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Anti-racists welcome EDL thug’s jail terms

By Luke James
January 9 2012

 

 

 

Anti-racist campaigners hailed news today that far-right English Defence League leader Stephen Lennon has been thrown in jail but warned Britain to keep up its fight against fascism.

 

Street thug Lennon, 30, was handed a 10-month term behind bars on Monday for entering the US illegally in September.

The court heard that loudmouth Lennon slipped into the US without permission after immigration officials at JFK airport foiled his attempt to gain entry to the country using a friend’s passport.

Anti-fascist campaign groups said Mr Lennon’s sentence hammered the final nail into the EDL’s coffin but warned new groups could emerge.

Hope Not Hate spokesman Matthew Collins told the Star: “The EDL has been in terminal decline, partly because it grew so large and so quickly and inevitably it imploded.

“We’re not going to see another group like the EDL. It’s not going to be like the BNP replacing the National Front.

But he said: “Where there was a national network in the EDL, we now have tighter groups who have slightly more local structures.”

And Unite Against Fascism national officer Kevin Ovenden warned against complacency as there was no guarantee that something as bad won’t emerge from its ruins.

“In our view the year 2013 will be crucial in the battle against fascism, the far-right, racism and xenophobia.

“How the far-right reorganise themselves is in part down to them but the space we allow them to do that is entirely down to us.”

Originally published by Hope not Hate

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