Around 30,000 people filled Trafalgar Square on Monday 17 August in an extraordinary vigil for Professor Jason Arday. Stand Up To Racism, which organised the vigil, put the crowd at 30,000. Flowers piled up beneath Nelson’s Column as mourners held a minute’s silence and heard from Arday’s friends, fellow academics and campaigners, alongside Diane Abbott, Dawn Butler, Bell Ribeiro-Addy and others. Beverley Knight and Jermain Jackman performed. Arday’s family told the vigil that the “public cruelty” he had faced had become too much and appealed for privacy as they grieved.
There was grief, but there was anger too. Cambridge chancellor Chris Smith has described what surrounded the allegations against Arday as a “racist feeding frenzy”.
The scale and breadth of Monday’s vigil showed that the attempt to isolate and destroy Professor Jason Arday had produced an enormous response of solidarity instead.
That solidarity continued in Liverpool on Wednesday 19 August, where LJMU UCU and Merseyside Stand Up To Racism held a second vigil close to the university where Professor Jason Arday completed his doctorate. Those attending held a silence, laid flowers and heard songs from singer and actor Tayo Aluko. The vigil brought together trade unionists, anti-racists, academics and members of the local community. LJMU’s UCU Black Members’ representative had appealed publicly for people to attend wearing black and to bring a flower.
Leeds also held a Vigil for Professor Arday
Local Actions
In Shrewsbury on Saturday 22 August, local reports put the anti-racist turnout at around 250-300 against roughly 80-100 on the far right.
The right had brought in Ryan Bridge and supporters of Raise the Colours, yet apparently drew fewer people than at its previous Shrewsbury protest. Bridge’s presence was significant. Raise the Colours has become increasingly associated with intimidation around its flag campaigns, and a High Court injunction was recently secured in Oxfordshire after council workers reported harassment and threatening behaviour.
Gloucester produced another strong result.
Local activists reported around 140 anti-racists facing about 40 far-right protesters, including a good contingent from Forest of Dean SUTR and younger supporters from Bristol. The counter-protest was considerably broader than SUTR alone. Gloucestershire Solidarity Network brought together trade unionists, Stand Up To Racism, Palestine solidarity activists, Stroud Against Racism, Na’amod and other organisations.
There were smaller but useful successes elsewhere. Four “patriots” appeared outside Peterborough’s Dragonfly Hotel, the site of last autumn’s six-week confrontation over asylum accommodation. Local SUTR activists monitored them and mobilised enough people to obstruct an attempt to enter the hotel.
In Brighton, the openly fascist White Vanguard had advertised a gathering at the Palace Pier, but the mobilisation collapsed. Anti-racists nevertheless occupied the space they had threatened to use. The proposed far-right event had already run into trouble after the pier said it had not sanctioned the gathering and would not allow it to start from its forecourt.
In Morecambe, more than 30 protesters challenged a “Make Great Britain Christian Again” conference at Emmanuel Church. The meeting brought together a current of Christian nationalism around figures including Brett Murphy, Aaron Edwards, Chris Wickland and Dominic Muir. Byline Times had documented the event beforehand, including Murphy’s support for Tommy Robinson and rhetoric attacking Muslims and LGBT+ people. Those inside appear to have fallen well short of the venue’s advertised 200 capacity.
In Liverpool, another advertised “mass deportations” protest failed to materialise after a handful of supporters gathered around the Cabbage Hall pub.
In Perth numbers were down on both sides and the protest passed without incident. The far right left unusually quickly, reportedly to pursue another of the “paedophile hunter” style actions that have increasingly become part of this milieu.
Alongside the counter-protests, activists continued the slower work of building an anti-racist base. SUTR had a busy stall at Croydon Pride, marching alongside ICR strikers, collecting around five sheets of contacts and more than £80 from badges, posters and other material.
In Nottingham activists reported leafleting roughly seven-eighths of a working-class and ethnically mixed ward. That sort of sustained political work remains essential in areas where Reform has established an electoral vote but where the organised far right has not necessarily established a street presence.
Around six weeks ago a group of far right activists began turning up at Colchester War Memorial every Tuesday evening.
They laid out conspiracy-theory banners and hurled the usual racist and abusive rubbish at anti-racists—calling people “paedos”, using homophobic slurs and demanding to know, “How many are you taking in?”
Anti-racists responded quickly. With only two hours’ notice, more than 30 people mobilised against around 17 on the right. Since then a united group of local anti-racists has turned out every week, regularly outnumbering them by around three to one.
When the far right tried changing location, activists scouted them out and moved the counter-protest there. Faced once again with a bigger opposition, they were visibly demoralised and left within an hour.
They tried the same trick again the following week, changing both the day and the location. This time they arrived early so they could film themselves claiming that nobody had come to oppose them and get the footage onto social media. But the anti-racists arrived, outnumbered them again, and once more they packed up and left.
Something else has grown out of the weekly mobilisations too. Different anti-racist groups have worked together at very short notice, building a practical united front and getting to know one another through the struggle. Afterwards many go for a drink together.
What began as a response to a handful of far right provocateurs has helped forge stronger links between activists.
In Liverpool, a sold-out Together Festival brought anti-racists, trade unionists and community campaigners together under the banner ‘Many Voices, One Community’. A carnival march from the Metropolitan Cathedral led to an afternoon festival at the African Caribbean Centre in Liverpool 8. PCS and Liverpool Friends of Palestine were among those promoting the event, which aimed to build ‘an alliance for hope and unity across the Liverpool City Region’
Monitoring Group Report
Shrewsbury and Gloucester showed that the far right can be beaten back when anti-racists organise seriously and mobilise beyond the existing activist core. Peterborough and Brighton showed that even relatively small interventions can disrupt weak far-right initiatives. Above all, the huge response for Jason Arday showed the much greater reservoir of people prepared to stand against racism. But attempts to connect the fragmented local “patriot” scene into more disciplined networks mean that none of these victories can be treated as permanent. Build locally, unite broadly and make sure that whenever the far right tries to take the streets, it finds organised opposition waiting for it.
There is, however, a wider warning in the attempt by Danny Tommo to pull these scattered “patriot” groups into something more coordinated. On Saturday 22 August his Patriot Platform held a recruitment gathering at Burton Dassett Hills in Warwickshire. Tommo had spent the preceding weeks travelling between local groups and presenting the project as a disciplined national organisation capable of “direct action”. After the meeting he claimed that its first “patriotic division” was ready to operate.
Tommo talks about organisation, discipline, vetting and putting “boots on the ground”, rather than simply calling another demonstration. It remains unclear what this means although he has promised we will know “within six weeks”. However at about 200 or so participants it was much smaller than claimed “thousands” that have signed up.
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