The Unity in the Community Stand up to Racism Rally

Watch as over 200 people join the anti-racism rally in Chesterfield.

Transcript

00:00Around 200 people gathered in front of Chesterfield Town Hall on Saturday to join the Unity in

00:14the Community Stand Up to Racism Rally.

00:18The event has been organised after a number of anti-immigration and far-right protests

00:22across the country, including an attack on Chesterfield premises hosting asylum seekers

00:27a week before.

00:28It was so important because the events of last week, especially last weekend, and I

00:37was at Rotherham at the hotel that was burnt, it was important to bring people together

00:44to make ourselves feel better, but also to publicly demonstrate that we are the majority.

00:50Anti-racists are the majority and we will stand together and I feel really much better

00:55now myself, so it was good for that reason, but also to make it clear to the minorities

01:01in Chesterfield that we are standing with them.

01:05Now, one, we are the people, two, we won't stand, three.

01:12What we've seen recently in this country is the far-right mobilising, just thugs really,

01:19just trying to scare people and trying to make people from our diverse community feel

01:25uncomfortable.

01:26And we are gathered here because the vast majority of people in this country are decent

01:31and we welcome asylum seekers, we welcome refugees and Muslim people, and people from

01:38all walks of life are welcome here.

01:40This is how you make a vibrant community, we are all the same, we're all together,

01:43but it's very easy for the thugs to be noisy and smash things up and get in the headlines,

01:48so instead we come here peacefully together and show solidarity with each other, with

01:52everyone, because we're all the same and peace and love will continue.

01:57Say it louder, say it clear, racists are not welcome here.

02:01And refugees are under attack, what do we do, stand up, fight back.

02:05That's fantastic, I think a really, really heart-warming turnout of over 200 people from

02:09Chesterfield, giving a clear message of unity in our community, that we won't stand for

02:14racism and division, we're horrified by the violence we've seen, and a real sense of determination

02:19that really we're better than that and our town is better than that.

02:23We've had some great speeches, some great poems, it's been a really powerful event.

02:27And hate crime is on the rise, what do we do, stand up, fight back.