Anti-racist, anti-fascist rally in London, July 2024. Anti-racist and anti-fascist groups across Britain are mobilising in a series of counter-demonstrations this weekend in response to an uptick in far-right violence. Picture: Stand Up to Racism / X
By Ana Vračar
Anti-fascist groups in Britain are preparing for a weekend of mobilisations against the far-right. For the past week, far-right groups have incited a series of violent rallies across England, exploiting the public discourse after three children were tragically killed in a stabbing in Southport, northwest England.
Exploiting the towns mourning, far-right groups have cynically manipulated the narrative surrounding the event into their hate-driven, racist, and Islamophobic discourse. Hundreds travelled to Southport and other towns in the north following vigils held for the killed children, only to spark violent riots. The rioters surrounded and attacked mosques with people inside, set police vehicles ablaze, and vandalised local shops.
In the aftermath of the far-right destruction in Southport, reports started to circulate about attacks against racialised community members in other areas. Safety concerns remain high throughout the country, with non-Christian places of worship placed under police protection.
In Liverpool, anti-racists have surrounded mosques to express support and shield them from potential attacks. On the night of Friday, August 2, far-right rioters set fire to a Citizens Advice office in Sunderland, an organisation that provides free advice on social security and legal matters.
The escalation was at least partly fuelled by misinformation on the Southport event shared on social media, falsely identifying the accused stabber as an asylum seeker, an undocumented migrant, and a Muslim — targets consistent with the Islamophobia promoted by fascist organisations like Patriotic Alternative and figures like the founder of the England Defence League, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, also known under the name Tommy Robinson.
“The explosion of anger on display in Southport was a toxic cocktail of raw and understandable horror at the brutal murder of children, mixed with ingrained societal Islamophobia and misinformation spread by influencers seeking to inflame tensions,” the anti-far-right group Hope Not Hate stated following the events.
In response to the unrest, community members came together the following day to clear the debris and support the affected individuals, including rebuilding a mosque wall that rioters had demolished to use bricks as projectiles against the mosque’s main building.
While figures like Reform UK’s Nigel Farage have capitalised on the events in Southport, activists, including rapper Lowkey, argue that the attacks are not isolated incidents but “the harvest from decades of direct engineering by major actors within certain establishment sectors.”
Subsequent UK governments have consistently demonised the Muslim community and pitted the working-class against migrants, while austerity measures and wage caps have eroded the social safety net for all.
Given this context, some argue that the new Labour government’s focus on increasing security and police presence, as announced by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, will be insufficient to curb the strengthening of the far-right. Rather, it will be crucial to rebuild the cohesion mechanisms that have been systematically dismantled over the years.
With more far-right rallies planned for the coming days in at least two dozen of cities including Manchester, Lancaster, and Leeds, local communities have vowed to stand against them, promising counter-events that promote solidarity and equality.
Ana Vračar is a Zagreb-based researcher and activist with the People’s Health Movement and the Organisation for Worker’s Initiative and Democratisation.
This article was published on Peoples Dispatch