{"id":38709,"date":"2026-05-16T17:23:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T17:23:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/38709\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T17:23:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T17:23:18","slug":"anti-racist-and-palestine-protesters-outnumber-far-right-in-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/38709\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-racist and Palestine protesters outnumber far right in London"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tAnti-racism<\/a><\/p>\n

Marchers showed solidarity with Palestine and opposed the far right and the state\u2019s \u2018hate march\u2019 smears<\/p>\n

By Socialist Worker journalists <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tDownloading PDF. Please wait…<\/p>\n

Saturday 16 May 2026<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tIssue 3006<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\"Nakba\"Nakba<\/p>\n

100,000 marched to remember the Nakba and oppose the far right (Pic: PSCupdates on X)<\/p>\n

Palestine solidarity marchers and anti-racists celebrated a decisive victory in London on Saturday as they outnumbered fascist Tommy Robinson and his supporters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some 100,000 people marched to mark Nakba Day in a protest organised by the coalition of Palestine organisations and Stand Up To Racism (SUTR). SUTR\u2019s monitoring team estimated that 35,000 marched with Robinson in another part of the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The annual Nakba Day protest commemorates the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in 1948 when Israel was created.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Osama told Socialist Worker, \u201cI\u2019m Palestinian and the Nakba<\/a> is why we are in this country. I have family still there and I plan to move back there. The Israelis can\u2019t take our land.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the far right are few,\u201d he said. \u201cThey want to give us the feeling there are more of them than there are. They want to spread fear.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe politicians have no economic plan. They just try to turn people against migrants. They don\u2019t have an answer other than finding a minority to blame,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is not just an anniversary of an historic event but a protest against the ongoing ethnic cleansing and genocide carried out by the Israeli terror state.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This year it took place the day after renewed Israeli airstrikes on Gaza that murdered at least seven Palestinians and when there are growing attacks by settlers in the West Bank and the expansion of the Israeli occupation into Lebanon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The mainstream media have branded the pro-Palestine marches \u201chate marches\u201d as they sought to link them to the antisemitic attacks at Golders Green last month. Metropolitan police chief Mark Rowley falsely claimed that the organisers have deliberately marched past synagogues.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Madeline was one of many Jewish marchers<\/a> on the day who didn\u2019t accept the slurs. She told Socialist Worker, \u201cI am here to oppose the far right and the imperialism that has enabled genocide against millions over many decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a Jewish American from a Zionist background. But I\u2019ve made a complete 180 and now I aggressively support Palestine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey use terms like \u2018hate march\u2019 to strike fear into people and give them the notion that the protests are antisemitic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frances, a student at the University of Portsmouth, told Socialist Worker, \u201cI feel it\u2019s important for me as a Jewish person, who has had to face constant accusations of antisemitism and abuse because I dare to support Palestine, to be here today.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said it was wrong to \u201cassociate a whole religious group with a settler colonial, apartheid regime of Israel\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe far right are using the rising antisemitism to their advantage to claim that Muslims are to blame, and disguise it as care and concern for the Jewish community.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Adrian from Abergavenny agreed. \u201cI think it\u2019s outrageous to call this a hate march,\u201d he told Socialist Worker. \u201cI don\u2019t know anyone who feels hate. They are outraged by what\u2019s going on. But hate? No.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abdulkader, an SUTR activist in south west England told Socialist Worker that we have to ramp up our fight against the West\u2019s imperial wars.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to be speaking about Syria, Sudan, Congo, Haiti, the Rohingya people, all these atrocities against them,\u201d he said. \u201cThe truth is that we are all under the same system.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that, \u201cI hope this is a good start for people. I hope that people don\u2019t just come here and think that\u2019s the work done.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the rally, left wing MP Zarah Sultana slammed Keir Starmer\u2019s complicity in genocide.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She said, \u201cIn Gaza, entire neighbourhoods have been flattened, hospitals bombed, refugee camps, attacked. Britain cannot wash its hands of these crimes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe establishment wants us to believe that change will come from swapping one Labour leader for another.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPerhaps Keir Starmer will be replaced by Andy Burnham<\/a>. But let\u2019s be honest, this is Andy Burnham, who voted for the Iraq war, an illegal war that killed millions of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Samira Ali from Women Against the Far Right told the crowd, \u201cAs women, we\u2019re told that it\u2019s Muslim men, refugee men that are to blame and are a threat to women in our country.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I want to say that it\u2019s not those facing deportation who make me feel unsafe. It is the people that are calling for deportations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNigel Farage is\u00a0a racist, he\u2019s a sexist. He\u2019s also a posh boy. A private schoolboy. He\u2019s someone who took \u00a35 million from a crypto billionaire to buy himself a mansion.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he wants to parade as a man of the people. He wants to tell us who is to blame for the problems that his friends make in our society.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rally was joined by trade union leaders including Andrea Egan from Unison, Daniel Kebede of the NEU and Fran Heathcote of the PCS union.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Robinson has chosen to hold his racist march on Nakba Day to try to send a signal<\/a> that he can build a street force capable of smashing the Palestine solidarity movement off the streets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He brought over 100,000 onto the streets last September<\/a> in the biggest fascist-led march in British history. The march was built on the back of far right protests over the summer that targeted hotels housing asylum seekers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sustained anti-racist campaigning across Britain has started to drive back the hotel protests.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Clare, who joined the SUTR bloc on the march, told Socialist Worker she was really worried that the growing influence of Reform UK would embolden the far right.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the far right have really been galvanised by the success of Nigel Farage and how that party is growing in numbers,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Many of those on the march are working to try to stop the growth of the far right in their local areas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alison from Manchester Women Against the Far Right<\/a> told Socialist Worker, \u201cI\u2019m here to mark Nakba 78 and the Palestinians\u2019 continuing struggle, and to fight the fascists who are a threat to women\u2014and so many others.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe election results were a big shock in Manchester with Wigan going 100 percent to Reform UK. But SUTR also had a big impact in the areas we targeted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe elections have galvanised people. They know Reform UK isn\u2019t just a flash in the pan\u2014it\u2019s a real threat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need people out to show we are the majority\u2014and to smash the far right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steve from Swansea also blamed mainstream politicians for the growth of the far right.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLabour is so complacent about the threat of the far right,\u201d he told Socialist Worker. \u201cYou don\u2019t defeat the far right by mimicking them\u2014which is what Labour will spend the next two years doing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to call them out as racists and confront them. And that\u2019s what today is about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Student Sophie from Edinburgh told Socialist Worker, \u201cWherever you are, you have to get organised. We had a brilliant unity march in Edinburgh with around 1,000 people. It took us months to organise but it was totally worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beating back Robinson\u2019s fascists\u2014and defending the Palestine solidarity movement\u2014will take sustained organising in local areas, in the workplaces and on the streets. It will need the force of the Palestine movement and the trade unions as well as groups like Women Against the Far Right.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Saturday, the two marches were kept apart. But where there are opportunities to do so, and where anti-racists can comprehensively outnumber the far right, we should confront them and prevent them from marching.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The fascists use marches to give their followers confidence to try to harass black and Asian people, the left and the Palestine movement. We need to organise to take the streets back from them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018Where is everyone\u2019: Tommy Robinson brings out 35,000 on his hate march<\/p>\n

The mood on Tommy Robinson\u2019s \u201cUnite the Kingdom\u201d march on Saturday was one of dejection, frustration and hate.<\/p>\n

A lot of that hate was directed at Keir Starmer. But it was also aimed at the left, trans+ people and the Palestine movement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Organisers were keen to push chants like \u201cKeir Starmer\u2019s a wanker.\u201d But when they lost control of the megaphones, different slogans were heard.<\/p>\n

These included \u201cYou can shove your Palestine up your arse,\u201d \u201cIf you\u2019re born with a willy, you\u2019re a man,\u201d and, \u201cYou can never trust a lefty with a kid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Organised fascists including Paul Golding of Britain First and Nick Tenconi of Ukip were welcomed onto the march.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some gave out flyers with an explicitly fascist message including the so-called \u201c14 words\u201d\u2014\u201cWe must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children\u201d. The flyers were from a \u201cbrotherhood of white Europeans\u201d who train three times a week and seek to expose \u201cwhite replacement and those who fund it,\u201d a code for Jews.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A small number of pro-monarchy Iranian flags and Israeli flags were among the sea of St George\u2019s cross and Union Jack flags.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Reform UK flags were few and far between. But there was visible support for Rupert Lowe\u2019s Restore Britain, with flags, hats and shirts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The crowd was overwhelmingly male, middle aged and white. But there was a significant minority of women, some were there in \u201cPink ladies\u201d colours\u2014there to spread false claims that migrants and Muslims are a threat to women and girls.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As the march set off on the Kingsway, it was difficult to move for the beer bottles and cans on the pavement. People were urinating on the street, from the Kingsway down to Parliament Square.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And the crowd quickly became frustrated, as the march made slow progress. There were complaints of \u201ctwo-tier policing\u201d and, \u201cIf this were a Palestine march they wouldn\u2019t be holding us back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tommy Robinson cut a sad and frustrated figure on stage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Perhaps the line up didn\u2019t quite live up to expectation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With the banning of eleven international far right figures, another of the slogans for the day, \u201cUnite the West,\u201d rang hollow.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There were appeals from the stage to get involved in electoral politics.<\/p>\n

TV presenter Ant Middleton urged everyone to get registered to vote. And alt right Youtuber Carl Benjamin urged people to join Restore Britain, receiving a warm reception.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some of the speakers seemed distinctly second tier, including figures like Laurence Fox.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And of those who did speak, some only appeared by video link.<\/p>\n

One of the largest cheers of the day was when Tommy Robinson called for the deportation of all \u201cillegal immigrants\u201d.<\/p>\n

Transphobe Posie Parker got a similar reception when she told the crowd that they needed to \u201cget Islam out of all aspects of British life\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But despite attempts to inspire the crowd with hateful speech, the mood became more and more dejected.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Robinson absurdly claimed that the march was \u201cthe biggest event, ever in Britain\u201d. That is less than half of what he managed to put on the streets on 13 September.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He admitted that he could not have put on the event without help from the United States. He thanked a donor for a $200,000 donation, after which there were chants of \u201cUSA, USA\u201d. And he asked the crowd to personally thank Elon Musk.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite this, the audio feed on the five big screens constantly cut out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By the end, the crowd was dispersing quickly with complaints of \u201cWhere is everyone?\u201d and \u201cIs this all we can manage?\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anti-racism Marchers showed solidarity with Palestine and opposed the far right and the state\u2019s \u2018hate march\u2019 smears By…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[26],"tags":[3405,3406,27,32,15462],"class_list":["post-38709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-london","tag-anti-fascism","tag-anti-racism","tag-london","tag-palestine","tag-sutr"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116585418189201715","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}