I was on the Together Alliance’s march against the far right in London on 28 March 2026. While clearly much more needs to be done and a march in and of itself won’t roll back support for Reform UK and their ilk, I think you would have to be churlish not to recognise the importance of the massive turnout that was achieved on the demo.
Many of the trade unions were out in force having mobilised for the event, as were many of the parties of the left and many voluntary groups too. Some were better represented than others. The Greens were out in force – and their new MP Hannah Spencer spoke very well at the start of the march – but I hardly saw any organised bloc from Your Party or Labour for that matter.
I spend the whole of the day at the front of the demo where I was working on a stall selling T-shirts and other merchandise, assisting my friend, who was part of the demo’s lead organising group with Together Alliance’s Kevin Courtney. As a result, I saw the entire demo pass by while selling T-shirts, badges and bags. The size of the gathering was underlined by the fact that the demo took over three hours to pass by from start to finish.
The mood of the people on the demo was good and obviously very anti-far right. It was also in many cases quite anti-Labour too, underlining the party’s parlous state currently. There was a lot of youth on the march as well as a decent turn out from people my age too (I’m the wrong side of 60!). In terms of numbers, it’s always hard to estimate but this was definitely the biggest demo since the big Gulf war march back in the day. The organisers claimed half a million for yesterday and while that may be an overestimate, it won’t have been by much. It was a significant turnout.
It shows what can be done when the unions lift their fingers and mobilise. Bear in mind too that there was very little advance publicity in the mass media, unlike what we see when Tommy ten names comes to town. Of course, the question is what now? And how best do you counter the right on the ground? Local organising for sure. A political response most certainly.
The Together Alliance describes itself as “trade unionists and environmentalists, community activists and faith leaders, musicians, athletes, entertainers and elected representatives” who have chosen to stand together against the far right. All very laudable and the more people from many backgrounds that get involved in this fight the better. What’s also needed also though is a political campaign to reach out to those in communities that have been marginalised and left behind by the political process and political parties who are susceptible to the false solutions of the far right. There’s undoubtedly work to be done there still.
Labour vacating the playing field on this question is both problematic, but it is also an opportunity. Your Party’s relative invisibility on this demo, barring a few scraped together home-made banners and placards, is the most worrying thing of all. That ordinary people were prepared to take a stand on the issue though is something to be enthusiastic about. It’s right to be critical about the failings of a group like the Together Alliance – and there will be many – but we should also recognise positive events for what they are, while encouraging those involved to draw the necessary conclusions about where we go from here
