HUNDREDS of anti-fascist protesters turned out in Paisley on Friday evening to counter an advertised far-right demonstration which was allegedly planned to target a hotel in the Scottish town.
Some 300 protesters and trade unionists joined an anti-racist demonstration outside the Watermill Hotel in Paisley, where asylum seekers and refugees are currently housed, while others turned out at the Cairn Hotel in Bathgate.
Campaign group Stand Up To Racism had put out a call for people to protest outside both hotels amid concerns that they could be targeted by far-right violence. More than 50 police officers had been injured in a riot at a hotel in the English town of Rotherham five days earlier.
However, despite that and similar incidents across England and Northern Ireland, a significant far-right presence has so far failed to materialise in Scotland, and that held true in Paisley.
Protesters in the Scottish town – wearing everything from full Highland dress to black hoodies – sang “we don't need this fascist groove thang”, chanted “refugees are welcome here”, and gave passionate speeches about the need to support asylum seekers in their community.
Mohammad Asif, who came to Scotland as a refugee in 2000 and now works with Stand Up To Racism and the Afghan Human Rights Foundation, was one of the speakers to address the crowd.
He told The National afterwards: “It is more important than ever to be here today. I want to say thank you to the people of Paisley for standing with us with a very united voice and telling the fascists they are not welcome here or anywhere in Scotland.
“This is the 21st century, 2024, where you see the far-right or certain groups of society running around on the streets of England and Northern Ireland, looking for Muslims, brown and black people to try to beat them and stab them, in some cases even try to kill them, burning businesses, shops, houses, police stations, cars.
“This should stop and this is a very clear message from Scotland and the town of Paisley. The fascists will never win.”
Around 150 people were in the crowd by 5.30pm – the time Stand Up To Racism had asked people to arrive – and this swelled to 300 by 6.30pm – the time the far-right were thought to be considering a demonstration.
However, no openly far-right or anti-immigration protesters turned up at all. A handful of small groups of men were spoken to by police as they loitered near the protest, but it is unclear if they ever had any intention of joining or were simply stopping to look as they passed by.
Stand Up To Racism’s Rory Anderson told The National they had organised the demonstration “because we felt there was a genuine threat” of fascist protesters targeting the Watermill Hotel.
He added: “After the scenes in England, we wanted to make sure there was an anti-racist response against that type of message.”
Anderson said that the response from the community had been “beyond what I thought it was going to be”.
“It's been a really brilliant, genuine community response, which has been beautiful,” he said.
“There’s a whole different swathe of across civil society here, so it's better than I can imagine, but it's about continuing to build that and making sure it doesn't come back.”
