On Saturday 2nd August Britain First (BF) marched 500 or so fascists through the centre of Manchester.
Some recent hotel anti-migrant protests have capitalised on actual fears and grievances, occasionally muddying the waters between genuinely concerned (albeit it largely misinformed) locals, and racist shit stirrers and far right activists. There can be no such doubt about last weekend's event.
Former National Front activist Paul Golding and his cosplaying weirdos are not shy about their political positions. While wrapped in a veneer of plastic patriotism and faux Christianity, their message is unabashedly hateful, ultranationalist, and white supremacist. Those who gathered behind their 'Remigration' banner are either committed fascists or complete morons.
The level of support for Paul's particular flavour of bigoted fuckwittery shouldn't be overstated. There are 3 million people in Greater Manchester so, even ignoring the fact attendees came from across the country and abroad, BF’s turnout amounted to less than 0.02% of the local population. However, the fact this party (which had been rapidly descending into obscurity) managed to pull off a morale raising jaunt through what ought to be unfriendly territory, should raise alarm bells for antifascists nationwide.
MORNING GLORY
While the event was not entirely unopposed, resistance was either too small or too inflexible to be effectual.
At 11am approximately 100 autonomous antifascists (under the banner of McrResists) gathered opposite Piccadilly Station, a short distance from BF’s muster point where there was a similar sized slab of early arrivals. GMP obviously decided this couldn’t be tolerated and, at the drop of a flag, deployed a sizeable chunk of their resources to make a couple of spurious arrests and subsequently attack and surround the bulk of the antifascists. With this potentially troublesome bloc successfully kettled on the corner of Granby Road, BF were free to mingle and pose for selfies while their numbers steadily grew as attendees finished pre-drinking in the nearby pubs.
Britain First gathering by Piccadilly Station
HALF THE WORLD AWAY
Meanwhile half a mile away in Piccadilly Gardens about 200 locals had turned out to Stand Up To Racism’s counter demo, where they were treated to the obligatory speeches and morale raising chants. A few people arrived with news from Piccadilly Station, but there was no appetite from organisers to deviate from their agreed plan.
At 12.30pm BF, led by a thin line of cops and a mounted unit, set off up Piccadilly with only a few antifascists shadowing the demonstration and getting in the occasional confrontation on the fringes. The march then headed South through the Gay Village to St Peter’s Square and into a Heras pen outside the library where a big screen and a row of porterloos awaited them.
Britain First leaves Piccadilly Station
WONDERWALL
About 1pm, once most of the march was at its destination, SUTR ventured out of the gardens. By this point (bolstered by some Trans Pride attendees) their numbers were almost equal to that of BF, though they never got close enough to do a side-by-side comparison. Surrounded by a ring of cops SUTR marched down Princess Street and into St Peter’s Square on the opposite side from the BF crowd. Eventually this unstoppable force met an immovable object, namely a small row of 3 foot high temporary fences. Naturally, this halted the advance and the bulk of the crowd remained there to witness and ridicule BF’s 90 minutes of hate.
While the truce held between the two larger groups, no mans land was steadily populated by a who’s who of far right live streamers and fake journalists desperate for something vaguely interesting to occur. It was clear that Paul & Co’s poorly produced videos, uninspiring speeches, and half-arsed attempts at singing weren’t going to hold the attention of the majority of their crowd, which quickly thinned to half it’s original size. Many headed back to the pub to guzzle foreign lager, while some of the more brazen members milled about among the starving YouTubers, confused bystanders, and occasional tram.
SUTR behind cops on the left, BF's pen on the right
By 3pm Paul had finished yelling at the rump of his demonstration, and his team loaded some of their hundreds of flags back in the van. SUTR waited for them to leave the area, before decamping themselves.
DON’T GO AWAY
Our friend Ryan Ferguson of National Action was unfortunately unable to make an appearance, as he had been scooped up by cops in Leeds on Friday evening and banned from attending. Our guess is that this was a result of some unwise words yelled into a megaphone the previous weekend in Altrincham. Things haven’t improved since for wee Ryan, as he was then in Liverpool Magistrates’ Court on Monday 4th August, where he was sentenced to 17 weeks for making false 999 calls.
'Proud patriots' in St Peter's Square – could the tea cosy wearer be the elusive Ryan Ferguson?
This weekend will see another round of hotel protests, including Aldershot, Altrincham, Birmingham, Bournemouth, Chichester, Epping, Liverpool, Norwich, Portsmouth, Southampton, and Wolverhampton. Hopefully, targetting this many locations will prove to be an overreach and fascists won’t have large enough numbers in any location, but it also makes countering them logistically harder and more unpredictable.
See you in the streets. No pasaran!
