safe accommodation
So what are the NDL protecting the Cenotaph from? The No Evictions demo has nothing to do with statues or monuments, and it will be a peaceful demonstration. The truth is this: For all the bravado and pious whinging about “our national history” and the statues, the NDL and other organisations like it, the DFLA and the EDL, only care about power- Their power to force the popular movements of downtrodden working class people from the public squares and the streets.
How could it be otherwise, when they intend to hold the square against a group of asylum seekers and their friends? If the NDL succeed in their aims today, all they will have done is defend the profits and the image of Mears Group, a huge private company with a revenue in the hundreds of millions, from the demands of asylum seekers desperate to simply be treated like human beings. Here we see the NDL, these glorious defenders of the British nation, for what they really are- The obedient attack dogs, unwitting or not, for capitalist robbers and murderers!
We at Interregnum call for our readers to make it down to the No Evictions Campaign demonstration if you can. The asylum seekers need all the support they can get. All conscious friends of the people must know that the offensive by the NDL and all the other henchmen of the bosses will not stop with asylum seekers. What next- Independence demonstrations, workers’ rallies, picket lines? Stand together now, for the self-defence of the working class! For Adnan Olbeh!
No Evictions Campaign demonstration: https://www.facebook.com/events/273459067074618/
Author: James Reed
Interregnum 
4 thoughts on “Don’t be fooled: The Statue Defenders are doing the bosses’ work”
Comments are closed.