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 A world. 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.