man giving a Nazi salute in Newquay
Cornish antifascists warned us the protest in Newquay two weeks ago was planned with racist intent. The organisers denied this, saying it was just “locals concerned about womens’ safety”. But the thing about a real life protest is, you can’t hide it behind a facebook post. What happens is out there for all to see. And what we saw was nothing like a gathering of “concerned locals”
We saw a nazi salute, wild conspiracy theories, and racist rants. Towards the end of the day we saw several eggs and a vodka bottle lobbed at counter-protesters (thankfully they missed). The only really visible placard had nothing to do with women and girls:
apparently he traveled all the way from Somerset with this?
Anyone with sense should have seen this coming. As we all know, most issues in the Westcountry are caused by over-tourism, austerity, rich people, developers, and second homes. It’s not the people arriving by boat we need to worry about. It’s the people arriving in limousines. And to go after a whole group of refugees because a few of them are harassing others makes no sense at all! Where were their protests against other sexual violence in Cornwall, which was rising long before the refugees arrived?
A few people did get taken in, though. One of their supporters took to facebook in dismay afterwards, feeling they’d been duped:
What do they mean by this? Well, we’ve got a pretty good idea. Here’s some of the people we spotted at the protest…
The Middle-Class Fascist
Frankie Rufolo traveled down from his hometown of Exeter on Saturday, and took the lead giving speeches and speaking to the press. After hearing him speak, we have to say things must be pretty bad if he’s the best they had to offer! The harassment of women and girls only got a passing mention. Instead he railed against all refugees before veering off into a rant against the “evil religion” of Islam. It’s not 2010 Frankie, most of the far-right has moved on!
This self-appointed front man has a history on the far-right, going back to his involvement with Generation Identity activists in 2016. They appear to have groomed him from a young age, although he is now very much an adult and responsible for his decisions. He went on to stand for the far-right Islamophobic party For Britain in several Devon elections. He’s hardly the “concerned local” just out to stop the harassment of women and girls, then! Our friends in Exeter have named him the “middle class fascist”, which seems fair enough. You can read their articles about him here and here. There’s also a write-up of his activity here.
If anyone doubts he’s still a fascist, here’s his post about a recent demonstration in Exeter. That is the flag of the UPA, who collaborated with the Nazis and helped send thousands of Jews to their death in the holocaust.
“The Unabomber”
Protest organiser Mylo Gregory was out on Saturday, though you might not have recognised him. Wearing a dark cap and aviator-style sunglasses, he looked more like the Unabomber than any pictures we’ve seen of him before! What’s wrong Mylo, did you not want us to recognise you?
We’ve already covered his past, including his convictions for fraud and assault. But last week his posts to the event page took on a sinister turn. On Saturday 18th he wrote: “These men coming here is nothing to do with asylum or immigration the picture is much more bigger than that. We are being infiltrated from inside. If you are White British and live in London you are a MINORITY. A minority in the capital of your home country. The Kalergi Plan is in full swing.”
The “Kalergi Plan” he’s talking about is a neo-nazi conspiracy theory. They believe the Jews want to wipe out the white European races by replacing them and mixing them with immigrants. Think of it as a modern-day Protocols of the Elders of Zion. That’s the conspiracy theory Nazis used to stir up hatred against Jewish people and lay the groundwork for the holocaust.
Why would Mylo out himself like this? It’s what we call a “dogwhistle”. A sign that identifies Nazis to each other, but looks subtle enough that ordinary people wont pick up on it. Unfortunately for Mylo: we are watching very carefully, and he just outed himself. He’s not just a “concerned local”, or even just your average grifter. He’s a racist who promotes neo-nazi ideology.
Off facebook he’s more honest. In a podcast interview earlier this week he doubled down on his “white replacement” nonsense, adding that he thinks “people of colour are easier to enslave”. He even veered into ecofascism, calling humans “a cancer on the earth”. That’s another thing he shares with the unabomber.
Sinister as all this sounds, we can’t take him too seriously when it comes to action. Before the protest he was promising “drone operators to film the opposition” and teams of “ex-service men”. None of that happened. He’s still a fraud first and foremost:
The Fire Starter
David Hesketh is another man who attended the protest. His facebook name is David Gideon Eski. Here he is explaining why he couldn’t organise it himself. As a former EDL activist, this “concerned local” was arrested in Bradford after trying to burn a Quran. A lovely guy, we’re sure…
The Quiet One
Lucy Weatherley took over organising the protest on facebook after Mylo was arrested, posting updates and reassuring folk it was still on. She’s kept her head down so far. But that didn’t stop her from making this post to the event, promoting Patriotic Alternative. Patriotic Alternative is a far right party with neo-nazi elements. Their leader Mark Collet has openly declared his admiration for Adolf Hitler.
Lucy’s post got removed by facebook pretty quick, but not before we got a picture of it. If this was just a protest of locals “concerned” about women’s safety then why was the co-organiser posting a video in support of the far-right? Once again, the mask has slipped.
The Rest of ‘Em
That’s all the profiles we have time for today! Rest assured, we have plenty more names and faces. Here’s a few of the people we spotted. We’ve seen many of them on far-right protests before, for example when Patriotic Alternative organised a series of anti-lgbtq+ protests in Cornwall. Some of them have been seen at protests in England as well. Just take a look at them – with faces like that, we’re lucky they didn’t break the camera!
Please contact us by email on reallyfreespeech at riseup dot net if you have any information about these or other members of the far-right active in the Westcountry.
The Dark Side of Social Media
Looking beyond Cornwall now, across the UK anti-refugee protests have been advertised on the Hotels Housing Illegal Immigrants facebook group, which at one point had 15,000 members (they are now on their 3rd backup group after getting banned so many times) They are all very careful what they say on facebook, and people are getting taken in by their facade. But they are more open about their real intentions on Telegram – that’s where they invite people who they want to radicalise. Here are some of the posts on their invite-only chat. Not one of these posts was removed, or even called into question…
Conclusion
These people are “concerned locals” only so much as a wolf in a fluffy white jumper is a sheep! It doesn’t matter to them what’s true or what has really happened in Newquay. All they want is an excuse to target refugees and spread the hatred. Thankfully, on Saturday antifascists came out in force to hold them back. The fascists were outnumbered, outmaneuvered, and out-organised. In fact, they were humiliated. But the hostile intent was there, and they would have taken any opportunity left open to them. They will be back, and when they are we had better be ready.
Some of the antifascists who stood up to the anti-refugee protest in Newquay