Category Archives: Fascism

NUS: Left in the basement

Bureaucrats still in charge

Communist Students were stirring things up at this year's conference of the National Union of Students Members and supporters of Communist Students made a stand for principled Marxist politics at the 2014 conference of the National Union of Students, where CS member Robert Hayes was standing for the ‘block of 15’ individually elected members of the executive. The ...

BNP contradictions

book - contemporary british fascism

James Turley reviews Nigel Copsey’s Contemporary British fascism Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, pp264, £19.99 The rise and rise of the British National Party is a source of much consternation in contemporary Britain, among bourgeois society and the left alike. The BNP is viewed as a fascist interloper, sneaking into ‘mainstream’ politics with murderous intent. Yet there is remarkably ...

English Defence League stunts and the real lessons of the 1930s

Calls for state, local government and BBC censorship and bans will inevitably backfire against the workers’ movement, argues Ben Lewis Doubtless bolstered by the British National Party’s recent electoral success, there has been a rise in far-right street mobilisations, leading to tussles with the police, Muslim youth and left activists, including those from Unite Against Fascism. ...

How not to stop the BNP

Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons using their platform

The continued rise of the British National Party raises key questions about the left’s strategy. Ben Lewis takes a look at the Socialist Workers Party’s analysis and argues for a root-and-branch rethink The election of BNP leader Nick Griffin and acolyte Andrew Brons to the European parliament has been endlessly reported in both the bourgeois media ...

BNP: No to state bans

James Turley asks why the working class should have any confidence in the protection of the bourgeois state It is perhaps the biggest cock-up in the British National Party’s recent history. Britain’s largest far-right group has been damaged by a number of shock documentaries that suggest the party’s core remains more enthusiastic about Hitler than its PR ...

Revo: like turkeys voting for Christmas

This year's NUS conference voted to support a motion (moved by Workers Power youth group Revo) calling for NUS to lobby the government for a ban of far-right websites such as Redwatch. Vicky T, an anti-fascist and libertarian communist, who was also a delegate from Manchester University at NUS conference, explains why she opposed this ...

No platform: not always the answer

All democrats, socialists and democrats should reject efforts by student unions to actually increase state censorship. By Shelley Martin The NUS has an automatic ‘no platform policy' in place, which bans all members of the British National Party and the Islamic organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir from standing in NUS elections on any levels. It also bans them ...

Fascism debate continues

No-platform?

Communist Students members have continued to be at the forefront of a debate over the nature of fascism; whether the BNP is fascist; and which anti-fascist tactics are most applicable in this period. This debate was recently one of the main topics for discussion at a CPGB members aggregate, and has continued to be fought ...

No platform and the BNP

Is 'no platforming' an unshakable principle or a tactic? Ted North reports on the discussion among Communist Students The February 16 conference of Communist Students featured a debate on fascism and the tactics needed to defeat it. It was introduced by Ben Klein, who argued that we must start from the premise of independent working class politics ...

CS debate on the BNP

One of the most controversial debates in the run-up to the founding conference of Communist Students was on the question of fascism and the British National Party, and what the response of revolutionaries should be. The conference adopted a resolution highlighting the necessity of basing any anti-fascist fight on the "mobilisation of the working class ...

How to Fight the BNP

BNP leaders Nick Griffin and Mark Collett were recently cleared of inciting racial hatred at Leeds Crown Court. The results of the court case confirms the idiocy of relying on the state to deal with the BNP. It's given them publicity money just cant buy. But what is the BNP and how should socialists fight it? The ...