In the first publicly advertised anti-racist event at Grey’s Monument in Newcastle City Centre to proceed without facing a police ban since June, activists took to the streets on 5 September to declare ‘Black Lives Still Matter’. Fight Racism Fight Imperialism North East and the Anti-Racism Protest Defence Campaign supported the event called by North East Against Racism (NEAR), who had called on people to protest against US President Trump following the racist police shooting of Jacob Blake and the murder of two BLM protestors shot by white supremacist Kyle Rittenhouse in Kenosha, Portland.
Many people, including FRFI supporters made use of the open mic to declare that ‘Britain is not innocent’, broadening the focus on the US to highlight atrocities directly caused by Britain’s racist policing and immigration policies. We spoke of Mercy Baguma from Uganda who was found dead next to her crying baby in Glasgow after being left in extreme poverty due to falling under the notorious ‘no recourse to public funds’ classification. We spoke of Abdulfatah Hamdallah, the Sudanese refugee who tragically drowned trying to cross the channel whilst the Home Office prepares mass charter flights to deport those arriving by small boats. We denounced the failures of the Home Office and their private contractors to provide safe, secure housing to those in the asylum system, leaving hundreds trapped in temporary hotels, vulnerable to attack from the fascist Britain First, whilst in Newcastle people are housed in run down hostels with rats, faulty electrics and entrance doors which allow strangers to easily gain access. These cases are just the tip of the iceberg and form part and parcel of the hostile environment, demanding our resistance.
Though attracting fewer people than the huge protests in June, the event was significant in the battle against police attacks on the right to protest. Although FRFI and the Anti Racism Protest Defence Campaign have been active at the Monument throughout the summer, in August, a publicly advertised defence campaign protest was shut down by the police, using Section 14 of the Public Order Act. The police then used dispersal notices under Section 35 of the Anti-Social Behaviour Act to ban activists from the city centre for 24 hours. The Defence campaign itself has been set up to defend five BLM and anti racist activists arrested in relation to protests in June.[i]
Despite these threats, the regular work of the Defence campaign at the Monument and the press coverage denouncing police tactics have been key to defending political space and the right to protest.
Nevertheless, the ‘Black Lives Still Matter’ event was still confronted by significant numbers of police who filmed activists and aggressively opposed any attempts to stand or speak from the raised monument platform, threatening bans for placing banners on the Monument.
In the face of this police attack on all of our right to demonstrate against racism, Yunus Bakhsh, the central organiser of NEAR, attempted to set the police on Fight Racism Fight Imperialism and the Anti-Racism Protest Defence Campaign, demanding the police forcibly remove us from the protest and to another part of the Monument!
Video: Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism and the Anti-Racism Protest Defence Campaign are setting up information stalls at the Monument to support a Black Lives Matter protest on Saturday 5 September 2020. While they are setting up, Yunus Bakhsh (ex-Socialist Workers Party and now founding member of North East Against Racism) tells us to move and instructs police: “Tell that lot they’re not part of this. Shift them.”
Comrades held our ground, refusing to be ejected from an anti-racist event we had mobilised to stand in solidarity with, speaking from the platform and leafleting the crowd about the need to defend those, including young people of colour who have been arrested for standing against racism in Newcastle. We collected some excellent statements of support for the defence campaign from groups present, which to date have included, Sound System Protest North East, North East of England African Community Association, Greenpeace, the Migration Asylum Justice Forum and more. When publicly asked for NEAR to write a statement of support, Bakhsh refused, snatching the megaphone from the activist who had made the request. Our many emails to NEAR asking for support and offering to defend any members targeted by police have gone unanswered.
Video: A supporter of Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! gives a speech about British state racism, political policing and a defence campaign set up in Newcastle to defend anti-racists and the right to protest. North East Against Racism refuse to give a statement of support for the campaign, preferring instead a close relationship with Northumbria Police.
Such sectarianism has no place in the anti-racist movement. If we are to successfully challenge racist policing, the inhumane hostile environment and the systemic racism central to British imperialism, we need unity in action and complete freedom of debate. With court appearances and bail hearings scheduled for September and October, now more than ever the arrestees need our support.
The police justification for repeated Section 14 and 35 notices issued against anti-racist protests in June and August has been the threat of violent disorder after the fascist ‘Defenders of Newcastle’ showered a Black Lives Matter protest in glass bottles and smoke bombs on 13 June. In August, ‘Unite the Right’ had only to post on Facebook about their intention to oppose an event in order for the police to shut it down.[ii] In contrast, the 5 September event proceeded peacefully with no disorder, attracting widespread support from the majority of passers-by. Though Unite the Right had posted about the event, only a handful of disorganised fascists banded together to film and shout at speakers.
The impact and significance of these freelance fascists remains minimal compared to the racist, aggressive and wide-ranging powers of the police and immigration forces. As the mass arrests and threat of force against XR, Earthstrike, Palestine Action and Million People protests in London over the last week illustrate, the main defender of racism and imperialism in Britain today remains the British state, who enshrine police forces up and down the country with the power to crush any threat to business as usual with impunity.
Defend the right to protest! Defend the right to stand against racism!
[i] See www.revolutionarycommunist.org/britain/police-prisons/5985-defend-the-right-to-protest-against-racism-in-newcastle
[ii] See https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/police-accused-encouraging-far-right-18739604
