Shrewd but dull...

Anti-fascism is the foremost political struggle today. Nothing is as important. Nothing occupies people’s minds as much.

What we mean by political struggle is the conflict between distinct outlooks based in society for hegemony over the rest of society. Though there are many intermediate moments, in the last instant we talk about class.

We are right to insist that anti-fascism is autonomous. To be active against the nazis you do not have to break with any perspective except racism. But this is not as simple as it seems. Everybody is officially anti-racist, from the press to the police and even to modern fascists, who deny their roots in public.

Autonomous does not mean separate. Whilst keeping any anti-fascist organisation open there are a number of simple points we should argue consistently, not only to keep such a coalition honest and active but develop the movement around it.

(1) The cutting edge of modern racism is Islamophobia. This means active hatred of Muslims in general but in particular Muslims from the Middle East and the Indian Subcontinent. The ruling class generated this hatred in order to prosecute the War on Terror, an ongoing drive to force the global balance in favour of Western Power, in particular American Power. The nazis have used this drive to legitimise and build their organisation and support. Anti-fascists should combat Islamophobia whoever propagates it.

(2) The mainstream parties are all formally anti-racist. This is the reason their members and supporters can be called on participate in anti-fascist activity. They all angle after official power, however. British support for American Power is all but constitutionally encoded. This means all the mainstream parties will participate in the current war drive, including the ideological drive, i.e. they will propagate Islamophobia. This means a permanent political formation outside the mainstream consensus with a basis in anti-racism and anti-fascism is needed.

(3) Connected to point (2): just as the broader issue of racism is a structural problem (everyone is anti-racist yet racism persists). Support for American Power is embedded in British Power. There must be at the very least a significant shift in the political paradigm to change this fact. This implies support for radical, ultimately transcendent political aims: anti-capitalism.