Thousands took to the streets in the UK on Saturday 10 August, in what was billed as a National Day of Protest. The action was a response to the shocking far-right violence of the past week or so, scenes not seen in so concentrated a form in the post-War period in Britain. From London, to Liverpool, Glasgow, Birmingham, Newcastle, Manchester, Bristol, Brighton, Belfast, Edinburgh, Sheffield, Cambridge, Exeter, Dundee, and York, among other places, thousands stood firm in their repudiation of the recent far-right riots that swept across parts of the UK last week.

One of the most impressive demonstrations was in Walthamstow London, 7^th August, where an estimated 10,000 demonstrators took to the streets, chanting and carrying signs with messages like ‘refugees welcome’ and ‘smash fascism and racism’. The crowd was visible from as far as a mile away, according to reports from PA news (https://www.timeout.com/london/news/in-pictures-the-huge-anti-racism-march-in-walthamstow-080824).

In Belfast, Northern Ireland, which has seen some of the most sustained disturbances over the past week, up to 15,000 people also gathered for an anti-racism rally organised by the United Against Racism group (https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/aug/10/about-15000-join-belfast-anti-racism-rally-after-week-of-rioting). Chants of “When migrants’ rights are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back” filtered through the crowd, in which Palestinian and Pride flags flew.

In general, the demonstrations have attracted crowds from across various organisations, political parties, and simply members of the public who have been appalled at the scenes of hate and destruction unleashed by far-right mobs. They have given people a chance to reclaim the streets and to put forward a strong message and solidarity and support to the communities targeted.

Speaking of these events, Weyman Bennett, Stand Up to Racism co-convenor, said: “Today shows we can turn the tide against the far right and the racists. Up and down the country, people have come together, organised and marched to send a clear message: the far-right aren’t welcome. We won’t let them attack Muslims, migrants and refugees. Our message is one of hope, solidarity and unity”.

In places, the anti-far right events functioned as human shields to protect asylum centres after police warned of unrest from more than 100 far right-led rallies. Fears had spread of attacks after a list of at least 39 immigration law specialists, asylum support organisations and immigration services across England, had originally published on the Telegram messaging app along with the phrase “no more immigration” and other anti-migration sentiments. Thankfully, fears of attacks largely failed to materialise, but small disturbances have continued.

In Birmingham, Britain’s second-largest city, which contains one of the largest immigrant populations, on 5^th August, young Muslim men rushed to defend mosques, businesses, and the Village Islamic centre. There were a number of altercations.

In the Loyalist Shankill areas of Belfast, on 6^th August, masked men rammed a hijacked car into an estate agency, amid false claims that the agency was renting homes to asylum seekers. Nearby, masked men attacked immigrants’ homes and cars. Then, in the predominantly Nationalist area of west Belfast, a group of youths racially abused staff at a Middle Eastern shop. Altogether, six people (three men, and three teenagers) were arrested over the disorder.

On 8^th August two people were arrested in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, after two groups of demonstrators clashed in the town centre.

On 9^th August, hundreds of anti-racists turned up to counter a planned protest outside a Holiday Inn hotel, rumoured to be in use to house asylum seekers in Crawley, West Sussex.

Unrest continued in Northern Ireland during the early hours of August 10^th, in which a petrol bomb was thrown at a mosque in Newtownards and cars was set alight in Belfast. The disorder even spread to the city of Derry, a predominantly Irish Nationalist city in the West of Northern Ireland, in which 10 police officers were injured after rioters attacked with petrol bombs and fireworks.

The Fall Out Continues

The fear that the initial bout of far-right rioting caused has not abated. At the time of writing, some 927 people have been arrested over the riots, and of those, 466 had been charged (https://news.sky.com/story/prisons-feeling-the-pressure-from-wave-of-uk-riot-charges-as-impact-of-surge-may-take-weeks-to-peak-13196111). In the context of what can only be described as anti-Muslim pogroms, immigrants and people of colour have been forced to consider safety measures. Over the past week, workplaces have closed early, and staff of colour have asked or been asked not to travel, due to fear of racially motivated attacks, with fears of lynch-mobs prowling streets in particular locations.

The situation has not been helped by certain politicians, media personalities, and even in some cases academics. In the latter case, Matt Goodwin, until recently a lecturer at the University of Kent, who for years has been influential in pushing Eurosceptic and populist politics and the idea that rising multiculturalism is a ‘threat to the West’, spoke of the ‘legitimate concerns’ of the rioters. That phrase has been echoed across some elements of the political class, especially Nigel Farage and his Reform Party, but also some members of the Conservative party, such as Robert Jenrick, the current candidate for leadership of the party.

There have been echoes of these sentiments in the commentariat class on stations such GB News and Rupert Murdoch-owned Talk TK. We are asked to understand the ‘context’ of those rioting in a way that would not be countenanced were these Black Lives Matter riots, or demonstrations against genocide in Gaza.

The trope of the legitimacy of the concerns of the rioters was echoed in a terrible manner by Douglas Murray, a longtime pusher of the narrative of the crisis of multiculturalism. In one of the most shocking interventions on the riots, going way beyond Farage and Goodwin, Murray, in his trademark dripping, supercilious, patrician tones, said the following:

‘clearly they’ve [the government] lost control of the streets. Now is it time to send in the army at some point? Probably yes, but if the army will not be sent in, then the public will have to go in, and the public will have to sort this out themselves, and it’ll be very brutal. I don’t want them to live here. I don’t want them here. They came under false pretences. Many of them came illegally and continue to come illegally. I think we are going to have to say very clearly: if you don’t like it here – go!’

In general discussion of the riots, the racist and Islamophobic element is often elided. A startling example of this was an interview on ITV, one of the main TV channels in the UK, with Zarah Sultana, the MP for Coventry South, recently suspended from the Labour Party for failing to vote in favour of the retention of the inhuman two-child benefit cap, brought in by the Conservative Party in the hey-day of their austerity politics. Sultana, also forthright in her critique of Israel, was being Interviewed Ed Balls, former Labour chancellor and husband of current Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper. Balls and his co-host smirked through the interview, challenging Sultana on her demand that the riots be described as racist and Islamophobic. It is clear that an Israeli or Jewish person would never have been interviewed in this dismissive unempathetic manner in the face of pogroms against Jewish people.

At the same time, there have been calls for tougher regulations of social media platforms such as X, owned by Elon Musk. Musk has continued to play a particularly inflammatory role, enabling and amplifying disinformation and conspiracy theories spread by Tommy Robinson, accounts such as Europe Invasion, and what are suspected to be a number of Russian bot profiles. Musk has himself suggested that ‘civil war is inevitable’ and adds to the millenarian sense of existential crisis that is being deliberately fostered by those on the far-right. In light of this, there have been calls, from an ex-Twitter executive, that Musk should face arrest (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/aug/12/elon-musk-should-face-arrest-if-he-incited-uk-rioters-says-ex-twitter-chief  ).

None of this is to say that the current unrest, which is expected to continue, is merely a facet of social media engagement. The normalisation at the political level must stop – this is the main source through which mobilisation is made possible. But it is clear that the far-right ideology is spreading through online platforms, and we must demand that these avenues are also closed off.