'I Was an Asshole' A Look at Neo-Nazi Germany from the Inside
Julia Jüttner
29th November 2011
spiegel.de
Manuel Bauer was once a neo-Nazi thug, heavily involved in far-right paramilitary organizations and guilty of numerous assaults against foreigners and immigrants in Germany. He has since turned his back on the scene -- but he can still provide a unique inside look. Authorities, he says, have long underestimated its danger.
Info
He was saved by two Turks, of all people. Manuel Bauer was in prison in Leipzig and had hinted to fellow right-wing extremists that he was thinking about turning his back on the neo-Nazi scene. A short time later in the prison yard, the far-right inmates attacked Bauer and began beating him mercilessly. That was when two Turkish prisoners came to his aid -- and turned Bauer's life around.
Bauer, now 32, comes from the village of Torgau, just east of Leipzig, and was an avowed neo-Nazi for five years. A bear of a man with a shaved head, he was involved in an arson attack on a Turkish food stand and was also feared for his fists. He would often wear a green bomber jacket or a black Harrington jacket along with wine-red combat boots. He says he was "the walking cliché of a skinhead."
Bauer's career as a skinhead began when he was 11 years old. He became friends with a group of classmates who glorified Adolf Hitler and would rail against foreigners in the schoolyard. It was shortly after Germany's reunification, and right-wing extremism, which had remained largely underground during communism, could suddenly come out of the shadows. Across former East Germany, the extremists began finding each other -- and assembling neo-Nazi cliques. At first, they were disorganized and informal, making them largely invisible to law enforcement.
Before long, Manuel Bauer became part of one of these groups, first as just one of many before working his way to the top. His parents, deeply religious Christians, were outraged.
'I Thought I Was a Hero'
Bauer became the leader of a group calling itself "Wehrsportgruppe Racheakt" (roughly translatable as "Revenge Paramilitary Training Group"), and founded a second group with other neo-Nazis called "Association of Aryan Fighters." Each group counted around 30 members, many of them from Torgau, but also from the small town of Loburg further north. "I thought I was a hero," Bauer says today with a deep sigh. "But really I was just a big asshole."
The "movement," as Bauer calls the far-right scene, offered him a home. "I felt free and accepted. My comrades gave me strength, which I then transformed into violence." Emboldened by alcohol and pumped up by right-wing rock music blaring out of the car stereo, he and others would drive through the state of Saxony, attacking foreigners. Clothes flecked with blood were worn with pride, as a kind of trophy.
When he joined the German military in 1997, it wasn't long before he found others who shared his racist view of the world -- including two individuals who, Bauer says today, belonged to the fringes of the Zwickau right-wing terror cell which stands accused of murdering nine immigrants and a policewoman over several years. He declines to offer names. Bauer says he enjoyed his time with a motorized infantry brigade based in the Erzgebirge mountains. "It was a good environment for someone like myself," he says.
During his military service, Bauer learned how to handle weapons -- knowledge which he later passed on to neo-Nazis at a training camp in Ústí nad Labem, a town in the northern Czech Republic. For a year, he taught right-wing militants how to shoot and construct bombs and drilled them in survival techniques. He says that the camp where he worked is far from an anomaly -- there are others in Hungary, Poland, Russia and Romania. They model themselves, Bauer says, after the former camps belonging to the "Heimattreue Deutsche Jugend" (or "Patriotic German Youth"), a right-wing extremist group that gave children and young people military and ideological training until it was banned in 2009.
Support of Sponsors
At the time, Bauer lived almost entirely from welfare, but managed to "earn" a bit of extra cash through his right-wing activities. Extortion was one method. He also became involved in a right-wing group called the "Help Organization for National Political Prisoners and their Families," one of the largest right-wing extremist groups in Germany. It provided assistance to far-right inmates both during and after their prison terms, until it too was banned in September of this year.
But Bauer also says that the right-wing scene enjoyed the support of sponsors. He says that a German brewer "helped finance our political struggle for years" and also supplied them with vast quantities of alcohol. When it came to weapons, only those who had been involved in the scene for years were able to gain access. He claims the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) helped in arms procurement. At the time, the weapons mostly originated in Eastern Europe, says Bauer.
The relationship between paramilitary groups like the ones he was involved with and the NPD party was deep, Bauer says. "The NPD is the company and the (paramilitary members) are the employees," he says. Bauer claims to never have been a member of the NPD himself, but says he got to know many groups associated with the party that excelled at outwitting the German authorities with diversionary tactics.
"The state underestimated right-wing extremism and only focused its attention on the leftist, anti-fascist scene," Bauer says. "But the right is much better organized and structured than the left." And it follows a clear strategy, he says. In an effort to confuse investigators, he says, fictional identities are established as are imaginary mail-order companies and the like -- created for the sole purpose of misleading the authorities. He says that the state likely doesn't know how many paramilitary groups there actually are, nor is it aware how many right-wing radicals operate in the underground. "There are several neo-Nazis whose names are known to the authorities, but who haven't been heard from for years," Bauer says. "They are often pulling the strings in the background."
'Crazy Campaign'
And he himself? Can one spend 15 years as an integral part of the militant neo-Nazi scene and suddenly see the light? Bauer doesn't always have pat answers, and he himself understands the doubts. "My worldview changed eight years ago, but it wasn't until three years later that I was able to succeed in leaving the scene." He says that is now a "convinced Social Democrat," referring to Germany's main center-left party.
His circle of friends, he claims, now includes many of those who he once hunted down: Jews, lesbians, immigrants. "All people who I fought against back then," he says. "Today I am happy and lucky to have such friends." They all know his past, he insists, and they know that, for a time, there was a €10,000 ($13,300) ransom on his head in the extremist scene. Even still, he says, there is a "crazy campaign" against him in right-wing Internet forums.
These days, Bauer lives in southern Germany and helps neo-Nazis find their way out of the far-right scene, just as he was helped by the Berlin-based group EXIT, which for years has sought to assist people who want to leave extremism behind. "Without the people there, I wouldn't have been able to do it," Bauer says. "They clearly showed me that, no matter what happened, they wouldn't leave me on my own."
'Difficult Encounters'
He says that five neo-Nazis in eastern Germany were moved to emulate him and turn their backs on right-wing extremism. It is hard to miss the pride in his voice -- and the yearning for acceptance which led him astray so long ago. Bauer's police record is long -- assault, battery, extortion, the creation of unconstitutional groups, vandalism and property damage. He was sentenced to two years and 10 months in prison. Since his release, he has tried to establish contact with some of those he once assaulted. Many rebuff his efforts whereas others listen to his apologies but find it difficult to accept them. Only very few say they can forgive him.
Just recently, he met with an Indian teenager who was just a child when Bauer brutally attacked him 10 years ago because he didn't look German. He also arranged a meeting with a homosexual businessman who he had extorted and threatened to kill. "They were difficult encounters," Bauer says. Both of them asked him a host of questions. But Bauer was unable to answer.
EDL’s North East boss Spence jailed for attack on left meeting
2nd December 2011
uaf.org.uk
The English Defence League’s North East regional organiser Alan Spence has been jailed for his part in an attack on a socialist meeting, along with several of his racist and fascist cohorts. Spence is a leading figure in the EDL – and a key link between the EDL and the British National Party: he stood as a parliamentary candidate for the BNP at the general election .
He was sent down for seven months today, following the attack at the Tyneside Irish Centre, where the Socialist Workers Party was holding a meeting last September. His son, Steven Spence, a former BNP local council candidate, was jailed for eight months for his part in the same attack. In a post on Alan Spence’s Facebook page, his partner Tracy King said: “just letting u no alan got 7 month our son steven got 8 month other 5 lads got jailed aswell”.
Other sentences for the attackers reported on relatives’ Facebook pages include 10 months for Peter Duffy and eight for Barry Keddy. Duffy, part of the same band of EDL thugs, later left to become a well known member of the Infidels/NEI splinter group.
The attack on a socialist meeting shows the thugs are not just racists but fascists too – and that there are few serious differences between the EDL and the NEI, both of whose members were involved as one group at the time. Spence’s record also shows how porous the dividing line between the BNP and the EDL is. He joined the EDL’s forum in September 2009, several months before he stood as BNP candidate in the Newcastle upon Tyne East constituence in May 2010.
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That's good they got reasonable sentences - over christmas too... awww.
CCTV appeal to find Irish Centre EDL thugs
Evening Chronicle
Dec 5 2011
THESE six suspects are wanted for a violent attack on political rivals. It happened at The Irish Centre, on Newcastle�s Stowell Street, when the right-wing extremists forced their way in. It turned out their targets, members of the Socialist Workers Party, were not even in the building when the English Defence League were spotted in a nearby pub and officials called the meeting off fearing trouble. But that did not stop a pack of thugs, many wearing EDL hooded tops, from forcing entry, attacking door staff and setting off a fire extinguisher inside the Irish Centre in scenes captured on CCTV.
Northumbria Police released images of the suspects and, as a result of coverage in the Chronicle, nine of those caught on camera were arrested and charged. As reported in Saturday�s Chronicle, six of the gang have been locked up after appearing at Newcastle Crown Court, while three others received suspended jail terms.
However, police are still trying to find six people suspected of being involved in the fracas. Today they renewed their appeal. Det Sgt Rob Ridley led what has been a lengthy inquiry. He said: �We received a good response from the public when we released the images of the men we needed to speak to originally. There are still some outstanding people we need to speak with, and I�d urge anyone who recognises them to get in touch with us.�
He added: �I�m pleased these people have been sentenced for their part in this incident. They all stormed into the Irish Centre, scuffled with two people inside and then left. As a big crowd it was intimidating, and it has been a lengthy enquiry to identify those involved and get them to this stage. There�s no place for any kind of violent conduct, threatening or intimidating behaviour in Newcastle, and we�ll always do all we can to get those involved before the courts. I hope this sends out the message to others that we take this sort of offending extremely seriously and anyone involved can expect to be dealt with robustly by police.�
As previously reported, Peter Duffy, 44, of Elgin Avenue, Seaham; Colin Bell, 36, of St Oswalds Road, Hebburn; Anthony Burn, 48, of Lecondale Court, Leam Lane, Gateshead; Michael Garriock, 23, of Gibson Street, Wallsend; Barry Keddy, 34, of Deneholm, Wallsend; Alan Spence, 46, of Gerald Street, Benwell; Steven Spence, 27, of Wickham View, Denton Burn, Newcastle, and Paul Starr, 45, of Telford Street, East Howdon, North Tyneside, all admitted affray. Nicholas Mills, 25, of Drumaldrace, Blackfell, Washington, and Colin Burton, 28, of Woodhave Court, South Shields, admitted public order offences.
Duffy was jailed for 10 months, Keddy got eight months, Garriock eight months, Steven Spence eight months, Alan Spence seven months and Burton seven months. Burn and Bell were sentenced to three months� imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, with four-week curfews. Starr was sentenced to four months� imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, with a similar curfew. Mills� case was adjourned until later this month.
Robert Adams, defending, said the EDL had targeted the meeting after it was advertised on the internet under the heading �smash the EDL�. Judge Roger Thorn said he was not sentencing the men for their membership of any political party but for the premeditated violence.
Man hurt in clash between EDL and youths in Whitechapel
15 January 2012
bbc.co.uk
A man was taken to hospital and 15 people were arrested after a fight involving English Defence League supporters and youths in east London. Police were called to reports of an assault in Whitechapel Road on Saturday afternoon when EDL supporters travelled to the area after a gathering in Barking. The fight led to a larger disturbance, at one point involving several hundred people, and bottles were thrown. All those arrested have been released.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said the incident began at about 17:00 GMT when there were calls about a "large fight" in the area, which is near to the East London Mosque. An ambulance was called to assist the injured man and he was taken to hospital. His injuries were said to be not life-threatening. The police spokesman said passers-by became involved in the disturbance and some bottles were thrown.
Rushanara Ali, MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, said she visited the area after she became aware of police being called. She said: "I was out visiting constituents when I saw the police cars. As far as I could see, the police were doing their job. There were a lot of young people around but the police are very adept at handling these situations. What I am saying to people is not to rise to the provocation. The police have reassured me that they will have an increased presence in the area."
Police said the 15 people were arrested to prevent a breach of the peace.
This was a BBC3 documentary on tonight about Luton, presented by someone called Stacey Dooley. In it she sets to explore why there is apparently such division between Muslims and non-Muslims in the town. At one point she says that she doesn't know anything about Iraq and Afghanistan being occupied - while purporting to have a balanced view of the problems... maybe she doesn't read 'the news'.
Proud and Prejudiced, Channel 4, preview Paul Woolwich, the executive producer of new Channel 4 documentary Proud and Prejudiced, on getting to know two of Britain’s most controversial protest leaders
Paul Woolwich
27 Feb 2012
When Time magazine named ‘the protestor’ as its person of the year 2011 its editorial staff had in mind protest movements that had sprung from locations across the globe: Tunisia, Tahrir Square, Wall Street, Athens, Moscow and more. They were not thinking of Luton in Bedfordshire.
But it was in Luton, 30 odd miles north of London, that we spent most of 2011, getting to know two of Britain’s most prolific and controversial protest leaders for a Channel 4 documentary (Proud and Prejudiced). Tommy Robinson and Sayful Islam are two men unlikely to find themselves profiled in Time: they do not lead mass popular movements, but bands of angry extremists. Tommy leads the far-right English Defence League; Sayful leads a group of Islamist radicals. Both men are roughly the same age, both grew up on opposite sides of the same provincial town and both have become two of the most notorious political extremists in Britain.
Sayful Islam used to be a taxman until he became involved with Al-Muhajiroun, a fundamentalist Muslim organization. The group was outlawed in 2004, but since then, it has engaged in a bizarre game of cat and mouse with the authorities, changing its name every time it is banned. Sayful has been instrumental in the group under various names, whether Islam4UK or Muslims Against Crusades. They have become known for outrageous, headline-grabbing protests from burning poppies on Armistice Day to threatening to disrupt the Royal Wedding.
Tommy Robinson is a tanning shop manager. In 2009, he brought two hundred or so Luton Town football fans to a rally in the town centre, protesting against Sayful’s activities in the town. Their placards read: ‘Ban Sayful Islam.’ It was to be the first of many protests for Tommy. Two years later and the English Defence League is now the biggest far-right protest movement this country has seen for a generation. Tommy has led his few thousand loyal followers into areas with large Muslim populations almost forty times, bringing town centres to a standstill and crippling police budgets.
We arrived in Luton in early 2011 in search of these two men, keen to understand how a small local feud had spilled so dramatically onto the national stage. Our search for Tommy began on February 5th, the day he brought the English Defence League back to Luton for the first time since it was born there two years earlier. By now the EDL was a national organization, with local groups or ‘Divisions’ across the country. Tommy was promising that this would be their biggest demonstration yet.
Luton was a ghost town: on a Saturday morning virtually every shop was boarded up and the town centre was abandoned. The only signs of life were the thousands of police officers, from 27 different forces who had been drafted in to keep the peace.
We found the English Defence League crammed into a road behind the station, awaiting the start of the march: a sea of England flags and skinheads. The protestors were spilling from the only pub in town left open, a tall, fortress-like establishment with no windows. The doorways heaved with EDL supporters, clutching pints of lager, drunkenly pushing in and out. It was 10 o’clock in the morning. We found Tommy inside, wandering through the bar with a small entourage of heavies, speaking to his followers. He flicked Churchillian ‘V’ signs at them as he passed; “Tommy Robinson!” they chanted back. One of the EDL lads paused in chanting his leaders name and shouted to us through the din: “This is better than England away, innit?”
You can’t understand the EDL without understanding football culture. Just like England away matches, the EDL rallies that Tommy has organized across the country are a chance for competing hooligan firms to put aside their differences and unite in hatred of one common enemy. In international football tournaments, it’s the Germans; at EDL rallies, it’s Islam. And with the notoriously well-organized hierarchies associated with football firms, Tommy has found himself with a ready-made army of followers, with a songbook of easily adaptable chants (“You’re not English anymore”,“No surrender to the Taliban”) who are ready to jump on coaches on a Saturday to travel half way across the country for a piss-up and a ruck.
‘Tommy Robinson’ is not his real name; it’s actually Stephan Lennon. When the EDL begans, he adopted the pseudonym of a local Luton Town football fan to protect his identity. The name has stuck. Tommy is unapologetic about the EDL’s hooligan roots: “You need a bunch of hard lads who aren’t going to back down,” he says.
Sayful Islam was easier to track down. His group is banned from most of the local mosques, so he takes his radical brand of Islam onto the streets. Every afternoon he can be found handing out flyers in Bury Park, the largely Muslim part of town. He wears a white robe and sports a long dark beard with a few flecks of grey. Radicalised in his mid-twenties, he quit his job to fight what he sees as a jihad against the West. He wants to overthrow democracy and replace it with Islamic law, Sharia. Like Tommy, he renamed himself for the fight. His birth name, Ishtiaq Alamgir, was dropped in favour of Sayful Islam, which means ‘Sword of Islam’.
On first meeting Sayful isn’t an obvious extremist firebrand. Whereas Tommy has been a self-confessed troublemaker since an early age, local people remember Safyul as being an unremarkable and shy teenager. He has a nervous laugh and an awkward habit of peppering his speech with the word ‘obviously.’ But these days he’s not lacking in a self-importance to rival Tommy’s. He tells us how he intends to marry a second wife. “Won’t your current wife be annoyed?”, “She’ll have to put up with it,” he says, puffing out his chest, “I’m Sayful Islam, innit?”
Like Tommy, Sayful is in his element at the demonstrations he organizes. Over the year we filmed perhaps a dozen of Sayful and Tommy’s protests. Both men like nothing more than to spend their Saturdays travelling across the country to make bombastic speeches to small groups of people who already agree with them. They both get a buzz from the camaraderie, the feeling of being united in a common goal and a common enemy. Both have a gift for rabble-rousing, and the same glint of excitement in their eye as they are passed the microphone on their makeshift stages. Our year following Tommy and Sayful, climaxed in two of the men’s most eye-wateringly offensive protests yet, staged within a week of each other in September.
First, Tommy led his supporters into Tower Hamlets, the most densely populated Muslim area in the country. Three thousand officers had to be drafted in to protect the local population. The protest descended into a farce. To avoid bail conditions that banned him from attending demonstrations (imposed after he allegedly head butted an rival at a protest in Blackburn five months before) Tommy came in disguise, arriving early and hiding in a local bar dressed as an orthodox Jewish rabbi. The subterfuge worked and he was able to sneak past the police to the stage where, drunk on his own power and half a dozen double vodka-lemonades, he tore off his false beard and made an invective-filled, off-the-cuff speech threatening the entire Muslim community.
Just a week later, Sayful led an equally audacious demonstration, as Muslims Against Crusades marched to the American embassy on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. As dignitaries and relatives of the victims gathered in the gardens of the embassy to remember their loved ones, Sayful made his own chilling speech outside. Promising their Jihad would never stop “until the American flag is under our feet” Sayful whipped his young followers into a frenzy. But their posturing as fearless religious warriors did not last long. As they left the demonstration the group was set upon by a band of EDL supporters, screaming ‘Scum! Scum! Scum!’ and throwing bottles. Cowering behind the few police present for protection, suddenly Sayful and his followers seemed less like committed Jihadists and more like vulnerable children.
This Tanning shop manager and ex-Taxman have found themselves with hundreds of loyal followers, a great deal of power and virtually no responsibility. It’s a dangerous cocktail, which results in demonstrations that are offensive, chaotic and extremely expensive to police. But both men thrive on the adrenaline of their demonstrations and revel in the notoriety that comes afterwards. And over the year, it became obvious that both men share more than just a love of the limelight.
A month or so after these demos, we found a placard we’d picked up from one of the protests at the bottom of a camera bag. Its slogan read: ‘Islam Will Dominate the World’. At first, it was hard to recall whether we’d found it at the EDL demo or the Muslims Against Crusades demo. It could have come from either.
The confusion says much about the two groups. Despite being sworn enemies, the way Tommy and Sayful see the world is actually remarkably similar. Both believe the implementation of Sharia law in the UK is imminent (it’s not) and that Islam and the West are locked in a centuries-old battle for supremacy. Both men inhabit the same fantasy world, where a medieval clash of civilizations is being played out day-to-day on the streets of modern-day Luton.
On its website, flags and official merchandise the EDL’s imagery is full of crusader knights retaking Europe from the armies of conquering Islam. They have even adopted as their own the Latin slogan of the Knights Templar: “In Hoc Signo Vinces,” which translates as ‘Under This Sign You Will Conquer.’ Sayful and his followers assume the opposite role. From the name Muslims Against Crusades to their websites and propaganda videos emblazoned with the iconography of Saladin, Sayful and his followers dream of the return of the medieval Muslim caliphate.
Both Tommy and Sayful’s fantasies sustain each other. It’s a phenomenon that Professor Roger Eatwell, an expert in far-right politics, has described as ‘cumulative extremism’. Supposedly opposing groups like the EDL and Muslims Against Crusades don’t check each other’s popularity, they fuel it.
During filming for this documentary Tommy and Sayful both knew we were filming with their rival. Far from being worried by this, they both encouraged it: each man believes the other proves his point. For Tommy, Sayful represents what he sees as Islam: an offensive ideology at odds with British values and determined to bring down our society. For Sayful, Tommy represents all that is wrong with Western culture: morally corrupt, valueless, violent and inherently Islamophobic.
Of course, there’s a certain silliness to all of this posturing. Tommy’s followers are more likely to be overweight, undereducated pub racists than knights of the realm, and Sayful’s followers are more likely to be disenfranchised, bookish young Muslim kids than Mujahedeen. And, despite their rhetoric, both Tommy and Sayful claim to reject violence.
But something happened during filming that was a stark reminder that these men’s rhetoric can be extremely dangerous. In July, Anders Breivik embarked on a devastating shooting spree in Norway. Breivik, a far-right extremist, imagined himself a crusader in a religious war and claimed his motivation for the attacks was to stop the ‘Islamisation’ of Europe. Tommy, who had originally presumed the attacks were the work of Islamist extremists, was soon informed that the real culprit was an EDL-sympathiser who had almost certainly attended one of Tommy’s demonstrations.
We filmed Tommy as he embarked on a desperate media campaign to contain the fallout of the revelations. From local radio, to Norweigan newspapers to a duel with Paxman on Newsnight, Tommy sought to distance the EDL from the murderous actions of the man Tommy called “that lunatic Norweigan”. But suddenly the EDL’s posturing as crusaders seemed far less frivolous.
As Tommy sat in his Luton tanning salon, answering questions about his links to Anders Breivik from one press agency after another, it was obvious that, despite the controversy - or perhaps because of it - Tommy was, once again, enjoying being centre stage. Sayful is the same. Both men thrive on the reputation for danger that surrounds them. Mounting controversy has not persuaded wither man to curb their rhetoric or tone down their protests, and in 2011 their spiraling feud has pushed police budgets and public patience to their limit.
Luton has always been an unlikely frontline in the clash of civilizations, and Tommy and Sayful have always been unlikely religious warriors. Despite its troubles, Luton is this year entering the running to be the only town awarded city status in honour of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Tommy has now given up his Tanning Shop after being unable to keep up with the rent and Sayful has begun applying for new accountancy jobs. It’s still hard to believe sometimes that these local men are two of the most dangerous extremists in Britain.
My favourite part was when Stephen Lennon got slapped. I laughed for about three minutes without stopping. I wanted slow motion replays and different camera angles, and if Channel 4 had offered those things it would surely have been the best use of the red button ever.
The show itself was full of the EDL's pathetic attempts to distance themselves from racism, which is as transparent as their members are dumb.
In 2009 the Luton EDL burned a Nazi flag in a similar effort to appear sane. Less than a year later, the Welsh Defence League in Swansea tried to do the same... and... well...
...they ended up burning an anti-Nazi flag, because they don't understand the difference.
Great post & pic there. What I took from the doc was that their rank & file members are eager to "kick on", seemingly frustrated by countless "protest after protest". Eventually I think the so called E.D.L will eat itself. Or at least I hope so.
Oh & by the way, wasn't it very telling of the true nature of Tommy Robinson when he bumped into a very gracious Asian security guard after a night on the booze. Truth comes out when you've had a drink!
Pensioner head butted in extreme right-wing thug attack
Mark Chandler
newsshopper.co.uk
30th April 2012
TWO pensioners handing out anti-fascist leaflets were set upon by extreme right-wing thugs in a shocking high street attack. Activist Andrew Smith, 69, was helping man the regular Socialist Worker stall in Lewisham High Street on Saturday at around noon when he was head butted in the face, while his colleague, 67, was punched to the floor.
Mr Smith, a long-standing anti-fascism campaigner and retired teacher, needed laser surgery for a torn retina after the unprovoked assault but is hopeful his sight will be okay. He told News Shopper that before the attack, the gang made reference to Brighton, where anti-fascists faced-off with the March for England right-wing group earlier this month. Mr Smith said: "They were shouting something about Brighton and accused us of attacking women and children."
A group knocked over the men's table before coming back a short while later in a group of around 10 men and one woman. One man approached Mr Smith and began talking to him. Mr Smith said: "In the middle of the conversation I had an uneasy feeling and he head butted me - one blow to the face. I was on the ground and sort of remember crouching, like a boxer who's gone down in the ring. I was completely dazed. I think these were hardcore Nazis. They're very dangerous people and need to be opposed."
Mr Smith went on: "I'll continue to campaign. We were determined to stand our ground and that's still our attitude." Even before the incident, another campaigner, 42, was also assaulted and left with facial injuries.
Chairman of Lewisham Anti-Racist Action Group Jarman Parmar said: "The actions of these racist attackers is shocking and strengthens our resolve to unite everyone who opposes these kind of behaviours and ideas which have no place in our society." A spokeswoman for Lewisham police confirmed detectives were investigating the attacks but said no arrests had been made so far.
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