BNP rally in Dagenham

[The Black Hand]

THe above look like ordinary people to me - why shouldn't people be against fascists?

 

[nwnm]

What was the percentage of white middleclass people on the demo?

Anti Facsist demos in a nutshell= White Middle Class bused in agreeing that all white working class people are genetically racsist and trying to solve hard questions like "but why do they not read the gaurdian?".terific

judging by the pics, I think you'll find anti fascist demo's in a nutshell would be lots of local working class people who think that a lot of fascists are lumpen scum who can't even spell properly let alone articulate an argument, and who get told what to do by middle class wankers like Nick 'the toff' Griffin.....

 

[JimPage]

Fuck the UAF and its daft slogans. Sorry, I'm just not very interested in the shouters of 'Nazi scum'.

But the reports that the BNP got only 50-80 at a rally in an area in which the BNP has gained a dozen councillors are interesting. These reports suggest that the BNP has not succeeded in building a strong movement in that area (if anywhere). The attenders at the BNP rally were probably their local membership.
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the attendance at this interests me- assuming the SWP/UAF attendance figures are to be accepted. 80 is well below what they are able to pull for a provincial branch meeting. i think a part of this is that the prospect of street level activities simply dont hold an attraction for your average fash any more-they see a better return to be had from comunity politics and standing for election. if this didnt work as a tactic for the fash- and i dont think it did- i think this will be a one off

interesting that the SWP/UAF fail to mention the high BNP votes in the 3 by-elections last week in Socialist Worker- including the 18% fascist vote in Southend which the SWP were boasting the other week they were mobilising for- and in which the BNP vote went up again.

If there are no real victories to be had where it matters- at the polls- you shoudl expect reports like this from the SWP. They actually think the battle against fascism is being won

 

[audiotech]

They actually think the battle against fascism is being won

That battle was won when the Red Army entered Berlin in 1945. National socialism raises it's head from time to time by a few cranks, but since 1945 and the discovery of the death camps, that ideology is totally discredited. Only a deluded fantasist would believe that fascism in the present is likely to triumph anywhere, never mind Britain, which has a proud and successful anti-fascist tradition.

 

[brasicritique]

nice pictures i am sure that the anti facists are in no way helping to foster BNP support where were the chavs?

 

[audiotech]

nice pictures i am sure that the anti facists are in no way helping to foster BNP support where were the chavs?

At a Goldie Lookin Chain gig talking Jamaican patois, whilst smokin' ganja man - where else?

 

[JoePolitix]

Excellent. Yet again various U75ers inform us that the main enemy is not the fascists at all but the anti-fascists and those pesky foreigners.

Silly twats

 

[mutley]

the attendance at this interests me- assuming the SWP/UAF attendance figures are to be accepted. 80 is well below what they are able to pull for a provincial branch meeting. i think a part of this is that the prospect of street level activities simply dont hold an attraction for your average fash any more-they see a better return to be had from comunity politics and standing for election. if this didnt work as a tactic for the fash- and i dont think it did- i think this will be a one off

Calling something like this and getting a pitiful turnout is a bad decision by any movement. Imagine if Respect called a rally in Tower Hamlets, (with a similar number of councillors) and got 80 ppl and a counter demo many times bigger. People would say that was a disaster for Respect, and they'd be right.

interesting that the SWP/UAF fail to mention the high BNP votes in the 3 by-elections last week in Socialist Worker- including the 18% fascist vote in Southend which the SWP were boasting the other week they were mobilising for- and in which the BNP vote went up again.

If there are no real victories to be had where it matters- at the polls- you shoudl expect reports like this from the SWP. They actually think the battle against fascism is being won

Actually the article in this weeks sw starts off by saying:

'There is an opportunity to rally the majority

The BNP has been building a worrying amount of support at the ballot box in recent years.

It polled over 230,000 votes at the council elections in May this year – as compared to only 3,000 six years ago – and now has around 48 councillors across Britain.

If this growth is not checked, there is a danger that the Nazis will take seats in the London Assembly in 2008, or in the 2009 Euro elections.'

No sign of any triumphalism there imo. The argument is that the battle against fascism can be won, if a broad movement is built.

Of course we can, and will argue endlessly about what exactly is necessary to win, but your argument that the swp are saying saturday shows that the battle is already being won is, well, bollocks. Saturday was a start, that's all.

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php?article_id=10332

It's the third section of the article

 

[JimPage]

That battle was won when the Red Army entered Berlin in 1945. National socialism raises it's head from time to time by a few cranks, but since 1945 and the discovery of the death camps, that ideology is totally discredited. Only a deluded fantasist would believe that fascism in the present is likely to triumph anywhere, never mind Britain, which has a proud and successful anti-fascist tradition.

But the BNP are fascist, have been repeatedly exposed as fascist, and people vote for them in increasing numbers

You say britain has a sucessful AF Tradition- i agree- but what passes for antifascism at the moment- UAF/SWP and Searchlight is a bad joke which is failing to stop BNP growth nationwide

 

[tbaldwin]

Excellent. Yet again various U75ers inform us that the main enemy is not the fascists at all but the anti-fascists and those pesky foreigners.

Silly twats

The thing is that the BNP in the 90s grew as a direct result of the publicity given to them by various organisations AFA,ARA and the ANL.
Public events gave their membership a focus and helped them attract people to their organisation...AFA started to get it all wrong when they staged events like reclaim the lane and then the SWP saw an opportunity to relaunch the ANL,,,all of that helped the BNP.