WE live in an increasingly volatile and polarised society. In Glasgow on Saturday, the thousands marching against the ongoing genocide and conscious starvation of men, women, children and babies in Gaza was, by all accounts, the biggest turnout in months.
The SSP were proudly present, as we have been since day one, arguing for an end to the genocide, to Labour’s arms sales and SNP arms subsidies, supporting mass struggle for peace through socialism in the Middle East.
By stark contrast, those of us in the SSP who joined the peaceful protest – initiated by Falkirk Trades Union Council – outside the Cladhan hotel housing refugees and asylum seekers in Falkirk, were faced with an ugly mass of racist bigotry across a narrow street.
At a peak, we had around 250-300 anti-racists protecting the “hotel”, its workers, and those who have sought sanctuary from wars and civil wars, from attack by a crowd whipped up into a frenzy by fascist and other far-right groups.
The alarming fact is that at their peak, those screaming “send them home”, “stop the boats”, and singing “Rule Britannia” numbered 800 to 1000. It was allegedly called as “a peaceful protest” after an asylum seeker was convicted of rape and jailed.
This inexcusable, heinous crime was latched on to to brand all asylum seekers, refugees and people of colour as rapists and paedophiles by unscrupulous far-right actors – including “Tommy Robinson” – real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – Ukip’s Nick Tenconi, and grouplets like Great Britain National Protest.
Some of the local people who joined this demo may well have concerns about women’s safety, but where were they when Women’s Aid and other services were being cut?
Where did they protest against the most common of all crimes against women – rape, assault and murder by men in their own family, usually a husband or partner? At the very start of the demo, a few shouted about Grangemouth and the threatened closure of Alexander Dennis – issues the SSP has spearheaded campaigning on in the streets of Falkirk, calling for nationalisation under workers’ control to build clean electric buses for free public transport.
The full weight of the trade union movement has yet to take action on this and by doing so could answer the genuine concerns some locals were expressing.
But yesterday, they were part of a baying mob, some of them giving Nazi salutes, chanting the fascist National Front’s slogan of the 1970s, “there’s no black in the Union Jack”.
In among this crowd were banners with a skull pierced by a bloodstained dagger, saying “Kill Them All, Let God Sort ‘em Out” – hardly a peaceful message or one of concern for women and children’s safety.
The lumpenised sections of this demo screamed abuse at women stewards on the entirely peaceful anti-racist demo, calling them “c**ts”, and described all of us as “paedos”.
It took great courage by all those of us who stood for hours, holding the line against likely attacks on the Cladhan hotel, but we did – despite the paltry police presence, with at first only half-a-dozen officers separating the rival crowds. If we hadn’t held the line, the hotel and people within it would have been attacked, with unthinkable human costs.
Tinderbox of anger
This was a harsh reminder of the deep damage done by capitalist crises – including housing shortages, service cuts, job losses in Grangemouth and Alexander Dennis, and grinding poverty – and the unforgivable scapegoating and racist incitement, not just by Reform UK, Ukip and fascist grouplets, but also Starmer’s Labour.
They've created a tinderbox which flares up with the likes of a horrible rape incident, targeting all those fleeing wars and persecution for racist attacks and potential injury and death, as angry mobs are incited to target the “hotel” they’re cooped up in for ages, as the government fails to deal with their asylum applications.
Saturday’s events in Falkirk were possibly the ugliest I’ve witnessed since our battles against the fascist street fighters of the 1970s.
However, the fact Saturday’s crowds didn’t just overpower the substantially smaller anti-racist demonstrators is further evidence they were overwhelmingly not fascist street fighters, but an angry, downtrodden crowd who have had their anger channelled into racist bigotry; blind hatred of people who had nothing to do with shoddy housing, benefits cuts, totally inadequate services and other privations. As we chanted a few times, “Profit is the enemy”.
A warning to the workers' movement
Falkirk should be treated as a wake-up call to all trade unions (the STUC included) and socialists. We need to build a positive, working-class socialist alternative in communities ravaged by capitalist attacks, regardless of which “mainstream” party is in office.
Otherwise they’ll be prey to the baying mobs and racist slogans of far-right outfits.
The SSP will continue to help resist the poisonous antics of the far right, and call on the full power of the organised trade union movement to be mobilised in demonstrations in the likes of Falkirk, to build unity against poor housing, service cuts (including those for women and children), against the closure of Alexander Dennis, and for a positive socialist alternative, with massive wealth redistribution away from the millionaires who hoard it to the millions who need it.
We need a sharp, socialist class appeal to people most affected by the crisis of capitalist rule, to break them from the millionaire demagogues of the far right, who want to divide us and rob us of even more wealth.
