Socialist Party Wales Socialism In Wales
By Ginny Bayliss Swansea Socialist party
On August 13th members of Cardiff and Swansea Socialist Party branches united with other left-wing groups from across the area to counter-protest far-right demonstrators outside a drag queen story hour for children and parents at Cardiff Central Library.
Despite calling the protest, alt-right group Patriotic Front did not show which left a handful of poorly organised, local agitators to be dwarfed four or five to one by antifascists. Though the protestors screamed homophobic and transphobic abuse through megaphones, the significantly larger numbers of counter protests allowed it to be drowned out, and the moral and numbers of anti-drag protestors fell yet further.
South Wales Police, true to form, coddled the fascist group while threatening counter-protestors with arrest. Ultimately though, the event was able to go ahead without incident. Despite resulting in an emphatic win for anti-fascism, the fact that counter-protests at these events are necessary serves as a warning of the power queerphobia has as a rallying point for the far-right – with protestors ranging from trans-exclusionary feminists to self-confessed Hitler admirers uniting under a cause.
More worryingly still, the Tory government’s relentless anti-LGBT rhetoric will only serve to further strengthen bonds within the far-right. With Starmer’s Labour unable to even denounce transphobia within the party, let alone significantly improve LGBT+ rights, true queer liberation demands the creation of a new workers party that fights for the rights and well-being of the working class, rather than manufacturing culture wars to distract from our ever-growing list of capitalist crises.
