IN RECENT days there have been a small number of appalling incidents which have led to mass rioting, widespread violence and attempted pogroms.

The incidents were horrific, including the death of Henry Nowak in Southampton and the vicious knife attack in Belfast. But the response has been quite sickening as politicians, commentators and international figures have encouraged crowds into a frenzy of violence.  

That violence is entirely racist in character and must be vigorously opposed.

There is no excuse for either the killing of Henry Nowak or the attack on Stephen Ogilvie in Belfast. But, as both the primary suspects are now in custody, anyone who cared about justice would be extremely careful about what they say, for fear of prejudicing the cases.

Instead, we have the spectacle of right-wing politicians trying to outdo each other in fomenting anger and violence, as if these were legitimate responses to awful crimes.

The crowds they have whipped up have attacked not only people they believe are the families of those in custody but have also targeted anyone from the same community as them and even anyone with the same skin colour.

This is against the express wishes of the victims’ families.

The attacks on the families of those in custody are visceral, an unthinking rage. The attacks on wider communities and black and Asian people in general are nakedly racist in character.

Yet this is what politicians and others have called for. Nigel Farage demanded “pure, cold rage” in Southampton, and that is what he got. This is bound up with the internecine warfare among the far-right parties, with Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain attracting support and, crucially, funding away from Reform UK.

Lowe himself posted on X the horrific picture of the original attack in Belfast under the caption, “Millions must go.” This is in support of his vile and false assertion that immigration is responsible for violent crime.

The evidence is that crimes of violence have been falling sharply for years in this country, as shown in mass population surveys, exactly when immigration has been rising sharply.

A string of far-right and outright fascist figures have been promoting their vile brand of politics in Southampton, “Tommy Robinson” among them, including being present in violence against the police.

In Belfast, violence has been directed by Loyalist paramilitaries.

Internationally, the billionaire reactionaries have not been quiet, with Elon Musk posting furiously about Britain for weeks now, peddling conspiracy theories, pompous intellectual garbage and support for the far right.

Musk posted that, “Only Restore Britain can save Britain. It is the only way.” He has also publicly backed the organised protests that have taken place, many of which have been little more than riots.

His interventions, along with comments from Vice-President JD Vance and tweets from the official US State Department account, fit in with the wider US strategy as outlined in in its National Security Strategy documents.

They contained the outlandish claim that immigration is a “civilisational threat” to European society. This is even though one of the main foundations of the modern United States is immigration, including immigration by Europeans fleeing religious persecution and poverty.

These incidents have dominated politics and the media. The BBC has effectively declared a national emergency with the relentlessness of its coverage. This has never been remotely a possibility after the recent murder of a Saudi national by a white British man, or the countless incidents where the perpetrator’s skin colour is not mentioned because they are white.

Unfortunately, not all our politicians have responded appropriately to this orgy of violence.

While Farage is now operating in Lowe’s slipstream, it seems that Kemi Badenoch is chasing Farage. She chose this moment to launch an attack on the conclusions of the Macpherson Report, and to call for an end even to the weak legal safeguards against discrimination in the public sector.

The context is that police forces like the Hampshire force, which is bizarrely accused of anti-white “two-tier policing,” actually conduct hugely discriminatory stop-and-search policies against black people at five times the rate of stops of white people.

Yet Badenoch specifically called for an increase in stop and search along with the overthrow of Macpherson. She must know about this degree of discrimination.

In effect, this is a call to remove the impediments to racism; a call for more racism. This is what happens when you are vying with Reform for its votes on its terms.

But on this occasion not all leading politicians have fallen into this trap.

I am very pleased to say that Keir Starmer has so far avoided it altogether. He has correctly condemned the rioters and Farage for siding with them. He correctly castigated Reform UK’s Richard Tice for whipping up fear and division in Belfast.

In this tumultuous and dangerous situation, the question is posed, what should the left do and what should the labour movement do?

Precisely because the risks are great, it is necessary to begin from first principles.

When there are organised racist attacks, the first duty is to protect those under attack. We also have a duty to call things by their right name. If people are being attacked because of their race, these are racist attacks. We also need the greatest possible unity based on these principles.

Anti-racist organisations have taken this approach. Both Together and Stand Up to Racism have issued strong, principled statements echoing the victims’ families and opposing the racists. Their supporters have mobilised against the racists on the ground.

It is also necessary to push back against the myths, particularly on the false link made between immigration and violent crime.

As noted, surveyed violent crime is the most reliable data and it has been falling in this country for years. This is exactly the time that rates of net immigration have been rising steadily. There is, if anything, an inverse correlation between migration and violent crime.

Of course, committed racists can prove impervious to facts. But the non-racist majority in this country is open to persuasion and mobilisation. We have seen that majority in both recent by-elections and in vast numbers on the streets. We should be open to unity in action with anyone who wants to oppose the racists.

Not everyone in the labour movement shares these views, as we know from the pages of this paper among others in recent weeks. But we can put these differences aside to speak out and take action against the campaign of racism.

Here, there is only one condition: that we must speak out and we must take action. Silence or inactivity are unacceptable against these horrific threats.

Diane Abbott is MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington and Mother of the House of Commons.