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

[Red Sky]

From the IWCA Facebook page:

Today is the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street, where an attempted 3,000 strong march through the East End of London by the British Union of Fascists, under police protection, was forcibly prevented and broken up by thousands of fighting anti-fascists and upwards of one hundred thousand demonstrators. It remains the most significant single domestic episode in the history of British anti-fascism.

Cable Street was not a spontaneous, apolitical revolt by salt-of-the-earth Londoners outraged at the presence of fascist provocateurs in their midst. The driving force was working class militants – largely, but by no means exclusively, within the Communist Party - armed with a class analysis, rooted in their own communities and often working against prevailing ‘left’ structures. Within the Communist Party itself, the leadership were hell bent on having a demonstration in support of the Spanish Republic at Trafalgar Square on the day, but rank and file pressure forced them to change plans at the eleventh hour to defend the East End. The Labour Party’s role in Cable Street is predictably shameful: its representatives at the time tried to persuade anti-fascists to stay away from the demo, and Herbert Morrison – then leader of London County Council, and Home Secretary four years later - afterwards condemned anti-fascists alongside fascists for causing the trouble, while praising the police for their actions.

Despite this, Labour are front and centre in the official Cable Street commemoration, along with their conservative anti-fascist allies and apolitical ethnic/religious grouplets: elements that oppose fascism not because it threatens the working class, but because it threatens the status quo. One wonders what the activists of ’36 would make of this, or how the result might have turned out had the anti-fascist forces been so constituted back then.

Surveying the scene now, we see every possibility of Europe seeing the election of its first far-right head of state since 1945 in Austria in December, Marine Le Pen consistently leading the polling for the first round of the 2017 French Presidential election, UKIP eating into Labour’s core vote in England and Wales, the AfD as the biggest working class party in Berlin and the populist right climbing all over the furniture across northern, western and central Europe. The financial crash of 2008 and subsequent chronic economic crisis has stripped the political centre of its vestigial credibility, but it is the right who are filling the vacuum in working class political representation. The antecedents of the IWCA had as their mission statement ‘to oppose fascism physically and ideologically’. Cable Street was one of the inspirations for the physical struggle, a struggle that has been won – for now. If the current wave of populist nationalism is to be beaten back, the struggle now has to be political: no less than to reconstitute the working class as a political fighting force and the prime agent of radical political change, independent, democratic and beholden to no-one but itself. The challenge is considerable, but the risks of failing to meet it are clear.

The physical struggle has been won? That's great news. What happened?

 

[butchersapron]

The physical struggle has been won? That's great news. What happened?

The quote is

Cable Street was one of the inspirations for the physical struggle, a struggle that has been won – for now

Any reason you chose to misrepresent it?

 

[Red Sky]

The quote is



Any reason you chose to misrepresent it?

Misrepresent how? If I've misunderstood the meaning then please let me kniw.

 

[butchersapron]

Misrepresent how? If I've misunderstood the meaning then please let me kniw.

I'll certainly let you kniw. Your cutting of the quote suggests that the analysis offered is one of peaceful co-existence, of a pacified anti-fascism. As opposed to your militant anti-fascism. Which, of course means ignoring the whole point about politics that the piece was seeking to make.

 

[Red Sky]

I'll certainly let you kniw. Your cutting of the quote suggests that the analysis offered is one of peaceful co-existence, of a pacified anti-fascism. As opposed to your militant anti-fascism. Which, of course means ignoring the whole point about politics that the piece was seeking to make.

Tell you what - I'll do my side of the argument. You do yours. The piece, which I broadly agree with, says that the physical struggle is over - do you think that that is the case?

 

[butchersapron]

Tell you what - I'll do my side of the argument. You do yours. The piece, which I broadly agree with, says that the physical struggle is over - do you think that that is the case?

Tell you what, tell me why you cut off 'for now'?

Of course the physical fight against organised fascist groups as an/the main ongoing political imperative - rather than silly set-pieces with flags and anti-brexit stickers - has been won. For now.

 

[Red Sky]

Tell you what, tell me why you cut off 'for now'?

Of course the physical fight against organised fascist groups as an/the main ongoing political imperative - rather than silly set-pieces with flags and anti-brexit stickers - has been won. For now.

Aaah so opposing fascist demos is 'silly' now.

I didn't cut off anything, because I wasn't directly quoting the article.

 

[Ho Chi Ming]

The physical struggle has been won? That's great news. What happened?

It might advance the discussion if you could expand upon your implication that the physical battle against fascism rages on.

 

[butchersapron]

There's always someone that people have to point the finger as at having given up, as not being militant enough isn't there? I can see that's a group building thing, but...is it true? Is it accurate? Coherent? Corresponding to reality? I don't think so, and i don't think that you can if you largely agree with the piece but think they have 'given up' or abandoned the anti-rascism that motivated the formation and activity of the group. Which is what cutting off the for now' does.

 

[butchersapron]

Aaah so opposing fascist demos is 'silly' now.

I didn't cut off anything, because I wasn't directly quoting the article.

There we go - that's all you wanted to say. Something about Dover, etc

 

[Red Sky]

There's always someone that people have to point the finger as at having given up, as not being militant enough isn't there? I can see that's a group building thing, but...is it true? Is it accurate? Coherent? Corresponding to reality? I don't think so, and i don't think that you can if you largely agree with the piece but think they have 'given up' or abandoned the anti-rascism that motivated the formation and activity of the group. Which is what cutting off the for now' does.

Ffs - you're putting words in my mouth. Who did I say had 'given up'?

 

[butchersapron]

Aaah so opposing fascist demos is 'silly' now.

I didn't cut off anything, because I wasn't directly quoting the article.

You paraphrased it and left off what constituted a large part of the argument. It was not a well intentioned cut-off either.

 

[butchersapron]

Ffs - you're putting words in my mouth. Who did I say had 'given up'?

That's what cutting off/leaving out one of the key parts in your paraphrase does.

 

[Red Sky]

You paraphrased it and left off what constituted a large part of the argument. It was not a well intentioned cut-off either.

You're either very touchy or plain paranoid.

So to take you up on the whole 'Dover' thing - was that a 'silly set piece'?

 

[butchersapron]

You're either very touchy or plain paranoid.

So to take you up on the whole 'Dover' thing - was that a 'silly set piece'?

It was the definition of set-piece.

Now, do you agree with me that "the physical fight against organised fascist groups as an/the main ongoing political imperative - rather than silly set-pieces with flags and anti-brexit stickers - has been won. For now." You said that you wanted the argument. So get cracking. If you do agree then your post above which suggest otherwise look a but daft. If you don't then get cracking.

 

[Red Sky]

It was the definition of set-piece.

Now, do you agree with me that "the physical fight against organised fascist groups as an/the main ongoing political imperative - rather than silly set-pieces with flags and anti-brexit stickers - has been won. For now." You said that you wanted the argument. So get cracking. If you do agree then your post above which suggest otherwise look a but daft. If you don't then get cracking.

No - and it wasn't the main ongoing political imperative in the 80s either. It was however a necessary struggle as it is today. Are you suggesting that we refrain from physical resistance until it does become the main imperative?

 

[butchersapron]

No - and it wasn't the main ongoing political imperative in the 80s either. It was however a necessary struggle as it is today. Are you suggesting that we refrain from physical resistance until it does become the main imperative?

Yep, here go:

There's always someone that people have to point the finger as at having given up, as not being militant enough isn't there? I can see that's a group building thing, but...is it true? Is it accurate? Coherent? Corresponding to reality? I don't think so, and i don't think that you can if you largely agree with the piece but think they have 'given up' or abandoned the anti-rascism that motivated the formation and activity of the group. Which is what cutting off the for now' does.

Like swiss fucking clockwork.

 

[Red Sky]

Yep, here go:



Like swiss fucking clockwork.

Mental.

 

[butchersapron]

No - and it wasn't the main ongoing political imperative in the 80s either. It was however a necessary struggle as it is today. Are you suggesting that we refrain from physical resistance until it does become the main imperative?

What do you think i mean by the main ongoing political imperative?

 

[butchersapron]

Mental.

Enjoy your stickers.

 

[Red Sky]

Enjoy your stickers.

Mental

 

[butchersapron]

I think this might indicate one reason why any political response - to fill the vacuum to use a phrase - never happened. Anti-fascist fetishism.

 

[butchersapron]

Mental

 

[Red Sky]

I think this might indicate one reason why any political response - to fill the vacuum to use a phrase - never happened. Anti-fascist fetishism.

So today's crop of fetishistic, sticker wielding, silly anti fascists are to blame for your generations failure to 'fill the vacuum' politically twenty five years ago?

 

[butchersapron]

So today's crop of fetishistic, sticker wielding, silly anti fascists are to blame for your generations failure to 'fill the vacuum' politically twenty five years ago?

There's always someone that people have to point the finger as at having given up, as not being militant enough isn't there? I can see that's a group building thing, but...is it true? Is it accurate? Coherent? Corresponding to reality? I don't think so, and i don't think that you can if you largely agree with the piece but think they have 'given up' or abandoned the anti-rascism that motivated the formation and activity of the group. Which is what cutting off the for now' does.

 

[SpackleFrog]

So today's crop of fetishistic, sticker wielding, silly anti fascists are to blame for your generations failure to 'fill the vacuum' politically twenty five years ago?

Not you personally, the ideas you espouse. Don't be so touchy.

 

[Red Sky]

Not you personally, the ideas you espouse. Don't be so touchy.

What ideas that I espouse?

 

[butchersapron]

What ideas that I espouse?

Indeed.

 

[Red Sky]

Indeed.

Good one.

 

[Red Sky]

It might advance the discussion if you could expand upon your implication that the physical battle against fascism rages on.

It's definitely the case that the last 18 months have seen a decrease in far right street activity. The decline of the EDL to just one among a handful of splinter groups rather than main source of far-right activism. What the EDL did achieve, albeit unintentionally, was to open the door to the re-emergence of neo -Nazi street activity. That has been the main focus of anti fascists (with variable results) since around Spring last year. There are a dedicated handful of volk trying to get a viable fascist street movement off the ground. They are aiming at the physical control of the streets and anti fascists are aiming to disrupt that.

So, in that time, off the top of my head, we've had Dover (four times? Five?) , Manchester twice at least, Liverpool of course and now just last weekend Berwick.