Posted by John, October 25th, 2009 - under Nazis, Resistance, Social fascism.

Tags: BNP, Britain, British National Party, Fascism, Fighting back, Free speech

Out they come, the free speech fundamentalists, defending the ‘right’ of fascist leader Nick Griffin to appear on BBC TV.

They shall have emblazoned on their banners ‘Free speech for fascists’ as the Nazis imprison them.

And possibly, given their tendency to acquiesce to power, these apologists for capital and exponents of parliamentary cretinism will bow before Hitler’s children if they grow in power.

These fools elevate free speech to an absolute principle. But even under capitalism today speech is not free.

Powerful barons control and mediate speech.

The internet is no saviour. It lives in the shadow of thought that the capitalist media throws.

Free speech, the right to organise and the right to vote did not come gift wrapped from the bourgeoisie.

They were born of struggle against the established order.

They often sprang from the battles of workers for a just society. It is the working class which retains the power to defend those freedoms if and when the bourgeoisie wants them curtailed.

The BBC decision to give air time to the fascists is part of the future planning of the ruling class.

It will also lead directly to an increase in attacks on Muslims, Asians and blacks in society. The BNP is claiming a record number of enquiries about membership after the broadcast.

Hiding behind free speech and even handedness is also hypocritical.

Irish freedom fighter Bobbie Sands was elected to the British Parliament. The BBC did not (as far as I can find out) interview him.

Instead they followed Margaret Thatcher’s order not to give Sinn Fein what she called ‘the oxygen of publicity.’

Apparently censorship is OK when used against those who challenge the established imperialist order, but an outrage when it threatens the bosses’ fascists, the brutal bully boys of capitalism in crisis.

The bourgeoisie will have no compunction in attacking basic freedoms if it is in their interests to do so to protect and restore profit rates.

The rise of the Nazis to power in Germany in the 1930s is a case in point.

The crisis of profitability in German society saw the fascists grow from a tiny minority to being the largest party in the Reichstag. The Nazis won less than three percent of the vote in the 1928 elections, then over 18 percent in 1930 and 37 percent in the 1932 elections.

The Nazis were initially the political expression of the middle class, a class caught between big business and labour. They attempted to appeal to both workers and bosses – hence national ‘socialism’.

But while the German economy boomed, the bourgeoisie had little immediate need for the fascists.

That changed with the collapse of the German economy during the Great Depression.

The bourgeoisie found their strong leader in Hitler.

His task for the bosses was to smash the trade unions and political parties of the left, the German equivalent of the Labor Party and the German Communist Party.

Having done that the Nazis could then drive down living standards, reorganise capital and restore profit rates.

Hitler adopted a two pronged approach to organisation before winning power- the respectable parliamentary fascists and the street fighting mainly unemployed gangs.

It is an approach Nick Griffin in the UK is following today. Like Hitler he is mainstreaming fascism for future battles. The BBC is his accomplice in that.

And his street thugs, groups like the English Defence League, attract human scum to prepare for the battles of the future against workers and their organisations.

The BNP received 6 percent of the vote in the European elections in June. This is partly because of the complete failure of New Labor to defend public services and living standards.

Britain remains in recession while other countries appear to be coming out of it.

In Germany in the early 30s both the Communist Party and the Social Democrat party were strong institutions of the working class.

They failed to unite against the fascists.

The Stalinist tactic of attacking the social democrats as social fascists was a crime against history and, along with the failure of the left to mobilise workers as workers against fascists, led to Hitler’s victory.

In Britain today there is no strong social democratic party, and certainly no revolutionary group with significant support in the working class.

While economically the situation today in Britain is not yet like Germany in the early 30s, politically it is much worse.

Any worsening of the economic situation could see a swing to the British fascists among voters, including working class voters because of the lack of a left alternative and New Labour’s abject failure.

As the BBC decision to legitimise the BNP’s fascism shows, the British bourgeoisie is hedging its bets.

It does not need the fascists yet to destroy the weak labour and left movements. But if the British economy worsens, it might consider using the fascists to drive down workers’ living standards.

This may not be by granting the fascists power. The British Nazis already perform a valuable function for British capital.

They will be a magnet pulling the forthcoming Conservative Government further to the right and pushing it to massively attack public services, jobs and wages. And Muslims, Asians and blacks.

The demonstration outside the BBC headquarters when Griffin turned up for his interview shows that some in British society recognise the danger.

Unless British unionists begin to join them in droves and to exercise their power as workers against the Nazis, the fascists could grow rapidly.