UK

Uniting against fascism

HubMP2012

SEPTEMBER 17, 2025

A report on Saturday’s Stand Up To Racism rally against far right by the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees.

On 13th September, comrades from the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees (IFIR) joined the Stand Up To Racism (SUTR) counter-demonstration in London. The mobilisation was in response to the far right ‘Unite the Kingdom’ march, led by Tommy Robinson. The counter-protest assembled at Russell Square from midday, with MP Diane Abbott leading a women’s section at the front of the march.

Some IFIR comrades joined the Trade Union Bloc, which had a strong presence from the NEU (National Education Union) and PCS (Public and Commercial Services Union), along with banners and flags from Unite and Unison. The mood at this stage of the march was positive, with a broad turnout from anti-racist organisations and community groups. According to SUTR, approximately 20,000 people took part in the counter- demonstration.

As the march approached Charing Cross Station, a small group of Tommy Robinson supporters began jeering at demonstrators. Tensions escalated further as the counter- protest moved past Trafalgar Square, and far right supporters advanced along a parallel street towards Whitehall.

IFIR supporters, along with others, joined the Anarchist Black Bloc, which formed a defensive presence within the protest.  The Black Bloc played a crucial and brave role in defending the demonstration. With police initially unprepared for the scale or aggression of the far right presence, it was the Black Bloc, rather than the police, who first stood between the fascists and the main body of the protest. Their disciplined and organised action helped prevent direct confrontation and ensured the safety of other demonstrators until police reinforcements arrived and took position ahead of them.

While SUTR reported around 20,000 counter-demonstrators, police sources estimated that the far right ‘Unite the Kingdom’ march drew up to 100,000 participants.  Although heavily outnumbered, the counter-demonstration sent a clear and defiant message of anti-racist solidarity and resistance.

We call on all human rights activists, refugee rights organisations and trade unions to stand united against the growing threat of fascism. We must not allow the far right to divide us or intimidate our communities. There is no place for fascism on the streets of London.

All images c/o IFIR

Justice for the survivor of the Oldbury attack! Fascists off our streets!

HubMP20

SEPTEMBER 17, 2025

A statement signed by more than 40 Black, South Asian, migrant and refugee organisations.

As organisations representing South Asian, Black, migrant, and refugee communities and those fighting racism, we are horrified and enraged by the attack on Tuesday 9th September on a Sikh woman in Oldbury, Sandwell, in what police are describing as a racially motivated attack. The 20 year-old woman was raped and viciously beaten in broad daylight by two white men who reportedly told her: “You don’t belong in this country, get out.”

We express our deepest solidarity with the survivor and pledge to stand by her unconditionally. We acknowledge her tremendous courage in coming forward to report this horrific crime of sexual and racial violence.

We pledge to work together to get justice for the survivor, and to counter the rise of the far-right, facilitated by successive governments, which has given rise to this heinous crime. Our long history of fighting racism in Britain has taught us that we can only resist and prevent such attacks if all communities facing racism act unitedly. The British state has made every effort to divide us in recent decades but we must not allow this strategy to succeed, or succumb to racist ‘good/bad immigrant’ narratives.

Misogyny and gendered violence have always been deeply embedded in racism and white supremacy. There are numerous instances of sexual violence against Black and racialised women by the police and other agents of the state, which go unreported or the survivors are not believed. In the last few years we have also seen the far-right weaponizing women’s and children’s safety to spread racist and Islamophobic myths such as the tropes that ‘grooming gangs’ primarily consist of Muslim men and that migrants, refugees and trans people are the source of sexual abuse. They have used these myths to organise the racist violence which is now happening on a huge scale.

Meanwhile, while the far-right claims to be ‘protecting’ (white) women, it is no surprise that at least two in five of those arrested for participating in last year’s racist riots had previous convictions for domestic violence. The far-right racists, like fascists everywhere, target racialized women for particularly vicious violence, viewing them as dehumanized symbols of their communities. This is what has led to the horrific Oldbury attack.

We also hold Keir Starmer’s government responsible for facilitating this ongoing violence by pandering to the far-right. He has embraced the far-right narrative that migrants are responsible for what are in fact the effects of successive Tory and Labour governments’ policies of austerity. Starmer’s notorious ‘island of strangers’ comment inspired by Enoch Powell, his repeated dog-whistle invocation of ‘small boats’ and his government’s increasingly oppressive immigration policies have fuelled the racist and misogynistic violence that we are now experiencing on our streets.

It is shameful that, at the time of writing, no government minister has made any statement of condemnation or concern about what happened in Oldbury. On the contrary, the Home Office appears to have instructed the police not to use live facial recognition (which is routinely used for surveillance and harassment of Black communities) on the participants in the massive fascist demonstration in London just four days later, despite the fact that police are still searching for suspects in the case.

We demand justice for the survivor of the Oldbury attack! 

Fascists off our streets! 

Keir Starmer: stop pandering to the far-right!

Signed

South Asia Solidarity Group
Million Women Rise Movement
Black Lives Matter UK
Sikh Women’s Aid
Birmingham Black Sisters
Indian Workers Association (GB)
Nijjor Manush
Women of OWAAD
Migrants’ Rights Network
Shaheed Udham Singh Welfare Centre – Women@theCentre Group
Women Asylum Seekers, Refugees and Migrants (WARM)
UK Indian Muslim Council
Castewatch UK
Strive UK
ROT Collective
South Asian Liberation Movement
Sikh Socialists
Birmingham Asylum & Refuge Association
Women Asylum Seekers Together (WAST Manchester)
Camden United against Racism
Muslim Social Justice Initiative
Birmingham Race Impact Group
India Labour Solidarity (ILS)
Hindus for Human Rights UK
UK Is Not Innocent
Communities for Holistic Accessible Rights Based Mental Health
United Domestic Workers Association
Southeast and East Asian Women’s Association
The Muslim Voice
Ad’iyah Collective
The Apna Project
Anti-Imperialist Front (Sheffield)
Camden Friends of Palestine
Camden Muslim Network
Trubys Garden Tea Room Interfaith Café, Milton Keynes
Haringey Welcome
Camden People’s Alliance
Anti Raids Sheffield
London for a Free Palestine
Shaheed Udham Singh Centre, Birmingham
South Asia Peace Action Network (SAPAN)

Image c/o Labour Hub