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SCARF Statement – In Response to UKIP's March on 8th November

On Saturday 8th November a small band of fascists marched through Sheffield with the support and protection of a massive policing operation. Despite being billed as a national mobilisation, Nick Tenconi’s UKIP barely managed to draw 100 attendees from across the country, dwarfed by around 800 antifascists, the overwhelming majority from Sheffield. With less than two weeks’ notice, people across the city spread the word and turned out, making it clear that fascists are not welcome in our city. Despite outnumbering them 8:1, a feat widely celebrated this week, we were ultimately unable to stop the march. We need to learn from this so that the next time we ask “whose streets?”, the answer rings loud, clear and true. UKIP only marched because the police enabled them. South Yorkshire Police’s last-minute Section 14 order criminalised almost all opposition while granting UKIP a protected route through our city. Hundreds of officers, many drafted in from other forces and armed with bato...

Countering the Flags-On-Lamposts Group in Sheffield - Saturday April 4th 2026

On Saturday 4th April, local “flags-on-lampposts” group Raise The Colours Sheffield, alongside bath bomb salesman turned far-right auditor Ryan “Rampage” Dale, are organising what they describe as a “protest” in Sheffield. Their stated aims are vague, framed broadly as opposition to “the government,” but their own organising pages tell a clearer story. The comment threads surrounding the event are filled with open hostility toward migrants, asylum seekers, and, in many cases, anyone perceived to be of Middle Eastern or Muslim background. Calls for violence and dehumanising rhetoric are not only present but go unchallenged by organisers, and are often echoed by prominent figures within the group. One particularly disturbing post comes from main organiser Lee Shipley, who wrote that he hoped windy weather would cause migrant boats to sink, resulting in their deaths. Some posts, particularly from a user called “Dave Tune,” include coded language such as “KTF NSE” which stands for “Keep Th...

Raise the Colours Sheffield – Meet the Racists Next Door

Raise the Colours Sheffield (RTCS) is the local variant of a national campaign which launched last summer. The campaign sought to appropriate our flags as symbols of anti-migrant sentiment, primarily by attaching cheap St George’s Crosses and Union Jacks to lampposts, or crudely painting mini roundabouts. For many the novelty wore off fairly quickly, but in some areas this simple act has become a galvanising force for racist activism more broadly. RTCS is a classic example of this; united by a fear of migrants and an interest in far-right politics, a small group of friends began decorating street furniture, mainly in the north of the city around Parson Cross and Southey Green. Sustained by “donations” from some of their more sedentary neighbours, the group set about flagging streets by request – provided the cash had been received upfront. The occasional pro-Trump flag was added to the mix, just to make their noble stance on the protection of women and girls extra clear, while fear-...