AFA News November 15 2000 BNP and the fuel protests - anti-fascism discredited An article in the Sunday People (5/11/00), written by the editors of Searchlight, is a perfect illustration of how 'anti-fascism' is being discredited. Allowing for the fact that tabloid papers like to use a sensational style of writing, the article fails to address any of the relevant political issues, assumes that by presenting the BNP as a criminal conspiracy the 80,000 people who voted for them in the Greater London Assembly elections, for example, will see the error of their ways, and concludes that the only way to stop them is to collaborate with the police who will then prevent fascism winning support (just like they have in Austria, France, Italy, Germany, etc,etc!). Some extracts from the article illustrate the point: "Our investigators uncovered the plot after we infiltrated the BNP's highest ranks and unearthed a dossier of top-secret memos and e-mails ... a Special Branch source said "This evidence is very disturbing indeed. What you have told us is a clear conspiracy to incite people to break the law. We will be clamping down hard on these people. We must not allow them to sow their sick message of hate." ... Darby and his cowardly cronies try to hide behind the phoney name of the Anytown Fuel Protest Support Group. But we can reveal that the masterminds of the whole subversive campaign are BNP leader Nick Griffin - who has a conviction for inciting racial hatred - and deputy leader Tony Lecomber, who was jailed for 3 years in 1991 for attacking a Jewish teacher in East London ... Our dossier is available to police so that they can smash this evil plot." Anti-fascists, and in particular groups like the SWP/ANL, must publicly distance themselves from those who would seek to hijack the independence of the anti-fascist movement and re-align 'anti-fascism' as part of the police or the establishment. As the fascists continue to win support from those who have been betrayed by the establishment parties and their police, it hardly constitutes a winning strategy for anyone on 'the Left' to be openly linked with those parties who are so completely discredited in the eyes of so many. November 14 2000 If fascists were pacifists, would their politics be acceptable? It has been interesting to read the numerous press reports of BNP infiltration of the fuel protests, especially since it has been revealed that MI5 have devoted considerable resources to undermining the actions. Rather than any considered analysis of the Far Right moving into an area that has traditionally been receptive to the ideas of fascism, eg. small businessmen and the self-employed, the 'anti-fascist' argument has been that the BNP's presence is a problem because they are violent. "Extremist right-wing groups and individuals have infiltrated the fuel price movement and plan to be 'heavily involved' when the protests start again next week, an Observer investigation has revealed. Senior police fear that the presence of neo-Nazis among the protesters will lead to violence and attacks on officers." (Observer, 5/11/00). Since 1994 AFA has been drawing attention to the fact that the BNP have withdrawn from street confrontations and adopted a 'peaceful' Euro-Nationalist approach. The continual obsession to portray the BNP as a violent movement when its present strategy is specifically designed to avoid trouble at all costs is absurd, and their growing support in elections is evidence that anti-fascists will have to come up with better arguments in order to defeat the Far Right. November 14 2000 Far Right in Austria lose support - can the Left rise to the challenge? Haider's Freedom Party (FPO) vote fell from 17% to 12% in the recent provincial elections in Styria (October 15th). This was the first electoral test for the FPO since they entered the Austrian government. The drop in support is because the FPO claimed to represent the interests of the disenfranchised and disillusioned working class, but on taking power proceeded to support major cuts in social welfare spending. In other words attacking the very people who had turned to the Far Right for support. This disillusion with the FPO isn't just confined to Styria, a recent survey carried out by the Format magazine showed that only 24% of Freedom Party supporters believed the Party had stuck to its election pledges in government. What is important for anti-fascists to realise is that the disillusioned FPO voters haven't returned to the Social Democrats, who received their lowest vote in Styria since 1945. The betrayal of the working class by all the major parties allowed the Far Right to pose as the radical alternative. Their failure to deliver in Austria, once elected, shows that a progressive working class organisation, committed to dealing with working class problems rather than middle class liberalism, could win support and remove fascist influence from these communities. The question is - has anyone got the bottle to fill the vacuum? _______________________________________________ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
