The third issue of Liverpool Solidarity Federation’s free local newsletter, Wildcat!
Contents:
- Why we need to look beyond the TUC
- Barcelona: General strike 2010
- Nick Griffin sent packing in Liverpool
- Radical Workers Bloc calls for class war against capitalism & ConDem cuts
- Crosby 1 Sainsbury’s 0
- Mini-Sudoku
Recently, we called on people to complain to Channel 4 about the inclusion of an attack on a female Communist MP by a Greek neo-Nazi politician in a 'comedic' review of 2012. The channel's reponse is published below. Grace Dawson of Channel 4's viewer enquiries department says that the programme's "ridicule was directed at Ilias Kasidiaris rather than the recipient". In the eyes of Channel 4, therefore, it is OK to use violent attacks on women and left-wingers as a pretext for comedy, as long as the attacker is also ridiculed. This must be of great comfort to those who have been the victims of fascist violence.
Last night (December 28th), Channel 4 broadcast a programme called The 50 Funniest Moments of 2012 which, bizarrely, included TV footage of Ilias Kasidiaris, a Greek Member of Parliament and spokesperson for the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, physically assaulting Communist politician Liana Kanelli.
There is clearly nothing funny about a woman being violently attacked by a man, let alone a man who is a fascist politician. Such incidents must be condemned and organised against. They should not be used as a pretext for comedy.
The following article by our Norwegian sister section analyses the political context of the terrorist attacks committed by Anders Behring Breivik.
Political violence in Norway has always come from the far right. While the police have concentrated on "radical Islamists", far right violence has happened again, this time to a very large, cruel and bloody extent. The NSF-IWA has expressed its condolences to the victims of this bloody terrorism and would like to state the following.
A new website has been set up by an informal solidarity group formed of families, partners, friends and comrades in order to provide financial support for imprisoned anti-fascists. After being arrested, having property confiscated, losing jobs and being left on bail for two years, a group of anti fascists have been sent to prison and they need our support.
Resisting fascism is important, and people that are persecuted by the state for resisting fascism should not be forgotten or ignored.
This is a fascinating documentary film about the Spanish revolution featuring personal testimonies from numerous anarcho-syndicalist militants who took part. Today, 75 years after it began, the lessons of the revolution - its successes and failures - remain as relevant as ever.
For more info on the 75th anniversary commemoration of the revolution, visit here (in Spanish).
This year marks the 75th anniversary of Hitler’s accession to power, it is appropriate therefore to look again at fascism, and to remind ourselves of those salient features of fascist movements and regimes which have become obscured with the passage of time. There is more to fascism than the legacy of war and genocide. That was where fascism ended, but during its rise, and where it took power in the years before the Second World War, many observers, particularly those on the left, noted its anti-working class bias and the nature of the economic system over which it presided.
A recent proposal by the student body at London University to campaign against the BNP was unceremoniously rejected by the Tory Party’s youth wing unless, they stated, the BNP was identified as a left wing party. It would seem on this occasion leftwing fascism is exclusively the enemy for these young Tories. But there is nothing new about this muddled thinking or its intended implications. To this vein, we can safely say Liberal Fascism belongs. It is an essential crash course in historical revisionism for the American free market right.
Luigi Fabbri described the rise of Italian fascism as a “preventive counter-revolution” to the 1920s worker occupations in Italy. For Goldberg, fascism is defined as:
This collection of articles charts the tragic story of Salvador Puig Antich, a Catalan anarchist who was the final victim of the executioner’s garrotte in Franco’s Spain. The pieces, including several by Spanish and Catalan anarchists, also detail Puig Antich’s legacy and attempts to expropriate it by those who did not share his ideals.
The British National Party is a fascist party and must be treated as such. Don’t be fooled by their growing electoral success. Don’t think that because “ordinary” people, and even non-racists, are voting for them and joining them that the party has somehow changed. Elected positions and an influx of “moderate” members will not transform the party.