THE far right in Britain is growing and society faces a very dangerous situation. 

In July, the general election delivered a far-right party, Reform UK, into Parliament for the first time. Nigel Farage claims the party has 85,000 members and is establishing local branches. 

In August, racist riots exploded onto our streets, with people from ethnic minorities pulled from their cars and assaulted on their way to work. Rioters ransacked libraries and community centres — we only narrowly avoided deaths in attacks on asylum hotels and mosques.

And now we are seeing a Tory leadership election that has been a race to the bottom on racism and Islamophobia — and the final two of Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick drag it down even lower. 

Meanwhile Labour’s popularity is falling and, unless there is real change, the prospect of further austerity will create even deeper pools of bitterness.

If you inject a far-right street movement into this situation — which is exactly what fascist Tommy Robinson is attempting to do on October 26 — then we have a situation which could accelerate quickly. 

Robinson has an explicitly fascist past in the English Defence League and British National Party. In recent months, he has pushed hard Islamophobia, egging on the riots from his sun bed in Ayia Napa and has used anti-Muslim hatred to attack the Palestine movement. 

As former union general secretaries, we believe that the trade union movement must play a central role in countering the far right. This includes fighting austerity, countering racism in the workplace and making positive arguments about migration.  

We were proud of the work our unions, PCS and NEU, did on those issues while we were in office. PCS took a brave stand to help derail the Rwanda plan. NEU built huge support for its anti-racist curriculum in our schools. Both unions were in the forefront of the fight against austerity.

But we are also proud of what our unions are doing now — continuing those efforts and leading in mobilising against the far right on our streets. 

The turnout on the Stand Up to Racism protest on October 26 really matters. It matters that we show there is a majority in our country against the return of hatred. 

But this isn’t just about one date. It is about building a mobilisation of social weight that reaches every working-class community. 

The far right want to feed off the social bitterness in society, created by years of cuts, austerity and attacks on living standards. And they are emboldened by the way the mainstream political parties have pushed forward these attacks on living standards, only to blame migrants, Muslims and refugees for the problems of society. 

The working class in Britain today is — and has always been — made up of workers from around the world. During Mark’s four critical health interventions, the people who saved his life came from all over the world. And a big majority of working people know and experience the same.

But history shows that racists try every trick in the book to divide us. 

In the 1880s they demonised Irish immigrants. In the 1930s Oswald Mosley and his Blackshirts attacked Jewish people. And in the 1960s and 1970s, they targeted black and Asian workers, saying they were the enemy. Today they target our Muslim brothers and sisters. 

But history also shows that, every time they tried to divide us, our class fought back. In the 1930s, it was trade unionists who led the way at Cable Street, breaking Mosley and his Nazi mates.

In the 1970s, trade unionists were central to the Anti-Nazi League (ANL), a mass movement that stopped the rise of the National Front. The National Union of Mineworkers, under the then leadership of Arthur Scargill, organised for every member to go into work with an ANL sticker on their helmet. 

We believe that today we face a bigger challenge than during the 1970s. The rise of Alternativ fur Deutschland in Germany, of Marine Le Pen in France, Meloni in Italy, Herbert Kickl in Austria mean the fascists internationally are at their strongest since the 1930s.

But the response to the far-right riots in August — where working-class communities from Walthamstow to Wakefield, from Hull to Plymouth, came out in their thousands to stop far-right hate — shows we can beat them again.

That’s why we are working with Stand Up to Racism, so we can help build the biggest possible mobilisation on October 26. It’s why we urge all of you to join the Stand Up to Racism Trade Union Network and ask your branch to affiliate.

The broad union support for this demonstration means every trade unionist reading this article should be aiming to bring a delegation on the day. 

As trade unionists, we know how important unity is in the workplace. We need that spirit in our communities as well. And we need it on the streets on October 26 too.

Mark Serwotka is former general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union and Kevin Courtney is former general secretary of the National Education Union.

To join the Stand Up to Racism Trade Union Network go to https://tinyurl.com/SUTRTUNetwork.