PEOPLE power has changed the narrative. The threat of fascist riots is not over, but they look far more isolated than they did before Wednesday night.
Even those who are not usually friends to street demonstrations have saluted the spirit that brought hundreds of thousands out in Bristol, Newcastle, Walthamstow and many other places.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley acknowledges the role the counter-protests played in preventing far-right violence. “Frankly the show of unity from communities together defeated the challenges that we’ve seen… the fears of extreme right disorder were abated.”
Even more surprising was approbation on the front pages of right-wing papers. The Times, the Mail, the Express are associated with hatred of the left: the latter two, particularly, with migrant-bashing. Yet all ran glowing tributes to anti-racist popular rallies on their front pages.
There is hypocrisy here. But that only underlines the significance of a movement that forces them to take this line. They have read the mood of the country and realised it is not with the racists.
This explodes the logic of anti-socialist fanatic Lord Walney, whose bid to call out “Russia and Iran” for whipping up disorder was an attempt to associate the arson, assault and vandalism of the fascists with peaceful marches in solidarity with Palestine.
It will be harder for authoritarians in government to use the riots as an excuse for a sweeping crackdown on public demonstrations now that the country’s biggest police force and most of its major newspapers are on record praising street demos mobilised by the activist left, most prominently Stand Up to Racism.
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