Letters: From far right assault to anti-racist success in Falkirk

The Falkirk Unity demonstration

On 16 August last year, anti-racists stood for the first time in front of Hotel Cladhan in Falkirk, which was housing asylum seekers.

I don’t think anyone imagined we would face a 1,000-strong far right crowd on the other side of the road. It was the biggest far right protest in Scottish history.

Over the past year, the far right have hounded Palestine demonstrations and tried to intimidate refugees.

This year on the anniversary, the sights in Falkirk were much more hopeful. Falkirk For All, together with Stand Up To Racism, organised a unity demonstration on 15 August.

It celebrated a year of anti-racist and anti‑fascist resistance. In this time, we have been able to significantly reduce the size of far right demonstrations.

Built through weeks of campaigning and supported by multiple trade unions, the demonstration was a substantial success.

Some 450 people marched on Saturday carrying banners and placards with messages of resistance and unity. A “Falkirk United Against Racism” banner was prominent at the front of the march.

The far right held their own protest at the—now empty—Hotel Cladhan. While some of them separated to attempt to disrupt our demonstration, they didn’t muster more than 20 and we saw them off.

This success comes after a year-long fight. Multiple demonstrations have been built, bringing hundreds of people into the anti-racist movement and rooting it locally.

On one occasion 300 people rallied with 24 hours’ notice to protect the hotel for eight hours.

Crucially, we were able to break softer racists away from the fascists.

The 15 August 2026 proves once again that we—the anti-racists and anti‑fascists—are the majority.

Sam Osiecka, Edinburgh

Hammer Zionism

I am writing as a season ticket holder at West Ham football club.

The Israeli footballer Manor Solomon recently joined the club from Tottenham Hotspur.

It was sickening to hear other Hammers fans chanting, “Manor Solomon’s on my mind and he hates Palestine” during his first match.

Solomon has consistently used social media to support Israel in its genocide of Palestinians.

Following the Zionist state’s brutal attack on the al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza, he shared a post that said Palestinian fighters had killed their own people.

The club called on supporters to stop singing this song, calling it “offensive and divisive”. But this isn’t strong enough.

The chant should be condemned. Leeds United got it right when Solomon played for them calling the song a hate crime.

Solomon shouldn’t have been signed. A West Ham fan launched a petition when the club were considering the signing, urging the board of directors not to go ahead. But the hierarchy of our club didn’t listen.

We must continue to chant, “Free, free Palestine.”

Steve West, Edinburgh

Don’t let them erase the reality of empire

In the US lying is becoming mandatory, for example through a refusal to discuss the crimes of slavery.

This is just as in much of the British educational establishment, where there’s a demand for “balanced” teaching about the British Empire.

What “balance” can you give to an empire that executed Indians by tying them across the barrel of a cannon and blowing them to pieces?

Or in Malaysia after the Second World War, massacring villagers, then making up stories that they were “communist insurgents”.

What’s happened in the US under Donald Trump is an extreme version of “American exceptionalism”.

The far right would like to see a more extreme version of “British exceptionalism” over here.

In Britain, the empire is portrayed as sometimes somehow “beneficial” to the countries pillaged by it.

Liberals want all that erased from history—hence they don’t talk about it—but the far right want to bring it back.

Merlin Reader, London

Labour is a guilty party

Equalities minister Bridget Phillipson has said that racism and sexism have become normalised in Britain.

She slammed the Conservative Party and Reform UK for their racism and accused them of not taking violence against women seriously.

But she resolutely avoided admitting Labour’s part in this.

Keir Starmer has peddled racism and shifted mainstream politics to the right.

We should demand more than hollow words.

Faye Young, Liverpool