{"id":15486,"date":"2018-07-02T16:36:37","date_gmt":"2018-07-02T15:36:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=15486"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:58:40","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:58:40","slug":"divided-we-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=15486","title":{"rendered":"Divided we fall"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s conference today resolved that our union will campaign to encourage all football, fans and supporters\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 clubs to take a stand against the Football Lads\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Alliance (FLA).<\/p>\n

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The Premier League has already warned clubs about the FLA and that it is using fans and stadiums to push an anti-Muslim message. We are determined to expose its racist core, and that of the other far right groups marching together on our streets.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

At a time\u00c2\u00a0of\u00c2\u00a0the longest pay squeeze for decades, and our NHS stretched to breaking point, they are diverting working class anger from the real issues and twisting people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pride in their country.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re spreading hatred and division, especially at a time when we should be united behind football and our team. England have been fantastic representatives for their nation, embodying our diverse and talented youth, inspiring pride and underlining\u00c2\u00a0that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no room for racism and bigotry in our beautiful game, and nor in our communities.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Divided communities cannot achieve a better, more equal society.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The FLA was set up in 2017 after the London bombings. It claims to be against\u00c2\u00a0 extremism,\u00c2\u00a0but\u00c2\u00a0uses\u00c2\u00a0Islamophobia\u00c2\u00a0to stir up fear and racism.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Thousands of its activists, and those from UKIP, For Britain and others, marched in London recently and will again in Leeds on Saturday.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not interested in football\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s positivity. They want to use the collective goodwill generated by the World Cup to cause harm.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

No respect<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

They have no claim to patriotism or anti-extremism. They claim to love our country, but have no respect for it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

They physically attacked the police and hurled abuse at soldiers of the Royal Horse Artillery in Whitehall. They even \u00e2\u20ac\u0098sieg heiled\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 at the Cenotaph.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

These groups use\u00c2\u00a0social media to unite and mobilise their supporters.\u00c2\u00a0This makes their movement dangerously different to those of the past.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Able to create distractions to what working class people should be protesting about.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Think of the impact of 15,000 people on the streets of their communities\u00c2\u00a0demonstrating against local hospital closures.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The trade union movement needs to tackle this head on. Through the great work of Show Racism the Red Card I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had the honour of working with players past and present, including one of my heroes John Barnes, in the effort to keep racism off our terraces and away from our kids.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

SRtRC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work started in the 1990s to combat the hate merchants who had been infecting our grounds since the 1970s. We can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go back to those days. We must work with clubs and reach into working class communities to\u00c2\u00a0expose\u00c2\u00a0the lies and hate of\u00c2\u00a0groups like the FLA.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t leave the resistance to\u00c2\u00a0traditional anti-racist\u00c2\u00a0groups alone. I call on all trade union members\u00c2\u00a0to become part of the opposition to the rise of a new far right street movement.\u00c2\u00a0Let not the peddlers of prejudice win.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A version of this comment first appeared in the Daily Mirror, July 2. Photos courtesy of the Daily Mirror<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s conference today resolved that our union will campaign to encourage all football, fans and supporters\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 clubs to take a stand against the Football Lads\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Alliance (FLA).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15492,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[160,395,957],"wps_subtitle":"Unite GS Len McCluskey takes a stand against football\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s force of hatred and division","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15486"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15486"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26097,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15486\/revisions\/26097"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}