“Burn it down” came the shout from a passing car outside The Bell hotel in Epping. The driver was egging on far-right thugs targeting the Essex hotel this week because it’s a temporary home for asylum seekers.
Chants of “send them back” filled the air outside the hotel, led by members of the neo-Nazi Homeland Party. The protests were attended and encouraged on social media by Reform Party leaders.
The protest turned violent as police were outnumbered and forced back by the crowd. Photos of bloodied cops and injured hotel security staff are circulating on social media. The Tory council leaders have condemned the violence but are also campaigning to have the hotel closed.
On Tuesday false rumours started circulating online that the asylum seekers were being moved to a hotel in Canary Wharf, east London. The fascist Tommy Robinson and Lee Nallalingham, the chairman of Reform in east London, encouraged their thugs to trek to Tower Hamlets to protest there as well. Reform MP Lee Anderson also turned up looking for a fight.
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What does this represent?
Britain is a “powder keg” of social tensions according to thinktank British Future. The police and the government are warning that a repeat of last year’s far-right riots could be on the cards this summer. There’s a deep anger in society that threatens to burst to the surface.
And no wonder. Life for working class people under Starmer’s government is getting worse and worse. They can find billions for weapons and war, but nothing for housing, wages, healthcare, and education. After 14 years of the Tories it’s hard to believe things could get worse, but that’s exactly what’s happening.
Yet there’s an enormous political vacuum. People have no obvious way to express their fury.
Enter Nigel Farage. This slimy liar has spied an opportunity to advance his own political career by feeding on the fear and anger of millions of people. All of our problems, he tries to tell the working class, are caused by asylum seekers, refugees, and some of the poorest people in the country.
This is pure right-wing opportunism. Farage voters aren’t fascists, and not all of them are racists. They’re rightly angry at the government and the living conditions of working-class people. But Farage is feeding them lies about who is really responsible, and encouraging them to go to refugee hotels to cause trouble.
There, they are joined by the real hard core of British fascists grouped around figures like Tommy Robinson, who talk of race wars and lynchings. This mob represents no one but their own very small thuggish layer in society and have very little support – even Farage tries to distance himself from them.
But they are emboldened by the rhetoric of Farage, Trump, and other right-wing populists. They turn up to these protests intent on burning down the hotels and attacking the refugees. They represent an immediate physical threat to some of the poorest people in this country.
What should the left’s response be?
Farage is sending his mob to Canary Wharf to harass impoverished asylum seekers. He accuses them of criminality, and of taking all the houses, GP appointments, school places, and taxpayers money. That’s why life is so hard for the working class in Britain, he says.
In response we say it’s true that the problem is in Canary Wharf. But it’s not with a handful of refugees living in poverty. It’s in the glass skyscrapers full of bankers and businessmen perpetrating the worst crimes, gambling with our livelihoods, dodging taxes, and robbing us blind.
The real enemy of the working class in Britain are not those arriving on small boats, but those sailing around on luxury yachts.
Therefore the most important way to take on Farage is with a political programme that confronts the billionaires and the capitalist class head on.
We can fix the NHS, build houses, staff schools, and keep our streets safe by taking the money and businesses out of the hands of the rich elite and running them ourselves, as the working class instead.
Then we can decide democratically where all the money goes, instead of letting billionaires decide for us. We’ll prioritise the needs of the many instead of the profits of a few.
We have the wealth in society to give everyone a decent standard of living, and help people fleeing war, famine, climate disaster, and persecution. All we need to do is take it out of the hands of the capitalists and use it ourselves.
Anyone who tells you that’s not possible, like Farage, is lying to protect the profits of the rich.
But as well as a clear, socialist political answer to Farage, we need a clear physical answer to Tommy Robinson.
During last summer’s far-right riots community self-defence groups were established to protect mosques and immigrant neighbourhoods from the rioters. In the end it was huge, well organised, well publicised counter-demonstrations that forced the rioters off the streets. The police did little-to-nothing of any use.
This is needed again. It should be properly coordinated and linked with a political programme to cut support from under the far-right thugs.
What are the perspectives?
The anger in British society is not going away. In fact it will only intensify. Farage has the wind in his sails and will continue spouting his lies, which will whip up tensions and embolden the thugs. A repeat of the riots cannot be ruled out.
The Starmer government is extremely weak. Starmer is falling over himself to sound more right-wing than Farage on immigration, which only weakens his position.
The police are hated on all sides, by radicalised young people for their repression of the Palestine movement, and by the far-right for preventing their attacks on refugees.
This fragile cocktail is a recipe for polarisation and chaos. What’s missing is political clarity and leadership that tackles these problems at their root cause: the misery being inflicted on working-class people in Britain and around the world by the capitalist system.
The Revolutionary Communists are trying to provide that clarity. We hope the new Corbyn-Sultana party will adopt this approach. We will certainly be in there arguing for it and we invite our readers to join the RCP and do the same.
