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the rise of the far right and anti-fascism: february 16th, sheffield

Anarchist Federation (Sheffield)/the Commune | 01.02.2010 12:52 | Education | Workers' Movements | Sheffield

Next meeting of Sheffield's communist discussion group.

The next communist forum hosted by the Commune and Anarchist Federation in Sheffield will be a discussion on the rise of the far right in Britain today, the character of fascism, and how we should organise against this threat.

The meeting takes place from 7pm on Tuesday 16th February at The Rutland Arms, 86 Brown Street, Sheffield S1 2BS. Email  uncaptiveminds@gmail.com to express your interest or ask for more info – see below for some background reading for the meeting.

(As you can tell from the long list of pieces, this is not compulsory reading for the discussion, just a list of articles that may be of interest!…)

Fascism/anti-fascism, by Gilles Dauvé

Anti-fascism in the 21st century – from Shift magazine

The European elections, the left and anti-fascism, by David Broder

The rising threat of the BNP: the underlying causes, its present nature and prospects, by Dan Jakopovich

British nationalism and the rise of fascism, by Chris Ford

Get this racist Jack Straw off the BBC, by The Commune

Fascism and democracy – two cheeks on the same arse - by Anarchist Federation

Bash the fash – by Anarchist Federation

Giving up No Platform?, a speech to the 2009 Anarchist Bookfair

Bash the fash, anti-fascist recollections 1984-1993 - by K. Bullstreet

For on-line links to texts:  http://yorks-afed.org/2010/02/the-rise-of-the-far-right-and-anti-fascism-february-16th-sheffield/

Anarchist Federation (Sheffield)/the Commune

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Mutual aid:

01.02.2010 14:11


Mutual aid is arguably as ancient as human culture; an intrinsic part of the small, communal societies universal to humanity's ancient past. From the dawn of humanity, until far beyond the invention of agriculture, humans were foragers, exchanging labour and resources for the benefit of
group and individual alike. In this alone Kropotkin got what anarchy is about, people involved with Sheffield AFED need to understand that anarchism needs to make those who want to be involved safe and welcome not allow people to keep on repeating lies, in time they become the truth and for the person at the end of them hard to disprove, it needs to deal with its own failings (i.e. anti working class) before it moves onto the wider world by doing so we build a movement where are involved and one of Mutual aid if this can not be done then we are pissing up a tree..

From the meeting Sheffield Claimants and Unemployed Workers launch meeting  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/sheffield/2010/01/444806.html another AFED front:

The Tories physically attacked working class communities and caused a quarter of a century of impoverishment. The Labour Party has introduced over 3000 new crimes since 1997 and has whittled away our hard-won liberties – such as Habeas corpus, the right not to be tortured, etc, etc, and even, with their supposed solutions to anti-social behaviour, the right to a trial by a jury of our peers – to a higher degree than any other peacetime government. ALL mainstream political parties follow the same socially and environmentally destructive Neoliberal (and highly fascistic) economic trajectory that has been responsible for so much suffering in working class communities

The announcement of Mark Collett’s candidature in the Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough seat was greeted with a mixture incredulity and amusement on the part of fascists and anti-fascists everywhere this week, nobody being quite able to believe that Nick Griffin had sent in a Nazi Boy to do an Aryan hero’s job.

Allowing Collett to stand anywhere, given the amount of self-generated dirt he has accumulated over the years, seems at best foolhardy and at worst somebody’s idea of sick joke. If ever there was a sitting duck candidate with a very large bull’s eye painted on his backside, Collett is assuredly that candidate

Prone to giving barely comprehensible speeches that cause BNP meetings to turn into mass sleepathons, Collett is so widely disliked on the far right we’ve been hearing persistent rumours that his own shadow is seeking a legal separation.

The Nazi Boy, with Sheffield connections so tenuous even the most powerful electron microscope would have difficulty picking them out, declaims that “the BNP is the only viable option in Brightside and Hillsborough”, where Collett will attempt to unseat cow dodging roué David Blunkett – an event so unlikely that as yet undiscovered tribes in the Amazon jungle have inadvertently wiped themselves out as they died splitting their sides on hearing the news.

To every freethinker, radical, true revolutionary and anarchist across Britain who wants to make a serious change then we ask you to fight the oncoming election campaign tooth and nail on two fronts – Firstly attacking, subverting, destroying any propaganda put out by all political parties as well as hassling any politicians on the streets etc, Secondly filling the void with anarchist ideas – from free local sheets, public meetings, rallies or community projects – putting into action our ideas on mutual aid and solidarity. The time for real radical change is NOW and as Anarchists we need to be the driving force of the revolutionary current. The opening victory against the Cameron posters shows us how small actions across the country can have a massive impact which were widely received with support from the public and a clear example of the current feelings of the time. But this is only the beginning and we must take it further.

We want Anarchy not Anarchism...

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