‘White Pride’ a bit of a washout

“White Pride” all boots and no brains

Following the confusion of the previous day as to whether the Nazi White Pride Demo would be permitted to take place, we decided to make the round trip to Swansea yesterday, anyway. Just because the police say “no” to them, exoperience tells us that Nazis will turn up anyway.

The event did indeed go ahead in Swansea’s Castle Square. Some groups had called off their proposed counter demonstration leaving Swansea Trades Council and the Socialist Party to organise their protest in the square – attracting some 200 supporters.

By mid-day around 40 of the Neo Nazis had gathered in Yates’ and were allowed to march the 60 yards or so to their Rally point by the castle ruins, where they were given an hour to spout their bile . Their four speakers had run out of anything to say by 12.30, leaving them to stand around, waving their flags and trading insults with the counter demonstration stood opposite behind two lines of Police. Apart from couple of lone protestors from both sides breaking ranks and attempting to confront the other, it remained quite controlled. As it drew to a close, two anti-fascist demonstrators made an audacious raid through the neo nazi ranks and snatched one of the ‘White Pride’ flags.

A number of boneheads gave short chase in their oversized boots and for a moment there looked like a possibility of a major outbreak of trouble, as other anti-fascist protestors ran towards them.

Police quickly gained control as two Antifa were arrested, having been apprehended by plain clothes officers. A nazi skinhead donning a “No Remorse – Smash The Reds” t-shirt also appeared to have been arrested in the incident, as he was held and hand-cuffed at the scene (see photo). It is unclear whether or not he was later released without charge.

The other ‘White Pride’ supporters were led away in a police escort, marched around the back of the castle as the anti-demonstrators dispersed. The police then led them to the ’Ice Bar’ for round two of their pub crawl, where they no doubt began planning their return in 2015.