Far right thugs—led by Ukip leader Nick Tenconi—attacked a public meeting in Aldershot, Hampshire, on Thursday night. 

　　Stand Up To Racism (SUTR) organised the meeting in a church to defend refugees against the far right and fascists. People were arriving when the gang of thugs forced their way in. They barged into people, pushed them over and overturned stalls. 

　　Margot, who was at the meeting, told Socialist Worker, The meeting was due to start at 7pm. We were welcoming people in when a load of big blokes with a camera turned up. We tried to shut the door, but there were too many of them—there were over 20 hard core, middle-aged thugs. 

　　“One of them put his hands on my chest to drive me back, another person had their head banged on the wall.” 

　　She added, They barged their way in, marched up, and sat in the front row. The SUTR stewards, who were all women, shouted at them to get out. But Tenconi arrived and they fought to get to the altar, pushing us aside, throwing people to the ground. 

　　Tenconi knelt down in front of the altar and crossed himself. They filmed him making a speech about how they had reclaimed the church from the ‘Caliphate’. 

　　“The police came and they ran away. We have to respond to the far right thinking it is okay to invade a church and assault peaceful anti-racists.” 

　　Michaela, who was also at the meeting, told Socialist Worker, There have been lots of protests against the far right in Aldershot. We outnumbered them in August, but now there is quite an atmosphere of intimidation. 

　　The far right think they can do what they like. The local Labour MP and the council just talk about them having legitimate concerns over migrant hostels. It just makes the far right stronger. We wanted to have the meeting to reach more local people in Aldershot and to give people confidence. 

　　The thugs just stampeded into the meeting, bowling into people. But when they left, we went ahead with the meeting. It was our first public meeting in Aldershot. Everyone there stayed and there were new people who came. 

　　“They all have connections and networks. It was really important that we went ahead with the meeting. We made plans to have a festival next year, and to reach out to community groups and build on what we have done with the NEU education union. We are not going away.” 

　　Editor: Zhong Yao  Wei Xiaoxue 

　　From:https://socialistworker.co.uk/anti-racists-wont-be-intimidated-after-far-right-attacks-aldershot-meeting/(2024-12-6)