THE OFFICIAL UN Anti-Racism Day is expected to be marked by international protests on March 20.

The lead up to the demonstrations was marked by a “day of mobilisation” by Stand Up To Racism and the Trades Union Congress (TUC) on February 18. As a result of these efforts, #WorldAgainstRacism and #NoRacismNoFascism began trending on UK Politics Twitter.

Twelve trade unions, including the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) and a number of campaigning groups took part in the effort to raise awareness and support the worldwide protests.

This activism comes after Home Secretary Priti Patel recently attacked the Black Lives Matter movement, and called it dreadful.

Ruby Hirsch, from Glasgow Stand Up To Racism, spoke out against Patel’s remarks, and called out other “divisive” sections of the media, declaring that they would not be “silenced.”

“We will continue to make noise and take action against racism.

“Statues in this city that celebrate brutal racist colonialists who put down slave revolts are a symbol of how the legacy of slavery has never been properly addressed,” she said.

“We want to break from this blood-soaked history of oppression and create a society that celebrates the lives of the slaves who revolted, not the Lords who violently tried to keep them down.”

In previous years, anti-racism days have made headlines. In 2020, Glasgow activists “sacked” giant cloth sacks over three statues of men who profited from the salve trade.

The group also took the knee and shared anti-racist slogans.

In Bristol, the town that saw the statue of Edward Colston rolled into the water last summer during anti-racism protests, protesters held a safely distanced banner at the empty plinth where Colston’s statue once stood.