This is England
Morning Comrades.
Where to fucking start, right? For those not attuned to the realities on English streets over the last few days, England has been engulfed by racist riots over the past few days, in the wake of the killings of three young girls in Southport on Monday.
Riots in cities including Liverpool, Leeds and Belfast descended into chaos over the weekend, with far-right thugs clashing with riot police and multiple incidents of ethnic minorities attacked on the streets. False claims had spread online that the Southport suspect, later identified as 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana from Lancashire, was a Muslim asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK by boat.
Sparked by Islamophobic and racist sentiments, rioters have pelted bricks, chairs and bottles, mosques have been attacked, shops looted and numerous community facilities across the country, including a library and Citizens Advice Bureau building, have been torched in the violence.
I am absolutely not impartial to any of this. Everyone that knows me through Black Lodges, the work here and those that have been part of the non-internet work since the mid 90s know of my history and involvement. Growing up poor in England, yet luckily not brainwashed by the BNP and NF, having been part of many different Antifascist movements was always a logical response of mine. I never felt there to be an alternative other than continuing my grandfathers worked that started on a beach in Normandy in 1944. Hence this choice of the picture and theme of today’s dispatch.
I specifically say England rather than Britain because for one, this is a very specific reality to England that has imposed its bullshit not only on the entirety of the Island but the rest of the world also, and I never, as and Englishman, will and should speak for Scotland, Wales let alone Ireland.
With that, it is undeniable that England, similar to the entire Western European Continent, is a society built on Colonial Capitalist Racism. Racism is one of the most powerful tools of our Ruling Class and its Empire and yet, starting from the end of WW1, England has also been home to a highly efficient Anti-Racist / Fascist movement. There is heaps of history on it, much of it has been integral in my upbringing and socialization, for which I am thankful and I wanted to condense a few hard-earned lessons for everyone seeing that the violent arm of capitalism is once again back on our streets.
Fascist/Racists organized violence can and will only be beaten by organized counter violence.
Make no mistake about this in the slightest.
You cannot and will not debate these asshole into stopping what they’re doing. There is plenty of room to analyse the root cause of their behaviour, there is plenty of room to discuss means and methods to stop the root causes of their bullshit as well as there being plenty of room to debate what to do about it all, but let’s be utterly clear here:
If there is a mob of racists/fascist out on your streets the only way to get rid of them is by opposing them with bodies.
Secondly, the police is your enemy. Again, we all know this, but ACAB exists for this reason. The police will stop their mobs, frankly, they will protect them 99% of the time. Waste no time feigning shock and disappointment when the violent pawns of capital do not help you in fighting their own.
Thirdly, the media at large, paper, tv, radio etc.- are on the same side as the pigs. Waste no time getting angry about their pro-capitalist reporting, unfair use of words and so on. Again, they are your enemy. They exist to perpetuate the ruling classes hegemony. Sure, take names and remember, but don’t waste time being upset that the likes of the Guardian or the BBC will paint you as the enemy when fascists are out on the streets.
Lastly, for now, no existing political party here in Europe, let alone England, is on your side either. Yes, this includes the manyfold Communist parties here in Europe. Our history in combatting fascism in England has always been an extra-parliamentary one, and the Communist and Socialist parties across the European continent failed and utterly fucked up starting in Paris ‘68 and then in England starting in the early 70s. The key lesson from our past going into the future is alliances. Yes, I have ideological differences with Anarchists, Trotskyists and so on but at the end day, we agree on about 90% and for the time being, there is more of us, together, then them. From an article that I submitted back on 2006 on the history of the AFA in England:
Nationally, meanwhile, the original AFA had collapsed due to incompatible political differences. Local and Regional groups (like the Northern Network) however continued, and national call-outs still occurred using existing contacts. AFA was re- launched in London in 1989, and in 1992 a national meeting was held in London to sort out a new national structure. The re-launch of AFA was as a militant 'united front' - an alliance of different political tendencies - orientated towards the working class, to reclaim working class areas then claimed by fascists as their own. The class perspective was agreed because, first, fascists don't just play the race card - they address genuine fears of the white working class (unemployment, bad housing etc.) and their success was often based on disillusionment with so-called 'socialist' councils. This propaganda needed a class-based answer. Second, it wasn't enough to 'defend democracy' - if AFA didn't say the system needed to be smashed, that would leave fascism as the 'radical' alternative. Third, the aim of fascism is the utter destruction of working class power, and so only the working class have a stake in opposing it. AFA, it was agreed, wasn't interested in 'allies' that were part of the problem such as corrupt councillors. Links, it was agreed, would continue to be made with black and asian communities under attack, but AFA propaganda should be mainly aimed at the communities where fascists themselves aimed to recruit.
Organisationally, it was agreed that AFA would be a decentralised federation based on a regional structure - building from the existing regions of London AFA and the Northern Network. The only national structure was to be a national coordinating committee of two delegates per region, to meet as and when needed, with no powers to make policy (or certainly to impose policy - some minor national decisions did have to be made over these years, but these were non-controversial).
London AFA at that time was mostly run by the Marxist Red Action - in alliance with elements of the anarcho-syndicalist Direct Action Movement (DAM), and the Trotskyist Workers Power. There were also non-aligned independents - anarchists and other socialists - involved.
The Northern Network (originally the Northern Anti-Fascist Network) was a looser federation of Northern AFA groups - Bolton, Liverpool, Manchester , Leeds, South Yorks, Tyne and Wear, Preston , and others. Tyne and Wear were actually a Council-funded body set up before AFA. Of the rest, Manchester were run mainly by Red Action (probably the strongest Red Action branch outside of London); a few groups - like York - would probably be best described as "non-aligned" independents. The rest were mainly organised by anarchists - sometimes in the DAM, sometimes not. The DAM didn't officially prioritise anti-fascism - many or most of the DAM were trade union activists or shop stewards - though some anarchist groups definitely prioritised the anti-fascist fight more than others.
To cut a long, long story short:
Fuck these racist and fascist goons. As much as Racism and Fascism is part of English and subsequently, European / North American history, so is the opposition to it. The very multi-cultural opposition to it, in all its shapes and forms.
We have to refuse to return to our collective dark ages, reckon with our pasts, and get out on the streets to oppose this insanity. I know it is frightening and I know this is not for everyone, but let’s forget what is at stake and more importantly, that it takes 5 people in support for one person to actively fight these bastards. Get organized, meet with existing structures, show up, put in the work because the reality we want, requires work and we all owe that.
For the future we want.
We own the streets.
Yours, ragingly,
V.
P.S.:
This is the full article on the short history of Anti-Fascist Action from 1985-2001
This is a great playlist from the British Culture Archive from the predecessors of the AFA, Rock Against Racism / Anti-Nazi League:
And extremely important, this long but worthy of anyones time, an essay on the below:
Lastly, over the weekend I wrote on IG that I would provide sources and commentary on the with hunt against the Algerian Boxer Imane Khelif and found that someone had already done the work, so here is a link with sources on the racist & sexist bullshit going on over at the Olympics.