The far-Right riots in the United Kingdom that targeted immigrants with racism and violence for nearly two weeks largely died down by this weekend, thanks both to huge anti-racist / anti-fascist counter-protests and the deployment of police to areas where far-Right gatherings were planned online. Quick prosecutions of rioters were credited with discouraging further violent mobs as well. The Guardian reports:
Planned far-right action in towns and cities such as Newcastle, Liverpool, Basildon, Wakefield and Shrewsbury did not happen, while a handful of small rallies resulted in swift arrests.
In Yeovil, a small anti-immigration gathering was dispersed by police, with four arrests for offences including racially aggravated public disorderly behaviour and possession of a knife.
Reform UK party’s central London offices were targeted by anti-racism protesters in a peaceful march involving 5,000 people and in Belfast 15,000 people turned up to one of the city’s biggest ever anti-racism gatherings.
Public Prosecutions Director Stephen Parkinson said that rioters could face prison sentences of up to 10 years, explaining that the government “warned of the consequences and will deliver those consequences. It’s not about exacting revenge, it’s about delivering justice.”
The riots began last month after a July knife attack on a dance class killed three little girls and seriously injured several other children and adults. Police arrested a 17-year-old who was born in the UK, but fake online postings claimed the attacker was an undocumented immigrant; attacks on mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers burst out as racist mobs targeted immigrants and British people of color.
The violence was in part encouraged and organized by a network of far-Right online creeps, Reuters reports.
According to Logically, a company which works with governments and other organizations to reduce the harm of misinformation, the planned disorder had been coordinated by an international network of extreme right-wing Telegram channels with links to banned groups.
Former members of banned neo-Nazi groups Atomwaffen Division and National Action had joined U.S.-founded Active Club networks of white supremacist groups, neo-Nazis, and those of nationalist soccer hooligans to stoke tension and provoke clashes. They were among the first to share a list of targets, Logically said.
The Guardian points out that online hate groups were involved from the start, according to online hate monitors at the Community Security Trust (CST):
One forum, which was key to organising the first protest that turned into a riot last Tuesday in Southport, is allegedly jointly run by a suspected neo-Nazi. He is believed to be based overseas. […]
No, it wasn’t Elon Musk, although he’s been quite awful enough, predicting the rioting meant “civil war is inevitable” and expressing support for anti-immigrant rhetoric under the guise of free speech.
After Musk bought Twitter, he reinstated most of the neo-Nazis and bog standard racists who had previously been banned, including British far-Right leader Tommy Robinson, who went right back to inciting hatred against immigrants, as CNN reports:
Almost every one of his tweets is an anti-migrant tirade, frequently using dehumanizing and othering language to describe the high rate of legal and illegal migration to the UK.
Those themes are echoed by other high-profile Twitter users, like provocateur Laurence Fox, who hosted a show on the right-wing GB News TV channel until he was fired last October for demeaning the appearance of a female journalist on air. Amid the weekend’s riots, Fox told his followers: “Islam needs to be removed from Britain. Completely and entirely.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has focused on accelerated prosecutions of rioters and of those spreading online hate, a tactic he also used against racist anti-immigrant riots in 2011 when he was Britain’s top prosecutor. Once again, courts are prosecuting cases 24/7 and getting the word out about heavy sentences. CNN explains:
There have been hundreds of arrests, and already dozens of rioters have been charged and sent to begin hefty prison terms, ranging from several months to nearly three years. Their ages, so far, span from 16 to 69. Some judges’ sentencing remarks have been broadcast live, a novel tactic in a country where courtroom cameras are a recent and heavily restricted phenomenon.
Here’s a BBC report from a few days ago on the successful anti-racist protests to express solidarity with immigrants and people of color; we loved the woman with the goofy sign “No immigrants, no kebabs.” In Brighton, we learn, a small racist rally was so overshadowed by counter-protesters that police had to protect the fascists.
Also too, here’s the other video screenshot we considered using as our top image, from a Guardian video, because doggos are also anti-racist. (Not sure about the location of the protest.)
In a side note, lots of people online are also voting against the creepy owner of Twitter by using their mouse buttons to switch from Twitter to Bluesky. (You can find most of the Wonkette staff there as well.) Reuters reports that Bluesky has “seen a 60% jump in general activity from accounts in the UK, with several Members of Parliament also joining the platform recently, the company said in an emailed statement on Monday.”
Neener, Elon, neener. I’ll add that one of the few things keeping me on Twitter, the group “Historians at the Movies,” which watches a streaming movie every Sunday and comments on it (historian Kevin Kruse calls it “History Science Theater 3000”), moved to Bluesky this weekend and isn’t going back.
Our takeaway is that the international far Right is very goddamn dangerous, but also that when people organize against fascist creeps, the creeps don’t win. See the recent French elections, where a coalition of parties that normally don’t get along united to keep fascists out of power. See also the huge surge of support for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, because people are sick of Trumpism. Hell, even the very conservative county in Michigan that the Washington Post has been covering since its board of supervisors was taken over by Trumpers in 2022 will next year be run by sane people, after voters in last week’s primary turfed out several of the crazies (gift link).
The forces of hate and division have had a terrible run, and can be expected to keep harming people and making America and other countries shittier — but only if the majority of non-shitty people remain silent. Guess we’ll look into printing up some “Make America Less Shitty Again” hats.
PREVIOUSLY!
[Guardian / Reuters / Guardian / CNN / WaPo (gift link)]
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