17 held in EDL protest march
Reporter: Karen Doherty
Date published: 26 January 2010
OLDHAM protesters took part in a controversial English Defence League (EDL) march in Stoke at the weekend.
They were among 300 members of the right-wing group who staged the latest in a series of demonstrations against Islamic extremists.
They brandished placards proclaiming “patriotism is not terrorism” and “stop the Islamification of Britain”. Members also sung the National Anthem and Rule Britannia, and shouted abusive chants about Muslims.
Scuffles broke out as EDL members tried to break a cordon preventing them from clashing with anti-fascist groups. Four officers received minor injuries and five police vehicles were damaged.
A total of 17 men were arrested on suspicion of committing a series of public order offences, violent disorder and assaulting a police office.
They include a 27-year-old from Rochdale, an 18-year-old from Bolton and two people in their 20s from Stockport.
One reader told the Chronicle: “There were around two dozen, at least, well known far right activists and football hooligans from Oldham present at the disturbances. The Oldham hooligans, FYC, have very good links with Stoke’s Naughty Forty hooligans.”
A branch of the EDL was set up in Oldham by a football hooligan involved in the town’s 2001 Oldham race riots. Two Oldham men were charged following the group’s protest in Manchester in October.
