Workers' Liberty

The 16 August demonstration against the BNP’s “Red, White and Blue" Festival was an important and politically instructive event. Important because it marked a departure from what has passed for anti-fascism over the last ten years. Instructive because it revealed the severe limitations and sectarian lunacy of the Socialist Workers Party and their “Unite Against Fascism” front group.

Anti-fascists inside the labour movement and elsewhere need to take a good look at what happened in the months preceding the demonstration and on the day itself. We should examine the work done by local campaigners – Notts Stop the BNP and their supporters – and consider how this sort of work can be replicated elsewhere.

Local campaigners spent months mobilising for the demonstration. Notts Stop the BNP called a conference in January, sponsored by local and regional trade unions, that attracted over 100 delegates. Along with setting policy for a local campaign — most importantly, founding the campaign along working-class political lines — the conference issued a call for protests against the RWB. From this point onwards, local anti-fascists distributed thousands upon thousands of leaflets, won support from local and national trade unions, developed a network of supporters and local campaign groups in Nottingham, Derby and the Amber Valley area. Notts Stop the BNP supporters attended the UAF national conference and the national demonstration in response to the electoral successes of the BNP. Throughout this period, SWP members in Nottingham and the national officers of UAF — most of them leading SWPers — either abstained from or attempted to disrupt the organising efforts.

Late in the day, and only after Notts Stop the BNP activists asked PCS General Secretary Mark Serwotka to announce the demo from the platform of the national rally, did UAF come on board. But how exactly did this “coming on board” manifest itself? Did they reply to the emails and messages that had trickled into their national office over the last eight months? Did they ask local SWP members to get involved in planning meetings and to throw their organisational weight behind local initiatives? Did they do everything in their power to extend and develop the trade union support already won by the campaign? Nothing of the sort.

Rather than do any of this the SWP/UAF dashed out a glossy leaflet hijacking the existing sponsors and claiming the demonstration for themselves. Without consulting Notts Stop the BNP they announced a demonstration and rally at a totally different time and began negotiations with the police – presenting themselves, of course, as the ‘official organisers’ of the demonstration.

Worse was to follow. So entrenched is the SWP’s sectarianism and control-freakery that on occasion, their antics have a pantomime quality. Take, for example, the spectacle of UAF/SWP stewards herding their supporters — most of them innocent and honest anti-fascists — into a car park some one hundred metres away from the Notts Stop the BNP rally. Despite repeated appeals from the platform for them to join the rally, stewards apparently told the gathered protesters that “we don’t know who these people are, we don’t know if it’s safe”! When the stewards finally worked out that all the people holding “Notts Stop the BNP” and “Jobs and Homes not Racism” placards were fellow anti-fascists, they joined the rally.

Later, when the UAF truck and speaker system failed to arrive, Weyman Bennett from UAF asked if he could address the Notts Stop the BNP rally. The organisers immediately agreed — why would they refuse? Weyman spoke for some minutes about the racist BNP and the importance of demonstrations. When the next speaker was getting underway, the UAF contingent — who had positioned themselves near the police-designated “exit” to the rally site — suddenly moved off. One hundred or so demonstrators carrying UAF banners and placards moved off, leaving those listening to rally behind. UAF attempted to split the demonstration!

When members of Amber Valley Stop the BNP — activists who actually live in the local towns and villages — caught up and marched at the front of the demonstration they were told by UAF stewards to “go away, we want the UAF banner at the front for press purposes”!

Why did UAF act in this way? The whole demonstration was heavily policed and therefore very restricted. UAF had an agreement with the police that a delegation of thirty protesters could march to the gate of the RWB festival itself. This small contingent would be the focus of media attention. Obviously, UAF wanted this delegation to be dominated by their banners and placards. For them, a photograph in a newspaper is more important than actually building an anti-fascist campaign on the ground or even attempting to confront the BNP.

Anti-fascists should draw conclusions from the behaviour on the day. Specifically, it should now be clear that UAF is not serious about building a united, fighting movement against fascism. For all of UAF’s much vaunted national trade union “support” (funding), they are incapable of mobilising the labour movement. For all the talk of “Smash the BNP”, they are unwilling to organise mass mobilisations against fascist activity. Despite having “Unite” in their name, they are unwilling to unite with campaigns and individuals not dominated by their own brand of politics.

Our class needs a democratic, fighting campaign against the BNP. One that prioritises building local groups in the communities targeted by fascists, one that emphasises the need to build working class politics and organisation, one that sees the task of disrupting fascist organising efforts as key to driving the BNP out. UAF is far from being such a campaign.