Socialist Party want to talk to the fascist English Defence League

The Socialist Party (CWI) have a long and to them proud tradition of giving a platform to fascists, coppers, screws, Ulster loyalist fascists, and all manner of far right opinion. This is couched in terms of 'winning the battle of ideas', and 'combating reactionary ideas within the working class'. This tradition is alive and kicking in the present battle against the fascist English Defence League. A recent article (click title for link) makes the case for not calling a spade a spade, or in this case ultra right wing racists ultra right wing racists, on basis that it alienates them! An SP hack manages the following in a report of an anti fascists meeting in Bristol in late March, where 15 or so fascists from the EDL gate crashed the event:

"While waiting for the police a trade unionist spoke to one of the EDL members and found they had no political argument to back up their attacks on Muslims. He couldn't explain what the EDL meant by Islamic fundamentalism.

They took offence at being called racists or fascists. One was a plumber who had been out of work since last May. It appeared to the trade unionist that they were being manipulated by racists for their own political aims and objectives.

This shows the complicated and confused nature of those attracted to the EDL. It is crucial that genuine and democratic discussion and debate takes place on how to challenge racism and the far-right."

So, a member of a fascist organisation which is currently rampaging across Britain attacking Asian people, and specifically Muslims, is OK and just a bit confused because he is an unemployed plumber. This rank economism-whitewashing racism and pro-bosses politics within the working class on basis that such politics are just confused forms of trade union/class politics-is at the heart of SP approaches to building a new Labour Party to better represent the skilled trade union working class, with the recruitment of screws union leader, Brian Caton, merely the lowest point in the recent trajectory of this minor party of British Imperialism.

The SP call for open and democratic debate is an invitation to the supporters of the EDL, not others on the so called British left. The intention is clear: talk to fascists; convince them that the sort of right wing reformism the SP trot out, with its anti immigrant and pro-war positions, is the real form of protest that trade unionists and lumpen scum should take, not openly fascist and racist groups.

The SP have always preferred not to refer to the BNP and other such groups as “fascist,” choosing instead to describe them as “far-right,” “racist,” “homophobic” or “sexist.” The SP’s reluctance derives from a desire not to alienate BNP supporters:

“...where people are voting to punish New Labour merely calling the BNP ‘fascists’ is counter-productive. It is the BNP leadership who are fascists, not the voters and even some members do not agree with these far-right ideas.

“During elections when Socialist Party activists have spoken to people with ‘Vote BNP’ window posters they have patiently explained and discussed with them. Some have swapped their posters over on the basis of seeing the need for a united working-class party.”
—Socialist, 10 July 2008

The SP has a history of cheer leading the forces of fascist reaction. In January 2008, when 20,000 coppers marched on Westminster to demanding more pay for more anti working class repression, the SP sought to give this reactionary mobilization a leftist platform:

“This is in many ways a momentous occasion, since the last time they took any action over pay was 1919....

“Socialist Party members got a mixed response but there was clearly a strong underlying anger at the government....

“Unusually compared to most demonstrations, the police did not talk the numbers down! And the Police Federation had to distance themselves from the presence of the BNP’s London Mayoral candidate on the march.”
—Socialist, 30 January 2008

The “BNP’s London Mayoral candidate,” Richard Barnbrook, the Greater London Assembly member, was not merely “present”—he marched right at the head of the demonstration. He “had been told by officers that he was welcome and said a number of the protesting police officers had agreed to be interviewed for BNP TV” (Guardian [London], 24 January 2008).

The SP clearly have a crush on Barnbrook, as six months later they had a cosy chat with him in London, asking him:

“what about the BNP councillors in Stoke or Kirklees who voted for cuts and privatisation and tax increases—or don’t even bother to turn up to the council chambers?

“Barnbrook handily didn’t know anything about that. So we explained it to him—the BNP pretend to be the party for the white working class but when they get in the council chamber they preside over cuts, the same as the three main parties.”
—Socialist, 14 May 2008

By going down this road the SP leadership teach their deluded younger members that fascism is merely a set of ideas suitable for discussion and debate. This is entirely wrong. The BNP poses a deadly danger to leftists and all the oppressed—the only way to “explain” anything to a fascist is through a baseball bat to the skull and a construction boot to the teeth.

The SP also travel North of the Border to snuggle with the fascists. When the BNP was trying to expand its activity in Glasgow’s heavily working-class Pollock area in September 1989, hundreds of energetic anti-fascist youths met to discuss how to respond. Militant, as the SP was then known, asked for a debate:

“We decided to challenge the fascists to an open debate—originally to be held in a local football ground. Some of the youth wanted to take matters into their own hands. But we said we should wait until we had this meeting. Although normally we wouldn’t have considered debating the fascists we realised we could thoroughly discredit them in the eyes of the youth—and thought they probably wouldn’t turn up anyway.”
—Militant, 22 September 1989

On 20 September 2008, 350 fascists held a rally in Stoke to commemorate a BNP thug, Keith Brown, who was killed a year earlier when his neighbor, Habib Khan, found Brown strangling his son. The SP, which participated in a “peace and unity vigil” held as a counter-rally to the BNP event, made the incredible claim that “Keith Brown was tragically stabbed to death by his Muslim neighbour over a year ago” (Socialist, 23 September 2008). The only tragedy of this righteous kill was that the heroic Habib Khan was sent down for 8 years! The slogan of 'self defence is no offence' becomes 'self defence is wrong as it alienates murderous fascists!

The SP long ago crossed the Rubicon of diseased socialism. It is time they fully embraced the logic of such politics and offered the BNP and the EDL a platform as part of their racist and anti immigrant Trade Union and Socialist Coalition.