The White Man March

A report by Nerve feature writer James Schaer on The White Man March in Liverpool on 15th August 2015.

Liverpool was set to be the scene of ‘The White Man March’, a contentious and controversial march organised by the British Neo-Nazi group, National Action. Despite widespread media coverage, threats of race riots and claims of hundreds of skinheads marching through our streets, the whole thing unfolded in a far different manner.

The first I heard of the march was when our beloved Mayor posted a death threat he received from National Action, which threatened fire bombing and racial attacks if the march was to be stopped – though bearing National Action’s logo in the header and purporting to be from a member of the group they have since gone on to deny this on their website.

The following weeks saw Joe Anderson condemning the march and trying to ban it with the help of Home Secretary Teresa May. But like most of his efforts it proved to be a fruitless endeavour.

I had only heard of National Action once or twice in the past. Their previous marches have met with much criticism. The few articles I could find on the group largely relate to their secrecy and a few incidents of racially motivated attacks, and murder, associated with their members.

Their website is clear evidence of their Neo-Nazi aims and is reminiscent of literature once put out by the National Front. Their ‘Strategy’ starts by blaming the UK's poor economic state on bankers and migration, before slowly slipping into Anti-Semitism and pogroms all within a few pages. Reading through their site it is hard to ascertain their aims politically, but their constant references to standing up to those in opposition to them in any means necessary reeks of violence.

In the days running up to the event I scoured the internet in vain to find out the starting point of the march. All I could find where pages and pages of criticism. There was more information on the rival Anti-Fascist march at St Luke’s Church and the Anthony Walker Memorial taking place the same day.

Around midday, just a couple of hours before the march was due to take place, the Liverpool Echo began posting reports of a phalanx occurring at Lime Street. Pictures of Anti-Fascists marching towards the bollards to meet with the few National Action members that had arrived there – their number seeming around a dozen rather than the one hundred and fifty plus as promised in the Mayor’s death threat. So I quickly hot-footed it down there to catch the ruckus.

By the time I arrived, some twenty minutes later, things had subsided. The inside of the station had returned to normal with people idling by. However, the road outside was now full with a crowd of hundreds of Anti-Fascists surrounded by a considerably less number of police officials. Wandering around the crowd I heard tales of a small group of National Action members arriving at the station and quickly being shepherded out of sight amidst fear for their safety.

At 2pm horns sounded and the crowd began to head for the Pier Head, via Water Street, to meet up with ‘The White Man March’. There was a joyous atmosphere walking with them. A number of flags and T-shirts outlined the various Anti-Fascist groups in attendance. Chants were rife: ‘Whose streets? Our streets’, ‘Nazi’s out’ and the more tongue-in-cheek like ‘Shoot yourself like Adolf Hitler’. The smell of skunk wafted through the air. Children walked past with ‘Hope Not Hate’ t-shirts and banners that looked like they were created in a primary school art department.

Despite the large numbers and heavy police presence I didn’t see any trouble and felt at ease within the sea of people – reports afterwards mentioned a few arrests but the numbers seemed less than average, considering the amount of people in attendance. As I neared the bottom of Water Street I turned around to see the entire street swamped. Huge numbers marching and chanting in unison. An amazing sight to see in the normally sedate business district.

As we came up to the Pier Head all was oddly quiet as we began to fill the square. With not a Nazi in sight. I began to chat with a group wearing ‘Liverpool Anti-Fascists’ t-shirts who told me National Action had released a statement on their website to say they had cancelled their march. As the news spread cheers went up throughout the crowd, some of the groups began raising their banners and setting off flares, whilst some of the more notable people in the crowd began giving celebratory interviews to the camera crews in attendance… Then slowly everyone began to dissipate.

In the following days reports of the event began to filter through. Pictures of a handful of Neo-Nazi’s standing their ground proudly at the turnstiles before being locked in the ‘Lost and Found’ section at Lime Street for their protection did the rounds on social media. National Action announced another ‘White Man March’ to take place in Liverpool at the end August, but it seemed little more than bravado in the face of public humiliation.

One thing I did notice about the event was that the crowd was predominantly filled with white people. In a sense the white man did march that day, but in a much different manner to how it was planned.

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Sorry Comments Closed

Comment left by paul on 28th August, 2015 at 9:19
What a pile of shit. 2 mins of my life wasted