Anti-racism campaigners have vowed to show the far right they are not welcome in Scotland after an anti-immigration rally was organised in Glasgow.
But they warned against a “false sense of security” as the disorder witnessed across England and Northern Ireland earlier in the month has not been seen in Scotland.
Stand Up to Racism Scotland is planning a “major” event in Glasgow on 7 September, in coalition with nine trade unions and leading refugee rights organisations, in response to an anti-immigration rally in the city’s George Square.
The anti-immigration rally is being advertised as a peaceful protest “against our government’s mass and illegal immigration policies which are tearing the UK apart”.
The event was promoted by Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, the co-founder of the now defunct English Defence League, in the days after the Southport attack, and is likely to be the first significant anti-immigration gathering in Scotland since similar events descended into violent disorder south of the border.
Organised by the Glasgow Cabbie Facebook page, which has circulated misinformation relating to the murder of three children in Southport, the event is being promoted online under the same “enough is enough” banner that led to unrest in Liverpool, Manchester, Belfast and Leeds in recent weeks.
The George Square event will also be a test of Police Scotland’s pledge to deal “swiftly and robustly” with disorder. A spokesperson for the force said: “We aware of a planned protest and have a proportionate policing plan in place.”
Rory Anderson, an organiser for Stand Up To Racism Scotland, said: “The strong message will be that the far right are not welcome in Scotland. It’s important to celebrate resistance as well as diversity, and to show communities are willing to stand together.”
While the event’s organisers are hopeful of a similar turnout to those across England which marked a turning point in the public mood, they are mindful that this is no time for complacency. Indeed, reporting by the Ferret news site has found far-right groups in Scotland are using the recent riots elsewhere in the UK to try to recruit new members.
The former first minster Humza Yousaf is similarly wary of complacency, having spoken openly during his time in office about the extreme levels of racism and Islamophobia he and his family have endured.
“I’ve been on the receiving end of death threats, abuse, harassment because of the colour of my skin or my faith – from people in Scotland,” he said. “But we also can’t ignore the fact that there haven’t been riots in Scotland so far.”
While his own party has been “unashamedly pro-immigration,” Yousaf argued that – over the past 25 years of devolution – all parties, including the Scottish Conservatives, had been part of “a general consensus that migration has been good for our country”.
So we’ve got an effect where the political discourse is positive around migration and multiculturalism, and that helps to shape public opinion.”
It is a view shared by the Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, who became emotional during an interview in 2021 when describing the racism he experienced as a child.
He told an Edinburgh fringe event last week: “Do I think our demographics are different? Yes. Do I think our political discourse is different in Scotland? Yes. Do I think our chattering class and our media is different in Scotland? Yes. Do I think we have less of a thriving right wing or right-of-centre media bubble in Scotland? Yes.
“I think all of that has helped contribute to us not having the same problems as you have seen in other parts of the UK.”
But, according to Sabir Zazai, the head of the Scottish Refugee Council, the fact that violence did not spread to Scotland in early August has not resulted in communities here feeling any safer.
“There are still people in Scotland who are fearful, not sure what to do. I still have people contacting me directly from asylum hotels asking if their life is at risk.”
Zazai said that these hotels have been “easy targets” for the far right for years, in Scotland too, with regular demonstrations outside one in Erskine led by the group Patriotic Alternative.
Zazai, himself a refugee who fled conflict in Afghanistan in 1999, also sounded a note of caution for those hoping to join the counter-protest. “We want to push back and not allow hatred to spread, but we want to be sure of people’s safety. We have all fled squares full of people shouting, then shooting, then killing. The conflicts we fled did not start with bullets.”
Talat Yaqoob, a campaigner and commentator, agreed that heightened awareness and anxiety remains, particularly among those who are visibly Muslim, such as women wearing hijabs.
She argued that Scotland has not seen similar far-right violence so far partly because there are proportionally fewer black and ethnic minority citizens living in Scotland.
“Our community is not large enough in Scotland to feel like a fictional threat or large enough to be blamed for every societal ill. A key part is that immigration is not devolved to Holyrood, so Scotland’s politics has not been pulled into the same culture wars and dangerous attempts at division.”
But she cautioned against “Scottish exceptionalism”. “I’ve still had a lifetime of racism and Islamophobia living here,” she said.
While the 7 September rally is “one attempt of many to try to stoke division,” Yousaf argued “there will be more riots, more incidents of racial and religious tension, hostility towards migrants, if we just do not address the underlying issues”.
Yaqoob agreed: “I am concerned that there’s a false sense of security that the violence a few weeks ago was dealt with simply by ramping up law enforcement. What has not been responded to is how we got here in the first place.
“I don’t see the necessary steps being taken to combat the xenophobia and Islamophobia that has been legitimised by some in media and politics. We have not even begun to hold to account how the far-right have organised via our mainstream institutions and how that was enabled.”
