Anti-fascist protests around the UK – live reports 5th August 2024

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anti-fascist protests – cardiff stop the far right protest 4th august

Anti-fascist protests taking place today:

Oxford: 5:30pm – Stand Against the Islamophobic Attacks, Carfax Tower, Central Oxford

Plymouth: 6:00pm – SUTR protest Guildhall Square, PL1 2BJ

For the full list of unity rallies and counter protests to stop the far right in your area this week

Anti-fascist protest reports and more upcoming events below:

Samira Ali, SUTR national organiser, on BBC Radio Scotland (from 16:10 onwards):

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_radio_scotland_fm?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

Plymouth:

Sophie reports – Out in Plymouth tonight opposing the racists. There were about 700 of us in opposition and maybe 400 of the far right. They were very confident and violent and started throwing rocks at us. But ultimately, we held the ground.

Tony reports – All Plymouth city centre shops shut and tonight’s shows closed, and buses diverted from 4pm. It’s like a curfew. We will be there.

Oxford:

16:30 – Oxford stands against the fascists:

oxford stands against the fascists

Barnet Council has issued a good statement against the far right thugs.

Sharon Graham – Unite General Secretary said ‘Without unity the working class cannot make change. Division and blame are the bosses game. It’s time to look up, not down.

It wasn’t the migrant who crashed our financial system in 2008. It was not the migrant who imposed austerity. It was not the migrant who revelled in downing street while people couldn’t bury their dead. And it wasn’t the migrant who let corporations profit while workers had their pay cut.

The economic system has failed and Britian isn’t working: Rampant inequality, crumbling public services, poor jobs and bad pay. We don’t make anything any more and we’ve sold the family silver. When 50 families in this country have more wealth than 30 million of their fellow citizens, something has gone badly wrong.

We are at a turning point. We need change now. Not waffle about responsible spending or fiscal rules. None of this talks to the worker or their community. It addresses no issues. It just plays into the hands of those that seek division.

Labour has one shot. If they fail to deliver, the populist right will emerge ever stronger. The country ever more divided.

The trade union movement must now step up to the plate. Not just through demonstrations but by building long term organisation across our workplaces and communities. Unite will lead the way.”

In Middlesborough last night there was a pogrom, with far right gangs attacking Muslims and minorities and attacking homes. We urgently need mass action everywhere to drive back the fascists and racists:

Nigel Farage is trying to shift blame but in effect provides more legitimacy for the racist attacks proliferating across the UK. Far from ‘soft policing’ there have been no 24 hour sitting of courts as there were in 2011, there have not been thousands of arrests and sentences handed down in a matter of hours as there were then against black and white people. Furthermore the police have been relatively softly softly with the fascists while in some cases forcibly attacking Muslim youth when they try to defend themselves.

The media has been refusing to call out the fascist and racist intent of the riots, preferring to calling them racist street gangs and arsonists ‘protesters’. Intimidation and racial violence is not legitimate protest. The media say there is ‘no guiding hand’, but it is fascist and racist groups that are behind the violence. Farage and Stephen Yaxley Lennon are also hiding in place sight – they are prime instigators or this wave of racist and fascist terror.

Disgustingly the Daily Telegraph draws a false moral equivalence with Muslims defending their communities from attack and Nazis fomenting a pogrom against Muslims and refugees:

The billionaire racist antisemitic owner of X/Twitter Elon Musk backs Tommy Robinson with ideological support and no doubt money too. But we have the people. Please donate today so we can keep opposing the far right wherever they appear:

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