LONDON--Hundreds of people took to the streets the first two weekends in April to protest marches led by the fascist National Front (NF). The antifascist actions were organized by Southwark Trades Union Council, the local trade union federation, and were made up mainly of youth and trade union members.
The NF demonstrations, held in the south London locality of Bermondsey, each attracted about 30 rightists, including some support from young people in the area. The city mobilized more than 1,000 cops to protect the fascists. The police surrounded the marchers to keep the protesters away. Those in the NF march carried the British Union Jack and the English St. George's flag, and chanted "rights for whites." NF organizers cited the cops' refusal to allow them to carry a banner stating "keep Bermondsey white" as the reason for the marches and have called an action for May 12. The Southwark Trades Union Council announced it will organize another counterdemonstration as well.
Speakers at a rally during the first protest included Trevor Phillips, Labour Party chair of the Greater London Authority; Simon Hughes, Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament (MP) for the local constituency North Southwark and Bermondsey; Stephanie Elson, Labour Party leader of Southwark Council; and Paul Davies, Communist League candidate for the local constituency in the upcoming general election. All the speakers except Davies concentrated on urging the city to ban NF marches as the way to maintain the "multicultural nature of the area."
Two racist attacks occurred in the area following the first NF march in Bermondsey. In one, a 24-year-old Asian man was assaulted by a gang of youths waving the St. George's flag. In the other, a 40-year-old Black man and a 27-year-old Asian man were attacked by two white men who slashed them with a knife. Eight youths in their teens have reportedly been arrested in connection with the first incident.
The big-business media is giving play to police allegations that there are "no-go areas" for white people and a claim that 60 percent of racially motivated attacks in Oldham were against whites.
The fascists' marches come in the midst of increasing attacks on immigrants and appeals to nationalism by capitalist politicians. Since its election, the Labour government has enacted a number of oppressive measures against immigrants seeking to enter the country. These include the arbitrary and prolonged jailing of many asylum seekers in detention centers and prisons while their claims are examined. Immigrants cannot by law take paid employment for six months after their arrival. They receive board and lodging, vouchers worth £30, and £10 per week "pocket money" to live on (£1 = US$1.43). Jack Straw, Labour Party home secretary, said he is seeking to deport 30,000 "failed asylum seekers" in the next year, more than a threefold increase over the 9,000 immigrants expelled during the last 12 months.
Recent surveys estimate conservatively that immigrant minorities make up about 6 percent of the population of the United Kingdom. That figure rises to 30 percent in inner London. The cities of Leicester and Birmingham are expected to have nonwhite majorities within 20 years if current trends continue.
Combined with a spate of layoff announcements, an increased number of immigrants are being used as scapegoats in a chauvinist campaign by both the Conservative and Labour parties that provide openings to the small fascist forces.
William Hague, Conservative Party leader, told a party conference in March, "Let me take you to a foreign land--to Britain after a second term of [Labour Prime Minister] Tony Blair." John Townend, from the right-wing fringes of the Conservative Party, said at a local party meeting, "Our homogenous Anglo-Saxon society has been ...undermined by the massive immigration, particularly the Commonwealth immigration, that has taken place since the [Second World] war."
Entering the debate on whether or not there is a native "island race," Labour Party official and foreign secretary Robin Cook argued that the country needed immigrant workers to meet labor demand and defended "legitimate immigration." Cook declared the "British are not a race but a gathering of countless different races." Continuing in his nationalist theme, the foreign minister said a dish called "chicken tikka massala"--a variant on Indian curry--was "a true British national dish."
In a speech to one of the antifascist rallies, Communist League candidate Paul Davies said the "climate in which the NF operates is created by government attacks on immigrants," and that "the fighting experience of immigrant workers strengthened the working class in the United Kingdom." He opposed calls for a ban on fascist marches "as this would simply strengthen the cops and the government and be used as a precedent against the working-class movement itself."