London<\/a>, the musician and political activist said participants hoped to \u201csend out a message to our fellow citizens that we are willing to take a stand against [the politics of hate] being imported into the UK\u201d.<\/p>\nThe event, which is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of people, is supported by a wide range of celebrities, including the actors Christopher Eccleston, David Harewood, Lenny Henry, Steve Coogan, Toby Jones, Lolly Adefope and Maxine Peake, the musicians Paloma Faith, Charlotte Church, Brian Eno and Beverley Knight, and the comedian James Acaster.<\/p>\n
Dozens of coaches will leave from across the country on Saturday morning \u2013 including 10 from Manchester alone \u2013 to begin marching from Park Lane to Trafalgar Square at midday.<\/p>\n
Two stages \u2013 one on Whitehall for speeches and one in Trafalgar Square for music, which are both free to attend \u2013 will feature cross-party speakers and award-winning musicians, including Self Esteem, Jessie Ware, Katy B, Joy Crookes, UB40, Fontaines DC, the Charlatans and Hot Chip.<\/p>\n
Speeches are expected from the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, the Green party leader, Zack Polanski, and the Labour MP Dawn Butler, as well as trade union leaders.<\/p>\n
Posters promoting the march on a wall in north London. Photograph: Matthew Chattle\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n
Bragg, who will perform on the speakers\u2019 stage, said the political situation in the UK and around the world was shifting. \u201cI think we\u2019re in a situation where the idea of universal rights, the sort of postwar settlement after the Holocaust where we realised that rights had to belong to individuals if they were going to be protected \u2026 is being severely challenged by a policy that you might call \u2018might is right\u2019, where the strongest do what they want to the weakest.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said Donald Trump was the de facto leader of the approach, calling him a \u201cblaring horn that never switches off\u201d. \u201cHe\u2019s like a constant reminder of the cruel realities of the politics of division,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Bragg said that message could be countered when people came together, and he expected the turnout to exceed that of the \u201cunite the kingdom\u201d rally in September last year, in which 110,000 people marched through the streets of London waving England flags and union jacks and chanting racist and anti-immigrant slogans.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou see a lot of people out on the streets marching for the kind of politics that you want,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd you feel, for a moment, you feel seen. You feel that your concerns are legitimate. And that\u2019s a really important thing. It\u2019s the start of something.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sabby Dhalu, of Stand Up to Racism, one of the members of the Together Alliance, said: \u201cTogether was formed in response to last September\u2019s far-right \u2018unite the kingdom\u2019 demonstration, when violent groups went on the rampage. The overwhelming majority of people reject the racism, Islamophobia, division, hatred and violence promoted by Tommy Robinson and the far right.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis Saturday we will demonstrate that clearly. Tens of thousands will take to the streets of central London, bringing the same spirit of unity that helped bring the racist riots of 2024 to a halt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bragg said: \u201cIn the end, if we believe in those basic fundamental values of empathy, then we\u2019re going to need that. Because that\u2019s the one thing that Tommy Robinson, Nigel Farage and Donald Trump seem to lack \u2013 any sense of empathy whatsoever.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that angers me because I\u2019m in the empathy business, that\u2019s what music does. It makes you feel that you\u2019re not alone. So that\u2019s why we\u2019re in this fight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Billy Bragg has encouraged people to send a clear message to those seeking to divide the country by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-498077","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}