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From The Socialist newspaper, 10 April 2019
Newcastle anti-fascist demo
Police facilitated a motley bunch of fascists to voice their racist hate at the Monument in Newcastle, photo N Fray (Click to enlarge)
Socialist Party reporters
On 6 April, Muslim women bravely staged a sit-down protest against the police who wanted them to vacate the Monument in Newcastle so that a motley band of a few fascists could hold their hate protest in the city centre. Socialist Party members, alongside others, stood four-square with them.
Newcastle's Muslim community has been under attack from the far right. One of the women told us she is often spat at, and has had her hijab pulled off.
In the north east local mosques and education centres have also been ransacked and graffitied.
Shamefully, the police harangued these women and those supporting them. Eventually, using a megaphone, the police read out section 14 of the 1986 Public Order Act in order to forcibly move us.
Unfortunately, amidst all this the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), under the banner of 'Stand Up to Racism', took the decision to immediately evacuate the Monument so the far right could occupy the space.
This was done without any consultation with other forces there, including the Muslim women, and meant the counter-demo was divided.
Also, the area where the police eventually corralled everyone was vulnerable to attacks from the far right as it was next to one of the many entrances to the Metro station.
How to deal with aggressive policing in such situations, with open threats of arrest, is an issue that needs to be discussed.
But when the SWP was approached by one of our female members who disagreed with their stance, she was met with a tirade of abuse.
The women from the Muslim community were courageous. We need to ensure that in future the iconic landmark of the Monument is not allowed to be taken over by the far right.
This will require the wider labour and trade union movement to start to take the threat of the far right seriously and organise accordingly.
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In The Socialist 10 April 2019:
What we think
Corbyn must demand general election, defend workers' interests and fight for a socialist Brexit
Climate change
Organise against climate change, austerity and capitalism
Only socialism can stop capitalism's plastic problem
International socialist news and analysis
Algeria: Bouteflika is finished but the Algerian revolution is not!
China: police state in Xinjiang under global spotlight
Local elections
Local government in crisis: councillors can fight cuts!
Socialist Party news and analysis
Boot out the Tories - end austerity
Workplace news and analysis
PCS: vote Yes for action, back socialists in the elections!
NEU conference: organise for the key battles to come
Swindon workers discuss action to save Honda jobs
Southampton Hospital security workers strike
Support the Glasgow Airport pay and pensions strike
London Overground cleaners strike for better pay
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
Leicester Socialist Party letter for no-cuts budget
Walthamstow: end the school funding crisis
Reject the rotten NUS 'reforms'
Leicester NHS Trust and the brutal reality of cuts
Social cleansing continues in Southwark
South Yorkshire Freedom Riders - still battling on
Gateshead FC crisis: save our Heed!
Health Campaigns Together AGM success
Opinion
Low pay, long hours, isolation - a taxi driver speaks out
'Traitors': Cold War cloak and daggers as capitalist powers spy on allies
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