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

[cantsin]

Not everything on here is to do with AFA though, is it? Reading this thread, loads of things are discussed, not just AFA or BtF. This stopped being a strictly AFA thread ages ago. Besides, this thread has shit loads of traffic anyway.

cldnt find whether you had posted on this elsewhere ? Workers Party deffo needs discussing imo, peeling off cranks from left Lab ( good riddance ) and edging towards red-brown territory if GG + wife’s ( check her twitter ) direction of travel anything to go by

 

[krink]

Thanks tony.c appreciate your reply.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

An Anti Fascist Action (AFA) day out in London, Part One

The following is probably a bit self-indulgent of Gombeen Man. But it’s an interesting, true story, set in a time when he was an economic mi...

gombeennation.blogspot.com

.

An Anti-Fascist day out in London, Part Two

This is a continuation of "An Anti-Fascist Action day out in London, Part One" Part Two So. You are in a packed District Line carriage ...

gombeennation.blogspot.com

 

[miktheword]

Just noticed this quick read in guardian. Only a few of the 43 group now left.
Some choice quotes, not just about the justifiable and necessary physical, but about the establishment attitudes, including Board of Deputies.

“For a moment, I was dazed, disorientated. My assailant was about to close and finish me off when Sam grabbed him around the neck and pulled him to the ground. Then Sam jumped on him. The genial, good-humoured Sam said, ‘I’m just breaking the bastard’s ribs so he won’t attend any more meetings.’”

Not everyone was in favour of the 43 Group’s approach. “The Board of Deputies [of British Jews] was keen to keep them in check,” said Sonabend. “They tried to close it down. The establishment did not want anything that could bring Jews into disrepute or encourage more antisemitism. They saw any form of lawbreaking and violence as deeply problematic.
“The response of 43 Group – which had raised a lot of money and plenty of prominent Jewish supporters – was to say the board was more worried about the reputation than the safety of the Jewish community.”

The British Jews who fought postwar fascism on London's streets

‘43 Group’ battled rightwing thugs who continued to torment them even after defeat of the Nazi regime

www.theguardian.com

 

[Fallon]

Great read.

 

[Red Sky]

Great read.

Good stuff. Nice non sectarian post.

 

[Ax^]

aye but saying that its hard not to talk about Britains first sectarian roots and a few group that still associated with it ie the EDL and the DFLA

more so these groups misuse of the poppy image to drag in less informed people and ex forces

tis a shit show

 

[Red Storm]

Red Action- a little pre-history

Former Red Action supporters have done an amazing job in putting together the Red Action Archive- and saved us the trouble of having to scan copies of the RA paper! However, we can now bring you th…

splitsandfusions.wordpress.com

The document they’ve found - the news the socialist worker forgot is particularly interesting.

 

[Pickman's model]

Red Action- a little pre-history

Former Red Action supporters have done an amazing job in putting together the Red Action Archive- and saved us the trouble of having to scan copies of the RA paper! However, we can now bring you th…

splitsandfusions.wordpress.com

The document they’ve found - the news the socialist worker forgot is particularly interesting.

Good to see you posting again

 

[Red Storm]

Good to see you posting again

Thanks mate. Just catching up on what I’ve missed

 

[Fallon]

Anti-Fascist Action was an important organisation that took a position of fighting the far right on the streets as well as combatting their ideas politically wherever they arose. Founded in 1985, AFA effectively ceased to exist around 2000-2001.

Here’s an account of Anti-Fascist Action in their own words, published in 1999, as the organisation was in effect winding up – or as they saw it, moving on to other arenas of the struggle against fascism…
Some thoughts in AFA and their winding up follow their text.

Today in London anti-fascist history, 1985: Anti Fascist Action founded, ‘to fight fascism physically & politically’

Anti-Fascist Action was an important organisation that took a position of fighting the far right on the streets as well as combatting their ideas politically wherever they arose. Founded in 1985, A…

pasttenseblog.wordpress.com

 

[Shechemite]

Given the turn against ‘street marches’ from the ‘intellectual’ (and more extreme) element of the far right, and the growth of the ‘we know it’s mental but it works’ conspiracy lot (eg Piers Corbyn: From International Marxist Group to Red-Brown Charlatan.), what role does physical anti-fascism have now?

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Given the turn against ‘street marches’ from the ‘intellectual’ (and more extreme) element of the far right, and the growth of the ‘we know it’s mental but it works’ conspiracy lot (eg Piers Corbyn: From International Marxist Group to Red-Brown Charlatan.), what role does physical anti-fascism have now?

Well there is also this sort of thing:

 

[Shechemite]

The master race

“I began to grow increasingly nervous. It dawned on me that our first banner drop location was directly outside New Scotland Yard”

 

[Shechemite]

Well there is also this sort of thing:

Cheers.

 

[AmateurAgitator]

cldnt find whether you had posted on this elsewhere ? Workers Party deffo needs discussing imo, peeling off cranks from left Lab ( good riddance ) and edging towards red-brown territory if GG + wife’s ( check her twitter ) direction of travel anything to go by

I am very interested in the whole red/brown thing with the Worker's Party and Galloway. Any useful links to provide evidence of this? I'm not doubting what you are posting, would just like some clear proof, would be useful.

 

[Shechemite]

Gilad Atzmon
Assange
Scottish nationalism
Flirting (or more) with British nationalism
Raul Moat

 

[krink]

Irish anti-fascists need to squash this before it grows - looks like mostly young lads to me

 

[butchersapron]

Gardai scum not commie scum.

 

[cantsin]

I am very interested in the whole red/brown thing with the Worker's Party and Galloway. Any useful links to provide evidence of this? I'm not doubting what you are posting, would just like some clear proof, would be useful.

in terms of GG's Wife / co presenter of his RT show, just a quick scroll, and the tone of her twitter feed speaks for itself - incessant pro family / pro authoritarian / v terfy, but then even on to BLM scepticism :

(check the replies to this, which she was fishing for, obviously )



Workers GB - the "Economically radical and against imperialist war " tagline again points to where they are on socials issues - doesn't add up to Red-Brown ism in itself, and it's all a bit more nuanced than that possibly, but with the support for Assad / Russia etc, and chuck in Galloway's ludicrous Unionism / anti Scots indep, and , and direction of travel all seem pretty clear for me ( though will accept GG's not short of clarify / forceful intellect / and a bit of charisma when it comes to working class issues, + some parts of his anti imperialism etc).

 

[Shechemite]

Is Gorgeous still reading Atzmon’s book to wifey?

 

[Fallon]

Nearly 10 years after I first read it, I started BTF again yesterday. It's aged well..

 

[Red Storm]

Nearly 10 years after I first read it, I started BTF again yesterday. It's aged well..

cant believe it’s been 10 years!

 

[Smokeandsteam]

An early Christmas present - Richard Edmonds has died.

For younger readers Edmonds was a Holocaust denier, a poisonous anti-Semite and a one time leading figure in the National Front & BNP.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

The latest Working Class History podcast is an interesting look at the history of Anti Racist Action in Minneapolis:

E49: Anti-Racist Action in Minneapolis

As a far-right mob just stormed the Capitol in Washington DC on January 6, 2021, learn more about the history of opposition to white supremacy in the US. This podcast episode tells the story of Ant…

workingclasshistory.com

Essentially an organisation that grew out of a 1980s multi-ethnic skinhead gang that fought boneheads.

 

[hitmouse]

Something I've always vaguely wondered about is that, given that there was plenty of militant opposition to the far-right in the US from the 80s-2000s under the ARA banner, when and how did the most common term for that activity become antifa, and how narrowly did we miss out on an alternate universe where dickheads keep on proclaiming themselves to be anti-ARA, finding some weird way to pronounce ARA wrong, etc?

 

[Serge Forward]

The far right would pronounce it "ay-ray" with emphasis on the ray.

 

[Pickman's model]

Something I've always vaguely wondered about is that, given that there was plenty of militant opposition to the far-right in the US from the 80s-2000s under the ARA banner, when and how did the most common term for that activity become antifa, and how narrowly did we miss out on an alternate universe where dickheads keep on proclaiming themselves to be anti-ARA, finding some weird way to pronounce ARA wrong, etc?

i suspect los fastidios have to bear much of that blame

 

[Pickman's model]

An early Christmas present - Richard Edmonds has died.

For younger readers Edmonds was a Holocaust denier, a poisonous anti-Semite and a one time leading figure in the National Front & BNP.

i missed this - a late xmas present

 

[hitmouse]

i missed this - a late xmas present

On a related note, while reading through Three-Way Fight recently, in among all the very detailed, sober nuanced analysis they have to offer, I did smile at seeing they had an obituary for Tom Metzger starting "Tom Metzger is dead. Fuck that muthafucker."