TOGETHER AGAIN(ST)

MARCHING THROUGH LONDON'S WEST END IN SUPPORT OF PEACE & UNITY AND AGAINST THE FAR RIGHT

I’m aware that across the US Sat’ 28th saw many No Kings protest gatherings: did any US Yak readers participate in such? If yes, then please report.

Whether intentionally or not (I think the latter), London’s West End also hosted a major demo, this one combined with a music event: the Together Alliance staged a march from Hyde Park to Westminster alongside a free concert in Trafalgar Square featuring DJs and singers.

The Together Alliance apparently organised the event as a retort to Unite The Kingdom, the far right protest that took place in central London last September, fronted by “Tommy Robinson” (an alias for football hooligan/convicted criminal Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, the poster boy for 21st C British bigotry).

That’s NZ House in the background. A remarkable modernist structure (from a nation with almost no modernist architecture of note).

Unite The Kingdom pulled 110,000 people: that a scruffy bunch of fascist bovver boys - financed and addressed via video screen by Elon Musk, a Little Hitler if ever I’ve seen one - could get so many people out is deeply unsettling. The British Isles are angry islands and in the 1930s + 70s neo-Nazis staged huge demos. Their return - like any horror movie - is unsettling and so we march to show they don’t own the streets.

Today, the Together Alliance claimed 500,000 marched (the police suggested more likely between 10/20% of that number). Whatever the numbers, its impressive so many people were up for a West End stroll on a chilly, blustery afternoon.

I’ve been on plenty of protests over the years in London - anti Criminal Justice Bill, Iraq invasion, Brexit, genocide in Gaza etc. None of them changed the situation we marched against, which might suggest they are pointless endeavours.

Well, yes. But bringing people together as a collective voice is worthwhile. As is a stroll through a traffic free West End; I enjoy observing the buildings, noting things I’d overlooked previously, London forever offering up surprises.

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The Together Alliance marchers were joined by a separate protest from the Palestine Coalition who were voicing their outrage over the ongoing murder + ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank by the Israeli government.

While I imagine most marching as the Together Alliance shared the Palestinian Coalition’s concerns, the difference in those marching was notable: the TA protestors being predominantly white, secular and sporting good humoured banners, while the PC were predominantly Asian, Muslim and sporting rhetorical banners: one even suggested Nelson Mandela claimed the late Ayatollah Khamenei as his hero. I doubt any TA protestor would consider Iran’s murderous, Islamist despots admirable.

There apparently was a separate pro-Israel counter-demo - situated earlier on the route the PC took - and a few far right boneheads turned up looking to ruck but were cordoned off by police. And there was a Ugandan protest, with people from that former British colony voicing their disapproval at how the despot President Museveni continues to choke that African nation.

“They smelt of pubs/and Wormwood Scrubs” sang Paul Weller on Down In The Tube Station At Midnight back in 1978 and - having witnessed Tommy’s foot soldiers before at these protests - know nothing has changed. Tho’ back then they would have changed anti-semitic slogans. These days they tend to support Israel and shout Islamophobic nonsense.

Once home I checked out the Islamic Human Rights Commission (behind this banner and several others) and, predictably, found their website lacking in mention of Sudan, Ukraine, West Papua etc (re brutal 21st C conflicts): Palestine being the red rag that fires up many Muslims and leftists.

The speakers on the Whitehall stage were secular leftist politicians and activists: Zack Polanski, Jeremy Corbyn, Michael Rosen, Billy Bragg and numerous others. Must admit, I don’t stick around for the speeches, especially when its chilly.

Entry into Trafalgar Square for the music had a rule of “no banners, no placards”. When I went in a large gay (male and female) house collective (DJs, MCs and dancers) were getting people bopping.

Get down to the funky house sounds. Trafalgar Sq mid-afternoon.

I’m sure later performances by Self Esteem, Leigh Anne Pinnock, Joy Crookes and Jessie Ware ensured the square was packed with pop fans. It was too chilly for me to report if they delivered their bangers with aplomb and calls for love and unity.

Amongst the home made placards, one read “WHAT WOULD BOWIE DO?” Perhaps not the wisest icon to select here seeing DB admitted to admiring Hitler in a Playboy interview in 1974 and, the following year, stated “There will be a political figure in the not too distant future who’ll sweep through this part of the world like early rock ’n’ roll did. You probably hope I’m not right but I am…. You’ve got to have an extreme right front come up and sweep everything off its feet and tidy everything up.”

Well, in Donald Trump - and the UK politician Nigel Farage (plus Musk and Yaxley-Lennon) - we have the “extreme right front” Bowie predicted. And our world is worse because of them.

The Together Alliance were also referred to as “Together Against” which reminded me of Buck Owens’ seminal country song. Ray Charles, who knew US fascism first hand, sang this lovely tune like no one else. Take it away, Ray.

Here’s wishing everyone peace, love and unity.

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