Opposing Patriotic Alternative at the Tate Britain gallery (Picture: Guy Smallman)
Anti-fascists held a counter-protest against Patriotic Alternative outside the Tate Britain in central London on Saturday. The fascist party, which mobilised against a Drag Queen Story Hour event at the gallery, mustered some 12 supporters.
Around 150 anti-fascists were on the counter-protest in response to calls by Stand Up To Racism (SUTR) and Trans Activism UK.
They chased the Patriotic Alternative supporters away, up the main road towards Westminster. They chanted, “Nazi scum, off our streets,” and, “There are many, many more of us than you.”
Another group of far right dregs—some six—had gone into the gallery in an attempt to find the Drag Queen Story Hour reading. They wandered around, and then came back out to be met by chants of “Nazi scum off our streets.”
This group joined another couple of far right supporters outside—and were seen off by chanting.
Weyman Bennett, SUTR national co-convenor, said, “We need unity against the fascists—and those politicians and pundits who give them confidence by fanning the flames of bigotry.”
Drag Queen Story Hour events are story-telling sessions for parents and children, aimed at 3-11-year-olds, with no sexual content.
Counter-protesters kept up chanting as another crowd of some 30 people, including Piers Corbyn and Christian groups arrived to oppose the Drag Queen Story Hour.
It’s important that Patriotic Alternative supporters were seen off with their tails between their legs at the Drag Queen Story Hour event. But the fascist group hopes to grow mainly through mobilising opposition to refugees being housed in hotels.
The far right is being fuelled by the Tory government’s racist scapegoating and the support from some Conservative MPs for those who carry out violent raids on refugee accommodation. The left and anti-racists must mobilise against the fascists and racist scapegoating.
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