By Phil Hearse and Dave Packer AT THE NEXT general election the British National Party and the National Front will ut up more than candidates Isolated for more than a decade, the fascists are making a comeback During the Thatcher years, the right wing leadership of the Tory party squeezed the space for the authoritarian right wing. With Thatcher and Tebbit at the helm, bashing the unions, bashing the blacks and bashing foreigners was a central government preoccupation.
Ultra-nationalism, wrapped in the union jack, was paraded in the Malvinas war. All the reactionary forces in society rallied round Thatcher. poll tax changed all that. Grow. ng Tory unpopularity pushed Thatcher out. Under John Major, the right wing rhetoric has had to be toned down, if the Fortes are to have any chance in the general election.
But 12 years of Tory rule have led to big social changes which give the fascists new openings. A new social base for fascist ideas and movements is being created. Who are the people the BNP could win support from?
All the opinion the most consistently reactionary layer in society is the traditional petty bourgeoisieshopkeepers and owners small businesses of all kinds.
people have been hard hit during the recession which followed 'Lawson boom' of the mid-1980s.
During the boom years, personal consumption among the middle class rocketed. Tens of thousands of small businesses came into existence to meet the demand for personal services and consumer goods Lawson relaunched the NO credit; many of the small businesses borrowed heavily to get going and survive.
Now tens of thousands go bankrupt cach year. Among these people, banks, and hatred of big busicompetitors like supermarkets is rampant. They are a fertile breeding ground for racist and reachonary sacas But the fascist shock troops come from a aurerent part society. Thatcherism has created a more unequal soxy than at any time since the 1890s. Mass and long-term unemployment creates inner-city areas of the kind of coperate greasy areas which exploded in the late summer riots.
Unemployed youth and the new 'underclass of paupers is another fertile ground emergence of fascism. It links sections of the 3750 employed white working class who are deeply imbued with racism. underclass share one thing resentment of the system, without strong connections to The Caou movement unions have refused to organise the unemploved, a massive strategie failure. Many young people have no experience of he labour movement at all.
The bankrupted petty bourcoisie feel no affinity for the Only a strong and confident working class movement, making ad. vances and programme for reconstitutin society - including cheap credit for small businesses - could win them over. base for the fascists is above all movement for its failures. None of the more defeats of key workers' strug: he Wapping dispute which gives the fascists their opening.
A new twist to this situation is given by the gradual emergence of a united urope. In many European Cholars of Thus in Britain, as British capitalism goes more and more into crisis, the ideological basis is created for hostility to "foreigners interfering in business. Under Thatcher antiEuropeanisn channeled by the government. Now this is much less certain.
Many liberals and social see fascism as a nuisance, but basically unimportant. A growth of fascists organisations may lead to a few unfortunate consequences, like a stepping up of racist attacks, but this is seen as something Staging the largest of the fascist groups rally - John Tyndall's BNP that can easily be solved by extra police vigilance.
Such views are light-minded and short-sighted. The growth of Jean-Marie Le Pen's Front National in France shows why. Le Pen's movement has become a semi-permanent factor French politics. The Front National is likely to be the largest right-wing party in next year's elections.
The days when fascism in urope was a movement of t ew disturbed people who hek parties on Hitler's birthday are foe p. They are gone because of prolonged capitalist crisis which has existed for more nearly 20 years.
Clearly the left must turn to anti-fascist mobilisation. The widest possible anti-fascist unity in action is needed. This as to involve full support fo e self-defence of the blac communities.
But anti-fascist mobilisation is not nearly enough to deal with the scope of the The far right will be effectively fought when the labour move ment offers a clear and attrac tive alternative perspective for the most downtrodden in society.
Anti-fascism must always be alternative ing a revolutionary current in the labour movement.
EUROPE GNITES RACISM & FASCISM
programme for reconstituting society. And that means build