Medway on the edge
Far-right demonstrators and anti-racism campaigners face off on a dual carriageway
A crowd of around 50 anti-racism campaigners are gathered outside of the Innovation Centre near Rochester Airport.
“Say it loud, say it clear, refugees are welcome here”, they chant in unison.
“No, they fucking aren’t”, shouts a woman in response.
It’s a little before 8.30pm, and two groups are now facing off with each other next to a busy dual carriageway.
How did we get here?
On Monday evening, a screenshot from a Telegram channel used for organising ‘protests’ that quickly became riots over the weekend started circulating on social media. It showed a list of around 30 locations around the UK to be targeted on Wednesday night, alongside phrases like ‘mask up’ and flame emojis. The implications were clear.
In Medway’s case, the location was the office of an immigration lawyer based within Medway Council’s Innovation Centre. Understandably, the centre is closed on the day, and its car park is closed. It’s the first of a series of small disruptions that comes from this.
Inevitably, social media whips the situation into something of a local frenzy. Wednesday afternoon sees all kinds of spurious rumours and misinformation flying around. There’s talk of large gatherings of the far-right at a local mosque, and footage from a car on fire at the nearby KFC from earlier in the week starts circulating as scenes of violent disorder.
By the time the evening comes, it’s hard to know whether anyone will even turn up. At first appearance, it seems that only the anti-racism campaigners have made the journey. The counter-protest, quickly organised by Medway Stand Up To Racism, has a group outside the Innovation Centre at 7pm. This is an hour before the far-right are expected, presumably to gain the geographical advantage.
There’s little sign of the other side at this point, and while there is a heavy police presence in the area, they mostly seem to be hanging back. Soon, it becomes clear that the anti-racism campaigners aren’t the only ones here. Individuals wander past filming on their phones. Small groups of men walk past, telling the police that they are just on their way to Asda. A few people are starting to hang around on the other side of the road.
By 8, it is clear that this will be an event with two sides. Groups of men, and it is mostly men, are gathering on the other side of the road, with some venturing up to within a few feet of the established line at the Innovation Centre. Rumours start to circulate that the police are stopping people coming this far up the right, suggesting they are finding reasons to issue dispersal orders to those they suspect of causing trouble. While the police seem unconcerned about the anti-racism campaigners wearing face coverings, they do appear to be stopping new arrivals from wearing them.
More people are continuing to gather. They are mostly men, overwhelmingly white, largely aged between 20 and 50 or so, and several have beers in their hands.
A police officer stops one of the men, telling him that he intends to issue him with a dispersal order as he believes he is planning to cause disorder. He is asked for his details but instead chooses to sprint away to shouts of “Go on, Tom” from his friends. The police don’t bother to pursue him. Later, ‘Tom’ pops up on a live stream of the event, telling the camera that he expected civil unrest and that the government “shattered the country with the covid lies.”
It’s notable just how many people are recording at the scene. The mainstream media are there, of course. Every police officer is wearing a body camera. Several anti-racism campaigners have cameras out the entire time. Then there are the descending crowds, so many of whom streamed the entire thing live, asking the audience to ‘share the live’ for clout or spent long periods begging for a phone charger because they didn’t think to bring one.
By the time we move to the next chant - “If you're with Nazis, you're a clown, get your hate out of our town” - things are getting more testy.
“Not in my town”, an angry man in a stained jumper shouts back. “They’re not integrating. They’re coming across, and they’re raping our fucking women. They ain’t welcome”, he continues. “Shia [sic] law and all that. We welcome asylum seekers, but these are the scum.”
The chants from the anti-racism group move on to the more direct “Nazi scum, off our streets”. This causes something of an escalation with the arriving crowds, a number of whom take issue with being called Nazis.
Independent councillor Satinder Shokar is among the group chanting the phrase. Of all of the stories to become a political flashpoint following these events, Cllr Shokar’s participation is perhaps the oddest. Shokar, a Labour councillor who is currently suspended from the party, is a regular at this kind of demonstration. Today, he has faced criticism from his own party and beyond about the use of phrases like “Nazi scum”.
Labour MP for Chatham and Aylesford Tris Osborne told BBC Radio Kent that there is “no place for this kind of language” in the Labour Party. At the same time, Conservative Group leader Cllr George Perfect has said that Shokar should “never” be allowed back into the Labour Group.
Medway Council Leader Cllr Vince Maple took a more middle-ground approach to the matter in a statement released to us:
The level of conduct expected of an elected Member of Medway Council should clearly be higher than what would be expected from a regular member of the public. Following advice from the police, I had requested that members of my group didn't attend any counter protest, in order to make their work easier. It will be up to the Labour Party as to whether joining in with this chanting will be incompatible with having membership restored for Cllr Shokar.
However, out of a large group of protestors, I am concerned that a bulk of responsibility for this chanting is being place on Cllr Shokar, one of the only ethnic minority faces on the recorded footage. As someone with Punjabi heritage, he will have had racist insults that don't precisely fit his background levelled at him his whole life, and I am sure he will rightly be worried that recent events will have given the green light to those using the fascist tactics of fear and intimidation, which we have recently seen elsewhere in the country to escalate this hatred.
A man in a white t-shirt steps forward. “You’re protecting the people who killed our kids”, he animatedly shouts. “You’re mugs. You believe the BBC, all the fake news media. You’re fucking idiots.” For a period, he joins the chant of ‘Nazi scum, off our streets’ but switches it to ‘Marxists’. Getting bored quickly, he starts abusing the appearance of one of the anti-racism campaigners and then insults their shoes. A woman tries to tell him to stop. He goes on to shout, “Your balls ain’t dropped yet”, and a minute or so later finds himself issued with a dispersal order. He walks off shouting about “two-tier policing” and “wankers”.
A man in a bomber jacket with a ‘Skinheads’ patch steps forward, waving a Union flag upside down. “That’s a true patriot right there”, another man shouts. The police immediately step in and talk to the flag waver, issuing him with a dispersal order. He is upset at receiving one for “holding up the English flag” and offended at being called a Nazi by the anti-racism campaigners. “None of us are even German”, he pleads.
Around 8.30pm, the police step in further, using powers to try and diffuse both sides. They tell the anti-racism group to stop using their megaphone and to avoid calling people Nazis. At the same time, they try to move the increasingly large group of demonstrators, now numbering over 100, back across the street. Something they don’t seem particularly inclined to do.
The group ask the police why they need to move back. Matter of factly, they are told it is so the police can “create space between two groups that don’t like each other.” The group continue to refuse to move. “Is there anything we can reasonably do or say to get you to move back to the other side of the road?” an officer asks. “A fried chicken dinner with gravy”, one demonstrator shouts back in an American accent, seemingly missing the irony that the nearby KFC has been forced to close early as a result of their gathering.
KFC isn’t the only place, either. Pretty much the entire Horsted Retail Park has been cleared, with Currys, Pets at Home, Homebase, Aldi, and Home Bargains all shutting up shop long before anyone arrived.
As the group begins to get pushed back, one man who appears to have been drinking calls a police officer a “faggot”. Within seconds, he’s been tackled to the ground and becomes the first of two arrests during the event. As the handcuffs are going on, he continues to repeat the slur.
At the same time, another man is becoming the second arrest, being pinned down by officers in the middle of Maidstone Road. It’s unclear what led to this at the time, but a statement from Kent Police today suggested it on suspicion of public order offences after being alleged to have shouted racial abuse.
One woman is angry at being moved across the road while the anti-racism campaigners can remain in place. “This ain’t our fucking country anymore”, she laments. But once they are across, having a dual carriageway between the two groups seems to head things off a little bit.
There are more testy exchanges with police officers, with the occasional complaint that “they are trying to provoke us”, but by 10pm, it’s mostly a group of people standing around next to a busy road. Soon, the police start gently moving them down toward the Tiger Moth roundabout. A couple of demonstrators ponder a pint at the eponymous pub, seemingly oblivious that it’s another establishment closed because of their arrival.
The scenes from Medway weren’t pretty, but they did largely pass without incident. Aside from the two arrests, no other major disorder or injuries were reported from the event.
Medway Council Leader Vince Maple issued the following statement this morning:
Having followed events closely last night, I am pleased that initial reports show the proposed action in Medway, as well as across the country, passed largely without any major incident showing clearly Medway is no place for hate.
I’d like to thank Kent Police for their swift action to address any signs of potential disorder, but also police officers across the country working tirelessly to help keep members of all communities safe.
I am also very grateful to Medway Council staff and our partners for supporting last night’s response.
It has been encouraging to hear the resounding voice of Medway that violence or discrimination of any kind is not welcome here, something I loudly echo and will continue to do so.
I recognise the ongoing unrest across the country is unsettling, but we continue to stand against any kind of discrimination here in Medway - we are One Medway.
Last night appeared to show anti-racism campaigners outnumbering far-right demonstrators in many towns and cities. In Medway, that assessment was more mixed, with a larger number of far-right demonstrators than anti-racism campaigners turning out.
What this means for the future remains to be seen. With leaflets and social media posts circulating promoting a demonstration in Gillingham next month, we might be seeing more such gatherings in the future.
Footnotes
This story was compiled using a combination of on-the-ground reporting and hours of live-streamed video from the event.
That's genuinely great reporting, calm and stays away from sensationalising.
Having been on the anti racism side, this is an accurate analysis. What also needs to be noted is the fact that Stand Up To Racism organised the counter protest in 24 hours and still managed to gain a geographical advantage (that is an accurate assessment of what we did). 😊