discussion of this article

Chris S said…

It was an absolute disgrace. The SWP leadership of the anti fascist movement has led us to a point where they preach retreat from the fascists when we clearly outnumbered them and clearly could of swept them off church street. All was needed was a bit of determination and clear leadership. The UAF didn't even send out spotters and let the police give them the run around, if the UAF leadership can't do their job properly then its time to get rid of them.

Sun 30, November 2008 @ 14:07

A member of Anarchist Federation said…

No Parasan - 'They shall not pass'.

The UAF proves itself over and over again to be in a camp far detatched from that mentality. They act with crossed fingers behind their backs and a selfish agenda that feeds on the good intentions of angry liberals.

I personally advocate a policy of open hostility to the UAF and while I could bitch about issues I have with Antifa, such as their lack of promotting mass community actions, they have flesh and blood tactics and clear intentions.

Last night I was at a piss-up with reds from a wide spread of groups as CPGB, your good selves at PR and a few of us from AF and we all agreed Weyman Bennett is a class enemy.

Sun 30, November 2008 @ 14:39

Robbie said…

The BNP is growing, and thanks to the appalling events of yesterday will no doubt be emboldened- over 100 fascists distributing racist filth, waving their flags and, thanks to the misleadership of UAF, not driven off the streets.

A new leadership of the anti-fascist movement is long overdue. It is an absolute disgrace that proven collaborationists like Weyman Bennet are leading the movement- down a blind alley, and merely as a recruitment tool. UAF embodies an utter rejection of militant anti-fascism and the politics of working class anti-fascism. Their leadership must be challenged, and challenged soon.

Sun 30, November 2008 @ 14:43

Josh D said…

I think what Weymann Bennett did was absolutely disgraceful. It was quite telling that he received such a lot of booing and opposition when he told the demonstration it was moving on - I'm sure he'll try to spin it that it was just a small group of ultra-left adventurists etc who opposed him but because everyone from the demo in the morning had been told to go home a large part of the crowd were, as the article says, passers-by who joined us.

The UAF strategy doesn't have a hope of defeating fascism. Weyman Bennett and the SWP were quite happy to keep us away from the fascists and leave them undisturbed (by allowing and effectively helping the police to move us on no one who was been leafletted by the BNP would've even heard our protest) and all of the speeches had an air of self-congratulation about them. Then again, if you don't set yourself any goals its hard not to see yourself as successful.

Bennett kept saying that our strategy should be that if the BNP give out their leaflets we must make sure that we give out more. Fair enough, but only if we have as our goal stopping the BNP from leafletting. The hopeless ability of the UAF and SWP leadership to stage any confrontation with the fascists (see the Leeds anti BPP protest where they proposed to have a vigil on the other side of town to where the fascists were then didn't build the successful counter-demonstration) combined with aconception of antifascism that focuses primarily on elections and one-off big events and neglects the need to build strong local groups means that they won't defeat the BNP now and would be even worse placed to deal with any fascism if it reached mass support.

Sun 30, November 2008 @ 16:03

SteveR said…

Anarchist Federation members said: "a wide spread of groups as CPGB, your good selves at PR and a few of us from AF and we all agreed Weyman Bennett is a class enemy."

how can one disagree??!!

problem is tho, that Weyman Bennett as leader of UAF has the support of the big TUs as well as Trades Councils and TU branches; the fight for a working class policy HAS TO BE FOUGHT: it's with the present leadership of our class, they are essentially social-democrats, ie reformists (which is necessarily pro-bourgeois) and it is correct for us as revolutionaries to join their social-democratic organisations.

it's true that UAF are totally opposed to 'militant anti-fascism', and we should battle with them, politically in UAF as well as our affiliated unions

because that is how we win over those that believe in 'the leaders' (reformism).

also, there is more than 'a place for' militant anti-fascism ("MAF") - there's a desperate need for it!

don't we understand that the way to stop the fascists is by militant mobilisation of workers, using violence or the threat of it where necessary?!

it's strange - but maybe not that strange, that the "w.mids antifa" don't want anything to do with me except a short email saying that my attitude to UAF is incompatible with their antifa group.

Sun 30, November 2008 @ 17:27

bill j said…

Yep Weyman Bennett surpassed himself yesterday. We easily had the numbers to see off the fascists. Yet on the word of the police he sent everyone home.

5 minutes later the Nazis appeared with a police escort.

We managed to get down to them, formed a cordon and once again Bennett told us to go home as there was nothing we could do - now there weren’t enough of us even to stand and shout.

Weyman Bennett and the UAF want the police to protect us against the fascists. So they do the cops bidding at every step.

People need to watch them with care in future - stupid us we should have known that before - three times bitten now we know better.

Sun 30, November 2008 @ 18:24

Peter Liverpool said…

I heard that the UAF leadership had taken a bribe and that is why the fascists knew when and where to show up. also what was disturbing was the fact that the fascist lie lorries were able to go around spreading their messages of hate.

I feel that we lost this because of the traitors in the UAF, but the hard work of true anti-fascist’s we managed to pull back some credibility.

Sun 30, November 2008 @ 19:27

Chris S said…

I doubt very much they took a bribe, you can't just make that sort of accusation without backing it up.

Sun 30, November 2008 @ 19:56

Mark H said…

Militant trade unionists, socialists and anti-fascists will be getting together in Liverpool to discuss the lessons of this counter-demo and make sure that the fascists don't get any more free rides in the city.

There were more than enough of us yesterday to see the fascists off, but the demo was, disastrously dispersed at the wrong time. Why, because the police "said the BNP" weren't coming. Well, myself and another trade unionist wandered down to where the fascists leafleted after this announcement and came back to tell people that there was a large police presence plus several fascists preparing to leaflet at the junction of Paradise Street. As people were leaving we went round and told as many as we could to stay as it didn't require genius to work out that the fascists and police had cooked up a deal. 

When the fascists came a few of us did get to mingle with them and tell them what we thought - before being reported by the fascists to the police who dutifully protected them. Still their bravado was a little shaken by our none too polite intervention. And it emboldened quite a few shoppers and passers by to tell the fascists where to go. 

Why did the UAF take the word of the police? Most of those present would have stayed had the truth been made known to them that the fascists were gathering at - as it turns out - St George's Gardens (doh!). One spotter could have got this information to the demo (in fact one did but too late). The reason the UAF wanted to believe the police was so they could claim a victory. That keeps up the idea that everything is hunky dory and "we are winning". But it doesn't deliver real victories - as yesterday proved. The UAF can't face the fact that victories have to be earned the hard way. They are not granted by official decree - from the police, the government or the state. 

The annoying thing is that we could easily have won such a victory yesterday had the UAF not dispersed the demo on the police's say so. 

Lesson - don't believe the police. I don't believe UAF took a bribe - I do believe they pursue a policy of collaboration with the police. This is partly based on the nature of the organisation - an organisation so broad that it cannot associate itself with militant anti-fascism for fear of alienating its reformist, liberal and bureaucratic allies. It favours pacifism and collaboration with the state. Yet defeating fascism is a struggle that all history demonstrates requires the use of more persuasive methods of argument. 

It is also partly because of the UAF propaganda line against fascism - that they are all criminals (in the legal sense) and that the police should therefore "do something about them". Of course what this leaves out of account is that thanks to our opposition to fascism and capitalism over the years there's quite a few of us who are "criminals" in the legal sense. And the fascists will be happy to point this out, making a nonsense of the UAF's main propaganda argument. The point we need to make is criminal record or no a fascist is a fascist and the way to deal with them is to smash them not ask the police to arrest them. 

A final point, the UAF are a liability in that they put their own demos and a lot of people on them at risk. Yesterday was a case in point. Fascists were mingling with the demo and filming it extensively. The UAF did nothing. Indeed had it not been for a brusque intervention by a number of Liverpool trade unionists it is likely that the BNP would have had enough footage of our demo for several episodes of Strictly Come Protesting. 

Lesson two - when we go up against the fascists we need a strong, disciplined and highly effective stewarding network. 

These and other lessons will be taken up in Liverpool, rest assured - there's a long struggle ahead in the run up to the European elections.

Sun 30, November 2008 @ 20:40

A member of Anarchist Federation said…

After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad and the vampire, he had some awful stuff left with which he made XXX xXX (PR webby - no personal abuse allowed  - thanks).

 

XXX xXXis a two-legged animal with a corkscrew soul, a waterlogged brain, and a combination backbone made of jelly and glue. Where others have hearts he carries a tumor of rotten principles.

 

When XXX xXX comes down the street men turn their backs and angels weep in heaven, and the devil shuts the gates of hell to keep hime out. No man has a right to be XXX xXX as there is a pool of water deep enough to drown his body in, or a rope long enough to hang his carcass with. Judas Iscariot was a gentleman compared to XXX xXX. For betraying his master he had the character to hang himself. XXX xXX hasn't.

Sun 30, November 2008 @ 21:45

PR webby said…

Just to say - lay off personal abuse

PR webby

Sun 30, November 2008 @ 22:00

ticking fool said…

>Militant trade unionists, socialists and anti-fascists will be getting

>together in Liverpool to discuss the lessons of this counter-demo and make

>sure that the fascists don't get any more free rides in the city.

We've been talking this round and how to go about it on a different forum. How does Wednesday 10th in the social centre sound?

Mon 01, December 2008 @ 10:38

John C. said…

In his "victory" speech, Weyman Bennett (when he thought there were no fascists around)declared that if they had turned up we would have marched down Church St., taken their leaflets off them and driven them out of town. Yet, not one hour later (when there were some fascists around) he told us we had to turn tail and march away. Maybe the U in UAF stands for U turn.

Mon 01, December 2008 @ 22:00

Mark H said…

I can't do Wednesday 10th cause of a prior commitment. Could make the 11th though.

Mon 01, December 2008 @ 22:15

Josh D said…

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=16600

Its pretty staggering how they think they can get away with so much dishonesty.

Tue 02, December 2008 @ 19:01

Josh D said…

Oops, wrong link. Their report's here: http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=16601

Tue 02, December 2008 @ 19:22

bill j said…

This quote really takes the biscuit;

"On hearing the police claims many protesters assumed that they had won and dispersed.

Others, including UAF speakers, argued that they should not trust the police’s assurances and should instead march down to where the fascists had been due to meet."

Tue 02, December 2008 @ 23:48

mark H said…

I want to tell people a version of Saturday’s events as I saw them.

I am a Liverpool Trade Union activist and a PR supporter. I was one of the people present on Saturday who had mobilised people to come along directly from their workplace. I have campaigned against the fascists in Liverpool for the past five and a half years (since I moved back here) largely via unglamorous mass leafletting on estates the BNP have targeted, through pickets and demos against their activities and through day to day propaganda in my workplace and the wider trade union movement.

My response to Saturday’s events is that for the Liverpool movement it was a wasted opportunity to deal a serious blow to the local BNP, for the national movement it highlights a problem of the growth of illusions in the role of the police which will prove disastrous as the fascist grow.

I was at the demo on Saturday from around 9.30am to the end. The demo was an excellent mobilisation that was, sadly, misled on the day. It was misled in two ways.

First, there was an over reliance on the police for the maintenance of order on our demo. This reached the point were a very well known BNP thug and several accomplices acting as his bodyguard were actually amongst our ranks filming our demo (you can check You Tube for the results) and he would not have been moved on had it not been for the direct and forcefull intervention of myself and a number of other Liverpool trade unionists. As a result of this terrible neglect of elementary stewarding several of us organised groups to carry out some very stewarding duties around the perimiter of our demo. The point being (and this has nothing to do with police liaison and everything to do with a wrongheaded reliance on the police) the UAF did not address this essential task at all. On Saturday we were fortunate that the thugs sent early were only interesting in filming the protesters rather than filleting them. But there’s no gurantee that the the BNP will be so timid in the future. It is completely mistaken of the UADF to assume that the job of protecting our demo belonged to the police. It doesn’t, it belongs to us.

Secondly, the demo organisers wrongly relied on the police for information about the BNP. This meant that a victory was declared prematurely when in fact the BNP enjoyed the freedom to hold a rally on St George’s Plateau and then leaflet for about 90 minutes at the city centre’s busiest shopping junction.

I may be naive but in 36 years experience of being involved in demos in general and anti-fascist demos in particular I have always operated on the basic understanding that the police lie - they framed building workers’ pickets, they imprisoned innocent Irish people, they covered up for the murders of black people and now they cover up for the killers of innocent people at Stockwell Tube.

Given that we know they are liars a question to some of the posters on here attacking PR’s version of events - why did anyone believe them on Saturday? I didn’t, and immediately I heard the premature announcement of “victory” I moved quickly, along with other to deploy spotters. I also urged one of the organisers to ensure that we did not get dispersed until we had firm evidence of what was happening.

Unfortunately my viewpoint did not find sufficient favour and the dispersal proceeded. I then went to get evidence that this “victory” was not all it seemed to be directly, myself. I discovered the fascists’ advance scouts and reported the heavy police presence at the point they leafletted approximately 15 minutes after “victory” had been announced. I gave this information to key organisers. It was too late. Though - as some people present will recall - I did contact as many organised groups and individuals as I could to ask them to stay around

At this point I find myself getting dismayed, rather than annoyed, at the name calling of PR and others. Why? Because at precisely this point, when we lacked numbers and organisation, nine of us - including PR members, went right into the fascists’ midst and to the best of our ability tried to point out to them the errors of their ways. For our pains we were immediately pounced upon by the police and moved on. After being moved on we helped - with others - rally a small but determined core of anti-fascists to begin a noisy protest against the fascists as our attempt to deal with them more directly had not come off. I should point out to the silly people who are talking about puffed up chests and such like that we undertook the attempt to engage the BNP directly and the organising of the counter protest because we are anti-fascists. Questions of ego don’t enter into it. We had a job to do and tried to do it.

We also played an important role in stewarding that protest and minimising the number of arrests. Our complaint about the UAF, and in particular Wyman Bennett’s continuing negotiations with a police force that had not only lied to to the anti-fascists but was now busy corralling them to weaken the protest that we were by that stage able to undertake, is that it did neither of these things. It did not steward nor did it seek to minimise arrests. It followed the wrong track of negotiating a retreat (at the point where anti-fascist numbers were growing because of our agitation amongst shoppers and other passers by) with the police to move us back. Why did it do this? No answer has been given, especially as at that point the police had not yet made its move to attack the anti-fascists? Why help disperse a protest that was steadily gaining in momentum?

After the police moved the anti-fascist demo away I “slipped the escort” and followed the BNP back to their rally point - St George’s Hall (pretty obvious) and a mere five minute walk from the original anti-fascist assembly point. There were around 100 of them. They had previously held an unimpeded rally at St George’s (see BNP tv). Had our mobilisation not been straitjacketed by reliance on the police - had we said we (as some of us actually did) let’s go round the corner and see for ourselves what’s going on I am fairly confident that the BNP would have encountered a fairly serious defeat in Liverpool because the demo at its height - before it was wrongly dispersed, by people wrongly relying on the police, and wrongly believing that our mobilisations can be protected by the police - could have routed the BNP far more effectively than the efforts of around nine of us to separate the leaflets from the leafleters.

But at least from this position of disadvantage we still managed to wage an effective noisy counter demo while they were leafletting. Why tell such a demo to retreat when the option for it following and at least verbally haranguing the BNP - which was producing a very good response to our case from the shoppers in town - still existed?

I will not confine the attempt to learn these lessons to an internet forum. I will take them into my workplace (I already have), my stewards’ committee, the Merseyside trades councils, my union and the Merseyside Coalition Against Racism and Fascism.

Finally - can anyone on here point to one single line of the report on the PR website that is untrue. You may disagree with conslusions and opinions drawn. Fair enough. But facts are stubborn things.

Cheers - and thanks for reading.

Tue 02, December 2008 @ 23:53

Billy D said…

Are you all crazy? It seems like you only wanted to have ruck, not just with BNP but also with the Police. It would have been a PR catastrophe for us, and a huge victory for them. Just imagine it, Christmas shoppers and children injured by anti fascist rioters. It would result in more publicity for them, the whole country would vote for the BNP just to get you all locked up. If you cannot beat them by reasoned argument, then we don't deserve to win.

Wed 03, December 2008 @ 00:15

George B said…

Billy D - thanks for your contribution, however much I disagree with it. You've summed up in the final sentence the liberal version of anti-fascism quite nicely with which some comrades in the Communist Party of Great Britain (publishers of the Weekly Worker) seem to agree.

Along with most everyone who gathered in Liverpool to oppose the BNP distributing their racist propaganda, PR supporters consider the BNP a fascist organisation. Regardless of its bid for electoral respectability of a sort its core leadership is utterly committed to the politics of 'National Socialism' - German Nazism.

Our response to such organisations is to seek to implement a policy of 'no platform', which includes the use of physical force in an attempt to make it as difficult as possible to function in the public sphere. I have seen no historical evidence to suggest that fascist organisations have ever been beaten by 'reasoned argument', which is not to deny that there is an ideological battle to be fought as well as a physical one.

While there were many legitimate criticisms to be made of Anti-Fascist Action, I have little doubt that its no platform activities in East London and elsewhere in the early 1990s helped minimise the effectiveness of the BNP against the backdrop of the last major recession.

I was not in Liverpool last Saturday, but from the accounts I've read from a number of sources the opportunity existed last Saturday to either stop the BNP leafleting proceeding altogether or at the very least to hector and harry the fascists and their sympathisers throughout without inflicting injuries on unsuspecting Christmas shoppers.

No doubt I've failed to convince you, Billy, if in fact you've read this reply, but at least we are in the relatively fortunate position of being able to continue the debate on the e-list.

Wed 03, December 2008 @ 08:03

Billy D said…

"And therefore as a stranger give it welcome. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy".

Preventing people from expressing their opinions is clearly fascism that is exactly what fascism is. It’s a desire to dominate, control and oppress everyone who doesn’t agree with your opinion.

The point is, who are you, or anyone else to say which parties and opinions should be allowed and should not be allowed when they are within the laws of the land? I’ve already heard too much from those that seem to have a lot of ideas about the opinions that can and cannot be held and heard in order to “protect democracy” - the same insanity as “fighting for peace.”

I think the people are sick and tired of extremists and polemicists of both wings attempting to shove a way of life and a political ideology down their throats that they clearly do not want - most people just seem to really want a government that just runs the services competently and fairly and no more. Certainly not a government that really believes it has the right to perpetually interfere in its citizen’s lives in a politically motivated fashion and decide which political opinions can be held.

Whilst you’re all getting in a fervour about the BNP putting a few leaflets out, the real fascists are progressing with their plans virtually unhindered. This government has introduced over 3000 new laws since it came to power, many to stifle legitimate opposition. People’s civil liberties are being eroded constantly by the EU, who now have plans to build it’s own army to suppress any internal dissention from within a member state, thus making it impossible for any member to ever leave should the population wish it.

Have you ever wondered why the policies of the three main political parties seem to be so similar? Why when one replaces the other there is only tinkering with the system, never any really radical changes? Have you ever considered why mass immigration into this country was started in the first place, without so much as a by your leave, much less a referendum. Or why it continues unabated despite the undertakings that are given to stop to it? Do you really believe that this is down to mere ineptitude or stupidity on the part of our senior politicians? What, all of them? Because all the major politicians and major parties go along with it. I think it was President Roosevelt who remarked "There are no accidents in politics". In other words in politics everything is mapped out in advance with the most meticulous care, leaving very little to chance.

As well as the EU, there’s also exists an African Union, a Pacific/Asian Union, and a North American Union. There is little known about this NAU, which has essentially ended the United States as people know it. Mexico, Canada and the U.S.A. have been joined together like Europe. The sovereignty of these countries will not exist anymore in their own right. The Amero will eventually replace all three currencies.

The motive is not money. At a certain level money ceases to have meaning. No, the name of the game is Power and Control. It is expected that plans are already afoot by these Super power Elites to move southward towards Central and South America to cement the entire American Union. With theses four gigantic unions in place, it would then take very little to merge all to form the ‘Global Union’ envisaged by these Global Power masters so many decades long ago to complete their plan of a “New World Order”. When that happens don’t expect it to be a socialist paradise, it will be more like a global concentration camp where everyone will be RFID chipped and enslaved, give them any trouble and they’ll just turn your chip off so you couldn't buy a loaf of bread, this is what is planned for you.

This is a very real and sinister Orwellian nightmare coming true before your eyes. These are real Fascists, and true to form they are getting the plebs to do their dirty work for them, by creating imaginary bogymen like the BNP and Islamic fascists.

And those trying to demean honest people with derogatory and inflammatory labels such as ‘troll’ simply for expressing a legitimate and reasonable opinion, are fooling no one when they attempt to cloak themselves as “defenders of democracy.”

Wed 03, December 2008 @ 10:09

John said…

'The Nazis, determined to defend their right to incite assaults against innocent black people'

Since when were the BNP a Nazi party? As far as I am aware anti-Bolshevism does not appear on their agenda.

Mon 08, December 2008 @ 01:19

terry fitz said…

Haven't seen this discussion before but I must say it is much better than socialist unity in its exposure of the antics of UAF. I was born in Bootle but have lived most of my life in the south. I have been involved in the anti fascist movement in London since 1974 and have had a lot of experience of the SWP/UAF and weyman Bennet in particular. It seems that Liverpool has only just had the priviledge of Mr Bennet's attention so let megive you all a bit of history.

I live in the East End of London and have been ivolved in anti fascist work here and around the South East working with various groups including Searchlight although I have my own network of friends and other activists who,like me , tend to be Libertarians of various shades.

In about 2003 a backroom deal was done between the SWP/ANL and Ken Livingstone's Socialist Action a weird Trot group which had developed a theory that the revolution was to be made by oppressed minorities such as blacks, women, gays in fact anyone but the working class whom they had written off.

ANL/SWP couldn't get trades union money because of all the trouble they caused in various union branches but they had members and could pull people out onto the streets. the SA front was the National Assembly Against Racism ,NAAR, which had no activities, no members and, in the wider movement no credibility, but through Livingstone access to cash from the unions and the Greater London Assembly.

UAF was announced as a done deal, there were no meetings leading up to it and no elections, it was a take it or leave it deal and anyone who didn't go along was denounced as a wrecker and a splitter a la the Judean Popular Front, or was it the Popular Front of Judea I can never remember?

As the time the ANL organiser was Julie Waterson who I alwys got on with along as we stayed off politics. She was an energetic and capable organiser but was unacceptable to the NAAR, and in particular Lee Jasper then the race advisor to Livingstone, because she was white. NAAR demandedthat the movement must be black led as facism only oppressed black people and all white people were subconsciously racist even if they didn't know it!

Two non white national disorganisers were appointed, Weyman Bennett and Sabby Dhalu, he black and she Asian. Both are useless and have to be told what to do. Bennett cannot agree to anything unless he phones Martin Smith from the SWP CC who actually treats him in the most appallingly racist way.

Initially there was an attempt to keep out Searchlight but at the insistence of the unions they had two people on the steering committee. It never worked from the word go because Searchlight had built up a network of local groups around the country based usually on local Labour Parties and Trades Unions as well as community and faith groups. There are now somewhere in the region of sixty or so that can be seen on the Searchlight and Hope Not Hate sites.

SWP/UAF/NAAR now demanded that all of these groups rename themselves the local UAF branch, that all monies collected be sent to London headquarters and all material be printed in London and sent out the branches for distribution. This was refused all over the country even after there were threats of phsysical force.

What then happened was that the local SWP branch became the UAF branch so that there were now two parallel organisations operating across the country. While the Hope Not Hate campaign concentrated all its efforts on the BNP, UAF functioned or didn't according to the whims of the SWP CC. In the campaign leading up to the BNP taking the twelve seats in Barking and Dagenham in 2006 we didn't see a sign of them because as Respect they were all ordered into Tower Hamlets to campaign there and their claims of activity on their wed site were just lies.

They then began attacking Searchlight/Hope Not Hate in the most stupid ways. Because one of the ways that the BNP have been held is to go onto the estates where they are getting support and leaflet and talk to people Sabby Dhalu got up at a union conference and denounced us as " Pandering to the BNP". Eventually Searchlight formally pulled out of UAF and said publicly that it was impossible to work with them.

From then on they went downhill. The only unions that support them now are the NUM and UCU. They have been exposed all over the country as opportunists and liars and have lost whatever little credibility they had. Their role now is to cause as much trouble as they can as can be seen from what happened at Derby and Liverpool.

In London they are finished. In the London borough of Hackney where I live we have a large proportion of the SWP CC living, as well as Bennett, and they have never had a single activity since UAF was formed. At the Greater London Assembly elections last May we got the vote out against the BNP higher than anywhere else in London by local campaigning and in a series of letters in the local paper they were exposed as liars.

What the whole thing about UAF raises is how the anti fascist movement organises itself. UAF was a classic Leninist organisation. Centralised with orders going out to the minions who, if they didn't obey, were expelled. I have arued on Socialist Unity that lot of people are going to have to dump a lot of ideological baggage starting with the theories of organisation of the mass murderers Lenin and Trotsky.

The Searchlight/Hope Not Hate campaign is the way forward, local groups completely autonomous of a centre that campaigns against the BNP on whatever local issue they are trying to exploit. What the BNP are doing in Stole is not what they are doing in Essex and there must be different strokes for different folks.

I'm glad to have found this site as I have been a lone voice calling for UAF to be ostracised. Everyone is so afraid of being called sectarian that people are prevented from telling the truth. Which is that UAF is a dangerous and divisive force that must be cut out of the movement.

Let the debate continue.

Tue 16, December 2008 @ 06:16

north essex boy said…

hi terry ,

interesting stuff and a good basis for that discussion which has been needed for years.

many of you militant anti fascists who were around in the 1980's and 90's will see the similarities with the UAF actions in Liverpool and those of the SWP at "events" such as Weavers field in East london, they have never been shy in missing an opportunity to hid behind railings ands lollipops while others got their hands dirty.Then have the cheek to claim victories for themselves !

Time to move the struggle against the far right on , there is nothing as hideous as a bunch of well meaning trots parachuting Into a working class area and preach to the populous about ' nazi nail bombers'in their midst, where as the wider concerns that the BNP address, housing , unemployment,etc working class ISSUES, are those that need to be challenged by community based anti fascists, only then can we stop the momentum of the BNP in its tracks.

there are times for more militant no platform activities , but day to day , and hard work on our estates needs to be done. Engage the working class and they will respond positively

Tue 16, December 2008 @ 17:34

terry fitz said…

North Essex Boy,

I can go back to the seventies with stories of the strokes they have pulled. On the 12th of June 1976 the Bangladeshi community, local trades unionists,squatters and assorted lefties organised a massive meeting and demonstration which started at the Naz cinema in Brick Lane, the Naz restaurant is there now and was where one of Copelands bombs went off. The issue was racial attacks which were on the increase and occuring on a daily basis all over the East End.

Because we knew what the organised left was like all of the groups were contacted and told that they were welcome to attend but that placards and banners of a purely party political nature would not be allowed.

I was one of the stewards and we were getting everyone out of the cinema and lined up when out of a transit van parked in Fashion St Chris Harman and Paul Holborow started handing out IS placards. The intention was obvious, to run a phote in Socialist Worker claiming thatthey had organised the whole thing. I instructed the stewards to take them away from the demonstrators and throw them at the side of the rd.

The Trots just started picking them up and handing them out again. This time we started breaking them and throwing them over the fence where the Police Station now is. All of a sudden I saw someone rushing at me shouting and wavin his arms as if to attack me. I swung a punch, I was still doing a bit of amateur boxing at the time, and the guy went down spark out. The cops jumped on me and I spent the demonstration in Bethnal Green nick.

It turned out the bloke I knocked out was Chris Harman. I ended up with a conviction although 3000 people, mostly Bangladeshis, marched around the area and the day was the start of organised resistance locally to the NF. The Trots still walked in the march holding up copies of SW looking absolutely pathetic.

Although their few Bangladeshi members resigned there was no expression of regret for what had happened from the leadership. They believed, and still do, that they have an absolute right to take over any movement and manipulate it.

On the day of the ANL concert in Victoria Park we had intelligence that the NF were going to attack Brick Lane. Our spotters were actually watching them mobilising to the north of the Bethnal Green Rd. We sent people to the park to get reinforcements but Holborow refused to allow any announcement on the PA saying Brick Lane was a diversion. The result was that the NF ran all the way down the Lane smashing windows and attacking people.

The SWP still claim Blair Peach a martyr even though he had been suspended from the ANL prior to being expelled as were hundreds of others for "squadism". This was a euphemism for physically confronting the fascists which the ANL/SWPleadership were to cowardly to do being as well more interested in recruiting and penetrating thrades unions. I was talking to him about it at Southall just before the police attacked and he was killed.

I could go on and on but I think everyone out there has their own stories of backstabbing, manipulation and betrayals. I'm sixty two and have been involved in the anti fascist movement since I was seventeen and I have never been more hopeful than I am now at the state of the movement and the prospects for the future.

There is a real danger from the BNP but we are in a far better state to confron them than for many years and one of the reasons is that UAF has been exposed for what it is. The total tool of politically and personally dishonest people. Call me a naive Anarchist but nothing built on lies and deceit will prosper. Good luck to you all and let the debate continue.

Wed 17, December 2008 @ 11:19

BB said…

I will always vote for the BNP after reading their manifesto and agreeing with every word of it.

Nick Griffins is a true leader who is the only one who can make this country great again.

Nick Griffin I salute you Sir.

BB

Tue 09, June 2009 @ 16:51

tjb376 said…

BB - when you salute Nick Griffins(sic), make sure your right arm is raised at an angle of about 45 degrees above the horizontal and slightly sideways to the right, and say Heil Griffin! That'll do the trick, eh?

Fri 19, June 2009 @ 09:14

Jack Krauser said…

Funny how the Hypocritical Reds have the cheek to call the B.N.P Fascist whilst using Fascist Methods to silence the B.N.P and deny people their Free Speech without the risk of being attacked by Communists.

The truth is groups such as 'United Against Fascism' don't care about the White Working Class and their views or concerns, regarding issues such as Immigration, Jobs and Housing.

You're all living in a dream world where everybody of every Race except White holds hands and sings around a Camp-Fire at the expense of a Home-Land for the Indigenous White British people.

I doubt many of you have jobs if you have time to travel across Britain to scream 'Fascist' at people that have differing views to your own and assault innocent people.

Sun 09, August 2009 @ 23:21