We risk another summer of far-right pogroms whipped up by the establishment and the right, unless the labour movement comprehensively organises to stop it, argues John Westmoreland  

The horrific events in Epping may well be repeated across the UK in the coming months, as layers of right-wing fanatics get to work, whipping up fear and hate. 

The riots in Ballymena, Portsmouth and Epping that have taken place in the past month can’t really be called pogroms – yet. However, the threat of serious injury and death goes way beyond what Starmer blithely refers to as ‘mindless thuggery’. 

It is worth recalling some features of the pogroms that occurred in tsarist Russia and drove thousands of Jews to flee their homes and lands. There are some similarities with events today. 

Anti-Jewish pogroms were launched as patriotic events led by agents of the ruling class. A march would set off into Jewish areas where, inevitably, Jews would ‘provoke’ the innocent demonstrators. At the head of the march would be an Orthodox priest flanked by men in military uniforms and senior police officers carrying a portrait of the Tsar. A military band would play God Save the Tsar and the march would pause outside every tavern to drink vodka and curse the Jews. 

Guilt had to be established. If the Jews were guilty, any violence could be permitted. A favourite accusation was that the Jews had their own ‘yid tsar’. Or, that Jews had put a portrait of the Tsar in their latrines, and were pissing on him. The Tsar liked to be seen as the ‘little Father’, one rung down the ladder from God. 

Nothing could be worse than offending God, and this allowed the patriots complete freedom to take a bloody revenge. The violence went unchecked, usually for three days, and then the police would order it to stop. The violence was often led and directed by the Black Hundreds, the Russian fascists of their day, dedicated to Tsar, church and country. 

Pogroms happened when the political climate was turning away from tsarist rule, when anarchists were planting bombs or workers were protesting. This was the case in Ukraine, where Russian miners protested about low pay and economic insecurity in the 1890s. 

A pogrom provided a vehicle and target for working-class anger. It should be noted, however, that the pogromists tended not to be workers as such. Rather they dragged in the petty criminals, the pimps and barflies that floated on the rising tide of officially inspired hate. 

How do the events in Epping compare with a pogrom? There are some uncomfortable similarities. 

Respectable racists and far-right thugs 

The violence we are witnessing has been encouraged by a web of right-wing agitators, working for the same end, even if they are not formally connected. The right-wing press has been stoking the anger in places like Epping. The Daily Mail had a headline: ‘What did they think would happen? The Bell Hotel has stood in a leafy village for decades. Dozens of migrants moved in. Then a sex assault charge sparked angry riots.’ 

Leafy suburbs under threat from sex-crazed migrants has been on the pages of most of the British press. The politicians most quoted in the right-wing media are from Reform, and some of the rioters in Epping have been photographed wrapped in their Reform flags. 

The right-wing propaganda would have us believe that the protests are the spontaneous expression of local anger about the sexual assault on a child by a migrant, and that local people have simply had enough. 

The organisers of the protest have been revealed as members of the Neo-Nazi Homeland Party, who run the Epping Facebook group that advertises the protests. These individuals are former BNP members with ties to the fascist Tommy Robinson. 

The Homeland Party activists are vying for dominance against Reform politicians eager to stoke the hatred. Farage and his former colleague Rupert Lowe have ceaselessly put out commentary on their social media labelling migrants as criminals and rapists, ramping up the temperature, and accusing the police of going easy on rapists while clamping down on the right to protest. 

Tommy Robinson has announced that he will be going to Epping to join the protests and is urging his followers to attend. Robinson has been targeting Gary Lineker in particular, denouncing his compassion for people fleeing across the Channel, and branding him a traitor. 

As in tsarist Russia, the would-be pogromists represent a melding of establishment indignation and guttersnipe fascists and terrorists, all triggered by alleged migrant criminality and sexual predation. 

Sitting ducks for far-right terror 

The exclusion of Jews in tsarist Russia forced them to live as ‘a people apart’. Jews faced a multitude of restrictions affecting their work and businesses. This made them visible and vulnerable to attack, which was the whole purpose of the laws. 

In this wonderful democracy of ours, such government conniving is unthinkable though, is it not? Yet by housing migrants in hotels, they have certainly made them visible, and resented. It is easy for right-wing stirrers to talk up migrants – always ‘illegals’ – living it up at tax payers’ expense. 

No matter what the status of the people in the hotels, accusations of criminality can be made with impunity. The local residents don’t know who the migrants are or where they come from and all it takes is some real criminal activity to set the tinderbox on fire. 

For the past decade, the right-wing press, Tory and Labour politicians and active racists and fascists have banged on about Asian grooming gangs. The triggers for racist violence are different today – if the migrants had a picture of King Charles on their toilet paper it might win them some friends – but the mechanisms are the same. 

Take a working class that is being screwed over by their bosses, landlords and utility companies, and whose families are feeling under increasing strain, and then tell them that free-loading migrants are preying on their vulnerable children. This narrative is now firmly embedded in the right-wing playbook, and is drawing together people who are not hardened racists to the cause of the hard-line racists and fascists. 

Starmer: the reasonable racist 

After Labour’s drubbing in the May elections, Starmer decided to outdo Farage on immigration and outdo Liz Truss on economic growth. A stew of authoritarianism, racism and austerity is now being served. 

In what must be one of his most despicable comments to date, Starmer said he thought it was ‘reasonable’ for working-class people to be ‘concerned about immigration’, as he did his Enoch Powell tribute act, rekindling that old line about Britain becoming ‘an island of strangers’. Racism is not reasonable though. 

Now, as the consequences of his craven concessions to Farage burst out in murderous violence, he tries to play the responsible leader denouncing ‘thuggery’. His and Yvette Cooper’s carping about stopping the boats has let the genie out of the bottle and Starmer can’t put it back. 

Farage is calling the shots on immigration now, not Starmer. The truth is that Farage probably has the authority to call off the rioters in Epping, and he is moving towards being the voice of a wide spectrum of right-wing opinion. Starmer’s strategy of trying to win over Reform voters looks more hopeless by the day. 

How to defeat the right 

As the violence threatens to spread to other towns, we look set for another hot summer of racist rioting. If the racists have learned anything from the riots last summer, they will stay away from cities like Bristol and Sheffield and go for small towns. 

At the time of writing, there is the threat of another attack on a migrant hotel in Canary Wharf. If the left has learned anything from last year, and how the racists were closed down in places like Waltham Forest, we can stop the racists once more. The numbers are still with us. It is a question of mobilising our side. 

Most people, even those who get wound up by anti-immigrant propaganda, don’t fall for the rubbish peddled by the likes of Tommy Robinson. They don’t want to see their towns laid waste by marauding thugs. And, if we mobilise in the broadest way against the far-right, we can get the numbers on the streets that will top them. The truth is that if the wider Labour movement gets its act together, we can crush the right who offer no hope to workers facing austerity and are angered by genocide in Gaza and the threat of war. 

Anti-immigrant racism is anti-working class. It attacks the compassion and solidarity on which our movement has been built. Fascists can’t get trade unionists marching with them but we can, and our banners tell the world we reject the far-right’s message of hate. 

Trade-union leaders have to stop leaving the fight to dedicated anti-racists and take responsibility for leading our forces on a much bigger scale. This has to be done as a matter of urgency. If the much talked about new left party is going to make an impact, they too need to be looking to bring the movement together against the racist right.