18/10/2026
Yesterday our delegation of NorSCARF members went to Manchester for the fantastic Together Alliance northern summit, where 500 activists and campaigners got together to hear speeches and discuss next steps after the huge antiracist demonstration of half a million people in London earlier this year.
Our members met up with more people from around the area, including South Cheshire Against Racism , and this is what some of them had to say about the event;
🗯️Claire - I attended the 'How to start a campaign in your area' workshop. This was led by Kevin Courtney from the Together Alliance. Here he explained that organisations and individuals can organise events and utilise the TA as a way of gathering more people to work together to create a greater impact. The second workshop that I attended was 'Women against the far right'. We heard about campaigns for women's reproductive rights and had a very moving account of the experiences of women migrants and their fear and time spent in detention. We were signposted to local groups supporting women's rights as well as a group who were making shopping bags out of the flags that had been removed by Lower The Flags Shrewsbury, with the funds being donated to support migrants! (BagTheFlag https://share.google/ZF6jMENZLm3kQKt2Y).
🗯️John - At the ‘Unions and workers: how do we counter far right arguments in the working class?’ workshop, we discussed having structured conversations, developing the skill to take on racist comments, identifying the underlying issues then redirecting the target for the anger to the real perpetrators. At the ‘How does war fuel the far right?’ workshop we identified the link between militarism and the far right and challenging the calls for increased spending on weapons. We devised slogans about calling for a shift from funding warfare to funding welfare, and calling for unions to campaign to give workers the support to boycott arms trading and production.
🗯️Lorraine - At 'How to start a campaign in your area' workshop we discussed how it should involve a BROAD alliance, as charities, trade unions, NGOs, faith communities, and local dignitaries etc. This could involve organising events, demos, marches, stalls, cultural events, public meetings. Whatever your area needs or agrees to. A key requirement is the need to talk to people and inform people of what REFORM actually stands for and who is creating the hostile environment ie the super rich! At the 'Women against the far right' workshop we discussed how REFORM has said they would withdraw the Equality Act. How groups of men patrolling parks, saying they are protecting women and children, have no DBS checks and are not working in any official capacity. Huge proportions of men arrested in far right riots have prior convictions for abuse of women! Women have not asked for help from these men, they can speak for themselves and many have already started groups like Women Against the Far Right - North West across the country!
🗯️Owen - A truly motivational day made easier by meeting up with the friendly faces from NorSCARF, an excellent array of speakers from a broad spectrum of anti-hate views with one simple message “Together we will do this”. I attended a workshop on how to organise locally, who to approach when making alliances (everyone essentially) and how best to make the first approach. The level of organisation from the far right has to be matched and exceeded in every town and city throughout the country and we can only do this by forming those alliances and standing together against the narrative of hate
🗯️Mark - I thought all the speakers were passionate advocates for the power of unity against the far right who seek to damage our society. I was impressed with the workshops and with the tools provided to engage with those in danger of being radicalised
