UK
29 July, 2024
Right-Wing Watch
Thousands of counter-protesters united in London against a large Tommy Robinson rally
Thousands of counter-protesters united in London against a large Tommy Robinson rally
Thousands of people joined a counter-protest in London on Saturday to unite against a Tommy Robinson march, as trade union leaders and anti-racism campaigners made rallying calls opposing the far right.
RMT’s Eddie Dempsey joined a large line-up of speakers and used the occasion to highlight the power of solidarity and how to beat back the far right.
15,000 people took part in the march organised by far-right activist and English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson, while a group of 5,000 protesters rallied in opposition to Robinson’s divisive and racist politics.
Organised by the campaign group Stand Up to Racism, speakers at the rally included Jeremy Corbyn, National Education Union leader Daniel Kebede and RMT Assistant General Secretary Eddie Dempsey, among numerous other important figures in the fight against racism.
In a powerful speech at the event, Dempsey hit out at the divisive narrative from politicians as he said the large march by Robinson supporters was “called on” by the likes of Suella Braverman and Rishi Sunak to “undermine the anti-war movement”. The trade union figure said they had “opened the door and made the way for these people to come out and sow further hate and division in our communities.”
He went on: “What people care about in this country are class issues, housing, wages, our communities. And that’s what we must fight for, and that’s how we undermine these people.
“So finally I’ll say this. We defeated the EDL, we defeated the Football Lads Alliance. Tommy’s back out again, and we’ll defeat him again. Solidarity is always more powerful than division. We’ve got a weapon of solidarity and today we’re going to use it.”
Hannah Davenport is news reporter at Left Foot Forward
RMT’s Eddie Dempsey joined a large line-up of speakers and used the occasion to highlight the power of solidarity and how to beat back the far right.
15,000 people took part in the march organised by far-right activist and English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson, while a group of 5,000 protesters rallied in opposition to Robinson’s divisive and racist politics.
Organised by the campaign group Stand Up to Racism, speakers at the rally included Jeremy Corbyn, National Education Union leader Daniel Kebede and RMT Assistant General Secretary Eddie Dempsey, among numerous other important figures in the fight against racism.
In a powerful speech at the event, Dempsey hit out at the divisive narrative from politicians as he said the large march by Robinson supporters was “called on” by the likes of Suella Braverman and Rishi Sunak to “undermine the anti-war movement”. The trade union figure said they had “opened the door and made the way for these people to come out and sow further hate and division in our communities.”
He went on: “What people care about in this country are class issues, housing, wages, our communities. And that’s what we must fight for, and that’s how we undermine these people.
“So finally I’ll say this. We defeated the EDL, we defeated the Football Lads Alliance. Tommy’s back out again, and we’ll defeat him again. Solidarity is always more powerful than division. We’ve got a weapon of solidarity and today we’re going to use it.”
Hannah Davenport is news reporter at Left Foot Forward
Resist far right after Tommy Robinson supporters riot in Southport
It came after Nazi Tommy Robinson mobilised over 15,000 in London last Saturday
The far right mob attack a mosque in Southport
By Charlie Kimber
Tuesday 30 July 2024
Fascists are trying to use the appalling murders of children in Southport to whip up Islamophobic violence and boost racism. On Tuesday evening they tried to burn down a mosque in the town.
Three children were murdered on Monday—Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice Dasilva Aguiar.
Five children and two adults remain in a critical condition after the attack. Local people came together for a remembrance vigil on Tuesday.
But later, and completely separately, around 200 Islamophobes gathered at a mosque near the site of the stabbing attack in Southport. Merseyside. Hundreds of people threw bricks, bottles and other missiles at the mosque. They chanted, “No surrender!” and, “England till I die!”
Stand Up To Racism said, “A mob has gathered to chant the same hateful slogans heard on Tommy Robinson’s far right demo in London last Saturday.
“This is a disgusting response to the tragedy. We cannot allow the far right to capitalise on the loss of precious lives.”
As the Southport riot happened, Robinson said the racists were “justified” in their actions.
On Twitter he posted, “Before anyone starts condemning the angry English men up in Southport, ask yourselves this, what do you fucking expect them to do.
“Don’t call them hooligans, they’re justified in their anger.”
The Searchlight anti-fascist magazine has reported, “Tommy Robinson’s right hand man, Danny Tommo, real name Daniel Thomas, has posted a hate-filled video on YouTube, calling for riots in British cities if the assailant in the Southport stabbings turns out to be a migrant.
“In a video entitled ‘Get ready. We’re making plans’, Tommo sits in a car, going off on a hate-filled diatribe calling for riots. He says, “Every city has to go up.
“Get prepared. Be ready. We have to. It has to go off in different cities. We have to show them we’ve had enough.”
Laurence Fox, who spoke at Robson’s rally, had tweeted, “Enough of this madness now. We need to permanently remove Islam from Great Britain.
“Completely and entirely.”
Far right activists instantly reacted to news of the murders with lies and hate. They claimed the attacker was an “illegal immigrant” who had arrived on a small boat across the Channel. They said he was a Muslim known to MI6.
All wrong. All designed to make people hate Muslims.
Police confirmed on Tuesday that the suspect had been born in Cardiff, Wales. The media reported he had parents who had come to Britain from Rwanda .
This frustrated the racists, who had desperately hoped to fuel their Islamophobia with a campaign about “killer migrants” and best of all “killer Muslim migrants”. So some of the far right moved on to say it was an anti-white attack, or a sign of the failure of multiculturalism—although at least one of the murdered children has migrant parents.
We don’t know the full facts about the case. And any such horror will always defy full explanation.
But in any case, facts don’t matter to racists.
As the mosque-burners were assembling, Reform UK MP Nigel Farage questioned “whether the truth is being withheld from us” over the stabbings”.
“I wonder whether the truth is being withheld from us. I don’t know the answer to that but I think it is a fair and legitimate question,” he said.
“What I do know is something is going horribly wrong in our once beautiful country.”
For Farage the murders have to be rooted in foreigners, the perceived evil of migrants and the ugliness of non-Britishness. It’s racist to the core.
Farage is echoing what Robinson said last Saturday—‘Enough is enough, a line in the sand has been drawn. We’re being replaced no longer.’
Violent racism is what Robinson wants to encourage. And Farage is an accomplice in the background of anti-migrant hatred.
The murders of small children are used by such people as ammunition in a race war.
Tuesday 30 July 2024
SOCIALIST WORKER Issue
Fascists are trying to use the appalling murders of children in Southport to whip up Islamophobic violence and boost racism. On Tuesday evening they tried to burn down a mosque in the town.
Three children were murdered on Monday—Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice Dasilva Aguiar.
Five children and two adults remain in a critical condition after the attack. Local people came together for a remembrance vigil on Tuesday.
But later, and completely separately, around 200 Islamophobes gathered at a mosque near the site of the stabbing attack in Southport. Merseyside. Hundreds of people threw bricks, bottles and other missiles at the mosque. They chanted, “No surrender!” and, “England till I die!”
Stand Up To Racism said, “A mob has gathered to chant the same hateful slogans heard on Tommy Robinson’s far right demo in London last Saturday.
“This is a disgusting response to the tragedy. We cannot allow the far right to capitalise on the loss of precious lives.”
As the Southport riot happened, Robinson said the racists were “justified” in their actions.
On Twitter he posted, “Before anyone starts condemning the angry English men up in Southport, ask yourselves this, what do you fucking expect them to do.
“Don’t call them hooligans, they’re justified in their anger.”
The Searchlight anti-fascist magazine has reported, “Tommy Robinson’s right hand man, Danny Tommo, real name Daniel Thomas, has posted a hate-filled video on YouTube, calling for riots in British cities if the assailant in the Southport stabbings turns out to be a migrant.
“In a video entitled ‘Get ready. We’re making plans’, Tommo sits in a car, going off on a hate-filled diatribe calling for riots. He says, “Every city has to go up.
“Get prepared. Be ready. We have to. It has to go off in different cities. We have to show them we’ve had enough.”
Laurence Fox, who spoke at Robson’s rally, had tweeted, “Enough of this madness now. We need to permanently remove Islam from Great Britain.
“Completely and entirely.”
Far right activists instantly reacted to news of the murders with lies and hate. They claimed the attacker was an “illegal immigrant” who had arrived on a small boat across the Channel. They said he was a Muslim known to MI6.
All wrong. All designed to make people hate Muslims.
Police confirmed on Tuesday that the suspect had been born in Cardiff, Wales. The media reported he had parents who had come to Britain from Rwanda .
This frustrated the racists, who had desperately hoped to fuel their Islamophobia with a campaign about “killer migrants” and best of all “killer Muslim migrants”. So some of the far right moved on to say it was an anti-white attack, or a sign of the failure of multiculturalism—although at least one of the murdered children has migrant parents.
We don’t know the full facts about the case. And any such horror will always defy full explanation.
But in any case, facts don’t matter to racists.
As the mosque-burners were assembling, Reform UK MP Nigel Farage questioned “whether the truth is being withheld from us” over the stabbings”.
“I wonder whether the truth is being withheld from us. I don’t know the answer to that but I think it is a fair and legitimate question,” he said.
“What I do know is something is going horribly wrong in our once beautiful country.”
For Farage the murders have to be rooted in foreigners, the perceived evil of migrants and the ugliness of non-Britishness. It’s racist to the core.
Farage is echoing what Robinson said last Saturday—‘Enough is enough, a line in the sand has been drawn. We’re being replaced no longer.’
Violent racism is what Robinson wants to encourage. And Farage is an accomplice in the background of anti-migrant hatred.
The murders of small children are used by such people as ammunition in a race war.
Anti-racists were right to demonstrate against Robinson last weekend. And we need far more of such campaigns now.
By Socialist Worker journalists
Saturday 27 July 2024
Anti-fascists defy Nazi Tommy Robinson in London
The turnout was significantly better on the anti-racist side than the last time Tommy Robinson marched in June—but we still face a big challenge
Anti-fascists march on the Stand Up To Racism counter-protest against Nazi Tommy Robinson (Picture: Guy Smallman)
Around 15,000 of Nazi Tommy Robinson’s supporters marched through central London on Saturday in one of the largest far right marches in recent memory.
It’s a warning of how the torrent of racism against refugees, migrants and Muslims from politicians has boosted the far right.
Around 5,000 people joined a counter-protest organised by Stand Up To Racism (SUTR). It’s a significant improvement on the 300 people who turned out to oppose Robinson’s last rally of up to 5,000 in June.
But this must be only the start of building a much bigger response to the fascists—and the state racism that fuels their rise.
The far right gathered outside of the Royal Courts of Justice and chanted Islamophobic slogans such as, “This is fucking England, you can stick Islam up your arse.”
Robinson’s supporters were overwhelming white, predominantly male and older. Their march reflected how fascists feed off the racism that’s been pushed by the Tories—and which Labour has gone along with.
When asked why he was marching, one racist said, “Migrants are taking all of the money in our country and we need to fight back.”
Another said, “London is becoming an Islamic city—especially after all of the Palestine protests.”
One said, “Being on this march is the first time in London I’ve felt among my own people and where we can speak freely—just don’t talk about the Jews.”
The far right march was a sea of St George’s and Union Jack flags—interspersed with Israeli flags and banners supporting Donald Trump.
When the police walked through the crowd, they booed, jostled and jeering, “You let your country down.”
Another Robinson supporter was chatting to a cop. The officer said, “I think a lot of what Robinson says isn’t too bad. There are too many people living in every country. We are only a little island and we’re getting overwhelmed.”
Robinson opened up the speeches in Trafalgar Square with, “Not a Palestinian flag in sight—this is what our capital city should look like.”
He is hoping to use the election of Nigel Farage and four other MPs for the far right Reform UK party—and could be hoping for a regroupment of the far right.
Tommy Robinson’s supporters on the march in London (Picture: Guy Smallman)
At one point, Robinson asked the crowd to put their hands up for what party they voted for. “Labour?” Robinson asked. No hands went up. “Tories?” Still no hands up. “Reform UK?.” Almost every hand went up.
Farage shifted to more openly far right language in the general election, but has shied away from openly embracing fascists.
“He doesn’t want to pick a fight,” Robinson said. “But Nigel Farage needs to stop kicking people out of Reform UK for speaking the truth”—a reference to the fascists Farage has been forced to distance himself from.
Disgraced actor Lawrence Fox echoes this. “When I texted Farage to ask if he was going to come up, he said sorry I can’t make it,” he said. “But the people here today are his voters.”
Anti-fascists gathered at Russell Square and march down to Whitehall within sight of the Robinson rally.
Sarah, a student who joined the counter-protest, told Socialist Worker, “The world is traveling in the direction of the 1930s. It’s terrifying to queer people, people of colour, migrants and is a threat to everybody.
“We can’t let history repeat itself, we need the presence of the left.”
Speakers included Jeremy Corbyn MP, RMT union assistant general secretary Eddie Dempsey, NEU union general secretary Daniel Kebede and Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) director Ben Jamal.
Jamal said, “We’re here today because we’re united by a set of values which are an affront to Tommy Robinson and his thugs. No to Tommy Robinson, no to Nigel Farage and no to Benjamin Netanyahu and their policies of hate.”
Jeremy Corbyn, the Independent MP for Islington North, told Socialist Worker, “The conditions under which fascism arose in the past in Europe, particularly in Germany, are beginning to be here again.
“The poverty and shortages of funding for public services and that led to blame cultures in society in which fascists thrived.”
“We need to push back against it by serious economic policies and demanding the redistribution of wealth.”
He added, “Thank you very much for everyone here for showing your solidarity to victims of racism and standing up to the hate message that Tommy Robinson represents.”
Zamard Zahid, an anti-racist and community campaigner from Glasgow, came as part of a delegation of around 30 people from Scotland. “I’m here because there has been a rise in Islamophobia,” she told Socialist Worker
“We saw the racist rhetoric from the Tory government and Tommy Robinson is emboldened.
“When the National Front (NF) was organising, in my parents’ generation, there was a lot of anti-racist activism. We’ve got to remember that whenever racism shows itself, we have to come together and stand against it. I had to be here.”
Zamard argued that, alongside confronting the far right, people “need to organise in our communities” to take on the racism arguments. “We did that in Erskine,” she explained—a Scottish town where anti-racists successfully organised against anti-refugee protests.
There was an impressive turnout from trade unions (see below). Ken is a CWU communication workers’ union member in east London. “When you look around at the world today, it’s looks like a world driven by racism,” he told Socialist Worker.
He pointing to the rise of the far right in the US and Europe. “You watch what’s going on and there’s Donald Trump, then there’s this guy, and this guy and another guy somewhere else pushing racism,” he said.
“Whenever there is racism, you’ve got to stand up against it. I’ve been on a fair few of these against the far right. Sometimes there’s not many of you, but we can’t stop opposing them and taking a stand.”
Delegations came from towns and cities across Britain, including Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, Coventry and South Wales.
Helen is Unison union member and council worker from South Wales. “Our union’s LGBT+ group paid for a coach and we’ve got people from different branches from South Wales on the march,” she told Socialist Worker.
“We’ll be marching on London Trans+ Pride later—it’s important to have solidarity across the movements.”
A contingent of anti-fascists, including many with trade union banners, went on to join London Trans+ Pride which turned out 50,000 people.
Carrie, a Unison union member and health worker, told Socialist Worker, “We’ve come up from Bournemouth with three people from my branch who’ve never been on marches before. Trade unions are key to mobilising people—it’s important to have bodies on the streets to oppose racism and the far right.”
She added that fighting on Palestine or taking on racism or transphobia is “not just down to one group” and that’s why it’s a “trade union issue”.
The turnout was significantly better on the anti-racist side and was down to hard work by activists across Britain. But we face a big challenge.
Weyman Bennett, SUTR co-convenor, told Socialist Worker, “Today anti-racists and anti-fascists drew a line in the sand. Every time Tommy Robinson brings racist and Nazi thugs onto the streets, we will be there to oppose them.
“Stand Up To Racism united thousands, from trade unions, faith organisation and right across the movement, to say no to racism and fascism.
“Robinson and his supporters exposed the hatred and racism at the heart of his mobilisation today with far right slogans and Islamophobic chants
“The task is an urgent one now. The anti-racist majority we know exists in Britain needs to mobilise against Farage’s racism in parliament and beat back the fascist threat on the streets.”
Many people voted for the Labour Party hoping for a change from the Tories policies of austerity and racism. They will be against Farage and Robinson and racist scapegoating—and show the potential size of our side.
The new government has cancelled the Rwanda Deportations scheme and said it will shut the Bibby Stockholm prison barge. That wouldn’t have happened without a determined campaign by anti-racists—and, in the case of the barge, refugees themselves.
But when home secretary Yvette Cooper promises a “summer blitz” of deportations, our movement has to respond. It’s right that SUTR demands that Labour breaks with Tory policies—and is keeping up campaigning to welcome refugees and against the state’s Islamophobia.
But Labour isn’t breaking with the Tories’ “hostile environment”. And it won’t deliver fundamental change for ordinary people, which can lead to disillusionment that will allow the likes of Farage and Robinson to grow.
We have to mobilise on the streets—against the far right and the state racism that fuels it—in larger numbers to stop that happening.
A list of the trade union banners on the Stand Up To Racism counter-protest: Warwickshire NEU
Goldsmiths UCU
London Region UCU
London Region CWU
Brighton University UCU
Salisbury Trades Council
Barnet Unison
Brent NEU
London, East & South East Region TUC
Coventry Trades Council
UCLH Unison
Unite Tom Mann
CWU South Mids
Dorset Healh Unison
South Central CWU
Unison North West Region
Essex Amal CWU
Camden Unison
Hammersmith & Fulham Unison
Dorset County Unison
Salisbury & District TUC
Cambridgeshire NEU
Lambeth Unison
Wilts & Avon Health Unison
Lambeth NEU
London & South East Region PCS
Unison Wales LGBT+
City and County of Swansea Unison
Southend LG Unison
Lambeth Unison
Tower Hamlets Trades council
Kirklees Unison
Dudley Trades Council
Harringey NEU
Glasgow City Unison
Hackney NEU
Cardiff County Unison
Chesterfield UCU
South Yorkshire NUJ
Rotherham Trades Council
Sheffield Trades Council
Chesterfield Trades Council
Unite Sheffield CYW & NFP South Yorks NE/493/5
Lambeth Unison black workers group
Greenwich Unison
Portsmouth Unison
Doctors in Unite
Swansea Bay Unison Health Branch
Trafford Unison
Unison Scotland region
Portsmouth Trades Council
Redbridge NEU
Topics Anti-fascism, Anti-racism
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