AN ANTI-FASCIST group in Oxfordshire has swooped in and covered up swastikas and white pride symbols drawn by vandals this week.

The graffiti was spotted daubed on Tower Close wooden bridge in Abingdon on Tuesday but only hours later it was already painted over.

According to James Au, who is the spokesperson for Abingdon Queer Action and Abingdon Black Lives Matter, this is the work of a growing militant anti-fascist community in the town, which formed about four years ago, and non-affiliated residents, who help out whenever new Nazi graffiti pops up.

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While the 23-year-old pointed out that these are usually scrawled by a couple of teenagers, the group keeps track of them and works to cover them up within 48 hours to show people in Abingdon that this will not be tolerated.

Tuesday's incident was also not the first time such symbols have appeared in Oxfordshire – in fact, in March two men were caught on CCTV spray-painting a large swastika on the front door of a property on Stubbs Avenue in the city.

James Au, who uses this name as his 'activist nom de plume', said that in Abingdon the hate symbols first started appearing about eight months ago.

He added: "The person who is doing this is probably a school kid running down one road with some paint and spraying swastikas.

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"But the people countering that are going all out – actually putting effort into it and being creative."

The stickers that they use promote anything from queer rights to the climate emergency, and anti-racism, so the counter movement is much wider, James Au pointed out.

He revealed that apart from tracking and covering up any hate symbols in Abingdon, the anti-fascist group also teaches vulnerable and queer people self-defence in case they are faced by an attacker, and also volunteer at a number of local charity organisations, however, he did not wish to confirm which ones to hide their identities.

In addition, last summer, when the local BLM branch held a large anti-racism protest following the murder of George Floyd, it was members of the anti-fascist group who policed it.

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Thames Valley Police confirmed they were alerted about the incident.

A spokesperson for the force said: “It is being looked into and the neighbourhood team have been made aware.

"Anyone with information can make a report online or call 101 quoting the reference 43210354189."