THE fascists came to Glasgow on Saturday in their hundreds – and the antifascists came in their thousands. No bricks or buckets thrown, it was simple songs and chants that brought the gathered far-right activists to an eventual red-faced retreat from the city’s George Square.
It was an altogether less fraught event than previous encounters with marching authoritarians on UK streets have warranted. The Battle of Cable Street this was not, nor did it need to be.
Despite being promoted by the likes of Tommy Robinson and punted through British far-right channels, there was a pretty meagre turnout for an event pre-emptively labelled as an example of the so-called silent majority rising up – so much so that the organiser of the event himself didn’t bother to show up.
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It would be easy to think this an example of the toothlessness of the far-right in Scotland, that while proud racists shattered windows in English cities, Scotland’s fascistic wannabees were so ruthlessly outnumbered at the largest gathering of the far right in Scotland for years, that they do not pose a threat. I think it would be a grave mistake to believe it was so simple.
For a start, the momentum of the far-right riots in England has, to a degree, passed. The threat of arrest likely kept many away from this demo, likely exacerbated by how Robinson so quickly hung his supporters out to dry.
But I believe it was the guarantee of a huge number of antifascists that will have kept even more at home.
It is not the case, as some have voiced, that a poor turnout is evidence of the left having overreacted. That would be akin to thinking the Covid-19 vaccine rollout was unnecessary because the severity and spread of infection never reached the worst-case scenario – rather than understanding that the worst was prevented because of the vaccine.
Had the fascists arrived in greater numbers, and without a loud and sustained opposition, it would have been a very different sunny day in Glasgow – with the attack on McChuills bar nearby by far-right ultras being an example of how Saturday could have gone for more of the city were it not for those who gathered to oppose the far-right.
For all the relative peace of the day, it was still at its heart a demo against dangerous far-right organisers, and their presence was on full display – in both the conspiratorial signage and the raised Nazi salutes that were in abundance among the gathered fascists.
There is a very peculiar bent to hardline British nationalists that can see them unfurl a banner reading “Lest we forget” at a demo filled with sieg-heiling neo-Nazis, yet never see the basic contradiction at play. After all, they’d be the ones to find themselves in the rifle scopes and aerial bombardments of their grandparents today. Should “Lest we forget” not mean standing against fascists, and not amongst them? Quite the legacy.
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Nor was it hard to miss those pesky waving arms behind Israel’s flag, which also peppered the assembled far-right gathering. And if that isn’t a perfect convoluted encapsulation of where support lies for the ongoing genocide of Palestinians, I don’t know what is.
The topic of Palestine featured heavily at Saturday’s counter-demo. How could it not, when the racist ideology of Zionism and its murderous consequences are so urgent and so prevalent? What was this demo, if not a statement against racism in the tradition of the city, akin to Kenmure Street and the Glasgow Girls.
That was a sentiment carried in the chants the gathered fascists faced: “We are many. You are few. We are Glasgow. Who are you?”
We were many. But we should have been many more. The fascists may have left George Square embarrassed, having spent the afternoon being drowned out by the assembled crowd, but that is not the end of the story.
There must be sustained pressure, in size and strength, whenever fascism threatens to rise. We cannot be complacent. Equalities must advance, not stagnate. And the far-right must be crushed, not ignored.
The demo on Saturday was just one manifestation of a surge of regressive and reactionary politics that have allowed the far-right to gain a foothold.
When Keir Starmer flirts with the racist rhetoric of his conservative predecessors, he gives power to their fear-mongering about immigrants.
Likewise, when the Labour Government parrot the talking points of anti-trans activists and claims that teaching about trans identities should not be allowed in schools, they embolden those who believe LGBTQ+ people pose a threat to them.
It wasn’t exactly a shock to note that familiar faces of the anti-trans movement in Scotland were standing among the fascists in George Square this weekend too. Because it is all part of a broader political movement toward far-right thought; of which racism, homophobia and transphobia are just a few of its tendrils.
Standing united with Palestine and against inequality, in all its forms, will do more to beat the fascists back than pretending their ideas have any place in a modern Scotland.
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