Antifascists have organised demonstrations across the UK, in response to the far-right violence and riots over the past week. People have also been coming together in a show of mutual aid against the ongoing racist attacks and threats.
On 7 August, large antifascist demonstrations were held across the UK. The trigger for this wave of counter-protests was a far-right Telegram post calling for attacks on immigration solicitors and charities supporting migrants. The post listed addresses in over 100 towns and cities across the UK.
The antifascist response was strong. In Walthamstow, London, up to 10,000 people gathered to protect an immigration advice centre.
In the face of strong anti-racist mobilisations, far right demonstrators failed to show up in many cities. Small right-wing demonstrations were held in a few places, such as Portsmouth, Bournemouth, Aldershot, Southampton and Belfast. In the south coast city of Brighton and Hove, several thousand anti-racists faced off against just four fascists. The right-wing demonstrators were corralled in a shop doorway, protected by several lines of police officers.
Racist violence and antifascist response in Liverpool
Valle, an antifascist organiser and migrant living in Liverpool in northwest England, told Medya News that the city was a key target for the far right over the past week. She said this was partly because “Liverpool is recognised nationally and probably even internationally, as a left-wing city, and they wanted to do a demonstration of strength in a place that is self-identified as a place that is welcoming to people from the outside”.
Anti-racists had been busy organising since the right-wing violence began last week. People from the community in Liverpool held a rally to protect a mosque on Friday 2 August which, Valle said, was successful because it “was deeply coordinated with the community”.
In contrast, the antifascist response to the racist mobilisation the following day was organised in a top-down way by one specific left-wing group. Valle said that this style of organising damaged the ability of antifascists to effectively counter a gathering of around 1,200 fascists at Liverpool’s Pier Head armed with hammers and brass-knuckles. The result was widespread and violent attacks on local Muslims and Middle-Eastern shops.
On Wednesday 7 August, anti-racists in Liverpool organised a large and successful defence of a charity supporting migrants in the city.
Thousands take to the streets in Bristol
On 3 and 7 August, large counter-protests responded to the far-right in Bristol. On Saturday 3 August, hundreds of antifascists successfully protected a hotel where migrants were being housed.
A statement by an antifascist group in Bristol in the southwest of England linked the current events in the UK to anti-racist and anti-colonial struggles worldwide, including the antifascist struggle in Kurdistan.
They wrote on 8 August: “after thousands of community members took to the streets to deny attempts by fascists to assemble in our city, the fight continues. This is a single victory but [we will] be energised and motivated to organise again, in Bristol and around the country.”
“The struggle against [the] structural racism and exploitation that Britain exported throughout the world with colonial conquest is anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, and global. We extend solidarity to those waging this struggle worldwide from Palestine to Sudan, Myanmar to Rojava; taking inspiration from their steadfast resistance and knowing our own community resistance is a consequence of theirs but cannot be compared,” they concluded.
Why did the far-right gather momentum?
Far-right violence has been gathering momentum since 29 July, when three children were fatally stabbed by Axel Rudakubana in Southport, just north of Liverpool. Right-wing social media accounts shared false information that Rudakubana was a Muslim migrant. In fact he is a Christian, and was born in the UK.
These falsehoods were amplified by politicians like Nigel Farage, leader of the extreme right-wing Reform Party, which gained parliamentary seats in the July 2024 UK general election.
The wave of far-right violence began on 30 July, when fascists attacked a mosque in Southport. Right-wing demonstrators clashed with local police and set fire to vehicles. Over the next days, racists rioted in dozens of cities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, setting vehicles and shops on fire and carrying out acts of racist violence. People were attacked on the street for being perceived as Muslim or non-white, hotels housing people seeking asylum in the UK were burnt and Muslim businesses were targeted. In one incident, racists were filmed stopping cars to check whether the people driving were white. Nazi salutes were a common sight during the demonstrations.
Valle from Liverpool said, however, that the violence “cannot be understood” without looking at the context. She said that racist groups have been targeting hotels providing accommodation for migrants in her area now for years, with a relatively minimal antifascist response. She pointed out that the state has devastated already poor areas through its austerity policies, and deliberately denied services and state support to working class communities. She said that the far-right has been taking advantage of this situation in order to scapegoat and whip-up racial hatred against migrants who the state has placed in accommodation in the area.
Since 30 July, far-right attacks and gatherings have taken place in towns and cities including Aldershot, Belfast, Birmingham, Blackburn, Blackpool, Bolton, Bristol, Cardiff, Darlington, Hartlepool, High Wycombe, Hull, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Middlesbrough, Nottingham, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Preston, Rotherham, Southport, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland, Tamworth and Weymouth. Nearly 500 people have been arrested for the violence, and several have already been given prison sentences of up to three years.
Ongoing anti-racist response
Racist demonstrations continue to be called in locations across the UK. Anti-fascists are mobilising today, Friday, in Crawley, after far-right threats against a hotel housing refugees. On Saturday 10 August, people in Cardiff have called for a counter protest after fascists threatened to riot in the city.
Communities across the UK are holding unity demonstrations this weekend, expressing solidarity with those affected by racist violence over the past week.
But people are not just coming together in protests. According to Valle: “The community came together from different parts of society, including people that they are not used to do activism or anything like that… The antifascist and anti-racist groups are reacting well, and they are acknowledging that they need to come together to work with the community in order to be able to articulate some self-defence that can protect us from the far right, but also that can do the job that the state is not doing, that the authorities are not doing. Because we need more mutual aid.”
Valle told us that “First aid and legal support people are being organised. People for cleaning [after the racist attacks] or carpenters for boarding up shops [when right-wing riots are threatened], or protecting buildings if it’s necessary.”
“So there is a whole wave of solidarity that is going ahead, and that is really willing to get organised and to do the job that they have to do, which is community and which is building up commonality as well – within the resources and the skills that we all have,” she concluded.
