Up to eight hundred racists of the English Defence League paraded through the small Buckinghamshire town of Aylesbury this International Workers Day with only a whimper of opposition.
No more than one hundred mainly local anti-racists congregated some two hours before the EDL’s assembly time on the outskirts of the town centre to “show their opposition” to the gathering thugs. They were then ‘escorted to safety’ by the police well before the EDL event took place. It was a sad spectacle, all the more so because the combined forces of what passes for mainstream anti-fascism and anti-racism had different priorities this May Day. (see jwarren.co.uk/photos/protest/edl-aylesbury/ for pictures)
What were these priorities? For sure, some Socialist Workers Party/Unite Against Fascism activists will have been on the streets, delivering leaflets with the politically diminutive “Don’t Vote Nazi” headline, but many others activists headed to Barnsley today for a ‘Love Music, Hate Racism’ festival.
Their priorities and ours
That the English Defence League chose 1 May for one of their racist provocations is no surprise. Like us they know that International Workers Day is a busy day for the left, with demonstrations and meetings planned well in advance. It’s a day of divided political priorities. This May Day was due to be all the more problematic for the left because of the close proximity of the general election. They are not stupid; they chose a ‘good day’ for a protest.
However, the SWP’s political decision to go ahead with an anti-racist music festival on the same day that a violent gang of racist thugs were on the march is nothing short of a scandal. In the normal course of events, the political priorities of socialist organisations are a matter of that organisation's politics. You can’t be everywhere and you have to make a choice about where you send your forces, what you put effort into organising etc… But to choose a knees-up party in the name of anti-racism above actually driving racists from the streets is a different matter. Leaving one hundred mainly inexperienced local activists to defend themselves against well practised drunken hooligans whilst your cadre enjoy the nasal tones of UB40 (remember them?) is pure political bankruptcy.
To make matters worse for the SWP/UAF, not only did they abandon Aylesbury to the racists, but Stoke to the fascists. Just six days before an election in one of the BNP’s two main target areas, the SWP/UAF organised coaches from Stoke to the afore-mentioned party! Rather than ramping up the campaign in the final precious days of campaigning, mainstream anti-fascism put its efforts into filling coaches and displacing the foot-soldiers of our movement one hundred miles north from the streets of Stoke.
“First as tragedy, then as farce”: it’s just not funny any more
This is not the first time the SWP has chosen music festivals above confronting the fascists and racists. In October 1978, Tony Cliff - a founding leader of the SWP – wrote in Socialist Worker admitting they had made a “blunder” by not diverting forces away from a ‘Carnival’ in Brixton to defend Brick Lane from the National Front. He pledged that the SWP would act differently in future.
Unfortunately for Cliff, his almost-apology for the SWP’s idiocy on 24th September 1978 looked hollow given that on 1st May that same year the SWP had done exactly the same thing. Writing in response to Cliff in Workers’ Action (a predecessor to Solidarity) at the time, we stated that: “You don't mention the fact [in your article] that 'blundering' in relation to Nazi marches is becoming something of a tradition with the SWP lately” [‘An open letter to Tony Cliff’, Workers’ Action, Oct. 1978].
It’s a rotten tradition that’s lasted more than thirty years. Enough is enough.
Excuses, excuses
If challenged about this latest decision to abandon ground to racists and fascists, you are likely to be told that the SWP was doing good work that day. “We’re still on the side of the angels!” How so? “Because we’re connecting with young people, preparing the ground for the future, creating networks and forging alliances for the long fight against the Nazis … and don’t forget, Barnsley’s a BNP target too.”
“Connecting with young people”? Not when the headline act at your anti-racist jamboree is UB40. “Preparing ground…”? Maybe, but at the expense of effective action now. “Forging alliances”? With whom? On what basis? To do what? The SWP’s record on such alliances is not a pretty picture.
This is not all that’s wrong with the SWP’s approach. It is almost certainly true that big musical events and music per se can have an influence on wide layers of people. If we’re going to build a big, vibrant movement – not just against racism and fascism but more generally – culture will play a useful role. This is beyond question. What is questionable is how far up the pecking order such efforts should be.
Where were the unions?
The Barnsley event was sponsored by both the National Union of Teachers and PCS, the civil servants union. At the NUT conference this year an amendment was passed to a priority motion on the current situation committing the union to more effective action in places like Stoke. The amendment was moved by active anti-fascists from Stoke and was passed unanimously by conference. But rather than mobilise members to places like Stoke and Aylesbury, the NUT handed over a pile of cash to the SWP/UAF for their ‘Love Music, Hate Racism’ party.
Let’s unravel this picture: the SWP talk about ‘connecting with people’ and ‘building alliances’ and to do this more effectively, they take money from the unions. Notice any problems here? No? Well let’s spell it out: the trade unions are class organisations par excellence; they organise millions of workers; they have organisational structures spread across the country – even at the low ebb of working class activity we now experience; all unions have policies opposing groups like the EDL and BNP; all unions have policies on wider social issues that undercut race hate and which, if they were effectively campaigned on, would seriously transform the political landscape and if even a tiny fraction of the trade union movement had been mobilised to Aylesbury, we could have filled the town and crushed the racists.
The SWP/UAF are trying to solve the wrong problem. Not only that, but even if they wanted to relate seriously to anti-fascist workers and their unions the biggest of them would slam the door in their faces.
SWP screams “Libel”
“During the last 24 hours I [Andy Newman] have had correspondence from Lee Billingham of Love Music Hate Racism (widely considered to be a front for the Socialist Workers Party) threatening me with libel proceedings” [www.socialistunity.com, 30/04/10].
What prompted this threat? ‘Socialist Unity’ is a widely-read blog administered by one-time SWP member Andy Newman. Newman, whilst being some kind of socialist, has politics wildly different in many respects from that of both the SWP and Workers’ Liberty. His blog is useful for one reason only: the coverage of comings-and-goings, intrigue and not-so-secret secrets from the SWP. No love is lost between them, but this is no basis for a libel threat.
What appears to have happened is that some unknown individual, who uses the name ‘Unison Rep’, claimed something along the lines that “most of the larger unions question the value of funding LMHR”. This is not the first time the SWP have reacted badly to questions about the union-sponsored finances of their front organisations. At the 2009 demonstration against the BNP’s ‘Red, White and Blue’ festival, Workers’ Liberty circulated a leaflet which amongst other things called for a labour movement investigation into UAF/LMHR finances. One of our members was threatened directly by a SWP full-timer who warned him to “expect a letter from our solicitors”. Of course, no such letter arrived.
We think that the unions should spend their members’ money on more effective anti-racist and anti-fascist work than that offered by the SWP. If, as ‘Unison Rep’ claims, “questions” are being raised in the unions then working class activists should campaign for a labour movement enquiry into the politics and finances of these front groups. Such moves would be one step in the direction of accountable, democratic, working class activity against the EDL and BNP.
Back in Aylesbury
The lack of SWP/UAF mobilisation was not the only problem with the Aylesbury protest. The Socialist Party, which is now arguably as visible if not as ‘big’ as the SWP, has a branch in the town. Despite the involvement of SP members in efforts to build a different sort of anti-fascism elsewhere, SP members in the town seemed to accepted a protest along the usual SWP/UAF lines.
Rather than march and congregate at the same time as the EDL, there was an isolated and ‘peaceful’ protest. In fact, ‘peaceful’ became the mantra of the day. Whether used in juxtaposition to the thuggery of the EDL or coupled – quite bizarrely – with anecdotes about the battle at Cable Street, the SWP and SP were suing for ‘peace’. This meant keeping well away from the EDL which meant ceding absolute control of the town to racists.
Concerns about safety are legitimate concerns and the major failure exposed on the day remains the refusal of the UAF to nationally mobilise against and take on the EDL. But to say in advance that there should be no attempt to even consider preventing the EDL intimidating and terrorising anti-racists and minorities throughout the town centre; not to demand of the UAF that they direct coaches planned for Barnsley to come to Aylesbury: such actions cede too much ground to the UAF's failure to recognise the extent of the EDL threat and dealing with it appropriately.
Contrast the impulses of the kitsch-left to those of the fifty-or-so Muslim youths who arrived just as the ‘protest’ was winding up. Defying a massive local media campaign, calls from the police, local authority and Mosque leaders to stay away this group was determined to stand their ground in the centre of town. They probably came to the protest hoping to find people with similar determination. They were to be disappointed.
Only a handful, perhaps five, of the mainly white anti-racists (none of them SP or SWP members, three of them Workers’ Liberty members) joined the group on their way into town. They were met half way to their target by a man sporting a badge which read “Community Liaison Officer”. He was flanked by two police officers. He met the group with the following advice: “Do not under any circumstances go into town. If you do, you’re by yourselves. We will disown you. You will not do this in my name or the name of my community.” His emphatic demand was agreed to.
Moments later, two coaches and two mini-busses carrying EDL supporters careered past: cans, glass bottles, insults and threats were thrown from the vehicles. Those gathered made their way to a local mosque. Meanwhile, the white anti-racists – including members of the SWP who have recently attempted to smear Workers’ Liberty with the accusations of Islamophobia and racism [!] – were waiting for the police to escort them home.
The need for working class anti-racism and anti-fascism
The events in Aylesbury could have been a lot worse for both the gathered anti-racists and anti-fascists and for the local population. They were, however, just another chapter in the dreary, half-thought-out history of contemporary mainstream anti-fascism.
Rather than repeat these failures, rather than continuing to allow the EDL and BNP to grow, rather than abstaining from the real political battles around mobilising the labour movement on its own terms and with its own ideas, we need to organise differently.
We need an organisation with working class politics, an organisation that builds in working class communities and in working class organisations, a movement that challenges the racists and fascists politically and with overwhelming numbers.
Such a campaign would have had thousands on the streets of Aylesbury, Stoke and Barking on International Workers Day. Such a campaign would have mobilised nationally to drive the EDL out of town, it would have joined up with and defended the local community – it would not have left anti-racist Muslims running to the mosque or cowering in front of conservative “community leaders”.
The beginnings – as yet modest – of such a campaign are in movement after the founding of a national working class network against racism and fascism.
