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Beating the Fascists: The authorised history of Anti-Fascist Action

butchersapron said:
. Have you anything beyond militant anti-fascism?
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No..just a facemask and a well thumbed pack of Tarot cards.....


WHY DO WE NEED A MILITANT ANTI-FASCIST MOVEMENT?


Anti-fascism is fundamentally a rear-guard action, fascism and ultra-nationalism rear their heads where the left has failed. In a world where the majority are born into poverty or are asked to accept ever larger doses of 'austerity' a global elite grows stratospherically wealthy, with no borders or limits on their greed. In the UK we see the aggressive privatisation of public services, the introduction of workfare and the slashing of benefits. There is a concerted effort by a wealthy elite to reverse all the gains made by an organised working class in the last sixty years. Swathes of the population have no representation in mainstream politics.



Inevitably this makes people angry. The status quo is indefensible. The fascist's answer to this is to scapegoat immigrants and outsiders. Their position is just an echo of the agenda of those wielding real power. Watch as David Cameron introduces the most vicious attack on the rights of working people for a generation one day and the next announces that “Islamic extremism” is the greatest challenge we face as a nation. The message that immigration is the main problem facing society is rammed home daily by a handful of billionaire newspaper owners. Watch how the leadership of the far-right are invited onto Newsnight to express the views of the “white working class”.



This has created a reservoir of support for far-right politics, as witnessed by 4.5 million votes for UKIP at the last election. UKIP have hoovered up the BNPs electoral base and enlarged it. Where the BNP had an outline of what their economic and social policies were (the classic fascist mix of aggressive nationalism combined with socialistic economic policy), UKIP are far more nebulous – nobody really knows where they stand on the privatisation of the NHS for example, their appeal to the southern blue-blazer golf club set sits uneasily alongside their base among a northern white working class. It is not clear how well placed they are to fill the vacuum left by the retreat of Labour. The BNP itself has collapsed with the expulsion of Nick Griffin, their most successful leader, marking their march into oblivion.



Back in 1992 following sustained pressure from militant anti-fascists, the BNP announced a change in direction. Nick Griffin's announced that there would be “no more marches, no more punch-ups” and re-orientated the BNP in an electoral direction. Following this change of tack there was a virtual cessation of far-right street activity in the U.K. Under a hundred National Front members marching in Dover was a major event in the anti-fascist calendar.



That all changed in 2009 with the advent of the English Defence League. Cut from a different cloth than previous nationalist street movements, they were a single issue right wing campaign. They effectively attempted to import the tactics of the Orange March to mainland UK. The EDL are and were an online phenomenon, they don't aim for day to day 'control of the streets' but more the creation of a collective 'common sense', aided and abetted by the mainstream media. There were no public meetings or attempts to leaflet in small groups, let alone stand for election. As a single issue campaign there was never any attempt to outline any kind of social or economic ideas. Suddenly there were almost monthly manifestations of hundreds if not thousands of ultra-nationalists somewhere in the country.



Clearly the EDL had succeeded in mobilising a lot of angry people. Their propaganda tapped into the 'clash of civilisations' narrative pushed by the state due to the UK's involvement in Middle Eastern wars. It has been argued that they are and were a modern day “King & Country” mob. Demonstrations were specifically targetted at towns with large Muslim populations with the aim being a loud re-assertion of English values against those of the supposed alien invader. Many must have found attendance at an EDL demo an empowering experience.



The success of the EDL began to fuel a rise in Islamophobic attacks. It also, and this is of crucial importance, saw the beginning of attacks on the left – meetings disrupted, stalls attacked, known activists targeted at home and their places of work.



For the next five years autonomous groups of anti-fascists, generally of anarchist or leftist persuasion together with the more mainstream Socialist Worker Party backed Unite against Fascism (UAF) attempted to counter-act these demos. Where we were strong as a movement, i.e in towns with a large sub-cultural population e.g Brighton or Bristol or where the local community was able to muster numbers e.g Walthamstow, Tower Hamlets or Bradford the EDL were successfully confronted. A successful outcome for anti-fascists would be the EDL confined inside a police cordon besieged by anti-fascists. In many towns however the EDL demonstration outnumbered anti-fascist counter demonstrators.



In the last two years the EDL have been shrinking, although it is always worth remembering that such a loose organisation has the capacity to regenerate alarmingly quickly under the right circumstances. What has happened though is that they have paved the way for other groups. A gaggle of far-right groups have gained confidence from the EDL experience. Some, like Britain First have characterised themselves as UKIPs street army, others like National Action and the National Front are of more obvious neo-Nazi bent. There are many 'footsoldiers' who flit between the two poles. All of them gain confidence whenever they able to mobilise on the streets.



The rise of the EDL showed that there is the capacity for a large scale right wing street movement in the U.K. At the moment the far-right is in disarray but is still sustaining a level of activity that would have been shocking ten years ago. This is not alarmist – tackled properly they can be successfully confronted.
 
butchersapron said:
Fan-tas-tique.

I suppose i am a quiet person.
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So what is gained for the left or anti-fascism by your attitude on here? Whether I wrote the above or not - is it's basic thrust wrong? Do we write to appeal to the man or woman in the street or do we write in a kind of guardedly approved marxist jargon to avoid being pulled to pieces by the self appointed theologians of the movement?
 
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Red Sky said:
So what is gained for the left or anti-fascism by your attitude on here. Whether I wrote the above or not - is it's basic thrust wrong? Do we write to appeal to the man or woman in the street or do we write in a kind of guardedly approved marxist jargon to avoid being pulled to pieces by the self appointed theologians of the movement?
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What is the basic thrust? Loads of people are angry, they vote for UKIP, they incorrectly blame immigrants for their problems, the far right exploit this...

...but you offer no potential solutions.
 
Red Sky said:
So what is gained for the left or anti-fascism by your attitude on here. Whether I wrote the above or not - is it's basic thrust wrong? Do we write to appeal to the man or woman in the street or do we write in a kind of guardedly approved marxist jargon to avoid being pulled to pieces by the self appointed theologians of the movement?
Click to expand...
Am i talking to someone who looks to out people or not? How can any conversation now happen?
 
mk12 said:
What is the basic thrust? Loads of people are angry, they vote for UKIP, they incorrectly blame immigrants for their problems, the far right exploit this...

...but you offer no potential solutions.
Click to expand...

It was meant as an attempt to get people out to confront the fash and site anti-fascism within the context of class struggle. Only a cult leader has a single over-arching explanation for all humanity's problems.
 
Red Sky said:
That wasn't you? An imposter?
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There is a person who goes around pretending to be me - it's to do with all sorts of other stuff. I can't stop them and i'me stuck with only being able to read rather than post on many places. This will be repacked and used as a post under my name somewhere.
 
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Red About Town said:
Good piece on IWCA/anti fascism.

Is it time to re-visit the strategy of the Independent Working Class Association?
We’ve been following the series of anti-refugee protests in Dover called by the South East Alliance (SEA) and the response to them from the anti-fascist movement with a certain amount of interest without letting it divert us from our normal remit. To the casual observer, it could seem to them that anti-fascism only manifests itself on the streets in response to provocations from the SEA and a ragbag of other groups on the far right, followed by online point scoring between the two sides as to who actually ‘won’ on the day. Based on the reports we’ve seen about the latest protest in Dover on April 2nd, it would appear that the winners on the day were the cops who seemed to have everything pretty much nailed down.

For the record, we weren’t in Dover on April 2nd. There are a variety of reasons for this…let’s just say, engaging in in this kind of action isn’t really our style. From our days with the Independent Working Class Association (IWCA), we’ve always preferred the strategy of building on grassroots work in the community as an effective means of keeping the far right at bay. Now we’re not saying the IWCA was perfect, far from it. Mistakes were made at a tactical level, notably the focus on electoral politics which ended up taking up too much time and energy that could have been expended on community action. However, we don’t want to dwell on what went wrong but to focus on what worked and to see if there are ways of building on that…

What the IWCA did back in our day and what remains of their local network still does is listen to the concerns of working class people. Listening and acknowledging people’s concerns doesn’t mean agreeing with any reactionary conclusions they may reach. Although it has to be said that from our experience of canvassing when we were in the IWCA, as most people tend to be apolitical, it’s difficult to pin them down to any particular point on the political spectrum as they will be progressive on some issues and reactionary on others. The point is that once you start to listen and take people’s concerns seriously, you will gain their respect and even if you disagree, you have the basis for a constructive dialogue.

What will gain respect is taking action to address issues in the community. As an example, Blackbird Leys IWCA listened to people’s concerns about anti-social behaviour that was turning a local park into a no-go zone. They organised community patrols to deter the minority of anti-social youths causing the problem. At the same time, they challenged the policies of Oxford City Council who they saw as starving youth services in Blackbird Leys of the resources needed to provide an effective service that would enable anti-social youths to see the error of their ways and change their behaviour. Here’s another example – in response to concerns about drug dealing on the estate, Blackbird Leys IWCA organised visible, disciplined patrols of known trouble spots to deter the dealers. In addition, the IWCA has called for a review of the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act, which introduced the prohibition on buying and selling drugs and the criminalisation of drug users.

What the IWCA did and still do is to take on issues that many sections of the left seem to be acutely uncomfortable with, namely concerns about crime and it’s impact on already impoverished working class areas. Where the IWCA did take on issues such as crime in places such as Blackbird Leys, with it’s analysis and solutions it denied the far right the ground they traditionally exploit and pretty much kept them off the estate. The opposite of this can be seen in Basildon where the long running controversy of the bail hostel situated in the middle of the Felmores estate has never been effectively addressed by the authorities, allowing the National Front in the area to make a concerted effort to own the issue.

Working on the estates, listening to people’s concerns, taking action to deal with them and in the process, building a progressive, pro-working class alternative is a slog. The point is that when it’s done effectively as it has been in Blackbird Leys, it has proved to be an effective way of keeping the far right at bay. Sure, it doesn’t have the excitement that a confrontation on the streets with the far right (and the cops) has but it’s about gaining the space to operate so progressive, pro-working class solutions can be developed and implemented. If we are serious about taking on the far right, we have to be serious about a grassroots presence in working class areas that offers solutions to people’s problems, empowers them to act and denies the far right the space they need to build support.

Is it time to re-visit the strategy of the Independent Working Class Association?
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"Mistakes were made at a tactical level, notably the focus on electoral politics which ended taking up too much time and energy that could have been expended on community action."

It is true that standing for elections takes up time and energy especially when the mainstream opposition collude in order to deny radical upstarts an electoral bridgehead (the strategy adopted against the BNP was later used against the IWCA for example).

At the same time putting up candidates is the only real test of how well the strategy is working on the ground.

At a basic level to put in the work and fail to stand a candidate means a) the successes will all be claimed by the mainstream opponents (this can happen even when a a candidate is put up) in a brazen way. Worse, in not standing, the campaigns especially in the eyes of working class voters, can appear in retrospect to be apolitical. Which in turn begs the question as to what it is you are expending all the time and energy for?

Truth is if the IWCA hadn't 'made the mistake' in standing in elections, no one would ever have heard to the IWCA, including the estates where the strategy was being implemented, never mind re-visiting the strategy a couple of decades later.
 
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