Up to 150,000 people attended a far-right rally in London called by Stephen Yaxley Lennon (commonly known as Tommy Robinson) on Saturday 13th September. This was the largest far-right rally for a generation and a clear indication that far-right ideas are permeating a significant section of British society.
Who were there
Amongst the crowd there were fascists but they were in a tiny minority. There were many more far-right extremists, but the bulk of the crowd were those who have been disorientated by economic and social dislocation, and the lack of a political voice for working-class people. This disorientation has been fuelled by decades of austerity -austerity that preceded the 2008 financial crash- and the hollowing out of services and supports for working-class communities. Workers and the under-employed have found their schools, youth clubs and community facilities underfunded and closed as local authority estates are turned into barren wastelands. The quality of life of many living in those estates is in decline.
At the same time, in many of Britain’s larger cities, there has been a process of urban redevelopment, forcing the poor to the edges of, or out of these cities. The contrast between the local authority estates and the city centres cannot be lost on those who might have once seen the city centre as home but now realise it’s a centre for prestige apartments and wine bars. At the same time many of the middle class has been persuaded that this is all for the best and that austerity, although not desirable, is a necessary evil and someone else’s problem. Meanwhile the super-rich build up massive wealth on the profits extracted from ordinary people and the misery this creates.
Why
The lack of a political voice for the disenfranchised is a critical problem. That is why some of them are turning towards far-right ideas and support for Reform UK as they fear that their way of life is under threat. The right-ward positioning of the Starmer government has had the biggest impact on this trend. This is a Labour government that clearly stated in its manifesto that immigration was a serious concern. Since coming to power, it has increased its rhetoric on this issue and given succour to far-right ideas. The more the mainstream discourse moves to the right, the more those previously caught in the middle of this discourse are taken along with the rightward trends.
Up until March 2024 the trends around attitudes towards minorities in British society were generally heading in a more tolerant direction. In March 2024, before the Starmer government came to power, the only statistic that was heading in the wrong direction was the numbers of religiously aggravated hate crimes, with a 25% increase. The data for March 2024 is the most recent available, but one can only surmise that hate crimes against Muslims as well as antisemitism has risen. Ignorance of and hatred of Muslims has been fuelled by Starmer’s stance on refugees and asylum seekers and his position on conflicts in the Middle East, especially towards Gaza, where he has sanctioned genocide.
Challenges for the Left
The Left is faced with a problem. At the same time as building resistance to the far-right, it needs to build its own political party. Your Party is on the brink of formation and the moves towards its formation need to be accelerated. It needs to appeal to the Left to stop bickering and unite together to build this new party but also see this as a means of winning the disenfranchised towards a progressive political current. Your Party needs to consolidate its base around fighting austerity and racism. It should also should engage in a fight against the rich. It is the super-rich who are happy to see divisions in society grow and for Muslims to be blamed for the problems created by capitalism.
On Saturday, Zarah Sultana from Your Party, speaking to the counter-protest to the Robinson rally, said that,
“The far-right want to divide us, they want to blame our neighbours instead of the powerful. They want to stir up hatred against Muslims, against migrants, against refugees. But we know the real enemy of the working class is travelling by private jet, not migrant dinghy.”
What Your Party needs to do is develop a radical socialist programme that includes sweeping nationalisation of public utilities under worker and community control. This should include the banks. It should legislate for an end to austerity, and to providing decent and affordable homes for all as well as decent, high-quality food for children. It should also advocate for much more of course.
Up and down the country groups are getting together in order to discuss a radical programme. These discussions should not be hijacked by those who want to retreat into accommodations with the ruling class as has happened in the past, both in the Britain and across the rest of the world, but move forward. Your Party need to take on the elite and not succumb to the blandishments of the capitalists, telling us a better world is not possible in the short-term and we need to be patient. We have listened to that mantra for long enough and all that has happened is a deterioration in the quality of life of the majority of people.
Demonisation
At the same time as Zarah Sultana was addressing the counter-protest, Elon Musk was addressing the far-right rally by video link. He demonstrated clearly the elites’ attitude towards the state and its contempt for the British state in particular. He complained of lack of the free speech and incited the rally to,
“stand up to government oppression and fight for the truth… when violence is coming to you, you either fight back or you die.”
This is Musk creating a myth of violence and intimidation that has no basis in reality. Left forces will confront racists and fascists, but this is to defend the rights of innocent people, not oppress a minority. What Robinson and Musk are doing, is promoting the idea that ordinary people have something to fear from the Left and Muslims. They are attempting to demonise both sections of society and distract from the real oppressors – the super-rich.
Unions and Your Party
The trade union movement needs to sever its cosy relationship with the Labour Party and move its considerable resources behind Your Party. The discussion around UNITE the union’s affiliation to Labour is a welcome start and other unions need to move in the same direction as well as non-affiliated unions such as the NEU (teachers). These unions need to put their resources into fighting the far-right and far-right ideas both in work-places and on the streets. Speaking on The Crispin Flintoff show last week, Jackie Walker, an anti-racist campaigner, described her work with working class employees in the NHS – porters, cleaners etc, saying that she would find that levels of racism in this group very low, but that long-term austerity was changing this. Trade unions need to be funding work which promotes greater tolerance and understanding and advocating zero tolerance of racism, not pandering to ignorance and divisiveness, but do so in a way that hears the existing concerns that people express and doesn’t dismiss them.
With so much far-right rhetoric and misinformation being promulgated, it is hardly surprising that there is confusion. Many supporters of Reform UK would not see themselves as racist but would say that there is a problem with immigration for example. They have been repeatedly told by Starmer and the media that there is such a problem and therefore it is hardly surprising that the fake – anti-establishment positioning of Nigel Farage holds some attraction for them. Your Party needs to puncture the bubble of self-righteous pomposity around the likes of Farage and Musk. It can only do this by advocating a bold and radical programme which builds significantly on Jermey Corbyn’s 2019 manifesto but goes much further. In Zarah Sultana’s declarations we are seeing the beginnings of such a programme. She clearly references socialism and sees the super-rich as the oppressors. She also takes a clear position on inclusivity and democracy. These ideas need to be worked through and influenced by the masses coming towards Your Party. They need to be built on through open, tolerant and transparent discussion so that the inevitable differences that emerge can lead to greater clarity not confusion.
