NEWS · 09 August 2024
It has been a frightening week in the UK. But as it comes to an end, we are relieved to see proven the fundamental truth about this country:
It has many, many more anti-racists than it does racists.
Racism rejected
The past week has seen a surge of racist attacks, including refugee hotels almost burned, immigration advice centres targeted, shops smashed and looted, and a library torched.
It began because politicians like Nigel Farage gave oxygen to a conspiracy theory that pinned the blame for murders in Southport on refugees, using a made-up, 'Muslim-sounding' name. It was fake news, but they were unrepentant. Farage said: "What you've seen is nothing to what could happen over the course of the next few weeks."
The rioters chanted the Tory slogan, "Stop the boats". Mainstream politicians and media hesitated, with some calling out the violence and racism but others talking about "legitimate concerns". Tory leadership candidates gave mixed messages. GB News and other hard-right outriders tried to cheerlead while keeping plausible deniability.
There was a moment in the middle of the week where hope was fading and fear was spreading. The police were making arrests but disorder continued. Farage, looking smug, said we should "listen" to the rioters – that the way to stop the violence is to give them what they want, to "end mass immigration".
Then thousands of counter-protesters came out and lit up the streets, blocking the way to the far right's targets, and peacefully showing that the majority stand firmly against racism. In one evening, the tide turned decisively.
Outnumbering these violent racists on the streets is what stopped their momentum, and turned their strength into humiliation. That ran in parallel with disrupting their online networks and putting their footsoldiers in jail for a long time.
British politics has been pandering to the far right for over a decade, with the EU referendum the biggest act of pandering of all. This was the moment the people drew a line in the sand and said: no more.
The far right will be weakened for many years to come – and that will weaken their connected networks including, importantly for our campaigns, the capacity of Brexiters to organise.
We are not complacent about the continuing need to be on alert, but now we know the far right's most important weakness: that there are many, many more of us than there are of them.
Lessons for the future
This is an important lesson for us all in a wider sense. Britain contains a small, noisy, xenophobic minority and a vast, diverse, anti-racist majority.
A lot of people have spent a lot of time denying racism in British politics. Denying that Brexit was fuelled by racism. Denying that the Rwanda scheme and other attacks on refugees were about racism. Now the mask is off.
We do not win by cutting back our arguments until they avoid triggering a minority of bigots. We win by mobilising the majority that represents the real Britain.
We won't forget it.
