Anti-racists march against Tommy Robinson on 27 July (Picture: Guy Smallman)
Anti-racists across Britain are building the biggest possible turnout to stop Nazi Tommy Robinson in London on 26 October.
There’s less than two weeks to go until the Stand Up To Racism (SUTR) counter-protest.
School workers in south west England overwhelmingly support the mobilisation. “Every NEU district in the region is committed to building for the counter-protest,” said Jon, who sits on the union’s national executive.
“Each district is committed to sending a delegation and funding coaches or trains to help members that wish to travel to London,” he told Socialist Worker.
“Everyone is mailing out to members details of the protest. We want to double the size of the delegations we have now.”
On a call of all NEU district secretaries in the south west, Jon said that there was “a real commitment to confront Robinson”. “Everything is in place—now it’s getting lists of names and asking people to go,” he said.
Jon has also been approaching local branches of the BMA junior doctors’ union, Aslef train drivers’ union, CWU communications union and the RMT transport union. “I’m talking to people I met over the strike wave pushing them to commit to building for 26 October in their own branches,” he said.
Sean, a UCU union member at a north London college, told Socialist Worker, “We had a branch meeting of 50 people where we discussed our support for the action. The support was unanimous.
“We had people commit to coming and we are sending out emails to members with details to follow up.”
Sean said that speakers placed the threat of fascism “in the context of a far right party with five MPs in parliament”. “The Reform UK MPs boost the fascist street movement while pretending to champion working class living standards,” he said.
“In every workplace there will be arguments, but we can win them. The message must be that this is the demonstration you must be on.”
Paul Power is secretary of Haringey trades council, which brings together trade unions across the north London borough. “We have organised leafleting with Haringey SUTR at local Tube stations and shopping centres and postering,” he told Socialist Worker.
“We are using our relationships with trade unionists and local organisations to build.”
“We visited union reps at local bus garages to talk about the demonstration. We will be revisiting them this week on building for 26 October.”
The NEU education union in Haringey has agreed to mobilise for the demonstration, with “some branch officers agreeing to get involved in leafleting or ring rounds”.
Paul spoke at the RMT union’s Finsbury Park Tube workers’ branch and “they agreed to support the counter-protest and plan to go with their banner”. He also met with a local Turkish/Kurdish organisation “who are now supporting the demo and helping out with leafleting”.
“And I’ll be speaking at another Kurdish/Turkish organisation’s meeting this week on the rising threat of fascism,” he said.
The Unison union branch in Haringey has also organised a meeting this week to build for 26 October.
In Lambeth, south London, NEU member Michael Holland said the union had “a meeting where reps and members came along.” “We had a speaker from SUTR and handed out leaflets, posters and pledge sheets,” he told Socialist Worker.
Trade unionists “took the sheets” where people can pledge to attend the counter-protest “and are using it in their workplaces”.
“Our target is to get 200 people from our union district attending the protest, which is around 10 percent of the whole district membership,” he said. “I’m currently tallying up the number that we have pledged so far.”
Lambeth NEU members have organised phone banks to contact other members to get involved. They’re “sending out names and contacts to those who volunteered to help out”.
He argued that activists should “speak face to face or at least on the phone, not just on WhatsApp, to the closest people around you”. “Get them on board,” he said. “Send them SUTR resources, ask if they can help out by leafleting a workplace or ringing up others to commit to being there on 26 October.”
Steve is co-secretary of a PCS civil service workers’ union branch in Edinburgh. “We had an all members meeting at my branch in the Department of Work and Pensions,” he told Socialist Worker.
“We invited an SUTR speaker who went through why there needs to be the biggest possible turnout for the demo. And they encouraged everyone to travel to London.”
Students at Manchester university have “been postering for 26 October on the student accommodations and on campus,” said student Yasmin, who is involved in Manchester SUTR.
“We’ve been doing shout outs for the demo at lectures and leafleting the lectures. We’ve handed out over a thousand leaflets.”
Bob, SUTR Birmingham convenor, told Socialist Worker, “We have identified all the events that can be leafleted over the next two weeks. We’ve distributed lists of phone numbers of people to ring up and have a personal conversation with.”
He said that SUTR would “ mass leaflet and get people signed up” at a Palestine demonstration on Sunday. “The crossover between the Palestine movement and the anti-fascist work is vital,” he said.
SUTR in Harlow, Essex, has been breaking through to people who haven’t been involved before. Janet, a local anti-racist activist, said, “The organising assembly we held had quite a lot of new faces attending.
“It helped us build in as many camps as possible, from church groups to people we met at Palestine vigils. It had breakout groups that discussed where to leaflet in our area and workplaces to try and mobilise.”
Janet said it boosted the number of people coming on the coach on 26 October and created new activists. “We are going all out with poster runs and stalls now to involve the new people we have engaged,” she said.
The mobilisation in Brighton is growing “among a section of trade unionists”, said Christian, a local activist. “We spoke at an NEU regional meeting and then out of that the union donated £2,000 to SUTR.
We are aiming to get people out leafleting workplaces and train stations and will make sure activists leave with posters and leaflets.”
Dorset SUTR held a summit to “develop a plan of action” for building the counter-protest. Candy Udwin, joint secretary of Dorset SUTR, told Socialist Worker, “We had to work hard to build it.
“But we got a number of bookings for the coach to London—and it convinced people of the urgent need to confront Robinson.”
Anti-fascists pushed back on the far right riots on 7 and 10 August through mass mobilisations. Now Tommy Robinson wants to turn the tables on anti-racists. Let’s build the biggest possible turnout to stop him doing that.
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