In Epping, organised fascists and their racist supporters have scored a notable victory over the last couple of weeks. The situation was not turned around by yesterday’s creditable anti-racist turnout but maybe a line has been drawn, and a moment signalled when the real, hard work of winning hearts and changing minds in that divided community – and others like it – must begin.
Police estimated that some 2000 anti-fascist marchers turned out, and credit is due to all those who made the effort. Stand Up To Racism pulled out the stops and managed to mobilise its supporters in good numbers.
Two years of fascist agitation around the Bell Hotel where asylum-seekers are being housed bore fruit when a resident of the hotel was arrested and charged with sexual assaults on young girls.
Hundreds of local people joined demonstrations calling for the hotel to be closed, and it was no surprise when those marches degenerated into what were, bluntly speaking, race riots.
It was what the fascists have been aiming for since last summer’s riots following the dreadful murder of three young girls in Southport.
Political victory
When Epping’s (Conservative) District Council voted unanimously to ask the Home Office to close the hotel to asylum-seekers, and the (Conservative ) Police and Crime Commissioner made the same demand, the fascists started crowing.
It was a notable political victory.
And, they made it plain, it would be the template for further actions around the country.
Battle of ideas
This is what we are likely to face over the coming weeks and months.
So we have to be prepared to turn out in greater numbers, but also give serious thought to what we have to do in communities like this to win the battle of ideas which, at the moment, the far right is winning.
In the long term, marches and sloganising will just not be enough. Tough, ground-level campaigning work in localities like this is essential.
The Searchlight/Hope Not Hate campaigns against the BNP in, for instance, Barking and Dagenham in the 2000s, contain valuable lessons for the way forward.
It is a challenge we simply cannot shirk.
Robinson backs down
In Epping itself, the threat of a massive racist manifestation on Sunday receded when Tommy Robinson, having announced he would be bringing thousands of his supporters to the town, decided that this was not his wisest course of action.
He reasoned that it would be a distraction from what local activists had already achieved.
But this has never stopped him in the past. The simple calculation was actually that it would distract from his September 13 London rally which is his major grift of the year.
And, of course, you can never discount Robinson’s simple physical cowardice.
And as well as Epping, the weekend saw a number of far-right actions called across the country. The results were patchy but the fascists did score a number of successes which serve as a wake-up call to all of us.
It is clear that they cannot routinely call out huge numbers but widespread, latent hostility to migrants and asylum-seekers means it only takes a spark like Southport or Epping for the situation to change dramatically.
Glasgow
Glasgow was the scene of one of the weekend’s most significant events, when Nick Tenconi’s UKIP attempted their latest march for ‘mass deportations’. Thankfully, it was seen off.
A counter-march of some 500 anti-racists meant that police were forced to re-direct Tenconi’s rag-tag rabble away from their planned route – much to Tenconi’s displeasure.
There were arguments and, according to some reports, even fisticuffs between UKIP marchers before they set off for a rally in the corner of a park.
Events were livened up by the appearance of a contingent from the neo-nazi Patriotic Alternative, trying to muscle in on UKIP’s gig.
This sent not only Nick Tenconi but also ‘Tommy Robinson’ into minor fits of apoplexy. Tenconi had already railed against nazis from Homeland and White Vanguard pitching up in Epping:
After Glasgow it was Robinson’s turn:
Wolverhampton
Anti-racists scored another success at Wolverhampton where they hugely outnumbered a handful of racists and took over the site of a planned far-right rally outside a hotel housing asylum-seekers.
North Staffordshire Campaign Against Racism and Fascism later posted that “Unity won the day, alongside £230 raised for the residents of the hotel.
“Meanwhile six people with a flimsy-looking flag loitered awkwardly at the edges. “
Norwich
Things were less successful in Norwich where, as we reported on Saturday, an anti-migrant rally outside the Brook Hotel got off to a bumpy start when its organiser, James Harvey, founder and self-styled leader of Students Against Tyranny (sic), was arrested earlier in the day.
He has been charged with racially aggravated behaviour following a demonstration in Diss last week, and may face further public order charges.
He was released after 14 hours in custody with bail conditions that included not going near Diss or within 200 meters of any premisses housing asylum-seekers.
He will appear at Norwich magistrates’ court on 16 September.
But his absence didn’t appear to have much of an impact on the turnout: his girlfriend, the self-styled journalist Sydney Jones, stepped in and took over the running of the event.
In the end some 700 anti-migrant demonstrators lined up outside the hotel faced with a counter-demonstration of only about 100 anti-racists.
Portsmouth
In Portsmouth on Friday evening a far-right demonstration of about 50 faced opposition from half that number of anti-racists who were followed by jeering racists as they left the rally.
Most notable, perhaps, was the presence of a neo-nazi White Vanguard supporter though not, on this occasion, the ubiquitous Kai Cunningham.
Ashfield
The same night racists demonstrated in Ashfield, in Nottinghamshire, where Reform UK MP Lee Anderson has been assiduously whipping up hostility to migrants and asylum-seekers.
On this occasion, despite being asked not to by the police, he posted on Facebook that a man arrested and charged with rape was an asylum-seeker. So far, there is no evidence to back up this claim.
But it had the predictable result of galvanising local racists who mobilised other local people to gather in the town centre, demanding that migrants be sent home.
They became increasingly irate when told they would not be allowed into the nearby Wetherspoons.
Anti-racists did well to mobilise around 40 at very short notice to show opposition but they were well-outnumbered.
Leeds
A demonstration at a hotel in Seacroft, opposed by a large group of anti-racists, was livened up by the appearance of Ryan ‘Heil Hitler’ Ferguson who threw nazi salutes, warned that (the terrorist) ‘National Action will be back’ and tried to march into the assembled anti-racists. He was stopped by police.
Altrincham
Ryan Ferguson turned up again the following day in Altrincham where a protest had been called by Richard Donaldson and his ‘Great British National Protest’.
Far right video blogger Charlie Veitch was also there, as usual assiduously filming everyone on the anti-racist counter demonstration lined up outside the Cresta Court hotel.
Leicester
In Leicester around 50 anti-racists turned out to face down a dozen or so racist protestors.
Tonyrefail, south Wales
A far-right event in south Wales on Saturday was countered by about 35 anti-racists who demonstrated outside the Coed Ely Constitutional Club in Tonyrefail where a motley gaggle of nutjobs, conspiracy theorists, Tommy Robinson fanboys and convicted crooks gathered under the auspices of the UKIP-run ‘Voice of Wales’.
There were deliberate, though unsuccessful, attempts by right wingers to provoke violence when the Tommy Robinson-supporting Pakistani activist Shoaib Sohail deliberately walked into the anti-racist crowd, and one of the Voice of Wales organisers sprayed their opponents with water.
