IT’S worth recalling what happened in September last year when emphasising the requirement to build a movement that is capable of challenging the far right in all its manifestations and wherever it operates

The Unite the Kingdom rally last September, organised by far-right agitator and anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson, brought together 150,000, as estimated by the police — the largest far-right demonstration in this nation’s history on London’s streets.

For some reason the far right is fixated by London.

The march had hard-right Evangelical Christian undertones. Attendees shouted far-right slogans carrying Union Jacks, St George’s and Israeli flags.

Others held placards bearing the face of assassinated right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, and slogans such as “Keir Starmer loves rent boys,” “Stop the boats” and “Send them home.”

US tech billionaire Elon Musk, who joined via video link to called for the dissolution of Parliament, said: “You either fight back or you die.”

Speeches called for repatriation and peddled conspiracy theories. Speakers included fascists from Europe and the US. Many of those speaking question the Holocaust and say we are being displaced. They argue that women should get married and start families.

“Covid was a sign from God as we had strayed. The devastation of Cyclone Gabrielle on porn, gay rights and abortions,” referring to a cyclone that devastated New Zealand in February 2023.

Advance UK, which is to the right of Reform UK, was also present. This demonstration, which Robinson hopes to replicate on May 16, the same day as Nakba Day, was a massive wake-up call. But of course it didn’t come out of thin air.

During the summer there were significant protests in our towns and cities, not always outside hotels housing refugees. Racist rhetoric was prevalent in the mainstream media.

The dialogue in Parliament is now distinctly anti-migrant. The Conservative Party has further tacked to the right in saying that Islamic prayers in a public space are un-British and intimidating.

We will also need to continue to oppose the government’s unnecessary and frightening changes to the immigration system.

As demanded many years ago by the Communist Party and others, changes to the immigration system must be subject to parliamentary scrutiny. This government prefers to do it by a sleight of hand and uses anti-migrant rhetoric to facilitate it. 

In May 2025 Reform UK took a number of councils and gained Runcorn and Helsby in a by-election. While Reform’s opinion poll support has fallen away in recent weeks, it still hovers around 25 per cent, which, given the fragmentation of electoral preferences, might be enough to put them into power. Local polling suggests that it will gain more councils in May.

The policies of the racist party still headline — “Stop the Boats,” “Secure and Defend Our Borders,” “Deport Illegal Migrants,” “Scrap Indefinite Leave to Remain,” “Restore Britain’s Sovereignty,” “Make Law-Abiding Citizens Feel Safe,” “Make Work Pay,” “Scrap Net Zero.”

These policies if introduced would see Ice-style repression, the undermining of our green manufacturing base, and departure from the European Convention on Human Rights.

Reform wants to reduce the national living wage and undermine workers’ rights. Rhetoric and reality are two different things but we cannot afford to be complacent.

We now have a significant far-right street movement which has a political voice in elected chambers.

The world is an extremely dangerous place. The bombing of Iran and Lebanon, continued occupation in Palestine and genocide brings us closer to a generalised war than in many years. Far-right nationalists are in power in many countries — encouraged by the US far right.

The Together Alliance (TA), only launched in early December, arose as a reaction to these events both internationality, nationally and locally. Originally conceived as an anti-racist alliance it has become much, much broader.

If we just look at the demonstration on March 28 and see the number of supporting organisations, it gives an idea of how wide the TA is.

Unions are at its core, some of which have not previously been involved and are now challenging the anti-worker agenda of the far right, anti-fascists, which includes housing activists, refugee and migrant groups, women’s organisations, non-governmental organisations, charities, climate activists, Fair Trade, the Wood Craft Folk, faith groups, students and more. CND, Stop the War and the Palestine Coalition are fully onboard.

The Together Alliance has real potential to bring millions of people into the campaigns for workers’ rights, for our environment and against climate change deniers, for women’s rights, for migrant rights, for peace. The question we must all ask is: is this possible?

The TA has agreed that it will continue after March 28. Members of the alliance, which includes this newspaper and the Communist Party of Britain, will continue to campaign on its priorities and Stand up to Racism will run a major campaign against Reform UK in the May elections.

TA will look to organise broad campaigns on voter registration. It aims to split the far right, challenge far-right narratives and build unity. It’s unity we must build during the forthcoming period.

We should be looking to our trade union councils in line with TUC policy to bring people together. Unions should open up their education events bringing potential members into their ranks. Community and workplace leaders can be brought into our struggles, linking where we live and where we work into common campaigns on housing, schools, water, racism etc.

The left must not be sectarian but will need to help build the united front as a key component of this broader popular movement.

Left parties and allies can expose the reasons why the far right pushes a racist, anti-women, anti-worker agenda. We have the arguments to expose the far right’s attack on young and old and, above all, those who are part of the migrant community.

There are both humanitarian and economic cases for an asylum system that is fair. We can expose the imperialism that underpins the world’s problems and the drive towards war and war economies.

We cannot do this in our small meetings but by engaging people who will be brought into campaigning by the Together Alliance.

Together we can win.

Tony Conway is the anti-racist, anti-fascist lead for the Communist Party of Britain. He is a member of the Together Alliance steering group, convener of West Cornwall against Racism and a member of the PCS union.