August 14: Mass anti-fascist demonstrations answered the anti-immigrant violence that followed the stabbing deaths of three young girls in Southport, England on July 29th.
“We’ve got more in common with an Indian nurse, a Black bricklayer,” said Matt Delaney, an anti-fascist from the Liverpool area, “than we do with the Elon Musks, the Nigel Farages, the Tommy Robinsons. All these people are stoking violence.”
Like thousands across Britain, Matt, a young white worker, had learned of the anti-fascist demonstrations on Instagram.
Days after the fatal stabbings, major cities across England erupted in violence. Fascist mobs set fire to hotels hosting asylum seekers, stoned mosques, and attacked charities that helped immigrants.
The violence was sparked by lies on social media that the killer of the three girls was a Muslim and an immigrant. He is neither. That simple truth did not stop the racist propagation of Islamophobic lies.
The British capitalist state is in crisis. This is marked by wars, super inflation, joblessness and cuts in social services. They have money to fund the genocide in Gaza but not to help the increasingly impoverished working class.
The British ruling class has been shocked by the size and persistence of the pro-Palestinian demonstrations. It’s another sign that they are out of touch with the masses. Firebrands like Robinson and Farage help the rulers channel working-class anger towards scapegoats: Muslims, immigrants, and asylum seekers.
A global network of anti-Muslim and Zionist philanthropists, politicians, and think tanks have been funding far-right figures like Tommy Robinson. His most recent fascist Islamophobic rally, just days before the riots started, drew a crowd of 20,000 people to Trafalgar Square. Robinson has long considered himself a Zionist and he denounced Palestinians in the most insulting terms.
But anti-fascist ideas have a strong appeal. More than fifty demonstrations took place on Saturday, August 10 (the weekend after the anti-immigrant pogroms), with huge crowds gathering in towns and cities such as London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Manchester, Birmingham, and Belfast. Working-class solidarity shut down the fascist mobs.
In London, thousands of anti-racist protesters assembled outside Reform UK’s London Office (Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party’s headquarters) to accuse Farage of “inciting fascist rioters,” before marching on Whitehall in support of refugees.
The Labour Party of Prime Minister Keir Starmer has also played a direct role in fueling Islamophobia. From Tony Blair’s support of the US war on Iraq twenty years ago to Starmer’s unstinting support of the genocide in Gaza, Labour has built Islamophobia. By repeating the lie that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism, Starmer has fueled the anti-Muslim climate that encouraged the far-right out onto the streets.
The “left” of the Labour Party still has a hold on many British workers. The country’s most high-profile Muslim MP, Zarah Sultana, represents that perspective. Her slogan, “The Enemy of the Working-Class Travels by Private Jet Not Migrant Dinghy,” highlights the fact that working-class people are in life’s struggles together.
But electoral politics will not bring us the change we need. The international capitalist crisis is intensifying. Capitalist masters everywhere push fascist movements to divide and weaken the might of the international working class. In response, the masses are rising up. But they must break with electoral politics and organize for revolution for workers’ power, to get rid of capitalism and all the scourges that come with it. Read and spread Red Flag! Build and join ICWP collectives! We have a world to win!
Read our pamphlets:
“Fight For the Day When No Worker Will be Called Foreigner” here
“To End Racism: Mobilize the Masses for Communism” here