Saturday showed the ineptitude of the police, while antifascist resistance showed that we will always be the ones to protect us

Castle Park in central Bristol was already bustling when we arrived early, about 700 of us according to Bristol Antifascists. The word was that fascists had already tried to start fights with locals. About an hour into our counter-protest, we caught wind of their arrival and moved in large groups to the entrances by Bristol Bridge and Temple Meads station at the edges of the Park. They were spotted arriving from the east so we marched up to face them, about 50 yards behind a thin line of police horses and officers with batons.

The fascists hadn’t anticipated how many of us would show up, but they arrived drunk, angry and looking to fight. Proving to them that they were outnumbered, we chanted “We are many, you are few. We are Bristol, who are you?!”.

They were eventually charged by police horses, but roughly 100-200 fascists moved to convene on the hill. We held our ground facing a shower of glass bottles, cans of beer and rocks. A couple of times I watched anti-fascists blocking cans from hitting police officers standing between us.

We fired into action, coming to the aid of a black man who was attacked, and running down to Bristol Bridge to make sure they couldn’t spread any further. I watched police on horses shocked and confused at the spread of the crowd, completely inept at dealing with the fascists. I watched my friend face down a police officer with an attack dog strategically lost in the spread of people around him. We pushed the fascists down High Street, St Nicholas Street and Bristol Bridge until they were bottle-necked and out of steam. After a while, we realised that the police had held them in the exact direction they wanted to go—towards the Mercure Hotel currently housing refugees.

With the police in the way, we, now less than half our original number, sprinted through the streets of Bristol, chanting “Bristol is antifascist” while onlookers ate restaurant food, round through Queens Square and over the bridge to Redcliffe. Comrades handed out bottles of water and energy bars to each other on the way, checking in on each other, keeping close as we weaved through traffic.

I’ll never forget what I saw when we arrived—after hearing reports police were planning to protect the hotel with vans and riot officers—a small line of antifascists linked arm in arm at the door had made it there first. Cops on bicycles were trying to catch up with us, but no other police were in sight. For about 30 minutes we cheered, with the refugees thanking us through the windows of their rooms. They were overjoyed—children and parents were waving and smiling and making hearts out of their hands to us. I cried. “Refugees are welcome here”, we chanted. We weren’t sure if the fash would show up, but sure enough, they trudged their way up the hill towards us.

We formed lines to ready ourselves, standing shoulder to shoulder as tight as possible to ensure they wouldn’t make it through. A comrade behind me got hit in the head with a can. Another next to me got punched in the face. One fascist, who had blood gushing down his already-red face, led the pack from the road to try and get to the hotel door, but never made it through. We defended ourselves and each other and the hotel, and we would’ve continued if we needed to. The moments flash by in my memory—it certainly didn’t feel like 15-20 minutes, it felt like it was over in minutes before police horses arrived again.

That intense attack was the last time we came into contact with one of the groups of fascists, but we still had the police to deal with. After hours of letting the fascists linger on the side of the road, with us stood firm on the other side, the police eventually formed a semi-circle around us. Local Green Party councillors worked with the police to tell us it was safe to leave, that the police had it covered and had pushed the fash back to Temple Meads. But after the ineptitude of the police response until then, about 50 of us stayed steadfast. We complied (too much) with the police, letting them through to the hotel to use the toilets (even though we weren’t allowed in ourselves). As they built their numbers around us we remained linked arm in arm by the hotel doors through to sunset.

The night ended violently. Another group of fascists—the police—decided bully tactics were the way to disperse us. They randomly targeted one comrade in a mask, enforcing section 60, singling them out and grabbing them by the arm to pull them from the group. We pulled the comrade back into the group, but by that point, the cops decided to swarm us. Countless officers split the group in two, pushing most of us closer to the fascists despite telling us our ‘safe’ exit was in the opposite direction. Most officers fell into line, oblivious about what had happened, confused and unsure what to do next. After another 15-minute stand-off with the police, we fanned out knowing we had done our job successfully.

We the people defended our city on Saturday. Not the cops, not the politicians. What was likely an organised pogrom attempt by fascists was fended off by the Bristol community linked arm in arm. The shoddy police response is another example that they are never the safety or protection they claim to be. On Saturday, we showed the power of our community.

We stand ready and prepared to do it again. We will show fascists they will always be outnumbered, they will never be welcome here, and they should be scared to show their faces.

~ Cristian Talbot

Editors’ note: To complement this account, we include here the full statement by Bristol Antifascists:

Yesterday (Saturday 3rd August 2024), Bristol Antifascists joined with antiracist and antifascist groups from Bristol and the South West, along with hundreds of Bristolians, to oppose a far right "Stop the Boats" protest.
We want people to understand up front: hundreds of normal Bristolians held the line yesterday against a brutal, sustained assault by fascists trying to attack a hotel housing migrant and asylum seeker families with very young children. The police absolutely failed in their duty to protect these families.
Disorganised, incompetent and hopelessly outnumbered by fascists, Avon and Somerset Police and the other forces brought in from outside the area would have, if left to their own devices yesterday, allowed a pogrom to happen.
At this stage everyone is familiar with the murders of Bebe, Elsie and Alice in Southport on Monday (29th August 2024). Our hearts are broken for these little girls and their families and loved ones. We cannot imagine the pain they are suffering at this time. We wish a speedy recovery to the other children and adults injured and traumatised by this attack.
Far right and fascist groups are using this tragedy, and the categorically false story that the attacker was a migrant or asylum seeker and a Muslim as an excuse to carry out violent pogroms against those members of our communities around the country.
Bristol Antifascists and our comrades joined a static, peaceful, counter-protest of around 700 people at 6pm at Castle Park. Throughout this hour small groups of fascists and far right attempted to provoke or even attack people around the edges of the protest. By around 7pm a larger group of around 100-200 fascists had gathered nearby in Castle Park. The fascists had clearly been drinking all day, and full of Dutch courage were keen on violence, attempting to March directly into the static-counter protest next to St Nicholas' Church.
What ensued was a series of attacks against the static protest by fascists as they repeatedly broke through the hopelessly thin police lines. We faced full cans of beer and cider, glass bottles,and large stones being thrown and a series of direct physical assaults by groups of pissed-up and coked-up wannabe hard men, who were repeatedly sent packing by far better organised counter-protestors and antifascists. Even with horses and attack dogs, the police were far too outnumbered and far to disorganised to effectively control the fascists, and collective self defence was the only thing keeping everybody safe.
Eventually the fascists had retreated to Bristol Bridge. Knowing that they were believed to be intending to head to Redcliffe Hill, where the Mercure Hotel housing migrant families is located, a quick decision was made by a total of around 200-250 counter-protestors to head around via Queen Square to the Hotel to protect it.
When we arrived the police were all but completely absent, with a handful of cops on bicycles who had followed us being the only visible presence. Conscious of our potentially scary appearance to residents at the hotel, we made certain to demonstrate our solidarity and love for them, with waves, thumbs up, and heart signs exchanged between antifascists and residents of the hotel. It was really notable just how many of the residents are very young, primary school aged children. The downstairs lobby windows are covered with kids' drawings and paintings.
A group of counter-protestors formed a line and linked arms across the hotel entrance while still more of us formed into a tight bloc on the grassy area in front of the hotel. After about 30 minutes a group of around 80-100 fascists, who had broken away from the police on Bristol Bridge, marched up Redcliffe Hill and immediately began to attack us outside the hotel. Again, the police were wildly outnumbered and unable to effectively defend themselves, let alone anyone else.
For a sustained period of around 15-20 minutes, antifascists stood firm, defending ourselves and each other from a constant, intense assault of fists, kicks, bottles and stones thrown at us by fascists intent on attacking the hotel and its residents. The handful of police present flailed, hitting people seemingly at random with batons, and occasionally PAVA-spraying groups of people.
When police enforcements finally arrive in the form of attack dogs, horses and extra officers, the fascists lost their bottle and retreated to the other side of Redcliffe Hill. They remained there in rapidly dwindling numbers, occasionally hurling the odd insult or glass bottle at the counter-protestors, but ultimately unable to muster another attempt at attacking the hotel.
The majority of the 200-250 counter protestors stayed outside the hotel to protect it until around 9pm when Green Party Bristol City Councillors who had began encouraging people to leave telling them that the police would now have the situation under contol. Bristol Antifascists want to make it clear: this was wrong of them. The police had demonstrated a total lack of ability to defend the people housed in the Mercure Hotel or to contain the fascist threat in our city. There was still the potential for fascists to regroup and try again to attack the hotel. Around 50-60 people chose to stay at the hotel as it got dark. We'd recieved a request from parents inside the hotel to keep things quiet as they were putting young children to bed, and we happily obliged.
At around 10pm, as larger numbers of police arrived at the hotel, those of us remaining decided the time was right to quietly leave as a group and then disperse in a safe area in town. However, this wasn't before the police decided to reassert their authority after a frankly humiliating day for them. While people were largely sat quietly on the grass or stood around chatting in front of the hotel entrance, a group of cops in riot get suddenly pushed their way to the front of the hotel, hitting, shoving and shouting at counter-protestors for no apparent reason. Fine. Let them believe they're in charge. Whatever keeps them quiet.
Despite clear confusion and a lack of communication between different groups of police trying to send us in opposite directions, we eventually left the Redcliffe Hill area, and quietly disbanded, blending back into the now quiet night of the city we live in and love so much.
We want to drive that point home: the media and politicians and police will talk about "protestors" and "the public" as though they're two mutually exclusive groups of people. We are the public. This city is our home, and the people who live in it, of every race, ethnicity and religion are our neighbours and friends. So too are the residents of the Mercure Hotel. Bristol welcomes migrants and refugees, and we will fight for them if we have to.
Yesterday showed the power and importance of community self-defence. Normal Bristolians put themselves in harms way to protect their neighbours in the Mercure hotel, and we stopped a violent, racist mob from doing harm to the families inside. The police were beyond useless, and it was the bravery, moral conviction, and community solidarity of the antifascist counter-protestors that kept the fascists at bay.
Again, we are the public. Outside of this we're normal boring people, with normal boring lives, and normal boring jobs. Antifascism is and must be a community effort, and as this flare-up of far right violence continues, we are going to need everyone to step up and do their part to keep our communities safe around the country.
Every day is the Battle of Cable Street. Keep fighting it.
Always Antifascist. No Pasaran.
Love and Solidarity Forever.
Bristol Antifascists.