Your say / protest
‘March against the government instead of marching to hotels’
Dear Bristol Patriots,
We saw your recent posters, and we hear you’re not a fan of Labour or Starmer. We couldn’t agree more.
This government, like the Tories before it, is attacking working-class people, driving millions into poverty with the cost of living, and doing nothing to address the housing crisis or the under-funding of the NHS. They are governing on behalf of the rich while the rest of us suffer.
We’re against digital ID too. It’s the latest attack of many against freedoms in this country, and part of an ongoing attempt to make everything we say and do is subject to state surveillance.
At a time when grocery prices are sky-high and the NHS is collapsing, spending billions on an ID programme is a total waste of taxpayers’ money.
Billionaires have doubled in the UK since 2010 yet, for most of us, pay cheques barely stretch the month. The government seems to have billions to spend on wars but nothing for ordinary working people. We agree that enough is enough, and something’s got to change.
We believe that to stand up to this government, we need to build as big a movement as possible. The more divided we are, as the working-class, the more likely we are to lose.
That is why Starmer, the Labour Party, the billionaires and the bankers could not be happier that anger is being aimed at immigrants, rather than at them.
While we agree with you on opposing digital ID, helping homeless people, fair jury trials and taxing the rich, you spent the last year organising marches against hotels that housed asylum seekers.
Not only were you targeting the wrong people, most Bristolians found this unacceptable and hundreds came out to oppose you.
You will not build a mass movement in this city this way; by stirring up hate, you will just earn hate. You will continue to have marches of tens of people, surrounded by police for your own protection.
If you are serious about opposing Starmer and digital ID: stop marching to the hotels, march against the government instead.
This is an open letter by Bristol Anti-Racist Action, a local grassroots anti-racist organisation; and Your Party Bristol East. Your Party is a new socialist party that is opposed to racism and discrimination in all forms, and calls for the redistribution of wealth and power to all
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