Tag: Fascism

We Must Build a New Party of the Working Class & Oppressed that is Based on Mass Struggle

–No Vote for parties that support imperialist wars

– No Vote for parties that are complicit in Israeli genocide

– No Vote for parties that deport immigrants and refugees

– No Vote for parties that are tied to capitalist profiteers

Victory to the Palestinian Struggle – End All UK Support for Israel

Recognise an Independent Palestinian State on Gaza & the West Bank

Stop & Reverse the Privatisation of Public Services

Strike to Win – Build Rank & File Action Committees to Stop the Sell-Outs

Defend LGBT+ Rights & the Right to Determine one’s own Gender Identity

Fight for Equality for Women, Including Abortion Rights

Build Mass Action to Shut Down Detention Centres & Stop Deportations

Amnesty for All Refugees and Undocumented Immigrants

End Prevent and all forms of Islamophobia

Fight anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry

Open the Borders – Reverse Brexit

The most important aspect of this week’s General Election is that it signifies the end of the Labour Party as a possible arena of struggle for the working class & oppressed against imperialist wars, exploitation, racism and the rise of fascism. At a time of crisis for the poor and oppressed of the world, Keir Starmer has established a totalitarian regime in the Labour Party that is complicit with Israeli genocide, expels Jewish critics of Israel for ‘anti-semitism,’ and promises to be much tougher on refugees & immigrants than the divided and incompetent Tories.

The mass movement in support of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party was the final attempt to reverse Tony Blair’s ‘neo-liberal’ policies and turn the party into a mass movement of the Left. The ruling class is relying on Starmer to ensure that nothing like that ever happens again, and he – a former high official of the British state as Director of the Crown Prosecution Service – is ready to do obey.

Starmer and his allies have opposed the strike movement, banned Labour MPs from joining workers’ picket lines, banned constituency Labour Parties from accepting or discussing motions relating to Palestine and opposed the mass movement in support of the Palestinian struggle. The Labour Party bureaucrats operate a round-the-clock ‘Big Brother’ surveillance of the social media of their MPs, candidates and many party officers and members, at least on those who are not 100% ‘on-line.’  On that basis Starmer and his future Chancellor of the Exchequer, former Bank of England economist Rachel Reeves, have established an alliance with a large section of the British capitalists and former Tory donors who have publicly supported and funded his election campaign. He has now been endorsed by the Sunday Times, a right-wing Murdoch paper.

The most urgent task now is to build a new party of a different kind, one based on mass struggle against racism, capitalist exploitation and imperialist wars.

The potential for the new party already exists

This election has been preceded by a nearly three years of radical mass action in Britain: the biggest wave of strikes for 40 years that is still developing; the frequent mass actions to prevent the arrest and deportation of refugees and immigrants; the huge anti-war demonstrations in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle. These movements are represented in this election by a record number of ‘independent’ candidates and new groupings standing in opposition to both main parties, such as (in London) Leanne Mohamad in Ilford North and Noor Jahan Begum in Ilford South.

Among them are a number of left-wingers expelled from the Labour Party, including Jeremy Corbyn in Islington North and Claudia Webbe in Leicester East, and Faiza Shaheen, who is standing as an independent in Chingford & Woodford Green after being dropped at the last minute as Labour candidate because of her continuing support for the Palestinian struggle.

The Revolutionary Internationalist League (RIL) and the Movement for Justice (MFJ) are calling for a vote for those expelled Labour MPs and candidates, for Labour candidates who have shown public support for Palestine or opposition to Starmer’s anti-immigrant rhetoric during the election campaign, notably Bell Ribeiro-Addy in Clapham & Brixton Hill, Diane Abbott in Hackney North & Stoke Newington, and Apsana Begum in Poplar & Limehouse – and for independent candidates who support the Palestinian struggle and oppose the Labour leadership’s support for Israel, especially for those have supported the strike movement.

We support a vote for the Green Party because of its opposition to Labour’s support for Israel, its support for immigrant & refugee rights and Palestinian rights, and its demand for the repeal of Tory legislation that has drastically restricted the right to protest and freedom of speech, and its call for ending the anti-Muslim Prevent scheme.

We support these candidates and groups, not because they agree with all our policies or we agree with all theirs, but because we recognise them as part of the mass movements that have grown in direct opposition to a Labour Party that is dead for any progressive struggles, in Britain or internationally. We are calling on them to come together to build the new, democratic party of struggle.

We are not advocating some new alliance of established Left groups (though not excluding them either) we are arguing for a party that is based on action, that fights to win, unites the various arenas of mass action in a common struggle, and that does not bow before the archaic stupidities of the parliamentary system or the treachery of full-time trade union bureaucrats.

For those reasons we are opposed to any support for George Galloway’s Workers Party of Britain. We are calling on its candidates to disassociate themselves from Galloway and his allies and stand as independents. Galloway is an unsavoury opportunist and a political exhibitionist, who makes totally different ‘pitches’ to different audiences, and whose election manifesto bristles with reactionary positions on women and the family, on gender issues & green politics – and on immigrants and refugees. In a recent interview he was demanding that the Royal Navy should be used to push back cross-Channel refugees. That was the position of Priti Patel and Suella Braverman. The Navy refused their demands.

Getting from ‘Potential’ to the New Party We Must Build

The most important problem facing the candidates listed above is that, however sincere they are and however closely they feel responsible to their immediate communities, they are not accountable to the movements we have built, that are the bases for their electoral success if they win, or for their future role in those movements.

This deficit means that their victories may give them the votes in Parliament needed to get some concessions from a Labour Party government, but we cannot expect them to fight to win. They will rely on Parliamentary manoeuvres that will not succeed in rebuilding the NHS, protect refugees and immigrant communities from racism and discrimination, or end fees for university & college student and reinstate grants for education at every level so that working class and poor youth can stay in school and succeed.

We can take Jeremy Corbyn as an example. He is well known for his pro-working class politics, but he has not called on rank-and-file trade union activists to dump their current union leaderships. It is just ‘not done;’ neither Corbyn or any other MPs see that as part of their political role. Yet it is obvious that the current trade union bureaucrats squandered the strength of the strike movement and sold out their members. To win the forthcoming rounds of strikes and/or negotiations, the existing sell-out leaders who are tied to the Labour Party must be replaced by independent committees of elected rank-and-file militants, directly accountable to their members. Neither Corbyn nor any of the other candidates we are supporting have raised this perspective or called for unified, all-out strikes of the unions to win.

The strike movement has been inspiring and historic, but if it does not win real improvements in wages and working conditions this year, protected by cost-of-living allowances and minimum staffing levels, both of which are needed to prevent inflation and more job losses, we will not only suffer defeats in trade-union terms, we will face a backlash from the small business people, middle- class professionals, and some of our community supporters. Nigel Farage and the fascists will swoop in and promote the lie that only an authoritarian fascist leader can solve the economic decline Britain is experiencing. A new round of anti-immigrant, racist, and bigoted attacks will occur in the streets and in the airwaves. Former Brexit supporters who may be testing out the viability of progressive political solutions, will turn back to the more familiar politics of bigotry, cynicism and hopelessness they held onto for so long.

Only a movement can win those gains. Politicians divorced from popular collective struggles can only posture while they fail to achieve anything more than the individual social work they do in constituency surgeries. That is why we must continue to build our movements, raise the level of our struggle, and consolidate new leaders. If we don’t move forward, we regress. We have to provide the spine for even the best and most sincere politicians we send to Parliament.

Reverse Brexit and Open the Borders

The outgoing Tory party and its leadership were the principal promoters and executors of Brexit – a policy of whipping up racism, xenophobia and immigrant-bashing in order to establish an authoritarian government that would attack workers’ rights & human rights. They secured an election pledge from former prime minister David Cameron to hold a referendum on leaving the European Union and went on to dominate the ‘Leave’ campaign, scoring a narrow victory in the 2016 referendum. That campaign and the aftermath of its victory were a prolonged ‘carnival of reaction’ – a huge rise in racist and fascist attacks (and some murders) along with homophobia and Islamophobia. Even primary school children and their parents were not exempt from their threats.

Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Liz Truss, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Rishi Sunak and their political cousin Nigel Farage  rank high among the people responsible for those crimes.

Before & after the referendum, the RIL & MFJ argued that Brexit was a racist, anti-immigrant project. Britain’s black, Asian, and Muslim communities knew that perfectly well and mostly voted against it. Every survey at the time and every study since then has demonstrated that anti-immigrant prejudice was by far the principal motivation behind voting for Brexit.

Brexit was a major factor in undermining Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party. While his economic and social policies won tremendous support, and while we oppose his frame-up expulsion by Starmer and support his stand in the current election, we have to be clear that his refusal (along with nearly every Labour MP) to call out Brexit as a racist project was a fatal error. It meant that Labour endorsed Brexit as a ‘democratic’ decision.

It was not as though he had not heard the argument. His close ally on the Left, Diane Abbott, spent nearly 6 months campaigning on the racist character of Brexit and arguing for keeping free movement (which was perfectly possible) before she  was silenced.

The consequence was that the Corbyn leadership ended up making decisions that lost him the support of several Labour Left MPs and alienated a large proportion of his young supporters.    

However, as MFJ argued at the time, that was not the only damaging consequence of Labour’s failure to call out Brexit as a racist project. It left the hard Brexit faction around Boris Johnson unchallenged in its campaign to undermine the Tory prime minister Theresa May. As a result she resigned and Johnson became the Tory leader and prime minister in July 2019 and went on win a large majority in the December.

Once in power they implemented the most extreme version of Brexit, and introduced legislation that massively increased the powers of the state, giving state bodies (police, army, intelligence services etc) the power to authorise or commit crimes in the service of the government. They undermined effective voting rights, especially for the poor and the young, and gave the government rather than independent bodies control over the conduct of elections. A torrent of new laws created ever tighter restrictions on the right to protest and freedom of speech. They tore up the rights of refugees, immigrants and workers.

And they accomplished all that with minimal opposition from the Labour leadership, now in the hands of Keir Starmer.

Brexit is now the non-issue of the election. A majority of people in Britain see Brexit as a disaster that has made them poorer and their lives more difficult, and they would like to reverse the decision. The Tories don’t want to talk about Brexit because it is an embarrassment; Starmer’s Labour Party does not want to talk about it because it would complicate their appeal to anti-immigrant racism.

This issue won’t go away. The RIL and MFJ call for the reversal of Brexit, not because we love the European Union, but because it is essential to defend the basic human right of free movement and the right of workers to go where they need to in order to find employment – the most important right for the class that has to sell its labour power in order to live.

We demand Opening the Borders because that is what millions of people are forced to do by the material, social, political, military and environmental problems they face – problems that the ruling elites of the imperialist countries are responsible for. We are already seeing the alternative to Open Borders; it is a world of despotism and barbarism. We will not tell refugees and migrants to stay where they are until the rich and powerful imperialists learn a modicum of humanity – or agree to establish ‘safe routes.’  

Fascism and resistance

The outgoing Tory government was a regime clearly moving towards fascism, with many ministers having direct links with fascism and with far-right, pro-Trump ‘think-tanks’ in Britain and the USA. The repeated exposure of corruption certainly made that course more difficult, but the principal cause of the divisions and weakness in the Brexit/Tory ranks has been the growth of mass resistance – from the widespread Covid ‘lockdown’ by hundreds of thousands of individuals and families in March 2020 that temporarily forced an unwilling government to fall into line, to the 2-year long strike wave in the public services that had mass public support and created the political climate for the mass anti-war movement in support of the Palestinian struggle. Those developments were ignored, or more often opposed by the Labour leadership.

The threat of fascism has not gone away. The rise of fascism is an international development because everywhere there are ruling classes, or sections of the ruling elites, which are turning to fascism to crush opposition, increase exploitation, and prepare for war with rival states. Fascists are in the governments in the Netherlands and Austria, they are the government in Israel and Italy, Marine Le Pen’s ‘Far Right’ party has come top in the French elections and Trump may be elected President in November. And everywhere the ‘moderate,’ ‘centrist’ or social democratic parties are normalising these developments because they are many times more afraid of the power of the poor and oppressed than they are of the fascists.

Fascist activity and racist & homophobic attacks have already grown already under the Tories, though much less than in other European countries. A Labour government that is tied to a crisis-ridden capitalist class, a Labour government that refuses to meet the real needs of the poor, the workers, the sick and homeless, and the struggling lower middle class could provide ideal conditions for the rapid growth of a fascist movement.

Fighting fascism is not a battle of ideas, it is a matter of self-defence, of defending our mass movement, our unions, and our integrated communities. That will only be effective with political leadership – again, that will only be possible if we build a new party based on the struggles of the mass movements and working class.

The next phase of our struggle, under a Starmer-led Labour government will be more demanding, but we have a sound base to build on. Despite 14 years of Tory dominance, there is less racism now than there was during the last Labour government. Thanks to the continued struggles of the anti-racist, labour, immigrant rights, and anti-war movements, Britain is less divided by race, nationalism and gender identity. Support for Brexit has plummeted. The strike movement to stop the free fall of the British economy and our living standards, and to save the NHS and public services, is readying for a new offensive this autumn. The majority of people in Britain oppose the Israeli government’s genocidal war to end any possibility of a Palestinian state. Britain has had the most consistent and largest anti-war, pro-Palestinian demonstrations and mass actions of any nation outside of the Palestinian struggle in Gaza and the West Bank.

Build & Unite the Mass Movements – Build a New Party of the Workers & Oppressed

03.07.2024

From Minneapolis to London, mass action led by black, Asian & immigrant youth defeats the racists & fascists.

Each weekend and most days since the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, USA, we’ve had huge marches through central London and around the country. We risked coronavirus because we knew history wouldn’t wait. At times when the state goes too far and exposes its racism it creates a turning point. It is imperative that leaders emerge in action on the side of the oppressed to win. It means overcoming mis-leadership and fears of our own power in action. MFJ is an organisation building leaders in action, speaking the truth about racism. We know that to overthrow oppression, the oppressed must strike the blow.

On Saturday 6th June from Parliament Square we marched for miles – to the US embassy, to Home Office Headquarters, Parliament Square and Whitehall. It was an outpouring of anger by young people taking to the streets, to reckon with time-worn British racism. The speed of the escalation is testament to the line being drawn against all the ways we are being killed and sacrificed to the profit, political opportunism or convenience of a few – deaths at police hands; deaths in detention centres; being left to die from Covid-19; left in Grenfell Tower; left to drown in the Mediterranean sea; deported to countries we don’t know; losing everything to a bloodsucking immigration policy; Windrush generations humiliated; young people and immigrants scapegoated for the failures of a system that for ten years has bailed out banks not communities.

A reckoning has been a long time coming.

A struggle for power

A dynamic youth-lead anti-racist movement asserting its power in the streets is the most serious threat to the government’s racist policies and practices; racist Brexit, the hostile environment for immigrants, health, education and work inequalities and racist policing. It is also the strongest hope of the exploited and oppressed as we face a world in crisis desperate for revolutionary change.

That power – on the streets – has incensed racists and fascists across the country and led assorted far right groupings to call a counter demo against the BLM protest on 13th June, under the pretence of “protect the statues”. Their ‘defending statues’ was really about defending their racism against the awakening of a movement that could come to challenge the politics of nationalism and racism that gave them Brexit, and which most divides and weakens the working class as a whole. Their answer is to put black people back in ‘their place’.

Wherever the fascists march or demonstrate, their goals are simple: brutal racist intimidation; physical attacks on black people, Asian people, LGBT people and anti-fascists; recruiting more racists to their ranks. They want us weakened, afraid to act, and really afraid to fight back. Fascism has to be defeated; it cannot be negotiated. The past four years since the Brexit vote has seen racism and racist attacks increase, some of the largest fascist mobilisations including in London and Manchester since the 1970 ‘Keep Britain White’ marches. With the election of the most far right government since Thatcher, under Boris Johnson, and his rallying cry to racists everywhere of ‘Get Brexit Done,’ fascists have been emboldened. The timidity of Labour who turned a blind eye to Brexit racism allowed a weak Tory government to stay standing. It is no accident that bigoted racist and anti-Muslim attacks increased; Brexit gave licence to racists to act.

Overcoming the misleaders

The march BLM LDN called for Saturday 13th June would have outnumbered the fascists and easily driven away any right-wing racists trying to disrupt it. Turning back the fascists with their tails between their legs from the start would have cemented the power of the anti-racist movement. Instead BLM LDN announced they would ‘give’ the fascists Saturday, by moving to Friday instead. They lined up alongside everyone from the police, media, Akala and Boris Johnson, telling black people to clear out of the fascist’s way. That betrayal was a comfort to the far right, who may well have increased their attendance as a result. It is always a mistake to give ground to fascists to organise and grow; it leads to racist attacks on the day and in the aftermath. It treats black people as though we are weak, when it is precisely our strength that has brought about this critical point in history.

A distraction rally was held in Hyde Park, called by Stand up to Racism, which should have marched straight to Trafalgar Square, but the leaders of that rally also told people to go home after a few speeches. Thankfully hundreds ignored that advice and came to Trafalgar Square. London Black Revs and Malcom X Movement had called on protestors to go to Trafalgar Square from the start, and not back down to fascists.

The decision of the 200 or so, to stand ground in Trafalgar Square against all racist provocation and abuse, getting the word out as far and wide so others would come and join us, turned a near defeat into a major victory. The day ended with mass action lead by overwhelming black, working class young people, driving the fascists out streets by street, and taught them a hard lesson. It was a truly historic defeat for fascism.

An MFJ account of Saturday 13th June – Trafalgar Square to Waterloo

“It was known the racists and fascists came in largely through Victoria on coaches and trains to head to Parliament Square. They always start drinking early. Altercations with police began quickly, they attacked journalists and gradually fought through police lines to get to Trafalgar Square. These were the groups looking to attack any BLM / anti-fascists and do damage. They had glass bottles and fireworks as weapons.

“In Trafalgar Square the anti-racist demonstrators were overwhelmingly black, young and working-class, a lot of women. Everyone knew why we were there: we had to defend the growing movement by holding the ground to stop the fascists taking advantage of the day, and not clearing ourselves out of the way.

“We were only around 200, if that. There were police nominally separating the sides. The fascists (all men, some EDL, some violent groups connected through football) were gathered around the south west of the square shouting racists and misogynistic taunts, ‘go back to Africa,’ being provoking, and some in berets like ex-army gathered on Nelson’s Column. They carried on until they felt confident enough in their numbers to attack physically. At that point they moved like a flock around from the south end of the square, then up the east side to the higher ground along the top. They used the higher ground to lob glass bottles and fireworks into the crowd of black people, while making monkey noises and chanting. At the same time there were other racists milling around allied with the racist mobilisation.

Some police moved in, but a lot of the time the police stood back. The police caught up some fascists around Charing Cross, and later with police dogs stopped another breakaway group of fascists near Haymarket. There were fascists on side streets around Trafalgar Square.

Despite the mis-leaders who stayed away, everyone who stayed showed boldness greater than any of those fascists and racists. Our cause meant more – we are making history.

After an hour or so another big group of anti-racist protestors (some marched from Hyde Park, probably picking up others on the way) got to Trafalgar Square. Then our numbers were closer to a thousand, as it should have been. There were still confident fascists and racists verbally abusing black people around the square like it were a sport. They quickly found Trafalgar Square was no longer a space where you could be openly racist.  Emboldened and our numbers growing the racists and fascists got shut down.

We got moving down the side streets around the square. Fascists spotted in Leicester Square were chased out. Back in Trafalgar Square some of the earlier fascists who had been so confident and bold before were caught up with. Everyone who had aligned with the racist abuse found themselves questioned and confronted.

We marched down The Strand to Waterloo Bridge, widening the field where the fascists could no longer operate. Over the bridge at Waterloo station a group of fascists in the train station had presumably left behind a couple of their fascist friends. By now the numbers of anti-racists was still growing, still overwhelmingly black and working class. Some of the crowd managed to chase the fascists into the station.

Our side’s goal was clear, we wanted to defend our city, our people from the fascist threat and we wanted to ensure that any fascist or potential fascist thinks twice before returning to attack us. We ended up as thousands, and we took the streets back from them, from Waterloo to Trafalgar Square to Whitehall, to Vauxhall – we chased those fascists out, any who thought to challenge us, any who sought to spew their racism or attack us got taught a lesson in the power of working class black, white and Asian people fighting in unison to defend our communities”

A historic victory against fascism

It is impossible to overstate the enormous victory over fascism which took place on Saturday 13th June, for the first time ever a mass black led, working class mobilisation in central London managed to beat back the fascists, force them out of our city in tears. There have been victories like this in our local communities such as Tower Hamlets when the EDL were defeated by masses of Asian youth and anti-fascists determined to defend their community, but in central London the fascists have been able to hold increasingly large demonstrations freely – they see central London as their space. The victory was confirmed when the Democratic Football Lads Alliance put out a statement afterwards saying they would be withdrawing from future mobilisations to ‘defend statues’.

Fear of this expression of the power of a black-led struggle, and the great significance of our victory, has meant that much of the left, and the leaders who use the ‘BLM’ name, are refusing to tell the truth about what happened. Most people who were not there will just have seen the footage from earlier in the day when the fascists had the upper hand and the photo of a fascist being carried to safety. Neither of these things tells the true story of what happened, the scale of the physical, emotional, political defeat for fascism – something that only happened because thousands defied the call to ‘stay at home’.

Movement for Justice by any means necessary exists to mobilise that power, to make the power of exploited and oppressed communities a social force that will defeat the racism of the state, abolish its brutal system of oppression, and smash the fascists. That movement will give new hope to youth, to the poor and working class, and to everyone suffering discrimination and prejudice.

MFJ is a movement of leaders, most of us immigrants and asylum seekers who have fought to be in Britain and fought to stay here. We fight to abolish the anti-immigrant system that is central to racism in Britain: – to end the racist scapegoating of immigrants and the government’s ‘Hostile Environment’ policy; to shut down all detention centres and stop deportations and immigration raids; to win the right of ALL descendants & family members of the Windrush Generation to stay in the UK; and to extend the Settled Status for EU citizens in Britain to EVERYONE, from any country, who is living here without secure immigration status.

MFJ does not rely on politicians, judges or any institutions of the state. To secure our rights and futures we must build an independent, integrated mass movement, led by youth, immigrants and the black & Asian communities, and fight by any means necessary for civil rights,  immigrant rights, and equality for all.

Why MFJ will be joining the ‘No to Tommy Robinson, No to Brexit’ bloc on 9 December

The following statement was put out on the fifteenth Surround YarlsWood demonstration on 1 December 2018 (pictured above):

Defend & Extend Free Movement of People – Stop Brexit!

  • Shut down Yarl’s Wood – Shut down all detention centres
  • Stop scapegoating of immigrants – End the racist Hostile Environment
  • Amnesty Now for ALL those who don’t have secure immigration status
  • Open the Borders of Britain & Europe!   

Sunday 9 December, ‘No to Tommy Robinson, No to Fortress Britain’ Demonstration, 11am, Portland place

Stop the rise of Fascism & the Far-Right – Join MFJ on the ‘No to Tommy Robinson, No to Brexit’ Bloc

Build independent, integrated, youth & immigrant led mass movement against racism, fascism & poverty

Bring Down this Racist, anti-Working Class Brexit Government!

Across Europe and in the USA, immigrant workers, immigrant communities and refugees are on the frontline fighting for justice and equality, against racism, fascism and poverty. They are far more than scapegoats who get blamed for low pay, failing public services, insecure jobs etc; they are feared by the rulers as the most determined and conscious fighters.

In Britain the resistance by immigrants and asylum seekers inside detention centres is the driving force that has won a whole series of victories; detainees & ex-detainees in Movement for Justice (MFJ) are playing the leading role in this struggle. That’s why Yarl’s Wood, which has once more been a site of struggle against mass deportation in the past week, now stands half empty.

In the USA, the real leaders of resistance to Trump and his fascist allies are immigrants, Latina/o & black communities and youth, and the refugee caravan at the border with Mexico. MFJ’s American sister organisation, BAMN, has been in the frontline of these struggles for immigrant rights and shutting down the fascists. In Italy, the independent SI Cobas union, 80% immigrant workers, is the most militant section of the workers’ movement and the focus of militant political opposition, especially by youth, to the new racist Far Right government. They are demonstrating today against the reopening of a detention centre in Milan.

These powerful struggles are the basis from which we can build – internationally – an integrated mass movement to defeat the biggest growth of fascism & far-right racism since the 1930s.

We must defend and extend the free movement of people and stop Brexit

The rich and powerful regard free movement as their exclusive privilege – free movement for themselves, their money & investments, and the goods & service they buy and sell in a globalised economy with super- fast communications. They deny the same rights and benefits to the poor and oppressed, the people they exploit, impoverish and dispossess. That is divide and rule on an international scale: a global labour market for bosses looking for cheap labour, but not for people looking for work and safety. Mass migration is a rebellion against that injustice.

In an increasingly unequal world the free movement of people is the most basic human right – fundamental to workers’ rights, women’s rights, LGBT rights, the right of asylum and to life itself. The ruling classes deny us those rights, with their borders, detention centres, immigration laws, and by condemning thousands to death and starvation.

Movement for Justice demands Open the Borders of Britain & Europe, because it is what hundreds of thousands of people are doing, by any means necessary, in order to solve crushing material problems in their lives. The alternative to Open Borders is a world of barbarism and tyranny.

And the forces of barbarism and tyranny are growing here, across Europe, in America, and elsewhere   in the world: the Trump movement, the new government in Italy, the Orban government in Hungary, and their model, Putin’s de facto dictatorship in Russia. Brexit is its British form. Brexit is the biggest victory for racism and biggest attack on immigrants in Britain in the lifetime of anyone living today.

The far right racists are facing our resistance everywhere and they can be defeated. That will take a movement that’s independent of the powers-that-be – a movement with consciousness, a strategy and leadership.

Exposing the lies about Brexit

The Government and the Labour leadership say we must accept Brexit because it is democratic. That’s a lie: it’s not ‘democratic’ for a majority to take away the rights of a minority. The referendum was an exercise in lies and demagogy, not democracy. Millions of people who are part of this society were denied a vote by racist nationality and immigration laws.

Some people on the Left, including leading people in the Labour Party, say we should accept Brexit because a big part of the Leave vote expressed the anger of white people in impoverished communities who had every right to feel betrayed. That is true, but does not make it any less racist. One section of the working class was venting its anger in an attack on another section, based on race and national origin.

The same people say we should put Brexit behind us and unite on the ‘real’ practical issues that affect our lives, like housing, jobs and the NHS. They can’t or won’t see that free movement and fighting racism are real practical issues for millions of people. They can’t or won’t see that racism and immigration have a profound impact on housing, jobs and the NHS.

The fundamental belief of all such people is that you can’t shift the racism of poor and working class white people – and that is the biggest lie of all. But the basis for that belief is that racism is simply too big an issue, that it is too ingrained in the economic and political system, that overcoming it would shake things up too much. And that is true! It is too big a fight for their politics and their methods.

Racism can’t be overcome by reliance on the present system – Parliament, the courts, elections – any more than it will be overcome by moral sermons. It can only be overcome in and through the independent power of a mass movement, and it’s only on that basis that intervening in Parliament, the courts, elections etc will yield any positive results. We must not be afraid of the power of the poor and oppressed.

Building the movement – Defending free movement of people – Stopping Brexit

MFJ fights to stop Brexit in order to maintain the free movement of people and defeat anti-immigrant racism. That is central, all other considerations are secondary. Staying in the European Union while ending free movement would be a defeat; keeping free movement while being outside the EU would be a victory. The institutional and legal arrangements through which free movement is maintained are merely a matter of the mechanism that achieves our goal.

The method through which a movement can achieve these goals is the method that MFJ applies to every fight, big or small, that we are involved in: independent collective action to shift the balance of power in favour of the oppressed and exploited, and always speaking the plain truth about racism, as we have done about Brexit ever since the referendum campaign. It’s what we are doing at Yarl’s Wood today, organising inside and outside, together, to shift the balance of power against the Home Office and Serco. It takes resistance and exposure to make detention unsustainable; neither happen without organisation.

It is the same method we employed last year to drive a fascist recruiting march out of Croydon – campaigning and organising in the community, especially the black & Asian community, and among the youth, to take over the streets.

This is the method that can maintain and extend the free movement of people and stop Brexit and reverse the growth of fascism. Our aim must be to bring down this racist, anti-working class, brutal – but weak & divided – government. On 11th December Parliament votes on Theresa May’s Brexit deal, which will almost certainly be defeated; the Brexit crisis enters a new and more dangerous phase, and the fascists are preparing to take advantage of it to build their movement. The notorious racist thug and former EDL leader known as ‘Tommy Robinson’ has summoned his supporters to a ‘Great Brexit Betrayal’ march in London on Sunday 9th December.

Some members of the Labour Campaign for Free Movement and the left-wing anti-Brexit group ‘Another Europe Is Possible’ (AEIP) are with us at Yarl’s Wood today. MFJ welcomes the positive decision of AEIP to organise a No to Tommy Robinson! No to Brexit! bloc as part of the mobilisation against the fascists on 9th December. It is endorsed among others by David Lammy, MP for Tottenham, Manuel Cortez, leader of the TSSA union, Caroline Lucas MP of the Green Party and Peter Tatchell. They are rightly demanding ‘vote down the Brexit deal’ and ‘defend free movement,’ and point out that,

“… It is not enough to simply oppose racism in the abstract. Brexit is being used to attack migrants, end free movement, deregulate the economy, divide communities and legitimise racism in the political mainstream. It is driven at its core by the British wing of a movement that includes Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro, Marine Le Pen and Geert Wilders, among others…. Brexit has from its earliest days been driven by the far right, and the far right will benefit from it for decades to come unless we defeat it and the conditions on which it feeds.”

MFJ will be part of this bloc and we call on everyone here today to join us there. We will do everything we can to build the bloc.

Immigrants, black & Asian communities and youth must take the lead

This leaflet started, in its first four paragraphs, by explaining that these are the forces on the frontline of the fight for equality and justice internationally, and that are leading the fight against detention and the Hostile Environment policy in Britain.

With regard to Brexit, by far the biggest percentage of votes against this racist project came from black, Asian and Muslim voters, and from young voters – the most integrated generation, with their futures at stake. These are overwhelmingly working class communities and groups, and include some of the poorest sections of the working class. And they are a core part of Labour’s ‘traditional supporters.’ They knew from the start that Brexit is racist, and they have directly experienced its toxic impact. Recent polls indicate a further increase in opposition to Brexit among these groups.

The decision of the Labour leadership to endorse Brexit, to deny that it is racist, and to abandon free movement is a shameful insult to these communities and to the young generation. But, the most prominent anti-Brexit organisations have also been, at best, reluctant to fight on the issues of racism and free movement because they don’t want to undermine the Labour Party. As a result they isolated and undermined the very forces that most strongly rejected Brexit – while the Labour leadership continues to undermine itself anyway with its Brexit policy.

The ‘No Brexit’ bloc on the 9th December can be the start of changing that situation. Our organisers must focus on London’s multiracial schools & colleges, and the predominantly black, Asian and working class universities. We must call on David Lammy and other anti-Brexit MPs, especially black and Asian MPs and councillors, to call on their communities – on Tottenham, Lewisham, Hackney for example – to come out with us. We must call on Manuel Cortez and other anti-Brexit union activists to bring out the immigrant workers who are the most exploited and some of the most militant workers in London.

Time is short before 9th December, but we have a long fight after that because this is profound and long- running crisis in our history. We must step up our action now.

MFJ is building a movement of immigrant, black, Asian and young leaders because that is central to defeating the Far Right and overcoming the huge roadblock of racist, anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim discrimination and prejudice that is the chief barrier to progress in British society and internationally. That is the most important task before us, Only such a leadership can awaken and inspire a new movement of united mass struggle against exploitation and poverty.

We call on EVERYONE here today to join this fight.

MFJ Statement for USB (rank & file union) mobilisation, Rome 16/06/18

Read flyer in Italian here

Open the Borders! Open the Ports! No Deportations!

No to the racist Salvini/Di Maio government! – No to the racist Brexit project! No government & no electoral majority can take our rights away

  • For a pan-European immigrant & youth led movement against ‘Fortress Europe’ – No to Racism! No to Austerity!

  • Build integrated worker/community defence to shut down the fascists

  • Defend & extend the free movement of ALL people

Rome: 16 June 2018

Movement for Justice by any means necessary (MFJ) in Great Britain greets today’s mass demonstration in Rome. MFJ welcomes the mass protests that are part of the Transnational Action across countries in Europe and West Africa. In the face of an international crisis and the rise of the racist Far Right across the ‘western democracies,’ our movement has to be international.

The movement is advancing. In February, thousands of immigrants and anti-fascists demonstrated in Macerata a week after Traini’s racist attacks – in defiance of opposition from the leaderships of the Democratic Party and big trade union federations. On the morning after the national election in March, immigrant youth took to the streets of Florence to express their rage, just a few hours after the racist murder of a Senegalese immigrant, Idy Diene. Strikes and marches have been organised hours after the racist murder of unionist Soumalya Sacko, an immigrant agricultural worker from Mali and organiser in the bold fight in San Ferdinando against racist exploitation by bosses, for decent homes and working conditions and for equality. Thousands in integrated marches across the country and especially in Sicily have protested against the inhumane racist decision of deputy PM Salvini to close the ports to a boat with 629 immigrants.

The militant protests, marches and strikes by immigrant workers and youth have continued, from the north to the south, against a political system and a government that have plumbed new depths of anti-immigrant racism, emboldened the fascists and given them a licence to kill. There is an increasing awareness in Italy, echoed across Europe, that the fight for immigrant rights and the fight against fascism are one and the same struggle. Continue reading “MFJ Statement for USB (rank & file union) mobilisation, Rome 16/06/18”

Roma 24.02.18: Manifestazione Nazionale contro Sfruttamento, Razzismo e Repressione

Organizzata da: Si Cobas Lavoratori Autorganizzati

On this day as MFJ we joined the demo in Rome and gave out this leaflet

Download English Translation: English Flyer Si Cobas national demo 24.02.2018

 

Organizzare la difesa proletaria e comunitaria contro i fascisti, con a capo lavoratrici/ori immigrati, rifugiati e giovani – Stop Forza Nuova! Stop CasaPound!

Difendere ed estendere la liberta’ di movimento di tutte le persone fuori e dentro l’Europa – Aprire le frontiere d’Italia e d’Europa! Basta con la colpevolizzazione razzista degli immigrati!

Pieni diritti di cittadinanza a tutti coloro che vivono, lavorano e studiano in Italia!

Chiudere tutti i centri di detenzione per immigrati!Abolire la legge Minniti-Orlando! Abolire gli accordi con la Libia segnati nel sangue degli immigrati! Truppe italiane fuori dal Niger!

Costruire un movimento di massa, integrato per i diritti degli immigrati, i diritti dei lavoratori e i diritti civili – Per una lotta unita contro razzismo e poverta’!

 

Le/gli immigrati che hanno duramente combattuto e hanno rischiato tanto per costruire nuove vite in Europa, e giovani immigrati di seconda generazione che stanno lottando per la giustizia e la cittadinanza, costituiscono la forza piu’ militante e progressiva nella classe lavoratrice in Italia e tra i giovani d’ Italia – la vanguardia che puo’ ispirare e guidare un movimento integrato di massa di tutti i poveri e gli oppressi  contro politiche di austerity, disuguaglianza e repressione. Questa e’ la piu’ grande paura della classe dirigente italiana e di tutti i suoi partiti di fronte alla piu’ profonda crisi in Italia dalla seconda guerra mondiale. Il movimento di cui loro hanno paura e’ il movimento che possiamo e dobbiamo costruire.

Le classi dirigenti d’Europa non hanno una via d’uscita dalla crisi prodotta dalle fallimentari politiche economiche neo-liberali che hanno imposto nei propri paesi e, con effetti disastrosi, in tutto il mondo. La loro unica risposta e’ imporre una sempre maggiore austerita’ sulla classe lavoratrice, poveri e la classe media in difficolta’ di tutte le razze. In Italia, il governo uscente ha ridotto all’osso i diritti dei lavoratori, il numero delle/dei precari ha raggiunto un livello record di circa 3 milioni mentre il futuro delle giovani generazioni viene distrutto. Da Nord a Sud, le lotte piu’ militanti e determinate contro lavoro precario e condizioni di vita e lavoro inumane, e contro leggi razziste e repressive, sono portate avanti da lavoratrici/ori immigrati e rifugiati- da Rosarno, Nardo’, Saluzzo e tutte/i i braccianti nelle campagne a Piacenza, Bologna, Torino e le altre citta’ e centri del settore della logistica.

Per forzare le loro politiche brutali, i principali partiti in Italia si uniscono per attaccare immigrati e giovani di cui temono la forza; militarizzano le frontiere, incrementano lo stato di repressione, e fomentano divisioni razziste usando l’immigrazione come capro espiatorio per la poverta’ e l’insicurezza che il sistema capitalista ha creato.

I fascisti di Forza Nuova e Casa Pound sono ora usati dagli elementi piu’ reazionari della classe dirigente d’Italia x colpire le comunita’ di immigrati e i lavoratori immigrati. La recente tentata strage di immigrati Africani per mano di neofascista Luca Traini a Macerata, e la celebrazione sfrontata di Traini come un “eroe” da parte di fascisti, si va ad aggiungere ai numerosi violenti attacchi fascisti e razzisti in tutta Italia. Sono un segnale per le organizzazioni di lavoratrici/ori immigrati e per immigrati e giovani anti-fasciste/i che ORA e’ il tempo di costruire azioni collettive per la difesa delle nostre comunita’, luoghi di lavoro, picchetti, i centri per immigrati, luoghi di incontro, scuole etc., e di bloccare i tentativi dei fascisti di organizzarsi e recrutare. Sciogliere le organizzazioni fasciste  e’ una questione di difesa delle nostre vite, della nostra liberta’, della nostra sicurezza.

Nessun affidamento sul fallito sistema politico razzista

Non abbiamo nessuna illusione che i politici, le forze dell’ordine, il sistema giudiziario o la costituzione ci difenderanno. Tutti i maggiori partiti e le alleanze elettorali sono responsabili del ricorso a politiche sempre piu’ razziste e nazionaliste. Al governo, il PD ha completamente tradito le sue promesse di approvare lo Ius Soli per le seconde generazioni e accellerare la cittadinanza per i bambini degli immigrati; ha pianificato nuovi centri di detenzione, e la legge Minniti-Orlando ha abolito il diritto di appello in caso di diniego dei richiedenti asilo e il diritto alla loro presenza in corte; ha pagato il governo Libico per fargli accettare deportazioni di massa e detenzione di immigrati, portando a nuovi mercati di schiavi nel 21esimo secolo; e ha mandato truppe italiane nel Niger per stabilire una frontiera contro immigranti sul confine meridionale del Sahara. E lo stesso PD con il “Jobs Act” ha dato completamente fuoco ai diritti e alle protezioni delle/i lavoratrici/ori, per questo e’ stato acclamato dal Fondo Monetario internazionale e dall’Unione Europea.

L’ ignobile spostamento a destra del PD ha incoraggiato la coalizione di estrema- destra della Lega Nord, Fratelli d’Italia e Forza Italia ad abbandonarsi ad una retorica sempre piu’ razzista. Berlusconi, il Trump italiano caduto in disgrazia, sta allestendo una resurrezione politica con una promessa di deportare 600.000 immigrati – una misura che potrebbe essere implementata attraverso la militarizzazione in massa della societa’ italiana. Il M5s dei cosiddetti anti-casta, ha promosso una retorica razzista anti-immigrati sin dal suo esordio; nell’amministrazione di Roma la sindaca 5Stelle ha ordinato lo sgombero violento e razzista di Piazza Indipendenza contro famiglie di rifugiati e richiedenti asilo Eritrei ed Etiopi con poliziotti che seguivano l’ordine di “Spaccate le braccia se c’e’ resistenza, devono sparire”.

Tutti questi partiti mostrano una tenera apprensione per i “diritti” di Forza Nuova e Casa Pound e si oppongono a chi resiste la crescita del fascismo. Ministri del PD hanno espresso solidarieta’ con candidati fascisti alle elezioni contro manifestanti anti-fascisti.

L’elezione del mese prossimo non sistemera’ niente. Puo’ solo annunciare un periodo di piu’ grande instabilita’ per un sistema politicamente e moralmente in bancarotta. Possiamo solo essere certi che i fascisti cercheranno di sfruttare tutto questo: il nostro compito sara’ di usare le debolezze del sistema politico per vincere vittorie per poveri e oppressi e per sconfiggere i fascisti.

Un nuovo movimento sta crescendo

Migliaia di immigrati e antifascisti hanno marciato a Macerata il 10 Febbraio- una settimana dopo l’attacco razzista di Traini – in aperta sfida all’opposizione dalla leadership del PD, dell’ARCI, dell’ANPI e delle grandi federazioni sindacali. Pochi giorni prima della marcia, la rabbia crescente ha forzato il governo ad abbandonare il vergognoso tentativo di divieto. Lavoratrici/ori immigrati e giovani antifascisti stanno manifestando contro i fascisti in tutta Italia. C’e’ una crescente consapevolezza in Italia che la lotta per i diritti delle/degli immigrati e la lotta contro il fascismo sono la stessa lotta. Questo e’ il movimento rappresentato qui oggi a Roma.

Questo movimento puo’ vincere perche’ e’ molto piu’ grande e rappresenta una ben piu’ grande forza sociale delle bande di carogne fasciste con la loro delirante ideologia.  I fascisti possono solo sperare di crescere e vincere se avremo paura di mobilizzare il nostro potere. Non possiamo permetterci di essere frenati da chi ci sta tradendo mentre pretende di darci “consigli amichevoli”- quelli che ci hanno detto di non marciare a Macerata, chi dice di rispettare la “liberta’ d’espressione” per i fascisti, chi dice che dobbiamo limitare le nostre richieste, quelli che hanno detto che il “Jobs Act” creerebbe piu’ posti di lavoro per noi. La verita’ e’ che hanno paura della nostra forza molto piu’ di quanto hanno paura dei fascisti

  • Noi lottiamo per pieni, uguali diritti di cittadinanza per chiunque vive, lavora e studia in Italia. Lottiamo per quel diritto per le persone che siamo- qualunque sia la nostra origine nazionale, etnicita’, cultura, religione, sessualita’, gender etc. Siamo tutti Italia oggi!
  • Organizziamo azioni per fermare deportazioni, chiudere i centri di detenzione di immigrati e rifugiati, e rendere le leggi razziste sull’ immigrazione impraticabili.

Lottiamo per aprire le frontiere d’Italia e d’Europa, perche’ questo e’ quello che migliaia di noi stanno facendo per risolvere problemi materiali reali nelle nostre vite. E’ quello che migliaia di cittadini in Italia sta facendo quando sfidiamo la legge per fare salvataggi in mare, proteggere e aiutare

  • immigrati e rifugiati. L’unica alternativa all’ Aprire le Frontiere e’ un mondo di maggiore barbarismo e tirannia.
  • Lottiamo CON OGNI MEZZO NECESSARIO perche’ non possiamo permettere ai poteri costituiti di determinare come possiamo lottare contro la loro oppressione, sfruttamento e razzismo.

Nel costruire questo movimento stiamo lottando per qualunque cosa progressiva in Italia, perche’ il razzismo anti – immigranti e’ l’arma politica centrale della classe dirigente reazionaria. La nostra lotta e’ centrale alla creazione di un’ unita’ politica dell’intera classe lavoratrice in Italia in quanto forza che puo’ porre fine allo sfruttamento e al dominio capitalista. E’ centrale per mettere fine all’ondata reazionaria che e’ il risultato di successive politiche di governo e misure economiche: i crescenti abusi, violenze e delitti perpetrati contro donne, gli attacchi contro lesbiche/gay, l’intolleranza e la violenza contro le comunita’ Musulmane. E’ centrale a creare un futuro di speranza per i giovani d’Italia di tutte le razze.

E nel costruire questo movimento integrato, di massa e militante in Italia saremo una potente forza per creare un movimento a livello europeo con a capo immigrati e giovani contro il razzismo e la poverta’.