During the week I had heard that there was going to be a Britain First Rally/March and a counter-protest from the Anti Fascist organisations in the centre of Birmingham so I figured that I could go and take some photographs. I attend these events in a non-partisan way with respect to anyone I bump into even if some of the views could be interpreted as ill-advised. I am taking photographs of all sides in the protest and counter protest. I try to not be biased in my presentation of the photographs, they are images of what was there in front of me. Thinking back to my studies over the last couple of years there is an unconscious bias that may seep through in my photographs even when I take impartial photos. My photos for the day would not necessary be part of a journalistic article but an exercise to see if there are any photos that tell a story to me and to anyone that sees them. It’s important to me though, that the story is true and accurate and I am manipulating the images as little as possible.
First Contact
Parking at Millennium Point car park and walking in along past Curzon Street I figured that I’d pop back later and put the drone up above the new HS2 Infrastructure being constructed here too. I walked through the city centre and into Victoria Square where the left-wing counter protest was well underway. There were people of many different types, people holding placards and flags that protested against fascists and racists. There were also some songs, “Whose Streets? Our Streets”, “Nazi Scum Out Of Brum” amongst a few more. After a few photos here and seeing how the police were barring them from going out of the square I wandered off to find the main protest.
Britain First
I walked to the New Street station by the Grosvenor Casino and there was a smaller collection of supporters who were wearing shirts with patriotic messages and insignia of right-wing organisations. There were not as many protesters here but as soon as the green minibus with the grills on the windows arrived and doled out the flags it seemed to fill out the whole gathering. The most popular song here in the base camp here was “Keir Starmer’s A Wanker” and only once they’d begun the walk did the other songs break out. As a red smoke grenade was set off and carried aloft amongst the throngs of Union and St George’s Cross flags there were strains of “If you were born with a willy you’re a man”, “You can never trust a leftie with your kids”, “Whose Streets? Our Streets”, “Send them back”.
Paul Golding from Britain First arrived and spoke briefly into a microphone to rev up the supporters and as I was taking photos of this lot I noticed that the prepared counter protesters had visited this area recnetly and affixed stickers to lamp posts showing Golding as a “Woman Beating Scumbag” and according to various news outlets there are stories to back it up. I did see a few attempts by supporters to rid the world of these stickers, but there were too many to handle. The crowd all walked off up towards New Street, Grand Central and were then directed up a street and back down again towards where they started from before being diverted into the street that was blocked with a large video wall. Across the other side of this AV barrier was Victoria Square and the counter protestors. Two or three lines of police in high vis were stationed to prevent opposition representatives sneaking into the “enemy’s camp”. I could hear the beginnings of the introductions to the speeches and decided to head back around to the entry point to the street where the speeches were seen from.
A walk around the protest and then up into the middle of the crowd as it was being addressed by their leaders, I saw a man dressed as one of the Knights Templar and many others carrying flags as well as wearing themed t-shirts, some with <Town Name> Nationalist Movement, some bearing <Town Name> Patriots, one guy with a shirt on that stated “If this flag offends you I’ll help you pack” with a small Union flag above it. Two other flags caught my eye also at this event as the speeches were being shouted over microphones in front of a large screen showing symbolic idyllic images of the UK. One was of Jesus Christ and another for the county of Shropshire, where I am from.
The rhetoric being projected from the PA system made the leader’s views clear, it was about “removing foreigners from our land” and protecting the rights of ordinary British people who want to be safe. There were many more comments about statistics, I can neither remember them or possibly verify them, that sounded a little skewed but I’m sure there were many other people there recording. There was one fellow in amongst the crowd, although like me he looked to be part of neither side, was using an old Bolex 16mm video camera to capture the footage of clashes of people.
Winding Down
After this I walked back up to Victoria Square, where most of the protest had subsided, possibly due to the heat and the winding down of the right wing protest. It was a scorching hot day and the police were all wearing high vis jackets and possibly stab proof vests as well as carrying their gear. It can’t have been easy for them at all. Then there were the Auditors, citizen journalists who appear to find confrontation appealing and recording it to boost their youtube channel statistics. There was a big push as some members of the right tried to infiltrate the left’s space and probably vice-versa and the auditors were heard to be causing some confrontation. I heard the police office in charge of this section commenting on it. Then the guy from the BF march with the Jesus Save Cross came and stood opposite the front line. Some of the protesters thought that this would make a good angle to wind up the right. “Jesus Was a Refugee” and “Jesus was a Palestinian” were shouted from the left-towards the right and the person with the cross appeared to be arguing about the point.
I hung around for a little while longer and spoke with an ex-course-mate from the degree course who was there covering the protests too. I also bumped into another person a few times who is studying journalism at BCU, who knows a few people from my course too.
Reflection
Some of this self-assigned assignment was maddening to behold. Some views were unthinkable and to hear them spoken out loud was a reminder of some dark times in history. There were some valid points on the left wing protestors placards but putting it all together it felt somewhat akin to a playground dispute at school. There were undoubtedly people on both sides with very strong views who were reining themselves in to keep control and prevent their “team” from appearing un-professional. There were also many people there, like me, capturing it on video, photograph or even in one case an oil-painting. There were some intermediate people too who appeared to be stoking the confrontation to elevate the quality of the footage being captured.
In what was an almost trouble-free few hours it was concerning to see small children taking part on both sides of the barricade. There were some masked individuals too, seemingly looking for an opportunity to start a fight with the police or the opposition. Some older people on both sides, seemingly all proud of the flag and Britain itself but with contrasting views on immigration and deportation. Much of the shouted debate is in the form of insults such as you might hear on the football terraces or in a playground, with little actual debate taking place. I’m certain that if a debate was suddenly to spark up that there would be the incendiary people there to set it on fire and cause an all out fight.
The police were in force to contain the protests to prevent them from meeting yet it seemed that some members from each squad would easily sneak past and infiltrate the opposition. Not easy for the police, as they don’t all wear markings to highlight their viewpoint. Whatever happens now, I don’t think that the divisive rhetoric will reduce, if anything it appears that there are more avenues for right wing supporters to subscribe to and whilst the number is still small in comparison to the numbers of left-wing counter protesters, it would not be advisable to let the situation carry on as it is.
When I covered the Raise The Colours protest in Shrewsbury in May it was still represented the same way, with seemingly peaceful counter-protesters and confrontational members of the march. It appears that they are recruiting from other areas of society and evidence of inviting “Football Casuals” to these events appears to be inviting a return to scenes of the horrible football violence seen in the past that led English teams to be treated harshly in Europe.
Both sides might benefit from sitting down for a chat to discuss their opposing views but it may be that some views are too extreme for any negotiations and agreeing with.
Droning
On the way out of Brum I took my car up to the top floor of the car park, launched the drone and captured some photographs of the HS2 progress at Curzon street, then left the area to head home.
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