London gallery faces protest over far-right material

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

LONDON (AA) - Activists in London have called for a weekend protest against an art gallery accused of offering a platform to far-right figures.

The protesters are calling for the closure of Dalston’s LD50 Gallery which they said had enabled anti-immigrant, Islamophobic and “alt-right” figures to speak.

Last year the gallery hosted a conference which heard a contribution from a U.S. far-right website editor Brett Stevens.

Stevens is believed to have inspired Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik in his Oslo attack that killed 77 people, including a 17-year-old Turkish-origin girl Gizem Dogan, in 2011.

The gallery also heard a contribution by Peter Brimelow, who is described by U.S. anti-fascist organizations as a “leading anti-immigrant activist”.

LD50 remained closed on Wednesday; anti-fascist graffiti had been daubed on the premises.

Owner Lucia Diego in a web statement said the gallery’s program aimed 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.”

However, a web group calling itself Shut Down LD50 Gallery published a statement saying “it has come to light that an art gallery and project space in East London is being used to promote fascists, neo-Nazis, misogynists, racists and Islamophobes”.

The group called for a protest against the gallery on Saturday.