On Friday evening, members of Gloucestershire Solidarity Network (GSN), including from The Forest, Stroud and Gloucester, were again out opposing racism and fascism in our region. This time, they travelled to Bristol to show their support and solidarity at a counter protest to oppose the fascist group ‘Bristol Rises’.
After a far-right agitator had been being humiliated and chased off a Bristol University campus by students earlier in the week, Bristol Rises called a flash protest against ‘Antifa’, at College Green in Bristol on Friday night, which they claimed would be ‘huge’.
To promote the protest, early on Friday morning the group released a weird video of about 20 of them dressed all in black, complete with balaclavas, walking out of a large tunnel chanting ‘Bristol, Bristol, Bristol’ (many of them don’t actually even come from Bristol!). In the accompanying social media post, they claimed to now be part of Danny Tommo’s ‘Patriot Platform’ and encouraged their followers to join them at College Green. Presumably, the video was meant to be threatening, intimidating and powerful, but it kind of looked comical to be honest.
And the reality of their ‘huge’ protest on Friday night must have been a bit of a let-down for them all, because things didn’t quite go to plan.
Despite their best efforts, only about 40 of them actually turned up, and because the Police were enforcing a no face-coverings rule, they had to leave their beloved balaclavas at home. So, in the end, they just looked like they always do – like rather underwhelming, common-or-garden racists!
When they actually arrived at College Green, the small Bristol Rises group was met by a large number of Police and a huge crowd of around 250-300 determined anti-fascists and anti-racists. The counter protest made it absolutely clear that fascists were not welcome in Bristol. The pathetic chants of the racists were pointless and utterly drowned out by our side. It was great for members of GSN to be there to stand in solidarity with such a large crowd of people who were simply not prepared to let the racists come to their city unchallenged. It was also great to see so many young anti-fascists and anti-racists there.
After less than an hour, the fascists left College Green and had to be escorted away by the Police, with their tails between their legs, trailing their tatty flags. It must have been an incredibly embarrassing and demoralising night for them.
Bristol is antifascist.
But make no mistake, the fight against racism and fascism goes on. It is mildly amusing to mock these people when we outnumber them and humiliate them. But this is all very, serious. Racism and fascism are a huge threat to us, all across our country. The work of Gloucestershire Solidarity Network and countless other groups locally and nationally is vital. We must confront racism and fascism, whenever and wherever we see it.
Bristol Leftist Collective have made a “Bristol Uni Far Right Alerts” whatsapp group – see below for more details. If you haven’t already, join the Gloucestershire Solidarity Network whatsapp broadcast channel as well: tinyurl.com/GLprotestUpdates.
