This piece is from UK anarcho-syndicalist organization Solidarity Federation.  While it deals with the neo-fascist British National Party, the lessons of how to deal with fascism is universal.  Here in Canada, bonehead neo-nazis have yearly tried to organize "white pride" marches in Calgary, Alberta.  And the people of Calgary have came out and proclaimed "¡No pasarán!"- They Shall Not Pass!

Building a direct acition union is building an anti-fascist union.  There can be no room for racism, sexism, homophobia and hate in our society, in our communities and in our workplaces.    Build the IWW - Build links with members of threatened communities - No Platform for Fascism!!


No Platform for Fascism

The British National Party is a fascist party and must be treated as such. Don’t be fooled by their growing electoral success. Don’t think that because “ordinary” people, and even non-racists, are voting for them and joining them that the party has somehow changed. Elected positions and an influx of “moderate” members will not transform the party.

In the BNP, power and policy flow from the top down and the party is run by veteran fascists who won’t deviate from their long held agenda. Whatever they say in public, these people are committed to creating an authoritarian regime, to severe limits on individual and collective freedom in every sphere of life, to racial segregation and eventual removal of non-white people. On top of this, the BNP has a stated commitment to maintaining capitalism and free enterprise, contradicting its claims to be an “alternative”, radical or even revolutionary party.
electoral politics

Yet the BNP will push its electoral strategy to the limit, seeking to capitalise on any and every source of voters’ fear and discontent. These range from local community concerns to disgust over MPs’ expenses, from fears about the economic crisis to concerns over immigration, radical Islam and terrorism. The BNP don’t care what the issue is, or whether people’s fears are justified; they just tailor the message in an attempt to win people over. This is what fascists have always done. They will use the electoral system, democratic “freedoms” and the notion of freedom of speech to put across their poisonous message, For as long as they can, they’ll portraying themselves as a democratic party, acting within the law and seeking to gain power by legal means. Ultimately, their aim is to silence all opposition.
strategy of tension

Yet BNP leaders know that there are limits to their electoral support, even in cases like the recent Euro poll, where the voting system, low turnout, economic uncertainty and popular anger at the “political class” all played into their hands. They know that there will always be a majority opposing them.

How then, can they get around this? In the past, fascists have played the parliamentary game while also exacerbating tensions in society which they hoped would drive people into their camp. In Italy, in the 1920s and as recently as the 1980s, fascists sought to use class conflict, the strength of the left and the perceived threat of revolution to persuade powerful sectors of society, inside and outside of government and industry, to opt for an authoritarian “solution”. In the ’20s this “strategy of tension” worked, with Mussolini’s minority fascist party attacking the left and being hoisted to power by its influential conservative friends. In the ’80s it failed, but only at the cost of many lives, as fascist gangs and their allies in the state structure engaged in armed actions and bombings.

In Britain today, the organised working class has taken a battering and, despite some encouraging signs lately, cannot be painted as being about to seize control. How-ever, this won’t stop the BNP denouncing opposition to it as “red mobs” in an attempt to whip up fears of political violence on the streets. Two days after his election, BNP leader, Nick Griffin, was calling on police to “get a grip” on anti-fascist protestors – the first step in the authoritarian solution he advocates for all Britain’s ills. But the BNP’s main arena will be race and immigration. It will be here that they try to whip up fears of impending social conflict, of the destruction of “traditional” British values and institutions and of the “indigenous” population becoming a persecuted minority in its own country. Here, the BNP will be helped not just by the undercurrent of racism still present in British society, but by those sections of the media and the political elite which feed it on a daily basis with scare stories about everything from asylum seekers, immigrants and Islamists to the EU. Though these media outlets do not support the BNP, their expressions of nationalism and xenophobia inevitably play into the party’s hands.

But for fascists, even this fetid mix of fear and paranoia is not enough. They are already seeking to spice it up with racial violence on a frightening scale. The BNP argument will be helped enormously if they can point to actual conflict between ethnic groups, and moves are already afoot to provoke this. While the BNP itself will seek to retain its democratic and legalistic image, other far right groups, some linked to the party, some not, are already taking to the streets trying to ignite violence. The BNP will deny any ties with them, but will seize upon any resulting clashes to argue that multiculturalism doesn’t work, that black and Asian youth are attacking whites, and that the “indigenous” population can no longer tolerate this state of affairs.

On May 24th, groups calling themselves “March for England” and “United People of Luton” supported a protest in the Bedfordshire town over an earlier Muslim demo against troops returning from Afghanistan. Though some of the organisers denied this was a racist march, around 400 people, some masked, and including known fascists, assembled and roamed the streets waving British and English flags. Asian-owned shops and cars were attacked and police intevened to prevent the mob descending on the Bury Park area, a centre of the town’s Asian community. “March for England” have said they are planning future events.
new phase of conflict

This was barely reported by a mainstream media still playing down the BNP’s potential at the Euro elections, but it is a portent of what is to come and a clarion call to anti-fascists. We are entering a new phase of conflict with the far right and we must be absolutely clear about what we are doing and why. Fascism is about far more than racism, and a reinvigorated far right will not just focus on its perceived racial enemies. Its activists are already targeting radical bookshops, social centres and those on the left. Should the economic crisis deepen, especially in conjunction with the collapse of parliamentary “legitimacy” in the eyes of many and increased racial tension, elements of the state, business and conservatism will begin to contemplate supporting the BNP. By any assessment, this scenario is still far down the road, and circumstances may never bring it into being. But we can ensure that this cannot happen by attacking the BNP and its ilk now, by preventing them from organising and developing their strength, and thereby eliminating them as a potential or actual ally of other anti-working-class forces in society.

Defeating fascism is an integral part of building a revolutionary movement. It increases our combativeness, forces us to communicate our ideas to ever wider circles of potential sympathisers and exposes as false the liberal arguments that fascists have a right to “free speech”, that parliamentary democracy is a defence against the far right, and that relying on the forces of the state is the best way to protect working people from oppression and violence. We must close down fascism as a first step to ridding our class of all of the parasites currently exploiting us and living off our backs.
what is to be done?

Build SF – we have a great tradition of anti-fascism and must recruit on the basis of that and of our work today. We are the revolutionary alternative.

Support wider militant anti-fascist campaigns – that means Antifa (www.antifa.org.uk/) which already has many anarchist adherents. It’s the only national anti-fascist organisation with a policy of “no platform” for fascism, of not allowing the BNP to organise, speak or campaign without physical opposition. If there are like minded people in your area, form an anti-fascist group and get affiliated to Antifa.

New links with those threatened by fascism – the BNP seeks to “divide and rule”, preferring to defeat us piecemeal than to take on a united, militant anti-fascist movement. Anyone who agrees with “no platform”, whether part of organised anti-fascism before or not, now needs to organise around it. A primary responsibility for anti-fascists is to make direct links with communities which fascists will target. This does not mean going to “community leaders” (unless they genuinely back a no platform approach), but making efforts to draw in disaffected and angry members of those communities which militant anti-fascism has often previously struggled to connect with. We can much more quickly raise the numbers we need to swamp fascism by dramatically and imaginatively broadening our networks of supporters. New times call for new tactics and we must look outwards and break down barriers between people willing to confront the BNP.

No platform for fascists – don’t be conned by liberal notions of free speech or of appearing “anti-democratic” by preventing the BNP from organising or speaking. No measure of electoral success can be allowed to legitimise fascism. Organise direct action against all fascist manifestations – stalls, leafleting, meetings, venues, marches. We have made a good start with this. Griffin and Andrew Brons were forced from public view outside Westminster the day after the election. In Manchester the next day, they were boxed into a run down pub owned by a BNP supporter, only fending off protestors with the aid of the police. These protests were organised mainly by Unite Against Fascism, linked to the SWP and reformist trade unions. It has in the past sought to prevent direct action so it remains to be seen whether the BNP’s electoral success will prompt it to take “no platform” more literally.


Keep up the pressure – Griffin says of anti-fascists that “in the end they will get bored”. He clearly intends to put across the party’s message in Britain, rather than jet off to Brussels and fiddle expenses. This will be a crucial contest of will with a BNP desperately trying to be an accepted and permanent feature of the political landscape, to “normalise” and “decontaminate” itself in order to rise up the greasy political pole. Anti-fascists must wreck this strategy at all costs.

Around the world, the powers-that-be are telling us that we are the ones who are to 'take the hit' for the crisis they created.   The fight for higher wages by faculty members is the same fight for lower fees and tuition freezes by students.  Rather then strangle more and more profit out of the workers of the Knowledge Factory, it's time to stand by our union and say "ENOUGH!"  Teachers and students are saying it in Madison, it's time to do it here in Winnipeg, home of Canada's labour movement and the Winnipeg General Strike.

Tommorow will be student solidarity pickets with the UWFA.  Here's the information:

Students Supporting the UWFA on Strike

Time	Thursday, March 10 · 8:00am - 12:30pm
Location	Picket Lines, The University of Winnipeg
More Info	**If a strike ensues tomorrow morning, ALL student supporters who wish to publicly demonstrate our support with UWFA should meet at 8 am in front of Wesley Hall (Portage Avenue) and join the picket lines alongside our professors. Remember, we have to find a faculty member in an ORANGE VEST and let them know that we are picketing with them. **In the event of a strike (the deadline remains firm for Thursday, March 10th at 12:01 a...m), students of the University of Winnipeg who choose to participate, plan to join the picket lines alongside our professors in order to support them and stand in solidarity with them. Students and workers unite! ****If students wish to participate in picketing, they must report to a picket captain (faculty member wearing an orange vest) on any one of the designated picket lines/locations. The sites include Ellice Avenue, Wesley Hall (in front of the UW), Buhler Centre (Portage and Memorial) and the new science/environment building near the residences. The goal of the strike is to express the right to freedom of expression and association while educating the public about UWinnipeg's labour issues. Anyone who supports the UWFA and who is willing to obey laws/rules on picketing is welcome! The goal is to communicate the inequities that U of W employees experience both to the public and to the employer (administration). Judging by the amount of students who participated in Monday's (March 7th) UWFA Solidarity March with faculty members and professors at the University of Winnipeg, it appears that many students support UWFA in their fight for equal wages (to professors with similar education levels across the province of Manitoba and across Canada) and fair treatment in the workplace. In this time of tension between the University of Winnipeg administration and members of UWFA, I believe it is important for students to show their support for the decision to take strike action. It is important that students and workers maintain unity amongst one another. We must take a stand by supporting our professors on the picket line (if you choose to do so, or by simply standing in solidarity and expressing support for the faculty) as we believe that our professors deserve equal treatment! They do not deserve to be one of the lowest paid faculties in Canada. That is an injustice and we will not support such an injustice. A strong student presence on the picket lines is critical to shaping public opinions about the strike. Students who choose to do so, will be demonstrating our disapproval of the University of Winnipeg’s poor treatment of our valued educators by standing alongside them on the picket lines. We will stand united with our professors as we support quality of education for all Canadians and the basic principles of fairness for all workers. As students and supporters of UWFA, let’s make a statement and demonstrate our support for faculty members on strike! Here are the rules of picketing: http://strike.uwfa.ca/storage/Picket%20Captain%20ManualPickets.pdf Supporters are encouraged to join the picket line in support of UWFA but they must follow all rules and the direction of the picket captains at all times. Picketing tentative schedule: http://strike.uwfa.ca/storage/march8picketschedule.pdf Winnipeg Police Labour Relations Brochure: http://strike.uwfa.ca/storage/PolicePamphletLaboutRelations.pdf UWFA Strike Page: http://strike.uwfa.ca/picketing/ UWSA Strike Information: http://theuwsa.ca/about/uwnegotiations UWFA Labour Talks: http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/index/uwfa-labour-talks

As a strike looms by the University of Winnipeg Faculty Association at the University of Winnipeg, the Winnipeg IWW makes the

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Any University of Winnipeg Faculty on strike, any students at the university, our blog is an open forum for you! Share your experiences on the picket line, the morale, share the fight with the world: email winnipegiww@iww.org and have your voice heard.

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rumbles of strikes are coming from the bastions of higher education.  The following piece was originally featured in the Winnipeg Wobbly Newsletter.  


As always when ever the class struggle flairs up, the here at the Winnipeg IWW make the Wobbly Offer:  For all workers at the university of Winnipeg, if you need a uncensored voice, we have space to you!  Gripes about management, conditions, news  Email us at winnipegiww@iww.org

The Coming Insurrection at the University of Manitoba
By X359910

 It is likely that this fall will see a wave of strikes and/or lockouts at the University of Manitoba. Contracts for all the major unions on campus (Canadian Auto Workers local 3007, CUPE 3909, the Association of Employees Supporting Education Services, and the University of Manitoba Faculty Association) expire within only a couple months.

While poor working conditions are often the norm at the University, with CAW 3007 in particular having to go on strike at nearly every contract negotiation, labour relations on campus have been even worse than usual as of late. As an indication to just how bad they have gotten, the security staff affiliated with AESES-Security Services were locked out after rejecting a pro-posed contract in August. Already under-staffed for campus the size of the Univer-sity of Manitoba, the university administra-tion was trying to reduce staffing levels even further – despite safety concerns such as a stabbing last year. As AESES has not been on strike since the 1970s, the univer-sity administration called in scabs, and the University was able to force concessions onto AESES-Security, this is an indication that we‘re in for an offensive by the univer-sity administration at a level unseen in a long time.

Another major irritant in terms of labour relations at the University of Manitoba is the ROSE/OARS project, meant to increase ―efficiency‖ in university operations. Of course, we all know what administration means by ―efficiency‖ – reducing staffing, reducing services, and contracting out to private corporations which are more expen-sive than keeping staff on hand. ROSE/OARS must be seen for what it is: an em-ployer offensive and an attempt by admini-stration to force cutbacks onto students and workers.

In short, the university is affected not just by the neoliberal agenda of the outside world which has resulted in governments under-funding post-secondary education for dec-ades, but also internal ideologies of neoliberalism in miniature which permeate the University administration. We can see these ideas at play in various attacks on University workers, as well as privatization of university services such as the contracting out of education for international students to Navitas, a large multinational corporation, under the guise of the International College of Manitoba a few years ago. If the univer-sity administration were simply trying to do their best with limited funds, they wouldn‘t be doing things such as contracting out ser-vices which unionized, full time staff can do more efficiently.

A battle is brewing at the university. On one side, we have the unions on campus, allied with UMSU. How effective they are in defending their membership will in large part come down to how united they are. As there is very little to speak of in terms of politicization and social move-ments on the U of M campus, this will also be a test for UMSU of how well the leadership will able to overcome the various forces that push the student un-ion bureaucracies towards fuzzy, inof-fensive institutional politics and how well they will be able to mobilize their mem-bership in support of striking workers. If no one blinks, there is a good chance that a broad student-labour alliance can create some meaningful resistance to the neoliberal agenda of the admini-stration and possibly avert a long, paralyzing strike.

On the other side, we have the Univer-sity administration, led by David Bar-nard. Barnard is generally considered to be an administration hatchet-man, given his implementation of ROSE/OARS not too long after being appointed. It is beyond doubt that the university administration would love to ―discipline labour at the university, which will likely involve an aggressive position during collective bargaining and the hiring of scab labour, used during the AESES security strike this year and the CAW strike in 2007.

The University administration will undoubtedly try to play students and workers against each other, by blaming workers salaries for tuition increases and employer offensives on tuition not being high enough. While clearly workers and bosses have nothing in common, it is just as important for students not to identify with the administration. They aren‘t some neu-tral body trying to make the best decisions they can to increase the quality of education, they see us as revenue generating units – numbers on a balance sheet, which the university often tries to squeeze more cash out of (such as their attempts to increase tuition in 13 faculties this summer, of which 11 were defeated). Fortunately, unlike the Manitoba Federation of Labour, the cam-pus locals are more or less supportive of the student unions positions on tuition.

At the end of the day, the battle will come down to one of unity and mobilizations. If a student-labour alliance is able to hold together and mobilize resistance, we have a shot at blocking the egregious attacks on University workers. But if the admini-stration is successful at driving a wedge between students and workers, or if we fail to mobilize resistance to neoliberal agendas, both within the University and in broader society, we will both be in for a massive defeat.

X359910 is a student at the University of Manitoba