February 25, 2017•Update: February 25, 2017
LONDON
More than 100 activists and artists Saturday held a rally in front of an East London art gallery accused of providing a platform for far-right and neo-Nazi activities.
The protesters shouted slogans and held signs calling for the immediate closure of Dalston’s LD50 Gallery, which they said had enabled anti-immigrant, Islamophobic, and “alt-right” figures to speak.
“Nazi s… off our streets,” they shouted, holding signs with slogans such as, “Never Again, No to the Nazis.”
Last year the gallery hosted a conference featuring U.S. far-right website editor Brett Stevens.
Stevens is believed to have inspired Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik in his 2011 Oslo attack that killed 77 people, including Gizem Dogan, a 17-year-old Turkish-origin girl.
The gallery also heard from Peter Brimelow, described by the U.S. Southern Poverty Law Center – an expert on hate groups – as a “leading anti-immigrant activist”.
LD50 remained closed on Saturday due to the protests.
In a web statement last week, owner Lucia Diego said the gallery’s program aims to create “a dialogue between two different and contrasting ideologies”.
She added: “We presented a very liberal audience with a speaker knowledgeable of that sphere creating in that way a dialogue between two different and contrasting ideologies and the possibility for discussion between the speaker and amongst ourselves”.
But a web group calling itself Shut Down LD50 Gallery published a statement accusing the gallery of “being used to promote fascists, neo-Nazis, misogynists, racists and Islamophobes”.
The protest, held in front of the gallery with a police presence, ended peacefully despite minor provocations by at least two individuals.
Dalston in East London is home to many immigrants, including Turks and Kurds, and lies in close proximity to Stoke Newington and Stamford Hill, which have large Jewish populations.
Reporting by Ahmet Gurhan Kartal; Writing by Ahmet Gurhan Kartal
