PARTISAN!

Edith Fischer discusses the class nature of the recent attempted pogroms in the United Kingdom. She then explains how workers’ power can defeat racist mobilisations.

The racist street violence that rocked the United Kingdom in the last months serves as a warning to working people in all countries. The end of the epoch of relative social peace that was guaranteed by cheap commodity imports and financialisation has unleashed the most atavistic and antisocial impulses in capitalist society. We should expect more, not less, of these spasms of the social body, these violent emissions of social bile.

In the wake of this attempted pogrom, it is important to immediately make clear the class- political character of the racist gangs. Much hay has been made of “Working Class Britons” who feel “left behind” by decades of austerity and “mass immigration”. And certainly, there are sections of the working class that do tail the racialist politics of the populist demagogues and the fascists that support them.

However, it is important to note that the core of these riotous explosions are not found amongst industrial workers in the great cities. Nor are they found in the vast council estates. Rather, they are found amongst lumpenised elements in the exurbs and lesser towns that dot the countryside of Britain. These layers, declassed by the crises of capitalism, moving between various “hustles” of small enterprise and criminality, are historically tied to counter-revolutionary forces. These layers combine at points with the petit bourgeois: the layers of independent tradesmen and small capitalists, the petty landlords, the suburban tyrants – the entire rotting edifice of a downwardly mobile middling layer. It is in these layers that we find the historical base of reactionary politics. In the view of Marx and Engels:

The lower middle class, the small manufacturer, the shopkeeper, the artisan, the peasant, all these fight against the bourgeoisie, to save from extinction their existence as fractions of the middle class. They are therefore not revolutionary, but conservative. Nay more, they are reactionary, for they try to roll back the wheel of history. If by chance, they are revolutionary, they are only so in view of their impending transfer into the proletariat; they thus defend not their present, but their future interests, they desert their own standpoint to place themselves at that of the proletariat.

The “dangerous class”, (lumpenproletariat) the social scum, that passively rotting mass thrown off by the lowest layers of the old society, may, here and there, be swept into the movement by a proletarian revolution; its conditions of life, however, prepare it far more for the part of a bribed tool of reactionary intrigue. (The Communist Manifesto)

These forces are ultimately conservative in their general political valence. While at times they can pass under the hegemony of the proletariat, in and of themselves the spontaneous consciousness they possess is easily mobilised by reactionary forces. This rotting coalition is bound together not necessarily by a common class perspective, but by a racial-national identity and a common social network borne of football hooliganism and petty criminality. These layers feel that their historic privileges have been liquidated by the progressive development of capitalism, and turn this antagonism onto a racial Other conjured in their mind like a spectre by the ideologues of capital.

The political character of this movement is also worth commenting upon. It is tempting to simply label those who participate in these racist riots as being representative of a fascist movement burbling beneath the suburban enclaves of Barret Homes and Wetherspoons. However, this obscures important dynamics within the movement. The forces that took to the streets in the days of racial hatred are overwhelmingly passive and depoliticised, mobilised through social media and encrypted messaging apps. They do not have a coherent political identity, nor are they bound together in traditional fascist organisations.

Rather, they serve as the foot soldiers of an inner core of racist and fascist agitators and organisers. It is important to recognise this, because while these forces may enjoy having a punch on with the cops from time to time, they are ultimately not ultras ready to carry out a social war – they can be intimidated and peeled away from the movement.

Fight Fascism with Class Struggle

In the struggle against reaction, communists hold firm to a steady line. The independent movement of the working class is the only force capable of being consistently revolutionary, and the only force capable of thoroughly and systematically opposing the racist capitalist system. As such, this force alone can deal the death blow to fascism.

The struggle of the working class against racism occurs on three fronts, three arrows aimed at the heart of the fascist-racialist beast. The first is the mobilisation of workers forces to confront the racist gangs and fascist squads. Mass mobilisation is the most powerful weapon at hand for workers, but in itself is not enough. During the August Pogrom, the racist gangs mobilised quickly, well before mass demonstrations could be organised. Workers defence groups and red guard squads must be organised to rapidly respond to the
provocations of the racist gangs. The tactical (or technical) question is relatively simple – the racist gangs must be broken up through superior numbers. Confrontation with the police should be avoided where possible, and effort should be directed to expose the leaders of the racist groups, publish their names, faces, and addresses. The prominent racist agitators should be acquainted with the pavement, and sent on their way. These groups should not be able to meet, drink, or march without being accosted.

The second front in the struggle against racism is the struggle against the racist policies of the government, and against the racist capitalists and landlords. Housing discrimination, exploitation of migrants and black/brown youth, racist deportation and anti-immigration policy – all the forms of “official” and unofficial racism perpetuated by the state and the ruling class have to be opposed by the worker-socialist movement. Caucuses for black/brown workers should be organised, with the support of the trade unions. Socialists should publish newspapers and bulletins aimed at migrant workers in a variety of languages. Anti-racist struggle must mobilise a multi-racial working class united front to attack the racist state.

The third front in the fight to oppose racism and fascism is the struggle to unify the working class for socialism. This third front may seem abstract, but without the other two fall into a reactive, identitarian liberalism. All workers, black and white, native and migrant, must see a common future in the realisation of a socialist revolution. In fighting for universal healthcare and education, to defend social services, for good housing and full employment, the socialist movement can articulate a set of common demands that can unify the entire working class with a positive program. This is vital for winning white workers away from the racist demagogues and agitators, and towards socialism.