https://socialistaction.org/2019/01/21/mobilizing-against-the-far-right/
Mobilizing against the far right
/ 2 days ago
feb. 2019 gavin mcinness (susan watts:getty)
Proud Boys leader Gavin McInnes (center) at a demonstration in New York
in 2017. (Susan Watts / Getty Images)
By STEVE XAVIER
On Jan. 19, there were reports of threats and intimidation against
women’s rights events in several cities, including Boston and Orlando,
Fla. According to a source, Proud Boys and allied rightists attacked the
Portland, Ore., Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) hall and a
Democratic Socialists of America meeting in the same city. Previously,
on Sept. 27, Proud Boys attacked a DSA social event in Louisville, Ky.,
spraying participants with pepper spray.
Also, on Jan. 19, a group of white Catholic high school students, who
had attended the anti-women “March for Life,” taunted a Native American
Vietnam veteran who had attended an Indigenous Peoples March. The
students wore red MAGA hats and chanted, “build the wall!” as Omaha
elder Nathan Phillips sang and played a drum in an attempt to calm down
the students. Phillips had been one of the water protectors at Standing
Rock.
feb. 2019 kid mocks elder
Catholic high school boys, wearing Trump MAGA caps, taunt Native
American activist Nathan Phillips on Jan. 19. (YouTube)
Such mob behavior is encouraged in the racist and xenophobic atmosphere
that is energized by Trump’s rhetoric against immigrants, Muslims, and
other oppressed groups. In the context of Trump’s attacks, the far right
feels validated and energized.
Counter-mobilization
Mass united-front counter-mobilizations are the main weapon in our
arsenal right now against fascist and rightist attacks.
On Nov. 17, 2018, about 20-25 rightists rallied on Philadelphia’s
Independence Mall and were met with a spirited counter-protest of about
600 people. Because of the public organizing for the
counter-mobilization, some militia groups, and quite a few Proud Boys,
opted not to attend; they were afraid of a large demonstration by
opponents. In the aftermath, the dissension among the rightists sowed
further disunity and finger pointing.
Mass united action helps workers and oppressed people feel their
potential power—in the streets and at the point of production. Isolated
street-fighting tactics do not impart these lessons. Quite the opposite,
they teach that a small group can substitute for the actions of workers
and oppressed people. Mass action is part of the method we use not only
to build an effective anti-fascist movement but also to build the
confidence and organizing capabilities of the working class for the
major class battles of the future.
Self-defense and physical force
Socialists also support the right of working-class and oppressed people
to self-defense. In the Transitional Program, Trotsky wrote: “The
struggle against fascism does not start in the liberal editorial office
but in the factory—and ends in the street. Scabs and private gunmen in
factory plants are the basic nuclei of the fascist army. Strike pickets
are the basic nuclei of the proletarian army. This is our point of
departure. In connection with every strike and street demonstration, it
is imperative to propagate the necessity of creating workers’ groups for
self-defense. It is necessary to write this slogan into the program of
the revolutionary wing of the trade unions.”
The recent attacks on oppressed peoples, including the mass shooting at
the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, provide an opportunity for
socialists to the introduce the question of workers’ defense guards,
built by the unions and other labor organizations, to defend against
right-wing attacks. But we also know you can’t get so far ahead of the
masses that you lose sight of them.
Ultimately, it’s a political question. How do you introduce these ideas
to working people and win advanced workers to a perspective of opposing
fascism? Whether we are dealing with defense against fascists or against
strikebreakers, it’s appropriate for us to discuss the idea in a way
that explains the political importance of self-defense that is done in a
collective way, not in isolated formations.
One problem with the antifascism that relies on “physical force” is that
it relies on a tactical response to a strategic problem. I know from
personal experience in anti-Klan and Antifa work in South Texas in the
late 1970s and early ’80s that there’s a limit to that perspective. We
need a response to fascist mobilizations and attacks that can impart
lessons that advance the struggles and consciousness of working people.
Defending meetings from attack
In the 1970s, reactionary gangs, as well as groups of ultra-left
Maoists, staged a number of physical attacks on meetings and rallies of
socialists and the antiwar movement, which posed a grave threat to free
speech. In many cases, the movement took effective steps to build
united-front defense guards to defend their speakers’ platforms and
meetings against disruption and violence.
Today, the far right is displaying the same kind of thuggish behavior.
As reported above, the Proud Boys have attacked political meetings in
Kentucky, Oregon, and elsewhere. We must give unconditional support to
the rights of left organizations (DSA, IWW, etc.) to meet without
threats and intimidation. It’s appropriate to build united-front defense
guards and to call on the labor movement to defend meetings as well. If
the far right is able to successfully shut down the meetings of left
groups, union meetings and picket lines will be next.
By calling for the united-front defense of IWW and DSA meetings, or any
other meetings, socialists demonstrate our politics in action. Our
defense is unconditional and not based on any prior political agreement
between groups. The lesson, however, is profound. If the ranks of DSA,
for example, see that revolutionary socialists defend their right to
meet, perhaps they will investigate revolutionary politics further.
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January 21, 2019 in Fascism / Far Right.
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