Fascism is on the rise
- anne
- 15 hours ago
- 7 min read
Unless you’ve been hibernating for the last few years, you will have noticed the incremental rise of the far-right. From the US to India via Hungary, ultra nationalist, far-right governments are dominating the political landscape - and, as we once again witnessed over summer, fascism is alive and kicking here in the UK too.
In July, following the arrest of a man housed in a so-called ‘asylum hotel’ in Epping, angry mobs gathered with calls of ‘protect our women and kids’. It soon became apparent that these ‘well meaning locals’ weren’t really that interested in ending gender-based violence. Instead, what brought most of them to the Bell hotel was a deeply held anti-migrant sentiment, fuelled by decades of well honed racist propaganda - and centuries of white supremacist beliefs.
What happened in Epping, and subsequently in many other towns across the UK, is a dangerous brand of far-right racism and Islamophobia weaponising violence against women and girls for political gain.
Gender-based violence is endemic, including in the UK. It is mostly perpetrated by men and boys against women and girls, and predominantly by partners or ex-partners - rather than random strangers lurking in dark alleys. The problem is so acute, that following the election, the government promised to halve the incidence of violence against women and girls. More than a year later, the figures remain horrifically high.
In the UK,
every three days a woman is killed by a man, and
one in four women experience domestic abuse in their lifetime.
The women’s rights and feminist sector works tirelessly to reduce the incidence of gender-based violence, but the figures are stubborn, and political will sorely lacking. Every International Women’s Day, Million Women Rise organise a march to draw attention to the pervasiveness of gender-based violence and express our collective rage. Surprise, surprise, they’ve yet to receive a single message of support from Reform UK or other far-right outfits … because ultimately, we all know that fascists don’t care about ending gender-based-violence or women’s rights, what they care about is spreading misinformation, create a climate of fear and ramp up their violent anti-migrant and anti-rights agenda. And, it’s working.
Wolves in sheep's clothing
Tory and Labour politicians are not only following suit, they are falling over themselves to outdo each other, to look tougher than Reform UK. Tory MP and Shadow Justice Minister, Jenrick, who attended the Epping ‘rally’, has been sharing concerns about his daughters’ safety - at risk, he says, from ‘foreign criminals’ - people who have migrated to the UK have “medieval attitudes to women”.
Rather than a reflection of his interest in feminist issues, Jenrick’s racist assumptions, that people of colour are less advanced than white, ‘western’ culture, reek of femo-nationalism. Not once during his political career has he shown the slightest interest in women’s safety. However, as Immigration Minister he is on record for his vehement anti-immigration, Islamophobic and racist views, including earlier this month when he visited a Birmingham neighbourhood where he claimed he did not 'see a single white face'!
For all the focus on gender-based violence and migrants - think the Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal - there is a lot less coverage about the link between misogyny and the far-right. In fact, misogyny is often a gateway to more extreme and toxic of far-right, white supremacist movements. Andrew Tate is a prime example - and he isn’t alone.
Recent analysis, published in The Guardian, shows that “41% of 899 people arrested for taking part in [the] violent [far-right] disorder in July 2024 had been reported for crimes associated with intimate partner violence". I wonder what Lorraine Cavanagh, the woman leading the so-called ‘pink ladies - a movement of women concerned about how illegal immigration is impacting the safety of women and children 🇬🇧🏴' [sic] - would make of that?
Like others, she’s made allusions to inequality and anger at the government - aren't we all?! In an interview on GB news (which I refuse to link), she mentions how pensioners are forced to look for items with reduced price labels, while migrants get three meals a day, in four star hotels, mobile phones and a £500 voucher to buy clothing, and it's unfair. And this has often been the missing link in this debate - inequality and class.
The impact of 15 years of austerity is showing. Inequality between the bottom 20% and the top 10% is at an all time high. Policy decisions such as cuts to disability benefits, winter fuel allowance or the child benefit cap are causing untold harm on the poorest people in the UK, significantly impacting living standards and increasing poverty and health inequality - with women on low income, women of colour, disabled women and families with children and pensioners suffering disproportionately. This is creating a fertile ground for the rise of the far-right, looking for any possible excuse to rear its ugly head.
Gender-based violence is used as a pretext for inciting disgruntlement with people seeking asylum, refugees, and migrants more generally. The lies and misinformation that have been repeated over the years have been turned into truths. A significant section of the population now genuinely believes that people being housed in so called ‘asylum hotels’ live a life of luxury. But is it so?
Often over-crowded, dirty, with poor quality food, they are places where people* are forced to wait for months if not years - because of the ongoing Home Office backlog in processing applications - with a huge impact on their mental health. But, we rarely hear about the in asylum support accommodation. All we hear is the vilification, the dehumanisation ... and the astronomical cost to taxpayers.
Oh wait - there is of course a cost, but guess who is pocketing the bucks? A recent Helen Bamber Foundation and Asylum Aid report ‘Suffering and squalor: the impact on mental health of living in asylum accommodation’, highlighted that ‘in 2019 the government paid Mears, Serco and (in London) Clearsprings Ready Homes £4 billion to provide accommodation to people seeking asylum over the next 10 years. These private contractors operate on a profit-based model – with, to give one example, Clearsprings making £62.5 million during the 12 months to January 2023.’ This is a vital piece in the puzzle – but no-one is talking about it.
Moreover, we are told of the huge allowances that people seeking asylum receive. Wrong again. A person seeking asylum, housed in a hotel receive £49.18 per person, per week to pay for things like food, clothing and toiletries. If meals are provided they receive £9.95 instead. I wonder if Stephen Yaxley Lennon- aka Tommy Robinson - could live on that? I doubt it.
First they came for migrants ….
But the damage has been done. Imaginations are running wild. And, in some ways, it’s hard to blame people who are struggling daily to make ends meet. Politicians and the media have created a powerful, compelling narrative - base on the old textbook ‘divide and rule’. It surfaced very clearly during the successful Brexit campaign, the promise to ‘Take back control’ - remember Farage’s UKIP poster: Breaking Point, featuring Syrian refugees?
While ‘Take back control’ was partly directed to EU institutions, it was predominantly meant for migrants, perceived as ‘outsiders’ coming to the UK for handouts, while many ‘working class’ - actually meaning ‘British white working class’ - communities on the sharp end of decades of austerity. Minoritised and racialised communities face similar, often harsher, economic insecurity, but there’s the thing, they’ve been pitted against each other and it’s billionaires, who are reaping the benefits. Nigel Farage, self-styled ‘man of the people’, privately educated son of a wealthy stockbroker, and far-right agitator Robinson, who is being bankrolled by US tech billionaire Robert Shillman - to name but two.
Following the racist riots of 2024, the Equality Trust produced an interesting briefing that outlines how ‘economic inequality creates a deeply unequal distribution of political power. In the UK, this can be seen in the growing influence of major donors over political parties and in the ways that political decisions favour the wealthy and highly-educated; a trend that has become more entrenched over the 20th and 21st centuries.’ And we all pay the consequences.
Don’t panic, Organise
So here we are - in the grip of an aggressive, well-funded, global, and increasingly popular far-right - note the Czechs recently elected a far-right populist billionaire and the latest Nobel peace prize went to Trump supporter, Venezuelan politician Maria Corina Machado. Here, the government is emulating the worst of US policies - immigration raids, violent deportations of migrants (calling them ‘illegal’ somehow makes it all ok!) and dangerous roll back on women’s rights and gender justice.
While Starmer spent summer ramping up the hostile environment - making its architect, Theresa May, look like Goldielocks - and pandering to the far-right’s vile, racist anti-migrant agenda, he has done nothing whatsoever about his promise to halve the incidence of gender-based violence - not even drafted a strategy!
Emboldened fascists are marching forth. On 25th October, UKIP have announced they are coming to Whitechapel, to cause further havoc and spew hatred. You get the message: ‘Don’t Panic, Organise!’ - and though it might actually be time to panic, it's a lot more important to organise!*
Here are some organisations you can check out:
Also check out your local migrant justice organisations, Anti-Raids adn CopWatch networks.
I used to think this kind of advice was a tad patronising - but the landscape is changing rapidly and it is important to keep safe. If you are planning to attend demos/counter demos, don't go alone. The police have a host of new powers and they are very intent on using them to arrest people. It's not new, they did it to XR in 2019 using Section 14, but it's now becoming more common.
Liberty, Green and Black Cross and others offer extensive advice for every occasion.
*People seeking asylum don't have the right to work.
**These days, I like to add a word of caution to getting people onto their soap boxes, myself included. Activist burnout is real and must be acknowledged and taken seriously. Please read for the long read, get a copy of Hannah Proctor's "Burnout - The Emotional Experience of Political Defeat", or read my blog on the subject.
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