When the British National Party (BNP) won 25 per cent of the white working class vote in a by-election in East London's Tower Hamlets last year, it was the first firm sign that new political opportunities were opening up or fascist groups. The fascists seem to have used their years in the wilderness to refine their tactics and methods of work.
In Tower Hamlets the BNP used the stabbing of a white youth by young Bangladeshis as a platform to launch their 'Rights for Whites' campaign. This is a borough notorious for its high levels of attacks on Bangladeshis and other ethnic minorities Tapped anger But the fascists tapped into a real anger in the white working class population of one of the most deprived areas of London. They attributed the blame for inadequate housing, lack of jobs and all the other difficulties facing working class people in Britain to black immigration.
The election result shows that they were successful in finding a layer in the white working class, the long term unemploved and those who make their living by 'a bit of this and a bit of that, which no other political force was addressing with answers relevant to their daily lives.
This is the party-building model the fascists are now using in London and the rest of England. They have also started a serious campaign of harassing left-wing activists. A black SWP member, living in East London, had his house firebombed in August. Supporters of Socialist Outlook have been attacked in London, Leicester and Manchester and reports of attacks on Socialist Worker sellers are becoming common, particularly in Scotland.
Harassment
These are precisely the sort of people who will be among the irst to organise anti-fascist activity in their areas. The fascists calculate that with sufficiently high levels of harassment, they will erode the numbers of people prepared to combat them.
Defending a threatened regular paper sale from attack is a simple enough matter of mobilising the local labour movement and far left. Fighting the increase in fascist and racist attacks is a more complex prob lem which is not being adequately dealt with by anyone, anywhere.
Tories
But it is a problem that is getting increasingly serious. John Major is a much less appealing leader for the racist right-winger than Thatcher was. The convergence of Labour's policies and rhetoric with that of the Tories will leave increasing numbers of working class Thatcher stole racist vote from fascist parties people vulnerable to the fascists' answers.
This is why it is essential to keep up the fight inside the Labour Party around politics that falt the new real pree capitalist mainstream. party should be forced to organise campaigns with organisations representing the communities under attack.
Socialists must also challenge the fascist assumption that they alone have the right to agitate in the white working class around the question of racism. As soon as racist attacks or fascist propaganda appear in an area, socialists must respond with anti-racist/fascist propaganda and meetings.
Links
Even in areas where the fascists are not yet organised, links should be made between black organisations and tenant and community groups that are predominantly white. Maybe the left must now consider whether the time has arrived for a new anti-lascist and antiracist umbrella organisation, like the Anti-Nazi League, to drive the fascist shit back into the sewers.