Fighting Talk - 03

8/3/2019 Fighting Talk - 03

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FIGHTING

Fighting fascism in the nineties8100d and Honour

Smash the Asylum 8illl

The ANL's French farce


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F I G,H TIN G TA LK

f or ce s inarnoxlmise their im pact. It hod becom ecleor thdtthisw q~ l~ be .r I) ~i[$ tr9 J! ='9 yq ~ile t:1

. '. . 9 i ? ! J bits h eY d6yin to ndo oibut it still r epresen ts a m ossha ~;;;c ilbe ite na sm all an d loc al sc ale. T he result sho wsthotthe B NP is n9 10riger isolated, at least in this port ofLondon;

In sh ~rt, th~ resuitT nTow er H am le ts m ark s0 quoli-ta tiv e b rEK Ik th r9 ~g h fo r th e ( gs cists. T hi3 ir t as k ~ ow is toturn thofell : lCtorcil suppgrt}rlo 'ancict iveorgonisotionalfarce. Ird8esriotn~d tdbespelt out w hot thofw ouldmean i f t hey;~~r eI6suoceed .... E lsew here/lhe B Np and N F did not do Sdw elJ/Q ut

neither did they expect to do so. Even so, in a wholenum ber of constituencies, the fascists polled betw een

Racism 15TheP'ob iem wi th ARA 's s tr at egy p lu s t heTortes ond the AsylumBi l l

Rewew 18AFAge t1V land press) exposure!

Ih.. r",,,I.inn,iticnn,r,, o f t hegdlbe grasped, " . 'the,of the left and the overoll dh

I p 6I it ic :6 J;i ly pi ip n, \ ... .'t he . ..ComrT{dh .i s( ?~~ o fG re (l t. x

r it a lig '~ t6 :: l8 .i j~a ; ;,didbte , .lnn area which once booSted; :a COP lT ll iQ js lr na yo r a nd0 Commun is t, y. p, t b~ypoHe (jFbo re lybl i: iQ lbp ft \16 BNPYq te il 1 t he Be tpQ t1 .I .G r een C lnd?S tep l1 ey t8h! tr tJ ehc: y!Bdr el y a t en th o ft heYa teI... h~fascists 0 ' ( jot ipg ondgroWipginthis ,soliSl' '.

working" ;v.;h!I~Jh~i~volu IyJeft isdoi?gerous ly i .. . i8 (j .JUdgea 'inC


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With more

organisations

and individuals

now apparently

taking the

growth of

.fascism

seriously it is

appropriate

once again topose the

question of

what kind of

anti-fascist

movement weneed, argues

Joe Blakey

ISSUE3 - Sum mer 1992

AntiFASCISTJ4i!(Jtl

Fightingfacism in the nineties

Anti-Fascist Action has a clearposition, distinct from the other

organisations which aim to f ight the

fascis ts. We believe that our

perspective is the correct one, and

the only one which can be eff ective

against the fascists . When we

criticise the Anti -Nazi League, the

Anti-Racist Al liance or other groups it

is not because of any nar row

sectarianism - we criticise them

because their activities are ineffec-

tive, and in the f ight against fascism,

ineffectiveness is dangerous.

AFA is not a protest movement,

content to shout slogans at the

foscists f rom behind the pol ice l ines.

Our intention is to plan activi ties that

w ll make it as hard as possible for

them to operate in working class

areas. Unlike some anti-fascist

organisations, our opposition to the

f ascists is not based on the fact that

they are "nasty" or "evil" people,

nor indeed just because they are

racist, but because they ore the

enemes of the progressive working

class movement.It has always been the function

of the fascists to divide the working

class, and then smash all progres-

sive elements. Dont forget, the first

people in the concentration camps

in Nazi Germony were the lef t.

In this country, the main tactic

(but not the only one) the fascis ts use

to divide worki ng class people is

racism. They recrui t people to the

idea of racial unity at the expense

of working class uni ty. The 11,821

votes the fascists got in the general

election, and in par ticular the 2,500

votes the BNP polled in the solidly

working closs East End of London,

show that some sections of the white

working closs ore ready to turn to

the fascists, rather than to the

revolutionory left, as 0 radical

alternative to the present system.

Why do they do this? And

more importantly, how can this

process be checked and then

reversed?

The fact is that the left has

fai led to build a credible alternative

in the eyes of its natural constituency

- the working class. As capita lism

goes deeper into crisis, and as the

traditional parties pile on the

pressure to make the working class

pay for the crisis, the lack of aradical lef t a lternative creates a

vacuum in which the far right can

operate. Their gain is aur loss.

The fight against fascism cannot

be a simple matter of def ending the

present system, but must at the same

time be a fight against capitalism in

all its f orms. AFA is a united front,

not a political party. Within AFA.

there are groups and individuals

from a wde range of politicalbackgrounds, from anarchists

through to socialists and communists.

Our aim is to create the space in

which a genuine working class

alternative to capitalism and fascism

can grow.

To do this, though, we hove to

show worki ng class people two

things: firstly, that fascism is their

enemy, and secondly that we can

stop the fascists physical ly. The

fascists thr ive on fear and intimda-

tion by showng people, who have

been betrayed by a weak and

ineffective lef t, that they - unlike the

Continued over 3'1'lIIl Jut(;(IIl'lS'I'


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J

left - can do things, that they are aparty of action. We have to showthem that they are wrong, that it isthe left that can really bring aboutchange, that the left can really makea difference.

Unfortunately, much of what theleft does in the nome of anti-fascismdoes the opposite - it reinforces theideo that the left is weak andineffec tive whi le the fascist s def ian tlyget on with their plans.

Look what happens when thefascists hold a public meeting, likethe one at York Hall in BethnalGreen. [see pg 7 JAll too often, theleft is content to stand on the otherside of the rood from the fascists,

behind pol ice l ines , shoutingslogans. Meanwhile, the fascists goabout their business unmolested.What real effect does this have?What real difference does it make?

The fact is that the BNP todayare not at all put off by havingsomeone shout "Nazi scum" atthem. This is not the 1970s, whenthe Notional Front were trying tohide their Nazi post behind arespectable image. This is the 1990swhere, on the bock of the success ofthe for right in Germany andFrance, the fascists are proud to beNazis! Their reply to the taunt"Nozi" i s to shout "cornrnie" back atyou. In the present political climate,

How they did in the General Election

British National Party

Constituency Candidate Votes %

Bethnal Green and Stepney Richard Edmonds 1,310 3.6Blaby John Peacock 521 0.880w & Poplar John Tyndall 1,107 3.0Cardiff North John Morse 121 0.3Clydesdale Steve Cartwright 342 0]Darlington Dr Donald Clarke 355 0.6Dewsbury Lady Jane Birdwood 660 1.1Edinburgh West David Bruce 133 0.3Erewash Laurence Johnson 645 1.0Peterborough Richard Heaton 311 0.5Rochdale Ken Henderson 620 1.2Southwark & Bermondsey Steve Tyler 530 1.4Uxbridge Michael O'Rourke 350 0]

National Front

Constituency Candidate Votes %

Birmingham Hodge Hill Eddy Wicker 370 0.9Birmingham Yardley Pauline Read 192 0.4Bristol East Ian Anderson 270 0.5Coventry SE Norman Tomkinson 173 0.5Derby North Peter Hart 245 0.4Dudley East George Cartwright 675 1.2Ealing North John Hill 277 0.6Leeds West Bob Tenny 132 0.3Slough Andy Carmichoel 290 0.5Southwark & Bermondsey Terry Blackham 168 0.4Torbay Bob Jones 268 0.5Walsall North Ken Reynolds 614 1 .2West Bromwich West John Lord 477 1.1West Herlfordshire John McAuley 665 1.0

Independents

Constituency Candidate Label Votes %

Cheltenham Melvyn Rendell Anti-Federal Europe 655 1.0Leicester East Dennis Taylor Ind Brit Homeland 308 0.6

4 I

d

many will see the latter as thegreater insult.

What is more, the fact that theopposition isn't confident enough todo more than protest peacefullyacross the rood. just reinforces thenotion that the fasci sts have theupper hand on the street. Thisencourages the potential recruits tothe BNP while demoralising thepotential opposition.

When the fascists hold meet-ings, it is possible to do a lot morethan hide behind crash barriers. InGlasgow and Rochdale, ant i- fascist swere able to completely disrupt BNPmeetings because AFA set out fromthe very start to confront the fascists.The difference here is that while theANL and ARA set out to simplyprotest at the fascists' presence, weset out to stop them.

These successes were modepossible by a combination of goodinte ll igence work, careful planning ,and the level of commitment neces-sary to physically drive the fascistsout. In the 1970s a number offascist meetings were also stoppedby occupying the hal l beforehand,but even this tactic doesn't seem tobe on the agenda for these othergroups.

When the fascists try to operate"on the st ree t" , every anti -fascistactivity should be designed to, atbest, stop them, or, at least, disruptthem. The fascists have to bechallenged, otherwise you havemissed the point of how theyoperate. The horder it is for them towork freely in on orea, the less theywill be able to do. Their numbers

are s ti ll small , but unless ant i- fascist

activity does make it hard for them,they will grow - and the more theygrow, the harder it will be to stop

them.It is not possible to go into all

the tactical options in on article likethis, but anti-fasci sts should start togive serious thought as to how tostop fascists activities. Assemblypoints for marches can be occupied,paper sole pitches con be taken -over, travel to and from events canbe made difficult. Not everyone hasto be in the some place either-after all, why make it easy for thepolice to hem you in.

The guidi ng principle behindevery activity must be to try toimplement a policy of "No Platform

F IG HT IN G TALK

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, FIGHTING FASCISM IN THE NINETIES

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up the road hoping to Gad that the

fascists leave them alone, they just

expose their weakness.

Remember, this was is the area

where an anti-racist march was

attacked last year by fascists who

were able to mobilise and lead

hundreds of locals, an area where

sections of the white working class

see the fascists as the radical

alternative, not the left. Tolerating

their presence every week wll not

change this trend in the slightest.

Accommodating the fascists in effect

makes them an acceptable part of

the political agenda - and that is

the thin end of the wedge.Stopping the fascists being

openly able to sell their papers does

not get rid of the problem, of

course, but leaving them alone is a

sure fire way to help them grow and

to make sure the problem gets

worse. It i s vi ta l to deny the fascis ts

the opportunity to operate freely and

openly. That is why, for example,

AFA and Cable Street Beat moved

quickly to drive the nee-Nazi music

organisation Blood and Honour

underground again when they

started to operate openly in

Carnaby Street. This was a double

victory - it made it harder for them

to distribute their stuff, and it

showed their supporters that they

were too weak to do anything about

it.Of course, while anti-fascists

should gear their activi ties to

confronting the fascists when they

appear in public, there is alsa plenty

of opportunity for non-confrontational

activi ties at other times. It should not

be a question of "either-or" . Both

approaches must be used to

complement each other. AFA has

shown its commtment to this dual

approach - physical and ideologicalopposi tion - since i t was launched.

Carnivals, marches, meetings, gigs,

educational activities and sa on are

integral parts of our strategy, but

they are never a substi tu te for what

is necessary when the fascists take

to the streets - physical opposition.

One mstake that is commonly

made by anti-fascists is to call for

sta te bans on fascist groups and

activi ties. When the Publ ic Order

Act was f irst introduced in the

1930s, i ts procla imed purpose was

to curb Moseley's fascist Blackshirt

movement. In reality, the Act was

AntiFASCIST,_ttil[.)~1

used against the left, and it has

continued to be used to this end

ever since. In simple terms, if fascists

are banned, mlitant anti-fascists wll

also be banned, if their marches are

banned, then sa w ll ours be. Such

appeals end up providing the state

w th extra weapons to clamp down

on the lef t.

Not only that, but the very fact

that we coli on the capitalist state to

come in and do our dirty work for

us reinforces the notion that we are

too weak to deal w th the fascists

ourselves. Once again, th is is not

only ineffective but counter-produc-

tive. We need to w n young

working class people to the f ight

against fascism by offer ing them the

opportunity to f ight for their own

interests. We can t do that by

calling on their class enemy - the

police - to do the job for them.

There is one fi nal

for the Foscists" . What is the point

of hovinq a demonstration against

f ascism if the f ascists are going to

be left free to organise a march two

hours later? It has happened! Anti-

fascist activity must confront the

fascists, not accommodate them.

It is revealing to look at the

response of same members ofcertain left wng groups (no prizes

for guessing which ones) when AFA

took the Bermondsey paper sale

pitch away from the NF and BNP

during the election campaign.

One local who watched while

the NF candidate was unceremoni-

ously sent packing told AFA mem-

bers that " it was about time some-

one sor ted that lot out." Unfor tu-

nately, our "revolutionary" friends

did not share these saund working

class instincts. Instead, they told us

thot it wos alright for us, but that

next week they would have to facethe consequences when they tr ied to

sell their papers next to the fascis ts.

On paper, these organisations

recognise that the fascists' a im is to

smash all working class organisa-

tions, but in practice they are happy

to tolerate the presence of fascist

paper sellers standing next to them,

to allow fascists a free ride in a

working class .ar ea - in short,

anything for a quiet life. Now, if

they believe in a policy of live and

let live, that is up to them but when

they talk about " smashing the

Nazis" but in reality stand meekly

point that needs to be

emphasised here.

AFA believes that it is

absolutely critical to

focus propaganda on

the potential recruits

to f ascism - the white

working class. All too

often, anti-fascist

groups seem to write

off the white working

closs as a lost couse,

when they should be

putting out propa-

ganda aimed at

exposing the BNP's

"Rights for Whites"

rhetoric.

Organ isations

which wont confront

the fascists physically are a perfect

home for liberals and armchair

socialists. They are cross-class

alliances and debating societies.Any mlitant anti-fascists who may

have joined them in the hope ofactually f ighting fascism should stop

wasting their time, and should

instead join up w th AFA, the only

notional organisation wth the tactics

and strategy that can actually make

a difference.

AFA is an organisation for

activists, not a talking shop, and we

see a need for a realignment in the

anti-fascist movement. If you want to

protest f rom the sidel ines, join the

other groups. If you want to make a

real impact on the fascists, join AFA. 5

The fascistshave to bechallenged,

otherwise youhave missed the

point of howthey operate.The harder it is

for them towork freely in

an area, the lessthey will beable to do.



6/20

Members of Anti-Fascist Action around thecountry have been busy since the last issue ofFighting Talk appeared. Here we report on some

of the activities we have been involved in.

AFA takeson BNP in

Rochdale

6

On the morning of Saturday 28

March a group of AFAactiviststook over the paper selling pitchusually shared by the BNP, NF,and SWP in Bermondsey gain-ing the support of many localpeople in the process. The ac-tion was a complete successdespite the BNP taking a latedecision to peddle their poisonin the Roman Road area of EastLondon.

Later the same day we par-ticipated in the "March for Jus-tice" in Newham called by,amongst others, the NewhamMonitoring Project (NMP) to

protest at a racist killing andon-going state harassment ofblack and Asian peaple.

However, the afternooncommenced with a visit by thepolice to the AFA rendezvouspoint where they suggestedthat the march organisers didnot want us around. This wascompletely untrue. In fact theNMP welcomed our contingentonto the march, and placed uswith the left groups just aheadof the Anti-Nazi League (ANL)participants.

The ANL were clearly dis-

In their post-election issue of Spearhead, the BritishNotional Party (BNP) boosted that they hod held two"successful" rallies during their campaign. They hodhoped it would be three. But the attempt to hold one inRochdale, where ex-Tory Ken Henderson was the BNPcandidate, came to grief on 4 -April,

Most of the BNP's top bross, including RichardEdmonds and John Peacock, went to Rochdale to boostHenderson's campaign. But Anti-Fascist Action upsettheir plans to stage a gala race-hate meeting.

AFA mobilised over 200 people to oppose the BNPrally. We even successfully managed to persuade theANL to join a demonstration at the fascists' redirectianpaint, rather than simply give out leoAets miles awayfrom them.

The fasciststhought that they would get an easyride. After al l, their fr iends in the police had arrestedleading AFA activists and raided their homes theevening prior to the AFA counter-demo (only for them tobe released without charge after the demonstration).They hoped this would take the st ing out of our protest.It didn't.

Having occupied their first redirection point anddriven away a number of BNP thugs who were being

ANL demonstratetheir sectarianismmayed at the arrival of the AFAcontingent and when the marchwas moving ANL stewardscalled on their contingent toslow down and open a gapbetween us and them.

ANLstewards then told thepolice that they feared we

would aHack them. They re-quested that the police join themarch as a buHer between AFAand the ANL Neither AFAmem-bers nor the NMP stewardscould believe thisl The marchorganisers immediately de-manded that the ANLwithdrawtheir invitation to the police, thatthe police leave the demonstra-tion and that the ANLstop cre-ating a divide in the march.

The ANLdid close the gapbetween the contingents thoughthey continued to discouragethose marching behind their

banner from either talking toor mixing with the Anti-FascistAction demonstrators.

It is ironic that the so-calledrevolutionaries of the Anti-NaziLeague find it impossible to ac-cept AFA invitations to speakon our platforms, do not want

to march with us in defianceand opposition to police har-assment of the Asian commu-nity, but see no problem in in-viting the police to march withthem.

The damage to the anti-fas-cist movement this sort of sec-torian behaviour does cannotbe under-estimated. Now, withthe growing success of the farright throughout Europe and inBritain in the general election,is the time for maximum unityto reverse the tide of fascistgrowth.

']

F IG HTIN G TALK

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7/20

A FA IN AC TIO N

bussed in for the rally, AFA learnt

that the main fascist force hod

moved to another pub. Immediately

we argued that the demonstration

should follow them.

Once AFA arrived at this pub

we made our presence felt and after

a vigorous encounter in the pub wth

the master race's goon squad we

left them cowering inside awaiting

police protection. When the bulk of

the other counter.demonstrotors

arrived we simply surrounded the

pub, wthstood police attempts to

clear us off and kept the fascists

pinned down for almost three hours.

Finally, instead of a rally, the

fascists were escor ted out of town

by the police, ta ils between their

legs and w th the shouts of AFA

members ringing in their ears.

Memories of AFA's actions at their

"secret" rendezvous were still

ringing in quite a few of the BNP's

heads!

The BNP's failed attempt to hold

a rally showed the effectiveness ofAFA's strategy in confronting the

fascists. But the 620 (1.2%) votes

Henderson got in the election shows

that he does have a base in

Rochdale and much more work

needs to be done to counter this. In

particular, the need to build AFA's

inf luence in Rochdale i tsel f - much

of the work in the electian and

before hovlnq been done by

Manchester AFA - is urgent.

With this in view AFA has

followed up its success w th a

concerted leafleting campoign in the

area and has continued to mobi lise

against the BNP's attempts to

capitalise on their vote.

On 25 April news that

Henderson and his gang were

plannng to leoflet a local estate

resul ted in 120 anti -fascists f rom all

over the north assembling in

Rochdale to stop them. Once again

the fascists were pinned down in

one of their watering holes by AFA,

this time having to make their

getaway (w th palice protection of

course) on foot. Their "littlebarough

High School Bus" (which they

bought in an auction) was ill no fit

state to be driven followng the

demonstration.

Unfortunately, the followng

week the fascists did manage to

hold a rally on the steps outside

Rochdale Tawn Hall. This was a

blow ta anti-fascists in the area,

because up ta that point we had

quite clearly kept the BNP on the

run. However, it was largely due to

a lost mnute change of plans by

fascists, who by now were terrified

of meeting up wth AFA yet again,

and their col lusion wth the police.

AFA leafleted the estate where

the rally was supposed to be taking

place but by the time we found autwhere the BNP were they had a

strong line of blue standing between

them and us. Mind you it was

standing between them and the

"public" they were supposed to be

addressing, so all was not lost.

All three events do point to the

need to build AFA in Rochdale. The

BNP have clear ly made Rochdale

one of their northern pr ior ities. But

there are hopeful signs. It is vital that

a solid anti-fascist presence, bUilding

on this, is organsed to chal lenge

them.

AntiFA S C I S TMil['tl

For SaleWell maintained, low mleage Vaux-

hal l Carl ton car

Many extras inch~ing: Custom paint job professionally

applied courtesy of Ealing Anti-

Fascist Paint Shop

Low profile tyres supplied by West

London Wheel Services

Generally in good condition

One previous (Nazi) owner

Apply to Ian Anderson c/o the

National f ront office

Anti-Fascist Action currently hasno branch in the West London area.

The above advertisement, recently

received, indicates the potential for

organsing in the area. Interested

anti-fascists in West London should

contact AFA wth a view to setting

up a branch to challenge the BNP

and NF for this area.

7ISSUE3 - Sum mer 1992

BNP York HallrallyThe centrepiece of the BritishNational Party's general election

campaign in Londons East End was

a rally held in York Hall, Bethnal

Green, on Monday 6 April. It was a

show of strength for them in the

area they had given top priority to,

and a clear provocation, so it was

absolutely necessary that anti-fascists

mount a serious challenge.

As well as the mobilisation by

Anti-Fascist Action, both the Anti

Nazi League (ANL) and the Anti

Racist Alliance (ARA) staged protests

against the rally.

The ANL and ARA demonstra-

tion attracted a substantia l crowd -

they outnumbered the fascists by

around three to one. Unfortunately,

but unsurprisingly, the ANL and ARA

were content to stage their demon-

I fi,,",'

strations in the space al located to

them by the police - on the other

side of the road f rom the meeting,

behind the police crash barriers.

This decision effectively ruled

out any real conf rontation wth the

fascists. To have disrupted the

meeting from where they were

standing, they wauld have f irst had

ta fight through the police lines,

something the organsers clear ly had

no intention of doing. Indeed, the

ANL stewards were so passive that

when the pal ice snatched individuals

from the crowd they stood by and

let them do it.

Th is type af post uri ng has na

effect on the fascists. In fact, it

simply conf irms what they say - that

the left are too weak and taa

Continued over


8/20

spineless to actually do anythingabout them. The ANl and ARAwatched the BNP march in, and thefew who were left at the endwatched them march out again.What is the poin t in that?

Rother than boycott the passivedemo, AFA supporters went along toargue for a more confrontationalapproach with any genuine workingcloss youth who might have beenthere.

At the some time we used ourlimited resources to make sure thatthe fascistswere disrupted in someway, even though alone we werenot in a position to stop theirmeeting taking place.

Hoving found out where theBNP were planning to go drinkingafter the ral ly (the Weavers ' Arms innearby Roman Rood - used regu-larly by the BNP throughout theirelection campaign) AFA occupiedthe pub.

When the fascists marched outof the meeting under police escort

they were token to the Weavers'Arms, no doubt as arranged. AFAstood its ground outside the pubwhile the BNP, which hod maybethree times as many as AFA by thisstage, hod to march by and makealternative plans far the eveni ng'sdrinking. While not a big victory initself, this incident does raises threeimportant issues.

Firstly, it clearly demoralised thelocal working closs youth the BNPhod attracted to their meeting. Theyexpected to seethe left watch onpassively while the BNP went onwith it pions. Instead, despite theirsuperior numbers, despite theirbragging, despite their reputation as"men of action", the BNP hod to becontent to watch powerlessly ratherthan drive AFA out of "their" pub. Inshort, they were not up to the job ofgetting rid of us. .

Secondly, as noted in a rotherconfused way in the press, this smallgesture of defiance by AFA was notlost on the locals watching from their

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There was a time when therewas only one candidate forthe tit le of chief fascist pave-ment kisser - Tony "Tarmac"Lecomber, who could boastthat he was always on thestreet (normally face down).

With Lecomber temporarilyout of the (af)fray - last seenin HMP Brixton - the race ison to take the vacant title.

Which leading BNPer willemerge victorious? Will i t beSteve Tyler, who followed hisrecent (very close) examina-tion of Bermondsey street lifewith an inspection of the localhospital facilities? Or RichardEdmonds, recently seen withhis ear to the ground in KingsCross and nose all over thepavement in Bethnal Green.

We wish Edmonds andTyler every success in thisparticular venture, althoughwe must make it clear that

we are non-partisan and willassist each and every con-tender in the competition tobe fascist pavement kisser ofthe year.

S E A R CH L I G H TTHE INTERNATIONAL

ANTI-FASCISTMONTHLY

8

R OU GE MAGAZ IN ESubscriptions:8 individuals 16 organisationsCheques toRouge, BM Rouge,London WC 1N 3XX

I

S ~ X U A l i H

windows and balconies. In fact , asmall group of youngsters come outand jeered at the BNP. AFA gavethe local working closs people ataste of what can be done, even inrelatively small numbers. The passivedemo ot York Hall did no suchthing.

The third issue, the most generalone, concerns the central question:who actually disrupted the fascistson the day? The ANl and ARA mayhave got media coverage, whichwas probably all they were afteranyway, but the fascists themselveslaughed openly at the their impo-tence. At the Weavers ' Arms, theyhad to put a brave face on to coverup their own impotence. One tinybutreel victory like that is worth formore than passive protests behindpolice lines. Four weeks after the rolly, Eastlondon AFA mounted a picket of theWeavers' Arms after the landlordhod gone on the radio saying thatthe BNP were "good customers".

Street cred

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S T U D E N T S

Lef t wing srudents in highereducotion gave the relaunch of theANL a mixed response. Some weregrateful that the largest organisationon the British far left was taking theresurgence of fascism seriously atlast. Others saw it as a cynicalattempt by the SWP to recruit newmembers. Many questioned whatpossible role the ANL had to play inadvanci ng the struggle agai nst eitherracism or fascism.

AFA supporters in the collegesresponded by stressing the need forunity in action, while debunking theSWP's mythology of the organisa-t ion's success in the 1970s. Wealso painted to their refusal toimplement "no platform" against thefascists, and the SWP's determina-tion to ensure it kept control of theANL firmly in its own hands.

Suddenly AFA's work began toreceive goad publicity from anunexpected quarter - the Union ofJewish Students (UJS).

The UJS is the largest singleJewish student grouping in Britain. Itpromotes Jewish cultural identity oncampuses but i t is also an ardentdefender of the Israeli state. Itsmembers hold a range of viewsabout the current Israeli governmentbut a basic unity exists around pro-Zionist ideology.

While individual members ofthe UJS have been outstanding AFAactivists, the organisation has notaffiliated to, or become regularlyinvolved in, AFA.

Model motions, designed forthe National Union of Students'(NUS) spring conference, weremoved at several union generalmeetings including at the LondonSchool of Economics, Bristol Univer-sity and Manchester Poly, heaping

praise on AFA and scorn an theANL.Many charges the UJSaimed at

the ANL were correct . Despite SWPprotests to the contrary, the ANL hasremained its property lock, stockand barrel. But underpinning thewhole argument against the ANLwas the charge that the SWP is ananti-Semitic organisation.

Ironically the UJS, by equatingopposition to the state of Israel withanti-Semitism, would find manyindividuals and organisations withinAFA as "culpoble" as the SWP.

But the SWP never suggested

AntiFA S C I S TtMil(.)~1

AFA's student organiser looks atthe controversy sparked in manycolleges by the ANL's relaunch andfinds that the SWP have nomonopoly on sectarianism.

Right target,wrong ammo?that ANL members had to adopt itsanti-Zionist stance. At some collegesANL bookstalls have apparentlyfeatured copies of the SWP pam-phlet, I sr ae l: The H ii ack S ta te .Butthis is merely tactical stupidity ratherthan a conscious policy of alienatingpro-Zionist Jews.

In the 1980s the SWP commit-ted other tactical blunders, especiallyaround the banning of a zionistJewish Society at Sunderland Poly.However, they have mobilised fordemos against the desecration ofJewish cemeteries in Enfield, Wem-bley, Newham and Manchester.SWP members have been attackedverbally and phvsicolly, not just as"reds" but as "Bolshevik Jews". Amember of the SWP's sister organi-sation in Denmark was killed in Qbomb attack this March, almostcertainly carried out by fascists.

for us in AfA a united front

against fascism in Britain andelsewhere in Europe need notconcern itself with the issue ofZionism. Despite the many politicaldifferences separating us, the historyof racism and anti-Semitism and thereality of a crisis-ridden capitalismhave presented uswith a commonfoe whom we recognise and mustfight against as one.

NUS spring conference rejectedsponsorship of the ANL, part ly as aresponse to the UJSmotions. Ofcourse we don't know if the argu-ments that swung votes were goodor bad ones. Public knowledge of

madcap adventures, like the TowerHamlets leafletting session whichnearly turned into tragedy, couldn'thave done the ANL any good.Certainly, ARA supporters wouldalso have been pleased at the vote.Hopefully, however, the argumentthat the SWP, and thus the ANL, areanti-Semitic organisa-t ions was not the key.

After years ofputting up withridicule from the SWP- which has at timeseven tried ta denyAFA's existence -giving the SWP ataste of its ownmedicine may seemonly fair to some whosupport AFA's work.But if this obstructsunity inaction it willnot advance the

struggle against the BNP, NF andthe like.We offer the UJSas a whole

and its individual members on openinvitation to join AFA. Butthe samedoor is open to Palestinians, Arabstudents and other anti-Zionist forces.It is also open to those SWPsupporters who recognise the needto go beyond ANL-style passiveprotest and build an anti-fascistorganisation that tries to mobiliserank and file workers to actuallyconfront the fascists and not justseek the blessings of trade unionbureaucrats and media stars.

For us in AFA aunited frontagainst fascismin Britain andelsewhere inEurope neednot concernitself with theissue ofZionism.


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10

HAT E fA SC ISM LOV EMU SIC+ HATE fA SCI SM LOVEMUS I C+ HATE FASC ISM LOVEMUS IC+ HATE FASC ISM LOVEMUS I C+ HAT E fA SC ISM LOV EMU SIC+ HAT E FAS CISM LOV EMU S IC+ HAT E FAS C ISM LOV EMU S IC+ HATE FASC ISM LOVE MUS IC+ HAT E FAS CI SM LOV EMU S IC+ HAT E FAS CISM LOV EMUSIC + HAT E FAS CI SM LOV EMU S IC+ HATE FASC ISM LOVE MUS IC+ HATE FASC ISM LOVE MUS IC+ HAT E fA SC ISM LOV EMU S IC+ HATE FASC ISMLOVE MUS IC+ HAT E FAS CI SM LOV E MU SIC+ HAT E FAS CI SM LOV E MU SI C+ HAT E FAS C ISM LOV E MU SI C+ HAT E FAS CI SM LOV E MU SI C+ HATE

CAB LE STR EET B EAT R EV IEW

The returnofBlood and Honour

The fascist skinhead musicorganisation is back on the scene.Nick Stone looks at who they are and what they are up to

Blood and Honour, the self-styled"nationalist anti-red music movement",is back. These self-declared champi-ons of race and nation have regainedsome degree of political prominencethrough their influence on the for rightskinhead groups emerging across post-Stalinist Europe.

In 1990 Blood and Honour band"No Remorse" successfully toured inEurope and the USA. Swedish bond"Ultima Thule" this year headlined a"freedom rally" in Estonia. Membersof Ian Stuart Donaldson's "Skrew-driver" have been arrested while tak-ing part in fascist activities in Ger-many.

Blood and Honour emerged in the'1980s from the ruins of the NationalFront 's Rock Against Communismmovement (RAq. At its peak RACcould organise gigs with attendanceof 500 plus, by word of mouth public-ity alone. However, the 1986 split inthe Notional Front shaltered RAC aswell, and left Donaldson along withbands such as No Remorseand Sud-den Impact, to strike out on their own.While people like the British Na-

tional Party's (BNP) John Tyndall stilldismissed rock music as "jungle mu-sic", Donaldson had sussed that nor-mally mundane activities such as wor-shipping Rudolf Hess could be mademore appealing if supported by a fewbadly played power chords.Sudden Impoct summed it up:"Skinheads may have storted off as

a mixed race cult listening to niggermusic, but now it's a way of life fortrue white people."The middle class left had long since

decided that all skins were racist, giv-ing Blood and Honour a golden op-portunity to become a Trojan Horse

for the middle class for right to recruitsome working class youth to its ranks- intervening in a youth movementwhich had originally begun as a cel-ebration of bluebeat and ska!George Marshall describes a typi-

col Blood and Honour gig in his his-tory of the skinhead movement, Spiritof '69 (see F ig hti ng Tal k 2 ):"The atmosphere generated by

bands like Skrewdriver and Brutal At-tack ... is nothing short of a mini-Nuremberg Rally. Hundreds of

"Eventually there willbe a race war and we

have to be strongenough in numbers towin it. I'll die to keepthis country pure andif it means bloodshedat the end of the day,

then let it be."

Ian Stuart Donaldson

Sunday People interview

1988

skinheads chanting 'Seig Heil! SeigHeil!' as Ian Stuart and Ken Mclellando their bit for Adolf and country."The Blood and Honour movement

exists primarily as on undergroundphenomenon. Most major record com-panies and distributors find the ideoof racist skinhead bands a fairly unat-tractive marketing prospect. Conse-quently Blood and Honour have builtup a production/distribution networkwith bases in Germany, France and

England through which they markettheir wares across the world. Mostmaterial is sold by mail order. Themajor producer is Herbert Egoldt'sRock-O-Rama Records - almost all themajor Nazi bands sell records throughRock-O-Rama.In 1985 Gael Bodiks, a racist gig

promoter, established another openlyfascist record label , Rebelles Euro-peens, in Brest, France with close tiesto Blood and Honour. As well asrecords by fascist bands, it specialisesin T-shirts, books and Nazi militarymusic. Bodiks says of his outfit:"The reasonfar itscreation was quite

simple. No label wanted to producepolitically engaged bands without self-censorship ... I had to give them thesame opportunity to do so as otherbonds. Music is an excellent way ofspreading those ideas and it was be-coming more and more necessary tohave these skinhead bands known."Donaldson claims Rock-O-Ramahas

helped him consolidate the fascistyouth movement across Europe, andalign it with the "old men" of the move-ment's "heyday":

"They are some of Adolf's SS whoescaped the war trials and are nowsuccessful business men. I visit themand they visi t me at our concerts andwe discuss our common goals ... n(S u nd ay P eo pleinterview)It is clear that even at a time when

Blood and Honour had had to retreat 'from the arena in Britain, their linkswith European fascists enabled themto help fil l the polit icoI vacuum left bythe collapse of Stalinism and the re-treat of the left across Europe.

In Britain too, Blood and Honourhas played its part in the re-emergenceof the British Movement (BM) after

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HATE FASC ISM LOVEMUS IC+ HATE FASC ISM LOVEMUS IC+ HATEFASC ISM LOVEMUS IC+ HATE FASC ISM LOVEMUS IC+ HATE FASC ISM LOVEMUS IC+ HAT E fA SC ISM LOV EMU S IC+ HAT E fA SC ISM LOV EMU S IC+ HATE FASC ISM LOVEMUS IC+ HAT E fA SC ISM LOV EMU S IC+ HAT E FAS C ISM LOV EMUSIC + HAT E fA SC ISM LOV EMU S IC+ HATE FASC I SM LOVEMUS I C+ HATE fA SCI SM LOVEMUSI C+ HATE FASC ISM LOVEMUSI C+ HATE fASC ISMLOVE MUS IC+ HAT E fA SC ISM LOV EMU S IC+ HAT E fA SC ISM LOV E MU SI C+ HAT E fA SC ISM LOV EMU S IC+ HAT E fA SC ISM LOV E MU SI C+ HATE

several years of inactivity. At the"Rights for Whites" march in Thames-mead in May 1991 Blood and Hon-our skins were seenwearing the insig-nia of the BM's ideological drivingforce, the British National Social istMovement.

Donaldson isalso keen to foster newalliances with' the BNP. Blood andHonour and BNP members have metto discuss joint operations, while Bloodand Honour skins have providedfootsoldiers for BNP rallies and can-vassing during the general election.

In 1982, when John Tyndalllaunched the BNP, he argued thatnationalism "was never going to makeit through the ballot box". In the me-dium term they should aim instead tobuild an organisation of 5,000 "solidtypes" which could be put out on thestreets at any time.

Donaldson's eye to the main chanceobviously led him to believe that, byollowing his followers to be street-fighters for the BNP, he could hoponto Tyndall's bandwagon.

Meanwhile, in recent months Bloodand Honour bands have held covertgigs in South London, Cardiff and inRochdale and the Mere M shop inCarnaby Street has begun to allowrecords by Blood and Honour bandsand related fanzines like Las tChanceto creep back onto their shelves.

In the past AFA has organised toremove from the scene public outlets

r~\()lellf

~1':*$~for their filth, like the Cutdown shop inCarnaby Street. Regular pickets andmore direct forms of opposition meantshops like Cutdown and Mere Mceased to openly trade in fascist mate-rial.Blood and Honour may think their

fortunes are on the rise. But neitherSkrewdriver nor any other Blood andHonour band can play publicly any-where in Britain.

In May 1989 Blood and Honourtried to hold an "international COl]-cert", the Main Event. Bands fromacross Europe were due to appear,and European Nazis flocked to lon-don to go to the gig. Instead, theNazis were met by hundreds of anti-fascistsat Speakers' Corner, the MainEvent's redirection point. The beating

agdin andthe stage.

The Upstarlsweredifferentthough'Theykeptfightil)gback.lan

StuarlDonOidSon ooceS6idthe .Up~tarts)V;ouldneverplay in london.dgaid;Th~r~ality'islhatit56Iw6ys 'be&h'iiH&BIB8dBi\d'FIBh'Bur'bdnds

"who eep running fOrcover.

(y.'he '.' e Iasitiri\~.SkrewddverC6uldpI6y6ig}in!th~. UK?).....Eve.fYSdhi$'lPhBsscimath'3gB,

supporlers of Blood and Honour re-ceived that day' set them back foryears.

Donaldson's manoeuvrings acrossEurope and his at tempts to marry hisforces to those of the BNP, all indicatethat its high time to put the boot intothe "B&H boot boys" once again.

. OB ITUARY .Thr_ members of Violent Storm,who veered to the left while cross-ing the Severn Bridge on the wayto an internotionol tour.Violent Storm were some of the

Bloodand Honour skinscene'sloy-alists. At least we won't have tolistento their brand of bad heavymetal and Nazi propaganda anylonger. Rest in pieces.

11

Ir


?b8Gt~~9Yi6~~trolb6mbsGpthetherUlih1l'dd~~;Th& .

...i ;.t~?u~h;.'h?~r$~"Prpudan~.lgud",abbutpr:del " ' i ydUri .Cld~(Cll;.utfightipg~Cl9~!~~ppdS' ......

~q1~~~~hi!~h;rf~~~~~;\~!; .I .mlddleclc,$selite/y.tho runftOl1'llhe'

fasbigtSi~:Si~Bd3fkicki n~ii\t~frteeth~~;Bql'l~J$liKeSkullheoodhd"'NoR~m. e ; t e rd ' b~Y ' r e . , ; . , e rK i i19

dd~ ~!hbY r'6'6Iciughqh'ihavih:.a say" .1 1 iheYa@Ts5cpps";"ithgU}Jars: qk ihhe&d Tii l' le sC6hwr1tlj' .qp!\uariesf~~.Vioient Storm. (the

'ilp~cists wh~C:ouldn't drive).e~~pr~!7~d,tr7XYf7r7j~~i a skiQhe6dtXliid;.nofOI:;Uhch6FNazi.

iih~~ti'\f ....Ii. Withiheypsto~~it:srrll!pH

.....~imple.r)}\blJn:~~f.w9r~.~rig.il~#~.olists withhopullshittsreat.if lSSand another greaflPiBoyit .. .

.Nick Storie

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12

HATE fASC ISM LOVEMUS IC+ HATE FASC ISM LOVEMUS IC+ HATE fASC ISM LOVEMUS IC+ HATE fA SCI SM LOVEMUSI C+ HATE fASC ISM LOVEMUS IC+ HAT E fA SC ISM LOV E MU SIC+ HAT E FAS CI SM LOV E MU SIC+ HAT E FAS CI SM LOV EMU S IC+ HAT E fA SC ISM LOV EMU S IC+ H AT E fA SC IS M LO VEMUSIC + HAT E fA SC ISM LOV EMU S IC+ HAT E fA SC ISM LOV EMU S IC+ HAT E fA SC ISM LOV EMU S IC+ HAT E fA SC ISM LOV EMU S IC+ HATE fASC ISMLOVE MUS IC+ HAT E FAS CI SM LOV EMU S IC+ HAT E FAS CI SM LOV EMU S IC+ HAT E fA SC ISM LOV E MU SI C+ HAT E FAS C ISM LOV E MU SIC+ HATE

It's not every day that you see askinhead demo against racism, butthat i s what took place in Lubeck,Germany, at the end of lastyear. Theaimwas to showthe Nazi boneheadsthat neither thestreetsnor theskinhead

idea belongs to them, and to showthe public that skins are very differentfrom the way they are portrayed inthe papers and on theTV.

The idea for the demo was thoughtup during a solid skinhead drinkingsessian,and against all the odds themarch was organised in just threeweeks. Therewasnt muchchance fordrummng up support for the event -most of the movement's 'zines hodeither already been printed or wouldcome out after the dote for the demo.Not that this deterred the organisers,whose mottoseemsto havebeen"noth-ing is impossible".

The headline on the leaflet used topublicise themarch read: "A SkinheadDemonstrationAgainst Racism". Thissummed up the organisers aims. Theywanted a protestagainst racism,whichwould showhow the media's line thatto be a skinhead meansto be a racistis a pi le of crap.

Thedemo wonted to showthatthereis a difference betweenordinary skinsand the nee-Nazi boneheads. It wason opportunity for skins to meet up,

THE LUBECK"MARCH OF THE SKINHEADS", 7.12.91

have a bit of funand to stand up fortheir way of life. .

On the day, as skins began togather in the centre of Lubeck, theChristmas shoppers who were mllingall around musthave beenwonderingwhich particular for right outfit wasgetting ready to prance through thestreets under the watchful eye of thepolice. The loudspeaker von beltedout Oi classics loud and clear. Leaf-letswere handed out. Byand by skinscome fromall the parts of the country- Frankfurt/Main, Frankfurt/Oder, Ber-lin, Homburg, Holle, Leipzig, Mon-chengladboch, Kiel, Neuss, Rostock,Wolfsburg, Neustadt, Rendsburg,Kappeln, Bremen, Hannover, Lubeckand just about anywhere else youcould mention.

Given the short notice and the factthat the demo was aimed just atskinheads - there were no "long

R ig hteous ra ppersDisposable Heroes ofHiphoprisy: Hypocrisy; theGreatest Luxury LP (FourthBroadway Records)

Disposable Heroes of Hiphop-risy, a multi-racial rap band fromtheSan FransiscoBay Area, defies thestereotypesof US urban blackmusic. Their debut albumoften

pulsateswth righteous rage but itslyrical concerns ore a for cry fromthe blatant woman-hating of NW Aand Ice T's rantsagainst Korean

shopkeepers.Front manMichael Franti'swtty

polemcs recall Gil Scott-Heronin hisprime, while monic percussionist,Ronald Yeo, has borrowed crea-tively from sources such as Latinjazzand industrial noise. The result isabsorbing if rarely easy listening,which slops down a blisteringindictment of American capitalismsways, filtered through the prism ofmassculture.

Occasionally Franti lapses intopreaching but more often he

haired" sympathisers on the march -the turn out, though not massive,wasimpressive.After themarch hod passedthrough the streets full of surprisedonlookers, the marchers mode for thelocal unemployed centre, where theirevery need was attended to. Sabrinasupplied the delicious "Oi-Woffels",

and One-Way-Axel brought along hisroost pototoes and sausages. Therewere music videos, too, though theywere a bit of 0 flop, since you couldsee thembut not hear them

At around nine o'clock the crowdmovedoff to a gig where two bonds,one from the west, one fromthe east,played: Messer Banzani and NgoboNgobo' Bothbands played their Ska,Reggaeand Rocksteadyfor more thanthree hours in front of an enthusiasticcrowd of skins.Adopted from on article by Bruce Loose inthe German magazine Skintonic 1 #11 )

provokes reflection and anger -nowhere more so than wth "The

Winter of the Long Hot Summer", ahaunting account of the real motivesbehind the butchery of the GulfWar. Their revamping of the DeadKennedys' "California Uber Alles"highlights the social forces whichsparked the volcano of South.Central LAwhile "Language ofViolence" decries queer-bashing.

I'mtoo cynical and long in the

tooth to proclaim this the mostimportant record of 1992 but it isone which demands a hearing,proving that "political correctness"need not numb the senses.

G R M cC o ll

had

F IGH TING TALK

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The rise of the far right acrossEurope highlights the need for aninternational response to fascism.

An AFA delegate to a recent anti-fascist conference in Hollandreports on the new links beingestablished between militantanti-fascists

Over the past few years it hasbecome clear that fascist groups arecooperating with each ather, bothnationally and internationally.

There is evidence that asophisticated international networkexists which provides mutual supportfor legal and illegal activity. Thisranges from advice and assistancewith organisation and fund-raising,through provision of safe havens forfascists and Nazis on the run, to thesupply of speakers and facilities formeetings and rallies. This networkseems to be getting bigger andstronger all the time.

Cleorly it is Vitally important thatanti-fascists develop networks at leastas effective as the fascists' Iinks.

To this end Anti-Fascist Actionaccepted an invitation to attend the

European anti-racist and anti-fascistconference held in May atEindhoven in Holland. The confer-ence gave AFA the opportunity tostrengthen informal links already inexistence as well as developing newcontacts. We were also involved inarranging separate meetings for themore militant elements over the twodays. It was an extremely successfulweekend which saw the emergenceof a militant European anti-fascistnetwork committed to a radicalstrategy.

The original conference wasattended by a number o f groups

from all over Europe. Discussion wascentred around a draft manifestopublished by the Anti..fascist Front ofAntwerp, Belgium, which aimed toset up a European anti-fascistmovement. This manifesto wascomposed of a series of l iberaldemands on the state to criminalisefascists and thus defeat them. This isa completely uselessstrategy whichAFA couldn't consider as a basis forjoint work.

In conjunction with otherEuropean militants AFA attempted tomove the debate away from thisterrain and towards an acceptance

AntiFASCISTt 4 i 1 ( 'R I

Building aninternationalnetwork

of the need for closs-bosed confron-tation to oppose fascism. Unfortu-nately, due to the political composi-tion of the conference the originalmanifesto was accepted as the basis

for discussion. The AFA delegatesdecided to abstain from voting onthe manifesto and only participatedin votes around action. We werecriticised by some who interpretedour abstentions as meaning that wehod no views on the subject, ratherthan accepting that we consideredthe document under discussion to bea complete waste of t ime.

The group founded on thismanifesto is doomed to failure,having refused to adopt a clearworking closs orientation. Weargued strongly that physicalopposition to fascism is not simply

on option available to anti-fascists,but on inevitable necessity that thefascists will force on us, as andwhen they feel strong enough.

In stork contrast to the mainconference an "alternative confer-ence" of militants from Britain,France, Belgium, Greece, Sweden,Holland, Norway and Germanywere in brood agreement about thestrategy required to be effectiveagainst the fascist gongs, and haveagreed to keep inclose contact todevelop that understanding.

just as important as set ting upthis network was the opportunity to

meel groups from other countrieswho, like AFA, operate at the sharpend of the struggle. like AFA theytoo are criticised by other anti-racistand anti-fascist groups in their home

countries. The rapport we shared indiscussion with each other helpedbridge any minor language difficul-ties.

Both Campaign Against Fascismin Europe and the Lesbian and GayCampaign Against Racism andFascism attended the conference,claiming to represent the British anti-fascist movement. We welcome thesupport of the handful of peoplerepresented by these two groups,but the claim that they represent anysignificant forces is simply not true.In any case they undermined theirattempts to occupy the moral high

ground of British anti-fascism bybargaining and bartering themselvesinto a position of accepting theliberal document as long as theiramendments were also accepted.

Anti-Fascist Action calls on allmilitant anti-fascists to reject the ideothat we can call on the state tointervene against fascism in favourof the proven strategy of physicaland theoretical education. Wewelcome contact with like-mindedgroups world-wide and haveappointed on International liaisonOfficer to maintain this area ofwork.


J ~ = = = = = = = = - - - - = = = - - = I ' ~ L~a~======fr-------~


14/20

14

The ANL venturesabroad

We reproduce here a letter sentto the Anti-Nazi League (ANL) byReflex, the French anti-fascist groupin response to a leoRet recentlydistr ibuted by the ANL in France(see apposite) . We also print ourtranslation of the ANL leaRetbelow.The Reflex letter points out that thestruggle against the fascists shouldbe run by those on the ground who

have the knowledge, ability, andexpert ise to thwart the rise offascism. With LePengainingcredibility and influence at theexpense of the French worki ng classthe last thing that is required is forhis opponents to be diverted byopportunists and adventurers such asthe SWP.

AFA recognises the value ofworking in co-operation with othergroups both at home and abroadand pursues this despite politicaland tacticol differences between usand the other anti-fascist/anti-racistgroups. In Britain we have consist-

ently invited the other major forces(Searchlight magazine, the Anti-NaziLeague, the Anti-Racist Alliance) toour public meetings and onto ourevents. Both the ANL and ARAconsistently ignore our invitations.

In fact the ANL criticises andcondemns AFA's approach to anti-fascism though it has never sug-

gested a coherent alternativestrategy. AFA pursues a twin trackstrategy of physical and ideologicalconfrontation of fascism from aworking class bose. This strategyhas hod concrete results,and has

How do we stop Le Pen?

impeded the growth of fascism here.It is no secret that the ANL is

run by the SWP, an organisat ionthat right up until the week before itsrelaunch of the ANL denied theexistence of a fascist threat. Cynical

Once again LePenand his acolyteshave dared to demonstrate on MayDay, the day when we celebrate inter-nationalism and solidarity.

The fact that they have been ableto march with impunity, without therebeing a coil for a mossconfrontationagainst the fascists, is a disgrace.

Despite their successesin March'sregional and local elections, Le Penand his supporters con be stopped.

In Britain, the Anti-Nazi League(ANL),which has just been relaunched,struggled against the Nazis with greatsuccess at the end of the seventies.Through a campaign aimed at unmask-ing the Nazis and through massphysi-

cal confrontat ions, we ensured their

ANTI NAZI lEAG UEdefeat, a defeat from which they havetaken more than ten years to recover.

Inspired by LePen'sexample, theyhoped to take advantage of the re-centgeneral election in Britain to stagea comeback. Thanks to the efforts ofthe ANL, they got a derisory score.While in the 1970s they polled100,000 votes in Londonand 30,000in Leicester, their average vote thistime was just 455.

The ANL's victory was made pos-sible by bringing about the widest pos-sible unity of all those opposed to the

foscists, by distributing millions of leaf-lets tearing away their respectablemask and by confronting them physi-cally in force of numbers whereverthey showed themselves.

Today the ANL has groups inevery important town in Britain. Thegroups bring together young people,not so young people, whites, blocks,Jews, Muslims, Christians ... in short,all those who want to struggle togetherin order to smash the Nazis ond en-sure that there will never again beroom for their ideas in our country.

We crushed the fascists in the1970s and we will do it again in the1990s. In France as in Britain, thisvictory ispossible, but itwill only comeabout through a combination of politi-cal campaigns and mossphysical con-

frontations. Nothing elsewill stop them.

F

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INTERNATIONAL

To the Executive Committee of theAnti Nazi League

We are writing to you from Reflex,the French anti-fascist group based inParis, because we attended the an-nual 1 M.ay demonstrat ion in Parisand were shocked ta see your organi-satian there distributing thousands ofleaflets oontaining advice on how tobeat the Frenchfascists, and giving aBritish address as a contact for ananti-fascist compcign.

We do not need or want yourorganisation coming to our oountry topatronise the French anti-fascist move-ment and tell us how ta conduct ourstruggles. We note that the ANL didnot, as a oourtesy, bother to contactus or other groups engaged in thestruggle in order to discuss how youmight possibly suppart our work andto discover the true situation in France.

Our group has been working forsix years, with a defined and testedstrategy, to combat French fascism.Other groups here have also beenestablished for long periods of time towork as port of a united anti-fascistfront. We find it insulting that youthink you can send your lackeys over

REFLEX

here to launch a oompaign against LePen without making any attempt tooonsult French anti-fascist groups. It isnot the first time that British anti-fascistgroups have attempted to undermineour work here, but we sincerely hopeit will be the last.

We fully know the reputation andrecord of the Anti-Nazi League in Brit-ain, and we are not impressed with it.We know that groups we have linkswith and trust, such as AFA and

Searchlight, do not have a high opin-ion of you and find you difficult towork with. We have to ask ourselveswhy it is that the ANL thinks it canbuild a oompoign in a foreign countrywhen it can' t even build a successfulcampaign in its own country.

Your leaflet "How do we stop LePen?" contained several inaccuraciesabout the ANL record in England,notably your claim to have decreasedthe fascist vote in Britain in the Aprilgeneral election, which is a blatantdistortion of the truth. We also note inthe last paragraph your claim thatsuccessfulcampaigns against fascism

Ant iFASCISTm I ![ 't l

must contain a combination of politi-cal campaigns and mass physicaloonfrontat ion. While this is true, wehave not seen the ANL oorry this outsuccessfully in Britain since 1978.Since that t ime the major successfulanti-fascist work in the UK has beenachieved by AFA and Searchlight andnot by yourselves. For the record,groups in France such as Reflex andSCALPhave had the twin tactics policyfor at least eight years, so we do notappreciate being told how to do whatwe are already doing.

We hope that we will not have to

write to you again about this - youare not welcome here except in asupport capacity where your organi-sation respects the lead of our organi-sations. We appreciate the support offoreign groups for our campaign herebut the French anti-fascist movement isnot prepared to have its work under-mined and destroyed by thoughtlesspatronising attempts of the ANL to takeon our struggle without even beingpolite enough to oontact the groupsalready working here.

Yours in struggleReflex14 Ruede Nateuil, 75015 Paris

readers well question the SWP'smotives in regenerating the ANL.However, the blatant sectarianismand dishonesty with which the ANLleadership has conducted itself hasbrought criticism from all quarters.

It prefers jockeying over"prime" positions on marches andchanting radical-sounding slogans toa principled opposition to fascism.Not for them on attempt to workwith others who have some practicalexperience in confronting the fascist

street presence. A high mediaprofile is far more important. Now,with some six months experience offai lure under its belt , the ANL feels i tis ready to launch a take-over bidfor the anti-fascist movement inEurope.

We fully endorse the call byReflex, which demands that the ANLconsult with thase at the sharp endof the fight, rather than simplyindulge themselves in a Europeantour of guest interventions desiqnedto attract media attention, often tothe detriment of the real anti-fasciststruggle.


ARA ' s strategyfor failureA t a fringe meeting at this year'sannual conference of the civil servants'union, CPSA, an ARA spokespersonsummed up their perspectives. He ar-gued: "It is not enough to call for blackand white to unite (against racism andfascism]. They mustdo so under blacklecdership."Anti-Fascist Action profoundly disa-

grees with this statement. In contrast toARA, we standfor a militantclassbasedanti-fascist organisation, which makesno distinction between race, creed, andcolour, and which fightsthe fascistthreatboth ideologically and physically. Ourrole mustbe to organise al l sectionsoftheworking class,not oneparticular partof i t.Thereis a danger that ARA's position

will force black and white aport ratherthan bring themtogether. How canARAexpect people to playa full port againstracismand fascism if memberswho are

white, Jewish, Irish etc, are excludedfrom a full role in the organisation? Thisis o recipe for disaster for two reasons.Firstly,goOCmilitantanti-racistsand anti-fascistswill be neglected and secondly,the ability to build a massorganisationwill be curtailed if non-white activistsrightly refuse to accept second-classmem-bership status.A second position flowing from this

approach was that "only the victims ofracismand fascismcan define the strug-gle". Ina sensethis istrue, but not in theway thatARAmeanit. leaving aside thepatronising language, the "victims" ofracism and fascism here clearly meansthe people who are the target of racistattacks.Of course, black self-defenceis a big

port of theanti-fasciststruggle, but to seeracism and fascism as essentially thesomething is to fundamentally misunder-

Continued over

15


16/20

16

s tand the rea l nature of the fasc ist th reat .Fascism does not only pose a threat to

block, Irish or Jewish people. Fascistgroups by no means only attack non-whites. Their real aim behind all theiractivities is to divide, weaken and de-stroy the organised and progressive work-ing class movement. Racism is a tacticthey use to this end -and in Britain todayit is on extremely important one. But, aswe have argued repea tedly, i t i s not thei ronly tactic. Unless the problem of fas-c ism isseen in class te rms and dea lt withon a class basis, then we are playinginto the hands of our enemies.

All sections of the warki ng class are

potential victims of fascism. All of us,black or white, have a vested interest infigh ting racism and fascism.

The speaker at the CPSA fringe meet-ing claimed that the real significance ofARA was that, "for the first time - underthe banner of ARA - the labour move-ment and black organisa tions had jo inedtogether under black leadership ... with27 unions having a lready aff il ia ted" .

Quite impressive? Well, not really. Itmay well be true that 27 unions withhundreds of thousands of members haveaff il ia ted. Maybe some labour MPs havealso come out in favour of ARA.

But unless official backing is accom-panied by real class this is nothing but a

token gesture. There are no more peopleon the streets, demos are no bigger, notone ext ra leaflet i s handed out . It doesn'tresult in less British National Pqrty orNationa l Front paper sa les or activi ty ; orfewer racist at tacks . Itdoes not curtail theability of these people to organise and it

does not result in one new member foryour own organisation. The activity in-dulged in by ARA is tokenism and pre-tence. Tokenism for trades unions andlabour MPs who can ease their con-sc iences by affi li at ing, and pre tence forARA when they th ink that thi s represen tsa mass movement.

But what about the second port of theequation - black organisation. This isagain more form than substance. Or-ganisations, such as the Society Of Blacklawyers and the National Black Caucusoften have a very l imi ted bose of suppor twith in the loca l b lack communi ties . The irmembersh ip is smal l, sel f- se lected and

generally composed of middle classcareerists. The whole policy of paperaffiliations and paper organisations isfooling nobody except, perhaps, them-selves.

ARA attempts to make anti-racist/ anti-fasci st st ruggle a mora l question , goodversus bad. This is the path todefea t. Themiddle class and careerist elements ofthese organisations will saon desert, andthe only agency who could deal with theproblem - the working class - are eitherignored or are seen as inherently racistand lef t to be the right's recruiting ground.Unless ARA addresses its politics to thewhite working class as well as rallyingthe immediate victims of racist attacks

ARA will ignore the majority of the work-ing c lass in Bri ta in today. This wil l a lloworganisa tions such as the BNP a free runand grant them an opportunity they willgrasp with both hands.

Cri ti ci sm of ARA would have less forceand per tinence if , in thei r pol iti ca l activ-

ity, they could show some concrete suc-cess. The sad fact is that ARA has madeno tangible difference inthe bottle againstraci sm and fasc ism. The few targets i t setitself have been a resounding failure.They set out to close the BNP books hopin Welling, Kent and to change the bel-once of forces in the area. After onedemons tration and 14 picke ts of the Torylocal council the bookshop is still openand looks as if it will remain so. Downthe road at Thamesmead, the scene ofRolon Adams' racist killing, the only pubon the estate The Wildfowler still doesnot serve black people.

In North Kensington a working men's

club operates a colour bar. ARA called ademonstration, no work to build for thedemonstration was done, no posters, noleallets, no attempt to contact other likeminded people. What happened? Forty-six people turned up to find themselvesoutnumbered by PC Plod. The managerof this particular club must have beenquaking in his boots when the intrepid46 marched around the corner. Thesesort of events only serve to demoraliseyour own support and give heart to youropponents.

But then ARA and the people wholead i ta re no strangers to thi s kind 01sel f-defeat ing, impoten t exerc ise . They havepursued these tact ics on a bigger scale-

with worse results - elsewhere (see ourrepor t on the Bermondsey march in FT2).Their approach cannot defeat the fas-c ist s, cannot s trengthen the ant i- fasci stmovement, and cannot provide the bosisfor a progress ive working c lass a lterna-t ive to grow.

The Revo lu tiona ry In te rna tiona lis t LeagueThe following statement was pre-pared to explain the decision to expel adisruptive group from AFA last year. How-ever, at the time no-one approached usfor such an explanation.

In the interests of non-sectarianismAFA branches subsequently allowed mem-bers of the Rll to re-join on an individualbasis. This turned out to be a mistake.Afte r a per iod of intermi tten t a ttendanceat branch meetings and non-ottendance atAFA ocfivifies they attempted to disruptour national conference with the sameagenda as they had prior to their expul-sion, though they received no support atthe meefing . They then a ttempted to con-tinue their programme of disruption withinthe AFA branches by re-entering as agroup.

In addition the Rll produced a leaf-let , containing a diatribe condemning AFAboth as a group and as individual mem-bers, which was given out on a demon-stration called by the Drummond StreetYouth Association in london on Sunday

17 May. We cannot ignore their csser-tions that AFA isa racist organisation madeup of racist individuals, prone to senselessviolence. Thesebaselessaccusations clearlyindicate the dishonesty of their claim towant to build AFA.

Their actions have been energeticallyand unambiguously opposed and two Rllmembers have been expel led from AFA.For this reason we have decided to pub-lish our original statement below.

The expulsion of the RIL

The activities of the Revolutionary Inter-nationalist league (Rill within Anti-FascistAction led to their expulsion in October1991. This action was taken as a lostresort in order to enable AFA to cont inueeffective anti-fascist work.

On their own admission the RIL d onot share the orientation that AFA havetaken in the fight against fascism. Werecognise that fascism is inherent in capi-talist society, but have no illusions that

AFA is the vehicle to topple the state.Rother it is our purpose to create the cli-mate whereby progressive lef t and anar-chist groups can bring their ideas andprograms to those targe ted by the fasc istgangs both as victims of their abuse andas v ic tims of the ir recru itment .

The Rll insist that AFA must have a

complete political program before it cancombat fascism. Clearly, an organisationconsisting of such a wide range of politi-cal groups and individuals cannot developsuch a program. Indeed if AFA were todo so then it would no longer be a broodbased campaign but a political party it-self. It is apparent that the Rll wanted tosubstitute AFA for a political peirty andthat the resul t would mirror the pol it ics ofthe Ril. Here lies there true motive - thecynical manipulation of a principled andeffec tive group in order to bui ld the ir ownparty.

Anti-Fascist Action will not be de-Rected from the primary task of confront-ing the fascists and race attackers by ei-ther the fasc ist gangs , the sto te , or incon-sequential manipula tive groups and indi-viduals.

F IGH TING TALK

- ' 1


17/20

Being tortured is many people'sworst nightmare. Imagine you are

ane of the hundreds af thousands

thraugh the warld for whom this

nightmare is real ity. Or think what

would happen to yau if your town

was destroyed by war, your fam ly

subject to arbitrary arres t or execu-

tion. What wauld you do?

If you tried ta find a safer place

ta live yau would become one of the

world's twenty mllion refugees.

These are the people who hove

become the la test target of Tory

racism and the gutter press.

The Tory Asylum Bill, introduced

late last year, was designed to

make sur e that any refugee who

tries to flee to Britain w ll have to

f ace a new nightmare of paverty,

detention and, for the vast majority,

swft deportation back to the hell-

holes they have escoped from.

Now, w th John Major firmy

reinstalled in Downing Street, the

racist Asylum Bill is back an the

agenda. The April general election

had forced the government toabandon the bill . It is once moreunder government review, wth the

results expected some time around

September.

It's anyone's guess what

" impravements" to the bil l the Tories

wll try ta get away wth in their

fourth consecutive term. Its relaunch

wll almast certainly be surrounded

by a media-fog of scoremangering,

lies and blatant racism, just as it

was first time around.

Under the old bill asylum

seekers who arrived in Britain via a

" sof e" third country would have

AntiFA S C I S TM i ,t 't l

With the Tories back in power state racism is firmlyback on the agenda. The Asylum Bill is beingrevamped ready for the autumn. Sam Lowry looksat what it proposes


PART OF THE TORRENT OF RACISM FROM THE TORY PRESS AT THE TIMETHE ASYLUM BIU WAS FIRST PROPOSED

17

been deported back to i t, i rrespec-

tive of the treatment they mght

receive there. All asylum seekers

would be finger-printed - treatment

reserved for crimnals in Britain.

They would have no right to local

authority housing and would

probobly be unable to claim any

benefits for weeks or months due to

Home Office requirements concern-ing proof of identi ty.

An asylum seeker would have

only 48 hours to appeal ogainst a

deportation order and some would

have no right of appeal at all. The

right to legal aid for asylum seekers

would also be abolished. If you

arrived wth no documents, did not

apply immediately for asylum, did

not try to move to 0 "safe" port of

your own country, refused to be

fingerprinted or even just attempted

to speak out in Britain against your

country' s regime you could then be

deported straight away!

Many would-be osylum seekers

w ll never get as f ar as Immgration

Control. European countr ies such as

France, Germany, Belgium and Ita ly

now fine airlines around 1,000 for

carrying passengers wthout correct

documents. Britain has just increased

its fine to 2,000.

To justi fy this move the Tories

tried to whip up scare stories about

"bogus refugees" who are reolly

"economc migrants". Bernard

Ingham, Margaret Thatcher 's old

press secretary declared:

"Britain - and to a degree

Westmnster, as the traditional home

of the lost dogs of this world -

cannot continue to allow itself to be

exploi ted in this way"

Tory MP, David Evans splut-

tered:

"Why should this country be the

world's dumping ground for asylum

seekers?"

The reality for those seeking a


18/20

18

RACISM

hoven from persecution and repres-sian is very different .

Br itain receives the smal les tnumber of asylum seekers of all themajor European countries - approxi-mately 200 per week and the Toriesare forcing down the numberswithout any new legislation. Inaddition, most white Europeanrefugees get admmitance without toomany problems, while only a tinyminor ity of non-Europeans qual ify.

The plai n fact is that the Toriessimply decided to ploy the racecord, portly to tighten up theborders of "Fortr ess Europe" andportly as a vote-winning exercise

aki n to Thatcher's 1978 attempts tounder cut the Notional Front votebefore the 1979 election. At thattime she remarked:

"The British character has donemuch for democracy, for low, anddone so much throughout the worldthat if there is any fear that it mightbe swamped, people are going toreact and be rather hostile to thosecoming in."

Despite the pitifully inept lies ofthe BNP and NF, the 1971 Immigra-tion Act coupled with variousamendments to immigration rules inthe late-1970s ensur ed that primaryimmigration into Britain was effec-

'REVIEWThe people who spoke las t night for

a group called Anti-Fascist Acfion, aston-ishingly, were allowed to put tne case forphysically opposing tneir right wing oppo-nents, and to boast of tne street battlestney have already fought.

Their main spokesman, a bur ly ru]-fian witn a tnick Geordie accent, a leotherjacket and a woolly hat of tne type wornby football supporters, sneered at good,old-Ioshioned l iberals and trendy lefties"who would be uneasy about his messageof violence, and who might argue thottnere were olher ways to oppose fascis t

groups. "We're not ei tner/or", he said,'we're for bolh" ,There could be marches and events

and exhibitions against fascism, but "ifyou're not pre pored to meet force witnpolitical force" - and the weaselly word"polificol" had clear ly been inserted hereagainst the general tenor of tne argument- "then you must retir e from the politicaloreno" I he said.

Various supporters of Anti -FascistAction were shown in silhouette as theytalked witn relish of the violent confronta-t ions witn Br it ish Nat ional Par ty support-ers, and of the alleged links between tneBNP and protestan t Orange elements inScotlond. More openly, an Ant i-FascistAction sympothiser, former boxer TerryMarsh, t ried to explain the attraction of

fascism for whi te youths , and an old coup ie remembered tne ac tivi ties in the Eas tEnd of Sir Oswald Moseley - only forwool lyhot to asser t tnat Jews there in the1930s had not been so badly a ttacked asAsians today.

But tne overall message of the pro-gramme was that to evade confrontationwith fascism was "object polit ical coword-ice". In present ing a not ional plat form toa group which looks suspiciously l ike lef twing fascists eager for a street war withright wing fascists, tne BSC was plainlynot serving the interests of democracy.

How can it now witn equity resistany demand by tne BNP for the right toreply?

Peter PatersonDaily Mail 19.5.92

tivel y stopped completely. That onlyleft refugee status as a way ofgetting into the country. For manyrefugees escape from their homecountry is often a matter of life ordeath. But for the Tories this is acomplete i rrelevance. The "lostdogs", li ving in countries exploitedand devastated for years by Britianand other imperialist powers, willhave to fend for themselves and diein the process jf they can find noother hoven.

Meanwhile every year billionsof pounds are transferred from the

economies of the third world to thebanks of London, Tokyo and NewYork. This vastly outweighs the pitifulsums donated in the form of aid tocountries suffering from poverty andeconomic collapse as a result ofwestern exploitation.

Economic migration is welcomewhen it is the migration of profitsfrom one part of the globe toanother. The "free market" is whatthe Thatcher years were all about.And if you are a profit maker with150,000 or more in the bank andplan to employ two or more peopleyou can buy your way into Britain,

no problem.That is the other side of the

coin. The only people with aninterest in seeing a new Asylum Billenforced are the bosses. Their divideand rule tactics are designed tokeep us all in our places. Worse,the racism of the state and its tome

media help to lend credibility to thef il thy l ies of the likes of the BNP andNF.

But the numbers are i rrelevant .Citing the figur es exposes the Tories'hypocrisy but it must not lead to theconclusion that fewer is better. Thisis the logic of the Asylum Bill with its

built in endorsement of all theexis ting rac is t immigrat ion legisla-tion.

The argument that increasedimmigration or settlement by refu-gees would lead to more racism insociety is ut ter rubbish. Perpetuot inqthe myth of the "bogus refugee" willbreed more, not less racism,creating a climate in which racism isincreasingly respectabl e. And thefascists will toke full advantage ofthis. We have to begin organisingright now to smash the new AsylumBill off the Tories' agenda for thei rnew term. There is no time to lose.

AFAonthe boxIn May BBC2's Open Space ran adocumentary with a di fference . Insteadof the usual liberal treatment of theques tion of fascism and rac ism, a wholehalf hour was given over to AFA. Theprogramme, Fighting Talk [I! - Ed],was an incisive exposure of the fas-cists' activities and a militant call fordirect action, including physical con-frontati on, to stop them.

This clearly got right up the noseof some worthy figures viewing it. Weprint here Peter Paterson's outragedsplut ter ings in the Daily Mail- the pa-per that said "Hurrah for theBlackshirts!" in the thirties.

Incidentally, Paterson claims weequivocated about political force. Thisis a lie. The narrator said "physicalforce" loud and clear.

Interested in seeing our video nasty?Contact the box number.

A most serious error of judgment ap-pears to have been made las t night by tneSSC, in offer ing air time to a group whichquite unashamedly advocates the use ofpolitical violence.

The Open Space slot, allowinggroups or individuals access to television,together with the facilities to make tneirown programme, normally conforms to tneunderstanding which mot ivates a l iberalsociety l ike our own: tnat everyone is ent i-ri ed to express the ir v iews or opinions,provided that they do not seek to imposetnei r aims by vio lent or i llegal means .

F IG HT IN G TALK


19/20

L E T T E R S

S upport AFA prisonersDear Fighting Talk,

I am now coming close toserving two years of a four yearsentence for activities involvingan attack upon a leading organ-iser of fascist groups. I have'found the time has gone quicklydue totally to the fact that I havehad tremendous support from theAfA welfare fund.

It has always been easy tosupport people at the beginningof their sentence and then forgetabout them. But I have receivednothing but lOOper cent supportfrom the welfare fund.

Recently there has been ahigh l'ate of arrests amongst anti-fascists and these people haveto be supported financially if theyare fined. Also if they are unfor-tunate enough to be given a jailsentence they have to b~ giventhe moral and political supportof . letters and the financ;iai sup-port of donations to the welfarefund.

Tony, AFA prisoner

Donations: send chequesmade payable toAfA Welfare Fund

Soft on the ANL?Dear F ig ht in g Tal k,

The article in the last issue on theANL "Then and Now" rightly pointedto the problems with the politics of the"relaunched" (and soon to be re-

wound up by the looks of things) Anti-Nazi League (ANL). But I think thearticle painted too rosy a picture ofthe ANl in the 1970s.

The ANl Mark 1 did a lot ofwork in mobilising against the fascists,in particular in gett ing working classyouth involved in the struggle. Only adyed-in-the-wool sectarian would sayotherwise. But that struggle wasn't al-ways of the militant variety AFA standsfor.

Sure, the ANl in some areas cre-ated "squads" to take an the fascistson the streets. But that wasn't the gen-eral picture. After the Battle of Lewi-

sham the SWP were often the keenestto direct people away from militantconfrontation

The ANl's "brood" nature - in-cluding celebrities, respectable politi-cians who would run a mile from vio-lent confrontation, and 'the odd churchleader or lord - gave the SWP theexcuseto downplay confrontation veryearly on.

The fascists marched unopposedin Haxton the day after theANl's firstbig carnival in london. Worse, whenthe fascists marched on Brick Laneonthe same day as the second big lon-don carnival in September 1978, the


SWP refused to mobiliseagainst them.They took thousands of people awayfrom the fascistsand sent about twentyover to help the h~ndful 6f anti-fascistswho did try to confront the NF.

I was at Brick Lane that day andI was sickened by the idea that wewere outnumbered by the fascists atthe very same time as thousands ofanti-fascists were at a carnival on theother side of london.

This was a betrayal of militantanti-fascism and it happened in the"healthy" period of the ANL accord-ing to your article. And this is not theonly example. InSheffield, at the sametime, the ANL condemned me andothers in the Sheffield Anti-FascistCorn-mittee, because we took militant ac-tion agai nst fascist paper sellers in thearea. They said then what they are

saying now - our action was "squod-dist".

None of this is to downplay thepositive role that militant anti-fascistswithin the ANl did play on countlessoccasions in the 1970s. But often thisrole was played despite the plans ofthe ANL's SWP leaders rather thanbecause of them. And we shauldn'tforget that as well as the ANl thebattles against the fascistsin the 1970swere also fought by militants in nu-merous local anti-fascist and anti-roc-ist committees outside the ANl.

Yours in struggleArthur Merton, South london

AntiFA S C I S Tr 4 ,m~J t l .

If your group.Jsriot list~below and~ou:V;c:.u_ld"like

to get involved in th enational Anti-FascistAction

network or be kept in touch

with other groups through-

out the country please

contact London AFA as soon

as possible.

LondonAFA Herts AFABM 1734, london PO Box 245,WC1N 3XX StAlbans,

Birmingham AFA Hertfordshire

POBox 2414, Kent AFAHandsworth, PO Box 88, Rochester,BirminghamB21 OTZ KentMEl lAU

BrightonAFA LeedsAFAc/o Brighton Box 151, 52 Call lane,UnemployedCentre, leeds lS2 6DT6 TilburyPlace,

LeicesterAFARBrighton,Sussexc/o leicesterTC,

Bristol AFA SecularHall,c/o london AFA HumberstoneGate,

Cardiff AFAleicester

POBox 368, Cardiff, Uverpool AFAWales CF2 1SO PO Box 110,

Chesterfield ANL liverpool l69 8DP

POBox 178, Manchester AFA.Chesterfield POBox 83, South

Cleveland AFAWest PDO,

Box 13, c/o StMary's ManchesterM 15 5NJ

Centre, Corporotion Norwich AFARood,Middlesborough, POBox 73,Cleveland Norwich NR1 2EBDerby CARF St Albans AFAPOBox 70, c/o HertsAFADerby DEI 9JW

EdinburghAFATyne and Wear'

c/o Glasgow AFA Anti-FascistAssociation

Exeter AFA c/o 4 TheClothc/o TheFlying Past, Market, Newcasrie-PO Box 185, upon-T ne NEIlEAExeterEX44EW

Yark AFAGlasgow AFA c/o York UniversityPOBox 266, Glasgow, StudentsUnion,ScoriandG1 5RX Goodrich College, York

19


20/20

9

Merchandise

Ant iFASCISTAll cheques/postal orders poyable to Anti-Fascist Acfion, please include a contribu-tion towards post and pocking_

StickersAFA StickersCable Street Beat stickers

UNITYCARNIVAL

'92Last year AFA organised a 10,000strong anti-fascist carnival on Hack-ney Downs in East London. Thisyear we 'l l be repeating the exer-cise, but on a larger scale. Bondsalready booked to appear includeNew Model Army, 25th of Mayand Capitol Radio DJ Tim West-wood. The Unity' Carnival is a freefestival, and to pull it off we need

your support.Make sure your trade union

branch, polit ical party', solidarity' or-ganisotion or community' group ison the list of sponsors this year. Theminimum donat ion for sponsoringorganisations is just 50 - but feelfree to give as much as you like.

If you'd like an AFA speakerto talk about the carnival, or wouldlike to send in a donation to spon-sor

Documents

Fighting Talk - 03