We are approaching the third month of the counter-protests to oppose the far-right and other racists targeting the asylum seekers currently housed in the New Bridge Hotel in Newcastle. The protests are organised by Stand Up To Racism and Newcastle Unites and joined by other groups like the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
The first day was the most difficult. The police left both the hotel and counter protesters exposed to the aggression of the racists who were allowed to scream and curse right into our faces and tried to approach the hotel from all sides.
From then on there has been a stronger police presence, the two sides kept far apart. We are reminded of everybody’s right to a peaceful protest. But can you really call this threatening rally, stirring hatred and threatening community cohesion, a peaceful protest, especially given the background of the violent attacks on hotels housing asylum seekers in the riots of summer 2024?
Racists?
The others are a confused mix of locals, some proper racists, some just misinformed and worried, others in it to have some ‘fun’, and ‘pros’, often from beyond the region. Women sit in camping chairs surrounded by plastic flag bunting. Bibles are being held up in the air. (Their hero Tommy Robinson apparently found Christ when he was part of a weekly Bible study in prison.)
Some faces have become familiar sights. Terry, who likes to march up and down dressed in pink and makes throat slitting gestures to our stewards. The young guy with the Templar flag, a wannabe modern crusader. The especially charming guy in his Waffen SS Totenkopf T-shirt.
Our protest
The lack of time restrictions means long days. Our playlist with protest songs is trying to keep the spirits up. Most of us agree that we want to meet their aggression with positivity, spread love not hate. Although we all cheer when the SS man gets arrested after headbutting the crusader. And it’s very tempting to hold up placards with the faces of the predominantly white British North East criminals jailed in August or read out some of the crimes committed by protesters on the opposite side.
It really upsets me to see someone I know and have been fond of for quite some time on the other side. A vulnerable woman, chronically shy, now wrapped in a Union Jack flag posing in the front of the small crowd. We talk on WhatsApp for several days. I send her statistics and info about some of the men she surrounds herself with, their crimes perfectly aligned with those her brother committed against her when she was little. But her perspective is so narrowed that she views illegal immigrants as the primary danger to her personal world.
She has spent all of her life in the east end of Newcastle, in one of the most deprived areas in the UK, ranking in the bottom 3% nationally for income, employment, health, and education. Almost 50% of children in her neighbourhood live in relative poverty. People suffer from long-term health issues, single parents struggle with anxiety, teenagers are already disillusioned.
Generations of working-class people lost out in the post-industrial transformation of Tyneside, followed by the harsh realities of austerity and punishing welfare reforms.
The asylum seekers
“There is so much people could protest about”, says Moatasem, one of the asylum seekers currently housed in the hotel.
In Ethiopia he started protesting against the government, only 13 years old, outside his school. He fled the country when one of his best friends was shot dead. After enduring a traumatic period in Sudan he eventually managed to escape to Europe from Libya, over a hundred people in a boat, two days without food and water. He has lived in the hotel, sharing a room with another asylum seeker, for nine months. He is learning English and volunteers for a local charity. Most of all he misses his family.
We talk about the racists protesting outside the hotel every Saturday. He says:
“I don’t judge the British people by this bunch of racists.”
He and others would like to join us, but they are too afraid, because they don’t have ‘any status’.
“I am grateful for the people who are not racist, who think we have rights to live as humans. What happens if humans don’t help humans? If someone asks you for help, you have to help as much as you can. It’s the humanity inside you, it’s not something you have to make up.”
“We are happy when the other ones say, ‘send them home’ and on this side they say, ‘say it loud say it clear, refugees are welcome here’. You are shielding us, thank you very much!”
On 27 September over 3,000 people came together with a strong message: this city is proudly anti-racist. Hate will not win here!
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