IIn some ways, the protests against the far right across the UK were a candid and much-needed welcome message. mobilized almost spontaneously to protect refugeesWe stood up to defend Muslims and other minorities from the first wave of racist attacks in decades. The protests are a sign of a country that is less tolerant of racism and more politically engaged in a fundamental way rather than party politics.
At the counter-protest I attended in northeast London, people of all ages, races, sexual orientations and religions filled the streets and sidewalks. The crowd was tense at first, but then became more lively and chatty, almost festive, as it became clear that the racists were not coming.
But participating in these activities is more complicated than it may seem at first glance. Are you there as a respectable citizen or as a committed anti-racist? Is your participation a one-off (a desire for new experiences) or a long-term commitment? And what are you prepared to do when the far-right actually arrive? These are the questions we must ask ourselves if their poisonous campaigns continue.
At the northeast London rally, a line of mostly young Muslim men blocked the street outside a mosque, 50 yards from the main crowd. They were chatting like everyone else, but some of them were wearing masks and hoodies. Peace and love would not seem to be their response to racist threats.
Politics in this unexpected and turbulent time is dangerous for the major parties. The Conservatives have done much to incite violence through their words and policies. Labour, new to power and often misunderstood as soft on law and order, needs to show it’s not out of control. Meanwhile, neither party wants to alienate disaffected white men; rioters are only the most extreme example of this, in part because they have been seen as a key electoral demographic since Brexit. Anger at the status quo is an energy both parties want to harness and redirect.
Labour ministers have used the need for public order to justify tough responses to rioters and to avoid supporting opposition protests. Conservative budget cuts have made it even harder to police the thousands of people who have taken to the streets in violence. But the government’s simplistic, tough-as-nails approach is also an attempt to make the whole situation less political. Racism, Islamophobia, hostility towards immigrants, and the backlash these prejudices provoke, are often troubling issues for mainstream politicians who are conscious that these issues divide society and are not necessarily partisan.
The last time this country saw a similar surge in far-right violence was under a Labour government, when the economy and public services were as strained as they are now. Between the 1974 and 1979 general elections, the National Front (NF), an openly racist party that advocated for the “immediate disenfranchisement” of all ethnic minority Britons, even if born in the UK, and then swiftly deported “out of this country” to their supposed countries of origin, more than doubled its vote share. At the same time, NF members, voters and supporters regularly marched through multi-ethnic areas, attacking homes, businesses and local residents, sometimes resulting in deaths and injuries.
Many mainstream politicians, then and now, do not support racist violence, but believe that anti-immigrant sentiment is justified. Conservative Opposition Leader Margaret Thatcher said: The NF is gaining support because “we’re talking about some of the immigration issues,” she said, and has adjusted the party’s language and policies accordingly.
When thousands of people mobilised against the NF in Asian areas of London where racist murders had occurred, such as Southall and Spitalfields, and nationally through new anti-racism organisations; The Anti-Nazi League and Rock Against RacismIn 1979, just days before Thatcher’s Conservative Party won the election, a white anti-racist, Blair Peach, was murdered as he was leaving an anti-NF demonstration in Southall by an unnamed police officer.
There are some signs that we are now living in a different country. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and Careful General Language by King CharlesInstead of protecting them, police officers have become targets for the far-right. Public attitudes towards immigration and multiculturalism have been unsettled but are gradually becoming more favourable. And whereas in the 1970s white participants in anti-racism events were mostly young people, seriously politically interested people, trade union and far-left party activists, this summer’s activism against the far-right has also drawn pensioners, middle-aged people and the relatively apolitical.
Even right-wing media have felt compelled to report favorably on the counter-protests, when fear of being out of step with their readers momentarily overrode their instinctive prejudices. Last Thursday the Daily Express ran a front-page photograph of counter-protesters gathering in a left-wing part of London and wrote that “United Britain will stand firm against thugs”, as if the paper had been temporarily taken over by anti-racism groups.
But to understand and reverse the damage caused by the far right over the past two weeks, we need to juxtapose these pivotal, photogenic political victories alongside the less uplifting, and equally protracted, experiences people of color have had, like stores closing early or fearing to go out as if they were under a racist lockdown.
Former prosecutor Keir Starmer is putting many violent racists behind bars, but their obsession will not be so easily curbed. When the next wave of racism comes, how the state, society and media respond will reveal with startling clarity what kind of country we are becoming: one that is actively committed to multiculturalism, one that reluctantly embraces it, or one that is fundamentally still hostile. This summer’s riots may be a thing of the distant past by the time this is resolved.
