Wakefield Love Music Hate Racism gig ‘completely goes against what Reform UK want’

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More events are being planned to bring together all the city’s residents and communities to reject division

It was one of the most successful events the city has seen in years (Photo: Love Music Hate Racism Wakey/Facebook)

Hundreds of people gathered in Wakefield, west Yorkshire last Saturday to celebrate the city’s diversity and community spirit. 

The event was organised by Love Music Hate Racism (LMHR) and was backed by unions and community organisations. It came after the far right Reform UK won 58 seats on the city council in May. 

The event involved breakdancing lessons, face painting and DJs. And in the evening people danced and sang along to the bands and singers. 

Two Reform UK councillors attended the evening in an attempt to close it down. Despite this, organisers say the event was one of the most successful events Wakefield has seen in years.

The organising team say they plan to organise more LMHR events to bring together all the city’s residents and communities to reject division, racism and hatred, and to celebrate our common humanity.

Organiser Steph told Socialist Worker, “The whole idea of having the event was to bring the community together.

“We’ve got a lot of far right groups who keep coming to town all the time, causing disruption in the city centre and I think people have lost a lot of hope.

“We wanted to do something that unifies and brings people together to celebrate diversity instead of just shouting. I think it’s important to protest out on the streets, but we can’t just do that all the time,” she said.

“We came up with a small idea last year and by January we started organising. We were going to do it small, but with the Reform UK-run council, we thought we had to go big. 

“And we did, and it was good. And the Reform UK councillors did not ruin it, even though some of them tried to.

“It completely goes against what they want, because we are trying to build a community that they don’t want.”

Reform UK councillor James Crashley set up Five Town Migrant Watch which has supported anti-migrant protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers. 

Steph said, “They’ve got Five Town Migrant Watch, they’ve got vigilante groups that are patrolling parks at night, they want to keep that fear. And they want to keep that division.

“I think what really scares them is that if we all come together and start talking, people are going to actually start realising that it’s actually better to have a community.”