Far-right mobs set migrant’s houses on fire in Belfast. The world's richest man, Elon Musk, has openly backed these movements across the UK and Europe.
Details. A knife attack by a Sudanese asylum seeker in northern Belfast on June 8 triggered far-right riots across Northern Ireland. Since August 2025, these groups had compiled a hit list of immigrants’ addresses and properties, which they targeted during the unrest. Houses and cars were set on fire, racist checkpoints were erected on the main roads, with 35 people being arrested for the disorder.
► The riots received support from prominent British far-right figures, including activist Tommy Robinson and Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe. One of Robinson's posts on X, which called for repeated and loud protests, was retweeted by US trillionaire Elon Musk.
Context. This follows growing far-right unrest in the UK. In June 2025, violent riots erupted in Ballymena after an alleged assault by two Romanian teenagers, charges that were later dropped. In July 2024, nationwide riots followed the Southport stabbings, fuelled by a far-right fabrication about the attacker's immigration status.
► In the 12 months leading up to November 2025, police recorded 2,048 racist incidents and 1,280 racially motivated hate crimes. This is one of the highest levels recorded since the records began in 2004.
► Anti-immigrant violence is rising across Europe. In July 2025, far-right clashes with North African migrants erupted in southeastern Spain, and throughout 2024, 77 attacks on asylum seekers were recorded in Berlin alone.
► Capitalists actively support inflaming these anti-migrant tensions. Musk has backed British far-right party Restore Britain and its leader Rupert Lowe, and financially supported Tommy Robinson. Across Europe, he has backed the Alternative for Germany, Italy's far-right prime minister Georgia Meloni, and France's National Rally leader Marine Le Pen.
Important to Know. Pogroms against ethnic and national minorities have a long history in capitalist Europe. Jews faced repeated waves of mass killings in the Russian Empire. In 19th century England, Irish migrants were physically attacked and banned from jobs – one Dublin paper wrote in 1892 that "nowhere in England can our countrymen consider themselves safe from English mob violence."
► In 1870, Marx pointed out that antagonism between British and Irish workers is "artificially kept alive and intensified [...] by all the means at the disposal of the ruling classes." This antagonism, he wrote, is "the secret of the impotence of the English working class, despite its organisation."
► Modern capitalists, like Musk, back far-right violence to reproduce manufactured divisions that have long served the ruling class. Workers kept divided by mutual hatred cannot effectively organise against their exploitation.