Support grows for anti-Nazi demonstration

red letter | 20.05.2008 20:52 | Anti-racism

Assemble 12 noon on Saturday 21 June at Tooley Street, London SE1, behind City Hall for a march to Trafalgar Square. For more details go to » www.lovemusichateracism.com

The national march against fascism and racism called for Saturday 21 June in London is building momentum.

Unite Against Fascism (UAF) has joined Love Music Hate Racism (LMHR) in organising the march, which is also being backed by a range of trade unions and other campaigning organisations.

The demonstration comes in the wake of the fascist British National Party (BNP) winning a seat on the London assembly, as well as making gains in council elections across England.

Wherever the BNP gets established, race hatred and racist attacks inevitably follow. It is time for the anti-Nazi majority to stand up to the BNP and drive them out of the political mainstream.

The 100,000-strong anti-BNP carnival organised by LMHR on the eve of the elections shows the potential for building a movement.

The 21 June demonstration will send a message to the fascists that the broad spectrum of society rejects their bigotry and their politics of hate.

It will also serve as a focus to reinvigorate and reinforce the movement against the BNP across the country.

Assemble 12 noon on Saturday 21 June at Tooley Street, London SE1, behind City Hall for a march to Trafalgar Square. For more details go to » www.lovemusichateracism.com

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red letter
Homepage: http://www.lovemusichateracism.com

Comments

Hide the following 24 comments

SWP copyrighted farce,boring placards & get stabbed in back like antiwar&afa

21.05.2008 07:02

just like lenin& trotsky did with heavy machinery to mackhno& ukrainian black cossacks after they defeated Denekin & saved Moscow, your leaders are arseholes.

Can anyone prove SWP arent behind UAF front besides Lancaster?
If they are, I though UAF wasnt just SWP, maybe we should play them at their own tactics & reclaim our nests from the crazy cuckoo swappies.

At best you want us to build you a mass movement & then have it go a2b?

The Kaiser & some bankers let Lenin through in his sealed train to pacify russia the revolution had already started with Battleship Potemkin lead by the anarchists with help from the master at arms.
Bakunin wasnt perfect he was right about the marxism & dictatorship though.

Eva Mackhno

More opportunity to sell papers!

21.05.2008 07:48

Where were the swp on May 2nd election call at city hall, too scared to face the bnp and now the fucking opportunists can get their paper sellers and placards together so as to do fuck all but control the crowd with their stewards so as no one step out of line and toes the party line... Fucking muppets!

@narchist

copyright?

21.05.2008 10:31

What in heavens name is that all about? The more you link this march to the SWP the more unlikely it for people to want to go. Grrr Keep your need to dominate anhd control away from our movement

see through the shite

2 bald men fighting over a comb

21.05.2008 10:55

like hell were the 100,000 at that carnival - but then again the city hall demo was a big fat stuff all too.
gimme antifa anyday rather than YET ANOTHER cynical, soul-destroying swappie frontjob

Daansaaf

The demo...

21.05.2008 13:10

The demo sounds counter productive, especially as it is marching away from City Hall!! It would be the usual shouty trot nonense without recognising that the left, in part, are part of the problem not the solution.

I would argue though that Antifa - as an antifascist organisation of the anarchist movement - should produce a statement and some ideas on what people who are opposed to parties like the BNP can do. Otherwise, again, we leave all the arguments to the piss-poor left.

anarchist

please stay at home

21.05.2008 15:53

I'm all in favour of unity, but perhaps the @narchists would be better of staying at home on this one, they won't be missed all 10 of them.

antifa is a anarchist front where every member is an anarchist, nothing more nothing less.

red letter

suggestion

21.05.2008 22:31

Just a thought why not hold demos against assembly member and those who are willing to tolerate his presence them when london assembly is actually sitting, try to get details of public engagements
these will be small demos and definiyley make BNP show thier true colours.

burn barnbrook

Why oh why....

22.05.2008 03:15

do people continue to take the SWPs bullshit?

surely an antifascist movement could be created that was far bigger and better and connected with the working class by ANYONE else?

Even the damn reformists could probably put together a damn sight better thing than "UAF"

Where are the bloody activists of the 80s? why is the SWP the only group left organising mass protests?

anti-swp

Ah yes, a march...

22.05.2008 06:38

That will show the BNP. Cos if there's one thing they're afraid of, it's a march. People walking along a (n SWP planned) route and shouting (SWP-approved) slogans and catchphrases. If they see the 'reds' that organised, they'll quake in their boots and... Renounce their seat? I think not.
Different tactics suit different occasions, and a march hardly seems like the appropriate way of 'sending a message to the BNP'. (Personally I'd use carrier pigeon, since they seem to be stuck in the 1930s)
The only possible good that can come out of this is that some people who have a herd instinct might be more reluctant to vote BNP because they think everyone else is going to look down on them because of it - probably a worthwhile aim, but only the means to an end, and not the be all and end all of fighting fascism.
We really need to discover/invent/rediscover more effective methods of dealing with issues like this, where those we are fighting are not the ones in power; the appeal to public opinion through the lense of the media, the implicit threat to electoral majorities, etc are all useless against a party who are on the fringes of political seriousness and certainly outside of any respectability, with no hope of getting into any considerable position of power.

rogue

to red letter re antifa

22.05.2008 10:29

erm, antifa is an anrchist group. it's not an anrchist 'front group'. seriously, get your facts right before you spout that shit up here. anyway, shouldn't you be selling papers? oh, and selling out the working class to boot, of course!

afa wob

Question

22.05.2008 10:50

What actually to Antifa believe in?? They concentrate on what they don't like but offer no alternatives other than we are going to batter the people we don't like. To get the working classes motivated to do something about the Fascism of the state and the BNP, you have to provide an alternative philosophy. Movements are not built around 'battering' people.

Red Roger

SWP has good record with resisting nazis

22.05.2008 13:05

Tactically it is very difficult to know what to do in this situation. In the past it was very simple, the NF would plan a demonstration in a black area for example and the anti nazis would respond with a counter demonstration.

Today the BNP do not hold demonstrations (they might in the future) so what should our response be. There are many of working class people and orgainsations that a worried about the nazis, at the moment we need to establish our forces, by holding this demonstration we can gauge our potential forces.

Now that it is clear that the BNP are more of a threat I am sure working class people will be motivated to mobilise.

In future UAF in conjunction with LMHR will hold festivals in BNP strongholds such as dagenham and blackburn.

P.S UAF is a very broad coalition including most of the trade unions, labour party MPs and members, musicians , artists, individuals, arguably alot more broader than antifa certainly is.
Also the SWP has a very good history of uniting people against the nazis, the period around the 70s prove this and the Anti Nazi League was very affective with dealing with the NF, i dont recall or know any anarchists lead group at the time worth a mention.

red letter

Red Letter Dates

22.05.2008 14:58

What were reading here is that people who refuse to collaborate with the root causes of racism, conflict (internal and external), exploitation, misinformation, murder, deportation, hunger, etc etc, are not offering a viable alternative, whereas the SWP and chums who are more than happy to promote these filthy murderers are providing us with hope for a better world. How can you even call yourselves socialists and back UK imperialists such as the labour party. How fucking stupid do you think we are......though your comments already provide a more than adequate answer.

To build a better world a revolutionary must first address (head on) all those who fight for exactly the opposite. But you obviously know that which is why you co-operate with them. Labour, Police, Capitalists........SWP

A21

SWP's real 'good record'

22.05.2008 15:48

...is in hijacking already existing grassroots movement (from antifascism to Stop The War), then squeezing all the life and soul ouyt of them with their cynical manoeuvring/politicking. bureaucratism in and inability to sound like anything other than a mid-level soviet bureaucrat, thus alienating and derailing every group daft enough to climb into bed with them.
But they are even better at gulling naive, but angry and idealistic young potential activists and using them and fucking them around until said idealists become bitter, apathetic ex-idealists.
They are also good at endless self-propagandising and pretending they are a significant force in Uk grassroots politics, rather than a tiny, stgnant irrelevant trot sect.
Not sure what else they're good at, though.
And this is a trot saying this.

DaanSaaf

Misinformation, the facts stand out

22.05.2008 16:00

A 21 if you want to go down that road then we can.

This is very typical of anarchists, they spout off all this "I am hard man" and how the SWP love the police but how many of your UK comrades have actually been killed by the state, nill/none.

Blair Peach, a SWP member was killed by the police in 1978 on an anti nazi demonstaration, the police tried to cover it up, please do not tell me how the SWP suck up to the police, the same police that killed our members. idiot.

red letter

My thoughts...

22.05.2008 17:00

Whilst I’m in no way a fan of the SWP running grassroots campaigns into the ground, I think it is important to attend this march. Mainly because like it or not this march is going ahead and if it does so with a low turnout it will be a moral boost for fascists and right-wingers everywhere and also if there is a low turnout of militants it could provide fascists with an opportunity to attack anti fascists, again being a huge moral boost for them. Also it’s a good opportunity to talk to people about more constructive ways to combat the rise of the far right, from militant anti fascism to organising in our own working class communities, so that the BNP cannot build support due to the neglect and contempt that the working class are faced with day in and day out.

I think an antifa/anarchist bloc is exactly what this demo needs.

All this talk about the great SWP of the ‘70s is all well and good but the SWP today is a far cry from what it used to be. It used to have a decent amount of working class people involved before they started solely pandering to middle class students and showing contempt to the working classes just like all the other political parties.

The fact is it isn’t activists/revolutionaries/lefties that are being killed by the police its normal people like Charles De Mendez and Hayley Adamson. And it is these deaths that show the police in their real colours, mindless thugs who have no respect for life, anyone who collaborates with them is either highly ignorant or a complete cunt.

If I die on a nazi street, there'll be 10 dead nazis at my feet...

Regarding two earlier comments -

22.05.2008 17:21

Red Roger - they do offer an alternative. The wealth of anarchist literature and theory is easily available and accessible through the internet, your library, a bookshop, a chat down the pub, a uni course, or whatever other method you prefer. Clearly you've just never bothered to take an interest.

And as for red letter, bemoaning the fact that your movement has no clue what to do because "we used to just organise counter-demos, but now there's nothing to counter-demo against" (paraphrased) is a bit pathetic, isn't it? Who's the one not offering a positive alternative now? The answer is that you get off your arses and do some kind of POSITIVE campaigning against the BNP if you're so concerned...

Leafleting, community meetings (particularly if they can be drawn together around some kind of community centre/social centre/etc), publicising the misadventures of the criminal elements of the BNP, stickers in public places (although of course I'm not advocating criminal damage - your car window/bumper should do nicely, although watch out for flying shards if the BNP see it), etc are all viable alternatives to a tired old symbolic march that misses the point of what a march is all about. They should help to turn people off of BNP far more effectively than seeing some people walk down a street against racism.

rogue

@ red letter

22.05.2008 18:27

are you REALLY this desperate for something - ANYTHING - to big y'self up about, and slate other left groups, that you're going on about the death of a rookie activist THIRTY YEARS AGO?
says it all. The SWP are in fact an - admittedly involuntary - aid to the fash, and a shackle on the left, in that they use the anti-fash cause so cynically for their narrow sectarian centralist cause that it drains the life from the anti-fash, and other left campaigns.
By contrast, Antifa are a group whose core is anarchist but who work honestly and honourably with non-anarchist types, which is why antifa is far more dynamic and strong at the grassroots than the pale shadow of a force that is UAF.

DaanSaaf

A word of warning to inexperienced anti-fascists.

23.05.2008 09:22

SPOT ON!

THE AUTHORITARIAN LEFT

For decades revolutionary left groups such as the Trotskyite Socialist Workers Party, have opportunistically used the mobilisation against fascism as a way of trying to swell their membership numbers and the coffers of their party.

We are not interested in working with these groups, nor with their front groups, such as the Anti-Nazi League™ or Unite Against Fascism™.

Our experience is that these front groups exist merely to try and recruit members on behalf of the controlling party, to peddle their papers, and to manipulate and marginalize genuine anti-fascists.

In the past we have seen the leadership of such fronts collaborate not only with the State, but also with the fascists themselves.

We will not be fooled again, and advise genuine anti-fascists within these organisations to leave, after which we may be able to work with them.

http://www.antifa.org.uk/foundstat.htm

Rosemary.

A UNITED FRONT

24.05.2008 03:07

If any fash were looking at these comment's above they would be laughing to themselves and saying 'once again a divided left'. When are you going to learn that divided we fall. I'm sorry but attack me if you want but if we don't stop attacking each other the nazi will gain and gain. It is up to you whether or not you go to this demo but it is imperative for us to be there regardless of who organised it. I used to be in the SWP and i know of many in that party who were dedicated anti- nazi. And when it comes to paper selling and making money that money went into a fund for people like me to help pay to get us to anti- capitalist demos in europe cos as far as they were concerned it was 'the more the better'. Although i got dissillusioned with them i could not fault them on their organising and treatment of me. As a fellow anarchist i believe our focus should be on the rise of the neo-nazi plus their scum friends in the old bill and not each other. If the UAF want to march from a to b in a peaceful manner let them, if the more radical of us want to stick it to some coppers for allowing a neo-nazi on their march that is our right and for some of us it is our way of protest! In my view if you don't turn up then you don't really care.

ABB

ABB

24.05.2008 09:23

Go back to school mate.

Danski

DANSKI

24.05.2008 12:25

"Go back to school mate?".

Is that because i believe that all of us who are against racism should fighting against the bnp and not each other, or is it that i think it is bad public relation's for the met pol to allow a known neo- nazi to march with them.. I mean, what does that say to multi- racial london.
Or was it because of spelling mistakes?

Look forward to hearing from you MATE.

ABB

ABB

25.05.2008 17:22

You could start by actually reading what has been writtin by others above.

There is no such thing as a fucking 'united front', its an urban fucking myth.

You can not work with the SWP and expect to achieve ANYTHING.

And if that isnt enough for you try this...

TROTSKY WAS A CUNT.

Danski

Danski

25.05.2008 21:38

For your information i am not a trot. I have read what is up there otherwise i wouldn't have commented on it. I also know that there is and alway's has been division's on the left i have seen it myself. That's why the left has never got anywhere and by the sound's of it never will. But who do you hate most the trot's or the nazi? cos that's what this is all about. If the AF or Antifa were organising the demo i would still turn up. What i said about member's of the SWP in my original comment's was the truth, they did help me whilst i was a dole boy and if you can't handle that that's not my problem. The only reason i left was because i'd realised it was just a mere talking shop. Admittedly i am just a working class kid from a none political back ground as most working class kid's are so i maybe a bit dumb when it comes to trotskyism. But thankfully i do know about nazism and WW2 and the fact that my grandad (RIP) and thousand's of other kid's working class grandad's went to war to fight the nazi, many died my grandad was lucky! But i see those neo- fascist cunt's go down the cenotaph on remembrance sunday and then praise hitler with their nazi salutes it makes me wanna vomit. So i ask you a question danski. Who is more of a CUNT trotsky or hitler?

ABB