Trevor Fisher says the Together Alliance must step up activity, transparency and unity building
Anti fascist politics in mid 2026 is dominated by two factors – the electoral success of Farage and Reform UK and the struggle to oppose this. The first factor has been clear since the local elections of 2025, when Reform succeeded in winning seats and Labour collapsed in areas often seen as heartlands. The Party has been ahead in opinion polls and could form a government on a minority vote. The two-party system is in crisis, and Labour’s discontent could lead to a challenge to Keir Starmer.
Yet the deeper problem is the weakness of resistance to the far right. The wider forces of the Right are not merely parliamentary but mobilise strength in demonstrations and ad hoc crises like the recent controversy over the murder of an English student by a Sikh activist. This even drew massive American support from the MAGA elements in the White House and Elon Musk. Yet in the early months of 2026, the formation of a broad front campaign, the Together Alliance, suggested a positive response was underway. Is this now too optimistic?
The Alliance drew a wide basis of support, greater than anything since the Anti-Nazi League of the 1970s. The organisation claimed upwards of 150 affiliated groups numbering 15 million supporters, and its first demonstration on March 28th claimed half a million people on the streets of London. Yet, in the weeks since the demo, remarkably little has been done to build a support network – the Alliance does not even have a membership.
Apart from declaring a general opposition to the far right, a term it does not define, no serious debate is apparent over the rise of Reform nationally, still less the methods on how to oppose this. Preeminently, this must involve the social media upsurge which accompanies the activities of activists like Tommy Robinson. Robinson is said to have 1.9 million social media followers and showed last year the ability to mobilise crowds of over 100.000 supporters in London.
The role of social media has transformed the hard right, and how this is to be tackled needs urgent debate. But no debate has taken place on any topic since the March 28th event in Together Alliance. When the May 7th elections showed more gains for Reform UK, the following day the organisation called two conferences for October – London on 10th, Manchester on 17th – but a month later, with four months to go, no venues are listed, and speakers and other details are yet to be notified. With the exception of Chair Kevin Courtney, a respected trade union figure, we have little idea who runs the Alliance.
Tracking the wider movement
The rest of the anti-fascist movement is struggling to come to terms with right populism, not merely Reform, but the ability of relatively minor figures to attract support via social media. The Morning Star on 5th June pointed to Ben Habib – formerly a Reform figure – who had joined with Rupert Lowe, the extremist leader of Restore, to bolster the ranks of those Rightists who think Farage too moderate. At least these figures see the need to merge. Anti- Fascist groups like Stand up to Racism and Hope Not Hate rarely seek to work together.
The Star editorial noted that it is pointless to “Simply cheer the continuing division on the right”. Absolutely– the divisions on the right did not stop Hitler from coming to power in Germany. Any effective opposition to the Far Right must unite across the spectrum, but it is common to find organisations like Stand Up to Racism issuing literature that mentions “the need to build unity against the far right” and then doing nothing to promote this.
The Together Alliance is the best way to promote this unity, and while this is not a political party, it can create representative structures. At the meetings in London and Manchester, it is vital that debate is promoted on how to do this – activity has to be democratic and key objectives have to be decided collectively. With only four months to the first actual meetings the Alliance has organised, a clear agenda on key structural and political issues must be defined well in advance.