The far right in the United Kingdom is systematically rising. It first launched “Operation Raise the Colours” aimed at flooding the streets with British and English flags. As a pretext, it used the issue of people fleeing to Britain from war and persecution. Just yesterday, I saw a truck driving down the street with some junk piled on the back, and an English flag stuck into it. At first glance, it looked like a parody, but judging by the driver’s appearance, it was clearly meant seriously.
On top of that, for September 13th, Stephen Lennon, aka Tommy Robinson, and company announced the “Festival of Free Speech,” which will be gatherings of “patriots” in cities across the country. The notorious liar, football hooligan, fraudster, document forger, mortgage scammer, violent offender, racist, and successful merchant of hate needs no introduction after all these years. But who are the other people organizing these events alongside Robinson?
Paul Golding – leader of the fascist group Britain First, which is a successor to the British National Party, itself a successor to the National Front. Among them are racists, Holocaust deniers, neo-Nazis, and homophobes — all carefully wrapped in the cloak of patriotism and traditional Christian values.
Andrew Currien, aka Andy Saxon – former member of the ultranationalist and Islamophobic English Defence League, which was, for example, closely connected to Norwegian mass murderer Breivik. In 2009, he was one of those convicted of a racially motivated murder. Today, Currien provides security at Britain First events and agitates on social media.
Guramit Singh – collaborator of Robinson and former member of the English Defence League. He is of Indian origin, which is a rarity in this environment. He co-produced Robinson’s series Predator Hunter, where he presents himself as a fighter against sexual violence and “grooming gangs,” which, however, only show perpetrators with darker skin. You won’t hear from him about the arrested and convicted sexual predators and pedophiles from the ranks of “patriots,” some of whom were even Robinson’s close associates. In 2013, he was convicted of armed robbery of a shop, during which he and his accomplices tied up the shopkeeper and threatened to slit his throat. He was sentenced to 6.5 years. Naturally, he claimed he was innocent and that it was all a conspiracy.
Just as in 1936, when a multicultural resistance movement stood up to the “Blackshirts” of the British Union of Fascists under Oswald Mosley as they tried to march through a Jewish neighborhood in the “Battle of Cable Street,” it is once again time to unite and stand together against fascism.
They shall not pass!
