LAST Saturday saw the biggest mobilisation by the far right in this country in decades, possibly ever. In politics, it is no use panicking with fear or downplaying real threats. A sober analysis is required to deal with serious problems.

There has been an outpouring of commentary and analysis, mostly by people who did not see the rally in person. I did, as I spoke at the counterdemonstration called by Stand Up to Racism.

The police estimate of 110,000 in attendance may well be right, or it may even have been a bit bigger. That is very large for the far right in this country. It is also about half the size of one of the less well-attended marches in solidarity with Palestine that have taken place regularly now for approaching two years. Some perspective is needed.

That is not to say that the rally was not frightening. It was. Because of the sheer weight of numbers, many of the marchers were allowed to come into the same area as us counterprotesters, something the police said would not happen.

In fact, police numbers seemed wholly inadequate even for the anticipated numbers of 50,000 of the far right. This contrasts with the huge number of officers deployed for the recent, static and overwhelmingly peaceful protest in defence of Palestine Action’s right to exist.

This is also reflected in the number of arrests, which were much lower on Saturday, even though both police and counterprotesters were repeatedly and violently attacked.

The Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley’s suggestion that facial recognition could not be used against demonstrators with a long track record of violence to protect privacy is ridiculous in light of the fact that it is widely used on London’s streets, on people going shopping or walking to the bus stop. It is blatantly two-tier policing.

As for the demonstrators themselves, there has been a huge effort to prettify this movement, its leaders and its followers. The central figure calling the rally was “Tommy Robinson,” who has a string of convictions, including for assault on a police officer. He is the former leader of the English Defence League, which was a violent fascist organisation focused on attacking Muslim communities.

The most famous speaker at the rally was Elon Musk. He spoke on large screens from the US, where much of this movement receives its financial backing. He called for the dissolution of Parliament, the overthrow of this government and advocated violence.

Eric Zemmour spoke about the “great replacement of our European people by peoples coming from the south and of Muslim culture. You and we are being colonised by our former colonies.” Other speakers like Ben Habib and Ant Middleton have backed a series of far-right causes.

Crucially, none of these speakers were booed when they spouted their racist filth. No bands of disgusted marchers were seen walking away in disgust in response to this rubbish. This is important.

Of course, all growing movements have experienced leaders and speechmakers, some less committed and others entirely new to the movement. But the speeches frame the entire political character, and acquiescence by marchers quickly becomes support with attendance at the next rally.

This matters because a wide array of forces, beginning with the BBC and unfortunately not excluding some of my parliamentary colleagues, have sought to portray the inexperienced and confused among the most recent followers as the movement.

They are not. The agenda is being set by veterans of far-right politics domestically and internationally.

That agenda has as its central claim that all the ills of society are caused by migrants, and this rapidly becomes extended to all Muslims, all black and Asian people and other minorities.

It is the opposite of the solidarity of the labour movement and of all oppressed minorities and is consciously aimed at supplanting it.

It is extremely naive to say that this is all the product of austerity and the grievances are justifiable. Black and Asian people, and young people, have been hardest hit by austerity. But they were barely to be seen last Saturday.

The rally’s grievance is against migrants and others, not their landlord, their employer, or their energy company. Nor is their complaint against the government a progressive one: it is solely at their failure to halt migration altogether.

Under austerity, workers and the poor bear the brunt of the attacks, which necessarily means a disproportionate number of black and Asian people in this country.

But for some individuals, a small business owner, the pub manager, or the self-employed builder or hairdresser, the effects of austerity can be devastating, and they can lose their livelihood completely.

Underemployed workers can become permanently unemployed. Being disgruntled or enraged does not make you a worker, and directing it against migrants has no progressive content at all.

Some of my parliamentary colleagues seem to have completely lost their bearings and want to claim just that, and to placate the anti-immigrant anger with increasingly reactionary policies.

We are now in the period when a Labour Home Secretary is damning leftie lawyers for upholding British law on people-trafficking and slave labour.

It is also actively harmful for anyone on the left to romanticise this dangerous movement. One of my colleagues claimed marchers were there because they wanted “to restore pride in a fair, inclusive” country. This is arrant nonsense.

Yet others want to recreate an anti-racist movement that does not actually fight racism. It is the politics of delusion and despair.

Those targeted by the far right, and ultimately that will be the entire labour movement, cannot afford the luxury of either delusions or despair. We must build on the movement we have, beginning with Stand Up to Racism, which consistently opposes racism in all its forms, and which called the counterdemonstration.

An entirely new grouping, Women Against the Far Right, has also made its presence felt in opposing the far right. The right wants to import Trump’s attacks on a woman’s right to choose, and on equal pay — and organising against them is imperative for all women.

It was also very heartening to note the development of UK Black Lives Matter in opposing the far right. The leadership of black people is central to any militant anti-racist movement in this country. We need now positive assertions of unity and equality.

Finally, the entire labour movement should show solidarity with RMT members striking against the dismissal and deportation of their colleagues because they have been reclassified as semi-skilled workers.

This is blatant discrimination in line with the anti-migrants’ demands. The fight against deportations and the wider fight against the far right are union issues.

Diane Abbott is MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington. Follow her on X @HackneyAbbott.