Hull: Countering the Far Right

The following is an account from one of the tens of thousands of anti-fascists who mobilised across the UK to stand against the reckless hate and violence of fascists, paper patriots and the wider far-right. These demonstrations were called by a decentralised network of groups and individuals using the deaths of three young girls in Southport earlier in the week as a call to arms, excused by the malinformation that the attacker was a muslim asylum seeker.

Promo for the counter-demo only began – as far as I’m aware – on Friday. A friend (member of the Hull Communist Group) messaged me that the fascist rally was happening. We had a look at the promo from the fascists: a facebook event called “Enough is Enough”, shared to a group called the “Hull Patriotic Protestors”, and seemingly mostly led by someone called John Francis. It said their rally began at 12:00, so we decided on 11:30. He kept me updated as he made a quick poster and sent it to the SWP and Co-operation Hull. I shared it with friends, with a Queer group and to a friend who’s part of the Hull anti-raids group.

I arrived at Queen Vic Square a little before 11:30, with three comrades alongside. One of us recognised members of the Stand Up to Racism / SWP group, so we joined up with them. When we go the the square there were already between 50-100 of the fascists rallied, with flags and speakers making speeches on the platform. There were no police. Since there were less than 10 of us at this moment, we didn’t want to draw attention to ourselves. More people started joining us: individuals who had come alone, Co-operation Hull’s group, a small group my friend spotted with a “Hope not Hate” placard in the crowd. The University’s RCP group also arrived. I think we ended up with 60-70 people in total.

While we were gathering, due to their numbers growing into the hundreds and the police being absent, we kept a lower profile, holding up our banners and placards but not beginning chants or songs yet. We took position on the benches at the edge of the square. At 12:00, the police van turned up and they ran out, forming a ring around the fascists. None of them had any riot gear. The SWP began setting up the speakers they’d brought and we began our chants. This grabbed the Far Right’s attention. A sea of faces turned towards us as we shouted “Refugees are welcome here”.

The first egg hit my friend in the eye. He spoke to a police liaison officer to make sure they were aware. No reaction from them. More and more eggs started being thrown – clearly some of fascists had come prepared to throw food at people. I got showered with a sack of flour. There was a point where they seemed to run out of eggs and that’s when random food (oranges, chips) started being tossed at us, along with cans of beer and plastic bottles.

Individuals from the Far Right also kept getting through the police line to get into our group, to shove or threaten us. The police would tow each one away and deposit them back at the rally to the cheers of their mates. At one point, one of them appeared behind my friend, put his hand in their hair and said “You want to take a walk with me?”. This man was later seen assaulting an elderly man when the riot started and is a known local thug.

Timings were a complete blur at the time, but around 12:30-12:40, a group of them trickled out from the police line and gathered round to the right hand side of us. I ran over to hold our line. This was how the riot began. In moments, many of them were pouring over to that side, clustering behind us where Paragon Street meets Vic square. Police were rushing to meet them. The rioters aggression began to focus on the cops. There was a moment of chaos and then police were shoving and grabbing my friend and me, shouting “Walk”. We did, but our comrades had vanished and the two of us were suddenly in the riot, surrounded by the people we’d been facing off moments before. They were running down Jameson Street, where a new police line seemed to have formed ahead of us. We tried heading down there, but there was clearly no way of crossing the clashing rioters and cops. To either side of us, shopkeepers were locking their doors. I was wearing an ancom flag and held a placard saying “The murderer was not a refugee” as well as both of us having been very visible on the demo, so we didn’t completely avoid their attention. I remember a young woman screaming at me that the murder was a migrant. I shouted back that he was Welsh. An older man started asking me if I work. I answered yes, then he shouted something along the lines of “And you want your taxes to pay for the invaders”. I answered “Yes” and shouted that they’re “selfish c*nts”. Another guy said he wasn’t selfish, that he was fighting for his grandkids. Who was I helping? I shouted back that I’d help anyone, everyone I could.

My friend said they could smell smoke. I sniffed. It smelt of chemicals, closer to smoke from fireworks than of wood fires. A man, on his way to rushing up to the police line, saw us and ran up. He said he’d seen one of our guys hit and his glasses had been knocked off. “I have them. Can you get them to him?” I said yes and he pressed the glasses into my hand. I thanked him and he ran down the street to riot.

A woman ran up to us. I thought I recognised her from last year, participating in a demo led by Alec Yerbury, a split from Patriotic Alternative. She said we had to get out of here, that we weren’t safe, why were we among them. She said to come with her to the police. We ran back down Jameson Street, to the edge of the square where we’d been stood. “Protect them” she shouted at the cops. The cop responded with an abrupt “No” and that they couldn’t “waste resources”.

We ended up circling back around along roads that seemed to have quietened, to further up Jameson Street, where our comrades were waiting for us. Everyone was safe. The police had shoved them, shouted at them to run, saying “They will kill you!” so all of the counter-protestors except the two of us had run up Jameson Street ahead of the rioters.

We briefly went down Jameson Street to see the riot going on. It wasn’t a structured line between police and rioters, but instead just a cluster of noise and action. There were a couple of funny conversations we had with the Right, where they started trying to debate us – “define what racism is” – then having a go that we couldn’t have a “reasonable discussion”, all in the middle of a riot with us splattered with eggs and flour that their compatriots had thrown at us.

Here our action ends. We retreated, established where everyone was and left in groups. An International Carnival was scheduled for today; it was meant to parade through the city centre but the police had rerouted it yesterday and then ordered for the parade to be cancelled completely today. We joined its starting point out of the city centre, where it was being held as a stationary event instead.

News and social media showed that the rioting continued all day and into the night. In the city centre, fires were being set, shops smashed and looted. There it looked possible that it had morphed into more generic looting and rioting, whereas there were a set of fascists who targeted a hotel housing refugees, then moved up Ferensway and then headed down Spring Bank, where many Muslims and people of colour live, including a mosque.

When we had walked past the mosque on our way out of the city centre, there were many local men standing ready to defend it, with three cops to the side. When two of us were circling back into the city centre to retrieve my friend’s bike, we glimpsed a crowd of around 30 rioters making their way up Ferensway, led by a man wearing a England flag shirt and a traffic cone on each arm.

Reflection:
The police response was surprising. I’m sure for Leftists in other cities, the aggression of the police towards us would be expected, but at previous Hull anti-fascist protests they’ve been far more reasonable and seemingly sympathetic towards us. Strange decisions were made – turning up long after the fascists had begun their rally, no preparation for a riot despite news from elsewhere in the country – and then I think their loss of control caused them to become more aggressive and emotional than I’ve seen previously. A riot is unprecedented in Hull and this must have affected the police response. Also, there was no one on our side who had established rapport (or were able to) with the police. In previous actions I’ve attended, the Trades Union Council have taken a lead in organising and – not being far left – they were able to communicate with the police more easily than us.

It was disappointing how outnumbered we were. I’m impressed at how many anti-fascists attended on less than 24 hours notice, but there were between 300-500 at the far right rally. This is many more than any far right demo I’ve seen in Hull. However, I think the organisers wanted to achieve an obviously Right-wing, but dignified protest. John Francis was pictured wearing a “Stop the Boats” shirt. The Queen Vic statue and platform were covered in British and England flags. I think they wanted a show of strength and controlled aggression, to embolden everyone else in the city who could agree with them. It’s true that violent right-wingers will be emboldened. I fear were going to see an increase in hate crimes. At a bar where one of my friends works, the next day someone called asking if the staff were of English ancestry.

But they ended up on drunken, deranged riots, causing a lot of damage to the city that won’t disappear quickly. I think most of the general population are afraid and horrified. I expect there are people who are socially right-wing and could be sympathetic to the “Stop the Boats”, “Muslim grooming gangs” talking points, but who would be horrified that local Muslim areas have actually been terrorised. Many people are going to be afraid. In the coming days and weeks, I’m planning to participate in clean-ups. (Re)building solidarity and community could be more important that the action of a counter-demo.

Editors Note. As mentioned in the piece, Hull would later see sprawling violence with "foreigners" being mobbed in their car and the Kurdish owners car lot next door being entirely trashed. As was a wide variety of small independant stores and chains such as Lush, Shoezone, O2 and Greggs.