Last February, the Home Office announced over 100 asylum seekers would be rehoused from locations in England to the Muthu Hotel in Erskine. Local residents and councillors quickly raised obvious concerns about this re-accommodation, which would place an increased strain on local services. Frustration was generated by the lack of public consultation before the Home Office transferred these migrants to the small town. Whilst feelings simmered, the far-right seized the opportunity to sow hatred and division among the community. What followed was over a year of two opposing demonstrations outside the hotel, every Sunday.
Patriotic Alternative, then led by the head of their Scottish organisation, Kenny Smith, were the first nationalist group to campaign against the temporary accommodation of asylum seekers at the hotel. Infiltrating local Facebook groups and identifying residents both opposed to the rehousing and taken in by their far-right rhetoric, they were able to build a network of local sympathisers. After establishing a small presence among locals, they launched their Erskine Says No campaign on 5 February 2023. PA across Britain mobilised with banners, flags and placards to ensure this action against asylum seekers succeeded and the nationalists would be legitimised as the voice of the community. However, their turnout dwindled week on week, as the far-right quickly found that, offline, Erskine locals were generally ambivalent or hostile to their protests.
Whilst PA activists near the hotel tried to appeal to passing dog walkers, the fractious nature of the nationalist milieu bubbled over to public squabbles and feuds, culminating in Kenny Smith leading a mutiny of PA’s Scottish members to form the Homeland Party. Such a schism is nothing new to the far-right, with Smith himself reported to have had a role in the factional dispute that resulted in the leaking of the British National Party’s membership list in 2009, according to its former leader, Nick Griffin. Whilst the far-right should be carefully observed and assessed by our movement, we can for now rely on their own malfunctional tendencies to limit any confidence they’d win from the general public.
The initial counterdemonstrations were sporadic, charged, and confrontational in nature. As expected, there was a large police presence focused on controlling the antifascists. These foundational demonstrations became a shouting match between two sides equipped with loudhailers and speaker systems. This unproductive and stagnant situation frustrated any chance of a constructive dialogue between residents. Recognising this, the anti-racist turnout collectively reoriented the demonstrations into a much more constructive effort. We became less occupied by a megaphone shouting match with our opponents, instead shifting the atmosphere to a much more family friendly/community orientated one.
This resulted in those in the hotel to coming out and, crucially conversing with the residents. The asylum seekers were all leaving nations, rife with conflicts and economic catastrophe that the western ruling-classes engineered: Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan. Many of them revealed that their ushering to the hotel was as much an imposition on them by the Home Office as it was to the town. The restrictions placed on them to remain in the hotel to await further temporary relocation, prevented them from finding any kind of employment or integrating into the country. It became clear that the government’s policy of reluctant adherence to international provisions for asylum seekers, not only places a burden on deprived communities, but locks asylum seekers into a position of dependence on the state.
Erskine is plagued by the same austerity measures that have ravaged communities throughout Scotland. Locals have been left to feel isolated, forgotten, and neglected. The final nail in the coffin was this announcement of over 100 asylum seekers moving into the town. Let’s be honest and point out that this is objectively a terrible policy. It is possible to oppose the nationalists cynically exploiting this situation to peddle their racist nonsense, whilst making no apology for the capitalist state indiscriminately dumping a large group of people into a destitute area. The signal sent by the government housing asylum seekers who, for a variety of reasons, cannot make a living for themselves, in a hotel that is ultimately funded by ‘the taxpayer’, is a recipe for resentment by the local community, and we should be upfront about how callous this policy is, for both residents and asylum seekers.
We must oppose Britain’s involvement in armed conflicts around the globe, not least for the huge waves of migration this causes. Similarly, we need to oppose the way the British state mishandles refugees. The government’s approach sees that they are not accommodated properly in social housing, as that would mean setting a precedent for providing social housing for the native-born Britons as well. This approach also does not involve successfully turning asylum seekers away before entering the country, as that would require a well-funded and efficient border system, costing money and curtailing the interests of free movement capitalists.
Instead, we are left with the chaotic disgrace we have now, of housing refugees in hotels and barges whilst the government ponders sending them to Rwanda. Meanwhile, a few private firms reap huge profits from the lucrative contracts doled-out for providing accommodation. The British ruling class are simultaneously incompetent, indecisive and unconcerned with the misery they are creating through this terrible compromise.
As the summer months came closer, the counterdemonstrations hosted sports, attracting more people out of the hotel. The Morning Star Cup football tournament was a massive success, bringing locals and migrants into a shared activity. Combined with the change in atmosphere on our side of the demonstrations, a sense of shared material interest and solidarity that the initial ‘shouting match’ demonstrations lacked, was finally imbued. Despite the barriers of the police, the far-right and language, a positive relationship was finally established between the people of Erskine and the migrants. This support from the community continued long after, with donations of winter clothing provided for the asylum seekers.
The Home Office announced the dispersal of the Erskine asylum seekers to new accommodations, by the end of this month. What next then for the people of Erskine? The smattering of racists who continued to demonstrate outside the hotel will no doubt proclaim a victory from the Home Office’s indifferent removal of the migrants. However, the nationalist attempt to establish themselves in Erskine has failed, not least due in part to their own instability and repulsive image.
The legitimate problems in the community that the nationalists cynically weaponised, the cuts to council services, to public transport, to GP practices, aren’t being solved by vacancies at the Muthu hotel. They will only be solved by the collective efforts of the community in a campaign against austerity.
Such campaigns have a traditional foundation in trade unionism. Workers campaigning for greater pay and conditions at work, also lead the fight for better social services, against dangerous cuts to council programmes and facilities. Such struggles reveal to workers the ideological nature of austerity, and mobilise the people against the ruling class. Erskine residents are perhaps in a more advantageous position for fighting against austerity after the counterdemonstrations. An existing network of trade union support, especially that of the Paisley and District Trades Council has been established, along with connections with the Young Communist League and Communist Party, and the Paisley branch of Living Rent.
As the British government and the regime media continue to bewail the influx of asylum seekers, we will see the far-right harden their attempts to capitalise on this, especially within neglected communities like Erskine. It is imperative that the hard work of fighting the economic issues bearing down on the working class be carried out. Communities left without a strong presence and leadership from the trade unions, tenants unions or communists, will be susceptible to the opportunism of the nationalists. Therefore, we need to expand our movement ahead of them, branch out and strengthen ourselves in every direction. We must have a proactive strategy for establishing ourselves across communities, instead of just reacting to the movements of the nationalists.
Young Communists and workers will band together in solidarity with those who are both fleeing war and conflict because of British imperialism, and with those most impacted by the deadly austerity measures that have plagued this country for decades. We also must be honest and show that the capitalist class have a dysfunctional immigration policy– a policy that has been designed in their own interests, not ours.
At the helm of a popular front against the capitalist class, we can form an unbreakable blade of solidarity, capable of cutting down fascism, sending them scurrying back into the shadows. In the words of the Communist Party General Secretary, Harry Pollit:
“The labour organizations must therefore concentrate upon joint action against growing Fascism, and against the dangers which it involves for the working class”
Nathan Hennebry is a member of the Young Communist League’s Glasgow branch.
