Britain First National Rally in Manchester: The North Left to Look After Itself
Henry North reflects on Britain First’s march in Manchester and his considered lack of support from the South.
On the 21st of February, Britain First marched through Manchester. The day started sunny and descended into a downpour which summed up my mood entirely. In our YouTube video, I said Saturday was, “without a doubt the worst day I’ve ever spent in Manchester, it’s been absolutely horrible.”
A poignant place to start is an image engrained in my memory of a father holding a crying son turning away from the Britain First march. I felt like crying too at the scenes that were unfolding. As the 300 or so self-described ‘patriots’ walked the streets of Manchester, police could only chase small pockets of violence that erupted as passersby let their thoughts be known. But at no point were the racist, emboldened thugs so clearly exposed when they turned left off Portland Street onto Sackville Street. The circus – exclusively of clowns – found the road busy with stationary cars and once they turned their attentions to Canal Street a group of Asian men got out a black Audi and started asking a police officer if they could move it. The police officer refused. He said he thought that they were going to attempt to run over the Britain First protesters. A ridiculous statement – of course – as anyone with a pair of eyes could see that the urgency to move was because the men’s car had been scratched, kicked in and the registration plate torn off.
Half an hour before, just down the road where Portland Street meet Princess Street, there more depressing scenes. I’d decided to join the Sackville Gardens counter-protest. We’d been asked to share details of the counter-protest by Salford Anti-fascists, whereas Stand Up to Racism had organised a more ‘family-friendly’ protest with dedicated speakers like Jeremy Corbyn and Green Party co-deputy leader Mothin Ali – who suffered racist abuse himself while walking to his car.
As my counter protest reached Portland Street, the march was halted by police. After about half an hour of waiting, there was talk of the police issuing a ‘containment order’ and inevitably it started to kick off. There was wrestling, batons being swung and a personal low for me to see – dogs introduced. Thankfully they stayed on their leads. There were reports of vicious police brutality, but from what I saw, I’ll say they were heavy-handed and cannot prove otherwise.
After the protest, I was looking at the Rochdale Canal over the road from the Palace theatre and the water levels there were surprisingly so low, you could see all the rubbish lying on the floor including hundreds of bottles, a traffic cone and a plastic chair. I found myself gazing at all the filth lying there listening to police sirens wailing in the background. A woman passing by said, “I can’t believe that’s like that, in the centre of Manchester”. Before I had chance to ask her what exactly she was referring to, she was gone.
As I walked around town I saw mothers taking their young daughters out for a day in Manchester, likely heading out to visit one of the many things to do in our brilliant city – but the look on children’s faces wasn’t one of joy, it was one fear and confusion as they witnessed a glimpse into a future where “society is violent and horrific place to live”, Paul Golding’s - the leader of Britain First - dream.
Solidarity?
Now the dust has settled, I’ve got a nag. Britain First sent out a national call for any idiot to come and join them, understanding that if they were able to outnumber and intimidate the people of Manchester it would be a serious statement to the country. From what I saw, counter-protesters did outnumber Britain First, but from the people I recognised and met, coupled with the videos I’ve seen, the counter-protesters were almost all from the North and it’s not sitting well with me.
I rarely talk about the North-South divide. It’s so well-established by so many different metrics that we are forced to accept it and push for change. But where I did not expect to see the divide manifest is when it comes to standing up to fascists. Perhaps I’m expecting too much, but when I look at social media and media in general, I didn’t see people from outside Manchester condemning Britain First.
Am I going crazy to expect that groups of thugs walking through the streets of one of the country’s major cities should be condemned by the Prime Minister and members of the cabinet?
Maybe it’s because I’m looking now on Sunday and was so caught up in it all on Saturday, but I can’t see any Guardian coverage of the march – any chance of a denunciation of the people who went out onto our streets and frightened our children?
The BBC have reported that police are reviewing videos after altercations of between groups but no mention of the reasons behind it. Nothing to do with Britain First demanding the deportation of our loved ones while terrorising our streets? Perhaps that could be a reason why tempers are flaring?
But it feels like more than that. Forget the mainstream media, that’s why we’ve set up The Northern Rose. But what has let me down is the lack of in person support from the South. I’ll credit Jeremy Corbyn and The Green Party for sending Mothin Ali while they do their bit in Gorton & Denton, among others like Amnesty and The Canary, but where was everyone else? I see so much talk on social media about fighting fascists from London based profiles, but did I just miss all their virtual support? I didn’t see it physically.
Saturday was a real chance for people of the country to show just how outnumbered Britain First are but outside of Manchester, it feels like the whole thing was barely mentioned. There was support from other areas of the country – and north Wales - but not really from the South. And that would be ok, but being from Manchester whenever London calls, we are expected to answer. Bang the drum for an anti-austerity march in London, Manchester turns up.
There’s a ‘Together’ march planned in London for the 28th March and people from Manchester are organising coaches. Happy to get up, spend the money and their weekends to show solidarity. Do Mancunians want to go to London for yet another rally? Probably not, but they will. The people here understand how important it is to show solidarity to those in need of it.
My question is, where was the show of solidarity from the South when we were looking the fascists in the eyes?