Stephen Price
Cardiff residents are being urged to take part in a Unity March against the far right, rising racism and growing division in society this weekend, with Jeremy Corbyn and Leanne Wood expected to speak during the march.
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, former Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood and Wales Green Party leader Anthony Slaughter are among those expected to speak, and they will be joined by Welsh trade union leaders, anti-racist campaigners and community organisations.
Stand Up to Racism, who are organising the protest, said it aimed to bring together people from different backgrounds to celebrate the city’s diverse communities and show that the majority want a society built on solidarity rather than hatred.
Kwabena Devonish, an organiser with Stand Up to Racism in Cardiff, said the march was about giving people the confidence to challenge the far right.
She said: “The Unity March is about showing what our society can look like and what we want Wales to look like. For far too long far right voices have been the loudest and have fed into rhetoric that has caused serious harm to many different communities.
“We’ve seen this play out most violently with fascists mobilising against asylum seekers and attacking their accommodation.”
Devonish said the far right sought to divide communities and make people fearful of one another, rather than recognise their shared interests in building a better society. The march hopes to demonstrate a different vision for Wales, based on solidarity between people of different backgrounds.
The march is backed by trade unions including the National Education Union and the PCS union, as well as Asylum Justice, Cardiff for Sudan, Black Lives Matter, the Students Federation of India-UK, Women Against the Far Right, Cardiff Stop the War Coalition and other peace groups. We Exist, a trans mutual aid and campaigning collective based in Cardiff and London, is also supporting the demonstration.
Muslim Engagement and Development (MEND), which campaigns against Islamophobia and supports British Muslim participation in public life, has also urged people to join the march.
Tasnim Zaki, MEND’s regional manager for the Midlands and Wales, said: “The fight against Islamophobia is a fight for collective survival.”
She warned that Islamophobia affected people beyond Muslim communities, including those wrongly perceived to be Muslim.
“Unchecked Islamophobia does not just inconvenience community cohesion but it can manifest into extreme violence as we have seen locally and across the UK,” she said.
Zaki added that the march was about fighting for “a world where people are free from persecution and where community safety is not politicised”.
Organisers say they are urging people across Cardiff to turn out in force and demonstrate that racism, discrimination and far right intimidation will be met with “collective unity and resistance”.
The march will assemble on Saturday 24 October, 12 noon, outside Cardiff Central Station
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