UK: About 25,000 anti-racism protesters marched to counter far-right rallies
Thousands of anti-racism protesters took to the streets across the United Kingdom Saturday to counter a spate of far-right rallies planned to target immigration centers, apparently foiling what looked set to be another day of rioting. The police had been bracing for another night of unrest on Wednesday after days of violence that was spurred by far-right disinformation about a fatal stabbing attack.
Far-right groups on social media had called for protests against visa processing centers and the offices of immigration lawyers at more than 100 sites around the country at 8 p.m. local time. But by early evening, thousands of counter-protesters had assembled in more than a dozen cities to protect the immigration centers from becoming targets of the far right.
“There are many, many more of us than you,” crowds chanted at the anti-racism demonstrations across the country, bolstered by a markedly stronger police presence than over the weekend and with virtually no sign of any far-right supporters.
In Walthamstow, east London, the immigration center was entirely boarded up and protected by a heavy police presence, surrounded by around three or four thousand counter-protesters. “We today have such brilliant numbers in our community,” one organizer bellowed through a megaphone to a hastily organized crowd. We have shown them whose streets these are. These are our streets.”
Ahmed Hussain, 31, said he came out to support the counter-protesters because “when you don’t, the fascists feel emboldened.” “In London, you would never see them rioting on the scale they have outside London,” Hussain told CNN. “They’re nowhere to be seen… it shows that when everyone comes out to support, their numbers dwindle.”
The worst of the past week’s violence was concentrated in the north of England. On Sunday, far-right rioters in Rotherham set a hotel being used to house asylum seekers on fire while over 200 people cowered inside. Also, large crowds of people shouting “Enough is enough” and “Get ’em out” have been reported to clash with police in several other cities. Residents in Sheffield, a town a few miles south of Rotherham, told CNN that the outbreak of violence had left them terrified, especially as it had encouraged racist behaviour.
“I normally just walk through this city center all the time,” said Nadeem Akhtar, 18, who has lived in Sheffield his whole life. “But recently, even my mum’s been telling me not to go out so much because you never know what could happen.”
Akhtar gathered with friends at midday Wednesday in the city center to protest against a far-right planned protest. Unlike last week, where protests across the country were allowed to boil over into racist violence, the Sheffield demonstration was overseen by a vast police presence separating the protesters and counter-protesters.
At least three right-wing demonstrators were arrested during altercations between the two groups. As police escorted one man away, he said, “I ain’t done nothing. Double standards.” Anti-immigration protesters have often accused police of double standards in responding to their demonstrations, claiming that they are not treated fairly and giving Keir Starmer, the prime minister, the nickname “two-tier Keir.”
It’s a nickname reporters heard time and again in Sheffield and Rotherham. It’s even been echoed by Elon Musk in a post on X, the website he owns. Musk wrote that “civil war is inevitable” in response to a post that blamed the violent demonstrations on the effects of “mass migration and open borders.”One speaker slammed Musk’s comments during the Sheffield counter-protest later that Wednesday evening. “The richest man in the world is stirring the pot for a race war,” he said.
