“Pick a name,” says one of the two London activists I’m walking down Grosvenor Road with. “We don’t use our real names for safety purposes.” I barely think about it. “Canada?” I propose. They burst into laughter. Apparently, choosing a colonizer-sounding code name is funny. In the end, I go by “Morocco.” Not subtle, but I’m not an activist, and the scene is pretty new to me. It’s early August, and I’m in town during the anti-immigrant riots in the UK, visiting a Londoner who also happens to be an activist—one of the two I’m walking with. They’ve invited me to join what’s known as “patrolling” in the predominantly racialized community of Forest Gate, in the London borough of Newham. We check in to make sure residents and business owners are safe.
While it’s warm and humid, the sky is still typically overcast. Everyone we talk to is on edge, prepared. The day before, a message that had been spreading on underground social media groups leaked to the media; it revealed a “hit list” of thirty-eight planned targets for that evening. It had been put together by far-right activists and captioned: “THEY WON’T STOP COMING UNTIL YOU TELL THEM . . . NO MORE IMMIGRATION. 8PM. MASK UP.” The targets included immigration centres, immigration lawyers’ homes, and asylum support charities in London and nearby towns. The police and the media are treating the information as a “credible threat.”
