▲ Protesters in Brentford, London, push back against anti-immigrant groups after a week of unrest across England.Photo Ap
London
The newspaper La Jornada
Thursday, August 8, 2024, p. 24
Thousands of people demonstrated last night in several British cities against the violent far-right protests that have shaken the country for a week in reaction to the murder of three girls.
Security forces feared dozens of racist and Islamophobic protests and possible acts of violence in at least 100 locations across the country, particularly against mosques and hotels housing migrants.
In the end, it was anti-racist protesters who took to the streets in many cities across the United Kingdom, even protecting migrant aid centres from possible disturbances.
In Birmingham, central England, hundreds of people surrounded a shelter. In images recorded by AFP, people can be heard chanting: Let’s say it loud and clear, refugees are welcome here.Some held up banners reading: fascism is not welcome.
Protests were also organised in Bristol, Brighton, Sheffield, Newcastle and Oxford. In Liverpool, the building of an asylum-seeker support organisation was surrounded to prevent it from being attacked.
Although it was generally a quiet night, there were sporadic tensions in towns such as Aldershot, where police had to intervene between anti-racist and anti-immigrant activists, the AP news agency reported.
Thousands, many carrying Palestinian flags, gathered in the north-east London borough of Walthamstow where a far-right march was planned.
Led by activists from the Stand Up To Racism association, the protesters chanted: Whose streets are they? Ours!and held banners with the following slogans: stop the far right and Refugees, welcome.
For a week now, the country has been experiencing violent protests called by far-right groups in response to the stabbing deaths of three girls aged 6 to 9 at a Taylor Swift-themed dance and yoga class attended by 26 minors on 29 July.
The riots were fuelled by rumours and speculation on the internet about the identity of the suspect, falsely portrayed as a Muslim asylum seeker.
Police said, however, that the suspect was a 17-year-old boy born in Wales and British media reported that his parents were Rwandan.
The attacker, identified as Axel Rudakubana after he turned 18, was born in Cardiff and will stand trial next year on three counts of murder, 10 of attempted murder and possession of a bladed article in a public place. Five other children and two adults were seriously injured in the attack.
Merseyside Police said Tuesday that one child remained in hospital and the other injured had been released.
Since the start of the crisis, authorities have made more than 400 arrests, according to the public prosecutor’s office. Some have already been convicted.
Here is the government’s quick actionsaid Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has launched firm messages against the troublemakers.
According to a survey published by Savanta, 67 percent of Britons are concerned about the rise of the far right.
Another study by the YouGov institute reveals that immigration is the main challenge facing the United Kingdom for 51 percent of those surveyed, the highest level in almost 10 years.