On the 15th of November Bristol Patriots once again attempted to intimidate racialised people in our city. The Mercure Bristol Holland House Hotel was chosen as their outlet for hate. Numbering 46 they were met by roughly 500 counter protesters and protected by about 200 police. Black bloc tactics were out in strength, with approximately 100 comrades on the frontlines.

The counter demo was called for 11:30 well in advance of the Fascist mobilisation at 13:00. This allowed us to take the space immediately outside the hotel. The Fash were cordoned into a fenced off area, to the left of the hotel, in front of the Colosseum, surrounded by state thugs. Throughout the day there were repeated efforts by the radical bloc of the counter demo to apply pressure on the Fash, but as has been increasingly seen in demonstrations after last year’s summer of violence, we came into contact with the police rather than Fascists.

Following the disorganisation and resulting street battles between Fash and Anti-Fash we saw last summer, the police have made an effort to restore order and a sense of normalcy by ensuring greater separation between camps. In actuality this means a facilitation of Fascist demos and a normalisation of their exterminatory ideology.

Once the Fash got bored of their pathetic picket, groups of them filtered away. A contingent of the black bloc left the demo site to ensure wider community safety. However, they were kettled on Commercial Road, experiencing high levels of police brutality resulting in arrests and hospitalisations due to head injuries caused by batons. Witnesses even saw an instance of friendly fire with a cop inadvertently hitting another on the head with a baton, accounting for the supposed “police injuries”.

Using Section 60AA and Section 35, they were then individually issued dispersal orders, while Fash streamers skulked behind the police unopposed. This represents the development of a legal and extrajudicial surveillance system, with masks increasingly being criminalised at protests enabling the doxing of Antifascists by Fash streamers.

As Late stage Capitalism falters in the face of Climate Catastrophe, increasing class consciousness and global instability, Fascism seems to be replacing Neo-Liberalism globally. In the British context this can be seen in Labour’s hard pivot to the right. As the fragility of the Capitalist world order becomes more apparent, the powers that be will always sooner cede to Fascism, rather than the true alternative of Anti-Capitalism. We have entered a new normal that has truly become emphasised by last summer’s race riots and the unabated anti-immigration demonstrations that have persisted ever since.

Nonetheless, the city of Bristol and our fellow comrades from across the South West were organised, disciplined and militant. Never shall we let barbarism go unopposed on our streets, whether it be from wanna be Brown Shirts or the authorities. Yet, Fascism doesn’t solely operate on a street level. Now more than ever we see the need for a truly representative and militant mass movement. The underwhelming non-launch of Your Party demonstrates how unprepared the left is for the coming fight. Such an initiative presents an opportunity for true radical change and a holistic Anti-Fascist approach from the street, to community centers, to Parliament.

You, the community of Bristol, stood tall in solidarity with the refugees who bring so much to our communities and showed love through the windows of the Hotel. Keep fighting the good fight.