June 2004 Elections: Working-class policies to defeat the fascists

By Janine Booth

The response of the left and labour movement to the growth of the fascists is to back "Unite Against Fascism" (UAF).
This is a campaign that could have sufficient weight to have a real impact: turning people away from the BNP, recruiting for the labour movement and making the arguments on issues such as asylum. However, UAF's strategy at the moment is to urge people to vote for "anyone but the BNP", and to urge "legitimate parties", eg, the Tories, and "faith communities", to turn out their vote at the election.

This strategy seems counterproductive to me. Its rationale is that if more people turn out in the elections and vote for other parties, the BNP's percentage share of the vote will be less. It avoids confronting people who are attracted to the BNP and winning what may be difficult arguments on issues such as race and asylum.

We are deluding ourselves if we think that turning out the Tory vote, or encouraging people to vote along religious-communal lines, will aid the fight against the BNP.

Even if the maths are right, the effect will be like pruning a shrub: cutting it back temporarily only to enable it to grow back stronger than ever.

When, as is likely, the BNP wins more seats, the labour movement will need to rethink its strategy.

We need a strategy based on undercutting the BNP's base through assertive working-class politics. Below are the proposals adopted by, my branch, the Finsbury branch of the RMT:

"This branch believes that the fascist British National Party is fundamentally an anti-working-class party: it is also racist, anti-semitic, sexist and homophobic.

"We believe that two of the main factors that have enabled the BNP to grow are:

1. The Labour Government's betrayal of working-class people, and its abandonment of working-class communities;
2. The relentless attacks on immigrants and asylum-seekers from the Labour Government, other mainstream parties, and sections of the media.

We believe that to effectively oppose the BNP, trade unionists need to:

1. Organise against the fascists, politically, ideologically, and, where necessary, physically;
2. Support self-defence by those communities targeted by the fascists;
3. Work alongside activists in working-class communities, campaigning on issues such as housing and local services;
4. Oppose all forms of racism, including demonisation of immigrants;
5. Fight for demands which will benefit and unite workers of all races, eg, a higher minimum wage, against privatisation, for better pensions.

It is important that we have an urgent, united labour movement response to the BNP. We do not believe that bland condemnation of fascists, with no mention of issues such as those above, is adequate. Further, we believe that our campaign should not involve uniting with anti-labour-movement groups such as the Tory Party, as this would give them 'anti-fascist' credibility which they do not deserve, would prevent us from advocating the working-class politics that are necessary to win support away from the BNP, and would re-sow the seeds from which fascism grows."