Examining the UAF

The UAF is the SWP’s flagship front a anti racist and anti fascist organisation which has been around on many demonstrations against the far right for some time now I thought it might be useful to look at its pro’s and con’s and what we do need as a anti fascist movement as far right idea are on the rise right across Europe today and will at some point gain more support here in Britain once again. In the week Tommy Robinson’s high profile resignation from the EDL the UAF have been prominent in opposing the EDL for sometime now and do a lot of good but also do a lot of damage to the movement too I would suggest. Since the last time the EDL was in Tower Hamlets in 2011 many things have changed. They suffered a general decline in their fortunes and early this year we were all getting ready to write their epitaph. Then everything changed in May when the EDL managed to swiftly exploit the murder of a British army soldier in London. Suddenly there were 2000 of them on demos again, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon was being interviewed on TV all the time, their Facebook likes went from under 24,000 to over 100,000 within a day and they seemed to have leapfrogged further ahead than they ever were before. The last few months have in general been a frightening time when the far-right has looked like they were winning. More recently, the effect of their exploitation of Lee Rigby’s death seems to be wearing off a little, but the support and sympathisers that they have gained in this period will not go away so easily, even if they are not always willing to turn out on the streets. In addition, since May, there has been a huge spike in anti-Muslim attacks both on people and mosques, including nailbomb and firebomb attacks. Many of these attacks have been directly linked to the EDL through EDL graffiti left at the scene or EDL members convicted for the attacks. Even without these direct links it is clear that a general rise in far-right activity creates a climate where such attacks happen. It feels like the clock is rapidly rolling back to the racist murders of the early ‘90s associated with an increase in support for the BNP (of which Stephen Lawrence was to become the most high profile victim), or possibly to the murderous violence of the late ‘70s rise of the NF, which claimed the life of Altab Ali among others. The EDL have not been alone in this effort to drag us back into the racist violence of the past. A whole alphabet soup of splinter groups to the right of the EDL now hold their own marches and rallies across the country, mostly in limited numbers, but making up for that in more overt traditional racism than the EDL is willing to openly espouse. The rise of UKIP and the phenomenon of ‘Woolwich Strong’ both indicated a large passive basis of support for nationalistic, racist and anti-immigrant politics. And all along official state racism has been providing the grounding context for this, slowly shifting the middle ground of politics to the right with its normalising of ‘go home’ rhetoric. The government not-so-subtly borrowed the idea of the BNP’s ‘truth truck’, turning it into the UK Border Agency’s notorious ‘racist van’ and has introduced squads of Border Agency staff illegally stopping and demanding papers from foreign-looking people on the street like we were living in pass-law era South Africa. There has been a general failure to adequately deal with the change represented by the rise of the EDL in the last 4 years. The anti-fascist and anti-racist movements have been found wanting in the swift change from combating the electoral politics of the BNP to the sudden re-emergence of far-right street gangs with the EDL. The ‘official’ anti-fascist movement represented by Hope Not Hate and UAF, for all the good work they do, are hamstrung by their close ties to the authorities – they are not willing to risk breaking the law in order to effectively confront the fascists on the streets. Politically they are tied to Labour politicians, union bureaucrats and conservative religious leaders which means their proclaimed politics can only be a fairly shallow liberal celebration of ‘multicultural Britain’, which is fine as far as it goes, but leaves them struggling to combat the EDL either ideologically or physically. Additionally anti-fascism has been hit by the fall-out from the SWP’s ‘Comrade Delta’ scandal. For those that haven’t been following all the Trot gossip – the SWP is Britain’s largest far-left group and the main driving force behind UAF, but earlier this year the party was thrown into disarray by allegations of rape and sexual abuse against a senior party member. As a consequence of the party leadership’s flawed handling of this, significant numbers of SWP members have left the party and there are many disaffected Swappies in the ranks. The effect of this on UAF is hard to precisely judge for those not involved themselves, but it certainly seems to have had an impact on their organisational capacity. The UAF have always been good in getting ood numbers out for anti racist and anti fascist demonstrations and this has been a positive thing. Big numbers opposing the racists on the street is a sign of strength of feeling but simply isn’t enough in my opinion. The point is not to get complacent. If they seem to be in some slight period of decline, that’s the time for us to organise. Better to redouble our efforts when they are in decline and try and finish them off, rather than relax and wait for the next opportunity for them to blame something on Muslims and increase their support. And if this does happen then we need to be ready to confront it, rather than being taken by surprise. Certainly UAF are not all bad and do act as a beacon for drawing in support on demonstrations for example In Tower Hamlets, UAF held a rally in the park and did not brave the police to go and confront the EDL directly. That is not the worst thing in the world. I am sure we all believe in using a diversity of tactics in combating fascism, including those that are non-confrontational. If UAF had not organised a rally, we would have had to have done it ourselves to give an option to people who did not want to risk arrest or confrontation. I disagree with much that UAF do and how they do it but we would be really screwed if they didn’t exist. They have opposed the EDL across the country and sometimes been the only ones to do so so you have to hand it to them for that. I just think an open democratic debate on tactics and strategy is needed for future attempts to oppose the far right. The EDL are eminently beatable. They are not huge. They have a lot of fair weather support that fizzles away to nothing when conditions do not favour them. They had dwindled down to next to nothing before Rigby’s death. The far-right has been chased off the streets before – they can be again.

The difficulties facing PCS and the strategy moving forward

Last night the PCS NEC decided to call off strike action planned for the 28th of March this in my view was the right decision to take given the circumstances. Given the fact that the NUT had only decided to go for a one day strike in the London area and the UCU undecided at best what it was doing and lots of noises it wouldn’t come out on this day it left the PCS in a difficult position a position none of us had wanted at the start.

We all expected the unison bureaucracy to sell out at some point but no one thought it would be that quick.
Lots of credit has to go to the PCS and left unity in particular for organising their conference a fighting organising conference on the 7th of Jan this year to rally all those on the left willing to still fight.
With the lobbies of the TUC before Christmas and the left unity conference we would probably not even be at this point.

As it is PCS advocates more united co-ordinated action with other unions. This is still very possible given the NUT meets for its conference in Easter and it could call further united days of action which PCS will of course be involved with.
Anyone criticising PCS on this decision saying why they don’t take a lead is wishing to lead the union down the path to ruin. The government is looking for the PCS to go it alone and to isolate them and to go for them if they can. Remaining united if it means holding back until united action can be formed I believe personally is the correct decision at this time.
Of course PCS is a fighting left union with a excellent track record and those who wish to blindly jump into a national strike on their own ought to recognise the difficulties and limitations of that in forcing concessions and a win ultimately. Strategy has to be key here in winning this pension dispute a long well thought out campaign is needed and believe me PCS are not shying away from the fight they are bedding in for the long haul.

Here is the NEC press release in full if anyone has not read it I think it puts the case very clearly and does not sound like a sell out or an undemocratic decision over the top of members. PCS is not pulling out and will continue the fight but I agree on its own it probably can’t win alone it needs to link with other unions to force concessions and ultimately win. I am sure the comrades in PCS are not just interested in a grandstand of bring members out on strike for the sake of it. They correctly realise going out on strike is a serious decision for members and isn’t to be taken lightly.

Here is the NEC statement in full:
The national executive met today to consider the excellent consultative ballot result and the next steps in our pension’s campaign, including working towards a co-ordinate national strike in April.
PCS members voted by 90.5% to reject the government's 'final offer' on pensions and by 72.1% to support a programmed of further action with other unions - the highest vote for action we have ever had.
This excellent result represents an overwhelming rejection of the government's plans to force civil and public servants to pay more and work longer for less pension, and a clear mandate for action.
We obtained the result in the face of continuing attacks from the government, and during the pay freeze when many people are suffering personal financial hardship.
It is a testament to our reps who have worked so hard to build our union, and to members' resolve in the face of ongoing attacks from their employer.
We will be formally writing to the government to reject the pensions offer and seek urgent talks on a negotiated settlement.
On the question of industrial action, our general secretary reported that the National Union of Teachers had decided not to take national strike action on 28 March, as previously discussed by a group of unions. Other teachers' unions had also decided not to take action on that date.
Under these circumstances, the NEC agreed that PCS will work with other unions to build for co-ordinate national industrial action to take place at the earliest opportunity and before the end of April if possible. The NUT's annual conference runs from 6 to 10 April at which decisions are expected on further action.
Members of the NUT and the University and College Union in London will be taking action on 28 March and the NEC agreed to offer all practical support and solidarity.
To build support for national strike action at the end of April, including public support for the campaign, the NEC agreed to organize mass constituency lobbying of MPs during the Easter parliamentary recess, including targeted protests at cabinet ministers' constituencies in conjunction with other unions.
PCS branches and regions are also being urged to support and organize other local protests and campaign events against government attacks on jobs, pay and public services.
The NEC's decisions have been based on two key considerations. First, since the government's policy has been applied across the whole public sector, national coordinated action by as many unions as possible has been necessary to win concessions.
Secondly a strategy to win a fair settlement to the dispute must involve a programmed of action involving joint national strike action with other unions; joint national, regional and local protests; lobbying of ministers, MPs and other politicians; and co-ordinate targeted industrial action in some sectors.
In the absence of any positive engagement by the employer in genuine negotiations we want to proceed to national joint action as soon as possible.
However, action on 28 March in conjunction with NUT members in London and UCU in colleges and universities would not constitute the national co-ordinate strike action across pension schemes which we have agreed is necessary and which members have voted for.
The NEC agreed to work tirelessly to build for a national co-ordinate strike later in April.
The NEC thanks members and reps for their support for the campaign so far. We now need to work with other unions to build the action that will be necessary to win a fair settlement on pensions and to face the challenges of pay and job cuts that this brutal government is inflicting on the public sector.