Trade Unions Fighting the Far Right (TUFF) held a protest today (16 May) in Trafalgar Square in opposition to Tommy Robinson’s Unite the Kingdom march and rally. That rally looks like being a huge display of ugly, dangerous ultra-nationalism, and will generate yet further racist hostility to migrants in the weeks ahead.
On this same day, Stand Up to Racism (SUTR) and the trade union leaders, instead of calling a specific anti-far right protest to show clear political opposition, folded protesting against Tommy Robinson et al into the Nakba Day demonstration already scheduled for the day, and deliberately clashed with by the far right.
Let us be clear: the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and others had every right to march on this day free of intimidation either by the far right or the police. But SUTR and our trade union leaders have no right to leave the streets free for the far right to roam; many are openly fascist. They should have been confronted; there should have been a show of militant strength from our side.
We think SUTR and the unions failed to respond because they do not want to seem weak. This is a self-defeating stance. Only by organising to take on the far right effectively can we grow stronger.
Groups like TUFF and others around the country are not trying to reinvent the wheel, they are trying to reorient the labour movement to organise more urgently and in a different way. As such, TUFF’s protest was about laying down a marker about where to be when the far right march.
SUTR and the unions need to work out ways to organise to confront the far right on the streets, to defend communities, and to not rely on the police to keep people safe - because that won’t happen.
At the same time we need a socialist message which can undercut the far right, to be taken into workplaces and the unions.
Blame the bosses not migrants!
More: tuff.network
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