Dozens of protests and counter-protests have taken place outside of hotels the government is using to house asylum seekers waiting for their asylum claims to be heard. Far-right agitators have either been instigators of the protests or have been seeking to gain an influence. In some instances, anti-racist counter-protesters have been in the numerical majority, in others they have not.
Socialist Party members call for the trade unions to take the lead in organising to undermine the influence of the far right in our communities by spearheading campaigns that can unite the working class to fight for the resources our communities need, such as council homes and fully funded public services, against racism.
We carry reports from some of the counter-demonstrations Socialist Party members have taken part in or helped to organise.
Southampton
Declan Clune, Secretary, Southampton and South West Hampshire Trades Union Council
In recent weeks and months, Southampton, like many other cities and towns, has had its share of protests outside a hotel in the city currently housing asylum seekers. Encouragingly, we have consistently seen greater numbers gathered to counter them.
On 31 August, unrelated to the issue of immigration and asylum seekers, far-right activists calling themselves ‘Southampton Patriots’ targeted a peaceful demonstration calling for an end to the genocide in Gaza, with racist chants and insults, assembling at one end of the march to ‘confront’ us.
As a very diverse city with people from all corners of the world calling our city home, this latest Palestine solidarity protest included members of the Muslim and Sikh communities coming together and holding a joint rally in the city centre.
Socialist Party members also active as members of Southampton Trades Council were approached by the organisers and asked to help steward the event.
Police tried to apply pressure on the organisers of the Palestine march to cancel it and instead hold at rally at its starting point. The organisers, with support from the trades council, stated clearly their intention to march.
Despite attempts to disrupt the march, intimidate and insult marchers, we managed to gather everyone together and march peacefully and silently through the city, the tactic requested by the organisers. We were followed and verbally harassed all along the march route and at the end location while carrying out a successful small rally.
The day has to be seen as a resounding success due to the effective stewarding that kept everyone safe and together under extremely trying circumstances. It was also successful in gaining cross-community support.
The police estimated around 350 people to have taken part in the march and rally, about ten times the number the ‘patriots’ had mustered. But it’s clear that there is a continued need to mobilise to defend our communities from the far right and its influence.
Southampton Trades Council has consistently urged its affiliates and other trade union bodies to play a full role in taking on the far right, by mobilising their members to attend counter-demonstrations and assisting in organising safe stewarding, as well as leading a united working-class fightback for the jobs, homes and services our communities need, against racism. It is discussing a public meeting this autumn to step up the fight back.
Bristol
Around 30 self-styled ‘patriots’ gathered in Bristol following a call out by far-right organisers. They quickly found their anti-migrant protest was absolutely dwarfed by hundreds of counter-protesters. Trade unionists and anti-racists assembled in large numbers, determined to block them from spreading their divisive ideas. The top priority was to stop the far right reaching a hotel housing asylum seekers.
For a few hours this was achieved simply by blocking their path peacefully with overwhelming weight of numbers. They would not have been able to march at all had the police not cleared the way for them. Police struggled to push back the crowd at first, and only managed to by deploying police horses and then violence. Counter-protesters who were simply peacefully standing their ground were kicked and struck with batons. I witnessed one woman being repeatedly pushed by police even though she was already walking away and another lifted from her feet and thrown to the ground.
Prior to the police escalation attempting to drive counter-protesters back, there had been complete calm. Violence was deployed where none was called for. The far right were ushered into a busy shopping area where a Palestine protest and an event for children were taking place.
This was not an operational decision but a political decision by senior police to facilitate a march organised by the far right.
When the anti-asylum seeker protesters did eventually march around town they were a sorry sight – outnumbered, surrounded and humiliated. “We were pathetic”, one of their participants later lamented on social media.
Anti-migrant sentiment continues to be stoked, not just by the far-right, but by capitalist politicians of all stripes as they attempt to scapegoat people and deflect the blame from their anti-working class policies. The trade unions must take the lead in organising to oppose the far right, to mobilise against them when they try to march but also to offer real answers to the issues they seek to capitalise on
Speaking for Bristol Trades Council at the rally that began the counter-protest, Socialist Party member Tom Baldwin said that people’s anger must be turned against the billionaire class and their political lackeys, not migrants, because division only benefits those who exploit us. That’s why the ruling class will direct their police to help the far right in spreading that division.
Gloucester
Billy Jones and Sue Powell, Gloucestershire Socialist Party
A Gloucester hotel housing 70 asylum seekers was targeted by protesters on Saturday 30 August. Residents share rooms and receive less than £10 a week, but protesters repeated false rumours that they get luxury treatment.
Disparate groups were posting about a counter-protest, so Gloucestershire Socialist Party members convened a planning meeting with others, appealing to the trade unions to take a lead. It was agreed the counter-demonstration would focus its chants calling for solidarity with asylum seekers. We leafleted local residents, calling for ‘Unity over Division,’ and got a small contingent of Muslim youth to join us.
Our show of solidarity drew over 250 supporters; around 150 gathered on the other side taunting our demonstration. The mood was tense, yet we stood firm for over five hours, with stewards from trade unions, Socialist Party members and other activists. Some of those inside the hotel came up to their windows and made hearts, one holding out a “thank you” sign.
We shouldn’t downplay how polarising the subject of immigration is in Britain. Cars driving past would alternately honk in support of one side and then the other. A strange unity was found when our opponents began to chant “Keir Starmer’s a wanker”, and we joined in singing even louder!
The economic situation in the UK is dire. Most of those we saw protesting against the hotel were working-class people facing the brunt of that crisis. Asylum seekers are not causing their hardship, however, but a decade plus of government-mandated austerity is – something that Starmer’s Labour is continuing with.
The six million-strong trade union movement should be drawing together workers from all ethnic groups and backgrounds to lead a movement against the far-right and racist scapegoating.
The need for a new mass workers’ party is clearer than ever. Aligned with the unions, it could take on the bosses, cutting across attempts by right-populists like Nigel Farage to exploit the political alienation felt by workers.
Oxford
Hannah Chapman, Oxford Socialist Party
On Saturday 23 August at a Holiday Inn Express in Oxford, two crowds faced off against each other. On one side was a protest initiated by far-right activists against asylum seekers being housed there. On the other, a counterprotest organised by Stand Up to Racism. What followed – though non-violent – was one of the bleakest protests I have ever attended.
As both sides chanted at each other, Socialist Party members spoke to individuals on the counter-protest, hoping to discuss the next steps for the workers’ movement to build opposition to the far right. While we had a few positive conversations, most were depressingly revealing. One man said that the problem was that they (referring to the anti-asylum seeker protesters) were all uneducated and the best we could do was hope for them to die. No one else was so blatantly direct, though many expressed a similar attitude.
Many people from the neighbouring estate came out to watch the demonstration, but none joined the counterprotest. Had the counter-protest been led by the trade unions, and offered a means by which the working class can fight back for decent pay, council homes and fully funded services, maybe it would have been different.
