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There are better ways to fight the right than Stand Up to Racism 

There are better ways to fight the right than Stand Up to Racism 

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Workers, youth, and anti-racists came out in force last weekend, humiliating the small groups that the far right mustered. But these victories were won despite the weak politics and methods of Stand Up to Racism. The RCP is showing the way forward.

The right wing of British politics has been stirred up by the knife attacks in Southampton and Belfast, and the vicious migrant-baiting of Nigel Farage, Rupert Lowe, Tommy Robinson, and the rest.

But despite horrific scenes of pogroms and arson in Belfast last week, and footage of masked-up hooligans marching in Glasgow, the street mobilisation of the reactionary right in Britain has so far been a damp squib, especially in comparison to the flare-up in the summer of 2024.

This is yet more evidence, as we have repeatedly argued, that the real balance of forces in Britain lies overwhelmingly with the left – the working class, the radical youth, anti-racists, and other progressive layers.

This strength was on full display over the weekend. In most places, the lumpen gangs, right-wing streamers, and red-faced flag-wavers were vastly outnumbered by crowds of ordinary workers and youth.

In Glasgow, anti-racists outnumbered the right three hundred to one. In Brighton, right-wing activists were forced to take refuge in a nearby pub, as crowds of locals surrounded them, chanting and jeering.

In places like Manchester and Preston, meanwhile the patriotic ‘silent majority’ demonstrated its invisibility too, only managing to muster up to a dozen people in each city.

Communists at the forefront

In a number of places, the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) has been at the forefront of efforts to mobilise against the far right, which you can read about below.

Meanwhile, as the report from Leeds highlights in particular, the traditional leaders of the anti-racist movement, in the form Stand Up to Racism (SUTR), have failed to meet the occasion.

This group’s liberal-reformist politics means it defends the status quo; its empty sloganeering (mixed with unserious verbal radicalism) does nothing but play into the establishment’s culture war; and its petty prestige politics weakens and divides the anti-racist movement.

As a result, SUTR is steadily whittling away the little authority it has left – at the precise moment when a strong anti-racist leadership is necessary.

A struggle is therefore opening up in the anti-racist movement: between yesterday’s leaders and their soft, reformist, moralistic politics; and the radical youth, who want a serious, class-based struggle against the reactionary right.

Though we are not yet large enough to lead the anti-racist movement on a national scale, the RCP is reaching and connecting with this layer of radical young people on a local level.

In the areas where we are strong enough, we are demonstrating the power of our ideas and methods in practice, by taking bold initiatives in the struggle against the right.

If you are shocked and angry at the latest flare-up of racist reaction, inspired by the response of the anti-racist movement over the weekend, and want to take the struggle forward – get organised with the RCP today.

Leeds: There are better ways to fight the right than Stand Up to Racism

The counter-demos against Tommy Robinson’s mob this weekend proved that the balance is on our side. In most places the left cleared them off the streets.

In Leeds it was touch-and-go. The left prevailed in the end, but we learned something about tactics and political organising.

The Robinson crowd was only around 50 people. We outnumbered them two-to-one, but the turnout was smaller than it should have been.

Leeds SUTR called the counter-demo, but they hadn’t really built for it beyond a couple of Instagram posts, as if it was just a routine day out. We need to take these things more seriously.

By seriously building for this demo – through postering, stalls, reaching out to the local labour movement, and discussing politically amongst our activists and supporters – it was the RCP who brought the people we needed to outnumber the right. Without our efforts, the left would have been outnumbered.

We arrived at the demo as an RCP bloc. We had to crash our way through some aggressive right-wing ‘auditors’ shoving their cameras in our faces. They were quickly brushed off. We led the way right up to the police line and started drowning out the right with our slogans.

They had a big ‘Restore Britain’ flag so we hit back with “Rupert Lowe you’re a liar – just another crook for hire”.

They also had a ‘Protect our Women’ placard and kept shouting about grooming gangs, so in response we gave them “Save our women – what do you mean? You’re supporting Epstein”, coupled with “Tommy Robinson and his crew, they are in the files too”.

Those were quite effective, because some of the right-wing mob openly supported Epstein and others didn’t. They literally started fighting amongst themselves.

We have to be honest and say that the SUTR slogans were pretty weak – all moralism and lefty-liberalism. They chanted “refugees are welcome here”, which didn’t make a lot of sense because the people being threatened by Robinson and Farage aren’t just refugees – it’s anyone who isn’t white, including British people!

They tried a few chants about how right wingers should all shoot themselves – talking about Hitler and Charlie Kirk – but they didn’t catch on. These are not serious slogans. Instead of weakening, demoralising, and humiliating the right they just emboldened them.

In the end we can say the day was a victory for the left. But if it had been left up to SUTR, that wouldn’t have been the case. They didn’t really mobilise and their politics were weak. The RCP brought the numbers and the political knowledge. This is what we need to fight the far right.

And as a result of this successful mobilisation, 15 people said that they want to get involved with the RCP, and will be attending meetings and discussions this week.

Leeds Communists

Sheffield: Police brutalise anti-racists, Communists take the lead

On Saturday, the Sheffield RCP carried out what is among our strongest protest interventions to date.

Right-wing group ‘Raise the Colours’ had planned to march on a ‘migrant hotel’. Local groups including SUTR organised a counter-demonstration – incredibly out of the way of the march’s path.

With the real threat of pogroms on the streets, grassroots groups decided that this passivity wouldn’t cut it, organising a militant protest that would rightly aim to directly block the right’s path.

We mobilised a Communist bloc numbering roughly 25 to join the 300-strong militant, grassroots counter-protest. We discovered there was no clear leadership, and as a result we were immediately the largest organised group there.

RCP comrades stood at the front with our banner, leading chants and making speeches. No other group did this, or even opposed us. People were happy to see us taking the lead.

But for our scandalous ‘crime’ of blocking the path of roughly 70 right-wing thugs, the South Yorkshire Police approached to demand we disperse. Not a single person could hear the police over the whole crowd screaming our slogan “smash the system, smash the right, workers of the world unite!”

Sheffield police manhandling comrades
The police responded to the anti-racist protest with their usual ‘peacekeeping’, and began throwing people to the floor.

The police then moved to push us out of the way into SUTR’s demo as had happened in the past. The protest immediately pushed to break the police lines. The police responded in turn with their usual ‘peacekeeping’ and began throwing people to the floor.

One of our comrades had his legs kicked as he ran and was dragged into the group being pushed towards SUTR. Another carrying the banner was grabbed by the police but managed to break free.

Later on, police got out their batons, began knocking people down, and charged the horses into the crowd, ramming an older man onto the floor.

After the chaos, about half the protest had successfully broken through to control a junction the right planned to pass through. Our bloc was split in half.

The comrades pushed to join SUTR were met with a noticeably older, quieter protest of about 1,000 – with its very own Lib Dem bloc! Faced with police kettling, comrades here began to lead militant chants. SUTR members asked us to help organise people.

This militant protest remained surrounded by the police until the right was moved to the opposite side of the river. None of them could get near the hotel, which represents a victory in itself. From here the protests wound down and dispersed.

Saturday revealed the need for strong leadership in this movement. The shy liberal leaders of SUTR didn’t want to do anything; the radical youth at the grassroots demo wanted to physically confront the right, but struggled due to a lack of organisation.

The RCP did things on this day that we’ve never been able to do before. Just imagine what we could do with 100 members in this city!

Maeve Hanley, Sheffield

Glasgow: Far-right thugs totally humiliated

Communists from Glasgow and Edinburgh joined thousands of people to protest the far-right pogroms and racist attacks, which have emboldened reactionary elements in Glasgow and other areas in the west of Scotland.

Having arrived early at the scene, no more than 30 far-right thugs gathered at the planned location of the demonstration.

Soon after, at least 3,000 protesters were facing them, defiantly chanting “off our streets!” in the face of Nazi salutes and provocation.

The protest showed in practice that the working class of Scotland can easily outnumber the racists – three hundred to one, in this case!

Police Scotland was out in force to protect the far-right group, escorting them through the crowds of militant anti-racists. Our chant pointing out that the police are on their side was taken up by younger and radical layers in the protest.

The Communist bloc, made up of 14 comrades mobilised on short notice, was the most energetic at the demonstration. We shouted out that Tommy, Farage, and Starmer are all liars and crooks, and that the best way to smash the far right is for workers to unite and fight the system.

When the small group of racist gangsters were slowly cleared away by the police, our flyers were basically flying out of our hands!

Home-made placards with “tax the rich” and “racism is a distraction” showed that workers understand that the billionaires and their representatives are stoking the fire of racism in order to distract the blame from themselves and their system.

We must take the fight to the billionaires, and burn their system down!

Sara Al-Disi, Edinburgh

Brighton: Racists outnumbered forty to one

With the recent race riots in Belfast and Glasgow fresh in people’s minds, thousands took to the streets of Brighton on 13 June to join a counter-protest against the far right.

The so-called ‘South East Patriots’, headed by UKIP’s leader Nick Tenconi, had planned to march through the city – but they didn’t make it one hundred metres out of the train station!

The day was a vivid display of the real balance of forces in Britain: four thousand counter-protestors, including sizable trade union blocs, versus a measly one hundred ‘patriots’.

Yet, organised as a ‘carnival against fascism’, the counter-protest purposefully refrained from bringing in politics.

This is where the Brighton RCP came in. We roved through the crowds striking up conversations about the need to smash capitalism in order to destroy racism at its root.

As our leaflets flew out of our hands, newspapers and pamphlets were eagerly bought up; and people left their details to find out about joining, it became clearer than ever that there’s an appetite for bold, revolutionary ideas at these events.

So much so that several brand-new faces attended our debrief, where we discussed not only the far right, but also economics and world events. Our task now is to bring these people into our party and build a force that can smash the far right for good.

Kieran Lee, Brighton

Newcastle: Anti-racist youth push for bolder methods

Saturday’s ‘Resist the far right’ demonstration in Newcastle was no victory for the right, but the counter-demonstration was disorganised and split from the beginning.

The demonstration had been organised well in advance of the recent unrest. Having initially anticipated a small demo, in the light of racist violence local youth were motivated to ensure scenes in Belfast were not repeated in the Toon.

There was a clear division between the established activists who had organised the demo and militant anti-racist youth who had turned up in numbers.

The demonstration therefore split in two: one side wanted to stay and listen to protest music, the other more youthful and eventually larger contingent demanded that we march to confront the right, despite a heavy police presence. RCP comrades joined the youth in their demands, and this tactic won the day.

By the time we got moving, there were no significant contingents of the right to confront. There were fewer than 30 right wingers outside a ‘migrant hotel’, and the regular pro-monarchy Iranian demonstration in the city centre. Overall the right’s turnout even at its height was nothing exceptional.

It is clear there is a desperate mood to physically confront and smash the right. Despite the left leaders of the demo putting forward bold words about class struggle, it was only under pressure from the galvanised anti-racist youth that they began to move.

Robbie Laverick, Newcastle

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