On 18 July, Britain First led a rally at Norwich City Hall in the name of ‘protecting women and girls’.
Their leader, Paul Golding, who has credible sexual abuse allegations against him, outrageously spoke on protecting young women!
The counter-protest was organised by the Young Communist League, who reached out to us the week before the protest began, to ask for our help in organising it.
We then took that week to organise ourselves, reaching out to RCP supporters and friends, as well as promoting the counter-demo on social media.
Although the counter-protest was small, it was militant. Everyone there stood strong against this far-right menace.
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In the end we outlasted Britain First. They had their people travel into Norwich by bus to bolster their tiny forces, and make them look more popular.
When the time came for them to make their return journeys, only about five people remained on the other side, compared to our 40. Had the wider left helped us mobilise, this would have shown the true balance of forces in Norwich, where, like everywhere, ordinary people are disgusted by racism!
As the largest bloc, the RCP was able to have quite an impact: drumming up chants, and giving speeches where we put forward bold, class slogans – for example linking Tommy Robinson, Farage, and the rest of the political elites to Jeffrey Epstein.
We made good connections with other radicalised young activists and some YCL members. Our strong showing also led to fellow counter-protestors expressing an interest in joining the RCP.
Though we are still a small force, we were able to distinguish ourselves from groups like Stand Up To Racism, who have seemingly given up pretending they have anything to offer but vague platitudes about ‘love, hope, and unity’.
With just a week’s notice, we were able to mobilise a wider periphery, and clarify the counter-demo’s tactics of pushing bold class slogans, and not giving any ground to the far right.
On a local level, we have shown in practice that we can have an impact on these struggles in the here and now, and can provide the revolutionary leadership that radical workers, youth, and anti-racists are searching for.
