A mass turnout on the fascist march for Tommy Robinson (Picture: Guy Smallman)
A swarm of over 100,000 fascists and racists descended on central London on Saturday in the biggest far right mobilisation in British history.
Nazi Tommy Robinson’s breakthrough march shows the scale of the fascist threat—and how much Keir Starmer has legitimised the far right and racism.
The fascists surrounded a Stand Up To Racism (SUTR) mobilisation of up to 20,000 people as it rallied on Whitehall, blocking off the ways out for several hours.
Anti-racists stood their ground facing the fascists who’d overrun Trafalgar Square. But it should hammer home to the whole movement the urgency of mobilising in our tens and hundreds of thousands against the far right and racism.
The sheer size of the march alone is a severe warning—but the breadth was alarming too. Families joined hardened fascist thugs.
Placards reading, “Stop the boats,” littered the march while others attacked Starmer for supporting “Asian grooming gangs”.
There was a smattering of Reform UK T-shirts, mixed with Trump and Israel flags, but the march was a sea of Union and St George’s flags.
Some spouted fascist conspiracy theories such as the Great Replacement Theory, with one placard reading, “We know your trying to replace us.”
Transphobic placards were on the march in a sign of how it’s a mobiliser for the far right.
Fascist groups such as Patriot Alternative handed out flyers. One Patriotic Alternative flyer handed out said it’s “advocating for the rights of indigenous Brits in order to not be treated as second class citizens”.
The Metropolitan Police were initially nowhere to be seen as fascist thugs marched on the back of the SUTR demonstration and some walked through it (see below). A week ago, the police mobilised forces from across Britain to arrest over 800 Palestine-supporting pensioners, vicars and others for the “crime” of holding placards.
The fascists tried to attack the SUTR march through a side street—and then by coming into Whitehall.
They threw bottles and other missiles and shouted, “Oh Tommy Robinson,” and racist abuse at the anti-racists for hours. At around 6.30pm, supporters of SUTR were able to leave and marched up together to Green Park Tube station.
There are three important lessons from today. First, it showed how far the mainstream has normalised far right and racist views in society.
The fascists have built through three key issues. The anti-refugee protests outside hotels, the lie Asian or Muslim men pose a particular threat to women with lies about “grooming gangs” and the England flags campaign this summer.
On every single issue Labour has not only capitulated—it has rushed to the right and sought to “out-racist” the far right.
Home secretary Yvette Cooper may be gone, but she’s been replaced by Shabana Mahmood who is known for her “tough” stance on migrants.
We’re seeing the same process take place in Britain that happened in other European countries Mainstream politicians scapegoated migrants and refugees for their failures, particularly after the global financial crisis of 2007-8.
This opened the door for racist populist politicians because it legitimises their arguments. And mainstream conservatives and liberals then shift further rightwards in a bid to outflank the racists and far right.
But that only lays the ground for the growth of the far right—including fascist forces. In Italy, for example, this process has propelled fascist Brothers of Italy leader Giorgia Meloni into the office of prime minister.
Today, Nigel Farage and Reform UK are the ones setting the agenda.
Second, it showed that Reform UK’s shift to embrace anti-refugee protests has made it more acceptable for right wingers to march with fascists.
Farage was careful to keep a distance between Reform UK and Robinson. While Farage and Robinson aren’t allies, Reform UK did shift to supporting street politics in way it hadn’t before this summer. For example, the vice chair of Reform UK’s branch in Epping, Essex, shared a stage with a Nazi, SUTR revealed.
This shift will have further legitimised and boosted forces further to its right.
Third, it hammers home that taking on the far right’s lies about immigration is vital to beating back Reform UK and the fascists.
A large section of the left and labour movement want to focus on the far right’s pro-corporate policies or say their rise is primarily about austerity. It’s true that Farage and the far right latches onto people’s anger at years of neoliberalism and austerity hammering people.
But opposition to “mass” and “illegal” immigration is the glue that binds together their story of Britain’s “national decline”.
Lewis Nielsen, SUTR anti-fascist officer, told the rally on Whitehall, “I want to make an appeal to every single person in the crowd today. Don’t just be a participant. Don’t just attend today’s march—become an organiser, become a leader.
“We need leaders up and down the country—in every school, every university, every workplace, we are going to build a movement.”
He added, “We need more numbers on our side—and, to get more numbers on our side, we have to win certain arguments.
“Argument number one—we have to call them out for the fascists they are. Don’t pretend to me that Tommy Robinson’s not a fascist. Don’t pretend to me that the AFD in Germany aren’t fascist.
“The second argument is this—don’t tell me there are legitimate concerns about immigration. Don’t tell me there can be a civilised debate about migrants in this country.”
Saturday could go down as the day the fascists broke through in Britain. But it could also go down as the day that served as a wake up call to the left and labour movement which then turned words into mass action and turned the tide.
On the Stand Up To Racism mobilisation (Picture: Guy Smallman)
Anti-racists rallied at Russell Square and marched to Whitehall.
Aija, an emergency planning worker from Guilford, told Socialist Worker, “I have been so frustrated. The right wing are using the rhetoric of protecting women—I don’t want them to protect me.
“They are just using women to justify their racism and xenophobia. We found out that so many men involved in last year’s racist riots had committed domestic violence.
“This has been going on for too long. We need to stand up and show we’re bigger than them and we’re going to stand up for refugees.”
Francisca, from south London, said that it is easy to get scared about what is going on in the world with the rise of the far right. “Seeing the England flags and Union Jacks everywhere can be really terrifying,” she told Socialist Worker.
“But we need to keep standing up as a community—it’s important to unite and bring together those that might feel more ostracised.”
She thought that counter-demonstrations are “significant not just for those that are being targeted to see that they are not alone”.
“But also to show the far right that there are still people that will take a stand against them,” she added.
Socialist Worker counted 54 trade union branch banners on the demo including 20 from the NEU union as well as banners of seven trade union councils.
Zarah Sultana from Your Party told the crowd, “The far right wanted to divide us, they want us to blame our neighbours instead of the powerful. They want to stir up hatred against Muslims, against migrants, against refugees.
“But we know the real enemy of the working class is travelling by private jet, not migrant dinghy.”
Steve Wright, general secretary of the FBU union, said, “I know who the real enemy is to my union members. It’s not someone coming across on a boat to our country. It is the bosses. It’s the billionaire class.
“So, we need to point the finger of blame directly at the real enemy here.”
The fascists started marching at Stanford Street, the opposite side of Blackfriars bridge. As the march approached Westminster bridge to cross into Whitehall, they heard the police had blocked the bridge as Whitehall was packed.
“We can shut the bridge, but we can’t shut the Channel,” one protester complained. Others immediately jumped to say it was all planned.
But the police simply let the far right tear off through central London. They crossed Waterloo bridge and rallied in Whitehall—and tried to attack the SUTR counter-demonstration.
“We need the Crusades back. Let’s get over there and cut them up,” one fascist said. “They’re pushing us to do it.””
“I’d tell Keir Starmer he can get fucked,” one racist said. “I’d go to him and say—why do you put blacks before whites?”
As the march left, one of the far right pointed to an Asian child holding a St George’s flag. “That’s what we need,” he said. “Good people—you come over, work your ass off and you get a nice little paki shop for yourself.
“Others just come here without that intention—and we don’t want those ones.” Another said, “We can let them in—so we can kick them out.”
At Whitehall, the fascists held a minute’s silence for Charlie Kirk. Robinson said, “Keir Starmer dared to make a Twitter post about Charlie Kirk.
“If Charlie Kirk came to this country, he would have been imprisoned for some of the things he said,” he said.
Elon Musk joined online to tell the crowd of racists he supported them as they “stand up to government oppression and fight for the truth”. “There’s so many on the left that want to crush debate. Something’s got to be done—this is unacceptable,” he said.
He threatened, “When violence is coming to you, you either fight back or you die.”
Far right Romanian nationalist George Simion joined Robinson on stage echoing Musk, “We stand with Charlie Kirk.”
As well as themes of freedom of speech, racist tropes ran through the entire rally. Another speaker said Britain has “been completely invaded”.
“We need you to stand up for our country, our culture,” she said. “Migrants are having two, three, four, five babies. The government is taking our money and funding the great demographic replacement of our nation.
“Our daughters will not submit to an ideology that tells them they are second class citizens in their own land.”
Brian Tamaki, Christian fundamentalist from New Zealand, said, “Ban mosques, ban temples, ban shrines—we don’t want those in our countries.”
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