On Saturday 21st February, the streets of Manchester were once again disgraced by Paul Golding and his lumbering band of violent fascists known as Britain First (BF). Amid rising tensions and a forthcoming by-election in Gorton and Denton, Paul thinks he has an opportunity to drag us back to the bad old days – before he was kicked out of the British National Party and National Front, and racist street attacks were a common occurrence.
As Nigel Farage, ‘Tommy’ Yaxley-Lennon, and Rupert Lowe hog the national limelight, BF is desperate to find ways to keep itself relevant. Through regular set piece marches, the occasional publicity stunt, and a willingness to say out loud the parts more mainstream figures can only hint at, Paul is seeking to carve himself a niche as Fuhrer maker of the North. Though, based on Saturday, this project isn’t going particularly well.
FERGIE TIME
Billed as a ‘March for Remigration’ the event was effectively a soggy restaging of last August, with fascists planning to stumble from the pubs near Piccadilly Station to the pubs near St Peter’s Square (although this was later changed to Castlefield Bowl). Meanwhile, antifascists were keen to avoid an exact repeat of last year – when police immediately contained many of the more autonomous antifascists while Stand Up To Racism (SUTR) held a separate demo in Piccadilly Gardens, effectively ceding the streets to Britain First for the day. This time around, a substantial effort was made by a coalition of antifascists, mobilising numbers from both Manchester and further afield, who gathered in Sackville Gardens from 11am, with SUTR once again occupying Piccadilly Gardens.
Fascist shit-stirrer Ryan Ferguson made a brief cameo appearance in the Gardens – failing to prevent his friend's phone disappearing into the crowd, unwisely raising his fists towards a cop, being detained for his own protection, pleading to speak to his Police Liaison handler, before ending his truncated day rolling around on the floor in handcuffs screaming.
Taxi for Ryan Ferguson
With Britain First due to leave the station shorty after midday, and numbers in and around Sackville Gardens still rising, it became clear the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) had underestimated the task ahead of them. BF was forced to wait an extra hour as police commanders hurriedly revised their plans to facilitate Paul’s hate march through the city, eventually letting them move about 1.15pm.
Just before setting off, BF deputy leader Ashlea Simon gave a quick soundbite to their “official” YouTuber, News Now Yorkshire aka Michael Frosdick. “This is an ethnic country, we are white people, and that’s how it shall remain. We want remigration, we’re demanding it, and that’s why we’re marching today.”
THE BLOC HEADS
As soon as the fascists started moving, as did the counter-demo in Sackville Gardens, with hundreds of antifascists in separate blocs of 100-200 people each heading out to meet them. Dodging police lines and far right 'journalists' the majority of this crowd found its way to the junction of Portland St and Princess St.
A police cordon, which was preventing the counter protesters from confronting the march, came under sustained pressure. Despite the (ab)use of horses and dogs and some fairly extreme police violence, with many antifascists being punched, beaten with batons and thrown to the ground, the antifascists were undeterred, turning the tables on their GMP attackers and briefly kettling them instead. Meanwhile mounted police attempted to clear a path for the fascists southward on Portland Street, regularly dragging protesters by the neck as they went.
Ultimately, the resistance proved too stiff and the march route was successfully blocked and diverted at several points by antifascists, much to the frustration of Paul Golding and his band of racists. Rather than marching down Portland Street (a big and busy main road), they found themselves shuffling down smaller side streets, being goaded and challenged by autonomous groups of antifascists as they went. At one point, when the march was looping back on itself east on Sackville St, hundreds of so-called “patriots” surrounded, racially abused, and physically attacked two miffed locals.
This set the tone for the day, with BF failing to assert control of the streets at any point, they resorted to sporadic acts of bullying and violence against smaller, isolated groups. Despite a lot of shouting and head wobbling, when it mattered the marchers showed how cowardly they are, never making any serious attempt to break through their police handlers to get at the hated left, and only throwing punches when they stumbled across heavily outnumbered antifascists or innocent bystanders
Fascists blocked on Oxford Street
FIGHT THEM ON THE BLEACHERS
While the rump of BF eventually made it to their pen in Castleford Bowl, it required a lot of effort and heavy police assistance. As opposition jeered from above, what little spirit remained in the fascist ranks was soon dampened by worsening rain and having to listen to speeches by Francoist influencer Ada Lluch, BF Reichsleiter Ashlea Simon, and Altrincham hotel botherer Louise Holbrooks. By the time Paul was supposed to give the biggest rallying call of his political career, only a few skidmarks remained in the Bowl.
Thousands of people, if Britain First is to be believed
Although opposition to the fascist parade on Saturday was strong in both numbers and perseverance, successfully blocking the march's route repeatedly and clearly demonstrating that racist hate is not welcome on the streets of Manchester, it was not a total victory. To an extent, BF was able to spread its
All in the BF march was barely over 500, many of whom never made it to their end point due to antifascist resistance. Facts aren't particularly important to Paul, who is now claiming that “10's of thousands marched” through Manchester. Conversely he is also so upset that their efforts were thwarted by the shadowy forces of antifa and GMP that they need to come back for another go on Saturday 18th April.
Mark it in your calendar, see you in the streets! ❤💜