THIS month’s Trades Union Congress vowed a co-ordinated fightback against the rise of racism and the far right. General secretary Frances O’Grady called out the “dog-whistle racism” of former foreign secretary Boris Johnson and delegates agreed to hold a conference of affiliates on tackling the growing problem.

For Unison assistant general secretary Roger McKenzie, the nasty atmosphere is grimly familiar. “When I go round to some workplaces, people are saying to black nurses: ‘Don’t touch me’,” he told a Stand Up to Racism fringe meeting at the Congress.

“Our generation went through this years ago and it’s back.”

McKenzie has been aware of the deadly threat posed by racists all his life. “In 1963, a couple of months before I was born, my mum was attacked in the street near where we lived in Walsall. I nearly didn’t survive that.”

What we’re seeing today reminds him of the 1970s. “Going to school in the ’70s it was not so long after [Enoch Powell’s] Rivers of Blood speech,” he tells the Morning Star, “and there was that refrain — ‘Enoch was right, Enoch was right.’

“We were getting bombarded with what a drain we were, apparently, on society, and getting called names — names which are coming back.

“You used to get this horrible feeling in the pit of your stomach every morning on the walk to school. There were a few days where you didn’t get called something in that 10 minutes, but only a few.

“I’m starting to get that sick feeling again, even where I live in Oxford.”

Walking down the street, he’s had a passing car window wound down and an egg thrown at him. On another occasion, “a kid came up at the railway station and called me a name I haven’t heard since I was at school.

“Where did he get that from? It’s got to be the parents, which means it’s coming back into common usage.”

McKenzie attributes this to politicians. “Permission has been given by a lot of politicians that it’s OK to give people abuse, not just to think racist things but to act on the thought.”

The point was made at the TUC by UCU president Vicky Knight, who noted that Tory politicians had “lowered the bar” to make racist and bigoted ideas respectable again. “We had a foreign secretary who compares Muslim women to letterboxes and robbers ... the result is that women have hijabs ripped off and pigs’ heads are left outside mosques.”

Some attribute the rise in racism to the success of the Leave campaign in the EU referendum, with politicians like Ukip’s Nigel Farage unveiling posters implying that hordes of dark-skinned foreigners were descending on Britain, although race-baiting language was also used by Remain supporters such as then prime minister David Cameron, who referred to “swarms” of asylum-seekers leaving the Middle East.

Cameron also attacked Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn for “hanging out with a bunch of migrants” when he visited the notorious Jungle refugee camp in Calais to meet those fleeing war and genocide in the Middle East.

But Brexit can hardly be the cause of the rise in racist politics across the Western world.

US President Donald Trump calls for American football players to be fired if they kneel during the national anthem in protest at the widespread police killings of black people.

Austria asks Jews to register if they wish to access kosher food. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban says Europe is being “overrun” by a “Muslim invasion.” The speaker of Ukraine’s parliament Andriy Parubiy calls Hitler history’s greatest democrat and Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has called for a register of all Roma people in the country and tweeted a tribute — “so many enemies, so much honour” — to the founder of fascism Benito Mussolini on the dead dictator’s birthday this year.

“There are a whole number of reasons for the rise of racism,” McKenzie says, “and they differ from country to country. But one common theme is the permission that’s been given by politicians for discrimination to take place.

“They never tackle the issues at the root of people’s concerns about immigration,” such as fears over the availability of housing or healthcare amid soaring prices and battered public services,” and instead they pander to it, whether for votes or whatever reason.

“People then feel emboldened because politicians aren’t raising their voices against racism.” He lists Farage and Trump as among those who have whipped up racism in the modern world and has nothing but contempt for Theresa May, home secretary when the Go Home or Face Arrests vans toured London.

“I can’t remember a time when something like that was so blatant,” McKenzie remarks.

“This prime minister has to take responsibility for that and for what her party is doing now. Her party is in alliance with the Hungarian ultra-right. It gives the impression that it’s OK to strut the stage internationally with these ultra rightwingers and racists.

“But I’m never going to excuse some of the things that Labour did,” he adds, angrily recalling the Controls on Immigration mugs from Ed Miliband’s general election campaign.

That leads him on to why the party is doing so much better under Corbyn.

“One reason I have supported Corbyn for 30 years now is that he’s never wavered against racism, never failed to stand against discrimination and he understands you can’t just say things. You have to build a movement that makes a difference.

“We have gangs of racists marching through our neighbourhoods again. It used to be the National Front. We had to mobilise against them and that’s what we have to do again.

“The BNP were bad enough, now with the DFLA” (the so-called Democratic Football Lads Alliance) “they chase police down the street, they attack trade unionists openly,” he says, referring to the assault on RMT assistant general secretary Steve Hedley and others by Tommy Robinson supporters in July.

“We have to build a movement strong enough to take that on. And the way to get people on board is to give them something positive to stand up for — a fundamental and irreversible shift in society to empower working-class people.

“Corbyn’s Labour is setting out that positive agenda and it’s a really important opportunity for us to get behind Jeremy and his team and set out that agenda for working-class people.

“Last year’s manifesto was a really good start, but how do you create a movement outside election campaigns that will go into communities and organise?

“How do you provide a sense of collectivism in the fragmented working environments many people now have? Jeremy and the team are looking at this, trade unions are looking at this. How do we meet the challenges of zero-hours, automation, making sure workplaces are safe and healthy, these issues that people are really bothered about?

“I don’t believe you deliver fundamental change by saying you’re against something.

“We have to be really clear what we stand for and I expect the trade union movement, the Labour Party, the Communist Party, all the left to be part of that progressive agenda, the new deal for workers,” he says, highlighting the campaign championed by CWU leader Dave Ward that formed the basis of the May 12 TUC demonstration in London.

“Jeremy, John [McDonnell] and the team are delivering — the National Education Service, brilliant idea, rebuilding support for the old socialist principles, education from the cradle to the grave, healthcare from the cradle to the grave, and freeing trade unions from some of the ridiculous and terrible obstacles that are placed in our way.

“The removal of anti-trade union legislation will massively help us to build a trade union movement that empowers workers and puts public services under public control.

“It’s hard to get people excited about being against whatever nonsense Boris Johnson comes out with, but I think we can get excited about what we are going to do as socialists. I think we have a good story to tell.”