Saturday was a huge victory for anti-racists and anti-fascists. The Together Alliance against the far-right mobilised half a million people on the streets of London. This was an important achievement in its own right – it demonstrated that there is a very strong sentiment against the far right and its policies, and showed the breadth of support across trade unions, campaign groups, the Palestine and anti-war movement (which had a big feeder march to join the main demonstration), NGOs, refugee charities and much more.
The march had an added significance because of its context. The alliance was born after the fascist Tommy Robinson organised a very large ‘Unite the Kingdom’ demonstration, which was addressed by, among others, Elon Musk and was anti-Muslim, racist and hostile to the Palestine movement. This march – estimated at up to 200,000 – sent shockwaves through the left, especially as the counter-demonstration was effectively kettled by fascist thugs for several hours.
Last Saturday was a riposte to that. It massively outnumbered the far-right march last September, showed that very significant forces were prepared to turn out on the streets, and gave confidence to anti-racists everywhere. It also showed that there is strong opposition to the media and politicians’ narrative of scapegoating migrants and Muslims.
But while we are rightly celebrating this success, we know that on Saturday we won a battle, but we have not won the war. The crucial question now is what comes next. Reform is set to do well in the upcoming May elections. Tommy Robinson is planning another march on 16 May – deliberately timed on the same day as the mass annual march commemorating the Palestine Nakba. Scandalously, the Metropolitan Police have allowed him the whole of Whitehall, Parliament Square and Trafalgar Square, while refusing to give the Palestine movement their route asked for before Xmas.
We need to organise now at every level to stop another far-right hate march. That means Together organisation in every locality, a serious campaign to stop Reform at the ballot box and Robinson on the streets a week later. It also means confronting the politics of the far right and their connection to war and Israel. Increasingly, the alliance against the Palestine movement consists of Iranian monarchists, right-wing Zionists and fascists. These are the people who comprise the counter-demos to Palestine protests (on Saturday they waved Israeli, Iranian royalist and US flags, cheering on Trump and Netanyahu). The far right internationally does the same.
War and racism go hand in hand – as we in Stop the War predicted 25 years ago when the War on Terror began – and foreign policy here in Britain is a driver of racism. That means we have to build among those demonstrating on Saturday opposition to foreign policy and to genocide. This is particularly true in the trade unions, where some union leaders sign up to government policy on increasing defence spending, and where opposition to it needs to be taken up much more strenuously.
This, as opposed to exhortations to oppose racism generally, will be key to defeating the far-right agenda. That agenda is greatly aided by state and media. We have seen it with the support for Netanyahu and Trump, and from the increasingly biased attitudes of the police towards Palestine protests. The media reporting of the mass demo yesterday has been mostly fleeting and insubstantial. Contrast this with the way in which the Tommy Robinson protest last September was reported in great detail, and allowed to set the political agenda, yet no mainstream media has had serious commentary on why the march was so big, what its significance is and what it means for example over migration policy.
The march itself was attacked in the right-wing media days beforehand by various Zionist figures for the inclusion of some Muslim and pro-Palestine organisations. This is par for the course for the Board of Deputies of British Jews, who famously told Jews to stay away from the Battle of Cable Street against Mosley’s fascists in 1936. It is quite something for it to criticise a mass anti-racist march because its opposition to the Palestinian cause is greater than its concern for the issue.
So the next mobilisation on the streets – 16 May – is going to require a mass turnout for Palestine and against racism, and a strengthening of the politics needed to link the two.
A month into the war Donald Trump thought would be over in days, it shows signs of continuing for some time yet. Trump’s increasingly random statements on it give only a very partial insight into what the US is prepared to do. But the Washington Post reports this weekend that the Pentagon is drawing up plans for ground troops in Iran – not a full-scale invasion but possible occupation of Kharg Island or other coastal areas near the Strait of Hormuz. A third aircraft carrier – the George HW Bush – is leaving Norfolk, Virginia, for the Middle East, after the Gerald R Ford limped into Crete for repairs, supposedly following a fire.
The conundrum for the US is this: it says that it has destroyed much of the Iranian armed forces – and this is not surprising given the hideous level of bombing by its air force and the Israelis’ – but it is still facing attacks, and the Iranians are not backing down, despite Trump’s claims. Now the Houthis in Yemen are joining in firing at Israel and Hezbollah is resisting the Israelis in Lebanon.
The massive military superiority of the US only takes it so far. The aircraft carriers – so central to US strategic planning in the Second World War – are much less effective facing this sort of warfare. The missile defences are highly expensive and need replacing rapidly. The cost of the war militarily is huge. Longer term, the effect on food provision worldwide is under threat, as are energy supplies, because of Iran’s control of passage through the Strait of Hormuz.
It might have made sense to look at history. As a recent Guardian article suggested, air warfare has always had very limited success, while causing high levels of civilian casualties. But the US military is completely aware that its failures militarily are considerable, despite its pre-eminence in hardware. It was driven out of Vietnam by a mass guerilla movement, despite carpet bombing, use of Napalm and Agent Orange. Its invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq ended in ignominious defeat and withdrawal. Its interventions in the Middle East have bolstered Israel but at a cost everywhere. Putting boots on the ground in Iran, where US Marines will be vulnerable to attack, seems yet another plan which is doomed to fail.
The people of the Middle East, of Europe and the US itself will pay the price.
No wonder Trump is losing popularity – and on Saturday an estimated 8-9 million Americans attended No Kings demonstrations across the US. Tremendous news. Meanwhile the latest vacuous government minister to pronounce on the war tells us to ‘keep calm and carry on’. That isn’t going to be how people feel when their food and energy prices rocket, or when the war widens. We have to end this war now.
Source: Counterfire