March 23, Edinburgh – Resist the fascist SDL
The Scottish Defence League have a long history of hijacking tragic events to try to further their twisted far right agenda. They’ll use terrorist attacks or the death of homeless ex-soldiers as an excuse to get pissed up and shout racist slogans from the safety of police protection. Now they’ve set their sights on the sentences handed down to sex offenders by the court system. They will be attempting to march through Edinburgh streets to the Scottish Parliament on the 23rd of March. They must be resisted.
The real cause of rape and sexual abuse is rape culture, patriarchy and capitalism. The far right like to talk tough on protecting women, but by refusing to confront the real societal causes they are complicit. They are simply using their rhetoric to distance themselves from the behaviour which normalises rape, and as an attempt to hide the reality of their own actions. The Scottish Defence League and the far right are riddled with abusers, paedophiles and rapists. Their hypocritical readiness to stand side by side with these people shows they don’t take their words to heart.
With the Me Too movement and the recent push to hold abusers to account we have seen the power that comes from putting survivors of abuse and rape at the forefront of the conversation. It is only by listening to survivors, making their needs take priority over other people’s desire for revenge, and learning from these experiences can we confront rape culture and abusers in our communities. The SDL’s calls for mandatory prison sentences ignore the needs of survivors. Groups supporting those who have been abused are having their funding cut. Far too often the prison and court system imprisons survivors of domestic and sexual abuse who fight back against their abusers.
The SDL don’t have answers to how to protect our communities from rape and sexual assault. They have the same tired old response of more prison, macho posturing and nationalist racism. The SDL are the cause of the problem, and they must be resisted.
Edinburgh Antifascist Action are calling for antifascists, feminists and anti-racists to meet at the Robert Fergusson statue on the Royal Mile, midday on Saturday the 23rd of March to resist attempts by the SDL to march through Edinburgh, and to call for real justice for survivors of sexual abuse.
March 23, Edinburgh – Resist the fascist SDLThe Scottish Defence… SOURCE: antifainternational.tumblr.com]]>
