New Communist Party of Britain

OPPOSING RACISM AND FASCISM

The ruling class is not inherently racist but has always used racism to divide and weaken the working class. When any worker suffers abuse or discrimination because of their race, religion, gender, sexuality or for any other reason, the class as a whole is weakened and it is the responsibility of the whole class to combat racism and all other divisions of the class.

This is why the New Communist Party does not support separate organisation for workers of different colour, religion or gender. The class must stand united on the basis that an injury to one is an injury to all.

Currently the organised working class, the trade unions, are taking a lead in combating racism at work and in the community.

Broad anti-fascist and anti-racist organisations like Searchlight and Unite Against Fascism have demonstrated repeatedly that the most effective campaigning against neo-Nazi organisations like the British National Party is done at a local level, door-to-door. The BNP, in its election campaigns, tries to exploit issues that concern the local working class and to sow division by falsely claiming that black and immigrant communities receive favourable treatment from the state. Experience has shown that these tactics must be combated by anti-fascists and anti-racists taking up these lies and countering them with the truth at a local level.

All the major trade unions have become involved in this and have provided hundreds if not thousands of volunteers to do this door-to-door work.

This fills the gap left by the Labour Party, which in many areas has given up door-to-door canvassing.

New Communist Party members and cells should become involved in active local anti-fascist and anti-racist campaigning wherever they can and should support their trade unions in this.

The BNP in recent years has suffered a complete rout at the polls due to the successes of the campaigning tactics mentioned above. But is has not disappeared. From being effectively bankrupt last year it has recovered solvency through generous donations and through scaling back its activities and expenditure.

We have seen the emergence of the Islamophobic English Defence League that has used the demonisation of Muslims as a thin veneer for general racism. Its active supporters are very loosely organised former football hooligans, squaddies and veteran neo-Nazis. Their main agenda is to engage in street fighting and they will pick on any likely target. When they fail to find one, they fight each other. This has totally sabotaged efforts by their leaders to claim they are not racist.

They pose no threat to the state but they do terrorise minority communities and give police and local authorities justification for rigid social control measures that affect all political activists.

It is New Communist Party policy to support Searchlight and other anti-fascist and anti-racist organisations. Comrades are advised to support whichever anti-racist/anti-fascist body is working effectively in their locality and to encourage unity in action among such groups.