Stand Up To Racism counter-protest on 27 July (Picture: Guy Smallman)
Nazi Tommy Robinson wants to put fascism on the front foot by mobilising thousands of far right thugs in central London on Saturday 26 October. His supporters are desperate for a return to the wave of racist violence they ignited across Britain at the end of summer.
Then, fascists in South Yorkshire tried to burn refugees alive by setting fire to a hotel the government had housed them in. They also tried to set fire to a mosque in Merseyside in the hope that the congregation would be caught in the flames.
The anti-fascist mobilisations that followed hurled back the racists. But, if Robinson gets large numbers out at his demo at the end of the month, the far right will prepare to go on the rampage again.
That’s why anti-racists must build the biggest possible opposition to the fascists—and work for a huge turnout on the Stand Up To Racism (SUTR) counter-demonstration. Robinson’s protests are always full of Nazi salutes and Islamophobic chants. Both he and his supporters remain a minority.
But if we don’t confront them while they are small, they deepen their roots and grow. You only need look at Europe to see the results.
The fascist Freedom Party won the most votes in the Austrian election in September.
It is a party whose first leader was a Nazi SS officer. It promotes “remigration”, which amounts to mass deportation of migrants regardless of how long they have been in Austria, or even if they were born there.
In Italy, Giorgia Meloni is prime minister with her Brothers of Italy party. It’s a continuation of the MSI party founded by allies of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.
The party says it is resisting “a plan for ethnic replacement” orchestrated by “speculators”, “communists” and George Soros, whom Meloni has labelled a “usurer”—a play on the fact that he is Jewish.
Its youth wing was recently shown chanting “Sieg Heil” and making Nazi salutes. In France, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally stands in the tradition of French fascism and won more votes than any other party in the last election.
Le Pen describes migrants “as a threat to the family” and refuses to condemn French Nazi collaborators in the Second World War.
The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which is led by fascists, is having success in regional elections. Its senior figures have met with open Nazis and discussed removing people “with a foreign background”.
This is the march of fascism in Europe. And it is what Robinson wants to replicate in Britain. The march of the far right also pushes the state to up its own racism.
That means more violent attacks against Muslims, more deportations of refugees who are fleeing hardship and turmoil and more migrants dying trying to cross borders.
But the advance of the far right isn’t inevitable. The key to beating the fascists is to confront them on the streets whenever they try to march, to outnumber them, to deny them space and demoralise them.
Join the SUTR counter-protest—and let’s push the fascists back.
The Labour government is carrying out raids on migrant workers, and cracking down on the exploited, rather than the companies profiting from precarious work. Around 30 Brazilian delivery riders working for companies such as Deliveroo and Uber Eats were living in caravans in the centre of Bristol until earlier this month.
Many were earning below the minimum wage and unable to afford rent in the city. News reports last weekend showed immigration officers raiding their roadside caravans on 3 October. They arrested 17 people and took 13 to detention centres in London.
The migrant workers are now facing deportation—even though some have lived in Britain for years. Labour minister for border security, Angela Eagle, backed the raid, justifying it with more racist scapegoating.
Celia Campos works for both Deliveroo and Uber Eats and lived in one of the caravans. “I’m outraged,” she said. “Fathers and mothers being treated as if they were animals. We are workers, not criminals.”
The Home Office is “going to the wrong place—they should be raiding the companies,” she said. The IWGB union, which represents precarious workers, slammed Labour’s move.
“The government opts over and over again for performative cruelty towards the people just trying to survive,” said Alex Marshall, IWGB union president.
Neither Deliveroo nor Uber Eats formally employ their “riders”, and instead pay them for each individual delivery. Bosses do this to avoid minimum wage laws and other workers’ rights.
The national living wage is £11.33 an hour—Celia reported earning £6.27 an hour. While workers struggle, bosses are cashing in. Deliveroo reported a profit of £1.3 million in the first half of 2024. Uber reported a profit of nearly £1 billion in 2023.
Labour’s new Employment Rights Bill, announced last week, originally said it would give precarious workers the same rights as employed workers. But to please the bosses and the rich, Labour replaced this with a pledge to “consult” on a “simpler employment framework”.
And Labour has pledged to expand detention capacity and ramp up deportations, promising that migrants caught working “illegally” will be “detained and swiftly removed”. Labour’s scapegoating of migrants lends legitimacy to the claims of fascist Tommy Robinson.
Official politics, saturated with racist lies, normalises racist division—and enables the far right to grow.
Racism first developed as a justification for enslavement
