East London Stands Against the Far Right – Apsana Begum MP
By Apsana Begum MP
There is no sugar coating it: these are very difficult times.
The-far right have attempted to march through the East End of London, they have targeted hotels housing asylum seekers, and there is a rise in the far-fight all over Europe.
Governments are cutting services, attacking working class communities whilst scapegoating migrants.
Politicians are participating in perpetuating the lie that migrants are the problem are whipping up anxiety and fear.
All over, the political establishment are repeating the absurdity of one of the greatest political myths of modern times – that the way to defeat the bigoted far-right is to pander to them. That poverty and austerity are inevitable. The consequences of this are very dangerous.
Austerity and disempowerment are a climate upon which racism, discrimination, and bigotry thrive.
It’s in that context, that the position of the Labour leadership has been impossible to defend.
Keir Starmer’s infamous comments about Israel’s right to cut off electricity and food to Gaza had quite rightly shocked and angered people. And then just a week before Election Day last year, the dog-whistle scapegoating comments about Bangladeshis sparked outrage and fear.
I know that these present serious questions regarding the consequences of political positions taken on civil liberties, migrant rights, attacks on democracy, Palestine and support for big business and privatisation – and I will never accept child poverty or pensioner poverty as a normal part of our society and that there is nothing that can be done about it.
Because we know in East London that injustice and inequality are not inevitable.
If there is no money for our children to live free from poverty or for our older people to enjoy their later years without hardship – then the money must be found.
If the way our economy is run means that large scale human suffering and wasted potential is unavoidable then it is up to the Government to change the way that the economy is run.
The reality is that local people are angry with the political establishment that has not only been complicit in the genocide in Gaza but have viciously tried to censor and repress anyone showing compassion with Palestinian suffering.
This is alongside the attacks on our right to protest stifled through successive government legislation from the Public Order Act which needs to be repealed, to the Policing and Crime Bill.
But I look around me, and I am inspired by you all coming out on the streets today to defend our local communities in a beautiful way – and yes that does include you, the women of Tower Hamlets, who have been leading as organisers too!
From the Jewish communities and allies opposed fascists at the Battle of Cable Street in 1936, to the murder of Altab Ali brought people out onto the streets and where the Bangladeshi communities led the anti-fascist mobilisation in the 1970s.
From the coalition of women and people from working class backgrounds that drove the BNP out of Tower Hamlets in the 1990s, to the communities came together in mass demonstrations against the Iraq War in the anti-war mobilisation in 2003:
We continue to diversity as a strength, and where our communities include migrants from all around the world.
We know that our struggles for freedom are connected with struggles against oppression everywhere around the world.
We will remind ourselves in those traditions that hardships are overcome and they are overcome collectively.
It’s from the strength, that we say to all those trying to spread their intolerance, division and hatred: We are diverse, multicultural, multiracial, of all faiths and none, and from all around the world.
We will continue up for ourselves, from Poplar to Whitechapel and beyond for each other, and for all of our diverse communities in the UK.
No Pasaran!
- Apsana Begum is the Member of Parliament for Poplar and Limehouse- you can follow her on Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram and TikTok.
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