The below report from a comrade of FRFI in Newcastle describes the events of 27 September where UKIP was blocked from marching to a hotel housing asylum seekers, thanks to the combined efforts of radical anti-racist and anti-imperialist groups including FRFI. This was despite the efforts of the police to protect UKIP and kettle the anti-racists, and despite Stand Up to Racism (SUTR)’s efforts to contain the anti-racist action to a respectable static demonstration where anti-police chanting would be silenced.
The racist UK Independence Party (UKIP) has been touring the country calling for mass deportations of immigrants. Newcastle, Saturday 27 September, was its next stop. On the same day Advance UK were due to hold a launch conference in the city which the local left insisted Tommy Robinson would make an appearance at. Then there are the local racists who have been protesting weekly on Saturdays outside the New Bridge Hotel which is housing asylum seekers. We were expecting hundreds of racists, potentially a couple of thousand, particularly following the ‘Unite the Kingdom’ march in London on 13 September.
There were two counter protests organised to oppose UKIP: one called by SUTR at Grey’s Monument; another at the Quayside called by a host of local groups. The police had apparently issued a notice banning anti-racists marching to the hotel but were facilitating the racists marching pretty close to it, and of course we couldn’t trust the police to not allow the racists to get to its doors. Northumbria Police imposed restrictions on the Monument protest meaning it had to finish at 1pm. Cops were drafted in from all over the country, armoured up and on horseback. This was a useful training exercise for them in terms of tactics and for their new recruits.
FRFI comrades went to the Quayside. Our banners read: ‘Fight Britain’s racist immigration controls’, and ‘victory to the Palestinian resistance’, and we flew Palestine flags. We were told to be in the area from around 11.30am and there would be a flash mob at 12pm to block the road. Numbers started to grow and there was a heavy police presence. FRFI comrades moved into the middle of the road to block the route UKIP were due to take to get into the city centre. One anarchist asked if we should wait on the pavement until the racists showed up. We politely ignored this.
No one else had bothered to bring a megaphone. We had two (one as a back-up). We got on it straight away, making political chants and short speeches about state racism, the racism of the police, Palestinian resistance etc. We passed our megaphone around. There was a lot of energy and most people were joining in. We were 400-500 at this point. Loads of people had brought Palestine flags and placards and were leading and joining in with Palestine chants.
Shamefully there were some sectarians on the demonstration. When we were chanting about Palestine, two leading members of the campaign group People Against Rafael approached the comrade on the megaphone telling them that a Palestinian man had told us not to talk about Palestine. When this was ignored, one of them tried to pull the megaphone out of our comrade’s hand! This sectarian attack was exposed on the megaphone and Palestine chants were continued.
It was rumoured UKIP were going to be rerouted to avoid us. It became clear the police would attempt a kettle. When a line of police walked up alongside the protest (bear in mind we thronged the entire width of the street), they were met with energetic resistance, with a couple of cops pushed to the floor.
In the end we were kettled. We were not prepared to be kept there while the racists were allowed free rein. By this point a couple of hundred more people had arrived and were outside the kettle in the direction we needed to get to. They were stood in front of three police vans preventing them getting closer to the kettle. A comrade announced on the megaphone the UKIP route change, and the protesters made clear they would not stay unlawfully kettled but would get to the hotel.
A line of North East Anarchist Group, Red Storm Collective, FRFI and others linked arms and walked towards the police line. There was an attempt to break through but not enough people in the crowd pushed together. Cops started throwing punches. One comrade broke free of the kettle. Another got out, though the police had thrown her to the floor and stamped on her head.
The free comrades discussed together what to do. It was clear if the 200-300 protesters outside the kettle marched off to the hotel, then the cops would have to abandon their kettle. There was a livestream of the UKIP march and as soon it was announced they had set off, we all marched to the city centre.
We saw UKIP marching up a parallel street with police chaperones. There were only around 200 of them. They were massively outnumbered. Had it not been for the police they wouldn’t have been able to march. They would have been chased off the streets. The mood on the day made this clear.
The cops tried to stop the counter protest getting down the side streets, but they failed, and another road was blocked forcing the racists to reroute yet again. They headed for the hotel, so anti-racists zoomed over there. A couple more of our contingent had broken out of the kettle at this point and came to the hotel. One had been grabbed from behind, thrown to the floor and punched in the face by a racist. A police line stopped us getting directly outside the hotel, but we were pretty close, and the racists were stopped further down the street, so they weren’t in sight of the hotel, and there was a big no-man’s-land in between.
So we were successful in getting to the hotel which the police had tried to prevent, while UKIP were prevented from doing so. The cops also prevented men in the hotel leaving to join us.
On route we had passed the Monument were SUTR had been rallying. SUTR had to call a zoom meeting earlier in the week to deal with the police bans. A lot of pressure was put on them, so they were forced to ignore the police notice and carry on their rally after 1pm. There was towards a thousand of them, who didn’t bother to come to the Quayside. We announced the racists were around the corner and eventually about half of them came over.
There was a massive difference in politics at the hotel because of the attendance of the SUTR liberal anti-racists. There was less uptake of general anti-racist chants. And when we started chants of, ‘racist police off our streets!’ we got people coming over to complain, shake their heads, and ‘you can’t say that – its divisive’, etc. These ‘anti-racists’ are more than happy to turn a blind eye to racist police violence. It really was like two completely different protests, and so clear to see how these forces attempt to stifle any real resistance.
At 3pm the police dispersed the racists, so we also started to disperse. It was announced the racists had reconvened near the Monument, so the crowd went there. And eventually it fizzled out. Here a massive Palestine flag had been unfurled. Quite clearly Palestine and anti-racism is a common sense connection being made by a lot of people.
Opportunists are trying desperately to sever this link. In a message sent out to hundreds of people, organisers of a Palestine vigil tried to instruct people planning to attend the hotel counter-protest on 4 October not to fly the Palestinian flag. When the racists at the hotel stopped for a two minute silence for those killed at the Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester two days earlier, Tony Dowling of SUTR turned off their music to unite with the racists in silence! Our comrades ignored this and used the opportunity to chant. Well done to them!
New comrades who have recently become active with FRFI had their eyes opened by these events: they have had the best lessons possible in the destructive nature of opportunism. They are disgusted. They are fired up. And they are ready to fight.
