Fascists taught lesson in Wellington
A handful of fascist thugs in Wellington, responsible for racist
attacks on immigrant youth in June and the desecration of two Jewish cemeteries
in July, were taught a lesson they won’t soon forget this Saturday (23
October).
The National Front (NF) had mobilised forty individuals from
around New Zealand for a rally. An ad hoc anti-fascist bloc, Multi-Cultural
Aotearoa (MCA), organised a counter-demonstration estimated at two or three
thousand, endorsed by the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions and leftist and
ethnic organisations, as well as various artists and actors.
While some elements within MCA sought to keep the anti-fascists
away from the NF in order to avoid a confrontation, the fascist thugs
nevertheless had an unpleasant time. Early in their rally at 11 am they were
surrounded by "scary fairies" in dresses, throwing insults and glitter in their
faces. By 2pm the NF was routed.
Their day out ended with most of them fleeing the scene, sitting
on each other’s knees in overcrowded vehicles, while those NFers they left
behind had to be escorted bloody-nosed by the police through mocking leftists.
Among the chants was one led by the IBT: "Arab, Asian, Maori, White, Workers of
the World Unite!"
Despite our programmatic differences on a variety of important
issues, we note that the International Socialist Organisation and the
anarchists played particularly useful roles in this action. The only thing
fascist scum understand is the kind of lesson they received on Saturday.
The following was the contribution of Adaire Hannah on behalf of
the International Bolshevik Tendency at the MCA rally:
Today has been a victory. We have shown the National Front that
it has no place here and that no matter how it tries to down play its true
politics, no matter how many little old ladies and men it offers to protect,
its members are scum who must be prevented from spreading its filth about race,
homosexuality, trade unions and communists.
Right now the National Front is presenting a dual face. On the
one hand, flexing its muscle by attacking migrants, and on the other hand,
standing for local and national government by trying to disguise its true
programme. This dual face is giving the NF some grief as it finds it is
difficult to explain away the symbols and programme of fascism. It is vital
that we—workers, ethnic communities, communists, and gays—remain
vigilant and not be lulled into thinking that the National Front is too small
or irrelevant or that it is not currently targeting the particular community to
which we, as individuals, belong. We must remember Martin Niemoeller’s
words in 1945:
First they came for the Communists,
And I didn’t speak up
Because I wasn’t a Communist
[…]
Then they came for me
And by that time there was no one
Left to speak up for me.
But we must also remember that fascism has a role to play in
capitalist society. When, at some point in the future, the Labour Party and
trade-union bureaucrats are no longer able to restrain the working class, no
longer able to assist the capitalists to extract even greater profits,
then the capitalists will turn to the fascist scum to
smash the organisations of the working class. So it is vital that workers today
staunchly defend communities from attacks by the National Front, forming
defence squads as necessary.
The weaker the National Front is made today the smaller and less
effective it will be as a tool of the capitalist class in the future. It is
also necessary for workers to fight for demands such as stopping racist
immigration laws, and, for a workers government that will lay the foundations
of a society without profit, sexism, racism, or poverty. |