Day of rage:
‘They do not want their grief hijacked for any violent or destructive means’
A VETERAN revolutionary convicted of assaulting the Conservative Party chairman is behind the “Day of Rage” protest accused of exploiting the Grenfell Tower catastrophe to overthrow Theresa May.
Extreme-left militants are calling on demonstrators to “bring down the Government” and “shut down London” in a march on Parliament today to coincide with the Queen’s Speech.
The ringleaders are accused of “hijacking” the Grenfell Tower disaster to whip up support.
They are demanding the Prime Minister resigns while claiming the victims “were murdered by this rotten capitalist system”.
The group behind the protest – called the Movement for Justice by Any Means Necessary (MFJ) – is jointly run by Tony Gard, a 76-year-old former pri- mary school teacher. Mr Gard was convicted in 1996 of orchestrating an attack on Lord Mawhinney, then Conservative Party chairman, at the state opening of Parliament.
Paint was poured over Lord Mawhinney during the incident.
Three young women were also found guilty of assault, including Karen Doyle, then aged 19, who is a co-organiser of today’s protest.
The “Mawhinney Four” were additionally found guilty of assaulting the Tory chairman’s wife Betty.
Mr Gard co-founded the Movement for Justice while a teacher in east London. He was given 120 hours’ community service for the assault.
There are inevitable fears that the protest could attract violent anarchists, further stretching police resources.
Sir Alan Duncan, the Conservative MP, who cornered the perpetrators of the attack on Lord Mawhinney until
police arrived, said it was “disgusting” that the group he helped to apprehend was now “exploiting” the Grenfell Tower fire.
Sir Alan, now Foreign Office minister, said: “These are obviously agitators with two decades of form.
“It is disgusting beyond measure that they should exploit the Grenfell Tower fire for their own revolutionary politics. But then that is exactly what the hard Left do.”
The Clement James Centre, a local charity that has provided shelter for residents since the fire, has also condemned the march.
In a posting on Twitter, the charity said: “There has been a ‘Day of Rage’ announced for Wednesday, trying to bring London to a standstill.
“We cannot emphasise enough how many of the affected residents we’ve spoken to are against this and they do not want their grief hijacked for any violent or destructive means.”
The Kensington and Chelsea branch of Age UK has also criticised the “Day of Rage”, pointing out streets will have to be closed to control any crowds while the Love Golborne community website, based in North Kensington, said: “Grenfell residents are totally opposed… They do not want their grief hijacked.”
The MFJ is calling on activists to take the day off work or phone in sick in order to take part. It called on children not to go to school but to go on the demonstration instead.
It is not clear what level of support the protest will receive. More than 1,000 people on Facebook have expressed interest or said they would attend the march, setting off from Shepherd’s Bush, west London, at 1pm en route to Westminster.
The protest had originally targeted the Government’s austerity agenda and its plans to leave the European Union – it has branded Brexit as “racist” – but widened its scope to include a demonstration over Grenfell Tower.
At least 79 people are known to have died in the inferno in the early hours of last Wednesday.
MFJ, which has campaigned in the past on immigration, gay rights and racism, denied it was using the Grenfell Tower tragedy to its advantage.
Miss Doyle said: “What happened at Grenfell Tower was not a natural disaster, it was a disaster predicted by residents, experts and politicians for years. There is not anyone living in council housing anywhere that saw what hap- pened to Grenfell and didn’t feel it cut through them like a knife.
“The majority of our members are immigrants and asylum seekers. Their first response was to say ‘how many of us were in that tower and will never be found?’ We are not ‘exploiting’ anything, we are speaking the truth that millions feel, that this Government has got to go.”
Miss Doyle said that while Mr Gard was a founding member of the movement, he was not “the main organiser of the protest”.
The march will converge on Parliament, with a number of other protests planned for the day, putting extra strain on police.
Stand Up To Racism has organised a protest for 6pm billed as “Protest the Queen’s Speech – MAY/DUP must go!” in opposition to the “xenophobic hard Brexit” and allegations of the DUP’S “history of sectarianism and bigotry”.
The London Socialist Party is also organising a “May Must Go!” protest, starting at 4pm, while at noon there is even a “Line Dance” planned in protest against the DUP. A group called Protest Vote is planning a protest at 2pm in Parliament Square billed as “No mandate Tories Out Now.”