Entanglements of resistance and repression in the UK’s ‘far-right riots’ of 2024

This essay discusses the multiple dynamics of repression and its relationship with resistance in the UK’s unrest in August 2024, which was principally led by far-right actors. The discussion identifies three mechanisms operating through these events: policing as repression of protesters; protest as repression of out-groups; and selfregulation as repression of in-groups. Events such as riots and disorder, I suggest, allow everyday repressive and resistant relations to become more clearly visible. In particular, it becomes apparent that repression can operate through multiple vectors simultaneously, both through vertical power relations and laterally among peers. Overall, repressive dynamics highlighted by spectacular actions such as riots are not ruptures from the everyday but amplifications of it, as part of a much larger arc of social action and political conflict. Resistance cannot be understood as the opposite of repression, especially in the context of far-right movements, for whom repressing the actions and capacities of marginalised groups and political opponents is central to their political programme; instead, resistance is entwined with and through repression both as discourse and practice. Understanding these entanglements could help scholars and activists to respond better to the complex realities of far-right social movements.