English Defensive League & Unite Against Fascism – Manchester, October 10th

When I heard the English Defence League was coming to Manchester in hope of marching its voice through the streets in unison for the future of England, my initial thought wasn’t race. It was the defiant prejudices of our past that crawl through remnants of dusty textbooks from Nazi Germany, Roman Italy, and modern day “Deep South” America, that inflicted the doubt I have. Someone should take a harpoon to these muppets, a band of narrow minded and illiterate football hooligans. I didn’t want to call them football hooligans because of its cliche place in today’s already evil society yet here we are.

The difference between football hooligans, football fans and racist political parties isn’t a murky pond of confusion and grey paperwork outlining pro’s and cons, its roots don’t manifest in one and spread to the other either. The EDL rightly – and too their small brained ideology which will quickly be their quick downfall – claim not to be a political or religious party. So with that the British street scally with no interest or idea of British politics will be easily seduced by the gang of Stella mashed fuck heads. Its easy also to construct an idea of them being Nazis, again they shouldn’t be given the chance. Nazi Socialism was a by product of a carefully laid political ideology that wanted to cast the German people into the forefront of power and race. Up until 4 weeks ago no-one had heard of this band of cretins and here I was, running in and out of Police armpits trying to get a close look at what some people up and down the country are referring to the second coming of Hitler.

After waiting around photographing the peaceful demonstration of Unite Against Fascism on Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester. I had the idea that it could be sometime before they emerge from the cheap bosom of Weatherspoons and its poor quality beers, food and wine at 11am. Manchester was already on full alert anyway with Police in your every pocket, which reminds me I was stopped for not having a ticket for the train and being threatened with arrest I gave in to the five high vis cops demanding my payment. Once we waited for the EDL to finish their fifth pint by 11.30am and emerge full of beans to take on….in fact they had no idea what they were doing. Their plan was to have a voice against the apparent radical Islam movement sweeping Britain, Al Qaeda in your cornflakes and stem grenades under your break pedal, threats with no weight, reason or evidence. It looked like a bunch of lads, pissed, lots of them laughing, I had to struggle to edit an image without them laughing. I feel the laughing was more powerful than the Nazi salute which I didn’t see.

Filed under: EDL, English Defence League, manchester, Manchester photographer, piccadilly gardens, UAF, Unite Against Facism

Safe Havens?

Stephen Sidlo Copyright 2008

I took this image about 4 years ago and when looking through my neg files I came across it, scanned it in. Its a transparency image of a church and tombstone, but it’s not actually a church its a million pound inner city complex for yuppies and whatnot. Mercedes Benz line the car parks and a guard slowly trundles around the graveyard that surrounds the church. On the door there is a sign saying ‘This is an Automatic Door, Please Do Not Push or Pull.’ Trespassers will be Prosecuted.

Now I’m not religious, but I understand religion. I also understand the safe haven that comes within a church, the hopeful protection of god within its walls from whatever. To see a monument to god in a major cosmopolitan city, that is inaccessible to everyone. With also a nice young girl with phones and buttons behind the glass panelled door upon entrance just makes it all the more surreal.

But what about the tombstone? It has this strange number on the back, it cant be a tag…more like a phone number or removal number. God doesn’t even know this one because he has been bought out by large sums of cash. The tombstones have been there since it was converted and people had been living there for 9 months. So why do they remain?

Filed under: church, churches, inner-city, manchester, mercedes, religion

The Greater Good

Currently reading ‘Tell me Lies”. What do I say? Talented and amazing professors looking into our involvement worldwide with issues, that is broadcast through our tv screens and Internet. The amount of fact and evidence tottaly knocking the news like CNN and BBC for six. They did a poll of a few hundred people up and down the US and Britain asking what the ‘Occupied Territories” were. It was shocking the results, answers like Palastine and Isreal are arguing over a border, or Palastinian/Isreali people are occupying each others land and both neighbours are telling each other to fuck off.

The truth is (other than the fact that the US give $4 Billion to Isreal in arms each year) that the news is told what to do, what to say..the choices of words. The fact that Isreal has a military stranglehold over Palastine and encamping thousands of them in their own country, cutting off medical aid and letting women die in pools of blood at checkpoints in childbirth, doesnt come into the equation.

Americas war on Terror, or The War against Terror, or T.W.A.T as I like to call it. Have an open mind for a minute. Isreal attacks Palastine and commits genocide and incamps tens of thousands of arabs..correct..good. Now when the BBC ask for a middle-east correspondant from Isreal they pull out the man with the suit sat in Washington DC…they pull out a Palastinian talker and he’s in army scruffs and with a bandana saying they want Isreal off their land….it reminds me of WW2. The French had a resistance…you’ve all seen Allo’ Allo’..so I will say this only once. Iraq or Palastine or even Swansea, Manchester or London. If we were invaded or illigally carpet bombed by the thousands..(Like a small town in Iraq that got carpet bombed, the U.S said it was a friendly fire mistake, so the BBC and CNN took it at face value…real reports and eye witnesses said that they came back for 3 days to carpet bomb the village..a woman lost 9 children in a house that the Americans said housed ‘bad guys’…the US apologised and gave each grieving person 5 grand…that means her children were worth 556 quid.)..then there would be a resistance for fuck sake.

Rebel fighter ‘Che’ is now considered a great man, will any of the resistance rebel fighters across the world over be given that? No because its against our troops. ‘We Must Support Our Troops’ I hear you say!! Then fucking bring them home!

Filed under: america, BBC, blog, britain, camera, che, CNN, dissertation, Iraq, isreali, lies, london, manchester, palastinian, photography, propaganda, student, troops