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Title: Politics/Fascism/Opposing Views - Tactics to Fight Fascism Notes from a speech by Andrew Flood.
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Tatics to fight fascism
Tatics to fight fascism
1993
This is a talk I gave in Dublin in 1993 after we had been amoung a
coalition of groups that had successfully forced fascist organiser
David Irving to call off a speaking tour. At the time the fascists
had hit the news in several European countries with either electoral
success or murders of immigrants.
The recent successful campaign against the fascist organiser David
Irving as well as related events throughout Europe have led to
fascism being discussed in a widespread fashion. A lot of people are
rightly alarmed at the re-emergence in Fascism throughout Europe and
the level of support it has received in France, Germany and Belgium
where fascist based groups have received over 15% of the vote.
Why is fascism different from the far right and racism.
Fascism tends to be used a lot on the left as a term of abuse. The
workers party call Sinn Fein fascists, the CP used to refer to
trotskyists as fascists and right wingers in general are referred to
as fascists. The problem with this sort of thing is that when you
then argue for no platform for fascists many see this as an attempt
to silence all those you disagree with.
We use the term fascist in a very much tighter form. Fascists are
those who seek to physically smash the left, unions and other
progressive groups. Today most fascists use racism to recruit but
they do not just promise repatriation when in power. They beat, maim
and kill minority groups now. This use of physical violence now is
what distinguished fascism from right wing racists like Enoch Powell.
This is why we say fighting fascism can not be done just in terms
of ideas. Fascists do not wait until they have convinced a sufficient
number of people to put their ideas into power before they put their
ideas into practise. Even tiny groups of a dozen or less organise and
carry out terror attacks on those they oppose or scapegoat. Only
physical confrontation can deter and prevent these activities. A few
hundred fascists in any one town or city can be sufficient to prevent
any progressive activity from union meetings to demonstrations being
carried out unless these are protected physically. With fascism
physical defence very soon becomes a key issue for even minor
activities and we prefer to prevent them organising in the first
place rather then letting them reach a size where they feel they can
attack us.
Where did fascism come from
This emphasis on physical violence is seen in the roots of
fascism. In both Germany and Italy the fascists were originally armed
gangs used to attack trade unionists and revolutionaries in the
aftermath of World War 1. The bosses financed these gangs initially
because in both Germany and Italy revolution looked imminent and
workers were winning huge gains. In Italy this finance meant that a
large army of fascists could tour the country smashing the unions.
When they entered an area workers would be locked out unless they
agreed to join the fascists unions. Their jobs would be carried out
by part of this roving band while the rest of it would smash and
attempt to terrorise and intimidate workers into joining the fascist
'union'. Because of this finance it was possible for them to maintain
and move sufficient numbers to out number the left in any area they
went to .
An additional problem in Italy was that the left relied on the
state to protect it. Yet the bosses sided with the fascists and the
judiciary, police and army followed out their wishes regardless of
who was in power. Their was a sizeable anarchist movement in Italy at
the time but despite their efforts they did not have the numbers to
physical defeat the fascists without the support of the wider left.
Italian anarchists carried out armed resistance to Mussolini's
government until it fell in 1944. [It's worth pointing out that after
the war many were still being jailed for attacks carried out on the
fascist administration before Italy changed sides in 1944].
From being small groups of anti-left, anti-union thugs the
fascists later came to be united under the leadership of particular
individuals, and the armed gangs formed into a single party. While
continuing their old role of smashing workers organisations for the
bosses they began to take on a new one. In the post war years the
working class had won large improvements in the standard of living.
The bosses resented paying this and as the recession of 1929 arrived
they increasingly needed to completely destroy these gains in order
to maintain profits. Heavy industry in particular wanted the state to
switch investment from healthcare to the war industry in order to
boost its flagging profits. Fascism in power promised both these
things so the bosses poured massive resources into bringing the
fascists to power, both directly in terms of massive financial aid
and indirectly through their control of the media and the state.
Hitler for instance made reference to the vital part the use of 1000
cars [from Henry Ford] had been during the Nazi's 1932 election
campaign.
When will fascism come to power
At the moment fascism is in the first armed gang phase. No
significant section of the bosses has yet come out in support of
them. They pose a threat to those they beat up and kill directly, not
as yet the threat they could pose if the bosses turn to them. If for
instance someone like Murdoch in Britain was to decide that the BNP
coming to power was in his interests then given his monopoly of the
press there most of the mainstream papers would be arguing the BNP
line.
Is this likely to happen, well at the moment it would not appear
so. The standard of living for most working class people has been
falling throughout this decade, this is driving down costs for the
bosses. The bulk of the left has managed to completely discredit
itself either through its support for Leninism and the old USSR or
through being in power and implementing anti-working class measures
for the bosses. Witness Labour's slashing of Aer Lingus jobs. The
trade unions are controlled as seldom before by the bureaucracy and
the bureaucracy in itself has lost what little ability it had to
fight. In short these is little evidence of a serious opposition to
the bosses cuts arising in the recent future. There is little
opposition to the bosses wishes to be smashed, what opposition there
is can be dealt with through the ordinary apparatus of the state, its
courts and its cops.
Against that however the recession continues to deepen, the bosses
have not yet driven down our standard of living enough to restore all
their profits. The obvious and easy cuts have been made and so have a
layer of more difficult ones. Resistance has begun to break out, last
month for instance 7000 public service workers struck in support of
the dental assistants pay claims and a two day strike occurred in CIE
against pay cuts. Internationally there have been a few major strikes
like the one day strike in Germany earlier this year.. Although it
may seem unlikely now in the past massive opposition to cuts has
tended to emerge suddenly, over a period of months rather than years.
If such a thing were to happen then the bosses could well turn to
fascism as a way to maintain their profits and save their skins.
If the far left is discredited so to is mainstream politics.
Europe has been rocked by the emergence of countless corruption
scandals from the Irish beef tribunal to the Italian governments
Mafia links. Finance ministers and chancellors promising light at the
end of the tunnel have become a monthly joke on the news. Nobody
believes politicians full stop and certainly nobody believes full
employment etc. is something any politician is capable of bringing
about. This means people are less likely to accept the old excuses
which is good for us but it is also part of the reason why the far
right is winning support.
What is the role of fascists at the moment
Fascism at the moment in Europe is an indirect rather than a
direct creation of the ruling class. Racism was made respectable
during the last decade by all the mainstream parties from left to
right. Socialist governments like that of France forcibly deported
immigrants and in Germany immigrants were quickly scapegoated for the
rising unemployment in Eastern Germany after re-unification. The cuts
imposed on the working class meant fewer houses, fewer jobs and
poorer facilities. Rather than admitting these things were due to a
cutback in spending the Governments tried to shift the blame on
immigrants taking 'our' resources. The latest example of this is the
racist campaign ran by the Liberals in the Isle of Dogs by-election.
This had the result of making the fascists racism respectable to
voters. Everyone it appeared agreed that the immigrants were the
problem and to some it also appeared that the fascists were the most
serious about solving this 'problem'.
This is also the reason why although in the 20's and 30's
fascism's mass base was the middle class this time around they are
winning support from the poorest sections of the working class. With
everyone telling those living on the Isle of Dogs that their poor
housing and massive unemployment is due to Bengali immigrants it is
of little surprise that many choose to vote for the BNP. In reality
the Bengali's have the poorest housing and the highest unemployment
but it has suited the bosses well to have poor working class white
Eastenders blaming poorer working class Asian Eastenders for their
poverty.
Indeed if we look at the way the bosses have reacted to the
electoral victories of fascists throughout Europe this becomes
clearer. In Germany it was used as an excuse to push through more
racist anti-immigrant laws, in Britain it is being used to further
scapegoat immigrants as if they rather than the mainstream parties
are responsible for the rise of fascism. The collapse of the left
along with the crisis of mainstream politics is another reason for
this. In the past many of those now supporting the fascists would
have moved left instead, particularly through getting involved with
one of the large electoral parties. Very few people still see
socialism as an option and in this context fascism has succeeded in
making itself appear a viable alternative.
How do we undermine their support
Although it seems their is no imminent threat of the bosses
turning to fascism and it coming to power it is still maiming and
killing hundreds throughout Europe. They have to be stopped and the
support has to be eroded completely. There are two things vital to
this process. A political alternative to the fascists message and the
implementation of a No platform for fascists policy not just by the
left but also by all those the fascists target. I'm going to look at
the political end first.
I've already said that unlike the 30's fascism is not based around
the middle classes fear of socialism in power (and also at the time
support of the peasantry). It is based around the poorest sections of
the white working class who see as the only solution to their
problems gaining the houses and jobs of immigrants and minority
workers. As an interim measure the left should be arguing that rather
then scapegoating minorities almost always worse off them themselves
that what is needed is for black and white workers fighting together
for better housing for all full unemployment etc.
Once this was so obvious that the fascists had enormous problems
making inroads into anything but the most marginalised sections of
the working class even when they were mass organisations. At this
time many saw a 'more houses for all' hope resting in the communist
parties or the social democratic parties. For workers there was an
immediate more sensible answer to the fascists. For those workers
organised in trade unions, particularly where the workplace
organisation is strong this is still the case. Notice the walk out by
public service workers in Tower hamlets after the by-election.
In the short term these are the arguments we can use but in the
long term people need to be convinced that there is a viable
alternative to capitalism. The bulk of the left is still trying to
re-package social democracy or Leninism, this offers no way forward.
We have to win the arguments for libertarian communism/anarchism both
with the left and within society at large. I have shown how fascism
arises out of capitalism in crisis, to finally defeat fascism we also
need to finally replace capitalism.
No platform, what does it mean.
The here vital tactic against fascism in the now is to deny them a
platform to recruit from. We know as fascists grow then so will the
racial and other attacks they carry out or encourage. Therefore we
have to stop them growing by denying them the ability to organise.
This means stopping fascists meeting, marching or selling papers,
whether these are public or private events. Again it is not what
fascists say that is a problem, it is what they do.
To do this we need to mobilise the greatest number of people
possible against fascism and win these people to _at least_
supporting a no platform policy. The at least passive support of a
huge number of people is necessary for a number of reasons,
1) it is a protection against the attempts by the
state to move against those physically confronting the fascists.
Winning the backing of unions and hence potential industrial action
is important in this respect.
2) it demoralises the fascists by pointing out how isolated they
are. This is important but it can not be made the most important
feature of anti-fascist work as a lot of liberals tend to. For the
most part the fascists know they are unpopular, they just hope to win
over enough people to terrify the rest into compliance.
3) it gives an audience to the spread of revolutionary ideas and
the need to change all aspects of capitalism.
We also need to win over large amounts of people to actively
confronting the fascists. This means physically shutting down their
book shops, meeting, offices and paper sales. It means physically
defending those the fascists attack and attacking fascists before
they can mount such attacks. As I have said a good section of the
fascists know they are unpopular, we have to do more than prove this
to be the case. Those who organise racial and other attacks have to
be physically attacked themselves until they stop such activity.
At the moment the anti-fascists are split into several different
campaigning bodies, this in itself need not be a problem if they work
together but in reality along with the real political differences
between the different bodies are sectarian differences which result
in them refusing to work together. The battle most of them are
fighting at the moment is as much the battle to control the
anti-fascists as to defeat fascism.
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Notes | from | a | speech | by | Andrew | Flood. |
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http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/talks/fascism.html
Tactics to Fight Fascism 2008 October
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Notes from a speech by Andrew Flood.
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