Stand Up To Racism march postponed – but they still intend to fight

Campaign group Stand Up To Racism (SUTR) said in a statement: “[We] regret to inform supporters that we have taken the decision to postpone the UN anti-racism day protests in London and Glasgow until later in the year in response to the coronavirus and its significant threat to public health.

“The events will not be taking place on Saturday 21 March. A new date will be announced in due course.”

The postponement comes against a backdrop of rising racism across Europe and the UK, including incidences of violence and discrimination against Chinese and east Asian people in relation to Covid-19. Sadly, Scotland is not immune to such racist poison.

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In one recent incident, a Chinese business in the West End of Glasgow had the word “CORONA” spray painted across the front of its premises.

Elsewhere, the world has been shocked in recent weeks to see refugees being violently attacked by police and neo-Nazi thugs in Greece. One of the central themes of the SUTR march will be opposition to the growth of the far right.

Neo-Nazi and far right terrorist atrocities, from the murderous attack on the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, USA in 2018 to the barbaric assaults on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand in March of last year, haunt the global conscience.

It is clear that the ideologies of the so-called “alt-right” and neo-Nazism pose a growing threat to societies all over the world.

Here in the UK, Labour MP Jo Cox was brutally murdered by fascist fanatic Thomas Mair in 2016. In both 2018 and 2019, white people accounted for the majority of people arrested in the UK on terrorism-related charges; this is due predominantly to the activities of members of the outlawed fascist terror group National Action and its offshoots (including a Metropolitan police officer who was arrested earlier this month).

Here in Scotland, as recently as January 23 of this year, two Asian shopkeepers in Edinburgh were attacked by a gang of around 20 youths who were armed with crowbars and a knife. The men were subjected to racist verbal abuse during the assault.

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Called under the heading of “March Against Racist Johnson”, the rescheduled demo will seek to put the fight against racism in the context of opposition to the pronouncements and policies of the Tory Government at Westminster. “Here in the UK, we have a Prime Minister who uses racist language to dehumanise Muslim women and people of African descent”, says Talat Ahmed, convenor of SUTR Scotland.

In particular, SUTR opposes the planned Tory immigration bill, which even Home Secretary Priti Patel (who supports the bill) admits is so restrictive that it would have prevented her own parents from settling in the UK. The bill would, says Ahmed, put Johnson’s Government “among the most draconian administrations in Europe.”

SUTR will also be marching for all victims of racism in Scotland, says Ahmed. That includes, she adds, “the family and friends of Sheku Bayoh, the father of two who died in police custody in Fife in 2015, who continue to fight for justice.”

THE demonstration has the support of a broad coalition of groups and individuals from across Scottish civic society, ranging from elected representatives to trade unions and faith groups. This year, the All Under One Banner (AUOB) campaign group, which has organised the huge and historic pro-independence demos in many Scottish cities and towns, will join the march.

AUOB spokesperson Sean Mellon told the Sunday National why his group will be forming a pro-indy bloc on the march. “AUOB are opposed to the racist scapegoating of migrants by Boris Johnson, and the hostility being whipped up against migrants and migrant communities.

“Our vision of an independent Scotland is anti-racist, multicultural, diverse, inclusive and welcoming to all who wish to live here, regardless of country of birth. We are all Jock Tamson’s bairns!”

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That is, no doubt, a sentiment which will be echoed by the many SNP members and supporters, including elected representatives, who back SUTR. These include MP Alison Thewliss and her party colleague, Scottish Government minister Ben Macpherson MSP, both of whom joined the anti-racism day marches in 2018 and 2019.

For Scottish Labour, leader Richard Leonard and fellow MSP Jackie Baillie are supporting the demonstration. Anas Sarwar MSP, who was a headline speaker at the recent SUTR Scottish conference, said: “Scotland is not immune from racism, far from it.

“Nearly four-fifths of Muslims believe Islamophobia is getting worse in Scotland, and it is an ‘everyday issue’ for more than a third of Muslims. Anti-Semitism and other forms of hatred have also blighted public discourse in Scotland.

“The Stand Up To Racism demo will send a strong message that people of all parties and none are united in the fight against prejudice and hate. By working together we can build a more tolerant and inclusive Scotland.”

The march has strong support across Scotland’s trade union movement, including the Scottish Trades Union Congress, public sector unions the PCS and UNISON, the teachers’ EIS, the Universities and Colleges Union, the Communication Workers’ Union and the Fire Brigades Union. Fayrouz Kraish, of the Black, Asian and Ethnic Minorities committee of the general union Unite, said: “Johnson’s new Tory Government has a racist agenda that must be opposed.

“Unite Scotland wants to show its opposition to Johnson’s racist agenda and support the movement against the far right and to say loud and clear: ‘Migrants make our NHS’.”

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The transport workers’ RMT union is also supporting the march. Gordon Martin, the union’s regional organiser for Scotland, said: “The RMT opposes all forms of racism and discrimination, as only through maximum unity of the working class will a fairer society be possible.

“Racism and racist behaviour must be challenged at every opportunity by trade unionists and all other progressive people and organisations,” he added. Gordon warned that, if racism is allowed to divide working people against each other, it would lead to “defeats and a pernicious race to the bottom, with living and working conditions slashed for workers, while the influence of the rich and powerful increases.”

The organisers of the march believe that anti-racists are a clear majority in Scottish society. The breadth of support for the demonstration (which also enjoys the backing of the Muslim Association of Britain and the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities) suggests that they are right.

A LOOK around the world, from the Islamophobic pogroms taking place in Narendra Modi’s India to the hatred of Jewish people promoted by Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban, can be depressing. In many places, however, there are large and vibrant movements against xenophobia and racism.

In India, the anti-Muslim bigots have been met by huge anti-communalist demonstrations by people of many religions. In Greece, the dreadful mistreatment of refugees trying to enter the country prompted a mass protest in Athens demanding that those seeking asylum be given sanctuary in Europe. On the Greek island of Lesvos, a group of five German and Austrian neo-Nazis who had come to stir up anti-refugee racism were seen off by local people.

As Ahmed says: “From the great demonstration in Athens last week to the huge, recent mobilisation against the far right in Munich, we know that, united, we can stop the racists and the fascists.”