Report back from Harrow local defence group 07/08/24
Around 400 anti racists came out last night in North Harrow while the fascist rioters failed to show up at their announced location. If they had shown up they wouldn’t have stood a chance.
Around 100 people joined a protest with speeches and chants called by the local TUC, PSC & Counterfire. On the other side of the junction around 300 people lined every shop in the high street as part of a community defence group put together at 2 days notice. All of the local man dem came out and stood alongside the shopkeepers. There was a very strong turnout from the local Tamil community as well as brothers from Mahfil Ali Mosque and many Hindus and Sikhs coming out in unity and the community defence stayed out long after the protest finished. Many of us planned to travel to Brentford or Hounslow if fash didn’t turn up, but they failed to show up there as well! There was a huge sense of joy among everyone there that our community had come out in such numbers and represented, and that the racist riots we’ve seen across the country weren’t happening on our patch.
The protest was mostly white and the Community defence was mostly Black and Asian but the whole community was united. Only a handful of people linked to the activist scene travelled from other parts of london to support and their support was very much appreciated. This is because most people from the scene were in areas closer to them like Finchley, Walthamstow, Stokey and Croydon, and people up for travelling north west mostly decided to go to Brentford instead where numbers were more needed. Elsewhere in Harrow over 100 brothers stood guard around Harrow Central Mosque late into the night and the fascists came nowhere near.
Unable to have a mob riot the local fash have resorted to tactics they’re describing as “guerrilla warfare”. Reports have been coming in the past few days of a liquid being thown on a hijabi women by a white man which may have been acid, cars of white people driving round shouting racist abuse and death threats at POC, bottles thrown over the fence of a school holding a summer camp and a white van driving around Wembley with a man throwing acid at Muslim women, white men in balaclavas being arrested by police in Harrow on their way to riot and an Indian student fatally stabbed in a possible racist attack. The school has been contacted and confirmed there was an incident, other reports such as fighting in Wealdstone are unconfirmed and can fly around at these times but we know what is taking place.
Aside from a handful of potential spotters and livestreamers too frightened to film, a Hindutva fascist and confused desi Tommy Robinson supporter called Tirbhuwan Chauhan showed up, and a lone polish fascist started shouting racist abuse in the middle of the crowed and stamped on the foot of a man with his leg in a cast before the fascist was rescued by police. But instead of arresting him the police guarded him in numbers before bundling him away into a getaway car. Another car drove past and a racist punched a protester out the car window before speeding off but the police did nothing about this. Instead the police decided to focus on trying to enforce the section 60 they’d put in place and harass anti racists into removing their face coverings. The police couldn’t get their heads around the fact that the section of society they’re so used to criminalising and stereotyping were the ones who were out to protect our community and prevent a riot. However people looked out for each other and refused to remove our face coverings and despite threats, the police failed to arrest any anti-racists or enforce the section 60.
Violent riots nationwide, co ordinated racist attacks by lone individuals and small groups and arson attacks on homes aimed at massacring or expelling ethnic and religious minority groups is the definition of a pogrom. The anger of the racists has been stirred up by the lies of the media, influencers and politicians from New Labour, the tories and the far right, looking to scapegoat and distract from the oppression of the entire working class by our ruling elite. If Keir Starmer now goes ahead with his planned sweep of mass immigration raids then he will be rewarding the racist rioters, showing them their actions lead to results, and ordering the mechanisms of the state to take part in the pogrom and expulsion of the most oppressed and targeted section of our society. For now our mass community resistance nationwide may have halted the riots but we may need to utilise our networks and come out with the same strength to stop the colonial racist state form launching deportations and carrying on the pogrom of the racist rioters.