The Daily Star recently upped its campaign of bigotry and race-hate by giving support to the fascist English Defence League (EDL), writes Dan Edwards.
In a series of uncritical articles, Daily Star declared that the EDL was fighting for our “brave hero’s” [their spelling not ours], that it’s not racist or fascist, and that it truly understands “working-class” issues.
The right-wing rag also attempted to portray the EDL’s leader Tommy Robinson as a sympathetic and embattled hero, crusading for English values against the threat of Islamist attack. In a poll published alongside these articles, it was claimed that 98% of Daily Star’s readership supported the EDL.
The paper has been forced to climbdown. Richard “Dirty” Desmond, the paper’s owner, has publicly distanced himself from the articles, and an article was soon published that condemned the EDL as “far-right extremists” taking advantage of the British peoples’ love for their soldiers.
But the constant lies of the right-wing press about mansion-dwelling asylum seekers and jihadists-under-the-bed swells the ranks of the fascists. BNP boss Nick Griffin once said that the best recruiting tools he had were “the Sun, the Daily Mail and the Daily Express”, and it seems that Robinson is now benefiting from this as well.
During a time of economic crisis, with growing unemployment and massive public sector cuts, the bosses see fascists as capable of dividing workers and confronting on the streets those fighting back.
The EDL has already promised to “defend national monuments” should another big student demo march through London, and have published articles filled with hatred towards striking British Airways workers, progressive groups, and “reds”.
If fascism is moving into the mainstream of politics, it is because the bosses are allowing it to. It is clear that the capitalists are expecting and preparing for a major class confrontation. It’s about time our side got ready as well.
