Lindsey German on the growth of the far right and how we fight back

The wave of racism sweeping Britain at the moment is hideous. The vile scapegoating of refugees and asylum seekers with intimidating demos outside hotels, the insinuation that Muslim men are all predators and racists, the fake concerns for the safety of women and girls, the use of England and union flags to enforce nationalist and racist ideas of ‘patriotism’, are all bad enough. But worse is the political swamp which is allowing all of this to flourish with barely a note raised in protest from the establishment parties.

Mainstream politics today are Nigel Farage’s politics. He has held weekly well-attended press conferences throughout the summer where he has stoked up every prejudice and hatred of ‘small boats’, ‘asylum hotels’, ‘illegal immigrants’ and the like. His latest is the plan to deport hundreds of thousands of those supposed ‘illegals’ if he forms a government, announced with great fanfare at an Oxfordshire airport along with fake departure boards and lapped up by a largely uncritical press.

Enoch Powell would be proud. Not only does Farage say things that even the racist old Tory dared not do, he’s also got the other parties nodding along or vying to outdo Reform in how nasty they can be to migrants and refugees. Keir Starmer has echoed some of the same politics and will not attack Farage nor will he stand up against this pre-pogrom atmosphere. Instead his home secretary, Yvette Cooper, and immigration minister, Angela Eagle, come out with the same stentorian language and accept completely that immigration and immigrants are ‘the problem’.

Then there’s Robert Jenrick, the loser in the Tory leadership contest last year who is hoping to replace the useless Kemi Badenoch in the not too distant future. He is tacking pretty much as far right as a Tory shadow minister can: videoing himself challenging alleged fare dodgers at Stratford station, joining the far right on demos in Epping, saying that he fears for his daughters having to share a neighbourhood with ‘men from backward countries who broke into Britain illegally’, travelling to a migrant camp in France (where he had to run away after apparently being pelted with bottles). He also accuses pro-Palestine protests as making the country not ‘feel like the Britain he grew up in’.

When these are the views pumped out faithfully by politicians and the media – ranging from the filth of the Mail and Express to the more sophisticated BBC who give Reform all the airtime it wants – it is hardly surprising that they can gain traction among quite wide sections of the population. The lies are repeated so often that they become truths in the minds of many people.

The situation could hardly be more serious. Behind the ‘respectable’ politicians are the fascist thugs, key to organising many of the hotel protests and setting out to build a cadre against the background of these racist ideas. And the lack of opposition at mainstream level means they attract wider layers of ‘softer’ support from people who certainly aren’t fascists and may not even consider themselves racists but who have bought some of the lies over asylum seekers.

Most opinion polling shows that still the main issue concerning people in Britain is the cost-of-living crisis and austerity. But this is rarely discussed as a ‘problem’ in parliament and media, let alone are profiteers in supermarkets or energy companies under attack. No wonder that immigration is now often a second to it in polling and is rising up the agenda.

It is crucial to confront the racism and scapegoating at the heart of these protests and in the wider political arena. That has to take place at several registers. The first is the direct opposition to the demonstrations which take place aimed at intimidating and demonising the asylum seekers and their families. This requires confronting the arguments and identifying fascists and far-right organisers who have been central to organising many of them. However, we are all aware that these protests are only the tip of an iceberg. The media is deliberately encouraging the racist sentiments around migrants and Muslims, the politicians with few honourable exceptions echo these ideas or remain silent.

That means also looking to ways of breaking the soft support for these demos from a hard fascist core. It was always the aim of the Anti-Nazi League in the late 1970s to do this: to brand those at the fascists’ centre as people who aimed to destroy trade unions, ethnic minority communities, the left, and all democratic structures. This helped to break those who voted for them in local elections (as over 100,000 Londoners did in 1977, giving them over 5% of the vote) or who sympathised with some of their arguments, from their influence. The aim was to unite all those who opposed fascism, even when they might not agree on all issues of racism. For example, opposition to all immigration controls was not a condition of membership of the ANL, even though many of us held that view.

This can be done again. I don’t buy the argument that most people today don’t know what fascism is, and it isn’t in the public consciousness like it was in the 1970s, only 30 years after the Second World War. People today are very aware of the dangers of fascism and the word is in common parlance – it requires convincing them that the present scapegoating can lead to the growth of fascists.

We need to take on their arguments. The branding of migrants and ethnic minorities as sexually predatory is clearly a big motivator of the hotel demos. It is both a bogus argument (most assault and sexual abuse takes place at home in and around the family and is committed by someone known to the victim) and an old racist trope used against black men since the time of slavery, and also at certain times against Jewish people. Racism has long been connected to a distorted view of sexuality and the need to ‘protect’ women.

Defeating the far right also means finding slogans and demands that begin to undercut the racist arguments in favour of challenging the landlords, bosses, and privatised companies who are actually making most of our lives a misery in defence of their profits. It also means challenging the use of ‘patriotism’ i.e. flag-waving as something that no one can object to. If someone wants to fly an England flag or Union Jack in their garden that’s up to them. If there are gangs painting England flags on mini roundabouts and zebra crossings, or hoisting dozens in one street, that looks like intimidation of people who are regarded as ‘outsiders’.

The situation is likely to get worse before it gets better. We need to organise against these demos and the far-right ideas that fuel them. If this isn’t done the levels of racism will lead to more attacks on mosques, hotels and individuals, with frightening consequences. That is not just dangerous but will amount to a poison in the working-class movement. And that will weaken our efforts to fight back on all issues.

Let’s get the party started

I was very pleased to speak at the Preston launch of Your Party with Jeremy Corbyn on Saturday afternoon, with 550 in attendance. Jeremy had earlier been in Blackburn where 1,400 attended. The figures show what pent-up demand there is for an alternative to Labour, and the various meetings organised in other parts of the country on an informal basis show the same. The meetings are not a moment too soon, with the dangers posed by the right and the complete failure of Starmer’s Labour. 

While there is debate about name, programme, and structure of the new party, there probably is high agreement on the first two. If the party ends up with, say, 500,000 members then there has to be a broad and relatively simple programme at least initially. There is more problem it seems to me with a federal structure which will I fear be less democratic than all members having the chance to vote. However the key question for me is that we need to get something set up and urgently. The situation demands nothing less and I think that for example meetings this summer dispelling the lies over asylum seekers would have been immensely popular and helped strengthen the new party.

It is really needed now to build an electoral alternative to Labour and take on Reform, but also to help spark activity which can strengthen working-class organisation.

This week: there are very big protests coming up: the Gaza demo next Saturday, the protest against Tommy Robinson on 13^th and that against Trump’s state visit on 17^th. I’m to some extent involved in all three so a lot to organise. I’m also speaking at a Defend the Right to Protest meeting on Thursday. And next weekend a lobby of the TUC in Brighton on welfare not warfare. On Monday I’m at the Proms for Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsenk. On holiday I read Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke which is a crime story about what racism does to black and white people. Good read.