Organisers say Saturday’s Together Alliance demonstration was the largest anti-far-right march in British history, as crowds filled central London with chanting, dancing and a carnival spirit that stretched from Park Lane to Trafalgar Square.
The streets of central London belonged to the people this Saturday. From 12pm, crowds assembled on Park Lane: trade unionists and pensioners, children on shoulders, disabled marchers, trans women, women of colour, and first-time protesters who had travelled through the night from Glasgow, Newcastle, Coventry and Leeds, all of them there for the same reason. By the time the march reached Whitehall, rally co-organiser Kevin Courtney was telling the crowd that half a million people had turned out, which would be the biggest demonstration against the far right in British history.
The New Feminist was on the ground, reporting from within the women’s bloc, one of the march’s most visible and energetic sections, stewarded by Women Against the Far Right (WAFR). There were elderly women and toddlers, disabled marchers and trans women, white women and women of colour, all moving together through the city to chants of “Nigel Farage, we see you, you’re racist, sexist, anti-Jew,” amongst others. There was singing, dancing, and a joyful and generous atmosphere more akin to a carnival than a political demonstration.
Twinks Burnett, founder of the Heartbreaker Club, was among those marching. “For women and non-binary folks, I am a staunch and rampant feminist, and I believe that we as women can rise up together,” she told us. “I believe that we are the granddaughters of the witches that they couldn’t burn, and right now I’m not willing to live in a world where my friends who are gender non-conforming, my friends who are not white, are in danger. I believe that hope is powerful. I believe that joy and joyful resistance is a beautiful tool and it must be used and protected at all costs.”
That spirit of joyful resistance was precisely what carried the day. As WAFR’s Sophia Beach, who stewarded the women’s bloc, put it ahead of the march: “The far right are trying to organise everywhere. They claim to be protectors of women and children, but they are our biggest threat.”
The crowd in the women’s bloc knew this. One marcher told us: “It’s important that women have an opinion about what is endangering them. Men can’t speak on behalf of us when they are often the ones portraying the violence. A lot of the people saying that refugees and immigrants are to blame for violence against women, a high percentage of them are the ones committing domestic violence. About 90% of femicides are done by someone the victim knows. The call is coming from inside the house.”
Another woman, Tracey, had travelled from New Malden. She had been evicted through domestic abuse and now campaigns for survivors. “I do everything I can to make it safer,” she said. A third marcher told us she had come specifically because she saw the threat to women as inseparable from the threat to every other community being targeted.
Connor, a trans marcher, told us: “We’re here because everyone deserves rights,” they said. “We’re trans people, and people show up for our community, it’s only right that we show up for everyone else. There’s a long history of solidarity: the miners’ strike, gay and lesbian support for the miners. We need it a lot right now.”
From Coventry and Warwickshire, 250 people arrived on five coaches. One of them told us: “We have seen loads of racist protests across our towns from far-right groups, spreading absolute lies and rumours. There are people like us who are actually working with these refugees. They are humans and they don’t deserve this hate.”
On Whitehall, the speeches reflected the breadth of what had assembled. Diane Abbott told the crowd it was the largest anti-racist march she had seen in her lifetime. Green Party leader Zack Polanski pledged to “never back down in the face of hate.” Billy Bragg, performing from the stage, warned that if mass deportations came to Britain, the country would need to be “as courageous as the people of Minneapolis.” A video message from London Mayor Sadiq Khan was played to the crowd.
As the march concluded, an estimated 20,000 people poured into Trafalgar Square for House Against Hate, a free protest rave organised by R3 Soundsystem, featuring Hot Chip, Shygirl, Ben UFO, Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Joy Crookes, Self Esteem, Jon Hopkins and dozens more. The square was given over entirely to dancing.
This was what the rest of the country looks like, away from the St George’s flags and the WhatsApp group hatred and the performative rage of the far right: happy, loud, and utterly unafraid.
Quotes collected by Lara Latta
