Anti-racist protesters fill UK streets

By Christian Edwards and Rob Picheta | CNN

London and Sheffield (CNN) — Thousands of anti-racist protesters have taken to the streets across the United Kingdom to counter a spate of far-right rallies planned to target immigration centers, seeming to thwart what looked set to be another day of rioting.

After days of violence spurred by disinformation around a deadly stabbing attack, police had braced for another night of unrest on Wednesday. Far-right groups on social media had called for protests to target visa processing centers and immigration lawyers’ offices at more than 100 sites around the country at 8 p.m. local time (3 p.m. ET).

But by the early evening, thousands of counter-protesters had gathered at more than a dozen cities to guard the immigration centers and prevent them being targeted by the far right.

“There are many, many more of us than you,” crowds chanted at anti-racist demonstrations across the country, bolstered by a markedly stronger police presence than over the weekend, and with virtually no sign of any far-right supporters.

Whether Wednesday’s counter-protests represent a turning point is not yet clear, but fears of another night of unrest have abated for now. The fizzling out of the planned protests will come as a major relief for the new Labour government, and for communities that had prepared for the worst.

It may also be a sign that many have been deterred from taking to the streets, after previous far-right protests turned violent and hundreds of rioters were arrested over the weekend, with some already receiving prison sentences.

In Walthamstow, east London, the immigration center was entirely boarded up, protected by a heavy police presence and surrounded by around three or four thousand counter-protesters.

“We today have got such brilliant numbers in our community,” an organizer shouted through a megaphone to a hastily organized crowd. “We have shown them whose streets these really are. These are our streets.”

Ahmed Hussain, 31, said he had come out to support the counter-protesters because “when you don’t, the fascists feel emboldened.”

“In London you would never see them rioting on the scale that they have outside London,” Hussain told CNN. “They’re nowhere to be seen… it shows that when everyone comes out to support, their numbers dwindle.”

The worst of the past week’s violence was concentrated in the north of England. In Rotherham on Sunday, far-right rioters set fire to a hotel used to house asylum seekers as more than 200 people cowered inside. Large crowds of people shouting “enough is enough” and “get ’em out” were also seen clashing with police in several other cities.

In Sheffield, a city a few miles south of Rotherham, residents told CNN they had felt terrified by the outbreak of violence, which they said they felt had emboldened racist behavior.

“I normally walk through this city center all the time,” said Nadeem Akhtar, 18, who has lived in Sheffield his whole life. “But now, recently, even my mum’s been saying to me, don’t be going out so much, because you never know what could happen.”

Akhtar had gathered with friends midday Wednesday in the city center to demonstrate against a planned far-right protest. Unlike last week, where protests across the country were allowed to boil over into racist violence, the Sheffield demonstration was overseen by a huge police presence separating the protesters and counter-protesters.