You almost had to feel sorry for the far right. Having planned an afternoon rally in Torquay on Saturday, November 30, the handful who turned up found themselves vastly outnumbered by a crowd of around 200 counter-protesters, mainly from local unions and anti-racism groups.
Outside the town hall, amid dozens of banners and placards proclaiming ‘Stop the Far Right’, ‘Smash Fascism and Racism’ and ‘Refugees Welcome’, there were just two signs with the opposite message: ‘Stop the Boats’ and ‘Mass Deportations Now’. These were being defiantly borne aloft by a very small number of people sporting Union Jacks who were wandering around the periphery of the crowd, closely observed by the police and surrounded by anti-fascist demonstrators. They made no attempt to address the protesters and remained in a small separate group.
Meanwhile, the counter-demonstration – organised by Torbay Trades Council, Devon’s National Education Union branch and Stand Up to Racism – was gathering energy and pace, as well as numbers. After a performance of dancing and folk singing by Mayday Morris, a series of speakers addressed the crowd.
Mike Gurney from the Devon branch of the NEU said:
“When I teach kids, they don’t arrive in school full of hate, they want to get on with each other.
“They’re taught to hate by Nigel Farage and Tommy Robinson and their like, who try to blame all the problems of society on a few thousand refugees – they ignore the fact that there have been cuts in pay, and the running down of the NHS, and no social housing being built in Britain anymore.
“Talk about the cost of living crisis, and what do they do? They scapegoat some of the most needy and desperate people on the planet.
“The far right bring no solutions, they bring only hate and division, and we need solutions that are based on unity between people fighting for a better life here in Torbay, here in Devon and here in Britain.”
Another of the speakers was a doctor from Torbay Hospital who described her personal experiences of racist patients, including an elderly lady who asked her, “Why can’t you all just go home?” She said this kind of view saddens her, but she also understands that some people have deeply felt reasons for believing what they do.
Referring to the woman at the rally with the ‘Stop the Boats’ placard and a ‘concerned mother’ badge, she said:
“I feel for her, she’s a strong woman. Her opinions are different to mine but I’m also a concerned mother. I don’t respect what she stands for, but I respect her convictions. All these people, how are we going to bring them on board – how are we going to change their hearts and minds?
“How are we going to help them heal their hate? Of course we need to stand up against racism, homophobia, anti-Islamic sentiment, but we also need to look beyond that, we need to open our hearts and think how are we going to bring this whole world together?”
A partial answer was provided by a local teacher who spoke about the important work being done in schools to combat the racist messages children are receiving from some politicians and help them to understand other races and cultures.
But the final speaker warned that education and political debate are not enough. In an impassioned address, Plymouth-based Liam Condron-Farnos from the Stand Up to Racism coalition called for a large-scale mobilisation of public opposition to fascism and racism, in the form of demonstrations across the UK’s towns and cities.
He said:
“We need to confront the far right on the streets, and we need to clearly confront their actual ideology … they have a developed racist ideology, which is not just a misplaced call for more council houses and better-funded public services. Those things are vital as well, but we need to be clear what we are up against and confront it head-on.
“This is all in the context of a rising far right across the world: Trump in the USA, the AfD in Germany, Rassemblement National (previously the Front National) in France, Modi and his Hindu-fascist BJP in India, and a host of others. Rassemblement National in France was founded by collaborators with the Nazi occupation, who helped in the extermination of the Jews of France, and now they’re the largest single party in the French parliament.
“What we need — urgently — is mass, open anti-fascist and anti-racist organisations in every town and city. We need to mobilise against the fascists when they hit the streets, and we need to expose the racism of Reform UK Ltd, the Conservative Party, and the very fast rightward shift of the Labour Party on immigration.”
This is the aim of Stand Up to Racism, a national organisation with a growing number of local groups around the country. Exeter and Plymouth already have branches, along with others around the West country, and there are plans to launch a group in Torbay in the New Year.
Stand Up to Racism is sponsored by the TUC and all the large trade unions, including Unison, Unite, the PCS, teachers’ unions the NEU and NASUWT, the Fire Brigades Union, transport unions the RMT, Aslef and TSSA (Transport Allied Staffs Association), and the BFAWU (Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union). There is no requirement for all members to hold the same views on every issue – the main focus is opposition to racism and fascism – although the overall political view is socialism.
With these activists out in force in Torquay on Saturday afternoon, it was interesting to observe the reactions of passing pedestrians and motorists. Shoppers paused to see what was going on, and drivers hooted their horns in support. For people who may not follow politics, and be only vaguely aware of extreme right-wing propaganda on social media, grass-roots actions like these are a way to literally bring the issues home to them.
At this particular event the far right element was hardly visible to the public – and that’s exactly what is needed, according to Mr Condron-Farnos.
Concluding his speech, he said:
“This is a fantastic turn-out today .. but we should have 500 people, a thousand. We should fill this entire space, there should be no room for them to draw breath.
“When these fascists try to march on Torquay or anywhere in Devon and Cornwall, or in London, I hope we can get big coachloads of people up there to outnumber them, and say, ’There are many, many more of us than you’.”
For more information visit https://standuptoracism.org.uk/