On Saturday 8 November, over 350 delegates representing 79 SUTR groups and 71 trade union branches, regions, national bodies and trades councils attended the Stand Up to Racism AGM. They came together to discuss building opposition to the growing threat of the far right – both Reform UK at the ballot box and the far right and fascists who are following Tommy Robinson’s lead.
The AGM was centred around discussion of three strategy documents, workshops and the election of an executive committee and officers. The AGM showed a growing and broadening SUTR, with whole new layers of activists, trade unionists and campaigners involved in driving our strategy.
We are incredibly proud of all the tireless work that SUTR has done on the ground up and down the country to counter the far right and build antiracism. But delegates at the AGM renewed our commitments to doing much more.
Strategy documents have been written reflecting the discussion and debate at the AGM to guide our work nationally and locally for the year ahead. Amongst them are 5 key campaigning priorities:
- Mobilise for the national demonstration against the far right in March. Make this a unifying focus for all who oppose the far right and build the biggest possible turnout for a decisive display of unity and a leap forward for the antiracist movement.
- Continue to build counterprotests with the broadest possible support. Build with local campaigns, unions, refugee organisations, faith groups, the Palestine movement, and students. Counterprotests show solidarity with targeted communities and deny the far right control of the streets.
- Call local unity demos. Build broad coalitions locally for unity demos and other positive events that can draw in wider numbers than counterprotests, bring new people into SUTR and give confidence to antiracists.
- Campaign against Reform in the May elections. Expose Reform as a racist party of the super-rich through mass local campaigning, leafleting, stalls, and meetings. Encourage union and workplace involvement in the campaign.
- Strengthen local organisation and committees. Build local steering committees that reflect the breadth of the national campaign and root SUTR locally. Set clear roles for conveners, press, social media, and treasurer, and launch local membership and affiliation drives and fundraising for SUTR.
Pictured: Re-elected Stand Up to Racism president Diane Abbott MP speaking at the 2025 AGM
2025 round up: A successful year for SUTR
Mobilisations against fascist Tommy Robinson’s movement
This year saw two major national mobilisations in Central London to stop Tommy Robinson. On 1 February, over 5,000 antiracists opposed up to 5,000 Tommy Robinson supporters. On 13 September, we are proud that over 20,000 mobilised against Tommy Robinson’s wake up call.
Counter-protests against the far right
Across Britain, local SUTR groups have been at the forefront of the fight against the far right. In the weeks following Tommy Robinson’s demo we galvanised major counter-protests of thousands in Glasgow and in Newcastle and Tower Hamlets where we defeated UKIP’s pathetic attempts to mobilise.
Since February, SUTR have organised and participated in over 450 counter-protests, the majority of them over the last few months defending refugee accommodation. These have been crucial for stemming the tide.
Unity demos have shown the potential
Following Tommy Robinson’s September demo, SUTR groups have called unity demos bringing together broad coalitions in towns and cities. 3,000 in Leeds, 600 in Brighton, 500 in Colchester and 400 in York show what’s possible.
Campaigning against Reform UK
Our national campaign against Reform UK at the May elections was one of the defining efforts of 2025. We distributed over 100,000 leaflets across England, campaigned in almost every constituency they were standing and held two national days of action and a workplace day of action to stop Reform UK.
We disrupted their press conference in Doncaster, and mobilised hundreds to protest their conference in Birmingham. Over 250 attended Scotland’s summit to launch the Stop Reform campaign. In Caerphilly, a mass local leafleting campaign helped ensure Reform UK lost.
Women Against the Far Right
A major new initiative by SUTR. The campaign launched with an open letter backed by MPs, artists and cultural figures which over 10,000 have since signed. Over 1,000 joined the online launch, and hundreds of women led the bloc on the march against Tommy Robinson. Hundreds have joined launch events in Scotland and Birmingham since.
Trade union work
SUTR has continued to strengthen its work across the trade union movement. The Trade Union Conference in March brought together over 400 trade unionists. Together with the NEU, we took teachers on a Holocaust education trip to Poland.
A growing movement
SUTR now has 80+ local groups, drawing in thousands of local activists.
Elected officers and executive committee
President:
Diane Abbott MP
Vice President:
Daniel Kebede, NEU General Secretary
Co-chairs:
Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP
Kevin Courtney, former NEU joint General Secretary
Vice Chairs:
Richard Burgon MP
Steve Wright, FBU General Secretary
Treasurer:
Sarah Woolley, BFAWU General Secretary
Co-Convenors:
Weyman Bennett
Sabby Dhalu
Co-Secretaries:
Samira Ali, Women Against the Far Right
Fiona Sim, Black Liberation Alliance
Legal Officer:
Lawrence Davies, Equal Justice Solicitors
20 positions on Executive Committee:
Abdullah Faliq
Ashleigh Onabajo
Ben Liao
Cllr Chantelle Lunt
Charlotte Khan
David Rosenber
Glyn Ford
Julie Sherry Bryce
Kim Johnson MP
Lewis Nielsen
Liz Wheatley
Mick Whelan
Michael Bradley
Mohammed Kozbar
Mohammed Shafiq
Ruth Hayes
Taranjit Chana
Tony Conway
Wilf Sullivan