UK 'Should've Never Received Fascists in 1930s' and Same Applies to Trump

"First, we want to show solidarity with the people who feel they have been marginalized and discriminated against by what Trump has said. Second, when the world's most powerful man comes out and says something like that, it affects everybody in the world. His words are repeated in schools in Britain and I'm sure around the world. It is used to bully children in the playground and make people feel they are a less important member of humanity. It is an international issue," Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now, told Sputnik.

Mr. Dearden said it had always been known that Trump had sympathy with some of the right-wing groups.

"He came out in that extraordinary press conference and morally equated white supremacists, who are extreme racists, who don't believe the black people have any place in the US… to equate them with the campaigners coming out and protesting for civil rights is horrendous," Mr. Dearden told Sputnik.

"Despite the fact there is so much racism in the US and the UK we never had a president for the last 50 years who would have made that comparison," he said.

"Just as in 1930s we should never have received fascists in this country because of what they were doing in their own country and the impact it had around the world — exactly the same thing applies to Trump," Mr. Dearden told Sputnik.

President Trump has been heavily criticized for failing to condemn racist protesters who were involved in violent demonstrations in Charlottesville, Virginia, at the weekend which led to the death of Heather Heyer, who was run down by a car driven by a neo-Nazi sympathizer.

Trump said there had been "hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides," but failed to criticize elements which included the Ku Klux Klan and on Thursday, August 17, he said that the tearing down of Confederate monuments and statues was "sad."

Hate Crimes Spike in the UK

"The political debate has been going downhill in this country for a very long time and the mainstream media is one of the reasons. Especially I am taking aim here at tabloid newspapers. Even a UN report last year singled out some of British tabloid newspapers as a particular problem in terms of whipping up hate, marginalization and oppression against people who face discrimination in the UK," Mr. Dearden told Sputnik.

"It's a path taken by the media and politicians in Europe before, and in the 1930s. We know where it led to. The scapegoating of people who are different leads directly to fascism," he added.

"The EU referendum debate in Britain was a real opportunity for those media to go into overdrive and build on people's dissatisfaction with politics and turn it into something unpleasant, dark, racist, and discriminatory," he said.

"There is no excuse for neo-Nazi demonstrations, but we also need to look at what is behind them. Very often it is fueled by parts of the establishment in this country, like the right-wing press and right-wing politicians — UKIP and far-right of the Conservative Party," Mr. Dearden told Sputnik.

"They are very happy with the 'divide and rule politics' that means people don't point the finger at the real problem — the free market economics that our governments have been pursuing for a long time but instead turn against migrants," he added.

May's Refusal to Cancel Trump's Visit

Theresa May is determined to have a good relationship with Donald Trump as she is threatened by the economic and political difficulties Britain will have to face outside the EU, according to Mr. Dearden.

"There are also people in May's administration who are close to the Trump administration. One of them is the Trade Secretary Liam Fox. He wants to see Britain post-Brexit pursue a far more deregulated, liberalized, free market economy that more resembles the US. He is desperate to do a trade deal with Trump," Mr. Dearden told Sputnik.

Some of Trump's policies find a home in the UK's Conservative party, said Mr. Dearden.

"At the moment we have one of the most right-wing governments we've ever had. Their attitude towards migrants — even migrants coming from the EU — is atrocious. Their attitude towards climate change could much better. They have things in common and they want to keep that relationship going. They see in some way Trump's America as a future for where we as a country should be going," he told Sputnik.