‘Together’ – or a union-led fight against racism and the far right?

Paula Mitchell, Socialist Party England and Wales Executive Committee

On 2 December, a new anti-far right alliance was announced: Together. “Together we can reject narratives of division and racism. Together we can build solidarity across communities.”

Together has announced a ‘Love, Hope and Unity’ demonstration on 28 March 2026, followed by leafleting in the May elections, “urging people to use their vote to stop Reform”.

The need to combat racism and the far right is urgent. Although recent polls have shown a small dip, Nigel Farage’s racist right-populist Reform UK is at around 25%. In the summer, over 100,000 people marched with far-right activist Tommy Robinson on a ‘Unite the Kingdom’ demonstration. Protests have taken place at asylum hotels around the country.

There is a widespread fear among Black, Asian and migrant communities, and among many workers and activists, at the likelihood of gains for Reform in the May elections and the possibility of a future Farage-led government.

But the Socialist Party is clear: the politics and methods of ‘Together’ are not what is needed.

This new alliance was simultaneously announced on the websites of Stand Up To Racism (SUTR), unions including the University and College Union and Fire Brigades Union, and various other organisations, including the Socialist Workers’ Party (SWP) and Morning Star, the paper of the Communist Party of Britain. 

Signatories start with a long list of celebrities (34 at latest count). Then comes a list of over 40 politicians, including Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana of Your Party, Zack Polanski of the Green Party, and left Labour MPs such as John McDonnell and Richard Burgon. It also includes Starmer-supporter Stella Creasy. 

Next the ‘organisations’ – the TUC (Trades Union Congress) and 24 trade unions are randomly mixed in with charities and campaigns such as Friends of the Earth.

Clearly a lot of discussion went on before this was launched. But it seems not among the over five million trade unionists represented by the union signatories – at least in some cases their lay elected leaderships were not even informed it was happening.

The Executive of the National Education Union (NEU), for example, was presented with a paper just the night before its meeting on 29 November. This paper informed the exec that “SUTR approached the NEU with the idea of trying to build a broader anti-far right organisation”; that a “series of meetings were convened from late October with a variety of unions, NGOs, campaign groups, political parties and politicians”; then a “planning day was held in mid-November where a draft campaign plan, including a set of aims and strategies, was drawn up, as was a founding statement.”

All behind the scenes, without the necessary discussion in the unions themselves about what aims and strategies are needed to combat the far right. The organised working class in the trade unions, the biggest organised force in society with the potential power to unite and mobilise millions of people, is sidelined behind celebrities and charities. 

Fight austerity

The territory for dangerous far-right thugs like Tommy Robinson, and for racist right-wing populists like Nigel Farage, has been created by years of austerity and the soaring cost of living. The pro-big business, anti-working class, austerity policies of Keir Starmer’s Labour government – echoing the right in its treatment of migrants and refugees – have compounded that.

In the early 2010s when the English Defence League was organising demonstrations, the SWP attacked Socialist Party members for raising the necessity of linking the fight against racism to the fight against austerity.

We were told that this was a fight against racists only; that if we were also against austerity, people who were in favour of cuts (such as service-cutting Labour councillors and Blairites like Walthamstow MP Stella Creasy) wouldn’t participate.

When marches of the far right were quite small, as was the case with the English Defence League at that stage, it was possible to mobilise enough people to outnumber them without raising a class programme. But we warned then, that approach does nothing about the conditions that breed support for the far right.

A decade later, Tommy Robinson mobilised over 100,000 and Reform is rising, but SUTR has persisted in restricting demands to only opposing racism and ‘Nazi scum’, and welcoming refugees. Taking that approach has failed to mobilise large numbers on demonstrations.

The combined recognition of failures of SUTR and the pressure being felt by trade union leaders will have contributed to the launch of Together. Now, Together is forced to recognise that Reform and the far right “seize on the very real economic problems people face, in order to scapegoat migrants, Muslims and refugees.”

But nothing in Together’s statement argues against austerity or puts forward any answers to those economic problems, never mind the socialist policies needed to lift people out of the conditions inflicted by brutal capitalism. Going even ‘broader’, proposing ‘love’ and ‘unity’, falls far short of what is required.

The Socialist Party is not opposed to uniting with other organisations, political figures and celebrities to oppose racism. But that should not be on the basis of relinquishing the necessary demands that can mobilise a movement with a programme that can undercut support for Reform and the far right.

But in its pursuit of Starmer-supporting MPs, SUTR and now Together jettison pro-working class policies to get their support. Instead of putting demands on the likes of Stella Creasy to stop voting for the policies that create the breeding ground for racism, they ask trade unionists to line up with those who are cutting their jobs and pay and services. We will be told that this is a ‘united front’, but it is in reality a ‘popular front’ – subordinating working-class interests to the demands of other class interests.

The idea, of union leaders urging people ‘to use their vote to stop Reform’ without arguing for an alternative is not a new one. This year TUC general secretary Paul Nowak made numerous denunciations of Nigel Farage in the run-up to the elections in May – which saw Reform top the polls with 31% of the vote.

Such attacks actually played into Farage’s hands, allowing him to present himself as ‘the real voice of the workers’. To the extent that, in an article in the Sunday Times (20 April), he claimed to be a friend of the late Bob Crow, the militant former general secretary of the RMT. Even arguing that “had Bob not died, my [Brexit] referendum campaign was going to be a double act with him and me touring the country”.

This, of course, is a fantasy. Bob, working with the Socialist Party and others, set-up the No2EU campaign to contest the European elections against Farage’s then UKIP party in 2009, standing himself as the lead candidate in London. He then went on to co-found the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), not set-up ‘a double act’ with an enemy of the working class.

That’s the way today’s union leaders should act too – fighting the far-right not just in words but in action, including by providing a workers’ alternative at the ballot box.

Trade unions must lead

Where the Socialist Party plays a leading role in union branches and trades councils, we have argued for trade unions to take a lead on a local level, linking the fight against the right to the fight for the resources, jobs, homes and services that communities need. That has been the case in Southampton and in response to the events in Epping, for example.

It is significant that the London and South East regional committee of the PCS civil service union issued a call to union branches and trades councils to start discussing “the duty of the trade union movement to fight back.” They said: “We have not yet risen to the challenge… for decades we have relied on external organisations… We need to produce our own materials to oppose far-right lies; and to mobilise seriously and safely for counter-demonstrations with our own defensive stewarding.”

It is only the working class, organised in a mass fight for socialist policies, that can draw behind it broader layers in society and wipe out support for the far right. Instead of letting the union leaders off the hook, it is essential to build a fight for the trade unions, with their 6.5 million members, to lead. The strike wave in recent years showed the potential power trade unions have and how they can become a pole of attraction for all those suffering from austerity, appealing to unorganised and demoralised layers of society.

TUC Congress in 2018 passed a motion – initiated by Socialist Party members – for a ‘Jobs, Homes, Not Racism’ campaign, which it has never implemented. The most concrete way to do that right now is to fight for the national trade union demonstration against Labour austerity that was agreed unanimously at TUC Congress this year. Instead of putting their names to a march for love and hope, the trade union leaders should call that demonstration under the slogan ‘No to austerity – jobs and homes, not racist division’.

A socialist electoral alternative

Together proposes to leaflet against Reform in May’s elections. But unless there is an anti-austerity socialist alternative in those elections, that inevitably means encouraging people to vote for parties that carry out austerity policies when in power.

In April, during the local elections, TUC general secretary Paul Nowak accused Farage of “cosplaying” as being on the side of working-class people, saying: “I think it’s my job to say to people, don’t just listen to what he says, look at what he does”. But it is due to the relentless and savage cuts to cuts to jobs and pay, closures and privatisation, carried out by Labour nationally and locally over years that numbers of trade union members now say they have voted for Reform.

Undercutting support for Reform cannot be achieved by just telling people not to vote for them. We have to fight for the trade unions to take responsibility and build a political alternative. Instead of just all adding their names to Together, Corbyn and Sultana should be appealing to the trade unions to take a central role in building a new party. The trade union leaders should be inviting them into the executive committee meetings of their unions to discuss how a real working-class-based political voice can be built.

For May’s elections, it would be much more productive if they were to organise for trade unionist, socialist, anti-austerity Your Party candidates to stand as widely as possible, committed to resisting the cuts demanded by Starmer, and preparing for budgets that meet the needs of local communities. The national impact such a campaign could make would be immeasurably greater than just marching at the front of an anti-racism demonstration. Preparing for Your Party councillors and councils to link together nationally and mobilise trade union and community campaigns to demand funding could begin to transform the real experience and outlook of millions of people.

Trade union branches and trades councils can encourage that to happen by contacting other trade unionists and campaigners in their areas, including Your Party supporters, to hold people’s budget meetings and organise for as wide an anti-austerity trade union-based stand in the elections in their areas as possible.

Trade union stewarding

When dangerous far-right forces try to march through local communities, it is important to campaign to assist the local community to defend itself. As well as, more long term, helping to build up a movement that can unite local people in fighting for the resources they need, and a key part of it can also be mobilising demonstrations to demoralise and even prevent the far right from marching. Trade unions can play a crucial role, with an energetically built campaign involving local workplace meetings to mobilise members.

It is not only the demands that can limit the size of anti-far right demonstrations. People also need to feel that they are not being needlessly exposed to violent attack, from the right or the police. Socialist Party members have participated in many counter-demonstrations and we salute the bravery of the marchers who have found themselves in sometimes dangerous situations. However, this summer, SUTR’s leaders have recklessly marched anti-racist demonstrators towards potentially dangerous confrontations with inadequate stewarding, relying on the police for defence. If people know that their security is being taken seriously, many more will be encouraged to participate.

General secretary of the rail union RMT Eddie Dempsey has come out in support of Together. In the late 2010s, in response to the Football Lads Alliance at that time, Eddie Dempsey was one of the RMT organisers who initiated steps towards more organised trade union stewarding of counter-demonstrations.

Socialist Party members welcomed that, and proposed that a list of hundreds of volunteers from each union could be compiled, from which stewards and a chief steward with experience could be drawn on each occasion.

We would argue that the trade union leaders who have signed up to Together should do that now – each union could appoint a chief steward, and gather lists of volunteer stewards, and offer to work in a united front with other unions.

Socialist Party members will be moving a model motion that proposes the role trade unions could play in this vital battle.

Model trade union motion  

• This [union branch, executive, conference, trades council] notes and opposes the electoral growth of Reform and the rise of the far-right, including the 100,000 plus demonstration called by Tommy Robinson this September
• We condemn the scapegoating of refugees and asylum seekers, particularly targeting hotels, hostels and other emergency accommodation. This is part of the wider racist attack against refugees and migrant workers and the Black and Asian and Muslim communities
• We salute those who have stood up to the far-right, including on counter-protests such as in Whitechapel this autumn that stopped the far-right marching

This [union branch, executive, conference, trades council] believes:

• That the pro-big business, pro-austerity and anti-working-class policies of the Starmer Labour Government has helped create a political vacuum that Reform and the far-right are looking to fill
• We totally condemn Labour’s tail-ending of the populist and far-right on their approach to refugees and migrant workers that only serve to legitimise the rise of racism

This [union branch, executive, conference, trades council] further believes:

• That it is essential that the trade union movement plays the leading role in building a united movement against the far right. This is especially the case as history has shown the far-right and fascist forces have targeted unions and striking workers

• With 6.5 million members, across all working-class communities, the unions can unite workers against racist division which weakens our movement and only assists the bosses

• The strike wave over the last few years has shown that workers and their unions are prepared and able to fight to defend jobs and living standards, and when they do so, they become a pole of attraction for all those suffering from austerity

• The votes for Reform are a warning of how vital it is to build a working-class political voice that fights for socialist policies. The Starmer-led Labour government has announced continuing austerity.

• A party based on the organised working class that fought for anti-racist, anti-war, socialist policies is vital to prevent the far-right harnessing growing anger of working-class people with Starmer’s Labour. In the 2017 General Election, Jeremy Corbyn’s left Labour manifesto won 1million voters from UKIP.

• It is therefore necessary that such a movement fights for the policies that can transform the lives of working-class people, including on jobs, pay, housing, the NHS and education, after decades of neoliberal policies of successive governments. Motion 44 passed at TUC Congress in 2018 launched  a “Jobs, Homes, Not Racism campaign to unite the wider trade union movement and to campaign effectively against the far right.”

This [union branch, executive, conference, trades council] demands:

• That our union must move at the TUC General Council for it to enact the policy passed at this year’s TUC Congress to organise a national weekend demonstration against Starmer’s austerity offensive. It could be on the theme: ‘No to austerity, make the rich pay! Workers unity not division – jobs and homes not racism!’

• That where the far-right call protests in localities, the trade union movement takes the lead in organising counter-protests, linking up with migrant, refugees and any targeted communities as well as anti-racist and anti-fascist organisations.

• That all such protests are well stewarded by trade unions to guard against any threat from far-right groups. Our union should take the lead in demanding that the TUC and the unions organise and build a national organisation of union reps and members to steward protests against the far-right 

• That unions fight to compel the Labour Government to implement pro-worker policies. If it does not do so, the unions will call a conference to discuss the building of a political vehicle for workers, linking up with Jeremy Corbyn, Zarah Sultana, independent and suspended MPs identifying with the Left and groups of independent socialist councillors fighting anti-austerity measures and racism in their own local communities.