Children. Just children.  Dancing to Taylor Swift. Content and in their happy place.  Murdered in an act of senseless, unfathomable violence. No words in this column can ever do justice in conveying the wretched emotion we all should feel for the victims and their families.

Those who have sought to exploit this tragedy for their own racist, divisive end of gaining a stronger foothold in our communities are beyond all contempt.

I use that language deliberately. “Stronger”. The far-right fascists are here already. Some are visible. Others hide in plain sight or behind anonymous accounts, spreading racist hate amongst communities that are often marginalised and under-resourced. There have been plenty of warnings from our movement on the dangers they pose and how they’re mobilising.

Let’s call them out for what they are. A racist, ethno-nationalist far-right hate mob on a lynching spree. An Islamophobic gang so immune to rational thought – so dense to the disgraceful impacts of their violent actions – that they blindly bellow their chants about “protecting our kids” whilst simultaneously attempting to burn children alive who were housed in a hotel

Scotland has not seen the violent scenes witnessed down south but let us firmly reject the idea that we are immune.  I have written previously in this column of the year-long campaign of intimidation conducted against refugees in the Muthu hotel in Erskine and of the attempts of the Far Right to fracture the community in Elgin.  

As I write, we hear rumours of far-right activity from Dumfries to Bathgate. You will never read theories of Scottish exceptionalism in this column.

Throughout history, the stereotyping of black men men as violent and predatory has been used as a driver for violent racism, not least during the mob-lynchings in the southern states of the USA during the last century.

Legitimate concerns about women’s and children’s safety from men in general, are cynically mutilated into racist tropes.  Those frightened refugees in the Muthu Hotel, Erskine who the local trade unions and community supported for over a year were routinely described by the far right as ‘fighting aged men’. It’s a dog whistle trope we see repeated, again and again.

And of course, the proliferation of social media allows these tropes to be seeded from afar. The former EDL leader, antisemite and race-baiter in chief Robinson was sunning himself in the Cypriot sun whilst whipping up hatred and mistrust here at home. 

Honesty should also compel us to recognise that deep rooted poverty, disadvantage and perceived powerlessness provides the breeding ground for the racist hatemongers. We can say this without for one second justifying any single crime of violence or hate. The vast majority of those suffering in our communities today will have no part in the scenes we have witnessed this past fortnight. Everyone has a choice. It is also deeply wrong to think that racism only exists in deprived working-class communities. 

Roz FoyerRoz Foyer (Image: Andrew Milligan)

Yet the imperative still exists to reverse the economic and social decline which hammers so many of our people. Decades of austerity and the deliberate destruction of our public services rips the safety net away from those on the downside of advantage. Resentment grows when state services fail and ignore their citizenry.

If folk feel they can’t get support – that nothing works for them and their class anymore – then disruptors of the state - the creeping cancer of fascism - seeks to exploit those who feel they have no agency. They offer them a solution; one dripped with poison and racism.

The cruel impact of austerity is shared across working-class communities; however, the brutality of structural racism is faced only by black and minority ethnic communities. This has been compounded by the drip feed of anti-migrant rhetoric from parts of the media, politicians and echoed across social media channels.

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Some of these people now have a home in the UK Parliament. Mere hours after the attack in Southport, Farage – boosted and aided by social media algorithms that spread his bile even further – was already questioning the police and planting seeds of mistrust.

However, neither can we ignore the role of the last government which wilfully and repeatedly sought to scapegoat refugees in general and to attack Muslims in particular.   Each and every cynical act, from the creation of the ‘climate of fear’ to the unspeakably stupid Rwanda Scheme has compounded, normalised and brought us to the place we are in today.  

We have a candidate in the Tory Party leadership election who believes that anyone saying ‘Allahu Akbar’, the Christian version of which is ‘Praise be to God’ should be immediately arrested.

The response of the new government, and of the police and of the courts to these riots, has been strong and swift.  There have been significant numbers of arrests and quick and lengthy prison sentences are being meted out. It is a proper response.  The riots will be quelled. Order will be restored.  However, the task of removing grievance and rooting out the far-right poison will be a far greater and long-term challenge.

This is where we come in.

The conflict we are seeing today must be understood not just as a battle between the authorities and the rioters, but between the rioters and all right thinking people.  The protection of those being targeted must come from within our communities and workplaces, from those who live similar lives in similar places,  but who together choose a different course.

Trade unions have a long history of defending our communities against fascists and racists. This time it will be no different.    

In response to Robinson and others sharing news of a “pro-UK” rally, a not-so-thinly disguised far-right meet-up, the STUC will be supporting the Stand Up to Racism counter-protest on Saturday 7th September in Glasgow. 

We must step up. We’re calling on all across our movement and those across wider civic Scotland to ensure they’re represented. But this cannot be a one-off whereby we shout, oppose and send them home to think again, as important as that is. This must be part of a long-term, cohesive strategy to root out the causes of this evil from our communities and from our politics.

That involves being anti-racist in our actions and in our education. It also involves doing more to support those impacted by this persecution, including reaching out to local mosques to show them solidarity and support. We must also, as our movement has proudly done for years, offer support to asylum seekers and refugee organisations in their time of need. To eradicate it, we need to educate ourselves about racism, fascism and Britain’s colonial past and to build unity in demonstrating against the far-right. 

The trade union movement in Scotland stands ready.  We call on you to stand with us.