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SWPers start to question fascism fetish

Posted on October 30th 2009 | 1 comment
Answers needed

Answers needed
James Turley sees SWP politics reduced to ultra-shrill self-parody
It has been a busy week for the Socialist Workers Party – the largest and most visible far-left group in Britain today. Its members and periphery formed the biggest part of Saturday’s demo against the Afghanistan war, as well as the bulk of Thursday’s shrill protest [...]

BNP contradictions

Posted on October 16th 2009 | 1 comment
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 [...]

Anti-BNP class-collaboration

Posted on October 2nd 2009 | 10 comments

The left’s spluttering response to Nick Griffin’s invitation to appear on Question time reveals a floundering political strategy, argues James Turley
On October 22, yet one more edition of the BBC’s long-running politics show Question time will, barring some act of god, be broadcast. On that date, joining toadyish and cynical members of the three main [...]

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

Posted on September 25th 2009 | No comments

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

Posted on July 25th 2009 | 7 comments
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
Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons using their platform
The election of BNP leader Nick Griffin and acolyte Andrew Brons to the European parliament has been [...]

Notting Hill Race Riots 1958

Posted on February 2nd 2009 | No comments
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Last year was the 50th anniversary of the Notting Hill Race riots. CS member John Sidwell wrote this article examining some of the issues
The riots that broke out in Notting Hill, 1958 marked the first major race riot in Britain post-mass immigration.  It spanned five nights over the August Bank holiday, sparked by the bating [...]

Fascists, fighting squads and no platform

Posted on November 15th 2008 | 5 comments

The article below was written for the last edition of Communist Student. Unfortunately we didn’t have the space to include it and a number of other articles in the print edition. It is written by Vicky Thompson a member of Permanent Revolution and author of the blog Infantile and Disorderly. I expect that it will [...]

Revo: like turkeys voting for Christmas

Posted on April 22nd 2008 | 8 comments

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 Thompson, an anti-fascist and libertarian communist, who was also a delegate from Manchester University at NUS conference, explains why she opposed this [...]

How to combat wrong ideas

Posted on April 1st 2008 | No comments

There have been renewed attempts by the government to get universities to spy and report on ‘suspicious’ students. But is the NUS ‘no platform’ policy the right way forward? By Dave Isaacson
A year and a half ago I wrote an article for the first edition of Communist Student entitled ‘Defend Muslims!’ It was a response [...]

No platform: not always the answer

Posted on April 1st 2008 | No comments

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 [...]

 
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