For weeks, the “Patriots of Worcester”, a local far right group that operates and organises primarily on Facebook, had been plugging their weekend march against the Fownes Hotel, calling for the people of Worcester to rise up and express their opposition to the presence of asylum seekers.
However, it was clear from the outset that the attendance was not going to be local.
Stayed home
Within the first day of organising and advertising the protest, the group admins, Carla Kennedy and Amanda Sanders, (under pseudonyms Carla Jane and Amanda Jane) were complaining about the lack of local take-up.
Only around a dozen people RSVP’d in the first 12 hours, capping out under 30 in total by the time the protest took place. Of these, many clearly stayed home.
Estimates of the numbers of far-right demonstrators that actually made it to Worcester High Street on Saturday 28th vary, between 20 at the lowest and 50 at the highest end.
Of these, a clear majority seem to have come from elsewhere: Ryan Ferguson, one of the UK’s most unashamed neo-nazis was very much in evidence, chatting happily to Carla Kennedy and Amanda Sanders who saw no problem in making him welcome to this “family friendly event”.
Neo-nazis
The hardline nazis of the Aryan Front also put in appearance, as did members of the Homeland Party, and an assortment of the internet’s favourite “Auditors”. These outsiders made up the bulk of the protest “march”.
That march had a few false starts, however, as the very clever lads who had turned up kept having to be reminded that there were speeches to be listened to.
These did not last long, and soon enough, the “crowd” began ambling in loose formation towards the Fownes, under police escort, with chants of “Keir Starmer’s a Wanker” and “Tommy Tommy Tommy Robinson” to keep their spirits high.
Once they reached their designated gather point outside the Fownes, it became a shouting match across the busy City Walls Road in Worcester City Centre, with a large local counter-demonstration on the opposite side from them, organised by Worcester’s Stand Up To Racism and Worcestershire Against Hate.
Again, estimates vary, placing the number of counterprotestors between 4 times and 12 times the number of far-right demonstrators.
Carla and Amanda got hold of megaphones, and used these to scream abuse across the road, including some memorable comments like, “Let them rape your f%%king kids!”
They were clearly enjoying the company of the assembled Aryan Front around them, in their black uniforms.
Scuffles
Scuffles broke out from time to time: on at least one occasion, a South Asian man got too close for comfort, and the demonstrators broke through the police line to try and attack him, driving him away with a torrent of abuse and threats.
Thankfully, boredom won out over hate in very short order, as only a couple of hours in, most of the demonstrators had decamped, leaving only a skeleton crew to man the picket line, armed only with their banners declaring the local city council to be “traitors” and their placards insisting they wanted an end to rapes and violence.
The day passed mostly peacefully. Except for when some of the Auditors, not content with the lack of provocation from the counter-protest, decided to circle back to the Fownes, well after police had ordered folks to disperse.
Details of what happened next are scarce, but footage has emerged of an encounter between them and an alleged asylum seeker, the nature of which is still disputed, but alleges to show him throwing a brick at them, which resulted in an arrest being made.
Show of force
But let’s be clear: what was supposed to be their great show of force proved to be so much of a disappointment that before the evening was over, their forum was alight with finger pointing and blame-mongering.
They did attempt to spin the day in various ways, with the usual false suggestions that “leftie” counter protestors had been paid to be there – or that they’d been bussed in from out of Worcestershire – or that their own supporters were all weekend workers and that was why they couldn’t turn up.
But the truth was that they had lost.
And instead of demonstrating that they had deep and widespread support across Worcester, they instead demonstrated that they are the ones in the minority.
They made the case, far more strongly than even the antiracists had ever dreamed possible, that Worcestershire rejects hate.
