MANCHESTER, England — Anti-immigrant riots broke out for several days in parts of Northern Ireland after a June 8 brutal knife attack on Stephen Ogilvie in Belfast by Hadi Alodid, originally from Sudan. The riots occurred as both the Labour government and opposition parties are pushing for restrictions on immigrants, shining a light on the need for unions to lead a fight against divisions fostered by the capitalist rulers that weaken the entire working class.
A widely watched video of the attack in Belfast showed bystanders courageously saving Ogilvie’s life after he had been repeatedly stabbed in the face and back. Alodid has been charged with attempted murder. Authorities haven’t indicated a motive. Ogilvie lost an eye, but is now out of a coma.
Following the attempted murder, masked gangs attacked and firebombed immigrant housing across the city, with the fire brigade called out to attend 62 incidents June 9. Foreign-born health workers were intimidated on their way to work. In several districts thugs blocked roads. On Newtownards Road 200 people attacked cops who were trying to prevent a mob from breaking into a hotel that was used to house asylum seekers.
Ogilvie’s family condemned the assaults on immigrants. “We do not want this terrible tragedy to be used to divide people or fuel hostility — do not do this in the name of our loved one as we do not share the same values,” they said in a statement June 10.
“We had more than 40 people yesterday that had to get out of their homes” Danisa Khanyisa Hlaisi, who lives in the Falls Road area of Belfast, told the Independent. Hlaisi is an asylum seeker from South Africa and a member of the Happy Women’s Group, an organization of immigrants that is coordinating the relief effort and providing aid to families too scared to leave their homes. Hlaisi said she was “horrified” by the attack on Ogilvie. “We live here, this is our community and we don’t want anyone to be attacked,” she said.
Thousands joined a June 13 Belfast rally called by United Against Racism to protest the anti-immigrant attacks. One of those who joined the action, Raied Al-Wazzan, told the BBC that despite the assaults, he saw “people delivering food to their neighbors and driving nurses to their work.”
In Lendrick Street in Belfast a woman followed anti-immigrant attackers into a house they’d broken into and helped the family living there escape.
Cops ignore dying man’s call for help
On June 2, news reports revealed that cops in Southampton in England had handcuffed a dying man who had been stabbed in an attack the previous December. Vickrum Digwa, a British-born man of Indian descent, had stabbed 18-year-old student Henry Nowak, of Polish descent, in his chest, leg, face and groin. Police had been called by Digwa’s brother who said that Digwa had been racially abused by Nowak. He never mentioned the stabbing by his brother.
On arrival the cops spoke with Digwa about what had happened, while Nowak was on the ground, shouting hoarsely, “I’ve been stabbed, I can’t breathe, call an ambulance.”
A cop retorted, “I don’t think so, mate.” Only after Nowak was arrested and handcuffed did another cop say, “We have to check, don’t we?” It took a further three minutes for them to call an ambulance. Nowak died half an hour later.
The evening following the June 2 news report, violent protests in Southampton targeted the police with bottles and bricks.
Mark Nowak, Henry’s father, said that the way his son was treated by the police “was inhuman and degrading.” Digwa was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison June 1.
While the Conservative and Reform parties seized on the police response to Nowak’s murder to blame the government’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies, all the capitalist parties are for tightening controls on immigration.
Unionists discuss road forward
The incidents in Southampton and Belfast were one of many issues discussed by striking rail workers on the picket line at Victoria Station here in Manchester June 20. The ticket collectors, organized by the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers union, won union recognition in 2025, but are now fighting the bosses’ refusal to give them a pay raise. “The police made a judgment before they knew the facts,” striker Abu Baboukar said about the killing of Nowak. Fellow striker John Taylor agreed. He also pointed to their 20-strong picket line, with a majority of workers from different parts of the world.
“We faced management moves to undermine our fight by frightening immigrant workers” with loss of their work visas, he said. But the union defended the workers.
Without exception, co-workers that this reporter spoke to who had viewed the police body camera video of the killing of Nowak were shocked. Sean Nunan, a rail conductor at Manchester Piccadilly Station, said, “Why haven’t the police been prosecuted?”
There is a growing agreement among the capitalist parties in the U.K. about stepping up restrictions on immigrants. A similar course is being pursued by governments elsewhere in Europe.
At the end of last year, Labour Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced measures to extend from five to up to 20 years the time immigrant workers need to secure permanent residency. The opposition Conservative and Reform parties accused Labour of stealing their policies.
By extending the second-class status of immigrants, the government intensifies the difficulties facing a layer of the working class that the bosses aim to superexploit.