23 July – 6 August

We want to begin by sending our solidarity to those resisting racial violence and building solidarity in our communities – it has been heartening to see neighbours support one another, as well as the growing anti-racist movement against the far Right.

Our last newsletter, headed ‘Disinformation fuels racism’, could well stand as the theme for the far-right racist violence sweeping the country in the wake of the shocking killings of three young girls at a Southport holiday club on 29 July. Not just the disinformation spread by fascists about the perpetrator, or that of far-right mischief-makers like Nigel Farage, but the decades of dishonest rhetoric perpetrated by politicians and amplified by the media about migrants, Muslims and racialised communities. In ‘Stop changing the subject – the problem is fascism’, Liz Fekete takes prime minister Keir Starmer to task for misidentifying the issue as one of ‘law and order’ rather than the far Right, and looks at the way mainstream politicians and media have for decades coddled and appeased the far Right while amplifying its narratives, amid austerity policies which have ‘created today’s multi-dimensional social crisis’.

This week’s Calendar of Racism and Resistance traces the connections between politics, media and far-right violence. Under Electoral Politics, we see Farage ‘innocently’ suggesting that police were deliberately concealing the identity, motives and history of the perpetrator, Lord Ranoch accusing Muslim ‘radicals’ of planning to take over the country through ‘the womb and the ballot box’, and Home Office minister David Hanson, along with a Hampshire police and crime commissioner, suggesting that the rioters may have ‘genuine concerns’. In the ‘Culture, Media and Sport’ section, MP Zarah Sultana posts some sample Daily Mail front pages that have fanned the flames of anti-migrant and anti-Muslim hatred over the years; we also see the international nature of the disinformation campaign, with not only local far-right activists stirring up the violence on social media but nearly half of the X traffic referencing ‘Southport Muslim’ coming from the US. The rolling violence itself is chronicled in detail under ‘Anti-Fascism and the Far Right’, as it spread from Southport to cities and towns all over the UK, taking in damage to mosques, shops, businesses and homes; horrendous attacks on asylum hotels, which have sometimes been set alight with families inside; violence against young children, purportedly in the name of the young Southport victims; men being stamped on; a hijacked car being driven into the office of an estate agent ‘believed to be renting properties to asylum seekers’ in Belfast; and planned attacks on the offices of immigration lawyers and asylum support groups across the country, as police prepared for over 100 far-right events Wednesday evening. Starmer’s proposal for a national violent disorder capability to tackle violence ‘across the ideological spectrum’ is documented in the Policing section – an inept proposal when the violence is all coming from one direction, and when a Northern Ireland TSG officer policing an anti-racist rally is seen wearing an emblem sported by far-right US militia.

This is what the IRR’s calendar is for – to enable anti-racists to make these connections. But we also celebrate those standing in solidarity with the beleaguered communities, whether they are local residents coming together to clear up the broken glass, crowd-funders who have raised £140,000 to repair Liverpool’s Spellow Hub, attacked on Saturday, or trades unions and anti-racists organising and joining solidarity rallies throughout the week, culminating in the tens of thousands filling the streets of towns and cities across the country on Wednesday. As Middlesbrough resident Anne Romaine told the Today programme, ‘We’re a strong community, whatever their hidden agenda is, to divide the people up, it’s backfired’.