After fascism, what?
David Renton, author of Fascism: Theory and Practice, discusses whether previous definitions of ‘fascism’ fit with the world we see today. The question of whether Donald’s Trump victory marks a triumph for fascism in the US depends, as always, on which definition of fascism you use. For most of the past fifty years, the principal way […]
Challenging racism on the Kent coast
The need for a mass anti-racist movement in Britain needs to be at the very heart of socialist politics today. Here Bunny La Roche and Ben Millard reflect on the experience of anti-racist organising in Kent over the last twelve months. Kent Anti Racism Network (KARN) has been busy over the last year. But it […]
Interview: on the resistible rise of Norbert Hofer
Today (4 December), Austrians go to the polls again to elect their president. Earlier this year, the candidate of the far-right Freedom Party, Norbert Hofer, was narrowly defeated by the former Green candidate Alexander Van der Bellen. However, the Freedom Party successfully challenged the vote in the courts, and there is now a re-run. The […]
Anarchy in the UK? The politics and people that produced punk rock
For the 40th anniversary of the birth of punk, Colin Revolting considers its origins and influences. The student butterfly that flapped its wings in Paris, May 1968 lead to an earthquake which shook factory walls across western Europe in the 1970’s. Out of the dust emerged an ugly snarling rodent called punk rock. The 1970s […]
Letters from an anti-fascist fighter in Spain
Following the Battle of Cable Street, Scottish communist Jim ‘Jock’ McKissock travelled to Spain to fight against fascism 80 years ago. He wrote letters to his comrades in back in London. They were passed by one of those long-standing communists in the 1970s to Colin Revolting’s father and he found them among his father’s piles of […]
Everyone Who Is Here Is From Here
Saturday 5 November 2016, 10.00 – 16:30, Capstan House, 1 Clove Crescent, London E14 – near East India DLR The EU referendum campaign and its aftermath have brought to the surface the constant scapegoating of migrants and immigration by both the far right and ‘respectable’ politicians from all parties. Migrants and minorities are blamed for […]
Cable Street and its aftermath
This week sees the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street in London. Gary McNally argues against a recent trend among historians to dismiss the antifascist demonstration as counterproductive.
Obituary: Bartley Willcock
Ian Allinson and Sam O’Brien describe the remarkable life of Brian Bartley Willcock who died last week at the age of 82. Note: this has been updated with some details about funeral arrangements at the bottom. From an early age Bartley got very involved in his local church, St Clement’s Higher Openshaw, across the road […]
1936: revolution in Spain
Andy Durgan is author of The Spanish Civil War (Palgrave 2007) and Comunismo, revolución y movimiento obrero en Cataluña 1920-1936. Los orÃgenes del POUM (Laertes, 2016). In the latest of a series of articles marking the anniversary of General Franco’s military coup against the Republican government of Spain, he argues that the revolution was always up […]
Homage to Catalonia: the working class in the saddle
In a series of articles marking the anniversary of General Franco’s military coup against the Republican government of Spain Colin Revolting revisits George Orwell’s masterpiece of revolutionary reportage.
Austria: The rise of respectable fascism?
Joe Sabatini reflects on the social, demographic and ideological issues behind the Austrian Presidential Election, and considers strategies to oppose the far right. On 22 May the Austrian electorate came within a percentage point of electing Europe’s first fascist head of state since the 1930s. On 1 July, the results of the second round of […]
12 thoughts on racism and anti-racism after the referendum
The racism evident on both sides of the recent EU referendum campaigns, as well as the huge rise in racist attacks following the result, shows the need for a strong, united, radical and popular anti-racism. Jonas Liston offers 12 thoughts on where we are post-referendum and how to build the movement we need.
From farce to tragedy: thoughts on Jo Cox, the referendum and the rise of racism
Duncan Thomas on Jo Cox’s murder, the rise of racism in mainstream political discourse, and the need to build a strong anti-racist movement after the referendum – whatever the result. Together with other groups and activists, rs21 are support marches of solidarity with migrants and refugees on Monday 20 and Friday 24 June. Join us if […]
Fascists humiliated in Dover
Steve Eason, Kate Bradley and Ashmeet T report from the counter-demonstration against the far-right South East Alliance, who marched through Dover in very small numbers on 2 April ,2016.
The First Workers’ Government
145 years ago today a disastrous war among European capitalists produced the first workers’ government in Paris. James B introduces Marx’s analysis on the Commune. Today marks the 145th anniversary of the foundation of the Paris Commune. In 1870 Emperor Napoleon III led France into a disastrous war with Prussia. Paris, defended by the citizens’ militia of […]
‘Angry White People’, a review
David Renton reviews Hsiao-Hung Pai’s Angry White People: coming face-to-face with the British far right. He finds an ‘exemplary account’ of the rise of the English Defence League and bemoans the left’s failure to contest the same terrain.
rs21 podcast, episode 1: refugees and the rise of the far right
Episode 1 of the rs21 podcast is finally here! Duncan Thomas introduces the show. [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/250534323″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]
Hundreds resist fascist march in Dover despite violent attacks from Nazi thugs
report by rs21, pictures by Steve Eason There were ugly scenes in Dover last Saturday as around 150-200 Nazis tried to march through the town and were confronted by 400 or so antifascists. The antifascists managed to obstruct the planned route of the Nazi march, but police responded by kettling counter demonstrators and ferrying the […]
Nazis smash and draw swastika in blood on anti-fascist coaches on way to Dover demo
Report via Anindya Bhattacharyya Around 200 anti-fascists from London, who were en-route to protest against fascists in Dover, are currently held at Maidstone service station after a coachload of Nazi’s smashed up one of the anti-fascist coaches. While stopped at the services, fascists wearing Combat 18 and Enoch Powell t-shirts ran at the anti-fascist demonstrators […]
Dover calling: antifascists get ready to defend migrants from Nazi threat
Antifascists are heading to Dover tomorrow, Saturday 30 January, to oppose an anti-migrant demo organised by various Nazi outfits. rs21 spoke to activists involved in building the counter mobilisation about their aims and hopes. The British National Party has been smashed to pieces and English Defence League is a shadow of its former self. But that doesn’t mean the […]
France: How close is fascism?
Already stressed by economic stagnation since the onset of the banking crisis in 2008, and by the interminably threatened, but repeatedly averted, collapse of the Euro, Peter Fysh asks can the French political system survive racist exploitation of the refugee crisis and the shock of deadly terrorist attacks at each end of 2015? In the […]
Fascist success in the French elections: what will it mean for the refugees?
There has been a growing hostility to the refugees in the Calais camps, particularly since the Paris killings. Mitch Mitchell reflects on what the electoral success of the Front National in the French regional elections will mean for the refugees.
Dover: what kind of anti fascist movement do we need?
A letter from Thanet anti-fascists. On Saturday 12 September, the National Front, South East Alliance and other Nazi outfits numbering around 200-250 were able to march in Dover, declaring ‘Refugees Not Welcome Here’. Around a dozen people from Thanet joined the call out by the Anti Fascist Network (AFN) to counter them. When we turned […]
Nazis routed and humiliated in Liverpool as hundreds turn out to block their march
Pat D reports and reflects on last Saturday’s successful anti-fascist mobilisation in Merseyside Liverpool is a famous city. National Action, a neo-Nazi group, wanted to be famous too, which is why they chose the “Red City” as the location for their “White Man March”, planned for Saturday 16 August. The problem was that Liverpool is famous, […]
Why was Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon siegheiling?
…And were ‘we’ really so unaware of what it meant in 1933? Michael Rosen writes. The real problem posed by the photos of the future queen siegheiling is not whether she was too young to know what she was doing but why her mother, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, was doing it too. I’ve noticed on twitter, and indeed […]
After Dylann Roof: What is fascism?
After Dylann Roof’s racist massacre in Charleston, we republish an article by Anindya Bhattacharyya written in response to Anders Behring Breivik’s massacre on 22 July 2011. The following article was originally a contribution to the ebook On Utøya edited by Elizabeth Humphrys, Guy Rundle and Tad Tietze. The reporting of Anders Behring Breivik’s massacre on […]
Walthamstow EDL protest: outnumbered by cops, undefeated by Nazis
rs21 members report from yesterday’s protest, which aimed to stop the EDL marching in Walthamstow, north east London On 9 May the nazi English Defence League (EDL) returned to Walthamstow, the scene of one of their biggest humiliations in 2012. Three years ago, over 4,000 people, overwhelmingly local, rallied and marched against the nazis, […]
No nazis in Stamford Hill!
Charlie Hore reports On Saturday afternoon (18 April) a number of small nazi groups tried to hold an antisemitic rally in Stamford Hill, Hackney. They failed, managing nothing more than walking a couple of hundred metres along the pavement, and then back again to their starting point, barracked every step of the way by a […]
EDL prevented from breaking through in Oxford
Anti-fascist demonstrators significantly outnumbered the fascist English Defence League in Oxford on Saturday, and prevented them from marching through the centre of the city.
Gang abuse in Oxford
Nancy Lindisfarne and Jonathan Neale argue we need to prevent racists from exploiting the suffering of victims of abuse but we also need to go on the offensive against the cover-ups. The article includes distressing descriptions of sexual abuse. It was originally posted on their Sexism Class Violence website. Last year seven men from Oxford were […]