Yesterday, people from Carlisle and other parts of Cumbria gathered in Carlisle City Centre to join a rally organised by Carlisle Against Racism (CAR) – and stood together to promote positive community messages of ‘Solidarity with Refugees’ and ‘Jobs, Homes and Services (not Racism) for the people of Carlisle.’
Unsurprisingly, ‘Carlisle Action’ – the organisers of a far-right ‘flag event’ that day – showed that their claims to be a ‘peaceful protest group’, and that they didn’t support violence or bigotry, were a sham. While speakers at the CAR event stressed the importance of community and kindness to all, those gathered across from us could do nothing but shout deeply-offensive, hate-filled and increasingly-threatening chants.
Thus, the CAR organisers, the speakers, and all those who joined our rally on Saturday, deserve huge thanks for their decency, compassion, humanity, love and, especially, courage, in placing themselves, publicly, in these increasingly-toxic times, on the right side of history.
They stood up to oppose xenophobia and racism in all of its various forms. It was particularly heartening to see how, despite the far-right ‘crowd’ becoming increasingly intimidating, our people refused to back down.
And that’s the beautiful thing about courage: it’s contagious! Towards the end of the film Spartacus, when Crassus offers not to crucify the captured rebels if they’ll just identify which one is Spartacus – they ALL stand up to say: “I’m Spartacus!” This depicts the bravery of solidarity.
The courage displayed by all the anti-racists in coming to Carlisleyesterday will help many others to declare that they’re anti-racist too!
Thankfully, history has many useful lessons on how to oppose racism and fascism effectively. One is the importance of unity. In the early 1930s, Leon Trotsky was appalled that, in Germany, the leaders of the Social Democrats and the Communists refused to work together against the rising Nazi Party. He argued strongly for a United Front– and, at the end of 1931, warned the German Communist Party that:
Should fascism come to power, it will ride over your skulls and spines like a terrific tank…. And only a fighting unity with the Social Democratic workers can bring victory. Make haste, worker-Communists, you have very little time left.
However, the leaderships of those 2 parties ignored his warnings – and, as they say, the rest is history.
So, to end, here are 2 short slogans that show what we need to do as we go forward:
“Unite against racism and fascism!”
and (from the Spanish Civil War):
“No Pasarán!!”
Time to spread the courage – and resist!
#SayitLoudSayitClearRefugeesareWelcomeHere
#TheWorkersUnitedWillNeverBeDefeated
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