@DROP CAP = SEVERAL YEARS AFTER THE militant poll tax riots and demonstrations, it looks like political resistance in Britain is at a low point. Few serious squats remain, most of the anarcho-punks have been disillusioned or caught up in the New Age Traveller's movement, and even Class War could not raise a contingent for a demonstration at the European Summit in Edinburgh. As in the rest of Europe though, fascism is alive and well here in Britain, recruiting on the housing projects of cities like London, Glasgow, Manchester, and Edinburgh.
Anti-Fascist-Action (AFA) has chapters throughout England and Scotland and is probably one of the most active groups around these days. They are dedicated to fighting fascists, such as the British National Party (BNP) and nazis, through propaganda and, if necessary, physical confrontation. AFA started the autumn with a successful action in London, where they prevented hundreds of nazi skinheads from getting to a Blood and Honour gig where the band Skrewdriver was playing. I've been involved with AFA Edinburgh for several months, but they formed about a year ago. In that time AFA has: plastered the city with stickers and graffiti (and wiped out BNP graffiti); held gigs at the Unemployed Workers' Center; had stalls at local clubs; picketed a bookstore for selling a book by a nazi revisionist historian; and written letters to the local BNP members. AFA Edinburgh and Glasgow also attended an annual anti-racist march in Glasgow, which twenty-five sieg- heiling BNPers tried to disrupt. Most recently, we've put up posters all over town, with a picture of local BNP members and their addresses and phone numbers, urging people to write nasty letters and harass them by phone. AFA members have been known to make annoying phone calls to local fascists and nazi skins at odd hours of the morning.
AFA is an alternative to mainstream/liberal groups, most of which won't even recognize the existence of fascism in Britain. Groups like the Anti- Nazi-League are mainly fronts for various left parties and do little besides hold placards at big demonstrations. AFA especially concentrates on rooting out fascism in working class communities, the favorite recruiting place of the BNP. The mostly wealthy fascist leadership targets disaffected youth in such areas, turning their anger away from the establishment and towards neighboring minority communities. Not surprisingly, AFA gets a lot of criticism from the so-called left. An editorial in the University of Edinburgh left student newspaper called groups like AFA the violent fringe and leftist thugs. Other groups within Edinburgh have sharply criticized the anti-BNP posters and our confrontational tactics. But it is a pipe dream to think that merely by distributing leaflets and holding demonstrations, the fascists will go away. This kind of thinking on the majority of the left has fed the recent rise in fascism in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and even Sweden, where Jewish cemeteries have been desecrated. Mass demonstrations are important, but the reality of fascists on the streets must be dealt with before they can terrorize the local community and recruit vulnerable youth.