The election of a fascist in Brazil is a cause of major concern – time to get active.

If you are keeping up with what is happening internationally then I know you will be as concerned as we are about the victory of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil.  He is a racist misogynist and a bigot whose followers have already started killing LGBT people across the country. A gang of his supporters attacked a woman who was protesting against Bolsonaro and carved a swastika into her chest with a pen knife. The man is a fascist.

He is joined by people like Donald Trump in the USA, Viktor Orban in Hungary and Matteo Salvini in Italy – va growing number of powerful politicians with far right views. The Lambeth UNISON Branch Committee will look at ways that we can support trade unionists in Brazil and other countries under threat from the far right.

UNISON are mobilising for a very important march on 17 November. It is a unity demo, backed by the TUC and most other unions, to show solidarity and strength against the violent racists and fascists that are gaining so much support.

We have some wonderful new “Proud to be an anti racist, anti fascist trade unionist” T-shirts that we could all wear on the demo. It would be great to have a huge number of us there to show everyone what a brilliant trade union branch we are and how much we are dedicated to the fight against the far right.

So keep 17 November in your diary! The demo starts at 1pm in Central London. We will let you know more details over the next week or so.