Bristol Trade Union Council joined hundreds of other Bristolians in countering the far right in the centre of Bristol on Sunday 5 October.
A group calling themselves the ‘Bristol Patriots’ organised their march in the centre of Bristol, and we as trade unionists were there to say ‘No!’ to their words of division. Real patriotism is campaigning for a shared future, the redistribution of wealth, of challenging the oppressive conditions in society, helping your neighbour – not scapegoating the vulnerable. We say ‘No!’ to their words of hate against members of our class because we will always have more in common with immigrants and refugees than we will with the bosses and the political class that seek to divide us.
As Bristol Trades Union Council delegate Tom Baldwin said in a speech to the trade union bloc next to the Neptune statue,
“We are trade unionists, we are campaigners, we are fighting for wages, for conditions, for services and for housing for all, against racism and against division – in defence of the most marginalised and oppressed in our society, but also in the interests of the whole of our class, because who does that division benefit? Not us. It benefits Keir Starmer. It benefits the big businesses that he represents. It allows them to pit us against one another, and get away with with further attacks on our living standards and pushing down our wages”
The Trades Council was joined by members of PCS, NEU, Unite, Unison, Equity, UCU and others to say that our struggle lays with a political class that lowers our living standards and supports wars abroad – not with immigrants, refugees and the most vulnerable in our society.
The enemy of our communities travels by private jet and by yacht – not by dinghy.
Bristol Trades Union Council 