Building the Together alliance in Manchester (Photo: X/Stand Up To Racism)
Labour MP Diane Abbott and Unison union general secretary Andrea Egan have thrown their weight behind the Together alliance’s march against the far right.
Together has called a unity demonstration on 28 March in central London to put the anti-racist movement on the front foot.
Abbott was at a 50-strong meeting in Hackney, east London, to build Together. She told the meeting,“The majority of people in this country do want to fight the far right—but what you see in the media seems like something different.”
Abbott said that she has “never felt a more difficult or dangerous time to be fighting the far right”.
In Italy, a fascist prime minister is in office. In France, fascist RN is knocking on the gates of power. In Germany, the fascist AfD is soaring in the polls. In the United States, Donald Trump is using Ice as an invading army to crush dissent.
“Trump shows where we could go unless we are prepared to fight,” Abbott argued.
“With the rise of the far right you get brutality, you get unfairness, you get racism. It is so important, whether it is internationally, nationally, or even here in Hackney, that we are prepared to fight.
“If we don’t, things can go downhill. We need to support each other. We need to come together.”
The Together alliance is also winning broad support from trade unions, including Unison—one of the biggest unions in Britain with 1.3 million members.
Andrea Egan, the recently elected general secretary, spoke out in support of the Together alliance at a picket line of National Coal Mining Museum strikers.
“We are at a turning point,” Egan said. “Nigel Farage, Tommy Robinson, they are on the move. They cannot take over our community spaces. The narrative is divisive.”
Many opinion polls put far right Reform UK with a 10 percentage point lead over other political parties.
Egan said, “I want to see Unison union members, I want to see branches and regions organising to get ourselves there” on the 28 March demonstration.
“We’ve got to occupy that space. We’ve got to own it.
“We’ve got to send a message to our politicians, to your Labour politicians, if you want to be elected, you need to start acting like a Labour Party.”
The support for the Together alliance is growing. It is up to anti-racists on the ground to turn this support into mass numbers on the streets.
Dominion Society is building links with Restore Britain
Demos will be held across Britain
