Whilst I disagree with some points in this article, such as that Al-Qaeda and other similar groups are not fascists (Al-Qaeda simply do not have a state but they do desire one, that is how I would distinguish them and Daesh), but the overall article is very good. People need to see and realise that neo-nazis and the likes of Daesh (IS) have more in common than they would like to admit.

http://mondoweiss.net/2015/11/isis-fascist-movement/

This gem was posted on Urban 75 by someone called Liam and sent to me by a mate:

“It is my recollection of one small little incident which, for me, captures the mood and atmosphere of the times and also had a fundamental ripple-out effect…

One Saturday afternoon in 1989(?) a meeting was called at the Red Rose in Finsbury Park to re-launch AFA. There was much residual (and mutual) suspicion between Red Action (and their fellow-travellers) and the semi-state sector (Newham Monitoring Group and various ‘right-on’ lefties) from previous history – but it was a political and operational imperative that a way to work together was found.

In fairness to those centred around the NMP, there were some very capable, principled, hard-working activists among them, but there were fundamental political, tactical, strategic and social differences between them and us – and there were also some of (what we saw as) the worst examples of hysterical, white middle-class, lifestyle lefties .

Thus we were all on our best behaviour even though it was clear that some of our essentially white, middle-class ‘comrades’ were bristling with self-righteous indignation and just looking for an excuse to walk out shaking their heads at what they perceived to be the somewhat rough and ready manners and manner of our lot.

The NMP and their allies turned up with somebody new in tow. He was a young black community activist from Broadwater Farm. I think his name was Rupert. It was clear that he was their new working class champion… and he was black too don’t you know. Tbh it was a bit embarrassing watching them fawn over him and he had obviously been fore-warned about us. I was immediately struck at how their reactions to, and behaviour around, him were at odds with their hostility to many of our own, more hairy-arsed, comrades and the only difference I could see was skin colour.

Our reaction to him – as it was to anybody else – was to see what he had to say and offer rather than making any such judgements based on where he was from or his colour. If he was sound then he was a sound no matter – and equally, if he was a prick then he was a prick and we could not really give a fuck what estate or background he was from. He looked and dressed like a Norf London geezer rather than a Lefty, but he did arrive wearing a beret .

Anyways the meeting got underway and was very polite to begin with as we all danced around the sensibilities of others and various differences in strategies and tactics, but the underlying tension was never far from the surface. The MNP were at pains to get Rupert’s input and opinion on everything , on account of him knowing the word ‘on the street’ and everything (I assume they thought we lived in a reservation for lumpy proles or something. But then we were mostly white so what would we know about the problems ‘the black community’ faced).

Still progress was made over the next (interminable) hour and a half as each side outlined where they felt things had collapsed in the past and how mutual ground must be found. It seemed to me that every time one of our mob spoke the reaction was to their language and speaking style rather than what they said. I fell foul of this when I referred to something as ‘clearly a load of old bollocks’. Some of us may have included a ‘fuck’ or two as well but only as conversational punctuation, certainly not directed at any person. At this point a particularly shrill middle-class woman jumped up and interrupted me (which was something we had been at pains not to do to them).

She started banging on about swearing, how offensive she found it and how she could not imagine sending the likes of me in to speak to a Asian women’s group. I replied neither could I and why would anybody send me to do a job that would obviously be more suited to a woman and probably an Asian one. Surely this was a matter of horses for courses and that was the idea of this meeting? We felt that in the past the Left had concentrated far too much on aiming it’s activity and propaganda at the victims of racism. We were proposing that as well as this AFA should work in and among the potential recruits of racist organisations – the disaffected white working class – and that required a different skillset and language.

Neither was it a matter of either ‘jaw, jaw’ or ‘war, war’ but of both. Not of propaganda Vs street activity but of both together. I finished by saying I was sorry she did not like the way we spoke but that we all had roles to play, I did not see mine and her roles overlapping too much and if she was so offended by a couple of swear words then frankly I did not give a flying fuck.
There was uproar and I caught a sideways-look from some of our senior people as I had set off the very thing we had all been told to avoid – and it was now in full swing.

A shouting match broke out and the Chair (one of them of course, as they would have sulked if it was one of us) struggled to hold it together and to ‘Chair’ rather than join in on one side. Suddenly Rupert arose from his front row seat. Immediately the Chair demanded silence for his new Comrade from the Farm. Given that about a dozen people were all waiting to speak this was not exactly how things should be. But this was Rupert. He was from Broadwater Farm. He was working class AND black which made him ‘special’. The NMP lot fell silent as their champion held the floor.

In fairness we were all interested in what he had to say too.

“ I tried to come to this meeting with an open mind. We are all in this thing together, y’know what I mean? So despite what I was told about people beforehand , I come to meet people, make friends and find ways we could work together. I have to say I am absolutely gutted by what’s gone on here today.” Well said Rupert they enthused and nodded knowingly to each other.

“From the very start there was a bad atmosphere and a bad attitude from some people in this room. Look at it now – you could cut the atmosphere with a knife. This ain’t no way to carry on, people.” And on he went. By now the murmurings of enthusiastic endorsement were becoming more pronounced and they were clapping his every remark as he warmed to his task.

“It’s obvious that one group in here are genuine. One group are ready and willing to work together. But the other group don’t wanna listen to no-one else, they just think the other mob are wrong all the time. They’ve basically got a BAD attitude. They are just insulting. It’s pathetic and it’s just plain wrong”. By now they were besides themselves with glee and cheered his every word as he tore into the ‘bad guys’.

Until, that is… when Rupert turned round… looked at them with a look of pure “WTF” and said “What’s the matter with you people? What are you lot clapping for? I ain’t talking about THEM… I’m talking about YOU!”

This stopped them in their tracks and they sat open-mouthed as he continued (they could not interrupt him of course, or shout him down. How could they? After all he was THEIR champion. He was working class, he was black and (I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this but) he was from Broadwater Farm.

“All you lot seem to care about is if people use big words and talk like you or not. If they don’t, you don’t listen. Why can’t you just listen to what they’re saying, instead of how they say it? My first experience with the NF was when I got hit on the head with a bottle and called ‘nigger’ on Tottenham High road – by some geezer who two days before had been in our flat fitting the gas. Now if those days are coming back with the BNP, I know who I want watching my back and it ain’t fackin you lot… ”

The loud silence was by now only broken by the laughter we were all doing our best (unsuccessfully) to hold in. All I could see was the shock on their faces, the anguished looks of betrayal – and the shoulders of several burly men shaking as they tried to restrict themselves to a polite chuckle instead of the belly-laugh such a turnaround deserved.
He finished by apologising if he had hurt anybody’s feelings but said this shit was too important to let people’s feelings get in the way and sat down to a big round applause – from us.

Strangely, this frank reality check had a very positive effect on the proceedings. Of course some of them would never get over their own prejudices and offended sensibilities but it sort of shook the best of them from their self-constructed cocoon and they began to engage positively. I doubt this would have happened without Rupert’s intervention.

The relationship between RA, DAM etc and those in the ‘nicer’ anti-racist sector was always a little strained, but good people from both sides found ways to work together in common cause for a considerable length of time.

Funnily enough, I don’t recall ever seeing Rupert in their company again.

But if you are reading this Rupert, I salute you and I still laugh like fuck when I recall the moment you – spurred by honesty and an ability to see and state the blindingly obvious – turned on your ‘sponsors’.”

I do not need to add much more to this other than incidents like this have not changed and became more commonplace, particularly when we are faced with activists of a middle class hue. It is absolutely spot on and an indicator of how patronising the left is.

Starting out my political life as an anarchist I was continuously surrounded by anarchists usually of the somewhat dogmatic variety. Thinking that was the political norm I took what some of them said as gospel. One key area of my physical and political activity has always been anti-fascism so inevitably it was not long before I began hearing about Anti-Fascist Action (AFA) and the largest component of that group, Red Action (RA). Curiosity kind of struck me immediately about AFA in general and RA in particular. I began to ask people and I received mixed responses. Some of those responses were favourable, some were ambivalent, some were neutral and some were outright hostile. To my eternal regret my dogmatic side took over and other people’s ambivalent and hostile view of Red Action took over in my mind. This is not to say that I was particularly hostile to the politics and ideas of Red Action, simply due to listening to the many lies and misconceptions about them, I had my reservations. I was always aware that they done the business with regards to anti-fascism and very much respected them for that and also for their overwhelmingly working-class composition. However I listened far too much to the criticisms, some of which were “too much analysis”, “Bolsheviks”, “Leninists”, “Trotskyists”; “Stalinists”, “nutters” and “authoritarian” among others. Of course there was also the accusation of “IRA front” (is that a bad thing even if it were true?). When this is all you are hearing from people, this is what you will believe. The initiative of independent research did not even cross my mind because I had the lazy attitude of “what’s the point? People have told me all I need to know anyway”.

Then a brilliant book called Beating the Fascists came out. This is the story of Anti-Fascist Action told from a Red Action member’s perspective. It caused a total shit storm and as a result I was immediately attracted to it. I bought a copy from a mate of mine back in 2011 and finished it in a week. What I was reading in Beating the Fascists sparked some thoughts and feelings that what I was reading in the book and what I was being told by other people did not quite sit right somehow. I then decided to do a bit of research online and came across some discussions and pieces written about Red Action, some of these providing another view from what I had always been told. I gradually began to view Red Action in a different light although did not pay too much attention to their politics. After all, I was too busy throwing stuff at coppers, dressing in black and wanting to smash the windows of every bank and posh hotel in sight.

I eventually began to change the view around my praxis, the way in which I practiced my political ideas. I started wearing less of the black bloc gear and engaged in less of the rioting. Maybe a black hooded top with a black mask, jeans and trainers was as far as I would go with the black bloc tactic towards the end of my flirtation with it. I was never a crusty and outside of a black bloc I was always mildly to very casually dressed depending on mood and situation. I was also increasingly taking the view that the black bloc tactic in this country was a spent force, a thing which happened successfully a couple of times and now the police had caught on and adapted their tactics accordingly. 26th March 2011 was not going to happen again, at least the way it did then. Also black blocs in this country pull embarrassingly low numbers and is treat as a fashion statement rather than a tactic to be used. On this basis I would still engage in this tactic on Mainland Europe for example where there are the numbers and the tactical know-how to form successful black blocs. I would however not make this the sole preserve of my activity which far too many people seem to. In this country it has almost became the defining image of the dilettante. Although I must say that not everyone on a black bloc is a dilettante but in my experience most are. An “activist” who will simply turn up to a demo dressed in black, have a bit of a push and shove with the police and then go home hardly, if ever, to be seen or heard of doing anything else. Little real world social activism comes from this. So due to this frustration I began to look for other alternatives and something which periodically cropped up was Red Action stuff.

I began to look more and more into it. I eventually began talking to a member of Red Action and there was an immediate realisation that my own political, social and economic beliefs were hardly, if at all, different. Then I eventually met members of Red Action and associated groups and found that they were absolutely nothing like the negative views which I heard from other people. I felt comfortable around them, not having to watch what I was saying and being in one of the most solidly working class political settings I had ever been in. Then the Red Action Archive and the Anti-Fascist Action Archive went online. This provided me with a wealth of Red Action literature and a from the horse’s mouth insight into the politics and views of the group and some of the individuals within it. Red Action were by no means perfect, no group ever has been and ever will be but I rapidly found out that what I had always been led to believe is a huge pile of steaming horse shit.

Through conversations with its members and supporters and through reading its own writings I quickly concluded that Red Action is in fact where I am at politically.

As I began to adopt a Red Action position and to increasingly identify with what I see as whole tendency in and of itself, I inevitably came into some debate and verbal conflict with others on the left. The most common theme is that Red Action are Bolsheviks. By this point I knew that was rubbish so I found two references, among others, which would disprove that. These are the Open Polemic and Red Action Scotland Constitution, Principles and Perspectives. The former consists of discussions between Red Action and Stalinist and Trotskyist groups, with Red Action taking a position contrary to Stalinists and Trotskyists. The latter gave opinions on various topics among them being the Soviet Union and Leninism.

On the Soviet Union:

“RA formally acknowledges that Stalin led the counter revolution in Russia which did not overthrow the Communist Party but was organised within the Communist Party which instead overthrew the workers state.

Before Stalin could use bastardised Marxism as its formal political basis, that Marxism had to be ground up, re-hashed, reprocessed and warped into something entirely different. The Bolshevik leadership did not cause Stalinism, which was due to the social and economic factors, but the theories they advanced to justify the tactics they deemed necessary to retain power laid the theoretical groundwork, which by separating in theory and practice the concept of the workers state from below, later facilitated the development of the counter revolution led by Stalin. (1991)”

On Leninism:

“Red Action recognises that the representative groups on the Left are neither ‘worker’ nor ‘revolutionary’. The time has come for a clean break from ideology and philosophy. (1988)

In regard to contemporary politics Leninist ideology and the cult of Lenin is the authority quoted to justify all sectarianism. The concept of one party rule in a one party state is the end that justifies THEIR means. As such Leninism is the major ideological impediment to the renaissance of the revolutionary left. As long as the left is dominated by conservative sects, the left will be dominated by conservative thinking. For the influence of RED ACTION to grow the dominance of the Bolshevik left will have to be broken.

…[as RED ACTION] we proclaim that the singular objective of revolutionary Marxism is the establishment of unconditional democracy. This is the self rule of the producers without qualification…this means there is no privileged position demarcated for the revolutionary party or indeed for the revolutionary class within the proletarian dictatorship. (1992)”

Very Bolshevik, very Bolshevik indeed!

As well as dispelling the myth that Red Action are “Stalinist”, “Bolshevik”, “Leninist” or even “Trotskyist” (some contradictory accusations there, what next? “Racists”? “Fascists”? Oh wait…), the perspective on Leninism provides us with an almost prophetic forecast of things to come for those of us one generation later. This is that “representative groups on the left are neither ‘worker’ nor ‘revolutionary'” and that “the time has come for a clean break from ideology and philosophy”. Looking at the landscape of the left today this point-of-view cannot be any closer to the truth. That left landscape being dogmatic, doctrinaire, overwhelmingly middle-class and at the first opportunity acquiesces to the trap of social democracy, a counter revolutionary philosophy in itself.

The left did not take heed to this warning because their prejudices about Red Action blinded them. Red Action in my view, an independent view at that, has been fully vindicated.

“As long as the left is dominated by conservative sects, the left will be dominated by conservative thinking” and this cannot be more evident by the dominance of conservative thinking emanating from sects like the Socialist Worker’s Party (SWP), Socialist Party, Counterfire and the like. Dogmatic, middle class, vanguardist and irrelevant.

Then we have class composition of which Red Action was one of just a few groups on the left with a thoroughly working class composition. For this and especially for emphasising this as absolutely vital to progression, growth and victory they received the accusation of “workerism”. They faced this accusation as if wanting working class ideals, politics, groups and actions to be composed of and led by actual working class people is a bad thing.

From what I have seen most criticism of Red Action, although not exclusively, has came from middle class quarters. I can only come to the conclusion that this is because Red Action, among one or two others, acted as a counter weight to this middle class dominance. The middle class left have never liked overwhelmingly working class groups and tendencies like Red Action and fought tirelessly to trample on and discredit any vestige of them. The middle class left still smothers and suffocates working class activists, groups, campaigns and tendencies today. Those of us who are sick and tired of this are beginning to fight back and look to the tried and tested and in my personal case and the increasing cases of other working class socialists, Red Action provides that for us. Red Action is STILL a breath of fresh air among the sea of middle class trendy lefties dominating the left.

We have a last chance to reverse this and personally speaking I believe that Red Action, as a tendency, is as relevant today as it was in the 80s, 90s and 00s. We have a great deal to learn from their analysis and perspective, snubbed in the past but vindicated today by the current state of affairs. We would be foolish, indeed reckless to ignore Red Action’s analysis and perspective and not apply that to struggles today.

I have only touched upon a few areas and aspects of Red Action’s thinking, leaving you to do the rest just as I have done. Working class people are not stupid, contrary to the left viewing us as such. We can work things out for ourselves and Red Action has been one of the few groups and tendencies on the left to actually acknowledge that simple fact.

Red Action’s political honesty and frankness is a welcome break and one which I will do my very best to promote in the future.