As The Guardian notes this morning:
Members of a far-right nationalist party are helping to organise protests outside hotels used to house asylum seekers across the UK, according to a series of Facebook posts and groups created in recent weeks.
Activists for the Homeland party, which was formed as a splinter organisation from Patriotic Alternative, Britain's biggest far-right group, have set up a number of online groups in an attempt to spread the protests that recently engulfed a hotel in Epping.
Their involvement adds to concerns raised by some campaigners that the protests are being infiltrated and bolstered by people with far-right connections. Protests are expected to take place over the weekend in 20 towns and cities across the UK.
And as is always apparent from the pictures of these protests (of which there always appear to be plenty, when protests about Israeli action in Gaza, which always involve much greater numbers of people, get none), the symbol they invariably use is the cross of St George, which is, whether we like it or not, now a fascist adjacent symbol of hate.
Those claiming otherwise are simply engaged in DARVO, which is the process of denial, attack, and reversing the roles of the victim and offender.
Honest speaking on this issue is required.
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And the enthusiasm with which this morning’s R4 Today programme highlighted another tiny asylum protest at a hotel in Diss.
As John Harris in the Guardian pointed out, Jenrick Badenoch and Farage have been inciting and have been desperate to see a ‘summer of riots’.
BBC will highlight a hundred ‘protestors’ outside a hotel anddont give a single mention to a hundred thousand about Gaza . If this isn’t the road to fascism it looks very like it.
And Starmer’s decision to back up Farage – that its all about migration (‘land of strangers’) means that Farage can now talk about ‘three flights a day’ of expulsions – .
We are beginning to look like Germany in the thirites
With a state media assisting the process.
The protests are on the whole attended by normal people who you describe as “far right”. We know your definition of “fascist” or “racist” or “far right” is pretty broad and is basically used to symbolise somebody who disagrees with you. Well the protests are gaining momentum and are succeeding as the judgement in Epping shows. So you can shout and scream and protest your indignation all you like. You will be applauded no doubt inside your echo chamber but just laughed at outside it.
You mean your echo chamber agrees with you? Is that your claim? At least mine has an argument to go with the agreement. What is yours?
Nuance/lack of black and white thinking is required, yes? You’ve just said literally any criticism or other viewpoint is DARVO…to avoid silo thinking at least see where the ‘other’ side (40+% of the population?) is at…I’d suggest Matt Goodwin (who has been Prof in Politics)
I know of his work. Is there anyone who doubts that it is located on the far-right?
@Jennifer Molten
Nazi rallies were, in the main, attended by ordinary people, that’s rather the point, Extremists organise rallies for extreme purposes and persuade “ordinary” people to join in. It’s a part of how a political movement that couldn’t win outright at the ballot box made itself into a mass movement which had widespread support from ordinary people, most people weren’t fascists at the start, they were turned into being fascists.
https://www.lowyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/styles/interpreter_article_image/public/GettyImages-514686368.jpg?itok=5MuJIaUW
Normal people don’t attend protests against asylum seekers, waving a red and white flag so vehemently.
Normal people attend protests against genocide or don’t attend protests against asylum seekers.
I was out walking with a friend yesterday and he commented on the amount of people who go to these demonstrations – he wondered how they found the time, which might be a clue as to why they are there (he thought that they were just useful idiots and we agreed that they were just too full of hate to understand what was really making them poor – which is their failure – no one else’s). I have always defended the British people when I feel that they are being misled and always will.
But then I think of Chuck D from Public Enemy who is a bit of hero of mine. His lyrics/raps always talk of and encourage a sort mental self-defensive fitness against being manipulated by anyone – corporations, governments whatever – being able to see through BS and thinking for yourself. I’m afraid that Chuck D is right – every citizen must do their bit, wake up and not be led by the nose – you cannot blame the manipulators for ever – it has to stop with you and admitting to your inner hatreds that make you weak and vulnerable.
FWIW I am guided by Clara Mattei (The Capitol Order) who places austerity and fascism together – my conclusion being that those who rule us in this country are fascists already and are now coercing the rest of us (or those who are willing) into their fascist dreamworld. Starmer – as a Zionist – is Mr Black & White himself for example, which comes across as ‘you are with us or against us’, nothing in between – that is NOT politics.
‘Nuance’ – the ability to see shades of grey as I see it – I did Black and White film photography for years – I think B&W film was one of man’s greats creations and I learnt to appreciate the grey scale – the gradations between black and white tones. Whether ‘nuance’ or ‘grey scale’ I can tell you, come on in – it’s a beautiful world I tell you.
God Bless Ilford FP4 and Kodak Tri-X!
I have been taking photos in black and white over the last couple of days. Sometimes I really enjoy doing so. I might post some later.
There are a core of the same people at most demos. One of the groups too Nazi for Homeland even is co-lead by Melanie Powell, usually in a sunhat and lurking to the rear of the crowd with tge rest of the instigators. Homeland runs a lot of ‘community’ FB pages, usually titled “XXXX SAYS NO”. They’ve had to be actively removed from our local nature FB page!
Unfortunately, most of the people demonstrating against immigrants cannot be reasoned with, because they don’t have any considered reason for being there. They have been incited by the media, lying politicians or feeble-minded peer groups.
We have to rely on the police and the courts to make sure a prison cell awaits them if they resort to violence during a demonstration. We also need condemnation of such violence by all politicians, left and right.
I do not mean to be trivial but also in today’s Guardian there is an uplifting interview with Alison Hammond. Yes I am biased as a fellow Brummie but her whole attitude as expressed in the article is full of compassion and empathy. I appreciate that she may not be everyone’s cup of tea and I know some might say that the interview may be carefully constructed PR but I doubt that. What cannot be in doubt is that she represents the massive positive contribution that the Caribbean community have made to British society. As we Brummies say, she is a bostin example of the many benefits of immigration.
I could write at length about my own experiences of immigration growing up in Birmingham in the sixties and seventies and how my own approach has changed over the years as a result of living in truly multi cultural areas in England and visiting a wide variety of cultures when travelling overseas. I will spare you the diatribe suffice to say that when I dwell on the attitudes and comments about immigrants (including the Irish) that were prevalent amongst us in the white working class at that time I feel nothing more than disgust at our bigotry but I am also uplifted when I look at how many people from my past have now come to assimilate and embrace immigrants and their cultures. Would there have been a Balti without immigration from the Indian sub-continent?
We should also not forget that the English are a people that are the result of almost constant immigration whether they be Romans, Angles, Saxons, Normans, Huguenots etc and have had monarchs from Normandy, the Netherlands and Germany. Indeed I am a product of internal immigration being a cross bread between the West Country and the Black Country. It makes me wonder whether part of today’s worldwide problems is the concept of the nation state and those plastic patriot politicians who love to wrap themselves in national flags simply to engender fear and hatred that they can then exploit for their personal gain. Sorry for the rant – it’s time for a spot of gardening now.
Off you go.
And whilst I do not think we can do without the state it dies undoubtedly bring out the worst in some.
In addition, re your comments, when I moved from south London the big shock was the absence of diversity, age I missed it. I am sure it helps breed intolerance. There were red crosses painted on the mini roundabouts near my house this morning. They were not there last night.
I may not repeat this totally correct but here goes.
Zoe Gardner, who is a researcher, campaigner and commenter (according to her website) on immigration and asylum policy, was interviewed on the BBC and the interviewer said something along the lines of ‘but don’t you accept that those protesting have legitimate concerns’.
The response from Zoe was that it is not a legitimate concern to gather and hurl abuse and vitriol at people who are being housed in these facilities even if those concerns are due to pressures on public services in these areas. It is not immigrants who have caused these pressures – it is those in government. Look up at those in charge – they are the cause of the problem and they can solve the problem.
Craig
She is 100% right.
I am staggered that these people are not being arrested for harassment and for inciting racial hatred.
The role of social media in organizing these protests is chilling. It’s like they’ve found a new platform to rally people for hateful causes. I agree with the author—honest conversations about this issue are long overdue.
Re Alan Surtees’ comment; reliance on the police? I was on the counter demo in Horley yesterday and the police did their job in helping to protect the asylum seekers and counter demonstration from an ugly racist mob. But.. the neo -Nazis who are taking a leading role in the attacks on asylum seekers (with a lot of help from Enoch Starmer) are recruiting members from these anti asylum protests and this is what we need to prevent, because history tells us where this leads to. Strong anti racist presence at these protests is all important to challenge the sense of power that these protests are giving to the fascists and enabling them to grow. Leaving it to the police to contain and roll back this developing fascist presence is not sensible – that is not their job.
To many demonstrations brandishing George Crosses and British flags, all diverting attention from the underpinnings of ‘how we got here”. Political, Governance choices. This is not a small matter in the development of welfare rights and growing issues related to the housing of asylum seekers in hotels. The issues are pervasive and have grown with the drive for privatisation of welfare services and their delivery exponentially since the George Osborne statement on the “Big Society” leaving charities to pick up the bills where the State relinquished its collective responsibilities.
The witch hunts against immigrants and those sick and disabled has become a convenient political diversion from what needs to be addressed: ideological, structural institutional issues which applied when Liz Kendall tackled a review of the disability benefit ( PIP). whether the ‘costs of PIP’ or the costs of asylum seekers being housed in hotel, the root causes are not far apart. This is what needs addressing.
Example
SERCO provides PIP Assessments (disability) in the South of England through the Health Assessment Advisory Service (HAAS)- SERCO “healthcare professionals” deliver the telephone or face-to-face assessment. Their “professionals” prepare the reports that go back to the DWP Decision-Makers to finalise award decisions. Any welfare rights’ caseworkers will tell you what they think of these assessments and reports. They generate a large number of appeals and many decisions overturned at First-tiers Tribunals.
SERCO has it paws in more than one pie. It has a massive contract to house asylum seekers! https://www.serco.com/uk/sector-expertise/immigration/asylum-accommodation-support-services .
SERCO business model has expanded significantly since the pandemic around 2020 but they have been doing this since 2012. They lease, subcontract and most of all make profits.
SERCO Group Plcs full year results for 2024 shows £4.8 billion in revenue – (they have a pay into many cakes), an underlying operating profit of £274 million, which apparently was up 10 % in the full year.
It is not the asylum seekers nor the disabled people claiming disability who are the problem. It is the political choices make which have resulted in this Governance Model and the abysmal (costly) management of supporting services for humans in need.
PIP reviews as proposed or the new ‘arrangements’ by-passing the Courts to accelerate the decision-making process of asylum application. Will it it address the governance or tinker and further ‘subcontract’ so-called “professionals” using the same governance system, delivering scolding decisions!
This is pretty damn depressing. There are many countries around the world who take far more refugees in than we do. There is no crisis on our borders. There is a problem which can be solved if solutions are applied with energy and common sense. Right wing agitators want us to believe that there is a crisis, that we are on the way to societal collapse. It is absolute nonsense. I live in one of the most diverse cities in the UK and life is civilised and safe. If you want to see crisis go to Gaza and Sudan. I spent several hours one evening last week in A&E. It was full, but people of all races were sitting waiting patiently. I am an old woman who walks with a stick, which I had to get up and do often, as the seats were so hard I was in danger of stiffening up. Every time I did so someone ( male, asian, usually) leapt up with alacrity to offer me his seat. This was a situation in which people could have been stressed and impolite. They were courteous and caring. I am appalled that a British politician is talking about ” mass deportations” and expecting votes for such a policy. I think if we want things to calm down it would happen pretty quickly if we deported a few right wing politicians who are stirring things up for their own benefit.
Thank you
Abstract from a report of the US West Point “Combating Terrorism Center”, dated 2020:
“Neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups in the United States and Europe have become more active and dangerous in the last decade and have developed a much deeper online presence. This has helped them establish closer transnational contacts. One common preoccupation for both individuals and groups has been the conflict in Ukraine, where a well-established far-right extremist movement and its associated militia have consistently engaged with and welcomed far-right ideologues and fighters from other parts of Europe and North America.”
https://ctc.westpoint.edu/the-nexus-between-far-right-extremists-in-the-united-states-and-ukraine/
The following quote was written by Andriy Biletsky, current commander of what was the notorious Azov brigade (accused of many war crimes by many organisations including the UN) now the Third Army Corps. He is the former leader of the Patriot of Ukraine ultranationalist group. Here is what he wrote for their official website –
“ The main mystical idea of social nationalism is the creation of the national super community …. Accordingly the treatment of our national body should begin with the racial purification of the nation ….Ukrainians are part of the European White race …..the historic mission of our nation in this critical moment is to lead the white races of the world in a final crusade for their survival. A crusade against the semite-led untermenschen. “
Ukraine has become the focal point for the European far right. The elephant in the room. Wait and see when the war is over. Whoever “wins”, it will not be nice.