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﻿<title﻿>﻿New Socialist Magazine, Fighting Fascism - Article﻿</title>﻿

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﻿<b﻿>﻿Fighting Fascism 

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by Rebecca Simon and Bryan Munn﻿<br﻿>﻿

﻿<i﻿>﻿New Socialist Magazine, November 1996﻿</i>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

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﻿<font﻿ ﻿size="1"﻿>﻿Mass mobilizing to stop fascists from marching and speaking is at the centre of any effective strategy to beat back the growth of fascists and their organizations.﻿</font>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿


This article is about fascism and a socialist approach to combating it. As such, it differentiates between "genuine" fascists and those political groups and figures, ranging from Richard Nixon to Preston Manning and Mike Harris, who have often mistakenly and flippantly been labeled fascist. Fascism as socialists understand it is a largely extra parliamentary movement based on sections of the middle class whose most prominent features are repressive violence and intimidation and overt racism (such as anti-semitism). Historically, organized groups of fascists have targeted oppressed minorities, including people of colour, Jews, lesbians, gays, and physically-challenged people. 


﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

As epitomized historically by Benito Mussolini's Fascists in Italy in the 1920s and Adolf Hitler's Nazis in 1930s Germany, fascism is an ultra-nationalist, militaristic, anti-democratic movement usually centered on authoritarian leaders. 


﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

As Leon Trotsky pointed out in a frantic appeal to German socialists during Hitler's rise to power, fascism really takes off when capitalism experiences a profound crises and the working class movement, while powerfully organized, fails to take control of society. In Germany during the 1930s, Hitler's Nazis were composed primarily of unorganized workers and the disenfranchised and fearful petty-bourgeois, funded by equally fearful capitalists. 


﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

The Nazis got capitalism off the hook for society's ills by scapegoating Jews, Gypsies, unions, lesbians, and gays. Once in power, these groups were targeted, denounced, imprisoned in concentration camps, and murdered (at least six million Jews were murdered in what we now know as the Holocaust). As Hitler noted in his autobiography, "Only one thing could have stopped our movement ﻿&shyp;﻿ if our adversaries had understood its principle, and from the very first day, had smashed with the utmost brutality the nucleus of our movement." Trotsky understood this and advocated education and mass physical opposition. 


﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

The question for socialists today is how to oppose fascists who have learned from history and are using rock music, television, politics and the internet as well as traditional street gangs and hate-filled propaganda to build their movement among young people and "fed-up" workers. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

﻿<b﻿>﻿Anti-Fascist Strategies﻿</b>﻿

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

When countering the growth of fascist movements, three strategies have been used together in varying degrees: not allowing fascists an opportunity to air their views; delegitimizing their organizations and their claims; and mobilizing a unified front for direct and indirect mass actions against them. 


﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

It is crucial to deny fascism a platform because in power it is complete authoritarianism and does not allow freedom of opposition, eliminating every voice of protest or criticism. Three months after the Nazis came to power 150,000 people were imprisoned without trial, thousands more murdered, and there was no freedom of the press to report any of it. Understanding this history, members of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Britain seek a "no platform for Nazis policy" in the British press, where fascists have been able to promote their views. 


﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

Even today, in conditions where fascists are a small and marginalized force, allowing them to organize racist rock concerts and street actions gives them the confidence to mount violent attacks. Whether they call themselves white supremacists, nationalists, European heritage groups or otherwise, fascist organizations must be publicly denounced. 


﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

In Ontario, the Nationalist Party convinced several municipalities including Toronto to approve a European Heritage Day until it was exposed as platform for racist and fascist beliefs. In St. Catharines, the Heritage Front has built a local organization including high school students, which claims merely to be "white supremacist." Neo-Nazis such as Wolfgang Droege and Max French were also found to be members of the Reform Party, attempting to procure a respectable cover for their racist extremism until they were exposed. 


﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

Many "mainstream" policies of racism lend legitimacy to fascist propaganda. British Prime minister Margaret Thatcher's anti-immigrant speeches in 1978, the Reform Party's call to restore Canada to it's original cultural and ethnic composition, the Ontario NDP's willingness to jump on the anti-immigrant and welfare fraud bandwagon in 1994, and the introduction of the federal government's Long Term Immigration and Citizenship Strategy for Canada (beginning the "re-Europeanization" of immigration), all contribute to this climate 


﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

Sadly, social democrats across Canada and Europe have been all too willing to buy into regressive agendas which can only bolster support for far right parties which in turn legitimizes the hatred and affirms the nationalism of fascists. In France, where "Socialists" held power for over 12 years while buying into regressive calls for immigrant controls, deportation of asylum seekers, decreases in the social wage and eroding labor rights there are now over 1,700 fascist municipal councilors and 11 fascist MPs in the European Parliament. 

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﻿<b﻿>﻿Fascists ﻿&amp;﻿ Elections﻿</b>﻿

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

This parliamentary work by fascist parties is connected to more sinister activities. Thugs or "shock troops" of unemployed, openly violent "skinhead" types and "respectable" fascist political groups such as the Front Nationale (FN) in France have strong ties. The thugs provide security for FN meetings and campaign for them. They also create a political atmosphere where the parliamentary fascist forces appear respectable. 


﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

Fascists have also recently won significant electoral gains in Spain, Italy, Austria, Germany, Brussels, and Bombay most of the time in coalition with far right parties. 


﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

It's important to recognize that fascist groups are using the respectability of involvement in parliamentary politics in order to build a violent, anti-democratic movement. This should be kept in mind in situations like that in 1994 when four fascists ran for municipal and mayoral elections in Toronto. Whenever this happens all resources possible should be put into delegitimizing them. 


﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

Anti-fascist organizing requires many forms of resistance including, public forums, festivals and rock concerts to reach disenfranchised youth culture, mass street demonstrations and the shutting down of fascist meetings and events. This is not to advocate singular acts of street violence or roving gangs searching out Nazis to commit acts of violence which has proven ineffective and dangerous. 


﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

But it is to recommend mass mobilization that confronts public actions by Nazis. SOS Racisme in France argued against mass street action or physically confronting the fascists and organized a series of educational festivals in isolation from more direct action. This has been wholly unsuccessful in fighting the rise of fas﻿cism in France. There were also the Chain of Light protests in Germany and the Hands Across The City protest in Rome. These types of symbolic acts across Europe have mobilized from 100,000 to 500,000 people per demonstration. Important as these events are, without confronting the fascists and stopping their paper sales, election campaigns, rallies and marches these forms of mass protest have proven ineffective in organizing effective resistance. 


﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

A successful example of fighting a burgeoning fascist movement began in August 1977 in Britain. The Local Labour Party and the Communist Party had called a march in the opposite direction of a march by the National Front which had been engaged in acts of racist violence. The Socialist Workers Party organized a counter-demo of 5000 people, mostly community members, which dispersed the fascists. The Anti Nazi League (ANL) in Britain was launched from this event as a mass movement against the NF in Britain. 


﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

The British NF was on the upswing before the ANL started organizing against them. Today, there are no fascists in elected positions at any level of government in Britain. A combination of physically stopping the NF from organizing and exposing them for what they are in a huge propaganda blitz, dealt them a blow from which they never recovered. When fascists cannot get people onto the streets with hate literature, hold marches, rallies or racist concerts they are not able to extend their influence or recruit new members or voting support. 


﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

The major aim of fascism is to break organized labour because a conscious working class movement is its most formidable enemy. A successful united front must thus include labour and trade unions in the forefront of the struggle against fascism. In solidarity with the ANL, the handbook of the Miner's Union in Britain states, "no member of the NF or any racist or fascist organization will be able to stand for any position in the union." This kind of tactic should be extended to all platforms that fascists seek, many of them today involving youth culture such as malls, high schools, and music. 


﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

The working class and its supporters must be able to unite and fight fascism wherever and however it mobilizes, and ultimately come up with better solutions to the regressive measures which increase unemployment, poverty and desperation that are the breeding ground for fascist support. 


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