We must mobilise on 26 October to ensure that we stop the fascists and keep them off our streets, argues Steph Pike

In July 2024, up to 15,000 supporters joined the far-right extremist, Tommy Robinson, in central London at a racist anti-immigrant and Islamophobic rally. Robinson then fled the country to avoid a court hearing.

From the safety of his sun-lounger in Cyprus, Robinson, along with an elected right-wing extremist, Reform’s Nigel Farage, used the murder of three young girls in Southport to incite violent fascist attacks which terrorised our communities, leaving black and Asian people scared to leave their homes.

Despite claims from the authorities that it was the heavy prison sentences and mass arrests that made the difference, it was actually tens of thousands of anti-racists and anti-fascists taking to the streets that stopped the fascist rampage in its tracks. But with the far right making electoral gains across Europe and the racist Reform party having won parliamentary seats in the UK for the first time ever, we cannot be complacent.

The electoral success of Reform is worrying as it gives it an even bigger platform to communicate its dishonest, reactionary politics of racism and hate. These whip up tensions and led to the street violence that we saw in August.

Tommy Robinson is calling his supporters to another mass rally in London on Saturday 26 October to continue to spread their messages of racism, fascism and Islamophobia. It is likely that thousands of his supporters will descend on London again.

And it is likely that once again the authorities will tell anti-fascists to stay at home. But we know, not just from history, but from recent events, that it is not the authorities or the police that will stop the far right.

Tommy Robinson and his supporters cannot go unopposed and cannot be allowed to gather in our towns and cities to spew their racist rhetoric, and terrorise our communities. That is why we need to build a massive, united anti-fascist movement that can mobilise on the streets and stop the fascists wherever and whenever they try to march.

The fascist marches are not peaceful protests, they are violent and filled with hate. Our aim must be not just to counterprotest, but to stop the fascists and kick them off our streets.

The fascist violence we have seen in recent months has not appeared from nowhere. Over a decade of government anti-migrant rhetoric and Islamophobia combined with the poverty and hopelessness created by fourteen years of brutal Tory cuts and austerity has created a fertile breeding ground for fascism.

Starmer’s Labour government is doing nothing to address this. Instead, they are pursuing the same racist, anti-migrant agenda, even visiting the fascist leader of Italy to swap notes on how to deter asylum seekers.

Starmer is also pursuing an austerity agenda. His plan to cut winter fuel payments has already been hijacked by the far right to blame and scapegoat asylum seekers. The danger is that many ordinary people, brutalised by fourteen years of Tory cuts and already disillusioned by a Labour Party that has betrayed them, will turn to the far right for answers.

That’s why as well as building the anti-fascist movement, we must also re-build the People’s Assembly and the anti-austerity movement. Robinson’s brand of fascism is openly Islamophobic and so we must also work with the Palestine movement to form a united front to oppose fascism and to fight for a free Palestine.

The immediate threat comes from the gathering of fascists and their supporters in London on 26 October. We must mobilise across the country and ensure that we are in London in our tens of thousands to stop the fascists and keep them off our streets.

No Pasaran! They shall not pass!

From this month’s Counterfire freesheet