ScottishCommunists
scottishcommunists.org.uk
November 2018
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‘Since at least 2015 we have seen that the demise of the electoral far right in the UK has been giving way to something far more sinister, which is evolving from the embers of the two betterknown far-right groups operating in the UK, the electorally dead and insignificant British National party (BNP) and the moribund EDL (shaken by a paedophile scandal involving one of its leading members). Although both spawned cheaper imitations upon their demise, they also spawned a million angry voices on social media.’ Matthew Collins head of research for Hope not Hate
Workers of all lands, unite!
Annual St Andrew’s Day March and Rally Saturday 25 November 10.15am Glasgow Green G1 5JZ No Racism: Educate, Agitate, Organise
Big money behind the racists AGAINST RACISM
voice of the ‘white working class’. tony Conway, convenor of the Communist Party anti-racist, antiIG MONEy from the United fascist commission said: “Former States alt-right is backing a dangerous street movement of BNP activist Robinson came to home grown British fascists. Boosted prominence as front man for the violent English Defence League and by the racist right in the USA and with attacks on Muslims and across Europe a mixed bag of migrants. tattooed nazis, former members of “Internationally the far right are the fascist BNP, alt-right poseurs and football thugs are taking to the streets mobilising behind him. Donald Trump’s ex-chief of staff Steve in an attempt to grow the fascist Bannon and racist Dutch politician fringe into a mass movement. Geert Wilders campaigned for his the release of convicted criminal tommy Robinson on bail is release. US officials have denied reports that Trump’s ‘ambassador hailed as a victory by a reactionary for religious freedom’ lobbied the band of far-right figures. British government to let Robinson In Britain the assorted miniout of gaol.” groups of the fascist right, the the right-wing US Middle East Democratic Football Lads Alliance Foundation (MEF) and Bannon’s (DFLA), shadowy alt-right figures former employer Breitbart funded and the UKIP rump are rallying Robinson’s defence. And behind Robinson. the convicted thug and fraudster reportedly “played a key role in legally and diplomatically” lobbying Stephen yaxley-Lennon, trading our government for Robinson’s under the made-up name tommy release.the head of MEF is Daniel Robinson, is free without bail Pipes, son of CIA analyst Richard conditions following his arrest for contempt of court after he failed to Pipes – the theoretician behind Donald Rumsfields’s Middle East derail the successful prosecution of war project. a paedophile ring. Last June tommy Robinson’s Newly-enriched poser Robinson Hitler-saluting goons attacked antiis making a mint from his internet racists and clashed with the police. notoriety as a champion of ‘free this was followed by attacks on speech’ and as the self-appointed
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MAX LEVITAS ASt END antifascist Max Levitas has died. Communist Party general secretary Robert Griffiths expressed “great sadness at the passing away of our dear comrade at 103, the oldest and longest serving member of the Communist Party.” Former communist councillor
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trade unionists and the ransacking of the left wing Bookmarks shop. Fuelled by big money donations driven by his well-funded social media operation the tommy Robinson roadshow has netted him a country house and a globetrotting life style. His bid for fame and fortune fits into a new broad spectrum operation by the far right that takes in squads of street fighters and mobs of football hooligans. the boundaries between the tory right (now reinforced by UKIP defectors), UKIP itself, the fascist formations and a newer, more middle class, ‘identitarian’ movement with Continental and US links are blurred. the core belief of this racist alliance is virulent Islamophobia. this is not mere rhetoric but translates directly into arson attacks on mosques and Muslims. Echoed by UKIP’s latest leader and sparked by Boris Johnson’s attack on Muslim women’s right to dress how they choose the fascist right is emboldened. tony Conway, said: “Defeating modern day racism and fascism in our communities requires a wide range of approaches. This month a mass turnout in Liverpool sent
fascists scurrying home protected by a police cordon. But everyday activity in working class communities to defend our public services, schools and NHS is very important. We need practical activity to unite workers rather than name-calling Winning decent pay and conditions for all workers, including migrants, will help take the poison out of the immigration debate which is why breaking free from the European Court of Justice combined with Labour’s pledge to restore workers’ rights is so important.” H
We need to talk a bit about fascism FASCISM NICK WRIGHt
HILE WE face growing racism, Islamaphobia and anti-semitism, the indiscriminate use of the term ‘fascist’ doesn’t help us strengthen the movement fighting racism and real fascism. It doesn’t help us understand the true nature of fascism for the word to be used as an all-purpose term of abuse directed at right-wing politicians in general or to label arbitrary abuses of power. there are real and dangerous fascists in Britain. they are organised in small and fractious groups deeply penetrated by anti-fascist activists, police and the intelligence agencies. Recent convictions show that violent elements exist in the underground British Resistance group, while more media-savvy operators get blanket media coverage and massive funding. After a short-lived rise to prominence the fading English Defence League is now seen more as the first vehicle to subsidise tommy Robinson’s extravagant lifestyle rather than a mass movement with a future. But there is a wider circle of right-wing nationalist, xenophobic, and racist organisations — some of s Workers of all lands, unite! which have intellectual pretensions — and all of which feed of the atmosphere enabled by state racism, sets out a progressive and realistic millionaire media manipulation and racist throwback labour movement policy on migration, labour and refugees. £2 ideas about race, heredity and genetics, often imported from the US. Racist organisations, even when electorally successful (like the BNP in previous EU elections), are Jeremy Corbyn said he was Max Levitas was a veteran of the 1936 Battle of Cable Street (above), “deeply saddened by the passing of often short lived. And it is clear that groups like the latest — the ‘Democratic Football Lads Alliance’ my friend Max Levitas. when police protecting Oswald “Max was one of that wonderful which include real fascists in their ranks - can on Mosley’s British Union of Fascists occasion break out of their isolation. But experience generation that helped to defeat were defeated in their attempt to shows that with mass action and unity they can be fascism in the 1930s. force a way through. Irish president Michael D. Higgins beaten back. Dublin born son of Jewish the big danger is when these groups get a hearing said: “I have heard with great immigrants who had fled the antiin working class communities and it is here that we sorrow of the passing of Max semitic pogroms of tsarist Russia, need to be absolutely clear what kind of danger they Max Levitas inspired generations of Levitas, anti-fascist and defender of pose and the best way to defeat them. anti-fascist activists and communists. democracy and its core values.” H We have history to help us find clarity. Fascist political movements grew up, principally in Germany and Italy, but also in most European countries and in North America in the desperate conditions after the 1914-1918 Great War. the early fascist organisations were violent and were used by the ruling class as a counterweight to working class revolt. CONTINUED OVERLEAF
Jeremy Corbyn “The Morning Star is the most precious and only voice we have in the daily media” £1 weekdays, £1.50 at weekends. From newsagents or online at www.morningstaronline.co.uk
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‘Millions stand behind me’: 1930s anti fascist montage by John Heartfield on the cover of the AIZ Workers Illustrated Newspaper
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number of government funded ‘affordable’ and social sector homes being built has fallen since 2010 to CONTINUED Proto-fascist groups of right-wing 28,000 (from 56,000) and 1,200 military veterans were mobilised to defeat the socialist (from 36,000), respectively. Rent revolution in Germany, (the notorious Black and tans subsidies paid to private landlords used by the British government to suppress the Irish manifesto are twice the amount of were similar). In Italy, faced by working class revolt, the www.manifestopress.org.uk government spending on new social banks and big business backed Mussolini to form the housebuilding. first fascist administration. In the 1920s Hitler and his For millions of ‘Generation Rent’ fledgling Nazi party were mocked but when, in the young people, the prospect of 1930s, the votes of the left and especially the home ownership does not exist. Communist Party of Germany (KPD) surpassed the the government has pledged to Nazis, the ruling circles in Germany appointed Hitler as ensure that 300,000 new houses are Reichs Chancellor. built every year, but the numbers to begin with the social base of fascism was small have yet to rise to even half of that. proprietors, state functionaries, smallholders, former History since 1946 indicates that officers and the middle class millions whose marginal s Granite and such a target will never be achieved privileges and savings were undermined by the honey Kevin Marsh without a major council housing economic collapse and inter-war financial crises. and Rob Griffiths tell programme – and Hammond’s What changed the fascists from a dangerous but the story of Phil £500m addition to the Housing minority political force was the decision of the ruling Piratin, key figure at Infrastructure Fund will make very ending austerity, forsaking new PFI government in matters of state aid, class in key countries — frightened by working class the Battle of Cable BUDGET little difference to most councils. schemes or introducing a ‘living public ownership, regional revolt — to make them into government parties. Street and Communist the Chancellor’s parsimony wage’ – they have ignored the development, the direction of By the time war loomed fascist parties were the MP. £14.95 ROBERt GRIFFItHS when it comes to meeting a basic Shadow Chancellor’s appeal to investment and the like. government in Italy, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Romania human need contrasts with his Bribed by payments of £37bn of reform and halt the roll-out of and Finland while the governments of the Baltic states t WAS a ‘jam tomorrow’ budget and Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria could hardly be from Chancellor Philip Hammond public money, the EU Commission Universal Credit. Hammond’s puny relative generosity when it comes tinkering with future work allowance to road transport. Although absent will probably reach a settlement distinguished from fascism. and is unlikely to fool millions of from yesterdays speech, he reforms and a £1bn rescue fund In France, Holland, Belgium, Norway and Denmark people struggling to get by. they see with the tory government reportedly intends to spend an extending EU membership in all but over five years will not end the cuts fascists formed administrations that collaborated with local services deteriorating, with the Nazi occupation. In every country big business, longer waiting NHS times, cancelled name, keeping economic control of that plunges a million more children extra £28bn on improvements to Englands motorways (84 per cent into poverty. Northern Ireland and throwing bankers, big landowners and state bureaucrats backed operations, the closure of facilities the extra £20.5bn promised for of Britains total mileage) – but only French bankers a morsel of trade these regimes. (In the Channel Islands, the only part of s The imperial for the elderly and young people, £420m to local councils to fill in the the NHS over the next five years from the City. the UK under occupation, the same pattern appeared. school requests for parental controversy potholes now pitting local roads. will merely restore annual real If enough anti-democratic, proLike the rest of occupied Europe it was the communists Andrew Murray donations, street lights switched off these priorities might suit the increases of around 4 per cent. EU Labour MPs vote to support and workers who led the resistance.) or vanishing community police. subjects the leading road freight lobby, but not Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists had the pro-imperial the main purpose of the budget such a deal – reports in the Financial this is where they used to be until 2010, after which they were slashed motorists and cyclists. they Times put the number at around 30 support of some groups in the ruling class, mostly big historians, including was to press-gang MPs and the certainly don’t suit our eco-system, to around 0.9 per cent. so far – then the theresa May and landowners, top civil servants and industrialists and in Niall Ferguson, to a public into supporting the tory the damage done by nine years which urgently requires measures her government may survive a while the media principally Lord Rothemere’s Daily Mail. But withering analysis. governments hoped-for bogus to transfer freight to the railways of austerity will not be repaired. longer. the irony, of course, is that fascism, despite its upper class support in royal and £12.95 Brexit deal. Hence Hammond’s (especially when almost two-thirds ruling class circles, and its well-funded squads of thugs, warning that a ‘no deal’ Brexit would these Labour rebels would be voting Even the 4 per cent increases do of lorries run partly loaded or against Keir Starmers ‘six-point test’ not keep pace with rising demand, never triumphed in Britain. mean an emergency replacement empty). that, with their enthusiastic support, even with the annual 5 per cent For the left in Britain the 1936 fascist revolt against budget that would maintain if not Far from heralding an end to increase in NHS spending on was designed to block a real Brexit, the Popular Front government in Spain was a warning intensify austerity. austerity, this Budget retains many of medicines. of what was to come. thousands of anti-fascists, Its an old and impotent trick – his rather than frustrate the bogus the cuts planned for the next three the Institute for Public Policy Brexit on offer from a largely promostly workers and communists, volunteered to fight in predecessor George Osborne or four years, especially in local Research estimates that by 2030 EU tory Cabinet. Spain. In Britain – against the opposition of the Labour threatened just such an emergency government services. yet Britain Should there be no deal with the the NHS will need ten times more Party right wing, the Board of Deputies of British Jews budget should the people vote remains among wealthiest societies per year than Hammonds measly EU, on the other hand, or if one is and the establishment press – the left wing took action. s Freedom ‘Leave’ in May 2016, although in the world, with one of the lowest A Popular Front that included the Independent nothing transpired except Osborne’s rejected by the Commons, then May extra rations. Social care will need from Tyranny rates of tax on corporate profits and an additional £10bn a year just to will have to resign and a General Labour Party, the Communist Party and the Labour Phil Katz surveys the emergency exit from Number 11. a super-rich minority who stash their maintain current levels of service. Election will almost certainly follow Party’s Socialist League was established with today’s Chancellor is as pro-EU victory over fascism in tax-free dosh in tax havens mostly So ‘spread-sheet Phil’ is handing widespread working class and important sections of Europe and warns of as yesterday’s. together with today’s soon afterwards. under British jurisdiction. local councils less than one-tenth that’s when Hammond or his middle class opinion backing decisive action. A turning pro-EU prime minister, Hammond is the danger posed by Hammonds speech made an successor will be desperate enough (£779m) of that annual sum. point was the Battle of Cable Street, when thousands under orders from big business to a right-wing rewrite But the recipients can sleep more eloquent case for the election of a of East Enders defeated the police trying to force a way of history. £5.95 keep Britain tied to EU Single Market to promise ‘jam today’ as well as through for Mosley’s marchers. rules, while pretending to implement ‘jam tomorrow’. For sure, there was soundly in their beds knowing that a left-led Labour government, free from EU rules to pursue policies for precious little of either in his modest bigger sum (£1bn) will be spent on the 2016 referendum result. the many not the few. H nuclear submarine patrols. little basket. their Chequers-based bogus the extra inflationary subsidies Although tory Chancellors and Brexit proposal would maintain the to house buyers will do nothing to Prime Ministers are ready to steal Single Market regime over much of ROBERt GRIFFItHS IS GENERAL solve a many-sided crisis. With more SECREtARy OF tHE COMMUNISt PARty British industry, severely limiting the Jeremy Corbyn and John than a million families homeless, the McDonnells clothes – whether on policies of a left-led Labour
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The Empire and Ukraine Andrew Murray
Preface by John Foster
It was a split in the ruling class – with Churchill worried at that point more by the Nazi threat to the British empire than by communism – that saw the Chamberlain government replaced by a wartime coalition that included Labour. It took a World War in which our ally – the Soviet Red Army – in the words of Churchill “tore the guts out of the Nazis” to defeat the fascist Axis. today our ruling class is split again over membership of the EU and, true to form, both sides in that debate are mired in racism and xenophobia. the big business Remainers are happy with the Fortress Europe strategy which condemns migrants to drown in the sea, their opposite numbers among the hedge fund Brexiteers unashamedly use racist and anti-migrant rhetoric to play on the fears of working people. Only the left-wing Lexit campaign stood for both working class internationalism and solidarity. But we face a new danger. If the clear decision of the British people to leave the EU is subverted, the racist right wing will be given a big boost, UKIP will be turbo charged into an electoral recovery and the fascist fringe will find new opportunities to promote race hatred, Islamaphobia and anti-semitism. Fascism is never the main instrument of the capitalist class until it has no alternatives left. But the battle for working class power takes an easier road when fascist ideas remain on the margins and fascist organisations find little support in the working class. H NICK WRIGHt IS EDItOR OF UNIty!
sThe Empire and Ukraine Andrew Murray sets the Ukraine crisis in its global and local contex. £11.95
Caribbean Labour Solidarity www.cls-uk.org.uk info@cls-uk.org.uk
s Marx’s Das Kapital and capitalism today by Robert Griffiths Illustrated £8
s China’s new era Kenny Coyle strips away the layers of myth and misunderstanding about China’s growing role in the world. £2
s The EU, Brexit and class politics Which way for the labour movement? by Robert Griffiths £2 www.communist-party.org.uk
Bangladeshi Workers Council www.facebook.com/BWCINUK
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Indian Workers Association GB s State Monopoly Capitalism by Gretchen Binus, Beate Landefeld and Andreas Wehr. Introduction by Jonathan White £4.95
Contact: Sital Singh Gill iwagb@hotmail.com 07779664845 s Challenge is the magazine of the young Communist League. Britain’s revolutionary youth organisation. ycl.org.uk
s Women & Class by Mary Davis has become the standard text for the labour movement’s engagement with the issues. £2
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