Anti-Fascist Network

by Phil Dickens

re-blogged from Libcom // original here

Some on the liberal end of the anti-fascist movement have argued that “no platform” is dead and free speech the best antidote to the far-right. This argument rears its head time and time again, but it bears shooting down every time.

Today, a Robert Sharp posted a short blog on Liberal Conspiracy to argue against no platform. It is, he argues, “counter-productive” because when fascists have a platform “they expose themselves as incoherent and small-minded, and it gives the rest of us a chance to argue against them.” It’s actually a fairly standard liberal argument.

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by Liz Fekete

re-blogged from The Institute of Race Relations // original with footnotes here

Anti-extremism frameworks, popular in policy and academic circles, are masking the multi-dimensional and pan-European nature of contemporary fascism and the role of the state.

Not since the early 1990s, and the pogroms at Hoyerswerda and Rostock have Europe’s far-right movements posed such a tangible threat to the safety of racial and religious minorities. In truth, levels of violence and state responses are far more worrying today than in the 1990s when hostels housing asylum seekers and guest workers were firebombed. There are a number of reasons why the central issues associated with far-right violence and racism are not being fully and publicly discussed.

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all ex-extremists together apparently

[reblogged from whileromeburnsjournal.wordpress.com]

Well, it’s been an interesting couple of days’ news and my only regret in saying anything about it is that I will in some small way be adding to the vast amount of publicity that Yaxley-Lennon has gained for himself in one day by his canny shift sideways in the Islamophobic marketplace. He’s the topic of conversation and has made all opinion gravitate around himself, so that love him or hate him, we’re all talking about him.

Anti-fascists should not be automatically celebrating Yaxley’s move. The real thing to celebrate in this is not anything to do with Yaxley-Lennon’s phoney personal journey but the confusion and chaos generated in the ranks of the far-right by the hand-grenade he has thrown into their midst. In the short term, we’re going to see a lot of confused and demoralised racists arguing with each other, and that’s good news for everyone else. Eventually a general re-alignment of the far-right seems likely – what the end result of that will be is hard to say now. The most likely outcome is that either under the EDL name or another we will see the EDL free to become more openly racist and fascist, which is the pattern we have seen with the splinter groups – Infidels, Casuals and EVF. Certainly the EDL isn’t going to have to pretend so hard not to be racist anymore as apparently even their erstwhile leader found it easier to leave than to expel the racists.

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