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C:\Documents and Settings\Dun...Dof.Default\Cache G G The recent demonstration against the BNP’s Red White & Blue Festival was excellent with a very good mobilisation from across the country bringing 2000 protestors to Codnor in Derbyshire. With perhaps ten times that number it might have been possible to tie-up the police and break out across the fields to the BNP’s barbed-wire compound but given the balance of forces in the real world the demonstration achieved all it possibly could and was a great success. Particular praise is due to the UAF supporters and others who blockaded the roads to prevent BNPers entering- including the Birmingham comrades who were first on the scene shortly after 8am and who stayed there all day. In case anyone is in any doubt about whether such tactics are effective, the good news is that we probably won’t have to do it again next year- at least not in Codnor. The BNP have issued a press release saying they will be seeking another venue next year! Clearly they have been embarrassed by the fact that up to half of those expected did not get through to, or chose not to attend, their festival. Only two of their high profile international guests- prominent fascists from France, Italy and elsewhere, made it through with many others turning away. Local pressure already meant that the Festival had no alcohol or music licences- under these conditions- and with 2000 protestors outside- it is difficult for the BNP to turn its soft-support and new members into the kind of hardened cadres it needs. Given this humiliation, a little infighting in the BNP’s ranks would not go amiss! However, we must not forget they still have over 50 local councillors, 2 MEPs and a seat on the Greater London Authority GLA. Recent ‘demonstrations’ by the English Defence League- a BNP ‘arms-length’ thug outfit may be part of an attempt by them to test the water to see if they can control the streets sufficiently now to start to hold more open meetings and demonstrations. In Birmingham they were sent packing by Asian, black and white youth but they remain an ever- present danger. So what needs to be done? We believe there are two strands to a successful anti-fascist strategy. 1. A Mass Anti-Fascist Movement Unite Against Fascism needs to grow- not just bigger but broader, pulling in wider forces from way beyond the activist left and minority communities. We need to sink deep roots in communities and workplaces and give the lie to any claims of being ‘outside agitators’. It needs to reach across the political, cultural and religious spectrum- any anti-fascist platform needs to have the widest array of speakers- including Labour, Lib-Dems, Greens, Jews, Christians and Muslims and anyone else willing to make a stand against the fascists. However, this should not be counterposed to physical defence of our streets, our places of worship and our communities. Self-defence is no offence and we need to work hard to win the ears first and then the hearts and minds of community leaders and elders to put that case clearly. To this end we support the call put out by THE STIRRER for the biggest possible show of unity against the racists and we endorse the response to that call by West midlands UAF- both reprinted in this Bulletin 2. A Broad, Socialist party Those of us on the Left, socialists with a clear and distinct analysis of fascism and the conditions which allow it to breed, have a particular responsibility to start to build a political alternative not just to the politics of hate represented by the BNP but to the politics of despair represented by the other parties which offer no solutions to economic crisis, unemployment and environmental degradation. This requires the building of a broad, socialist party. It is a distinct project from UAF and the wider anti-fascist movement but is not opposed to it. Any broad party would be centrally involved in Unite Against Fascism but would also seek to explain the growth of the Nazis and offer solutions- including at the ballot box. The argument ‘vote anyone but BNP’ can founder when the ballot paper offers no positive choices- just a promise of more of the same. For a glimpse of what is possible, we need only look across the Channel to France where the Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste groups together the Left with anti-capitalist youth. It is involved with the day-to-day economic and social struggles of the working class, black and white. It actively opposes the fascist Front National and solidarises with the struggles of Muslim youth and it contests elections at local, regional and national levels. The NPA has around 10,000 members and includes the French co-thinkers of both the British Socialist Workers Party and the Socialist Party. Closer to home we have the example of the Peoples Alliance in the North West which has recently come into being with the support of the Community Action Party (centred on Wigan and Leigh, this has councillors and local roots), the Socialist Party and South Lancashire RESPECT (see elsewhere in this Bulletin for more details). During the Euro elections, the railworkers union- RMT- backed candidates standing on a “NO2EU – Yes to Democracy” platform. This was significant more for what it represented than for what it achieved. It was the first time a national trades union had entered the electoral field against the Labour Party. The fact that the RMT remains committed to an electoral alternative is very important as is the fact that other unions may be convinced to follow suit- most notably the firefighters (FBU) and the civil servants (PCS). We need to start now to try and bring the forces of the Left together- on a very loose basis at first and in carefully targeted areas. Maybe, in the form of non-aggression or mutual-aid pacts in areas where one group or another has a strong candidate- perhaps a prominent figure or a sitting councillor with significant local support. Names which spring to mind as worthy of the support of the whole Left are George Galloway, sitting RESPECT MP, Dave Nellist, Coventry councillor and former Labour MP, Michael Lavalette, SWP councillor in Preston, Salma Yacoob, Birmingham Sparkbrook councillor, Valerie Wise, former Preston council leader. Other names will come forward as the General Election approaches. The fight to drive back the BNP will be long and hard, the fight to destroy the sewer of capitalism which allows such rats to breed, longer and harder still, but what start to do now can lay the foundations of the future. 18-08-2009 The prospect of another protest against Muslim “extremism” in Birmingham – and the likelihood of an anti-fascist demo to oppose it - looks like bad news for the city. But Stirrer editor Adrian Goldberg wonders whether a negative can be turned into a positive. Some time in the next few weeks, the English and Welsh Defence League and their assorted hangers-on look set to visit Birmingham again in the name of combating what they regard as Islamic “extremism”. Their first suggested date of August 30 appears to be a no go, as scheduled track repairs that weekend will seriously hamper the rail network, reducing the possible number of recruits from around the country. As it’s a Bank Holiday weekend, some of those who might otherwise be attracted will be spending time with their families anyway, while the significant football mob element of the EDL’s support will be, er, watching football. That leaves the following Saturday, September 5 as the likely protest date – an afternoon when there are no Premier League or Championship matches because England have a World Cup qualifier. What could be better than a gathering of the knuckle-dragging clans to watch the game on the box in Brum, and hurl obscenties at anyone with a dark skin. When you throw an afternoon of booze and footy-fuelled patriotism into an already volatile mix, not to mention the likelihood of another counter demo by Unite Against Fascism, it’s surely not being alarmist to imagine a repeat of the mini riot of August 8 which shamed the city. The irony, of course, is that many of those involved in the recent ruckus didn’t come from Birmingham. Both the UAF and EDL may well have supporters in the West Midlands, but to a large extent, this trouble was “bussed” into the city by outsiders with a wider political agenda. Fair enough, you might think. This is a country that cherishes free speech, and the right to protest is enshrined in law. My hunch, though, is that most people in the greater Birmingham area don’t feel represented by either group. Most of us have grown up in a multi-cultural, cosmopolitan city and revel in the diversity it brings. Others have moved here and stayed precisely because it’s a place where bigotry doesn’t prevail. Whether it’s baltis, UB40 or the great Irish boozers of Digbeth, Birmingham is living proof that people from all kinds of background can get along just fine. That’s not to pretend that there are never tensions and disagreements – some of them based along racial and religious lines. But, being Brummies, we like to settle our disputes through words and wit – not boots and fists. To reflect this, I wonder if there’s scope for a positive campaign to counter the negative images that another demonstration is likely to bring.
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