There are already a lot of reports of what happened in Dover on Saturday knocking about, so we’ll keep ours short and sweet, and focus on the analysis. What does Dover mean for the Antifascist Movement in this country?
The day started with a 150-strong bloc of locals and AFN gathering in Pencester Gardens, forming up behind a large “Open the Borders” banner, and marching to occupy the fascists’ RV point at the Castle Inn.
The AFN bloc forming up.
The relentless diet of anti-migrant hysteria served by the mainstream press for the past few months has been staggering, even by their standards. The Daily Express in particular outdid itself, promising a “crusade” against Bulgarian and Romanian immigration.
But as a study in the Guardian showed, there’s rarely much of a correlation between the headlines and the reality. The study showed that headlines about migrants have increase out of all proportion to the actual levels of immigration, which have tended to rise only slowly, and with the occasional dip.
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This is the account of the North East Anti Fascists 2013
We live in the area of the UK where the fascists are at their strongest, and so our task is far harder than other areas, especially given wider political issues which make progressive left wing politics in the North East even harder ie, bureaucratic and institutionalised labour movements and authoritarian left politics.
Nationally, the year started off very badly for Tommy Robinson who was sent down for using a false passport to get into the USA – Tommy the Illegal Immigrant! Tommy Robinson later abandoned the failing EDL having been shocked to discover they’re a bunch of racist nazis – who’d have thought it!?
by Phil Dickens
re-blogged from Libcom // original here
Some on the liberal end of the anti-fascist movement have argued that “no platform” is dead and free speech the best antidote to the far-right. This argument rears its head time and time again, but it bears shooting down every time.
Today, a Robert Sharp posted a short blog on Liberal Conspiracy to argue against no platform. It is, he argues, “counter-productive” because when fascists have a platform “they expose themselves as incoherent and small-minded, and it gives the rest of us a chance to argue against them.” It’s actually a fairly standard liberal argument.
by Liz Fekete
re-blogged from The Institute of Race Relations // original with footnotes here
Anti-extremism frameworks, popular in policy and academic circles, are masking the multi-dimensional and pan-European nature of contemporary fascism and the role of the state.
Not since the early 1990s, and the pogroms at Hoyerswerda and Rostock have Europe’s far-right movements posed such a tangible threat to the safety of racial and religious minorities. In truth, levels of violence and state responses are far more worrying today than in the 1990s when hostels housing asylum seekers and guest workers were firebombed. There are a number of reasons why the central issues associated with far-right violence and racism are not being fully and publicly discussed.
all ex-extremists together apparently
[reblogged from whileromeburnsjournal.wordpress.com]
Well, it’s been an interesting couple of days’ news and my only regret in saying anything about it is that I will in some small way be adding to the vast amount of publicity that Yaxley-Lennon has gained for himself in one day by his canny shift sideways in the Islamophobic marketplace. He’s the topic of conversation and has made all opinion gravitate around himself, so that love him or hate him, we’re all talking about him.
Anti-fascists should not be automatically celebrating Yaxley’s move. The real thing to celebrate in this is not anything to do with Yaxley-Lennon’s phoney personal journey but the confusion and chaos generated in the ranks of the far-right by the hand-grenade he has thrown into their midst. In the short term, we’re going to see a lot of confused and demoralised racists arguing with each other, and that’s good news for everyone else. Eventually a general re-alignment of the far-right seems likely – what the end result of that will be is hard to say now. The most likely outcome is that either under the EDL name or another we will see the EDL free to become more openly racist and fascist, which is the pattern we have seen with the splinter groups – Infidels, Casuals and EVF. Certainly the EDL isn’t going to have to pretend so hard not to be racist anymore as apparently even their erstwhile leader found it easier to leave than to expel the racists.
by South London Anti-Fascists // taken from Occupied Times
After the local elections on the 2nd May 2013, there was a certain level of satisfaction amongst some anti-fascists that the British fascist threat was in the process of being comprehensively defeated. Despite five years of national economic turmoil, the British National Party (BNP), riddled with splits and infighting, faced electoral oblivion. The strategic focus of the two most recognised anti-fascist organisations, Unite Against Fascism (UAF) and Hope Not Hate, appeared effective, with the number of elected BNP councillors falling from its peak of 57 in 2009 to its current two. Their leader, Nick Griffin, MEP for the North West, is left to defend the BNP’s sole European Parliamentary seat in 2014. Andrew Brons, a former BNP and National Front activist, is also believed to be attempting to defend his European seat in Yorkshire and the Humber with the British Democratic Party, an organisation he set up last year. In November 2012, the English Defence League at Westminster were unable to mobilise 100 people for their national march and their “March for England” splinter group was chased off the streets of Brighton.The far-right seemed increasingly irrelevant. Then on 22nd May 2013, Lee Rigby was brutally murdered and everything changed.
