What is the present relevence of anti facsist work at the moment? It seems like there have been a lot of sucsess, with fascist movements in america aparently moving away from mass mobilisations in the streets, but what motivitates me to ask this is that, what work remains to be done? i mean, is it time yet to focus on other things like class struggle and other campigns oustide of anti fascism?
My initial provocation to write this was actually what happened in kings college london the other day, when some anti facsists interupted a speech of some kind by the carl benjimen (youtube celebrity). He seems quite peripheral to the far right, and his talk was not of much consequence, and that the students were largly dismayd by what happened there, as the whole place was shut down afterwards (as people i know have told me). So i supose all things considored, it was quite a poor choice of target really, which provoked me to wonder, with succsess against nazi's and white suppremacists and so on, anti fascists are essentially running out of nazi events to target, and that they would be better off focussing on other things that people can get behind, rather then focussing on whats left of the far right in public? idk
I don't know much about the ins and outs about whats actually happening on the ground, maybe someone can fill me in?
A few thoughts: if you'd like
A few thoughts: if you'd like to learn more about contemporary anti-fascism and you're in the London area, you should definitely go to this, where you can hear from people who are way more active and knowledgeable than I am: https://www.facebook.com/events/141015340030369/
Anyway, I think it's worth differentiating between the US and UK contexts here - we don't really have anything comparable to the string of Atomwaffen murders, the nazi connections of the Florida shooter, and so on, which definitely makes the stakes a fair amount higher over there.
Over here, I agree there's not that much far-right activity right this moment, but one of the difficulties with evaluating the use of anti-fascism is that a lot of it has its eye on what the situation could potentially be in the near future as much as what it looks like right now - if you wait until things look like Charlottesville or indeed Sweden before you do anything, then you guarantee that you'll be in a really bad position to react, so the point of doing anti-fascism when the opposition are weak and marginal is to make sure they stay that way.
Having said all that, I imagine it's not most people's highest priority at the moment, and I totally agree we should be doing other more constructive things as well, and it's unfortunate when "anti-fascism" becomes an identity that everything gets roped into.
Finally, I just want to add that "students complain about this" is a very bad metric by which to judge anything - the UCU strike is much bigger and more important than the disruption of a single far-right event and I bet it wouldn't take much to find loads of students moaning about all the disruption being caused by that, and the last time this country had a general strike there were students who volunteered as strikebreakers, so it's safe to say that whenever anything worthwhile happens you'll be able to find some students complaining about it.
Thank you, that was really
Thank you, that was really constructive.
I have mixed feelings on
I have mixed feelings on anti-fascism. One thing that I'm certain about, though, is that while it can be necessary in terms of self defence, it should never be our main focus. Our main focus should always be on organising where we are on the concrete concerns of ourselves and our fellow workers.
anti-fascism isnt a movement
anti-fascism isnt a movement or a group. we have no leaders, no decision making process, and no HQ. antifa is a political position. While most commonly taken up by anarchists, there are some leninists in it, and even a few liberals fighting against fascism
should also be noted not all antifa are violent and go around punching fash. there are anarcho-pacifists and syndicalists antifa.
and the reason for antifa violence? Are fash worthy of having a platform to spread their ideas and biggotry and flat out murderous ways? No they are not. It is of no worth to debate them either. If just talking to them and letting them get their ideas out worked, we wouldnt have had the rise of fascism in japan, germany and italy in the early 1900's. They are here to kill us and suppress us. the disabled, LGBT+, people of color, jews, pagans, everyone who is a minority. And if you think there will be a revolution in america or britain anytime soon, you're quite mistaken. Sadly, these 2 states have brainwashed the vast majority of the population. We need to make our lives better HERE and NOW before a western revolution takes place in 100+ years. This is the least likely place for revolution to occur.