Socialist Resistance's anti-fascist bulletin, produced by our Birmingham branch, published its third issue a few weeks ago. It contained a powerful editorial outlining the need for a anti-fascist movement and a new broad socialist party. The whole bulletin can be downloaded as a pdf file from http://bit.ly/2ISO2D.The recent demonstration against the BNP’s Red White & Blue Festival was excellent with a very good mobilisation from across the country bringing 2000 protestors to Codnor in Derbyshire. With perhaps ten times that number it might have been possible to tie-up the police and break out across the fields to the BNP’s barbed-wire compound but given the balance of forces in the real world the demonstration achieved all it possibly could and was a great success. Particular praise is due to the UAF supporters and others who blockaded the roads to prevent BNPers entering- including the Birmingham comrades who were first on the scene shortly after 8am and who stayed there all day. In case anyone is in any doubt about whether such tactics are effective, the good news is that we probably won’t have to do it again next year- at least not in Codnor. The BNP have issued a press release saying they will be seeking another venue next year! Clearly they have been embarrassed by the fact that up to half of those expected did not get through to, or chose not to attend, their festival. Only two of their high profile international guests- prominent fascists from France, Italy and elsewhere, made it through with many others turning away. Local pressure already meant that the Festival had no alcohol or music licences- under these conditions- and with 2000 protestors outside- it is difficult for the BNP to turn its soft-support and new members into the kind of hardened cadres it needs. Given this humiliation, a little infighting in the BNP’s ranks would not go amiss! However, we must not forget they still have over 50 local councillors, 2 MEPs and a seat on the Greater London Authority GLA. Recent ‘demonstrations’ by the English Defence League- a BNP ‘arms-length’ thug outfit may be part of an attempt by them to test the water to see if they can control the streets sufficiently now to start to hold more open meetings and demonstrations. In Birmingham they were sent packing by Asian, black and white youth but they remain an everpresent danger. So what needs to be done? We believe there are two strands to a successful anti-fascist strategy. 1. A Mass Anti-Fascist Movement Unite Against Fascism needs to grow- not just bigger but broader, pulling in wider forces from way beyond the activist left and minority communities. We need to sink deep roots in communities and workplaces and give the lie to any claims of being ‘outside agitators’. It needs to reach across the political, cultural and religious spectrum- any anti-fascist platform needs to have the widest array ofspeakers- including Labour, Lib-Dems, Greens, Jews, Christians and Muslims and anyone else willing to make a stand against the fascists. However, this should not be counterposed to physical defence of our streets, our places of worship and our communities. Self-defence is no offence and we need to work hard to win the ears first and then the hearts and minds of community leaders and elders to put that case clearly. To this end we support the call put out by THE STIRRER for the biggest possible show of unity against the racists and we endorse the response to that call by West midlands UAF- both reprinted in this Bulletin 2. A Broad, Socialist party Those of us on the Left, socialists with a clear and distinct analysis of fascism and the conditions which allow it to breed, have a particular responsibility to start to build a political alternative not just to the politics of hate represented by the BNP but to the politics of despair represented by the other parties which offer no solutions to economic crisis, unemployment and environmental degradation. This requires the building of a broad, socialist party. It is a distinct project from UAF and the wider anti-fascist movement but is not opposed to it. Any broad party would be centrally involved in Unite Against Fascism but would also seek to explain the growth of the Nazis and offer solutions- including at the ballot box. The argument ‘vote anyone but BNP’ can founder when the ballot paper offers no positive choices just a promise of more of the same. For a glimpse of what is possible, we need only look across the Channel to France where the Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste groups together the Left with anti-capitalist youth. It is involved with the day-to-day economic and social struggles of the working class, black and white. It actively opposes the fascist Front National and solidarises with the struggles of Muslim youth and it contests elections at local, regional and national levels. The NPA has around 10,000 members and includes the French co-thinkers of both the British Socialist Workers Party and the Socialist Party [and of Socialist Resistance -eds]. Closer to home we have the example of the Peoples Alliance in the North West which has recently come into being with the support of the Community Action Party (centred on Wigan and Leigh, this has councillors and local roots), the Socialist Party and South Lancashire RESPECT (see elsewhere in this Bulletin for more details). During the Euro elections, the railworkers union- RMT- backed candidates standing on a “NO2EU – Yes to Democracy” platform. This was significant more for what it represented than for what it achieved. It was the first time a national trades union had entered the electoral field against the Labour Party. The fact that the RMT remains committed to an electoral alternative is very important as is the fact that other unions may be convinced to follow suit- most notably the firefighters (FBU) and the civil servants (PCS). We need to start now to try and bring the forces of the Left together- on a very loose basis at first and in carefully targeted areas. Maybe, in the form of non-aggression or mutual-aid pacts in areas where one group or another has a strong candidate- perhaps a prominent figure or a sitting councillor with significant local support. Names which spring to mind as worthy of the support of the whole Left are George Galloway, sitting RESPECT MP, Dave Nellist, Coventry councillor and former Labour MP, Michael Lavalette, SWP councillor in Preston, Salma Yaqoob, Birmingham Sparkbrook councillor, Valerie Wise, former Preston council leader. Other names will come forward as the General Election approaches.
The fight to drive back the BNP will be long and hard, the fight to destroy the sewer of capitalism
which allows such rats to breed, longer and harder still, but what start to do now can lay the
foundations of the future.
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De som inte är rasister får inte vara med | Svensson · 23 October 2009
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