Anti-Fascism Talk

national | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis Thursday August 26, 2004 23:55 by Jason Brannigan - Fascists Out Campaign

Derry, August 2004

The talk below was delivered by Jason Brannigan, a member of the the Fascists Out Campaign (FOC) and the anarchist group, Organise! in Derry on Saturday August 14th 2004

As far as presenting a response to Dave’s book that’s sort of been sprung on the panel a bit. We have heard an inspiring account of how anti-fascists smashed the BNP in Rochdale and the Fascists Out Campaign agree with the need to confront fascism ideologically and physically. I’m going to give a brief outline of the Fascists Out Campaign position and strategy on combating racism and specifically fascism.
The Fascists Out Campaign was formed early in 2004 in response to a significant rise in racist attacks, the appearance of fascist graffiti and stickers in the Belfast area and an widely reported, in the local media, organising drive by the fascist White Nationalist Party centred on the north Antrim area. So far the campaign has attempted to counter fascist propaganda with our own postering and leafleting of towns we know fascists have targeted and on the 3rd of April we physically confronted a group of fascists and prevented them from distributing leaflets in Portrush – which they were doing under the guise on an anti-paedophile campaign. Material was confiscated from the fascists that was used in later FOC propaganda in order to expose the real nature of the WNP.

Racism in our society is not a new phenomena, it did not simply appear post ‘peace process’, although it has certainly escalated. Ethnic groups have experienced institutionalised racism and racist attacks throughout the ‘troubles’. Travellers have been and continue to be among the most discriminated groups in Irish society north and south.

Roseanna from Residents Against Racism has spoken about the experiences of that group in Dublin and has already pointed out that much of the worst racism stems from state racism. Likewise in the north racist attacks and recent organising attempts by British fascist groups in working class Loyalist areas are set against a campaign by so-called respectable politicians and media to demonise and criminalize immigrants. The term “illegal immigrant” has joined other racial slurs, becoming a general term of abuse for ‘foreigners’ and people from ethnic communities in the north of Ireland, Britain and the Irish Republic.

At the time the second pregnant woman was targeted by racists in South Belfast Tony Blair was railing against the growing numbers of women immigrants coming to the UK as “maternity tourists” to exploit “our” strained and under-funded health service. Was this a coincidence? Hardly. (The same sort of scare story was used to whip up support for the recent racist referendum in the republic). This attack provides, as well as an example of an appalling racist attack, an example of how government stoke up racism to their advantage. Diverting peoples attention from the policies which have resulted in our health service becoming strained and under funded by blaming illegal immigrants, “maternity tourists”, anyone but the real culprits in Government. Poverty, housing shortages and unemployment have all been blamed on immigrants.

Media misrepresentations and lies, racist government policy in relation to asylum seekers and immigrants, growing islamophobia connected with western military adventures in the middle east combined with the very real problems facing working class communities provide a spawning ground for racism and, potentially, sustenance to organised racists and fascists. FOC believes that racism and fascism must be confronted from a working class perspective. We believe in ideological and political opposition to fascism and direct action against fascists on the streets whenever necessary. We urge working class communities to mobilise against racism and fascism and believe that the only long-term solution is for people in working class communities to come together, around common interests, and to fight alongside each other for better housing, facilities and the things that are needed by all of us. It is this type of mobilisation that can isolate fascist groups and FOC propaganda attempts to expose the fact that fascism has nothing to offer any working class people. In fact it actively works to destroy working class organisation, trades unions, and foster reaction and division.

We have pointed out that:
“The problems of low pay, cuts in services, lack of jobs especially for young people, lack of affordable housing etc., are not caused by immigrants. They are caused by the current economic system that puts profit before need and by government policies dictated by the interests of big business.”

Since we also seek to expose the government and its policies which provide a seed bed for fascism it follows that we do not co-operate with the state or police in opposing racism and fascism – particularly given that in Northern Ireland the police are not welcomed in any working class areas.

Groups and campaigns attempting to deal with racism and fascism which are devoid of a class analysis, or in which the campaign is so broad based that those elements that profess to have a class analysis mute it end up relying on calls for “education” and state intervention. Calls for state intervention by necessity have to intellectually somersault the realities of institutionalised and state promoted racism. They also perpetuate the dangerous myth that there are people up there who know better than us how to deal with these issues, increasing our powerlessness and undermining our ability for independent and effective action around these issues. Calls for “education” may sound alright but these are often satisfied in an ineffective and piecemeal fashion, particularly when compared to government and media onslaughts about “floods of immigrants” and such. More worrying is the implication that racism is simply the result of a brutish ignorance and a lack of education and good (that is middle-class) upbringing. This is often tied up in a “liberal” middle-class distain for and bias against working–class people. It also propagates the notion that middle-class people are above racism.

We do not deny that racists and fascists are often working-class but the racism of the state is often much more devastating and provides acceptable terms of reference which promotes racism while giving sustenance to racists and far-right organisations. In the context of a rise in racism and the far right across Europe we must be aware that these problems are not just local problems, they are inextricably linked to the growth of fortress Europe and the pursuit of what is called neo-liberalism. Cut-backs, privatisations, attacks on the standards of living of working class people across Europe have prompted many governments to blame foreigners and immigrants for the problems and hardships that their implementation of these policies have caused. Incidentally the same neo-liberal policies, which have done much to devastate our communities, were implemented without opposition the last time any of our politicians held power in the Stormont Assembly.

We need to expose and attack the institutions that are legitimising racism in our society; we need to take on racist bullies, homophobes and fascists carrying out attacks on people from ethnic minorities. To do this we need to build independent working class resistance that will physically and ideologically confront fascism and oppose the system that promotes racist scapegoating and the criminalisation of immigration.