Trade unionists, community groups and antifascists have told the English Defence League loudly and clearly that they are not welcome in Luton. Nearly 2,000 demonstrators set off from Wardown Park this afternoon carrying a mass of trade union banners and placards, and made their way peacefully to the western part of the town centre.

A smaller number of EDL supporters gathered in pubs in the Park Street area before setting off on their march on the eastern side of the town centre. A heavy police presence kept the two groups apart, but was unable to prevent EDL marchers from fighting among themselves, setting off fireworks and pelting the police with bottles and beer cans.

The British National Party has been left with just three local councillors in the UK after losing all the seats it was defending. The fascist party now has no seats in its former strongholds of Burnley, where it once had eight councillors, and Epping Forest, where it once had six, and has lost its seats in Amber Valley, Pendle, Rotherham and Nuneaton and Bedworth.

London is still counting, but the results so far suggest that the BNP will fall well short of the 5% it would need to get a seat on the London Assembly. Other far-right parties are doing even worse, with the National Front in particular only getting a few hundred votes in most constituencies.

Tonight Redbridge and Epping Forest Together (REFT) celebrates the complete collapse of the fascist vote in its various guises in the elections for Epping Forest District Council and Loughton Town Council.

When around one hundred local antifascists gathered at Redbridge tube station in 2005 to protest against a BNP meeting in the area, it sparked the formation of a local activist group. We had the support of the editor of the Ilford Recorder who had published our open letter. Since then we have campaigned in every election where the fascists have stood locally.

This is a call for all antifascists to come to Luton on Saturday 5 May to tell the supporters of the racist English Defence League that they are not wanted here (or anywhere else). The EDL are returning to Luton intending to celebrate the third anniversary of the formation of their Islamophobic organisation.

The EDL has recently struggled to get out the numbers that it once did but the emotional significance of Luton, especially following EDL leader Tommy Robinson’s appearance on the Channel 4 documentary Proud and Prejudiced in February, may change that. An EDL Facebook page claims that the event, which the EDL has hypocritically titled “Love Luton – love the English Defence League”, will be “the biggest demo to date”.