Imagine if more than 300 eco or Palestine activists have surrounded an Elbit factory or data centre and had blocked all traffic for several hours. Certainly there would have been arrests and no doubt there would have been charges linking the action to a terrorism threat. Senior citizens have been carried away in police vans and threatened with years in prison for holding a placard condemning genocide in Gaza and supporting non-violent direct action. These people do not wear black uniforms and balaclavas.
In Dover this Saturday three hundred or more fascists blocked all the entrances the Dover passenger and freight port for several hours. They marched in wearing balaclavas and black clothes and then marched out at lunchtime with complete impunity.
The Dover operation was quite different from other recent far right interventions where supporters arrive by coach or train, appear similar to football fans and are often half drunk by the end of the day. We know they were organised by a known fascist, Danny ‘Tommo’ who is a convicted criminal. They were protesting about migrants arriving in small boats. Tommo is banned from Dover so may not have been there but the other Tommy (Robinson, aka Stephen Yaxley Lennon) sent support. It is unclear whether the two have no patched up a serious feud. It is reported that Robinson claimed there were a 100,000 British patriots ready to carry out further acts of this sort.
1936 Public Order Act flouted
Subject as hereinafter provided, any person who in any public place or at any public meeting wears uniform signifying his association with any political organisation or with the promotion of any political object shall be guilty of an offence:
This is existing legislation as laid out in the 1936 Public Order Act (thanks to Keith Flett’s blog for the quote).Not one arrest was made. They were allowed to continue their action for more than an hour and then they marched back to their transport home. None of the mainstream press has picked up on this anomaly and in fact it was scarcely covered on BBC news on Sunday, the day after.
In my fifty years in the movement I cannot remember an incident where this number of fascists have paraded in uniform -i,,e. theBlack shirts of Moseley – and at the same time have made a public protest. You can find pictures of fascists dressed up in their summer camps or whatever but not like this.
So this is significant. It shows how there is a radicalisation on the right of politics at least in England. Reform and now the competition from Restore on the further right is providing a fertile breeding ground for the growth of outright fascist groups. These militants can work with the Patriotic Platform who are behind this operation and also work inside Restore or even Reform.
Media minimising the event
I was surprised by how the apparently ‘progressive’ journalist invited on Sky News breakfast programme today said that we should not talk too much about these fascists since it gave them too much attention. She said it was an irritation rather than something more significant. This is the first time since Moseley’s blackshirts in the 1930’s that we have seen uniformed fascist squads in action. We need to also see the links between the Dover operation and the violent attacks on migrant homes in Thetford, Belfast or last summer’s aggression against hotels where refugees and migrants were lodged.
If you participated in the Dover action and saw how you could close down Britain’s biggest passenger port you will get a big boost. You will be more likely to join in other protests. If you are a sympathiser of such groups and you see this on the national media you will be more likely to join up. So to minimise the impact is a mistake.
from Hope not Hate website
Labour’s response
Local Labour MP, Mike Tapp’s, first reaction yesterday was to dismiss the protesters as ‘idiots’ disrupting local community life like the park run. The word fascist or racist did not pass his lips. This completely underestimates the political motivation of these uniformed activists. Tapp not once talked about the threat of the fascists to migrants and refugees, who are also part of the local community. He was concerned that the fascists had not understood that Labour was working well to reduce the number of boats arriving. Clearly he has little political understanding of the racism that motivates the fascists. You can reduce the boats by another 45% and they will still protest. The wind on the far right is now for re-migration and white nationalism is rising. More boats or less boats is not going to change that.
Today Tapp did finally raise the failure in police intelligence and very gently wondered whether the law had been fully implemented. The police can designate a protest area and then covering your face becomes illegal. We have seen this law used against progressive and left demonstrators. The priority in police intelligence appears to be directed against the eco and left activists. How can hundreds of uniformed fascists travel from around the region, gather in one place and set up road blocks?
Government minister, Jonathon Reynolds, focussed on the comic opera aspects of the event. He talked of ‘men dressed up in costumes’. Does he know nothing of political history? This year is the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street where the left – but not the Labour Party – stopped the Blackshirts of Mosley from marching through the East End. So it is a lot more than young men dressing up in costumes.
How can the left respond to Dover?
Counter mobilisations remain important and can be effective. Alone they will not stop people in certain communities around the country supporting outfits like Patriotic Platform. Aditya Chakrabortty in a Guardian article showed how the closure of the Vauxhall plant in Luton has led some workers to sympathise with Reform and Restore.
The labour movement and the left need to organise more effectively in these areas, where it is often weak, to change the narrative. It requires a more radical programme of measures than Burnham is currently proposing to provide good jobs, training, youth services and housing for younger people in particular. Working to develop a credible left alternative at a community level alongside counter protests is essential.
Nothing can change without a more decisive redistribution of resources, taxing the rich and business and taking control of key economic sectors. Just talking of 40 years of neo-liberalism will not cut it. Real action is needed.