Kate from Haringey Stand Up To Racism on the group’s recent mobilisations to end discrimination

On Saturday, 16th March, Haringey Stand Up To Racism (HSUTR) joined local trade unionists and other anti-racist protesters on a march in central London.

Up to 5,000 marchers from across the country called for unity in the face of the growth of fascist and far-right parties in Europe. Following a rally outside the Home Office, the march ended in Whitehall with a ‘House Against Hate’ event promoted by Black Artist Database and R3 Soundsystem, including DJ Gideon, MC Bimini, and more.

In this election year, we believe it is vital we continue to build the kind of network that isolated and defeated the National Front and the British National Party.

One of our members, Catherine West, MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, said: “Haringey has a long and proud history [of] welcoming refugees from across the world and standing united against the far right. At the Battle of Wood Green, it was the people of Haringey – anti-racists, trade unionists, activists, [and] the Labour movement – which came together to beat back the National Front, and say division and hatred are not welcome here.

“That spirit is as needed now as it was back in 1977, as worryingly this year’s United Nations (UN) Anti-Racism Day takes place in a climate of rising racism, Islamophobia and antisemitism both here in the UK and across the world. In such a climate, the responsibility of those who seek to govern must be to unify, but instead we have a Conservative government trying to push through their cruel Rwanda Bill to demonise vulnerable refugees, and the sorry spectacle of a former Tory prime minister peddling dangerous conspiracy theories in the US.

“I am proud that our diverse community’s generosity, solidarity, and kindness stands in sharp contrast to the Tory politics of division. There must be no place for hatred in our borough and I stand today and every day in solidarity with all those campaigning for unity and for a world without racism.”

In the run-up to the March protest, we launched the following statement in order to build a network against racism and we
encourage those who agree to get in touch:

“With the scale of Rishi Sunak’s government’s racist offensive, attacks on refugee and migrant rights, and the growth of the
far-right, 2024’s Trades Union Congress (TUC) and Stand Up To Racism ‘#StopRacism StopTheHate’ demonstrations for UN Anti-Racism Day are of vital importance.

“A mass campaign by a broad coalition of forces drawing in anti-racists everywhere, and involving trade unions, campaigns, organisations, activists, politicians, and cultural figures, on the streets, in workplaces, campuses, schools, and communities, is going to be critical in the fight to ensure that the politics of racism, division, and hate are not allowed to gain a foothold here in Britain and to stop the rise of the new far-right.

“In a year where Trump and the far right are poised to make electoral gains internationally, and in the wake of worrying developments in Italy, France, the Netherlands, Ireland, Argentina, Finland, and Sweden, racism is going to be at the centre of many mainstream parties’ attempts to hold onto or gain power in the year to come, creating a toxic atmosphere of hate and division for the far-right and fascists to seize upon. We must say loud and clear on the streets, all over the world stop the hate and unity not division, and we must actively fight for a world against racism.”

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