AntiFascist Action  by Rachel Rinaldo

@DROP CAP = SEVERAL YEARS AFTER THE militant poll tax riots 
and demonstrations, it looks like political resistance in Britain is at a low 
point. Few serious squats remain, most of the anarcho-punks have been 
disillusioned or caught up in the New Age Traveller's movement, and 
even Class War could not raise a contingent for a demonstration at the 
European Summit in Edinburgh. As in the rest of Europe though, fascism 
is alive and well here in Britain, recruiting on the housing projects of 
cities like London, Glasgow, Manchester, and Edinburgh. 
Anti-Fascist-Action (AFA) has chapters throughout England and 
Scotland and is probably one of the most active groups around these 
days. They are dedicated to fighting fascists, such as the British National 
Party (BNP) and nazis, through propaganda and, if necessary, physical 
confrontation. AFA started the autumn with a successful action in 
London, where they prevented hundreds of nazi skinheads from getting 
to a Blood and Honour gig where the band Skrewdriver was playing.
I've been involved with AFA Edinburgh for several months, but they 
formed about a year ago. In that time AFA has: plastered the city with 
stickers and graffiti (and wiped out BNP graffiti); held gigs at the 
Unemployed Workers' Center; had stalls at local clubs; picketed a 
bookstore for selling a book by a nazi revisionist historian; and written 
letters to the local BNP members. AFA Edinburgh and Glasgow also 
attended an annual anti-racist march in Glasgow, which twenty-five sieg-
heiling BNPers tried to disrupt. Most recently, we've put up posters all 
over town, with a picture of local BNP members and their addresses and 
phone numbers, urging people to write nasty letters and harass them by 
phone. AFA members have been known to make annoying phone calls to 
local fascists and nazi skins at odd hours of the morning. 
AFA is an alternative to mainstream/liberal groups, most of which won't 
even recognize the existence of fascism in Britain. Groups like the Anti-
Nazi-League are mainly fronts for various left parties and do little 
besides hold placards at big demonstrations. AFA especially concentrates 
on rooting out fascism in working class communities, the favorite 
recruiting place of the BNP. The mostly wealthy fascist leadership 
targets disaffected youth in such areas, turning their anger away from the 
establishment and towards neighboring minority communities.
Not surprisingly, AFA gets a lot of criticism from the so-called left. An 
editorial in the University of Edinburgh left student newspaper called 
groups like AFA the violent fringe and leftist thugs. Other groups within 
Edinburgh have sharply criticized the anti-BNP posters and our 
confrontational tactics. But it is a pipe dream to think that merely by 
distributing leaflets and holding demonstrations, the fascists will go 
away. This kind of thinking on the majority of the left has fed the recent 
rise in fascism in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and even Sweden, 
where Jewish cemeteries have been desecrated. Mass demonstrations are 
important, but the reality of fascists on the streets must be dealt with 
before they can terrorize the local community and recruit vulnerable 
youth. 
