On the 13 September 2025, just a few thousand anti-fascists faced down a far right mobilisation of over 100,000 people supporting a nationalist rally fronted by Tommy Robinson. This mobilisation turned violent, with anti-fascists dangerously reliant on the police for their safety. The counter-demonstration was organised primarily by Stand Up to Racism (SUTR), the organisation to which trade unions have outsourced anti-racist and anti-fascist work for over a decade.
The potentially largest nationalist mobilisation in the UK’s history should have been a wake-up call for the trade union movement, which had a minimal presence at the counter-demo, but our leaders appear to be sleepwalking. Instead of trade union leaders leading the fight against the far right inside and outside our unions and fostering rank-and-file anti-fascist activity, they have thrown their bureaucratic weight behind a new civil society initiative, the Together Alliance.
What is the Together Alliance?
Founded largely in response to the events of 13 September, the Together Alliance describes itself as an ‘alliance of hundreds of organisations, influential voices and thousands of everyday people […] coming together to say enough is enough.’ They call for ‘love, hope and unity in the face of fear, hate and division’. On its website, the Alliance lists its supporters. Notably, celebrities are listed first, then politicians and organisations. The organisations list comprises NGOs, community organisations, and unions. The Alliance was incorporated on 2 December 2025, and launched during that month, with its sole aim currently appearing to be mobilising for a unity rally on 28 March 2026. This unity rally could be a great first step to re-igniting anti-far right work in our unions (and we hope it will be!), but the Alliance does not have a plan for directly opposing the far right in the street or in our workplaces. 3 out of 5 of its directors are prominent SUTR activists, certainly not dispelling the notion that the Alliance is yet another front with the same old ideas that led to our collective failure to oppose the far right on 13 September.
The Alliance says it is composed of ‘members that represent over 7 million people’. The word ‘represent’ is key. A few thousand engaged people likely comprise the bulk of the activity of the Alliance, and it takes for granted the assumption that the 7 million people they ‘represent’ can be mobilised against racism and fascism. It is a popular front built on lowest common denominator politics and the assumption that there is an anti-racist majority that already exists in the UK, that we simply need to mobilise hard enough. We know that instead we must do the work of organising, persuading, and rebuilding our class.
The political basis of the Together Alliance (or lack thereof)
The Alliance is founded around a vague oppositional stance against the far right that, as yet, does not put forward a positive political alternative, or even an actual critique (or definition) of the far right. The nature of the project is in large part the cause of this. They have prioritised a feel-good broad alliance, fronted by celebrities and NGOs, and have necessarily depoliticised the message in order to do this. It shies away from a critique of nationalism, as embodied in different shades by the current Labour government, the Tories, Reform, Restore, and Tommy Robinson’s ilk.
The Alliance does not seem to recognise that misogyny and transphobia are two key fulcrums around which the modern far right turns. Worse still, organisations with explicitly anti-trans views have signed up as part of the Alliance. Listed on its website as supporters are the National Assembly of Women (NAW) and the Women’s Liberation Alliance (WLA). The NAW is a decades-old organisation that has recently embraced anti-trans views, but the WLA is a much newer organisation publicly launched in June of last year. Its launch was described in a friendly Morning Star article (the Morning Star is also part of the Alliance), and it is a front for the promotion of anti-trans views in the trade union movement and the wider Left. Susan Smith, a director of For Women Scotland, is prominently involved in the WLA. For Women Scotland is the organisation that brought the case resulting in the anti-trans Supreme Court ruling in April 2025. Whilst the WLA attempts to conceal its true purpose at first glance, by describing itself as a ‘progressive coalition’ seeking to ‘rebuild and sustain a women’s liberation movement’, its public statements make clear its purpose.
So, we have to ask a question – how did a group like this end up involved in an alliance opposing the far right? At best, the Alliance’s politics are so shallow and broad that whoever is in charge of the Alliance (there is no transparency around how decisions are made, how ‘members’ have a say) are uninformed, negligent, or don’t care about the actual politics of the groups involved so long as they self describe as left wing or progressive. At worst, those who control the Alliance support these anti-trans groups and their wider project. Coalitional work is vital to opposing the far right and building a real alternative, but we must build coalitions around a minimal political programme that does not throw marginalised groups, including trans people, under the bus.
Transparency, democracy, rank-and-file activity
Transparency, democracy, and grassroots activity seem to be lacking within the Alliance. There is a prominent donate button on their website, but with no transparency or scrutiny over what this money is for (other than the demo on 28 March) or who is making decisions regarding the money raised. There is a steering committee that makes decisions, but no public confirmation who is on this committee or how rank-and-file trade union members can have their say in the work of the Alliance. The Alliance has inherited SUTR’s tactics of decreeing workplace days of action from the top, with no involvement of members on the ground, and without persuading unions reps and members as to the vital nature of anti-far right work. In the same vein, the Workers Against the Far Right organising conference, co-hosted by SUTR and the TUC (but in reality run near-entirely by SUTR) took place on 21 February. Whilst there were some useful presentations, it was framed primarily around encouraging attendance at the 28 March demo, and in continuing to outsource anti-racist and anti-fascist work to SUTR and the Alliance.
What next?
We encourage all PCS members to attend the demonstration on 28 March and help build a vibrant trade union bloc that stands resolutely against the far right in all its forms. But we must look beyond this day and to the work ahead of us. PCS’s Left Unity-led NEC has agreed to support the Together Alliance. We hope, though, that delegates at this year’s national conference scrutinise and interrogate not just the Together Alliance and any potential affiliation, but our methods for opposing the far right. If outsourcing our anti-far right work was a successful method, we wouldn’t be in the position we are now. We should not defer our power and energy to an external, unaccountable set of individuals.
What can we do instead? We can build an explicitly political local trade union led approach in our branches, led by rank-and-file lay members, and push for this to be properly resourced on a national level by our unions. We can work with trade unions, trades councils, and tenants unions to build regional resistance to the far right that is integrated into fighting for all working class people. We can develop defensive stewarding capabilities inside our unions that do not rely on collaborating with the police or avoiding direct confrontation. We can drive up union membership, facilitate political education, and develop sustainable mobilisation networks to defend our communities.
Top-down approaches, outsourcing our anti-fascist and anti-racist work, and relying on words alone are ineffective. Instead, we should embrace rank-and-file organising within our own union and foster practical solidarity through our activities to mount an effective counter to fascism, racism, and nationalism.