AS many of us watched in horror last Monday as England football players faced racist chants and nazi salutes, it provided a chilling microcosm of what has taken place across Europe and the US — the growth of an emboldened and ever more vicious far right alongside an epidemic of hate crime. 

Just as in Britain, where the “Democratic” Football Lads Alliance marches were followed by attacks on places of worship, the evidence in Vasil Levski Stadium of an organised group of fascists intent on spreading hatred was all too clear.

The horrific attacks in Christchurch, Pittsburgh and, most recently, at a synagogue and a Turkish shop in Germany on Yom Kippur, are just a few examples of anti-semitic and Islamophobic far-right terrorist attacks that have now become regular. 

When figures were first released of a massive rise in hate crime in the second half 2016, many described it as a “spike.” 

Three years later, hate crimes have continued to increase dramatically, with an 11 per cent rise last year. 

Over 100,000 cases were recorded, with over three-quarters directed at people because of their ethnicity or religion.

It is an outrage that attacks such as Christchurch and Pittsburgh and the rise in hate crime have not made the national news agenda that they warrant, and there has been no major call by news organisations and world leaders to address this dangerous scourge. 

But the painful truth is that many of these leaders and outlets are fanning the flames of hatred themselves.

Just as US neonazis and the far right welcomed the election of the country’s hatemonger in chief, the fascist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (Tommy Robinson) has called on his supporters to “Back Boris.” 

He has responded to Johnson’s attempted prorogation by tweeting: “The very same Labour traitors crying that democracy is being stolen are preventing a general election because they know that the people will vote Boris. #BackBoris,” language echoed by Johnson’s frequent use of the word “surrender.”

Johnson’s outrageous “bank robbers” and “letterbox” comments about women who choose to wear the niqab were followed by a 375 per cent increase in Islamophobic attacks in the following week.  

As a general election approaches and Johnson competes for votes with Nigel Farage, we can expect this rhetoric to worsen. 

Financial Times reporter Philip Stephens recently wrote: “During the 1960s, America’s right-wing Republicans embarked on what was called the ‘southern strategy’ — a populist pitch to white working-class voters who were disenchanted with the civil rights liberalism of the Democratic Party. 

“Johnson has a ‘northern strategy.’ By casting Brexit as a fight against foreigners and immigration, he hopes to win an election by winning over anti-European white working-class voters in traditionally Labour areas. We are promised a campaign that might make even Trump blush.”

And it is not only in his rhetoric that Johnson is pandering to the far right. The Queen’s Speech included measures aimed at curbing immigration. 

The “hostile environment” developed by Theresa May as home secretary and PM is set to be ramped up to obscene proportions.

Now more than ever, we need to rise to the task of defeating the global rise of racism and racist politicians. Recent events and history tell us we must do two things.

First, as we head to a possible election, a genuine anti-austerity alternative to the Tories is vital. Anti-racism must be at the heart of the campaign and there must be no concessions to any form of racism or anti-migrant scapegoating. 

It is a fantastic example of how far Labour has come in recent years that Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott so often repeat the truth that it is not migrants who bring down wages and conditions but unscrupulous employers.

Second, we must build the maximum possible unity against racism and the far right, whatever our differences on other issues. 

At times of political crisis, there is never a shortage of issues to divide us. 

The job of all determined anti-fascists is to point to our shared goal of challenging and defeating racism and fascism, and unite people on that basis. 

If a mosque is attacked, one of the first groups to show solidarity is nearly always the local synagogue. 

Following the Islamophobic terrorist attack in New Zealand, the Tree of Life synagogue raised over $60,000 in aid of Christchurch. 

At Stand Up To Racism, we see our job as replicating that level of solidarity at a national and international level across all communities with the labour movement at the centre of it. 

We believe this strategy isn’t just desirable, it is the only way we will be able to overcome the monumental task that faces us. Without hard-won unity, we are destined to fail.

Our conference in London today brings that unity together. Along with Labour movement figures Diane Abbott, Richard Burgon, Mark Serwotka and Kevin Courtney and journalists including Gary Younge and Morning Star editor Ben Chacko, representatives of faith and community groups, justice campaigns and anti-fascist movements across the world will join hundreds of activists in discussing the way forward to defeat Johnson, Trump and the racist right. It could not come at a more important time.

Sabby Dhalu is Stand up to Racism co-convener. The Stand Up To Racism international conference takes place today, Saturday September 13 from 9.30am-4pm at Friends Meeting House, 173 Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ.