The racist pogroms on the streets of Britain are the result of British support for genocide in Palestine and the construction of a “migrant threat”. White supremacist policy and rhetoric has produced extreme violence on the streets. The same threat is looming in the U.S.
In the past few days, groups of white supremacist fascists have been carrying out racist pogroms against Black and brown people across Britain. Two hotels housing asylum seekers have been attacked and torched. Mosques, businesses, cars and houses belonging to Black and brown people have been set on fire, destroyed and vandalized. People have been attacked by mobs in the streets, including an acid attack and stabbings.
This escalation of violence on the basis of racism and Islamophobia is horrifying. But it has not emerged in a vacuum. This fascism proudly terrorizing the streets of Britain is the product of decades of anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant policy and rhetoric perpetrated by the political and media class. Like in the United States, the mainstream British media have acted as a mouthpiece for Israel, which has only accelerated since October. The normalization of Islamophobic, dehumanizing language has incited violence against Muslims and anti-genocide protestors. Between October 2023 and February 2024, over 2,000 Islamophobic attacks were reported, mostly against Muslim women.
British politicians have normalized far-right racism. Last week, a Member of Parliament for Tamworth, Sarah Edwards, spoke out in Parliament that her constituents “want their hotel back”. She was referring to a Holiday Inn that had been used as temporary accommodation for asylum seekers. Instead of challenging why the government has not provided suitable housing for refugees, the MP emboldened a violent mob who went to the hotel, blocked the exits and set it on fire with families inside. Thankfully the fire did not spread throughout the building and the refugees have been evacuated.
Both Labour and Conservative parties made immigration the central issue of the recent general election to scapegoat a vulnerable group to distract from their empty programmes. Neither party proposed any change to the spiraling inequality and poverty facing neoliberal Britain, instead choosing to allow wealth to accumulate in fewer and fewer hands. The Labour Party leader disparagingly called the former Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party, Rishi Sunak, “the most liberal Prime Minister we’ve ever had on immigration”. While the Conservatives ran a vile election advert threatening that Labour would roll out a red carpet to let refugees arrive in Britain on small boats. This vicious, deadly politics has paved the way for a new far-right political party, mobilizing on a policy to “stop the boats”, to gain five seats in Parliament. When both major parties compete to be harsher and more dehumanizing of refugees, they are made out to be the enemy and source of all problems.
When “stop the boats” and being “tough” on immigration is the mainstream policy, fascism is the outcome. When words like “invasion”, “illegal” and “scrounger” are commonly used around immigration, attacks brew. When there is no challenge to the dehumanization of refugees, it becomes the norm. This violence is decades of vile, racist incitement coming home to roost.
Days after the fascist riots broke out, the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, released a statement calling them “far-right thuggery” but failing to mention Islamophobia. In a later statement, he said it was violence from a “mindless minority”. Only a few weeks ago, the Home Secretary called for “fast track” immigration raids and Starmer said not enough people were being deported to Bangladesh. Hardly ‘mindless’, this violence has been mandated by this government’s policy itself.
The British press has labelled these lynch mobs “pro-British marches”, called communities mobilising in self-defence “mobs attacking white men”, and called racist lynch mobs “anti-immigration protests”. Not content with having inflamed this violence, the media and politicians are continuing to fan the flames. After the media has spent almost ten months demonizing marches for Palestine and Islamophobia reporting on the electoral success of pro-Palestine candidates, they are making a clear choice in how they are reporting on these riots.
We’ve been here before. The same white supremacist chants were being shouted by fascists attacking and terrorizing communities across Britain. We know where this leads. Altab Ali, Gurdip Singh Chaggar, Parveen Kaur and her three children were all murdered by white supremacist fascists in the 1970s. In response, communities organized in self-defense because they knew it was the only form of protection. Black and brown communities are up against white supremacists on the streets, and white supremacists in police uniform.
This violent fascism is lurking in the United States too. In the first half of 2024, anti-Muslim hate crimes have increased by 69%; six-year-old Wayed Al-Fayoume was killed because he was Palestinian; and pro-Israel fascists continue to attack anti-genocide protestors.
When you have an election debate where a candidate can call the other a “bad Palestinian” and politicians freely call for genocide without consequence, Islamophobic violence is the mainstream.
With the upcoming election, both parties will continue to push more extreme immigration policies. Already, this rhetoric has made it a top issue for voters. As the U.S. government deploys military to escalate violence in West Asia and dehumanizes Muslims and brown people there, the violence will only increase at home.
Right now in Britain, we are getting organized. For the past few days, communities have been coming together to stop fascists from attacking their areas. In the coming days, more attacks on immigration centers, housing for asylum seekers, and city centers are planned. But so too are the anti-fascist mobilisations.
The message from Britain to Americans is clear: get organized.
Nuvpreet Kalra is CODEPINK’s Digital Content Producer.
Nuvpreet completed a Bachelor’s in Politics & Sociology at the University of Cambridge, and an MA in Internet Equalities at the University of the Arts London. As a student, she was part of movements to divest and decolonize, as well as anti-racist and anti-imperialist groups. Nuvpreet joined CODEPINK as an intern in 2023, and now produces digital and social media content. In England, she organizes with groups for Palestinian liberation, abolition and anti-imperialism.