When Hate Marches, We Must Rise
All images were designed by Mukhtar Dar.
Why We Must Oppose Britain First in Birmingham on May 17th
By Mukhtar Dar
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.”
— Edmund Burke“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
— Desmond Tutu
The Ghosts We Thought Were Gone
History does not sleep. It lingers in shadows, shifts in silence, and returns wearing new faces. The victories we assumed permanent — against fascism, against racial hatred — were never victories at all, but intermissions.
Across Europe and beyond, we see the old spectres rise. Trump in America. Orbán in Hungary. Le Pen in France. The AfD in Germany. They march again — not in the uniforms of the past, but in the polished language of policy and patriotism. The enemy no longer shouts from the margins; it legislates from within.
And now, that storm makes landfall in Birmingham.
On May 17th, Britain First — a far-right fascist organisation with a long, documented history of hate — plans to march through our city. This is not merely a demonstration. It is an attempt to defile a city built on resistance, dignity, and defiant pluralism.
Birmingham is not just diverse; it is defiantly so. From Handsworth to Sparkbrook, our city’s strength lies in its solidarity — in car workers and Caribbean nurses, Irish builders and Somali shopkeepers, in mosques and gurdwaras and churches alike.
To allow Britain First to march through our streets unchallenged would be to let hate walk, unchecked, through the soul of our shared home.
Britain First: The Uniform of Bigotry
Let us name this organisation plainly. Britain First is not a political party. It is not a movement of ideas. It is a machine of hate, fronted by men and women with criminal records and histories of violence.
Its leader, Paul Golding, a former member of the fascist British National Party, is no stranger to prison cells. His convictions span religiously aggravated harassment and contempt of court. This is a man who invaded mosques to intimidate worshippers, parading Asian areas in military armoured vehicles — calling it a “Christian patrol.” His brand of politics is not civil discourse. It is provocation in military fatigues. It is fear.
His former deputy, Jayda Fransen, not only echoed his tactics but also amplified his rhetoric. She has been convicted of inciting racial hatred and referring to Muslims as “parasites” and “perverts.” Recently, Fransen left Britain First to form her own splinter group, claiming she was routinely subjected to physical abuse by Golding during her time as deputy.
These are not fringe provocateurs. They are torchbearers of a dangerous legacy of hate — a legacy whose poison has already spilled into bloodshed.
In 2016, MP Jo Cox was murdered by a man who shouted “Britain First” as he stabbed her.
In 2017, Makram Ali was run over outside Finsbury Park Mosque. The attacker had reportedly consumed Britain First content in the days before the killing.
These are not isolated incidents. They are ideological murders. Words became weapons. Silence became complicity.
What They Call for Is Not Policy — It Is Purge
Britain First’s upcoming Birmingham event is dressed in the language of “Remigration.” But this is no mere slogan. It is a manifesto of exclusion — a coded call for mass forced deportations, religious repression, white supremacy and racial purity.
Let us not be coy. This is what they demand:
A ban on mosque construction
The removal of “non-indigenous” people — including those born here
The criminalisation of Islam in public life
These are not immigration policies. They are blueprints for ethnic cleansing, couched in bureaucratic euphemisms. This is fascism with a polished press release.
Ashlea Simon, their deputy leader, once claimed “English people can’t be Black; English blood is white.” She later disavowed the comment. But the sentiment — the ideology that underpins such a statement — remains at the heart of their campaign.
And so, to Britain First, I offer this: come and meet my family.
We are Pakistani, Mauritian, Trinidadian, Indian, Jamaican, Irish and indeed English. We are steelworkers and social workers. We are teachers and doctors. My grandfather packed ammunition in Rawalpindi for British troops in Burma. My father forged iron in Sheffield’s furnaces. My father-in-law worked the tunnels beneath London underground. We didn’t just arrive here — we helped build the very country you claim to defend.
Our blood runs red like yours. But our lives, our stories, our presence — they are here to stay, come what may. You are not the future of this country. You are the last gasp of a defeated empire of bloodlust and plunder. A dying relic, desperate for attention. You belong not in our streets, but in the margins of history’s shame.
The Great Lie: Who They Claim to Represent
Britain First claims to speak for “the people.” But which people? Their vision excludes more than it includes. They offer no solutions to hunger or housing. No policies for the NHS or education. No plans for dignity.
They do not defend Britain. They deface it with death and destruction.
They conflate uniformity with unity. They confuse conformity with community. They turn patriotism into paranoia. But true progressive Britishness is not found in skin tone or surname. It is found in compassion, in resistance, in the hand that helps up rather than strikes down.
Britain First is not the voice of the voiceless. It is the megaphone of malice. It destroys truth, corrodes hope, and desecrates decency.
Appeasement in Uniform: The State’s Response
And how has the state responded? West Midlands Police have granted Britain First permission to march through the city street and into Victoria Square — Birmingham’s civic heart. This was done without consulting Birmingham City Council. They, rightly, have now denied the Britain First Rally by preventing staging access to Victoria Square. The Council have used their 'No Platform' Policy to do so, which does not permit use of Council resources with activities that are not compatible with its commitment to equality, community cohesion and promoting 'British Values'.
Meanwhile, Stand Up To Racism, a movement of peace and principle, has been told by the Police it may assemble — but not march.
The stance by the City Council is welcomed, and hopefully West Midlands Police will now be aware of this with regard to fascist and racist organisations seeking platform to their hate in our City.
Cowardice in High Office
Where is the political leadership in Westminster?
Absent. Missing. Muted.
From the Conservatives to Labour’s front bench, the major parties have capitulated to the language and logic of the far right. They echo its myths, accommodate its narratives, and target the very communities they should protect.
Neither party defends migration — despite our hospitals, schools, and economy depending on it. Neither speaks against obscene wealth — even as poverty engulfs millions. Both scapegoat the weak to distract from their own failures.
After Labour’s local election collapse, Keir Starmer could have chosen reflection. He could have acknowledged Labour’s past complicity in austerity and its failure to stand by working-class communities of colour. Instead, he warned Britain risks becoming “an island of strangers.” Words dressed in neutrality but steeped in xenophobic symbolism.
We have heard this before.
Over fifty years ago, Enoch Powell raged about rivers of blood. His rhetoric was condemned, his career ended. But today, his ideology finds new life in new mouths — not just on the fringes, but at the heart of British politics.
Fascism does not return with marching boots alone. It returns through cowardice in Parliament, silence in leadership, and betrayal by those who claim to fight it.
Following Reform UK’s electoral surge, Paul Golding of Britain First declared they are “next in line to win.” He dismissed Reform UK as a mere “safety-valve,” a soft barrier in front of the harder truth. “We will tear them down and overtake them,” he vowed.
This is not politics. This is a prophecy of violence. And the door is being held open for it — by those too afraid, or too willing, to stop it.
May 17th: The Line We Must Hold
Britain First does not come for debate. They come to make hate visible — escorted by the state, wrapped in false respectability.
But Birmingham remembers who we are.
On Saturday, May 17th at 11am, we gather outside Grosvenor Casino. Perhaps we will not be permitted to march. But we will be present. We will be loud. We will not bow.
This is not simply a protest. It is a line — drawn in the heart of a city forged in resistance. A vow, ancient and urgent: you shall not pass unopposed. Not here. Not now. Not ever.
We carry the memory of Cable Street and Lewisham, of Toxteth and Tower Hamlets. We follow in the footsteps of Jagmohan Joshi, Aijaz Kaleem, Shirley Joshi, Avtar Jouhl, Maurice Ludmer, Anwar Ditta and many others and we carry the courage of those who rose in March, when Birmingham said no to Reform UK.
And we carry the promise of the future, where justice still might bloom.
Bring your friends.
Bring your voice.
Bring your ancestors.
Bring your future.
Let the record show:
When fascism came to Birmingham,
the people stood — and history heard us.
May 17th. 11am. Grosvenor Casino. 84 Hill Street, Birmingham B5 4AH — Be there.