Reproduced from the Marx Engels Lenin Institute, with thanks.
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The lumpenised fascist mobs who attacked a mosque in Southport earlier this week are a product of bourgeois ideology. That is where all racist sentiment comes from because it is an absolutely central part of both what the British ruling class believe themselves and what they find useful to encourage within the working class.
The relentless propaganda against muslims in Britain was not invented by the likes of Mr Yaxley-Lennon (known by his stage name of ‘Tommy Robinson’) or Nick Griffin before him. Anti-muslim rhetoric became part of the official language of the British state over 20 years ago, and the garbage spewed out by the fascists all has its origins in propaganda produced by the bourgeois press.
The demonisation of the figure of the muslim is quite calculated. It was done to justify the naked imperialism of the George W Bush-era invasions. Because this was an attempt to bring back direct colonialism (without the neo), the imperialists had to demonise the population targeted as being ‘uncivilised’. The official propaganda of the time was still loudly proclaiming its ‘antiracist’ credentials, so they had to avoid just simply saying this was about Arabs or Africans or any other group whose countries were being targeted for invasion and destruction.
What was done, therefore, was the creation of the figure of the muslim as the ultimate outsider. This was useful to the ruling class in two ways. On the one hand it enabled the ruling class to conduct a racist propaganda campaign under cover of it being ‘about religion not race’. On the other, ‘muslim’ became a substitute term for all non-white groups that the ruling class wanted to demonise at any given time.
Coming back to today, the fascist mobs roving around and attacking mosques have been encouraged by more than 20 years of this kind of propaganda. They are being further egged on by the present political establishment, which wants to do three things.
- Split up the anti-imperialist movement that has grown out of the Palestinian solidarity demonstrations.
- Frighten the muslim working class and punish them for their strong support for the Palestinian cause by turning the fascists loose on them.
- Rally support behind Sir Keir Starmer as he unveils a new set of repressive laws.
We must keep in mind what the consistent line take by the British government has been for many years. Ministers have specifically encouraged racism, then claimed they are the only ones who can ‘control’ it. And this is what they are attempting to do now. They let the lumpens run around, start fights and intimidate people, then will say: “We need greater surveillance powers”.
The other aspect of this will be an attempt by the Trotskyites and revisionists in Britain to use the official ‘antiracist’ organisations to rally support for the Labour party. We can expect these charlatans to proclaim loudly that we must “stand up to racism”, while platforming Labour MPs who have been loudly supporting imperialist wars for decades and are in favour of arming fascists in Ukraine.
Official ‘antifascism’ in Britain has long been just another means of pushing workers back towards the Labour party, and so it remains.
The actions of the fascist mobs must be opposed, but we cannot adequately do this if we are not taking a proper understanding of what is happening to the working class. Yaxley-Lennon and his lumpen mobs are just the most crude domestic manifestation of the racism that is generated as part of all bourgeois ideology in all imperialist countries.
Without a class-conscious analysis of what actually generates racism, we cannot hope to oppose it. Yaxley-Lennon is a hired goon of the ruling class, but in terms of the horrors inflicted upon the oppressed peoples of the world, he’s got nothing on the Labour party.
Josef Stalin observed a century ago that social democracy was the moderate wing of fascism and this remains as true as ever. To combat the open fascists we must be honest with the working class with regard to the rule of the Labour party, the veiled support for fascism.
The Labour party has always been a racist party and remains so precisely because it is an imperialist one. It has always sought to keep the working class divided along religious and racial lines. To claim that endorsing this party can in any way be ‘antiracist’ is a lie. Starmer is slightly more subtle than the fascists, but you do not need to look too far for what he really stands for: supporting openly fascist nazis in Ukraine and an openly fascist genocide in occupied Palestine.
The only way to defeat fascism is for a militant programme to be pursued that will be relentless in opposing British imperialism and in promoting a real fight for workers’ needs domestically as well.
These two elements are inseparable and must be pursued with equal determination.
