FIGHTING FASCISM AND THE FAR RIGHT TODAY

A Socialist Worker pamphlet by Lewis Nielsen Introduction by Weyman Bennett CONTENTS

The danger of the far right and fascism...... 3

What is fascism?...... 7

Who are the fascists and far right today?...... 12

Greece: fighting Golden Dawn by Petros Constantinou...... 16

Austria: fascism in government and resistance to it by David Albrich...... 18

Back to the 1930s? Lessons from the past...... 21

Germany: resisting the rise of the far right by Christine Buchholz...... 26

‘It wouldn’t happen here’: is fascism alien to Britain?...... 29

How the Anti Nazi League beat back the fascists by Paul Holborow...... 34

How can we fight fascism and the far right today?...... 36

A guide to further reading...... 43

Pamphlet produced by Socialist Worker. Written by Lewis Nielsen. Designed by Ben Windsor. First published November 2018. Second edition June 2019 Fighting fascism 3

Tommy Robinson supporters demonstrate in Trafalgar Square Photo: Andy Barton international co-ordination between the INTRODUCTION far right and fascist organisations. THE DANGER OF The growth of electoral support for racist anti-immigrant parties has THE FAR RIGHT occurred alongside the growth of far right AND FASCISM and fascist street movements. All these organisations cross-fertilise and feed into a general growth of the far right and the By Weyman Bennett, co-convenor boundaries between them continually of Stand Up To Racism (pc) shift. spectre is haunting Europe—and the We can see this in the constellation of Aworld. It is the growth of fascism and forces that came together to support the racist populism. In key countries, fascist fascist ex English Defence League (EDL) and far right movements have grown leader Tommy Robinson on 9 June 2018 powerfully. Not since the 1930s has there in London. been such a deep penetration of racist The rally of 15,000 people was funded and xenophobic ideas into the political by money from far right think tanks in mainstream. the US and hosted by Raheem Kassam, Jair Bolsonaro’s victory in the election former editor-in-chief of Breitbart UK. for Brazilian president in October 2018 The leader of Ukip, Gerard Batten, spoke underscored that the process was not and appealed to Robinson supporters to confined to Europe. join Ukip. The Democratic Football Lads We are seeing a high degree of Alliance (DFLA), the remnants of the 4 Fighting fascism

EDL and other fascist groups were there alongside the alt-right white supremacist group Generation Identity. Geert Wilders the Dutch far right politician spoke, alongside Louis Aliot, Marine Le Pen’s adviser. Filip Dewinter, a member of the fascist Vlaams Belang party in Belgium (who has attended events commemorating the Nazi SS) also spoke, and Steve Bannon sent a message of support. The common narrative promoted by these groups is that an elite across Europe is using immigration—and specifically Muslim migrants and refugees—to undermine Western values. Jobbik’s paramilitary wing on the march They label Islam as a fundamentalist, the first targets of the fascist mobs were reactionary ideology, which fuels terrorist immigrants, but this was then followed by attacks and sexual assaults by Muslim an attack on a Jewish restaurant. men. And they call the left and socialists Racism continues to give the fascist like Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott cadre a cause to organise around and traitors for not standing up to Islam and there are inevitably racist murders and being soft on immigrants and refugees. other attacks when the far right is on the There is nothing automatic about the move. growth of such groups. They still face real One of the characteristics of the limitations and problems. different types of far right and fascist The horrors committed by the Nazis organisations is that they claim to be anti- —in particular the Holocaust—meant establishment. They seek to capture the that fascist groups became toxic in most mood of deep despair and anger, arising countries after the Second World War. from the real decline in living standards There was a refusal to allow them to be and the destruction of the welfare state as treated as normal political parties. This a consequence of capitalism and 30 years has been slowly eroded. of neoliberalism. Crucially the growth of Islamophobia, They provide a false explanation, and particularly the attacks on migrants blaming foreigners and immigrants. This from a Muslim background, following the is the way that capitalism works to divide war on terror, has normalised racist ideas. and conquer the working class. Each form of racism tends to sharpen In the end, the far right always identify other forms of racism. It’s not an accident closely with capitalism. This is why that in Chemnitz in Germany in 2018, previous fascists who have gone into Fighting fascism 5 government, such as Gianfranco Fini fascism can also provoke a movement in in Italy or Jorg Haider in Austria, found response that can go further to challenge themselves in the midst of corruption capitalism itself. scandals, making deals with big business In 1934, the fascists challenged for and becoming the very thing that they power in France, with a mass riot in the claimed to be opposing. centre of Paris. The far right movement, overall, still This was just a year after Hitler had remains dominated by the middle class. come to power in Germany. But it provoked a huge backlash, Between hope and despair with the left coming together to propel The fascists are the political party of a protest movement that not only drove despair. But there is also hope, and a the fascists back, but led to a left-wing way to beat them. In all the countries government in 1936 and a massive wave where the fascists have made electoral of strikes and factory occupations that breakthroughs, there has been mass shook French capitalism. resistance against them. In Greece, Golden Dawn was met by The united front the rise of the organised working class The Football Lads Alliance (FLA), and, crucially, with a mass anti-fascist which emerged as a street movement of and anti-racist movement that has put football supporters against “extremism”’ them on the back foot. in 2017, faced an early split because it In Germany the racists and the encountered opposition and its core AfD are met by tens of thousands— values were questioned. Its previous sometimes hundreds of thousands—of leader, John Meighan, found himself people who want to stand up against removed because some of its marches them. The Freedom Party in Austria has were unsuccessful. also faced significant opposition. This shows that the fascists need The key task is to connect the momentum. They require continuous millions of anti-racists and anti-fascists collective action on the streets in order with organised workers to act as a to sense any kind of power. defensive shield. The united front against fascism is not But we also need the working class a passive alliance. It is unity in action. movement to put forward a radical, The shock of the fascists making progressive solution to the crisis of significant political advances can lead capitalism—taking the wealth from the to passivity in parts of the movement. rich and powerful to solve the housing We saw this during the early years of the crisis, create decent jobs, to solve the British National Party (BNP). environmental crisis, and to shift power Some people said, “There’s nothing we in society towards working people. can do,” and wrote off the working class We shouldn’t forget that the danger of as being completely racist and broken 6 Fighting fascism

The Battle of Cable Street. When our side gets organised, we can beat back the fascists in spirit. We heard a lot of the same activists in the anti-racist movement with arguments about Brexit and all working the lessons of previous struggles against class people being racist. fascism together with an understanding But resistance works. An exemplary of the growing threat today. united front campaign in the North West The founder of the Socialist Workers of England in May 2019 humbled Tommy Party (SWP), Tony Cliff, once told me Robinson and made sure he was not that his worst nightmare was fascists or successful at the European elections. He Nazis with nuclear weapons, because took only 2.2 percent of the vote. this is not just a threat to the end of We now face the new challenge of the bourgeois democracy, it is a threat to the Brexit Party headed by the racist Nigel whole of humanity. Farage. This time we have to go beyond We always have to understand that removing the Nazis, the cancer on our there can be contradictory ideas in society and class, to also dealing with the working class people’s heads. system that produces the malignancy. They can treasure the NHS, built and To achieve that we need to have at the sustained by generations of migrants, heart of the anti-racist and anti-fascist but at the same time be drawn to ideas movement a radical, revolutionary that put the blame for all society’s ills on socialist organisation. immigrants and refugees. An anti-racist This must seek to build the widest organisation that openly challenges these possible unity to confront the far right ideas can appeal to the anti-racist instincts and also prepare and encourage the of people and isolate the far right. working class struggles and politics that This pamphlet is aimed at arming the can really deliver fundamental change. Fighting fascism 7

Fascism can take many forms are widely regarded with horror, they CHAPTER 1 abuse the term for their own ends. WHAT IS FASCISM? Iraq’s Saddam Hussein was a long- term friend of both the US and British o build a movement that can stop the governments. But when he became a TNazis, we need a clear understanding threat to their interests, they suddenly of what fascism is. The emergence of discovered he was the “new Hitler” and various right wing, far right and racist consequently faced a series of wars. forces has understandably created In Serbia, Slobodan Milošević was once confusion about a definition. the man the West “could do business with”. The point is not about academic Then he too became “the new Hitler”. definition. It is to understand our enemy But the same people that use these in order to destroy it. terms when they are not appropriate don’t Nor does it mean that just because use them for real fascists. So they describe some vile, racist, misogynistic, parties like Jobbik in Hungary or Golden homophobic character is not a fascist that Dawn in Greece—who both openly they are acceptable or that they are not to employ fascist insignia—as “nationalist” be utterly opposed. or “far right”, but never fascist. One source of confusion is the way our More understandable is the confusion rulers use the term. Because they know arising from figures such as Donald that fascism, the Nazis and Adolf Hitler Trump who some on the left have 8 Fighting fascism described as fascist. Given his racist rhetoric, Muslim ban and the separating of migrant families at the Mexican border, it is easy to see why some people might regard him as a neo-fascist. However, it is a mistake to brand any form of dictatorial, repressive or racist ideology as fascist. Fascism is not simply a worse form of right wing nationalism. It is highly dangerous to treat right wing parliamentary forces and fascists as identical. The Tories whip up racism, deport migrants, wreck people’s lives with brutal cuts and drag us into imperialist wars. is to smash the working class, destroy its But they are not about to ban trade organisations, and stifle political liberties unions, abolish all elections, murder trade when the capitalists find themselves unionists and left-wing leaders, and set up unable to govern and dominate with the concentration camps. History shows us help of democratic machinery.” that this is what fascism would do. Fascism is not a small-group conspiracy, or a plot by generals. It is a A battering ram against mass phenomenon which mobilises large numbers for reactionary ends. the working class Most of the time, capitalists believe Fascism is not just an assault on they can protect their interests through minorities, or an intensified system of the normal methods of parliamentary racism. It’s true racism plays a key role democracy, whether the party in office is in fascist ideology, as the horrors of the right wing or social-democratic. Holocaust showed. But at its heart, fascism But, as Trotsky wrote, “At the moment is a wholesale assault on the working class that the ‘normal’ police and military and all the oppressed and exploited. resources of the bourgeois dictatorship, To grasp what fascism actually is, together with their parliamentary screens, author Robert Paxton has argued that no longer suffice to hold society in a state we need to “start with a strategy rather of equilibrium—the turn of the fascist than a definition”. The aim of fascism is to regime arrives. build a mass movement that can smash “Through the fascist agency, parliamentary democracy and all forms capitalism sets in motion the masses of working class organisation. of the crazed petty bourgeoisie and the As Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky bands of declassed and demoralized wrote: “The historic function of fascism lumpenproletariat—all the countless Fighting fascism 9 human beings whom finance capital itself and intimidate political opponents. has brought to desperation and frenzy.” The clearest example of this is the An economic crisis raises the question rise of Hitler’s Nazis in Germany. They of who will pay. The overlords of big focused on gaining maximum votes in business have the power that comes from elections, whilst also putting great effort their ownership and control of capital. into building a mass street movement to Workers can turn towards trade attack working class organisations, trade unions, strikes and collective struggle as unions and Jews. a way of fighting back. What Marxists The question of street power is critical call the petty bourgeoisie—small for fascists. Demonstrations are a crucial businessmen, small shop owners, small way of asserting their dominance, as farmers, sections of professions such as it gives atomised individuals from lawyers and doctors—are in a different the middle class the sense of a wider position. collective. This is why Hitler wrote that Crisis can ruin them, and they don’t “mass demonstrations must burn into have the power of the big bosses or the the little man’s soul the proud conviction potential power of workers. They waver that, though he is a little worm, he is between the two main classes in society. nevertheless part of a great dragon.” A militant working class movement True to his word, a key component of that decisively offers a resolution of the Hitler’s strategy was to build up a street crisis in the interests of the majority can army of stormtroopers. By 1933 the Nazis pull such people behind it, or at least could call on 400,000 of them. neutralise them. It is this tactic that draws towards But when no such movement exists, fascism the unemployed and other fascists will try to fill that vacuum. marginal elements in society. The street Fascism divides, weakens and attacks movement, including demonstrations, the working class. It is in this sense that the breaking up of opposition and the it is useful to the ruling class, as history terrorising of the left, also shows to the shows. bosses the useful role fascists can play Hitler was never elected by a majority against the working class. of Germans. Conservative politicians Many commentators are keen to label and army chiefs appointed Hitler as Tommy Robinson and his gang as voices Chancellor in early 1933 as they saw no of the working class. They said the same other force capable of defeating the left about the English Defence League and and the trade unions. British National Party. The reality is quite Trotsky was the first to argue that different. fascism is unique. He argued that it Robinson himself was a manager of employs a dual strategy of standing in a tanning shop in Luton, while John parliamentary elections, while at the same Meighan, the original founder of the FLA time building a street army to terrorise who has since been deposed, describes 10 Fighting fascism himself as a “property professional”. Rosso, or two Red Years, when strikes, The former leader of far right group factory occupations and mass workers’ Generation Identity, Tom Dupre, was demonstrations beat back attacks by the fired from his job as a banker with bosses. Standard Chartered after his links with And in Germany, Hitler’s Nazi Party the group emerged. was borne out of a hatred and desire to These people don’t represent the crush the militant working class activity working class of labourers, service that produced the German Revolution workers, call centre workers, teachers and following the First World War. nurses. The fascist demagogues Hitler and They come from the layer of small Mussolini styled themselves as radical businessmen and managers that want to and anti-establishment, but their whip up racism and build a movement strategy of destroying working class that attacks the left and trade unions. organisation ultimately served the interests of the bosses. Movement of despair Trotsky wrote that fascism provides Fascism is a movement of despair. “a razor in the hands of the class enemy”. Historically it has used periods of Paxton called it a “revolution against the profound social and economic crisis to revolution”. stake its claim. It never creeps up on society. Stopping the fascists The carnage of the First World War It is therefore necessary to understand led to a wave of revolutions across fascism as a unique movement of despair Europe, starting in Russia and spreading based on the middle classes, but also to Germany, Italy, Hungary and one which works in the interest of big elsewhere. Even Britain saw mass strikes business by weakening, dividing and and soldiers’ mutinies. terrorizing the working class. Across Europe, workers’ movements In the process of building such a threatened to take power. Faced with reactionary movement, the Nazis can this threat, the ruling class needed a pull behind them wider layers than just different kind of movement to stop hardcore fascists. them. Today we see fascists across Europe In Russia the former generals of pursuing strategies that differ from the the Tsarist regime looked to counter- 1930s. revolutionary brute force and violence to In the 1980s, in order to break out of crush the revolution. their isolation, Le Pen’s FN pioneered In Italy, Mussolini’s Blackshirts the strategy of dressing in suits to emerged as a force in opposition to the look respectable and downplaying the workers’ movement which had been hardcore skinhead fascist image. on the offensive during the Bienno This by no means reduces the threat Fighting fascism 11

when they hold public events, and through mass protest, seeking to close them down.

Confronting Nazis on the streets: You often hear arguments that say we should ignore the fascists when they march. We’re told if we ignore them, they will go away. The reality is different. When Nazis march they chant racist abuse, sometimes give Hitler salutes and Mussolini’s fascists set out to often attack Muslims or migrants. smash the workers’ movement Hitler saw the conquest of the street such organisations pose. By mobilising as crucial to gaining influence and giving against the fascists, we can chip away fascists confidence. the outer layers to expose and isolate the Nazis today attempt to build street core. demonstrations as a way of gathering a Fascism combines a quest for softer layer around them. electoral respectability with the building Wherever the far right try to march of a violent street movement. Three or spread their hate, it is important tactics for opposing the fascists follow anti-racists come out to oppose and, if from this. possible, stop them. We must drive a wedge between Nazis No platform: It is crucial we deny and the softer layers around them. fascists political platforms that grant them a foothold. They are not just Intensive campaigning against their another political party. They want to ideas, and presenting an alternative: smash parliamentary democracy and The myths and ideas peddled by fascists deny free speech to minorities and the have to be confronted. working class. In the modern phase that means, for We must therefore refuse them example, rejecting and arguing against political legitimacy and the oxygen to the idea that Muslims are particularly grow, which means denying them public responsible for child sexual exploitation, platforms. or that migrants are the reason for the Debating with Nazis does not work. NHS crisis. They gain power through terror, not More generally, socialists have to force of argument, and aim to take away direct the anger in society towards the free speech from others. real culprits: the rich, the bosses, the No-platforming Nazis means refusing politicians who support them, and the to debate with them, demonstrating capitalist system as a whole. 12 Fighting fascism

hardcore Nazis at its centre, plays upon CHAPTER 2 both antisemitic and Islamophobic ideas, WHO ARE THE and makes sometimes coded references to Nazi ideas. A constant tension exists FASCISTS AND between those at the top who seek to FAR RIGHT present a respectable face, and the Nazi boot boys. At their heart they want to TODAY? push “normal” politics as far to the right as possible and, if necessary, smash Across Europe we face four different parliamentary democracy and establish types of organised racists and fascists: a fascist state. Classical fascists Racist populist parties These are groups like Jobbik in Hungary Racist populists focus purely on the or Golden Dawn in Greece. They electoral field and aim to build on continue the legacy of fascist groups anti-establishment anger by portraying from the 1930s, complete with insignia, themselves as the voice of ordinary uniform and salutes. people. Although they often stand in They don’t build street armies elections, they simultaneously of fascists, but they ultimately give attempt to form street movements confidence to Nazis by creating a toxic to attack migrants and working class atmosphere of racism to win votes. Ukip organisations. The aim is to eventually in Britain is one example. This results in smash parliamentary democracy. The the political discussion being dragged to horror of the Holocaust and the brutal the right and legitimising the arguments crimes of the Nazis mean that their of the fascists. They may have groups of numbers for most of the post-war era fascists operating within them. have been small. But, recently we have The Lega and Five Star Movement in seen them begin to break through. Italy, or Geert Wilders’ PVV party in the Netherlands, are examples of this. Euro fascists Parties like Marine Le Pen’s National Racist street movements Front, now renamed the Rassemblement Groups like the Football Lads Alliance National (RN), in France and the and Democratic Football Lads Alliance Freedom Party in Austria have had in Britain or Pegida (Patriotic Europeans much more success by focusing on an Against the Islamisation of the West) in electoral path. Germany are examples of racist street Attempting to abandon the openly movements. They provide a space for fascist insignia and symbols, they try hardcore Nazi elements to gather softer to present themselves as mainstream layers around them. politicians. However, the RN still has Fighting fascism 13

Process of shift and change The groupings on the racist and fascist right are not rigidly separated from each other. Indeed, for the last few years the far right across Europe has been characterised by a state of flux, with different formations emerging that sometimes bring together fascists, racist populists and elements of the mainstream right. These hybrid groups can change The French Front National character depending on the opposition pioneered the rebranding of fascism they face and the class battles in which In addition to all this there is the role they engage. Groups that are not fully played by right wing parliamentary fascist can still be a mortal danger to the parties. working class, migrants, Muslims, and all Mainstream parties like the Tories the oppressed. in Britain or Angela Merkel’s Christian There is always a connection between Democratic Union (CDU) in Germany the growth of fascist forces and the have whipped up a climate of racism that actions of mainstream right wing and has encouraged the racist and fascist right. social democratic parties. At a time of Theresa May’s attempts to create a crisis, mainstream parties attack working “hostile environment” for migrants, class people and peddle scapegoating coupled with state-sponsored lies designed to splinter resistance. Islamophobia, help to legitimise Corruption and elitism reveal them as arguments put forward by forces to the divorced from and hostile to the majority right of the Tories. Donald Trump is a of people. global beacon for racists and fascists of In his book Marxists In The Face of all types. He has given confidence to the Fascism, David Beetham writes that the alt-right and fascists in the US. connection between fascism and the Unfortunately the concessions mainstream right within a parliamentary and retreats by social democratic system can take two forms: “succession parties—for example saying migrants and simultaneous interaction”. lower wages—also boost the racists’ He adds, “A restriction of democratic arguments. rights carried out under a parliamentary Fascists seek to build on mainstream regime can prepare the grounds for racism and to sharpen it into a political their subsequent suspension under a weapon that can drag the political dictatorship. Reaction tends to be fuelled, establishment even further to the right. not exhausted, by concessions.” 14 Fighting fascism

Selfies, suits and bouquets: some of the leaders of the European far right smile for the cameras “A different process of interaction flags and posters, taking away leaflets takes place where the presence of a fascist and halting a class on the history of movement enables a parliamentary fascism. If Bolsonaro thinks these regime to win support for reactionary methods are not sufficient, he is likely to measures that would not otherwise be turn to the type of death squads on the tolerated. Both forms of connection, fringes of the state that seem likely to successive and reciprocal, were have killed socialist councillor Marielle exemplified in Germany between 1929 Franco earlier in 2018. and 1933.” Another example is the AfD. The Jair Bolsonaro, elected president of party is now the official opposition in Brazil in October 2018, puts primacy on the German parliament after the right ruling through state forces. He openly wing and social democratic parties admires the military dictatorship that formed a coalition. The AfD won 12.9 ruled that country from 1964 to 1985. percent of the vote and 94 MPs at the At the end of the 1990s he said the 2017 election. parliament should be swept aside and It started out as a mainly eurosceptic that Brazil could be changed only by group, but soon attracted fascists to its civil war. In the closing moments of the ranks. Now analysts suggest half of its presidential campaign he said opponents MPs are Nazis, or have links to Nazi on the left, whom he described as “red groups, and that the influence of the bandits”, would be jailed or exiled. fascist wing of the party is growing. It As voting was just about to start, was this face of the AfD that came out military police poured into 17 into the open after the assaults upon universities tearing down anti-fascist migrants in Chemnitz in August 2018. Fighting fascism 15

It has gained respectability because like the English Defence League (EDL). liberal and conservative parties in We now face a new threat, mainly Germany have allowed them to pull the in the form of the movement around discussion on immigration and refugees Tommy Robinson and groups like the to the right. This has opened the door to Democratic Football Lads Alliance the AfD by legitimising their politics. (DFLA). In this context, the AfD’s fascist wing The Football Lads Alliance (FLA) is now more politically confident and emerged in June 2017 as a racist street dominant. It has begun to set the agenda movement based around football fans within the AfD itself, and the AfD as a who claimed they were protesting whole has begun to set the agenda in “extremism”. national political conversations around Nazis and fascists were involved, but Islam and migration. initially the leadership of the FLA kept This illustrates the danger posed by up the pretence of distancing themselves racist populist parties. They can help from known fascists like Robinson and the drag the political agenda rightwards by EDL. Under pressure from anti-racists and creating a climate of racism, and at the internal fighting, the DFLA split from the same time give confidence to and provide FLA, with the DFLA moving to embrace a pool for fascists to operate in. Robinson and adopting a more overtly The result is that fascist groups which Islamophobic and anti-left rhetoric. were on the fringe of society can quickly This movement of the DFLA and be propelled into more influential circles, Robinson supporters went on to hold shaping the national debate. In the case several marches and events including the of the AfD, the Nazi wing has gone 15,000 people they mustered on 9 June from relative obscurity when the party 2018 in London. was formed in 2013 to being part of the This street movement has provided official opposition in parliament just five long-time Nazis and fascists a pool years later. in which to grow. Previous EDL and fascist protests over the past five years The threat in Britain have been small and splintered. The A similar process of readjustment and movement around Robinson and the realignment is taking place on the racist DFLA has provided Nazis with bigger and fascist right in Britain. crowds in which to operate and recruit Over the past decade various to their ideology. It has also made attempts have been made to build them more confident. The attack on fascist movements in Britain. We will Bookmarks, the socialist bookshop, by explore these in more depth later, but Trump supporters in London in August these attempts have included electoral 2018 is a sign of this. movements like the British National Party (BNP) and racist street movements Continued on p20 >> 16 Fighting fascism

“People’s Committees” with Fighting LAOS in racist campaigns that targeted immigrants Golden as being responsible for rising crime, illness, Dawn in and the deterioration of Greece neighbourhoods. The police even covered By Petros Constantinou, up the murderous racist member of Socialist attacks and stabbings that Workers Party (SEK) in they had organised in Agios Greece and organiser Panteleimon, Nikea and of KEERFA (United elsewhere. Movement Against Racism Their rise built on the and the Fascist Threat) government’s racist law and order policies, themselves a The crisis does not response by a terrified ruling A united movement against the nazis of Golden Dawn has pushed them back automatically lead to the class to a rising workers’ rise of fascism and its movement which launched and cities from illegal domination of society. 32 general strikes and was immigrants”, which led Resistance by the workers’ radicalising massively to the to round-ups of 100,000 movement and the anti- left. This was expressed in immigrants and 6,000 fascist movement can stop it. the growth of the left wing people being imprisoned In Greece the emergence Syriza party. Part of the ruling in detention camps simply of the economic crisis in 2009 class, shipowners and some because they had no papers. and the austerity policies businessmen, supported Then a PASOK minister of the memorandums Golden Dawn. inaugurated the fence in brought the collapse of KEERFA at this time Evros closing the country’s the two powerful pillars of shielded the immigrants border with Turkey, the government, the neoliberal against racism, defending most secure crossing point New Democracy and the the victims of racist attacks for immigrants. So we Blairite PASOK. in the neighbourhoods, such demanded - remove the In the 2012 parliamentary as street stabbings, invasions fence, open the borders, elections, the fascists of of homes, and burning of close the camps, and give Golden Dawn went from 0.4 mosques. immigrants their papers. percent to 7 percent of the With mass demonstrations In August 2012, the vote, gaining 18 MPs. supported by trade unions, Pakistani community They benefited from the and with the participation organised a demonstration collapse of LAOS, a right wing of immigrants, we gave of 20,000 immigrants against populist party that had been battle neighbourhood by the police round-ups. part of the savagely pro- neighbourhood. Immigrant land workers austerity government under At the same time, in Laconia organised a an ex-banker prime minister. we fought against the massive strike in 2011 with The Golden Dawn neo- government and the a great victory, preventing Nazis had already, since neoliberal doctrine of the evictions of hundreds of 2009, been collaborating in “reclaiming the towns immigrants from their homes Fighting fascism 17

Communist Party of Greece Golden Dawn attempts to (KKE) trade unionists in make an appearance anti- the port area of Piraeus, a fascists organise to prevent Golden Dawn assault squad them. murdered the musician In the media, ERT (Greek Pavlos Fyssas in Keratsini. BBC) employees even That same day, KEERFA, go on strike every time along with trade union the administration plans bodies and left-wing programmes which include movements, called an anti- Golden Dawn spokespeople. fascist rally at the scene of Hospital workers have the murder, where more put a stop to their racist than 20,000 clashed with the campaign “blood donation police, who openly sided only for Greeks”. with the neo-Nazis. Teachers along with A week later, ADEDY (the parents’ associations and public sector trade union the anti-fascist movement A united movement against the nazis of Golden Dawn has pushed them back federation) called a two-day have paved the way for and forcing the government general strike, with the first refugees to be enrolled in to give them papers. day a strike against fascism. schools when the neo-Nazis In 2013 in Manolada, after The march by over 50,000 attempted to re-emerge in the shooting of 30 workers, demonstrators against 2016 to block them. KEERFA took the leading Golden Dawn’s headquarters The Syriza government, role in organising a mass forced the government to with the signing of the EU strike of 5,000 workers in make a complete U-turn in agreements to close the sea the strawberry fields, which respect of Golden Dawn’s and land borders for refugees broke the terrorism of the parliamentary immunity. and with the continuation of racist bosses. They proceeded to arrest austerity policies, leaves the The climax of the battle its leadership and put them way open for the fascists to against Golden Dawn came on trial. It was a huge anti- re-emerge. in 2013 with its attempt to fascist victory. But the constant turn electoral success into the Golden Dawn is at a presence of the anti-fascist creation of assault squads to standstill and the trial has movement, the link with control neighbourhoods and been continuing for three the resistance to racism, the attack the left, trade unions and a half years. Golden persistence in getting the left and migrants. Dawn MPs, MEPs, councillors and the workers’ movement In January the response and cadres have resigned. to prioritise the struggle to to the killing of immigrant At the 2019 European crush fascism, means that, worker Shekhzat Lukman elections, Golden Dawn’s despite the disappointment was a 15,000 strong anti- vote fell to 4.9 percent, half of with the compromises of the fascist demonstration, what it grabbed in 2014. left-wing Syriza government, with the funeral procession Of the 70 Golden Dawn the shift to the left by the openly making its way past offices opened in 2012, only people has not subsided. the City Hall of Athens. ten are currently operating The hope remains that we On 18 September 2013, and then only partially. will crush the fascists and one week after an attack on Above all, every time racists! 18 Fighting fascism

Fascism in government & resistance in Austria David Albrich member of Linkswende Jetzt (Leftturn Now) and Platform for a Humane Asylum Policy in Austria

In December 2017 the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), founded by former SS officers, formed a coalition government with the Conservative Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP). This was a real shock to A broad coalition has taken on the ‘heirs of Nazism’ anti-fascists all around the world. An international call to boycott Austria’s new cabinet rightly labelled the junior partner FPÖ as the “heirs of Nazism”. Contradiction But in May 2019 the coalition collapsed. FPÖ leader, Heinz-Christian Strache had resigned as vice-chancellor Refugee solidarity has been a key part of the anti-fascist movement following the emergence of a video that showed him to the classic definition of centred around preparing offering lucrative public fascism. the ground where a fascist contracts in exchange for You would expect from street movement could campaign support. traditional fascists that they grow. FPÖ interior minister, would want to follow Hitler’s The Freedom Party was Herbert Kickl was then fired strategy of total power. in control of the repressive and the coalition was ended. Hitler insisted on becoming apparatus of the state—the The participation of the chancellor and rejected police, intelligence service FPÖ in government as junior being in government as a and military. partner seemed to be a junior partner. Control of the Interior contradiction, according But the FPÖ strategy was Ministry was an absolute Fighting fascism 19

beginning of 2018 against racism – and against social cuts by the new government. In the racist backlash after 2015, after the borders were torn down by refugees, the Freedom Party tried to take advantage of the situation to build a fascist street movement. It wanted to march against two big refugee centres in Vienna, but the Platform together with other anti-fascist groups organised successful street blockades and outnumbered the racists. The defeat was so serious that the FPÖ immediately withdrew from its plans. The Platform also condition in the coalition violence in the streets was organised an important anti- talks with the ÖVP. once again accepted. racist intervention on the The FPÖ aimed to break This made the FPÖ 120,000-strong trade union any resistance from within strategy more dangerous demonstration in June 2018 the state itself and directed than the ones pursued against government plans its politics towards the by more open fascist to rush through the 12-hour police. organisations like Golden working day. It set about recruiting Dawn in Greece. 4,200 new police officers Resistance against racism Refugees and Kickl put police and fascism is organised It organised a block of job advertisements on by Plattform für Eine refugees on the demo right wing websites (one Menschliche Asylpolitik under the slogan “Yes to linked to the fascist (Platform for a Humane the culture of welcoming “Identitarian movement”) Asylum Policy). refugees! Oppose the 12 and in antisemitic and The coalition—bringing hour day!” Islamophobic magazines together NGOs, the Green All these initiatives were that are read by neo-Nazis. Party, Social Democratic crucial in restricting the youth and students FPÖ and in creating the Repression and refugees—made its conditions for the collapse And through more state breakthrough on the 70,000 of the coalition. repression against migrants strong demonstration on 3 It remains crucial to in public places they tried October 2015. build the anti-racist and to establish a social climate It brought people onto anti-fascist movement in their favour, in which the streets again at the internationally. 20 Fighting fascism

>> Continued from p15 unique nature of fascist groupings Robinson and his crew also looked to and develop a particular strategy learn the lessons of the upward trajectory accordingly, it is clear that racist populist of the far right in Europe where a key organisations can give Nazis both a element has been the interaction between platform and the oxygen to grow. racist populist parties and groups of Anti-fascist tactics are therefore fascists. crucial, from confronting Nazis when Here in Britain they looked to Ukip, they march to employing a “no platform” a racist populist party. It came top in policy when they try to speak. the European elections of 2014 and was Britain has a strong tradition of mass riding high under the leadership of Nigel anti-fascist struggle. The battle of Cable Farage. Street stopped Mosley’s British Union of The party’s main focus was peeling off Fascists in the 1930s. Tory voters and members, while former The Anti Nazi League defeated the members of the BNP and EDL were— National Front in the 1970s, and Unite officially at least—not welcome in the Against Fascism stopped the rise of BNP organisation. and EDL in the 1990s and 2000s. But with Ukip floundering in the polls, However, if we are to take on the it changed its tune and openly courted fascists and the far right today, we also the far right. need to confront the rise in racism that At Ukip’s conference in September has given them an opportunity to grow. 2018, party leader Gerard Batten This requires a mass movement reinforced the lurch to the right with a that can take on the wider questions series of Islamophobic policies including of racism, such as Islamophobia, the Muslim-only prisons and more checks for scapegoating of migrants and the migrants from “Islamic countries”. demonisation of refugees. Batten then appointed Robinson as an This ensures we are armed to confront adviser to the party. the racist organisations that boost the The gamble of courting the far right confidence of hardcore Nazis. was electorally disastrous. Stand Up to Racism In the 2019 European elections it has played that role secured only 3 percent of the vote down in Britain, from 27 percent in 2014. Much of its campaigning vote went to the Brexit Party of racist on all these

Farage. issues. But Photo: Eino Sierpe A climate in which racism, it needs to be Islamophobia and scapegoating migrants deepened and is acceptable has meant that far right strengthened. formations across Europe have grown. While we have to distinguish the Fighting fascism 21

not inevitable. The origins of the fascist movement were in the Freikorps. CHAPTER 3 These were bands of demobilised BACK TO THE soldiers and officers, who believed the 1918 revolution in Germany had stabbed 1930S? LESSONS the patriotic war effort in the back. They FROM THE PAST were used to physically confront the left and the workers’ movement as the he rise of the fascist and racist right government tried to restore order. Ttoday has echoes of the 1930s. Groups They came from the slaughter of like Jobbik in Hungary or Golden Dawn the trenches straight on to the streets. in Greece at times have embraced the Brutalised by the war, they regarded language of fascist groups from the period. violence as an everyday method of Jews were the main scapegoats in the settling social questions. 1930s, now it is primarily Muslims— The workers’ revolution was defeated. although the growth of far right groups But for most of the 1920s Adolf Hitler centred on anti-migrant racism and was a fringe character. His attempt to Islamophobia has also seen a horrendous seize power in 1923 ended with his arrest intensification of antisemitism. and a brief spell in prison. A common theme among the new On his release he began building a European far right is that a “Jewish party under his leadership that stood conspiracy” led by billionaire George Soros in elections but also had a paramilitary is behind the “Muslim invasion” of Europe. wing, the stormtroopers. He is, falsely, said to be the funder of a Then came the economic crash of “migrant invasion” designed to undermine 1929. Industrial production fell by the “ties to the land” of native people. over 40 percent in three years and The victory of fascist forces in the 1930s unemployment rose to almost six million. led to the greatest crime in human history, Society began to polarise as the Nazis the Holocaust. Studying the period is not fed off this crisis and encouraged people to just a warning, but can provide lessons to blame Jews, Communists and others. make sure it is never repeated. In the elections of 1928 Hitler’s Nazi Party took only 2.6 percent of the vote Germany: defeat in national elections and won 12 of the through division parliament’s 491 seats. Two years later, The rise of Nazism is often portrayed as after the recession hit, its vote soared to being the result of Adolf Hitler’s unique 18.3 percent with over 100 seats. personality. An alternative explanation is However, the majority of the German that there was something intrinsic in their working class supported the Communist character that made Germans “willing Party (KPD) or the Labour-type Socialist executioners”. But the rise of the Nazis was Democratic Party (SPD). 22 Fighting fascism

Nazis. The Nazis got 11.7 million votes while the SPD and KPD got 7.2 million and 5.9 million respectively—more than 13 million together. Tragically no serious attempt was made to mobilise this working class force in action. As a party deeply committed to reformism, the SPD sought to deliver reforms by working in state institutions and through parliament. They believed change could only come from elected officials and as a result denounced the idea that struggles from below could change society. Indeed during the German revolution of 1919, when it was in government, the SPD had forcefully suppressed the revolution and ordered the murder of An SPD election poster implying the communists its leaders, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl were as much a problem as the Nazis Liebknecht. Hindenburg, the German President, In the process it had formed alliances and the rest of the German ruling class with the Freikorps, many of whom wanted to make the working class pay for became a crucial part of the emerging the crisis, but the trade unions remained fascist street movement. strong and resisted many attempts at This exclusive focus on parliament cutting wages. had tragic consequences. Despite a Sections of capitalists and politicians mass following among workers, the who had previously backed mainstream SPD consistently refused to mobilise right wing parties began turning towards against the threat from Hitler. Instead Hitler’s street movement to keep the they put their faith in parliamentary and working class in its place and to crush constitutional means to stop him. rising support for the Communists. On 20 July 1932 the SPD government Eventually, Hindenburg and the in Prussia was unconstitutionally forced generals saw Hitler as the only solution. from office. Workers were ready to launch Despite a drop in the Nazi vote, they a general strike and KPD members appointed him Chancellor. fought off Nazis on the streets. But the Crucially, in the November 1932 SPD avoided a confrontation. election the combined vote of the SPD They didn’t mobilise their own large and the KPD was greater than that of the military formation, the Reichsbanner, Fighting fascism 23

There was nothing inevitable about the Nazis’ rise to power or even the SPD-controlled Prussian back by reformism in opposing Hitler. police. Instead the SPD argued to focus The problem with the KPD was that all attention on the next election. A key its strategy was increasingly informed by event in the development of Nazism was Stalin’s orders from Moscow, rather than unopposed by the SPD on the streets or the interests of the German working class. in workplaces. As Hitler gained more momentum The SPD strategy reached a new and edged close to power, the KPD low in early 1933 when they accepted greatly underestimated the threat posed Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor by the Nazis and its consequences. on the grounds that he had been After the 1930 election result, where “constitutionally” appointed. Hitler got 18 percent and the KPD Within months Hitler had banned all got 13 percent, their daily newspaper democracy, outlawed trade unions and declared, “Last night was Herr Hitler’s political parties, abolished freedom of greatest day, but the so-called election the press, arrested the leaders of the SPD victory of the Nazis is the beginning of and KPD and launched a reign of terror the end.” They even adopted the slogan against the Jewish population. “After Hitler, us”. On the other hand, the KPD was an Such ridiculous statements avowedly revolutionary organisation encouraged complacency and masked that in theory should not have been held the urgency of the situation. 24 Fighting fascism

By 1931 the Nazis had built up an wanted to overthrow it. Trotsky argued army of stormtroopers who attacked these debates were crucial. But it did Jews, trade unionists and the left. mean agreeing on specific actions whilst The second big mistake of the KPD continuing to argue and debate over the was to identify the SPD, not the Nazis, differences in strategy. as the main enemy. They even labelled In 1931 he wrote, “Worker- the SPD as “social-fascists”. Communists, you are hundreds of The motivation again came from thousands, millions; you cannot leave Stalin’s regime in Moscow, who insisted for any place; there are not enough that capitalism was about to enter a passports for you. Should fascism come stage of crisis and decline that would to power, it will ride over your skulls lead to its inevitable overthrow. and spines like a terrific tank. Your Therefore any party that wasn’t salvation lies in merciless struggle. And committed to revolution - whether it be only a fighting unity with the Social the “national fascists” of the Nazis or Democratic workers can bring victory. the “social-fascists” of the SPD - was an Make haste, worker-Communists, you enemy. have very little time left!” The “social-fascist” policy reached As late as 1932, unity in action a high point of absurdity when the between the reformists and KPD backed a Nazi campaign for a revolutionaries could have stopped the referendum across Prussia in 1931 to Nazis. remove the SPD government. If the organised working class, The consequences were disastrous. including followers of both parties, had Rather than arguing for unity against been mobilised it would have led to the Nazis between the most militant strikes, demonstrations and occupations KPD workers and the millions who against the Nazis. But no call ever came. looked to the SPD, a huge wall was The SPD looked to parliament and erected between the two. accepted Hitler had come to power Could things have been different? “legally”. And the KPD, which included Leon Trotsky argued that it was some of the bravest fighters against the possible to mobilise the millions of SPD Nazi stormtroopers, was isolated and supporters against the Nazis. Those fought alone. on the ground knew they were on the Hitler came to power in a country with Nazis’ hit list and wanted a lead in the the strongest working class movement fight against Hitler. Trotsky therefore in Europe. His victory was delivered as a advocated a “united front” between the result of the failure of the left. KPD and the SPD. As the horrors of Auschwitz, Belzec, This did not mean dropping the Treblinka, Sobibor, Majdanek and the arguments between those who wanted rest of the concentration camps show, to reform capitalism and those who the price could not have been higher.

Fighting fascism 25

Spain: defeat through paralysis The Spanish revolution that erupted in 1936 and the resistance to fascism in the civil war that followed were a beacon of hope in an increasingly bleak picture across Europe. Spain represented a chance to stop fascism before it engulfed all of Europe. A Popular Front government was elected in February 1936 and included liberal parties, nationalists, socialists and communists. Spanish society was deeply polarised. The monarchy which had favoured military dictatorship was swept out of power in 1931 and the workers and peasants were moving forward. The Spanish working class and peasantry had a history of militancy and self-organisation The years that followed featured strikes, demonstrations, land seizures by hope of the movement. Franco wanted poor peasants and popular uprisings. The to establish a military dictatorship and right wing parties, including much of the crush the working class. But fascism in ruling and middle classes, looked to the Spain—represented most clearly by the army to re-establish order and stop the Falange movement—aimed at more. burgeoning working class movement. It promoted a narrow vision of society General Franco launched a military and attacked anyone who was against it. coup in July 1936, seizing Morocco and The Popular Front was an uneasy encouraging fascists to seize control alliance between radical workers’ across the country. organisations and some sections of The Spanish working class knew what the ruling class. The price of trying to was at stake. They defeated the uprising maintain the alliance was to restrain in five of the seven biggest cities. In the militancy of the workers and Barcelona they went further. Workers the millions of peasants who were occupied the factories, armed workers demanding land reform, in order to patrolled the streets and socialist and keep the liberal politicians on side. In anarchist militias ran the city. fact, it was the militancy of workers and George Orwell’s vivid description peasants which had saved the Popular in Homage to Catalonia of a situation Front government. where the “working class was in the saddle” gives a brilliant sense of the Continued on p28 >> 26 Fighting fascism

one section around minister Resisting the for the interior Horst Seehofer openly feeding rise of the into racist sentiments against Islam and refugees. far right in The AfD used to be a Germany collection of right wing liberals, reactionary Christine Buchholz, Christian fundamentalists German MP for Die Linke and outright fascists such and member of Aufstehen as Björn Höcke. gegen Rassismus (Stand It was fascists organised Against Racism) around a manifesto and a structure called “The Wing” The rise of the Alternative who were able to get the for Germany (Alternative upper hand. In Chemnitz in fur Deutschland, AfD) has 2018, they were in the front changed everything. line the week after a racist Five years ago, the Nazis mob rampaged through had given up their annual the town chasing foreigners A nationalist demonstration in Chemnitz march in Dresden which and left wingers. tried to exploit memories Höcke, who is by far the that the AfD issued a of the town’s destruction most popular of its leaders, resolution in 2016 officially by Allied bombers for their is trying to build around the rejecting cooperation with cause. model of the Nazi Party in the Identitarians. It had a They were stopped by the 1920s. similar bar on working with a huge mobilisation that Pegida, but this was broken resonated in many other Threatened all the time, especially in towns. The dwindling forces He even threatened “to Saxony. of the Nazis looked more take things into our own There is a debate going and more like a joke then. hands” against left wing on in the AfD now over But the subsequent opponents, though it is far whether it should just rise of the AfD on a tide of from having an organised demonstrate on its own in racism against refugees and street army like Hitler’s future because it can see Muslims, mainly instigated stormtroopers. that it causes problems for by Pegida which started There’s no straight line it if it marches with people weekly mass mobilisations between the hardcore Nazi giving the Hitler salute or in Dresden in late 2014, and the AfD. other open Nazis. gave a massive boost for Some in the AfD Aufstehen gegen fascists of all kind. have open links to the Rassismus (Stand Against Since winning more than Generation Identity Racism) organised counter- 90 MPs in 2017, it has been movement associated with mobilisations in Chemnitz. able to set the agenda the alt-right. The AfD often We had a counter because the mainstream has common mobilisations demonstration a week after conservatives are split right with the street Nazi-scene. the racist rampage that through the middle with This is despite the fact effectively stopped Höcke Fighting fascism 27

right, against racism, for about racism, but address migrants and so on, and the AfD voters’ fears I think this is a very good because they are afraid of response. the future, and so on. If we want to push back But I think it’s the wrong the AfD and the right we reaction to racism. The have to mobilise against function of racism is to them but also against divide people, to separate racism in general and this the political and the policy of Fortress Europe. economic questions. When we talk about We should not make any stopping the AfD, of course concessions to that. Die Linke has more to offer So the whole Aufstehen than “no to racism” or project was politically not “open borders”. adequate to counter the AfD It’s very important to and the variety of reasons have this position but we why the AfD has grown. also talk about political alternatives, how to Migration organise people in social Fortunately Wagenknecht struggle and so on. had no majority to change and others from marching. But there has been a very the party position on Then two days later in worrying development. migration. We had a 99 that town there was an Die Linke parliamentary percent vote at our party anti-fascist gig with 65,000 leader Sahra Wagenknecht conference for the position people. launched a new organisation of open borders. Actually the whole (confusingly) called And in March 2019 summer was full of Aufstehen, which panders to Wagenknecht announced unexpected events. the right over immigration. she would step down In Berlin, 70,000 The problem was that from the leadership of demonstrated against 5,000 Wagenknecht’s initiative Aufstehen. AfD supporters in late May. doesn’t relate at all to this The correct response to In Hamburg, 178 fascists very real movement. the threat from the right were outnumbered by She and her husband is to have good, bold anti- more than 10,000 a week Oskar Lafontaine think racist campaigns. after Chemnitz. that racism is caused by The danger is that the AfD Then in mid-October immigration. And they think will gain further strength 2018 around 250,000 that the AfD is actually a unless we help build a marched around the slogan “workers’ party”. These nationwide anti-racist “#indivisible—solidarity notions are completely movement to turn the tide. instead of exclusion”. false. This happened before, It is important to bring as Wagenknecht, and her in 1993-4, when millions many people as possible followers argue that we stopped the fascist onto the streets against the shouldn’t call all the AfD Republican Party from far right. There is a huge voters racist. And that we building. I think we can do movement against the shouldn’t talk too much it again. 28 Fighting fascism

>> Continued from p25 Once again, a disastrous role was played by the Communist Party, which The Republican government did all grew in influence during the revolution it could to maintain the Popular Front, on the promise of support from Stalin in hoping this would stop the middle classes Russia. By this time, Stalin had switched going over to the fascists. The government to supporting the Popular Front strategy agreed to oppose fascism, but workers’ against fascism. The Communist Party power and socialism or massive land threw all its influence behind it and seizures by the peasants could not be attacked the radical left and the anarchists tolerated. They actively opposed the as “fascist sympathisers”. developing revolution in order to appear This meant they squandered the respectable to the upper classes and opportunity to defeat Franco. The power of European powers such as France and the working class had shown it could beat Britain, who they looked to for support. back the fascists, but the revolutionary As a result major opportunities to push movement was subordinated to keeping back Franco were thrown away. middle classes onside. The Republicans could have granted The result was a conventional war independence for Morocco, where Franco which they could not win, especially had started his uprising. This would as Franco was also being armed and have pulled over Moroccan troops to the supported by Hitler and Mussolini. side of the Republic and destabilised his The price was the defeat of the Spanish coup from the start. But the government revolution and the victory of Franco’s avoided doing this, for fear of upsetting dictatorship which ruled until 1975. the French and British ruling class which The rise of fascism in the 1930s is maintained their own empires. often portrayed as an inevitable march to A move to promise land reform to power of Nazi ideology and its dictators. peasants would have eroded a big part The reality is different. Two great defeats of Franco’s base. The budding revolution for the left in Germany and Spain allowed in the cities had raised the prospect the fascists to come to power. In Germany of workers’ occupations, and a similar division led to defeat. In Spain the search situation in the countryside would have for respectability paralysed the movement rallied the peasantry to the republic. against the fascists. The disaster of the search for Today there are many different debates respectability culminated in May 1937 about how to confront the rise of racism when some of the best units were sent not and fascism. Liberal politicians argue to to fight Franco, but to defeat the workers make concessions to racism, while others militias in Barcelona. Some of the most argue that if we ignore the fascists they will heroic fighters against the fascists and go away. It’s crucial that as we debate how for the revolution were murdered by the best to take on the fascists today, we arm Madrid government. ourselves with the lessons of the past. Fighting fascism 29

Mosley inspects members of the British Union of Fascists in East London CHAPTER 4 Mosley, the British Union of Fascists and Cable Street ‘IT WOULDN’T Oswald Mosley was an aristocrat who HAPPEN HERE’: had been an MP for both the Tories and Labour. In 1932 he launched a new IS FASCISM ALIEN movement called the British Union of TO BRITAIN? Fascists (BUF). Within two years it had 40,000 members. ome commentators, textbooks and The BUF was an openly Nazi S historians like to make out that there movement, with some of its members is something in the British psyche which parading in black shirts. It grew means we’re not susceptible to fascists or by exploiting the economic crisis, the far right. scapegoating Jews and whipping up The reality is quite different. There antisemitism. The Labour Party under have been various attempts to build Ramsay McDonald capitulated to the fascist movements in Britain in the past, demands of big business in 1931 by some of which posed a serious threat. making workers pay for the economic The reason these movements failed to crisis, creating a political vacuum which break through isn’t because of some Moseley’s fascists aspired to fill. supposed British spirit. It’s because The BUF focused on recruiting the they have been confronted and beaten middle classes, and never broke into areas back by anti-fascist movements, with of the organised working class or any socialists at the heart of them. area where there was serious resistance

30 Fighting fascism to unemployment. Mosley targeted shopkeepers, small time traders and farmers. A Surrey Labour Party report of the time claimed that “75 per cent of local fascists are young men or women with independent means”. But sections of the ruling class – The famous article in the Daily Mail supporting Mosley, written by the newspaper’s proprietor including right wing Tories, industrialists and businessmen – were also attracted These tactics worked. Rothermere and to support the BUF. Most famously other aristocrats began to back off from Lord Rothermere, owner of the Daily the BUF, and they got a small number Mail, wrote an editorial in 1934 with the of votes in the 1935 general election. headline “Hurrah for the Blackshirts”. Mosley was forced to alter his strategy. The BUF were a serious threat. Their He decided to focus on building a fascist army of Blackshirts would march through stronghold in East London, an area of east London chanting “We’ve got to immense poverty where the BUF had get rid of the Yids”, attacking Jews and built some support. daubing racist graffiti. In 1936 Mosley announced plans As in the rest of Europe, the Labour to march through Cable Street in East Party and trade union leaderships did London, a deliberate provocation little to confront the fascist threat. They towards the Jewish community in the buried their heads in the sand, passing area. The Independent Labour Party, the resolutions but nothing more. The Jewish ex-servicemen’s association and Communist Party (CP), with just 6,000 eventually the CP organised a counter- members, had a different strategy. They demonstration. The Labour Party, the recognised the BUF as a serious threat Jewish Board of Deputies and various and were determined to confront them. mayors and rabbis called for a boycott of The CP protested and disrupted the protest. a massive rally held by the BUF in Over 20,000 anti-fascists blocked the Olympia in 1934. As 5,000 anti-fascists BUF from marching along the designated demonstrated outside, activists who had route. Despite being attacked and made their way inside the hall heckled beaten by the police – and denounced the speakers – and were beaten up by by the Labour Party in the aftermath Nazi thugs. – the demonstration of workers, trade Another BUF rally in Hyde Park in unionists and socialists had stopped the September 1934 saw the CP help mobilise fascists. Mosley had been broken. The 100,000 counter-demonstrators who BUF staggered on for a few more years, humiliated the 7,000 fascists, despite the achieving small electoral successes and Labour Party and the trade union leaders campaigns in East London, but in the end calling for workers to boycott the demo. was wound up. Fighting fascism 31

The National Front and scare stories about black people and the Anti Nazi League in crime in the area. The initial response from Lewisham’s the 1970s council leader, the TUC and local The National Front (NF) was set up in Christian organisations was to call 1967 by an assortment of Nazis including for the government to ban the NF former members of the BUF. It was a demonstration. The Labour Party Nazi organisation, combining electoral leadership refused to support a ban, politics with street demonstrations. By arguing it would infringe “free speech”. the 1970s it was very much on the march. Eventually it was agreed a counter- Economic recession had led to the first demonstration had to be called. The All drop in living standards since the war. Lewisham Campaign Against Racism and The Labour government responded to the Fascism (ALCARAF) headed by the local crisis by making cuts to wages, housing mayor and bishop, organised a march and healthcare. that would end a mile away from where While right wing Tories whipped up the Nazis planned to march. open racism, the Labour government Members of the Socialist Workers pandered to the hysteria in the press Party (SWP) argued the Nazis had to be about the so-called “invasion” of Asian confronted directly. immigrants. In 1976 the party’s chief Despite being condemned whip, Bob Mellish, made a speech to by ALCARAF, the SWP called a parliament where he said “Enough demonstration on the route where the is enough... pay their fares and their NF was marching. They leafleted the rehabilitation back to India.” This directly ALCARAF march and brought thousands echoed the NF’s policy of forcibly with them to Clifton Rise, where they repatriating immigrants. were joined by thousands of local black The NF began to make electoral and white youth, trade unionists and advances. In the 1976 local elections veterans of Cable Street. in Leicester it got 44,000 votes with 48 The huge anti-fascist crowd managed candidates. In a council by-election in to split the Nazi march in half, and the Deptford, South East London the Nazis NF had to abandon it and flee. Despite got 44 per cent of the vote. being protected by a quarter of the In the May 1977 Greater London London police force, the Nazis had been Council elections the NF took 119,063 comprehensively beaten votes and was the third biggest party. The at Lewisham. Nazis drew great confidence from this Not that the and began to replicate the BUF strategy Labour leadership of marching in the streets. They targeted or press saw it Lewisham for a march “against mugging” like this. The Daily in August 1977, drawing on racist press Mirror labelled the 32 Fighting fascism

SWP as “bad as the National Front”, The British National Party while other prominent Labour figures and the English Defence labelled the SWP as “red fascists”. Michael Foot, the leading Labour left League winger and deputy leader, denounced The fascist threat in Britain is not just the counter-demonstration saying, “the confined to the last century. Since the most ineffective way to defeat the fascists early 2000s we have seen serious attempts is to behave like them”. by the Nazis to gain a foothold electorally But Lewisham represented a turning and on the street. Both times they have point. People across the country were been stopped. glad to see the Nazis get humiliated, and During the 1980s and 1990s, the recognized the importance of opposing British National Party (BNP) was a small them. In the aftermath of Lewisham organisation that brought together the the SWP initiated the Anti Nazi League various fragments of Nazi and fascist (ANL) with Labour MPs, leading trade grouplets in Britain. It focused on small unionists and other prominent figures. It marches and rallies. In 1999 under the was a united front against the Nazis. leadership of Nick Griffin it took a turn A mass movement was born, one towards the Eurofascist strategy of the which included protest, rallies and Front National in France. It aimed to famously Rock Against Racism carnivals hide its fascist roots and present itself as a that attracted up to 100,000 people respectable party focusing on elections. against the Nazis. The BNP fed off the racism of the The ANL launched groups in mainstream parties and the press. workplaces and communities across As the 2007 financial crisis hit, both Britain so that campaigning anti-fascist Tories and Labour began to play the leaflets, events and meetings isolated the race card. Gordon Brown’s 2007 speech Nazis. The ANL organised to confront which called for “British jobs for British the Nazis each time they attempted to workers” was applauded by the BNP. march. Scare stories in the press whipping up As former NF organiser Martin racism about EU migrants, refugees and Webster later admitted, “The sheer asylum seekers increased. presence of the ANL had made it In this climate the BNP was able to impossible to get NF members on the gain more votes. At the London Assembly streets, had dashed their recruitment elections in 2008 it got 130,000 votes— and had cut away their vote.” over 5 percent—and won a seat. It was By 1979 the NF was in steep decline. able to grab almost one million votes It had been beaten back by a united front in the European Parliament elections strategy with socialists at the heart of it. in 2009, with Griffin and his deputy Andrew Brons becoming MEPs. This was the biggest electoral threat posed by the Fighting fascism 33

hooligans and hardcore Nazis. It targeted Muslims and showed its true colours at a demonstration in Stoke in January 2010 when EDL thugs went on the rampage and attacked shops, homes and cars. In the space of three years, the EDL held at least 100 protests and marches. Much of the press portrayed the EDL as a voice of working class “yobs”. There’s no The BNP’s electoral strategy bore some fruit doubt they did attract some working class fascists in Britain since the NF. support, but the key figures behind it were While the mainstream media business owners from the middle classes. treated the BNP as a normal right wing Some argued that if the EDL was party, Unite Against Fascism (UAF) ignored, it would go away. Others campaigned to expose them as a Nazi supported the idea we should get the party and said it should be no platformed. police to ban them. UAF was a united front that involved Instead UAF organised for action, Labour MPs, trade unionists, faith groups the maximum possible unity and the and socialists. Its strategy was to put a broadest mobilisations against the EDL wedge between the hardcore Nazis in the to stop them in their tracks. Every time BNP, and the softer elements who voted they marched they were confronted by for it. counter-protests labelling them as fascists Wherever the BNP stood in elections, and Nazis. UAF members across the country Mass mobilisations to stop the EDL organised big mobilisations to say “Don’t marching in Tower Hamlets in 2011 and vote Nazi”. Trade unionists, anti-racists 2013, and in Waltham Forest in 2012, and socialists relentlessly knocked were crucial in resisting them. They grew on doors, held meetings, protested sick of being outnumbered. Their softer BNP events and staged Love Music elements peeled away, and the hardcore Hate Racism events. From having 55 Nazi elements began to fragment. councillors at one point, the BNP now Now fascist EDL founder Tommy has none and Griffin and Brons have also Robinson is attempting to build a new far lost their MEP seats. right street movement. The English Defence League (EDL) But the work of UAF and others represented a different kind of threat. showed that a united front strategy Launched in mid-2009 with former drawing together the maximum BNP member Tommy Robinson as its possible numbers in campaigns and self-appointed leader, the EDL was a demonstrations against the fascists can racist street movement involving football break them. 34 Fighting fascism

against the fascists. How the Socialists in the 1970s faced a challenge that we had Anti Nazi not met since the days of Oswald Mosley. But the League beat challenge from the NF this back the time around was on a wider geographical scale—and it fascists was mostly electoral. In the 1973 West Paul Holborow, Bromwich by-election the co-founder of the NF’s national organiser Anti Nazi League, looks at Martin Webster had gained its history and its legacy 16 percent of the vote. The fascists made breakthroughs Protesters at the Northern Carnival Against the Nazis, 1978 Photo: Geoff Brown The Anti Nazi League was in other by-elections. Ernie Roberts, the AEU the direct result of the Battle The central strand of the engineering union assistant of Lewisham on 13 August ANL’s strategy was to try and general secretary, played a 1977—a watershed that separate hardline Nazis from key role in the ANL from the pushed back the insurgent the softer racists that were beginning. fascist National Front (NF). now voting for them. The trade union The NF had planned The NF’s growing movement was much to march through Clifton support came mainly from more vibrant then and Rise, south east London, people who weren’t Nazis, contained a strong rank which had a large black but had accepted racist and file movement of population. arguments. And that’s why ordinary members who were But our counter- unequivocally labelling prepared to act. demonstration broke the the NF as Nazis was so The Indian Workers’ fascists’ march into pieces. important to us. Association and many It was a major humiliation African-Caribbean for them. Challenge organisations also joined. After the Battle of Whenever racist arguments The ANL drew together Lewisham the phone in the were raised, we wanted the left of the Labour Party SWP national office rang anti-fascists to be confident in the form of Neil Kinnock, constantly. People were to challenge it instead of just who was a leading left saying to us, “We applaud not liking what they heard. winger at the time, and Peter what you did with the black We wanted to put an anti- Hain. Nigel Harris and I sat community, trade unionists racist argument into every on it for the SWP. and others in Lewisham. workplace, school, college That broad structure “We don’t agree with the and estate. meant that wherever the SWP on other issues, but To implement the strategy Nazis stood, we could go to want to be with you fighting we constructed a national that area to build opposition the Nazis.” steering committee that to them. It was clear that we now embraced the different At the 1978 Ilford North had a responsibility to build elements of the left that by-election, in east London, a broad-based organisation were on board. we called around 2,000 Fighting fascism 35

ANL, we organised a massive In Southall, the council carnival in April 1978. offered the NF the town hall Around 80,000 people for a public meeting in the from all over the country run-up to the 1979 general came to Victoria Park, election. east London. For that first After the council refused to carnival we arranged to withdraw its invitation, it was assemble five miles away in clear that this would be a Trafalgar Square. major flashpoint. Thousands The point was to march of anti-racists poured into through the heart of NF Southall to join the huge areas in east London— community response. Hoxton, in Hackney, and the But the police Special top of Brick Lane, in Tower Patrol Group ran riot, Protesters at the Northern Carnival Against the Nazis, 1978 Photo: Geoff Brown Hamlets. Well over 60,000 injuring many people—and people out to canvas the people marched those five killing teacher and SWP whole constituency in just miles to Victoria Park. member Blair Peach. three hours. There were very few mass By this point the ANL had That involved Labour confrontations with the NF begun to split the Nazis from Party members, SWP in the early years because the soft racists. The ANL was members, trade unionists— the fascists were playing the successful because we knew and most importantly respectable card. our history. The template people who weren’t aligned Once the Nazis realised was Cable Street when but were anti-fascist and their electoral strategy people had united to stop anti-racist. wasn’t paying off, they Mosley’s Blackshirts from returned to streets. marching in the East End. Workplace But by then we had Today, Stand Up To Many unions developed involved large numbers of Racism, Unite Against workplace groups against people in ANL activity and Fascism and Love Music the Nazis—civil servants the logic was not to waste Hate Racism are active against the Nazis, teachers that energy by allowing the and provide focuses for against the Nazis, and so on. fascists to march. opposition to the far right. On one particular day The ANL’s propaganda The founding members of some 60,000 Yorkshire against the NF was hugely the ANL are all supporters of miners went to work successful in attracting a these organisations, which wearing ANL stickers on their wide layer of people who stand in its tradition. helmets. saw the need to oppose the But with the scale of That initiative was fascists but were uncertain the challenge we now the result of a Yorkshire about physically confronting face, we need to broaden conference where I and them. If you had been and deepen those three miners’ union leader Arthur active in your local area, organisations. Scargill had together spoken you grew in confidence. We need to get together against the fascists. When Nazis tried to stage a and create a genuine mass Together with the Rock demonstration, hundreds movement that takes on one Against Racism organisation, of local people came out of most serious challenges founded a year before the against them. of fascism since the 1930s. 36 Fighting fascism

in racist, far right and fascist forces by CHAPTER 5 making concessions on the question of racism, which has gone hand in hand HOW CAN WE with implementing austerity to pay for FIGHT FASCISM the economic crisis. It is important to remember that New AND THE FAR Labour in Britain contributed to the RIGHT TODAY? climate of racism and Islamophobia. Tony Blair’s government fuelled Islamophobia to justify his disastrous wars in Iraq and he lessons of the past vividly Afghanistan. demonstrate the necessity of building T He conceded to the hysteria around a movement to stop the fascists before asylum seekers and refugees, and Gordon they come to power. Brown adopted the slogan “British Jobs Although we are not yet at the stage for British workers” which emboldened where fascist states are established, we the likes of the BNP. Even Ed Miliband have witnessed politics being pulled made concessions on the argument with dangerously to the right on questions his “controls on immigration” pledge, and around immigration, Islamophobia mug, during the 2015 election. and refugees. It is not the time for The logic behind this compromise has complacency or panic, but an urgent been the idea that to tackle the support assessment of the necessary response to for racist populist or fascist parties, you these forces is required. need to talk their language. The argument

The wrong road: goes that the left needs to “own” the discussion around immigration, and concession and compromise to listen to “genuine concerns” about One factor in the political polarisation migrants and refugees. that has taken place since the financial A favourite phrase of the press and crash has been the collapse of social politicians is the “white working class” democratic and Labour-type parties who are portrayed as inherently open to across Europe. racist ideas. The logic that flows from this Apart from Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour is that the left wing and social democratic Party, the picture is one of decline for the parties must speak to these people by established centre-left parties in Europe using language that makes concessions on that have dominated politics for 50 years racism and sees migrants and refugees as or more. a problem. Part of the explanation of this collapse, This approach is wrong for two is the response of centre-left parties to reasons. Firstly, there is no separate white the rise in racism. Almost every social working class, nor is there one “white democratic party has reacted to a rise working class culture”. The working class Fighting fascism 37

the right, this strategy has seen their votes go up, often at the expense of traditional parties of the centre-left. This scenario has been repeated around Europe, where social democratic parties have seen their vote collapse as they have made concessions to racism. Years of speeches, press stories and government policies that have labelled Muslims, migrants and refugees a New Labour’s warmongering leadership problem have created the conditions in constantly whipped up Islamophobia which fascists and racists feel confident. in Britain is multicultural. We see this in Compromising or adopting softer racist every strike, on every picket line, every arguments will do nothing to stem the march to defend the NHS. White workers tide of the far right. in Britain don’t have separate interests to black, Asian or Muslim workers. We The EU against racism? all face low wages, cuts to public services Some people look to the EU as a bulwark and a housing crisis. against the rise of racism in Europe. This Secondly, it plays to the reactionary is often for good reasons. The supposed idea that black workers or migrants internationalism and co-operation of somehow get “special favours” from the the EU can often be viewed as positive state. This is the oldest argument in the compared to the politics of narrow fascist playbook – that the government is nationalism espoused by the right. The favouring “foreigners” over “our own”. It reality is, however, very different. is a racist myth. The EU is no anti-racist institution, as It’s true that many white workers face its policies towards refugees have shown. unemployment or poor housing. But The Mediterranean Sea has become a this is because they’re working class, not graveyard, with more than 14,000 people white. Racism means that black, Asian drowning attempting to cross the sea to and migrant workers face the same Europe since 2014. Instead of allowing problems, but typically in intensified people to come to Europe, Frontex, the form. EU border agency, focuses on how to lock Rather than taking the ground refugees out or send them back. away from the racist and fascist right, In response to pressure from far right making concessions only legitimises politicians including Matteo Salvini of racist arguments and gives credence to Italy and Viktor Orban of Hungary, an the idea that there is a problem with EU summit in July 2018 ordered rescue migrants or Muslims. missions to be cut. The thinking was clear Rather than taking votes away from and callous. Leaving refugees to drown 38 Fighting fascism

Trade unions, the left and the fight against fascism There is also a line of argument which suggests that the best way to combat fascism is to just fight austerity, cuts and attacks on living standards. The argument goes that if we campaign for jobs and homes, we will undercut the racist pull of the far right. In one sense this is of course true. The people at the top of society use racism to divide ordinary people. They divert the The European Union’s barbaric policies towards anger at unemployment, lack of housing refugees has emboldened the far right and low wages away from themselves would discourage more people from by pointing the finger at migrants and taking the dangerous sea route to Europe. “foreigners”. The fascists and far right In late 2018, the European Commission build on this racism and sharpen it. The president Jean-Claude Juncker promised fight on economic issues is therefore a millions of euros for a 10,000-strong crucial one because it exposes the real border army that will be equipped with problem in society – the bosses who guns to patrol Europe’s border. exploit us all, wherever we are from. Is it any surprise that when the EU has It is wrong however to assume that such a barbaric policy towards refugees, if we fight on these issues, questions racist populist and fascist parties feel of racism will just disappear. Having emboldened? a strong trade union movement, a big Their talk of a “refugee invasion” social democratic party and even a high of Europe, which was once an idea level of class struggle does not mean that consigned to the fringe far right, is now racism and fascism will fade away. accepted as fact by EU leaders and heads When society enters a period of of state from Merkel to Macron. Indeed, crisis, it leads to political polarisation. it is within the EU that fascist and racist While this can mean that ordinary forces have seen their votes rise and the people can be pulled to the left towards political conversation pulled their way. socialist ideas and trade unions, at the Given their disdain for migrants and same time the forces of the fascist right refugees from outside of Europe, we can grow. A specific anti-racist and anti- can’t look to the EU as a bulwark against fascist movement is needed to confront racism. this threat. The experience of France is an important example. In the 1980s, the Fighting fascism 39

French left was one of the strongest government cuts and the millions of in Europe. Francois Mitterrand was mainly Muslim migrants from North elected on a left wing manifesto, and the Africa and elsewhere who were resisting trade unions were powerful bodies that the racism of the French police and the successfully resisted attacks on working French state, in a movement that could conditions and the right to strike. The FN take on the fascists. began to represent a serious threat, with The tragedy of France, is that it is a Jean-Marie Le Pen’s Eurofascist strategy country with one of the biggest Muslim having some success. populations in Europe, one of the most In the face of this threat, the left never combative workers’ movements in built a serious anti-racist organisation or Europe, and until recently one of the movement that would confront Le Pen strongest social democratic traditions in or call the FN fascist. Some refused to Europe. Yet it is also home to one of the confront the FN or argue for no platform biggest fascist parties in Europe. for fascists as they were worried about That tragedy shows the danger of infringing free speech. a position claiming that if we combat They looked to prioritise defence austerity and build the left, racism will of “secularism” rather than confront go away. Islamophobia, which allowed This is important for Britain. The conservative governments to introduce fascists and racist populists will not just the racist ban on the hijab with virtually disappear because Corbyn leads the no opposition. Labour Party. The polarisation of society Their response instead was to argue means that both the forces of the left that the way to stop Le Pen was to build and right can grow in times of crisis. We the left and lead the fight against social must of course build the struggles against conditions that were pushing working neoliberal austerity. But we also require a class people to vote for the FN. specific movement to combat racism and But this was undermined by the the fascist threat. fact the Socialist Party embraced neoliberalism, privatisation and cuts A mass movement against in social spending. It became part of the problem that was pushing ordinary fascism and racism people towards the FN. We can’t rely on established political Mass movements emerged in the late parties or institutions to take on the 1990s to challenge Le Pen, especially rise of the far right. It is those very when he made it into the second round organisations and parties that have of the Presidential election in 2000. But created a climate where the racists and there was no sustained attempt to link fascists feel confident and are on the the millions of French trade unionists march. We therefore have to look to a and students who fought successive different strategy to take them on. 40 Fighting fascism

This strategy can’t be based on the acts These are the subject of continual of a small number of individuals against debates within the Labour Party, often the fascists. Confronting the Nazis can’t framed by considerations of what will win rely on conspiratorial groups that go the most votes. Ultimately, the Labour around attacking fascists in secret, no Party strategy for dealing with racism matter how cathartic this may seem. We rests on getting MPs elected and passing can’t close off the movement so that it’s or abolishing laws within parliament, left to a tiny number of street fighters. while retaining the current economic Small time acts of sabotage against the system of capitalism. Nazis have never stopped them – it has In the Socialist Workers Party we always been mobilising big numbers. think that racism comes directly from If we’re to take on not just the fascists, capitalism. As long as you have a but the racist environment that gives minority at the top of society who control them confidence, a different approach is all the wealth they will always use divide required. and rule. What is necessary is a mass movement Racism was born as an ideology that takes on racism, from Nazi thugs to justify the unjustifiable—slavery. It on the street to politicians who play the mutated in new ways subsequently as race card. We need marches, music gigs, a pseudo-scientific biology of races to mass meetings and protests against racist bolster imperialism and empire, a way to attacks. This requires an anti-racist group divide workers and make them compete in every town and city and in the unions. against each other, and as a mythology of The fascists draw their confidence cultural difference. from the racism spouted by the press and We therefore think that to finally politicians. We can draw our confidence destroy racism and fascism we have to from strength in numbers, when we show get rid of capitalism and replace it with a we’re an anti-racist majority. society run by and for the majority of the A united front strategy, aiming to draw population, the working class. thousands and millions of people into In the here and now, we believe that all common action against racism, can do immigration controls are racist, that we this. should fight for open borders and defend There will be differences within it the rights of people to move and live about where racism comes from and how wherever they want. we ultimately get rid of it. We believe that ordinary people Many members and supporters of the have the power and potential to build a Labour Party, for instance, are committed socialist society that puts people before opponents of racism but have a variety of profit and erodes the material basis of views about immigration controls, open racism and oppression. borders, how many refugees we should We resist all attempts to divide the accept and so on. working class movement by using Fighting fascism 41

Divide and rule: the press constantly whips up racism racism or any other form of prejudice organisation today that can replicate the or discrimination, because this acts success of the Anti Nazi League in the as a block on working people fighting 1970s. We welcome this debate. together to take control of society. However, we think we also need to Of course agreement on these points go beyond just focusing on the Nazis. cannot be demanded to take part in a The challenges we face today require united fight back against racism and a broader movement that takes on the fascism. wider questions of racism. There are two As long as we have agreement that we main reasons for this. are opposed to racism, antisemitism and Firstly, as we have seen, a distinct Islamophobia and are prepared to work feature of the current period is the together to campaign against them, we formation of umbrella organisations on should accept that there will be different the far right. views on many other questions. And These can include racist populists, there will be debates while working right wing nationalists and hardcore together. Nazis. Organisations like the AfD in Recently there has been much Germany or Ukip are providing pools discussion about the need to build an in which fascists can operate and grow. 42 Fighting fascism

These organisations themselves are not fascist, but Nazis operate within them. Beyond anti-racism We therefore need an organisation and and anti-fascism movement that can take on these parties The political picture across the world can and formations. sometimes seem a bleak one. A racist, Secondly, the lasting legacy of the sexist, homophobe occupies the White financial crash has created a crisis of the House, while across Europe the fascists centre and a polarisation to both left and and far right have a vision of taking us right. The majority of traditional right back to the 1930s. wing parties – from the Conservatives We have to have our own vision here to Angela Merkel’s CDU in of a mass anti-racist and anti-fascist Germany – have responded to this crisis movement that can push them back. It is by adopting increasingly racist policies, the crucial task of our time. But we also intensifying Islamophobia and racism have to have a vision that another world towards migrants and refugees. is possible. The cycle of the economic This rise in racism from mainstream system we live in means that we face the parties, allied with sections of the press, recurring threat of racism and bigotry. has created a climate in which fascists feel Capitalism creates crisis, and it’s in times confident. In order to combat the fascists of crisis that the fascists can grow. and the far right, we need to confront the We have to confront racism and general rise in racism that is coming from fascism in the here and now, but we also the top of society which is helping them have to fight the system that creates them. to flourish. If we want to rid society of racism, Stand Up To Racism can be this bigotry, sexism and homophobia, we movement in Britain. It brings together need a vision of a different world. A some Labour, SNP and Plaid Cymru socialist society that puts people before MPs, trade unionists, faith groups and profit will mean we can eradicate the socialists. material basis of racism and oppression, It has held national demonstrations, and banish the spectre of fascism for mass meetings and conferences, vigils good. But to get there we need socialists against racist attacks, and has worked to be organised. with UAF to call counter-protests against The Socialist Workers Party has been the Nazis when they rear their heads. at the heart of every attempt to It is also part of an international stop the Nazis and challenge movement against racism and fascism that racism in Britain over the includes Aufstehen gegen Rassismus in past 50 years. Help us Germany and KEERFA in Greece. build on that tradition, But it needs to be strengthened and and be part of the fight deepened if we are to confront the today. Join us today. challenges we face. To join go to bit.ly/JoinSWP Fighting fascism 43

Fighting Fascism: How to movement against racism A GUIDE TO Struggle and How to Win and the NF. This book brings Clara Zetkin, together the reminiscences FURTHER Haymarket Books, 2017 of activists and supporters Written in June 1923, at a during the period. READING time when fascism was a new and little-understood Angry White People: phenomenon, Zetkin’s work Coming Face-to-Face with Socialist Worker and proposed a sweeping plan the British Far Right Socialist Review have regular for the unity of all victims of Hsiao-Hung Pai, coverage of the struggle capitalism in an ideological Zed Books, 2016 against racism and fascism and political campaign against socialistworker.co.uk the fascist danger. Republic of Islamophobia: socialistreview.org.uk The Rise of Respectable Say It Loud: Marxism and the Racism in France Stand Up To Racism Fight Against Racism Jim Wolfreys, Hurst, 2018 Stand Up To Racism is a Edited by Brian Richardson, mass united organisation Bookmarks, 2013 Islamophobia: the Othering resisting the rise of This book seeks to challenge of Europe’s Muslims, racism, Islamophobia and the idea that racism is Hassam Mahamdallie, antisemitism inevitable by taking a critical International Socialism 146 standuptoracism.org.uk look at the origins and history isj.org.uk/islamophobia-the- of racism in Britain and othering-of-europes-muslims/ Unite Against Fascism abroad. A united campaign against It looks in particular at the Antisemitism and the fascism experience of the last 40 years Far Right Today uaf.org.uk in Britain, from the struggles Rob Ferguson, of the 1970s through the 1981 International Socialism 154 Fascism: What it is and riots, Stephen Lawrence and isj.org.uk/antisemitism-and- How to Fight it the war on terror. the-far-right-today Leon Trotsky, Pathfinder Highlighting key examples A short selection of Trotsky’s of black and white unity, Divided They Fell: writings on fascism and the resistance and struggle in the The German Left and the strategy needed to fight it. US and Britain, it intervenes in Rise of Hitler current debates about racism Florian Wilde, The Nazis, Capitalism and and sets out the Marxist case International Socialism 137 the Working Class for how best to fight it. isj.org.uk/divided-they-fell- Donny Gluckstein, the-german-left-and-the-rise- Haymarket Books Reminiscences of RAR: of-hitler/ The rise of the of the Third Rocking Against Racism Reich remains one of the most 1976-82 widely debated and discussed Roger Huddle and Red Bookmarks events of the twentieth Saunders, Redwords 2017 Bookshop century. Rock Against Racism came Gluckstein sets out to place into existence in the autumn All titles are available from Nazism in the context of of 1976 in response to a rise Bookmarks, the Socialist the economic crisis and the in racist attacks, and the Bookshop, 1 Bloomsbury failed workers’ revolution, continuing growth of the Nazi Street, London WC1B 3QE seeking to draw lessons for National Front. 0207 637 1848 those interested in preventing For the next six years RAR bookmarksbookshop.co.uk fascism. was at the centre of a cultural 44 Fighting fascism About this pamphlet cross Europe there has been a dramatic growth of A far right, racist and fascist organisations. Alongside and often inspired by the victory of Donald Trump in the US, the far right Join the Socialist are increasingly co-operating Workers Party internationally and pushing a If you agree with what you racist narrative that ‘Western have just read, we’d like civilisation’ is under threat from you to join us. The SWP ‘a Muslim invasion’.Britain is not offers you a chance to fight immune to this. back against the system This pamphlet is aimed at that brings us economic crisis, poverty, war, racism arming activists in the anti-racist and injustice – and to help and anti-fascist movement with bring about a socialist the political strategies that can future. defeat fascism and the far right, We have branches so that we can help build a broad, around Britain which united mass movement to stop meet regularly and get them. involved in all the strikes, campaigns and protests in their area. There is most To order more copies of this likely a branch near you. pamphlet please write to: If you would like to join National Office (Pamphlets), us, or if you would simply PO Box 74955, London E16 9EJ. like to know more about You can also call 020 7840 5600 what we do, get in touch: or email [email protected] [email protected] 020 7840 5602 swp.org.uk Subscribe to Socialist Worker Socialist Worker aims to be a tool for activists. Every week it puts a socialist case against racism, austerity, war and privatisation. Subscribe at: socialistworker.co.uk £3