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Flagging Enthusiasm – Sheffield Raise the Colours Demonstration 4th April

On Easter Saturday 4th April, Raise the Colours Sheffield (RTCS) and skive-streamer Ryan Dales joined forces to put on a confusing and pointless demonstration outside Sheffield Train Station. A bizarre collection of flagheads, Iranian monarchists, conspiracy theorists and some actual out-and-out Nazis, numbering fifty at the most, clustered around a soundsystem playing the very worst of AI-generated slop, punctuated by lacklustre speeches.


Does anyone know what this protest was for or against?


John Drewett came all the way from Grimsby for this 🤣🤣🤣

RTCS is Sheffield’s most active flag raising group, primarily based in and around the Parson Cross area, but this was their first foray into protesting. Ryan Dales, also known as Ryan Rampage, is a Grimsby based purveyor of overpriced soap and a bottom-feeding fascist YouTuber. It wasn’t entirely clear in the build up to the demonstration what it was actually about, but since some publicity posed questions about inequality in our society, antifascists took them at their word and offered some more honest answers.

Trying to talk to the far-right crowd was mostly baffling. It wasn’t clear what, if anything, united them, beyond a fear of strangers, the inability to keep a chant going, and a desire to drape themselves in flags. We had Zionists, Anglo Saxon purists and the worst of anti-semites on display in the shape of “British Union of Fascists” Ryan Ferguson, with livestreamers making up possibly up to a quarter of the right-wing crowd. Sheffield clearly only qualified for the B-team this time round, with the mad and the sad barking playground insults at the other side, much to each other's great amusement.

The job was made much harder by South Yorkshire Police’s draconian imposition of a Section 14, restricting the movement of both sides. Despite this many antifascists managed to mingle, leaflet, and have constructive conversations with passers-by and some of the more curious RTCS members. With free cake and blackboards for people to write what they love about living here, chats were had about everything from Bluebell Woods to the war in Iran.

As the demo wore on, police began enforcing Section 14 more aggressively, shoving people towards whichever pen they felt appropriate. By 2 p.m, most of the remaining RTCS attendees also began to drift away, leaving a small band of content-starved YouTubers. Rather than feed this increasingly desperate rabble, most of the counter-protesters also headed off to enjoy the rest of their Easter weekend.

SHIP SHOW

Unfortunately Lee "Shitto" Shipley (de facto leader of RTCS) seems to think their embarrassing showing was actually a success and he immediately announced a march on Saturday 13th June from Sheffield Peace Gardens to the Holiday Inn, Blonk Street. If Lee thinks marching a band of racists to migrant accommodation is going to be as easy as a pointless static demo, he's got another thing coming.

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