Killing the Nazi Menace: how to stop the fascists Written by Chris Bambery Published by SWP €1.50 Reviewed by Pete MacDonald THIS PAMPHLET starts off with a general if staid round up of Trotsky's analysis of fascism. This is probably the most convincing por tion of the text, partly because by definition it is the least self-serving. It accurately traces the petit-boureois roots of fascisr nat are turned inte a battering ram against the working lass.
What Bambery then fails to do however, is to link the current threat of fascism in Britain to those petit-bourgeois elements which thrived under the deregulation of Thatcherism, and which are now facing a recession.
In fact the role of Thatcherism is completely ig nored by the pamphlet - there is no mention made of her swamping' speech of 1979 and the effect this had on taking votes away from the National Front.
No, we are told that the only thing that stopped the fascist threat in its tracks wan (predictably) the ANL. BamNt was a model of how t organise against the Nazis' -admitting to no regrets, no mistakes, no corrections and therefore needing no alteration despite over a decade of cold storage.
Given this, it is only logical that in any other country where there is a problem, the those fighting Le Pen in France are told They could follow the model of the ANL in Britain'!
The fact that the struggle has moved on since the 1970s does not seem to be a matter happy to grapple. Whilst it is fleetingly mentioned that 'black people are more confident and more organised than they were 20 years ago' no conclusions are drawn The examples of mobilisaCable Street and Lewisham. These are important dates, but do the long term struggles of Newham, Southall and Bradford count for so little in the author's eyes that they do not even merit a mention? Whilst the pamphlet acknowledges that it was racist police actions such as an peration entitled fight against fascism is the fight against racism. ganisation increased hroughout the '80s. When the black community has fought back by the police - hence the entire basis of the slogan "Self-defence is no orence. Ter such strug gles are considered unworthy of inclusion in the pamphlet since they do not form part of a single-issue 'anti-fascist' campaign.
Finally the SWP seem to have failed to learn those very lessons they would seek to preach to others. We are lecured that Trotsky's 'strategy centred on the need to build unity against the Nazi's -unity in action' and a chapter is headed 'Germany defeat through division. By their own definitions it seems Britain's current movement has a long way to go.