Last week’s far-right unrest has caused chaos in communities across the country, especially in parts of the northeast. The order of the locations seemed random at first, but it quickly became clear that this was a concerted effort to exploit some of the country’s poorest areas for a racist agenda.

Towns such as Middlesbrough, Hartlepool and Darlington have been systematically neglected during more than a decade of Conservative rule. This process began with deindustrialisation but has continued with the closure of numerous social facilities and, more recently, drastic cuts to local government. Little investment has been made or decent jobs created to fill this gap. For many, particularly young people, this means little hope and no sense of the future. A recent report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, based on figures from the Department for Work and Pensions, found that a whopping 41 per cent of children in Middlesbrough live in poverty. It should come as no surprise that seven of the 23 local authorities where right-wing extremist violence occurred were among the ten poorest areas in the country.

In this environment, a resurgent extreme right is forming. The street unrest now seems to have subsided, but the circumstances that triggered it still exist.

When socialists speak of the need for “class unity” in these moments, it often seems as if we are reciting a passage from Scripture or making a demand that is detached from the realities on the ground. But nothing could be further from the truth. Class politics is the only How this newest form of fascism can be defeated.

We must offer a vision of community that offers our people the prospect of a better, more meaningful life. That means tackling low pay and poverty, deteriorating public services and hollowed-out high streets. We must put names and faces to the profiteers who are tearing apart our social fabric, and empower those who hold that fabric together. In too many of our communities, racism thrives in the darkness and wetness of despair.

The counter-demonstrations that followed the riots were inspiring but also limited. The largest crowds gathered in cosmopolitan urban areas, not in the relatively low-diversity communities targeted by the fascists. In lower-income, predominantly white, working-class communities outside of major cities, the political motives that led to the wave of racist violence are likely to continue to grow until the narratives behind them are deconstructed in ways that those communities can understand.

If we try to fight the far right without putting forward a program that addresses the real challenges facing these communities, we will fail. Our enemies will continue to succeed in channeling popular anger into a nativist response. If we try to fight the far right by bringing together only those who already hold progressive views in college towns, we will also fail. And in doing so, we will make anti-racism a matter for an enlightened elite, rather than the foundation of any successful movement to unite the working class.

Many working-class communities in the Northeast lost their industries and, at the same time, their connection to class politics through the union movement. The absence of class politics and worker solidarity has left a vacuum. While we would argue that neighbors, regardless of their background, have common interests in fighting poverty wages, benefit cuts, and profit-hungry corporations driving up the cost of living, workers’ worldviews are instead shaped online – often by anti-union billionaires like Elon Musk.

If we are serious about building a broad movement to fight these provocateurs, we must focus on the common concerns of our class. That means a programme of renewal: good, unionised jobs instead of low pay and insecurity; rebuilding social institutions that instill a sense of ownership of the places we live; active local government that strengthens communities through wealth creation; absolute rejection of poverty, especially among children, through measures such as free school meals and the abolition of the two-child cap; a properly funded training programme and youth services to give our young people prospects for the future; and a commitment to invest in disadvantaged areas – a levelling of the playing field that was promised and then betrayed, like so many previous commitments.

If we are brave enough to build a movement that seeks to unite people around these causes, rather than allowing them to be divided by racist hatred, we have a chance to stem the fascist tide. The far right has failed to move beyond destruction; it has no program for the kind of change that could actually improve conditions for working people. We have hope on our side. Now we must build on it.