Anti-Fascism

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RMT activists oppose Lewis expulsion decision

The conference on 23-27 June of the rail union RMT passed, by a majority of two votes with six abstentions, a motion expelling left Labour MP Clive Lewis from the RMT’s Parliamentary Group. The conference decided that Lewis should be expelled unless he retracts and apologises for the criticisms he made of comments by RMT member Eddie Dempsey from the platform of a “Full Brexit” rally. RMT activists who oppose the decision are circulating a statement of protest, already signed by numerous AGM delegates as well dozens of other union activists. Lewis criticised Dempsey’s assertion that Tommy...

After Christchurch, organise against far right

Friday 15 March was a day of contrast in both Australia and New Zealand – exuberance and militant action by students striking for climate action in both Australia; followed immediately by immense sadness, horror and anger at the mass murder by a fascist at a mosque in Christchurch. The apparent attacker, an Australian, made it clear in his manifesto that the murders were inspired by white supremacist neo-Nazi ideology. He was on no police or security service list, nor known to socialist or anarchist anti-fascists who monitor the right’s social media and other publicity. Apparently he was...

Far right in Leeds

The far right organised a “Yellow Vest” pro-Brexit demo in Leeds on 19 January. Since it was also a RMT strike day on Northern Trains, a special effort was made by the Leeds labour movement to turn out for the city centre picket. In Manchester recently, fascists on a “yellow vest” demo abused and threatened a picket line. About 100 turned out to back the RMT: Labour people, various flavours of socialists, Momentum, Young Labour, and Leeds Anti Fascist Network. A couple of fascists turned up to jeer and film, but the main yellow vest group stayed clear. The far ­right protest was called by...

Leeds socialists attacked

On Monday 7 January, a group calling itself “Justice for Women and Girls”, led by Lee Scheres (aka Lee Baylan), who runs the “Antifa Public Watch” Facebook site, invaded a Leeds Socialist Party closed meeting. A drunken and wired Lee Scheres and his pals tried to disrupt the meeting, intimidating people, filming them, squaring up to them, seizing papers off them etc. Leeds Socialist Party report: “Bar staff assisted to escort them out of the venue. No one was hurt during the incident. “During their interruption of our meeting they accused us of campaigning against women and child victims of...

Industrial news in brief

Drivers in Darlington, Durham, Redcar, Stockton and Whitby working for Arriva have started a week long strike over pay. Unite members rejected a revised pay offer just before Christmas. The drivers are some of the lowest paid across the whole of Arriva buses. Arriva claim that 25% of buses have continued to run over the first 48 hours, but there has been widespread disruption with Unite stating they are willing to re¬enter talks as soon as the company confirm that a revised pay offer would be made. After this week Unite says it will consult members again as to what follow up action will be...

Rail workers’ picket line attacked by far right

On 5 January an RMT picket line of striking Northern guards in Manchester was attacked by far-right thugs connected to the Democratic Football Lads Alliance and the rump English Defence League. It seems the attack may have been an opportunistic action by far-right activists mobilised for a demo of...

The politics of Casablanca

Casablanca, which came out in November 1942, in the first year of US participation in the Second World War, may be the most popular Hollywood movie ever made. It is at the centre of a big cult, and part of another big cult, that of its star, Humphrey Bogart. It is a highly-burnished fable, or set of fables, about how good (though at first politically disoriented), not so good, and thoroughly bad people finally rally to "the fight against fascism" as embodied in the Allied, specifically the American, cause in World War Two. Casablanca is about sexual love. It is saturated with it, from the...

Best for Business?

In the closing speech at the Another Europe Is Possible conference on 8 December, Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle recommended Best for Britain as the group with which AEIP should combine to form a joint campaign in a new public vote on Brexit. Because the speech was right at the end of the conference, no one had a chance to point out that an amendment passed earlier in the day, moved by Ben Towse and insisting that AEIP must above all voice an independent left-wing line, contradicted this proposal. But it did. Events the next day (9 December) dramatised the argument. AEIP, rightly, was on the...

Brexit and fighting the far right

Stopping Brexit isn’t anti-fascism Callum Cant takes issue over the 9 December counter¬demo The Democratic Football Lads Alliance (DFLA) are obsessed with trade unions. When their march was blocked in October, their leadership couldn’t stop themselves from fantasising about beating up organised workers. For many of their supporters, the organisation’s high point was when a DFLA group launched a serious physical attack on RMT members in a pub in Whitehall. The essence of their politics is a hatred of the organised working class. This is not a new dynamic – indeed, Clara Zetkin wrote about the...

Labour Against Racism and Fascism launched

On Monday 15 October I attended a meeting on behalf of my union branch, Lambeth Unison, to discuss the setting up a local Labour Against Racism and Fascism network. The meeting was attended by Secretaries and BAME Forum members from 14 South London local Labour Parties, as well as union reps. The meeting was initiated by activists in Dulwich and West Norwood CLP who had been alarmed by the rise of new far-right street movements in the UK, led by the Democratic Football Lads Alliance (DFLA), and coalescing around the #FreeTommy movement. The new far right movement had organised #FreeTommy...

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