Anti-racists protested outside Tower Hamlets Town Hall in support of councillors who pledged to stand against the far right yesterday (8th).
Councillors backed unanimously a motion condemning far right activity on the Isle of Dogs targeting asylum seekers. The proposal attracted a small protest by a group called the “Pink Ladies” who claim asylum seekers are a threat to women and children’s safety.
But a larger protest called by trade unionists and anti-racists stood at the town hall steps to “reject the scapegoating of refugees.”
Kerie Anne is branch secretary of the Unison union’s Tower Hamlets local government branch, which represents council workers.
Image: LDRS
She told the LDRS the branch had called the protest because “this group, who call themselves the Pink Ladies and enjoy support from neo-Nazis like Tommy Robinson, were planning a protest outside the town hall tonight.”
She said: “They want to claim that migrants are a threat to the safety of women and children. That’s an absolute lie.”
She added: “We organise workers in the town hall. The town hall is full of migrants and people from migrant family backgrounds who provide essential services for our community.”
Marshall, another Unison member, told the protest: “My dad told me about the National Front on the Isle of Dogs, and now we’re seeing it again.
“They don’t really care about women’s safety. They’re weaponising women and children’s pain as a prop to justify their racist agenda.”
Another protester, Safia, pointed out that violence against women and girls is often committed by “a partner you know.”
The charity Rape Crisis England and Wales says 50% of rapes against women are carried out by their partner or ex-partner and six out of seven are by someone they know.
It says it is a myth that “men of certain backgrounds are more likely to commit sexual violence or abuse.” It says: “There is no typical rapist. People who commit sexual violence and abuse come from every economic, ethnic, racial, age and social group.”
The Tower Hamlets branch of the Stand Up To Racism campaign group also called the protest. It urged people to join a “unity demonstration” against Ukip outside Whitechapel tube station at 12noon on 25 October.
Image: LDRS
Ukip, which had significant support when led by current Reform UK leader Nigel Farage but is now a fringe party, has called a protest on the same day to “reclaim Whitechapel from the Islamists.”
The anti-racist protest came ahead of a vote by councillors on a proposal to “stand up to the far right” after a series of far-right protests targeting asylum seekers at the Britannia Hotel in Canary Wharf.
The motion did not mention the Pink Ladies, one of the groups that have organised the anti-migrant protests.
However it did say that “concerns around safety, security and equity” had been allowed to escalate and become entwined with far-right narratives under the banner of keeping women and children safe.”
Pink Ladies protest organiser Orla Minihane, who does not live in Tower Hamlets, told the LDRS: “We are being labelled as far right extremists by the council.”
She said the protest was “not about asylum seekers” and that the people housed in the hotel were “illegal migrants.”
She said they shouldn’t be allowed to claim asylum because they had arrived in Britain via “illegal routes.”
Minihane said: “Why are they all men if they’re seeking asylum, why are there no children? This week 2,332 men have come over – zero women, zero children.”
The Britannia Hotel is currently being used as temporary accommodation for asylum seekers, who have a legal right to be in the country.
Border Force figures show that 314 people have arrived by small boat in Britain since Wednesday 1 October. It doesn’t provide data on their sex or gender.
