After anxiety throughout the day about far-right riots in Walthamstow, north-east London, an anti-racist demonstration of thousands of people dominated the streets instead.
Harry Fawcett: Throughout the day here, in Walthamstow, there has been a good deal of anxiety and indeed some fear about what might be coming tonight, after an immigration law centre on the high street here was listed among many potential targets for far right gatherings this evening. Instead we’re seeing this enormous anti-racism demonstration. It’s a real sign of solidarity here – it’s a very diverse, mixed crowd that really does reflect the make-up of this part of London.
What we saw as well earlier were council workers out making sure that there were no missiles, potential missiles – strewn around the street – that could be used offensively. We’ve been seeing many shopkeepers boarding up their businesses. We went to a local mosque where afternoon prayers were also suffused with this idea that there might be an impending threat – youngsters there saying they were standing ready to defend that mosque if necessary. And a big police presence, which people said at the same time is reassuring them, also gave them cause to think that there was something to worry about and put some people on edge. As we’ve seen, none of that has eventuated.
Whether people were discouraged from coming or whether they were never coming in the first place, what we’re seeing instead is this mass gathering of people really determined to show what their community here is all about.
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