By Conor Tormey
On Saturday, 26 April, a protest called by Dublin City Councillor Malachy Steenson, and endorsed by an assortment of far-right politicians, parties, and local groups, marched through Dublin City with approximately 10,000 in attendance. Conor McGregor, found guilty of rape last November, supported the march as part of his bid to become a candidate in the upcoming presidential election.
Under the cynical guise of a commemoration for the 1916 Easter Rising (a total insult to the memory of its participants, particularly the socialist and migrant James Connolly), the “National March for Ireland” was blatantly anti-immigration, featuring placards of Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and Conor McGregor; Israeli flags and pro-Israel chants; “Make Ireland Great Again” hats, and “Make America Great Again” flags. At the Customs House, chants of “Get them out” reverberated through the crowd, as far-right councillors, independent Gavin Pepper and Patrick Quinlan of the neo-Nazi National Party, called for mass deportations.
A blatantly racist march
Steenson, addressing supporters, praised McGregor and Trump’s recent meeting as the “biggest driver for us this year,” and a day that will be remembered as “the key point in our battle” – directly aligning the protest with figures notorious for racism and sexual violence. Well-known social media personality Black Paddy, aka Fabu D, was told to “Go home” during the March. Former National Party leader Justin Barrett was interviewed after the march and said to the interviewer, “I think you’re a Jew and you should go away”.
After the march, two known far-right activists, pictured with McGregor only several days before, targeted a Delivery driver saying, “You’re all going to be deported soon anyways”. No doubt many on the march were taken in by the anti-establishment rhetoric used to promote the march. However, the organisers of it, the speeches by its leading figures, and the far-right agitators all around it, show clearly that it was a racist march that offers nothing but hate and division for working-class people.
Punching down against migrants
The far right have attempted to portray themselves as anti-establishment, and by linking up with Donald Trump, Tucker Carlson, and Conor McGregor they are attempting to gain more support and influence after they failed to make a breakthrough in November’s general election. However, people like Trump, Carlson and McGregor are all super-wealthy egomaniacs, who spout ignorant nonsense and racist crap. They are far from anti-establishment; indeed they are fully in favour of the capitalist status quo – maintaining the power of bosses over workers, landlords over tenants, and denying rights for immigrants, women and LGBTQ people.
While speakers like Pepper adopted left-sounding demands, including opposing vulture funds, calling for higher wages, and cuts to social welfare, these were empty gestures. The far right have no intention of challenging corporate power or landlordism; their only policy is scapegoating immigrants for the crises created by successive governments and the big business interests they represent. This serves the interests of the capitalist establishment perfectly, as it lets them off the hook for the problems their system has created.
Counter protest
This is why the counter-protest on the day was important; there is no doubt that a stand against McGregor, Pepper, Quinlan, and Steenson was needed. Over 1,000 people stood against the divisive politics in a protest that was the opposite of the far right’s, with chants in solidarity with Palestine, trans people, women, and chants about the reality of McGregor being a serial sexual assaulter, found guilty of rape – exposing far-right leaders who sickeningly claim to‘protect women and children’.
Many groups and parties turned out for the counter-protest, which is welcome. But some of those parties have serious questions to answer. Sinn Féin members stood against the far right on Saturday, but the party has increasingly adopted rhetoric on immigration and trans issues that legitimise rather than counter the far right’s talking points. Moreover, Sinn Féin’s support for Stormont’s ban on puberty blockers in the North and some its TDs echoing blatant transphobia in recent statements about the UK Supreme Court ruling, is further boosting, not challenging the far right. If they are serious about opposing the far right, they must come out and decisively abandon these positions.
Anti-fascist struggle
The lies and poison of the far-right need to be actively opposed. We need to build an anti-fascist movement of working-class and young people. We need to ensure that people of colour, migrants and LGBTQ people are not living in fear on our streets and communities because of the outrageous attempts by fascist thugs to stir up hatred, violence and division.
That movement must also demand public homes and high-quality services for all; build a fightback against gender-based violence and vile misogyny, and all attempts to demonise the trans community. All of this means ridding our society of the far right and the capitalist system that allows it to take root and grow.
