Newcastle becomes United

Newcastle was very much united today as the city, its inhabitants and many others who travelled in from further afield came together to hold a counter-demonstration and march in response to a demonstration by the German based far right movement – PEGIDA. The group formed originally by a German PR agency owner called Lutz Bachmann, held its first ever demonstration in the UK and three to four hundred people attended.

The group whose name translates as ‘Patriotic Europeans against the Islamification of the West‘ claim to be trying to defend countries from the spread of extremism at the hands of Muslim immigrants.

In response, a newly formed group called ‘Newcastle Unites’ quickly put the word out and organised a counter-march and community groups, trade unionists, political figures, anti-facists, Jews, Sikhs, Hindus and Islamic communities and other men, women, children and families formed a three thousand strong multi-cultural group that marched through the centre of the city in response to the Pegida demonstration….

Here’s a few pictures from the day that I shot whilst on assignment for Getty Images , you can see more via the link, and I’ve broken the pictures down into 4 groups as you will see from the sub-title above each set…

Anti-Pegida Demonstration organised by Newcastle Unites