The scale of the far-right riots of the last few days have been shocking, but not surprising. British politics is saturated with anti-migrant, anti-asylum seeker politics, while Islamophobia still runs deep in British culture.
We have all witnessed the openly far-right venom of the previous government, and knew that the fascists would be waiting in the wings of the current one, especially given the success of Reform last month.
The new Labour government has wholly embraced the racist terms of the debate over immigration – promising a “blitz on illegal immigration” less than a fortnight ago, and to stopping small boat crossings in their manifesto
Meanwhile it spent the last 4 years in opposition broadcasting its disdain for Muslim and racialised communities in its bid for the racist vote.
Now, in the name of fiscal ‘responsibility’ it has committed to austerity and public funding cuts which have been a breeding ground for the far-right since 2010.
It was a matter of when, not if.
Like countless other groups and organisers, Nijjor Manush have spent the last few days thinking through both the short-term need for mobilisation to defend our communities, as well as long-term organising to build our capacity to fight fascism.
This will necessarily be reactive now, but also requires political clarity going forward.
In doing so, some of us are returning back to the examples of Asian and Black self-organisation in postwar Britain.
But that history of Asian organising in Britain – our history of struggle – should not be invoked in vain.
There are clear lessons to be drawn from this history, and warnings to heed.
They include:
1) No surrender no retreat
2) We cannot rely on the police and state to protect us
3) Fascism must be defeated through organised political struggl
We have seen calls from ‘community leaders’ as well as organic appeals asking people to stay home out of fear of encountering fascists targeting Black and Asian, migrant and/or Muslim individuals.
People have every right to be worried for themselves and their loved ones.
We understand that vulnerable and isolated communities may well choose to stay out of immediate harm’s way.
But staying home does not mean staying safe.
Far-right mobilisations in our communities are a show of force for the fascists to ‘claim’ our streets, to embolden them and give them license to terrorise us again and again.
They cannot be ignored or allowed to claim even symbolic victories, and wherever possible we must play a role in repelling them.
Our communities were won through struggle, and must be defended through struggle
The response from the British government has immediately turned to a ‘law and order’ crackdown.
The PM has pledged full support to police forces and promised to expand their powers to include greater facial recognition technology and intelligence sharing.
Beyond these emergency powers, we will doubtless see police chiefs use these fascist riots to increase long term funding and power, while others have gone further still to lobby for their pet political agendas now.
But policing is never a neutral instrument that we can trust to protect us.
Those same expanded powers and capabilities being justified now off the back of our communities’ fears will, and always have, been used against.
These are not simply theoretical concerns.
While our TVs stream images of police retreating, injured or passive in the face of fascists, we have already gotten reports of anti-fascist demonstrators being threatened with arrest or kettled by police.
While we have seen calls to ban the EDL under terror laws, we have seen police use those very terror laws for their quasi-militarised crackdown on pro-Palestine demos over the last 10 months, and to harass and arrest scores of activists.
Our communities are always the guinea pigs for intelligence gathering, facial recognition and enhanced policing, and will always feel them the sharpest.
We should not cripple our capacity to defend against fascist violence by inviting in the agents of state violence.
Keir Starmer’s law and order approach does something else: it conceals the politics of the fascists – and absolves the government’s responsibility to wage a political struggle against the far-right.
Writing the riots off as simply ‘far-right thuggery’ driven by social media lies allows them to be compartmentalised and cast out as ‘alien’ to British society.
And focusing on acts of violence and property damage in isolation, allows a shallow ‘both sides’ equivocation between fascists, and anti-fascists defending their communities.
But the politics motivating these riots – the anti-migrant agitation, the Islamophobia, and the racism – runs far deeper in British society, up through to its government.
It is not for no reason that some political figures have framed riots as having ‘legitimate concerns’, even while decrying their violence.
To rework an old phrase: What Farage says today, the Tories say tomorrow and Labour legislates on the day after.
Far-right mobilisations have long served as a ‘pressure group’ on British governments who concede to their demands while condemning their tactics.
The interconnection between domestic violence and British-backed violence abroad – of fascist demonstrators regularly waving the Israeli flag, of the British far-right defence of the British Army and empire, or of British police brutalising protestors against British-backed Israeli genocide – is also not coincidental.
British imperialism is, and always has been, the wellspring of British fascism – and the point of clearest alignment between the state and movements of the far-right.
In addition to repelling the fascists off our streets we need organised, principled political struggle against the politics that drives them – not opportunistic appeals to law and order policing to (temporarily) move the problem out of sight and mind.
These have been dark days but there have been examples to take heart from.
We have seen places where fascists have been outnumbered and sent home bloodied. We have seen our communities come out to defend themselves rather than retreat.
But we must recognise the urgency of the situation.
We need to be linking with, working alongside and supporting those most directly targeted by these fascist attacks – migrants and asylum seekers, Muslims and racialised communities: those who have barely, if ever, get mentioned in the government’s PR statements.
This is especially important in the case of those living outside the heartlands and metropoles.
There are many fronts to antifascist struggle. Frontline defence of our communities against fascist mobilisations is vital. But we also need to build communications and networks of support among our communities, and to develop a broad-based layer of popular antifascist sentiment and action.
We also need sector-based efforts, including in workplaces and unions, as well as in sports and creative institutions.
It is not enough to argue against a policing solution: we must represent the tangible alternative infrastructure for supporting our communities.
The large networks of mobilisation and channels of communications that we have built up in our campaigns against Israel’s genocide can become the bases of confronting fascism going forward, as can our anti-raids, Copwatch and tenants union networks.
These can be networks of solidarity and support, as well as our eyes on the ground against any fascist movements locally.
We must also be prepared for police repression, including efforts to criminalise self-defence or equate those who choose those tactics with far-right violence.
This includes equipping our communities with rights training for counter-demonstrations, as well as staying coordinated with groups who can provided legal and arrestee support if required.
Finally, we must also struggle against the culture of collaboration among our community institutions.
This includes religious leaders and facilities who see the solution in greater presence of police in our mosques etc, who issue condemnation when our youth fight back, or work with state-aligned or funded groups like Tell Mama or HopeNotHate.
There are many fronts in the antifascist struggle and that means different tactics.
But self defence is no offence – and we will not throw anyone under the bus.
Whose streets – our streets
