There is just one major takeaway from yesterday’s Tommy Robinson-organised ‘Free Speech’ festival in London – 110,000 supporters of a far-right, racist agitator marched through London in the biggest public demonstration of fascism ever seen in this country.
Just think how often we refer back proudly to over 100,000 people coming out to support the Anti-Nazi League back in the late 1970s, and you get a sense of just how historic this is for the other side.
The turnout dwarfed our demonstration opposing them.
Racist outpouring
Though it purported to be in support of Free Speech, that had little to do with proceedings on the day. This was a racist, anti-migrant, anti-Muslim outpouring of hate and vitriol. As it was always intended to be.
Though the counter-demo by Stand Up To Racism was creditable – around 20,000 turned out – the fact that the fascists mobilised five times as many puts our efforts into grim perspective.
Regardless of how hard people worked to get our numbers up, far more needs to be done on the future.
Needless to say, this being a Tommy Robinson event, it degenerated into violence later in the afternoon when large groups of his supporters tried to break through police lines and attack anti-fascists.
Rocks, bottles and flares were hurled as police were forced to kettle the anti-racists at one end of Whitehall to protect them.
The huge amounts of money obviously spent on the day’s events were brought into sharp focus when Robinson interviewed Elon Musk live from the platform on a video link.
Two billed star speakers – former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and Jordan Peterson – failed to show but the platform was nevertheless graced by a procession of leading international far-right figures, including Eric Zemmour, founder of the French Reconquête party, Belgian far-right politician Philip Dewinter, and Dutch activist Eva Vlaardingerbroek.
These speakers delivered highly-inflammatory racist tirades relentlessly targetting alleged racial and cultural replacement, and the existential threat posed to western civilisation by Islam.
The usual domestic suspects – Katie Hopkins, Laurence Fox, Ant Middleton and Rikki Doolan – were all called up after the day’s proceedings had been opened with a prayer by self-styled Bishop and UKIP supporter Ceri Dewar, a man sued in 2012 by an old age pensioner who had kindly loaned him £1000 to pay a motoring fine but had to go to court to get the money returned.
Without doubt the most significant domestic contributor was Ben Habib, the founder and leader of Advance UK which Robinson has joined and is urging his followers to do the same.
Advance, which sponsored yesterday’s event, now carries within it the seeds of a genuine fascist movement with a wealthy, experienced political leadership and a street army at its disposal.
Whether Ben Habib relishes taking that route remains to be seen.
There is one vital point to reflect upon: migrant hotels and small boat arrivals are being targeted by lying, violent mobs of racists in a way they never were under the Tories, when far more hotels were actually being used.
Socialists are the enemy
The Tories got a free pass that a Labour government was never going to be allowed. The vitriol targeted at Keir Starmer, his ethnic minority cabinet colleagues and the Labour Party generally, shows that the principal target of the fascists is, as it always is, socialists and the left generally.
And this is true regardless of what people in our movement think of the Labour government and its policies. The fascists draw no such distinctions. All socialists are their enemy.
The racist filmed calling publicly for Starmer to be assassinated was only the most extreme expression of this. You can see it here:
Yesterday also made clear that Robinson’s protestations that he did not want fascist groups attending his events was just another hollow Robinson lie: all were in fact welcome.
Most lively was the presence of White Vanguard, the unapologetic gaggle of juvenile nazi apologists led by Kai Cunningham.
‘Zionist rat’
Cunningham was filmed chasing off Robinson collaborator Avi Yemeni, a Jewish far-right activist who works with Ezra Levant’s Rebel News. Levant has been a key fundraiser and self-styled ‘legal counsel’ for Robinson whenever he has got himself into legal trouble.
The White Vanguard leader’s blatantly antisemitic tirade against Yemeni – he called him “a Zionist rat” – was witnessed at close quarters by one of Robinson’s organisers on the day, Liam Tuffs, who stood by and did nothing, even though Yemeni was scheduled to be a platform speaker later in the afternoon.
Other leaders of openly fascist groups made welcome included Britain First’s Paul Golding and Ashlea Simon, who were backstage guests at the rally.
Homeland Party leader Kenny Smith was pictured in conversation with the deranged conspiracy theorist Piers Corbyn.
And a delegation from the British Democrats was permitted to display their banner unhindered.
Bear in mind that one of their leaders, Andrew Brons, once described wannabe synagogue-bombers as “well-intentioned”.
Patriotic Alternative leader Mark Cottrell boasted online about the large group of PA activists who leafletted the route of the march undisturbed despite Robinson having accused them only last July of being “nazi mongs” trying to hijack otherwise respectable demonstrations.
Fascist hatchets were being buried all over London yesterday.
September 13 is both a wake up call and an alarm call. The fascists are more numerous, confident and well-organised possibly than they have ever been.
And there is plainly significant funding coming their way, from whatever quarter.
Greater challenge
But we have the ability and the power to stop this. We have the numbers and the support, as the massive anti-racist turnout at the end of August last year showed.
Then we called a halt to the wave of fascist rioting that swept the country after the Southport murders.
This is an even greater challenge. It’s time for us, like the fascists are doing, to bury differences and unite around the overwhelming importance of seeing off this fascist wave.
These are certainly the most dangerous times any of us have lived through.
It’s time to get serious.
