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?

Anti-racism campaigners outside Medway Innovation Centre

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.

People gather opposite the Innovation Centre

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.

Anti-racism campaigners and police officers

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.”