Fascists, Reform and Restore construct the narrative around any major violent incident where the perpetrator is a migrant, refugee or racialised.  As soon as news broke about the brutal attack in Belfast on Monday night Farage was demanding that police release the ethnic identity and residential status of the attacker.  It was established he was Sudanese and had come into Britain via the ‘open’ border between the 26 county Irish state and the Six Counties of Northern Ireland. Then Farage makes a link was between so called lax immigration and the violence. Labour and the Tory governments are blamed for not keeping control of ‘our borders.’  

No evidence exists to show that violent crime is disproportionately committed by migrants or refugees but no matter, rational analysis is ignored.  The mainstream media makes no attempt to provide facts and figures to refute the rabblerousers. Of course the far right are only interested in violence against ‘white people’. They do not give a toss about the black youth who lose their lives in urban areas where drug or gang related violence is rife.  Violence against women only interests them if there is a migrant perpetrator involved.

How Reform, Restore and Tommy Robinson are linked

Rupert Lowe’s Restore who are operating on the right flank of Reform ups the ante by calling the Sudanese man a ‘savage’ and reiterating his call for mass re-migration. On his right the street fascists of Tommy Robinson – working closely with their rightwing Protestant Loyalist friends in Belfast – carefully organise the violent response. You can see on social media a flyer giving the meeting places for these protests.  Protests is probably the wrong word for what happened although the mainstream media keeps repeating this term. Pogroms and confronting the police are closer to what really happened.

This is the face of creeping fascism today in Britain – an articulated movement involved these three political currents each feeding off each other and proving increasingly effective in mobilising significant numbers of working people.  Social media is the sea in which they swim and since more and more people do not read newspapers or look at the mainstream media news this sea is a fertile environment for far right populism. All these far right and fascist forces have invested a lot of money in social media.

Kemi Bedonach’s Tories are tagging along too. What Farage and Lowe are saying in capital letters she repeats in lower case.  She repeats the lies among the relationship between migrants and violent attacks.  She has no concern for the Romany families burned out of their homes.

A well-rehearsed global narrative

It is a narrative that is repeating itself –  we saw it with the terrible Southport murders and with the recent tragic case of Henry Novak.  For the far right and fascists it is one of the best ways of winning support.  People naturally empathise with the victim, if it is a random attack then the sense that we are all vulnerable is reinforced.  Emotions are harder to push back against than rational arguments. If the media and politicians do not stand up to the narrative then it is easier for it to stick in people’s hearts and minds. Starmer’s Labour has continually adapted to and even mirrored the Farage line. Great white hope Andy Burnham recently applauded Shaban Mahmood’s attack on refugee and migrant’s right to settle here.

We have seen similar narratives develop throughout Europe.  Salvini, the leader of the racist Lega in Italy is always linking violent incidents to migration.  Le Pen does the same in France. The far right has well organised international links. People like Elon Musk provide money (Lowe gets a lot) and also their own social media presence to boost these actions. Predictably he has weighed in on the Novak murder and on the Belfast events.  The international links between these currents that are both formal and informal clearly help them develop playbooks for how to develop the narrative they want to build their support.

Politicians do not call it out

Sinn Fein’s Michelle O’Neill, First Minister of Northern Ireland, condemned the violence and warned of “dangerous attempts to exploit” the attack. In a social media post she said: “Groups of masked men burning families out of their homes is nothing less than disgusting cowardice. This has nothing to do with community. This is outright thuggery.”  (Guardian 10 June)

Even this statement, which is better than many others does not name names. Who is organising these groups of masked men? They are not just thugs, they are organised by political currents. You do not just spontaneously see the news then dress in black, put on your balaclava and just happen to meet people down your street and decide to go and burn out the local migrant family.  Organisers on social media told people to wear black.

Vague references by the police and politicians to people on social media lets the far right and fascists off  the hook.

Keir Starmer called Monday night’s attack sickening

. “I have absolutely no tolerance for abhorrent scenes of violence like this on our streets. My thoughts are first and foremost with the victim, and I thank the first responders, including members of the public who intervened.” (Guardian ibid)

Not a word from Starmer about the other victims – greater in number – who are being burnt out of their houses. For him the scenes of violence have no provenance, no political actors.

Hand wringing politicians are whining that communites are being divided as though the indigenous and the migrant community are being equally affected. You have to delve into articles in the more serious media to actually find reports about who is being targeted.

Build resistance to creeping fascism

A lot of the focus keeps returning to the Sudanese refugee identity of the murderous attacker on Monday night as though he represents all Sudanese people or all migrants and refugees.  This is like blaming all South Londoners if someone is stabbed in Southwark.

The other media spotlight is shone on the undoubtedly brave Belfast man with the hurley stick who used it to stop the attack.. Already the tabloid press is promoting some fundraiser to buy the guy a pint. No one is disputing his bravery but in the middle of all the organised savagery surely this is deflecting our attention.

Hardly any coverage so far is seen of the terrified families from ethnic minority backgrounds who are being burnt out of their homes by these fascist thugs.  Once again they are invisible and voiceless.

What we are seeing is pogrom-like action by the fascists. Although on a different scale what is the difference between a Jewish owned shop being burnt out by Nazis in the 1930s and a Romany family home or African shop being destroyed by fascists in Belfast? Creeping fascism is not just a neat slogan dreamt up by left wingers, it is happening now on the streets of Belfast and elsewhere in the Six Counties

  We need to build the broadest possible movement against them. One event we can support in the carnival against fascism in Brighton this weekend which ACR is sponsoring. Join us