If the far right offensive happening now in Britain were taking place in Germany or France, the left would be shouting about the need for urgent action.

　　Yet there is far too little response. It’s excellent that some anti-racists are reacting—but the reply has to be much stronger and the trade unions have to be more active.

　　Let us be clear about where we are now.

　　A far right party, Reform UK, took over four million votes at the general election in July, more than 14 percent of the total. Under many electoral systems it would have 80 or 100 MPs.

　　At least 15,000 people joined a confident and aggressive mobilisation in central London called by Nazi Tommy Robinson last weekend—although it was opposed by 5,000 people thanks to Stand Up To Racism (SUTR). 

　　Now a street force of fascists and their hangers-on have seized on a horrible murder of three girls to attempt to burn mosques, beat up refugees and terrorise migrants.They were in Southport on Tuesday night, and outside a mosque in Hartlepool and refugee hostels in Manchester and Aldershot on Wednesday.

　　In London outside Downing Street a crowd of hundreds chanted, “We want our country back,” and, “Oh Tommy Robinson.”

　　The fascists plan further mobilisations on Saturday (see below).

　　Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who has been careful not to seem too close to Robinson, made a shift this week. As the thugs gathered in Southport, he questioned “whether the truth is being withheld from us” about the murders.

　　And in an even fouler message, he said, “What I do know is something is going horribly wrong in our once beautiful country.” That draws straight from the fascists’ rhetoric.  

　　And when Farage was criticised in the media, Robinson responded warmly, “I told you, it’s me today and you tomorrow. These false accusations against you are what I have faced for well over a decade.”

　　Their closer relations are being forged in the attempted burnings of mosques.

　　This is a dangerous time. There is much attention on misinformation spread on social media about the Southport killings. Certainly, there was systematic and deliberate lying.

　　But the far right’s assaults were never really about the Southport murders. They were a convenient excuse for intensified Islamophobic, anti-migrant—and anti-black and Asian—agitation.

　　The mainstream response will be to shower praise on the cops. An institutionally racist and sexist force that defends a racist state is no real barrier to Robinson.

　　The political establishment created the conditions for Robinson’s rise with constant scapegoating of migrants and policies that wreck working class people’s lives. When war criminal Alastair Campbell criticises Robinson, it just gives him ammunition and helps his fake claims to stand against the rotten elite.

　　Then there will be possible non-solutions from the government such as banning the English Defence League. It’s an organisation that anti-fascist agitation hurled back a decade ago and doesn’t now exist.

　　And even if it did still exist, its followers would just reform under a new label.

　　It’s time for two key drives. One is a much bigger and more active movement against Islamophobia and racism. It has to say refugees welcome and stand with Muslims and against the fascists in all their forms.

　　There has to be much more support for Stand Up To Racism and the rebuilding of local groups with roots. 

　　And within that movement socialists have to argue for politics and action that target our real enemies—the bosses, the rich and the politicians who support them. As the government attacks pensioners and embraces austerity, the anger has to be drawn leftwards, not seized on by the far right.

　　We also need to stay on the streets for Palestine—resolute in the struggle against genocide and refusing to be intimidated from marching.

　　The millions who have marched against Israel’s crimes are a key component of the movement that can smash Robinson and Reform UK.

　　We have done it repeatedly before—we need to do it again.

　　The far right looks strong because it is allowed to dominate large sections of social media and is not challenged extensively enough on the streets.

　　But anti-racists are a much larger force if they can be mobilised. We can win.

　　Editor: Zhong Yao  Wei Xiaoxue

　　From:https://socialistworker.co.uk/we-must-stop-the-new-far-right-insurgency-in-britain/（2024-8-1）