Sheffield women come together to discuss response to far right violence and effect on city communities
Women from Sheffield’s ethnic minority communities came together at a unity meeting to share their concerns over recent far right and racist violence and how it is affecting their lives.
The event, held at Voluntary Action Sheffield HQ The Circle on Division Street yesterday (August 9), was addressed by South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard, who is also police and crime commissioner. He faced some sharp questions from women at the meeting about shortcomings of action to combat racism.
The meeting was organised by Sheffield City Council’s Central Local Area Committee (LAC). Meeting chair Coun Zahira Naz said: “The last week has been absolutely horrendous.”
She said families have put off seaside trips and holiday activities and many events have been cancelled because people did not feel safe to carry on as normal in the face of widespread racist and anti-immigration disorder.
A hotel housing asylum seekers in Wath, near Rotherham was violently attacked and badly damaged on Sunday (August 4) in some of the worst scenes of rioting around the country. Riots broke out after social media accounts falsely claimed that the killer of three girls in a knife attack in Southport was a recently-arrived asylum seeker and a Muslim.
Coun Naz said: “We did a walk-round in Broomhall. People came up to us, asking ‘Are the fascists coming here? Are we safe?’.”
Fearful
Threats were made against an immigration visa specialist firm’s offices in Wilkinson Street on Wednesday night, which saw a turnout of 500 anti-fascist protesters in response.
Coun Naz said that Sheffield City Council, city voluntary, community and faith organisations and anti-racist groups have been working very hard to help people feel safe in their communities.
She added: “Normally I’m quite strong and I’m involved in quite a lot of anti-racist movements but I’ve been feeling quite fearful over the last few days.
“I’ve really urgently been looking at my surroundings and I’ve been thinking about my safety. That’s never happened to me before.”
She said she has had many similar conversations with other women and neighbours have been discussing whether they still want to live here. “Where do people go who are fourth, fifth, sixth-generation British citizens?
“This is our home, this is where we belong. We have to make people feel a sense of belonging.”
Together
Oliver Coppard said two of his grandparents were Jewish refugees who fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s. “They made their life here and were welcomed quite rightly.
“I think that speaks to who we are as a place. Just as this is my home, it’s your home, it’s our home. We’re not going to let them – it’s personal, we’re community, we’re together in all of this.”
Mr Coppard said it had been heartening to see so many people speaking up for a multicultural South Yorkshire. He said he was also proud of the police response.
Describing the violence on Sunday, he said it was “shocking, scary, unacceptable. There is no excuse, none, for the behaviour we saw on Sunday.”
Mr Coppard rejected any talk of “legitimate concerns” as an excuse for violence and extremism. He said the full force of law would be used against perpetrators.
He told the audience:”I am asking you to be brave at the moment, not to change how you dress, travel, how you live your life. Because they win. Live your life.
Progress
“Wear whatever you want to wear, live where you want to live. We will help you.”
The mayor asked people to share intelligence with police on 101, adding: “There’s more police than you’ve ever seen in your life. They’re here to keep you safe.”
One participant, Shakila, said she had led Sheffield’s response to the murder of Stephen Lawrence by racists in 1993. She said: “Thirty years later we’re having a similar conversation again.
“Similar questions with similar commitments. What worries me is in 30 years’ time will we be sitting here having this same conversation again?”
She said that education hasn’t really changed and the city council’s response to war in Ukraine had been markedly different to the Gaza conflict and the Palestinian people. “You can’t pick and choose which battles you want to fight,” she said.
Mr Coppard said “significant progress” has been made in tackling racism.
Vulnerable
Another woman said she had been shocked by the responses of people she previously saw as allies which have made her feel scared and vulnerable and worried to leave home. One friend told her: “Far right, far left, far fetched.”
Melinda from City of Sanctuary said: “I was in Rotherham and what I saw was families with small children throwing a stone and laughing. We need to self-reflect on what is going on, it’s much, much deeper.”
Another woman said that the police response had been too slow to start with and compared it to the way a large group of police officers had surrounded a black woman on her own in a car because they did not believe it was hers.
Another pointed to the racist rhetoric of Conservative politicans such as Suella Braverman, magnified by social media and social media owners such as X/Twitter boss Elon Musk, and said that she hoped a Labour government would not continue it.
“Legislation should be changed to help asylum seekers get the respect they deserve,” she said.
Other speakers at the event, representing city faith communities, were Muslim Ustadha Ameena Blake, Church of England Dean of Sheffield Abigail Thompson and Patsy Cunningham from the Sheffield Reform Jewish congregation.