The mood was tense in Liverpool as reports spread that far-right protesters planned to target an asylum charity.
The location was supposed to be one of more than 30 sites across the United Kingdom that racist and anti-migrant protesters had singled out on Wednesday. There were similar expectations in dozens of other towns and cities, enough for the government to decide to deploy 6,000 police officers nationwide.
But as the day unfolded, the mood lifted as the far-right protests failed to materialise. Instead, tens of thousands of anti-racist protesters filled the streets of cities including London, Bristol and Newcastle.
In Liverpool, people chanted, “Refugees are welcomed here”, as they walked through the streets. One girl held a banner reading, “Will trade racists for refugees”.
Others ringed the asylum seeker support centre, fearing it could be a target for the far-right.
“We can’t allow people to come to attack and destroy one of the most vulnerable buildings of all the people who are the most vulnerable in the community and destroy one little bit of refuge that they have,” said a local journalist, who asked only to be named as Patrick. “It’s all nationalities here. So it’s about solidarity, to stand up against ignorance, against bigotry, against hatred.”
Police kept watch.
“I am very happy with the turnout,” Hashem, a protester in Liverpool who asked to withhold his surname told Al Jazeera. “Good people within our community took a moral stand. The far-right hate is not welcomed in Liverpool.”
The 30-year-old attended the event although senior members of the Muslim community had urged young people to stay indoors following last week’s violence when Liverpool, in the northwest of England, was the centre of violent riots.
The episode was one in several cities and towns across England and Northern Ireland in what authorities described as the country’s worst outbreak of violent disorder in the last decade.
Aljazeera
