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

[LDC]

That's really the job of the whole Left.

Innit, something the left (mostly) fails at sadly.

 

[Pickman's model]

That's really the job of the whole Left.

Anti fascism is a specialised and reactive activity.

yeh, i'd agree it's specialised and that much of it is reactive. but it makes sense on a several levels to work to spread a culture of resistance, in part on grounds of recruitment.

 

[The39thStep]

That's really the job of the whole Left.

Anti fascism is a specialised and reactive activity.

Best left to the experts eh?

 

[Red Sky]

Best left to the experts eh?

Yeah , like plumbing.

 

[Magnus McGinty]

There were an awful lot of experts at Cable Street then. It’d be nice to be able to pull those kinds of numbers. Which suggests that antifascism shouldn’t just be reactive.

 

[LDC]

There were an awful lot of experts at Cable Street then. It’d be nice to be able to pull those kinds of numbers. Which suggests that antifascism shouldn’t just be reactive.

Nobody has suggested that it only needs to be reactive at all have they?

 

[Red Sky]

There were an awful lot of experts at Cable Street then. It’d be nice to be able to pull those kinds of numbers. Which suggests that antifascism shouldn’t just be reactive.

It was reactive - to a planned march by the Blackshirts. It was an anti fascist counter mobilisation that drew its strength from existing left movements and locals.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

It was reactive - to a planned march by the Blackshirts.

You don't think that there might also have been a bit of anti-fascism going on more generally, at a community level back then?

 

[Red Sky]

You don't think that there might also have been a bit of anti-fascism going on more generally, at a community level back then?

Meaning?

 

[Magnus McGinty]

Nobody has suggested that it only needs to be reactive at all have they?

Red Sky did in post #6808 in response to you.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Meaning?

That Cable Street was reactive, against a specific march - but the level and success of the reaction was down to a general community level anti-fascism at a cultural level.

ETA - I mean you have basically said this too, with your edit.

When you look at things being at a more community/cultural level you can't be thinking of specialists though. The attempted march through Clapton a few years back is a good example of locals not standing for Nazis marching through their community alongside activists. Probably.

 

[LDC]

Red Sky did in post #6808 in response to you.

Ah, that wasn't how I read it. I took it to mean we need both reactive anti-fascism, and also a wider non-reactive cultural anti-fascist ethos. With the former being more the work for 'anti-fascists' and the later a bigger job for the left. And both feeding into each other.

 

[Magnus McGinty]

The left having relevance amongst the working class at that time I’m sure was a huge help.

 

[LDC]

Come on Magnus, you're being fed a line here....

Time for a gripe about safer spaces, sub-cultural ghettos, and the uselessness of activists nowadays surely...?

 

[Red Sky]

That Cable Street was reactive, against a specific march - but the level and success of the reaction was down to a general community level anti-fascism at a cultural level.

ETA - I mean you have basically said this too, with your edit.

When you look at things being at a more community/cultural level you can't be thinking of specialists though. The attempted march through Clapton a few years back is a good example of locals not standing for Nazis marching through their community alongside activists. Probably.

Clapton?

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Clapton?

The aged bonehead Eddie and the polish nazis who wanted to march through Stamford Hill to protest against the Shomrim, but who ended up marching about 100 metres from the Lea Bridge Roundabout to Clapton station instead, verbally abused by an impressive array of Hackney's finest. With a more robust discussion on the cards were it not for the huge police escort.

 

[Magnus McGinty]

Come on Magnus, you're being fed a line here....

Time for a gripe about safer spaces, sub-cultural ghettos, and the uselessness of activists nowadays surely...?

Thanks for covering that on my behalf.

 

[Red Sky]

The aged bonehead Eddie and the polish nazis who wanted to march through Stamford Hill to protest against the Shomrim, but who ended up marching about 100 metres from the Lea Bridge Roundabout to Clapton station instead, verbally abused by an impressive array of Hackney's finest. With a more robust discussion on the cards were it not for the huge police escort.

I think people mobilised for that.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

I think people mobilised for that.

Just specialists?

 

[Red Sky]

Just specialists?

No, but who is it that tells the general public where and when a fascist march is happening? They're not a weekly occurrence are they?

 

[Fozzie Bear]

No, but who is it that tells the general public where and when a fascist march is happening? They're not a weekly occurrence are they?

People found out about it in all sorts of ways. I found out about it through North London Antifa and Jewdas on twitter. But then I told my neighbours and other contacts in the area. Another U75 poster found out about it because he bumped into the counter demontration on the way back from the shops. It was in the local paper newsfeeds too.

 

[Pickman's model]

That Cable Street was reactive, against a specific march - but the level and success of the reaction was down to a general community level anti-fascism at a cultural level.

ETA - I mean you have basically said this too, with your edit.

When you look at things being at a more community/cultural level you can't be thinking of specialists though. The attempted march through Clapton a few years back is a good example of locals not standing for Nazis marching through their community alongside activists. Probably.

Yeh. But AFAIK none of that translated into people from Clapton turning out elsewhere to oppose fascists, nice on the day but didn't lead on to anything

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Yeh. But AFAIK none of that translated into people from Clapton turning out elsewhere to oppose fascists, nice on the day but didn't lead on to anything

Well we can't know that but you're probably right. Having said that there was no attempt by specialists to recruit me or anyone else that I saw...

 

[butchersapron]

Well we can't know that but you're probably right. Having said that there was no attempt by specialists to recruit me or anyone else that I saw...

Wasn't anti-fascism then.

Not unless the specialists certify you.

 

[Pickman's model]

Well we can't know that but you're probably right. Having said that there was no attempt by specialists to recruit me or anyone else that I saw...

((((Fozzie Bear))))

 

[butchersapron]

This thread was kicked off again as regards a discussion about the failures- and not just practical - of anti-fascist specialists.

Is that just a failure of these particular anti-fascist specialists or the whole idea of anti-fascist specialists?

 

[Red Sky]

This thread was kicked off again as regards a discussion about the failures- and not just practical - of anti-fascist specialists.

Is that just a failure of these particular anti-fascist specialists or the whole idea of anti-fascist specialists?

Have there been any successful organisations of anti fascist specialists that you can think of?

 

[Magnus McGinty]

Have there been any successful organisations of anti fascist specialists that you can think of?

Didn’t they also pull in wider numbers?

 

[butchersapron]

Have there been any successful organisations of anti fascist specialists that you can think of?

No.

I know of groups who have the sense to place anti-fascism within a wider political context and who would spit on the idea of anti-fascist specialists who were successful in achieving anti-fascists ends.

If this self-pimpery continues i think the aim must soon be to close the gyms.

So to answer the question, it's just these failed specialists, not other specialists. OK.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

((((Fozzie Bear))))

It was a good day.