We’re writing this piece after a series of large left wing demonstrations in which several marches had far right counter protests ranging wildly in numbers. It’s safe to say each left wing demonstration had between 100,000 and 1 million people marching on them. The largest fascist counter had 1,000 people, from this; the largest group from the far right who actually made it to the left wing demonstration was 30-40.
On every occasion where the fascists turned up there were large numbers from the crowd who were happy to physically challenge and drive out the fascists, mostly the confrontations occurred well away from the police where physical confrontation could take place with a low chance of arrests on the day. For many of these situations, antifascists were present to help support the crowd in removing the fascists and in almost all these situations stewards from the organisers of the left wing march were present.
We want to explore a little bit how these confrontations play out, how stewards and organisers often interact with these situations and what we think is the best strategy of engagement when fascists turn up to large left wing demonstrations.
Why do fascists turn up to a large left wing demonstration?
The reasons can vary widely depending on which fascists turn up on the day, but ultimately there is a common theme in all their reasoning mainly that is, the fascists aim to attack or disrupt the movement in some way. The simplest method for this is to physically attack the demonstrators, almost universally when fascists turn up to a left wing demonstration, there will be some physical clashes, the aim here is to intimidate protestors into not showing up to the next demonstration, if fascists are organised well, this means attacking the demonstration in a small crew, doing as much damage to individuals as possible then leaving. This doesn’t necessarily mean just an attack at the demonstration itself, but before and after, demonstrators may be attacked in the street or on transport to and from the demonstration.
Another method for attacking the left movement that is increasingly popular is to provoke demonstrators into doing or shouting things that can be carefully edited into a video that will suggest that right wing fears about the demonstrators are true, this is why no one, no matter how articulate or carefully spoken should engage in debate or argument with a right wing interviewer or streamer, they won’t operate in good faith and will find a way to damage the reputation of the demonstration regardless of what is said or done.
Another method is to tactically disrupt the demonstration, this can be achieved by blocking the march route or taking a key position that may change the course of the demonstration, for example if a demonstration is aimed at one building and fascists take the area in front of that building first, the impact of the demonstration may be lost. Key areas can be scouted relatively easily, including large junctions and bridges especially.
Often (but not universally) the fascists are dependent on police protection when they carry out these operations, the fear of tens of thousands of leftists trampling them often scares them into hiding directly behind police lines, often police intentionally facilitate the disruption out of solidarity between causes.
Police behaviour and thinking needs to then be taken into account when dealing with fascists at left wing demonstrations, often police are primarily aiming to keep “public order” and prevent dangerous scenes that may show they are not competent at keeping the peace. This is important to note as police can be manipulated effectively if their goals are taken into account. Police may not care that fascists block a left wing march route, if anything it may entertain them so they may form a line in front of fascists and join the blockade, however, if police believe that fascists blocking a route are in imminent danger as the march approaches, they may be forced to abandon the barricades and instead move the fascists along out of the way of the demonstration. This is not relying on the police, but learning how they respond to situations and dealing with them accordingly.
The most important element here is violence. Fascists are violent inherently, their goals are violent, their methods are violent and their brains are filled with violence, if they turn up intending to cause harm to the demonstration and for whatever reason walk away without being discouraged, they will find someone to take their violence out on.
These scenarios are fictional and are based on accounts of demonstrations that we have heard about from others. We do not encourage anyone to take part in violent and illegal acts and only encourage people to act in self defence in the truest sense.
Scenario A
There is a large demonstration in a city centre of 100,000 people or more, it is a broad multi-racial march that is largely made up of people aiming to march and hold a sign or placard for a few hours and go home, police are very spread out along the public route. Halfway through the march, on a stretch of march with no police officers, 20 fascists turn up holding banners and flags while shouting racial abuse at demonstrators, quickly a number of people gather around the fascists and begin shouting back, this crowd grows to 30 or 40 people and is growing fast as well as gaining aggression, many protestors looking to confront the fascists have consciously prepared for the situation and are now wearing masks and some wear gloves. Seeing this, two stewards of the march stand between the fascists and the angry protestors and attempts to de-escalate the situation, as well as this they send a third steward to alert the police. After 3-4 minutes, the fascists are still shouting and remain in the same numbers, while the protestors have largely rejoined the demonstration on the advice of the stewards, a new set of protestors on discovering the fascists start to build to 10-15 people who are shouting at the fascists, angry at the racist abuse they receive, a protestor throws a water bottle at the fascists and in response the fascists launch into the crowd, several protestors are injured with some serious head wounds, a steward is knocked down in the rush. Seeing fascists attacking peaceful protestors, many more protestors who were not initially planning on taking any risks on the demonstration are now fighting with the fascists in a large melee. As this is winding down as fascists move away, police officers turn up with a steward, 2 fascists are arrested and 6 protestors are arrested too.
After the incident, an edited clip of the confrontation that mutes the fascists’ racial slurs and only shows individuals from the protest engaging in violence, many of these people have no masks on and are later identified by police and arrested, several who did not plan on taking risks on account of previous legal issues or not having legal documents are arrested and charged extremely aggressively.
Scenario B
There is a large demonstration in a city centre of 100,000 people or more, it is a broad multi-racial march that is largely made up of people aiming to march and hold a sign or placard for a few hours and go home, police are very spread out along the public route. Halfway through the march, on a stretch of march with no police officers, 20 fascists turn up holding banners and flags while shouting racial abuse at demonstrators, quickly a number of people gather around the fascists and begin shouting back, this crowd grows to 30 or 40 people and is growing fast as well as gaining aggression, many protestors looking to confront the fascists have consciously prepared for the situation and are now wearing masks and some wear gloves. Seeing this, some stewards stay in the area and face the fascists in case they become violent, some stewards from the demonstration begin telling protestors that there are 20 fascists on the side of the demonstration, many protestors choose to now avoid the area where the fascists have gathered due to the fact they cannot risk physical or legal repercussions other protestors hear this information and go towards the fascists and cover themselves to a greater degree with masks and hats with the intention of confronting the fascists. After a minute the crowd aggressively facing the fascists now numbers approximately 100, with many of the protestors informed of the risks and looking to confront the fascists. A protestor, responding to racist abuse from the fascists, throws a water bottle at the fascists and one fascist, somewhat concerned for his safety, lunges forward to hit a protestor, in response, the crowd of 100 confrontational demonstrators rush forwards and physically run the fascists out of the protest area, 5 fascists run fast away from the demonstration while 15 are injured somewhat seriously, several remain on the ground injured. Protestors cheer the racists running away and run back to join the main demonstration. Police arrive after hearing shouts and jeers and pick up several fascists to treat their wounds and question them, several fascists are arrested for breach of the peace due to their appearance at the larger demonstration.
After the incident, Police use some shaky footage from a fascist cameraman to try and identify protestors but most are wearing masks and hats and cannot be easily tracked. A video of the fascists being run out of the area goes viral and the fascist group that launched the disruption attempt splits in the aftermath after many blame each other for their loss of pride and humiliation.
Scenario C
There is a large demonstration in a city centre of 100,000 people or more, it is a broad multi-racial march that is largely made up of people aiming to march and hold a sign or placard for a few hours and go home, police are very spread out along the public route. Halfway through the march, on a stretch of march with no police officers, 20 fascists turn up holding banners and flags while shouting racial abuse at demonstrators, quickly a number of people gather around the fascists and begin shouting back, this crowd grows to 30 or 40 people and is growing fast as well as gaining aggression, many protestors looking to confront the fascists have consciously prepared for the situation and are now wearing masks and some wear gloves. Several stewards notice the situation and call for more stewards to come over, as a group, stewards form a loose line facing the demonstration with their backs to the fascists and tell protestors to move on and not pay any attention to the fascists. After several minutes, the confrontational protestors return to the main demonstration and although more confrontational protestors replace them, they too get de-escalated by the stewards. The fascists, not willing to punch the backs of stewards’ heads, shout and jeer at the demonstration for 45 minutes while holding right wing banners and flags, far right cameramen film the demonstration and upload the whole video, showing thousands of faces on the demonstration on far right platforms. Several people shout and engage in tit-for-tat abuse with the fascists and some have their faces filmed and pictured which will later be used as an example of the aggression of the demonstration and the bravery of the fascists despite the lack of real violence. Several protestors engage with the fascists and give them minutes of footage that fascists edit to make it appear protestors are uneducated about their cause and are bloodthirsty maniacs.
After the demonstration, a number of the fascists who had travelled in from outside the city specifically for violence go to the train station where a large number of protestors are leaving the area from. Several left wing protestors are beaten and multiple fights occur between fascists and a combination of protestors and uninvolved passersby, the fascists steal people’s signs and harass a number of protestors who, having left the demonstration are now in small groups and are outnumbered by the fascists. After the fights several protestors and several fascists are arrested.
These scenarios are not made up out of thin air to prove a point but are all based on real events that have taken place in modern protests. What’s important to note is that the stewards on the demonstration hold a large amount of power to dictate how events will play out, ultimately they are the closest thing to an authority on a large demonstration and many people will instinctively listen to someone in a hi-vis jacket.
In our heads, Scenario B is the most favourable option; the protestors deny fascists all of their goals:
Fascists are unable to physically intimidate protestors because the demonstration chose to take on the fascists using superior numbers which destroys any advantage of strength individual fascists have, protestors will be even more confident going to demonstrations in the future, not less. Fascists lost confidence and due to their injuries choose not to attack more protestors for their lack of ability and fear of further humiliation. As well, in many ways they have got their action from the day in the form of a resounding loss, they can now get the train home miserable as opposed to looking for more action.
Fascists are unable to collect significant footage of the incident and the demonstration, not only is the incident dealt with quickly instead of being drawn out over a long period of time where fascists can collect footage, but also through the means of being run out, fascists are likely to either lose footage or refuse to share it because of the humiliation of their egos in the incident.
Fascists were unable to disrupt the demonstration in a meaningful way because the incident was dealt with quickly and protestors remained with the demonstration as opposed to being dragged into a lengthy back and forth confrontation with stewards, police and fascists.
Effectively, the faster, stronger and wider the response, the better outcome protestors have on the day and afterwards. Attempts by stewards to act as the “peace police” to stop protestors confronting fascists do not prevent confrontation or violence, once fascists are in the area, violence is almost inevitable, blocking attempts to confront the fascists only prolongs the violence and provides more opportunity for fascists to achieve their goals.
Streamers
A regular and relatively modern approach from the far right is to turn up at a left wing demonstration with a camera or phone on a selfie stick to film, harass and provoke protestors. Often when asked to leave these streamers will reference their rights as an “independent journalist” and insist on staying, they may even become violent if pushed further to leave.
There are many ways to deal with streamers, but the main consistent theme is: stop them filming the protest. Anything that fails to stop the streamer filming protestors is partially a failure, as even if successfully confronted, if the streamer holds footage of the incident this may be used to identify and prosecute protestors.
The ideal response is to remove the camera or phone from the streamer’s possession and dispose of it, this can be very difficult and often the streamer may attack anyone attempting to do so, if police are nearby this also carries a high chance of arrest!
A less risky method of dealing with streamers is to place physical barriers between them and the demonstration, using umbrellas, signs, placards or flags to hold to block the camera, stewards can usher the streamer away from the demonstration and use body language to place themselves between protestors and the streamer themselves. This may provoke a strong response from the streamer, but with police around it’s possible the streamer will get themselves arrested if stewards manoeuvre correctly.
Spotting
If you know the far right plan to turn up to your protest in advance, it is a very good idea to create a spotting team that works with your stewards. Spotters are individuals or likely groups of individuals who don’t identify themselves with the demonstration or stewards and discreetly keep an eye on the fascists if and when they appear, spotters should have phones on them so that they can communicate with the stewards and let them know when the fascists have been spotted.
For example, a spotter may cycle around the nearby streets of a protest looking for groups of fascists moving towards the demonstration and alert the stewards when and where they move. Alternatively spotters may go around nearby pubs that are known as far right hangouts and check to see if fascists are drinking nearby. Once the information is passed on, stewards can better prepare and pass on information to protesters if appropriate.
We wrote this article came from a place of frustration, but we want that frustration to build a stronger foundation within our movements and have a positive outcome so we are all better prepared in the future. The far right are not an inevitable part of life, they are manufactured by the press, the media, the government and the rich intentionally to attack left wing, liberatory movements. The foundations of the fascist movement come as a response to left wing movements gaining strength, when the ruling class feared revolution in Germany throughout the 1920s, fascist thugs were given more and more power to crush the left until they had enough power to rule entirely.
It doesn’t need to be an accepted reality that the far right will come out on top against liberatory movements; in fact as is often shown in demonstrations, we have the numbers to win easily against the minority of violent thugs of the far right. For this to happen antifascism needs to be understood and practiced not by a small group of specialised individuals wearing all black, but carried out by all of us who fight for a better world and are disgusted by the ideas of the far right.
Fascism should not be debated, allowed or ignored or in the long run it will crush us all! Fascism needs to be smashed!
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