Anti-Fascism is about defending minorities, not making Fascists bleed

Many of those who took offence at my description of events in Dover seem to centre around the theme that Antifa ‘stood our ground’, that we ‘fought back’ and ‘gave as good as we got’, or just showing pictures of various bleeding fascists and captured Fascist flags. None of this is untrue, everyone that was there by the second kettle showed incredible fortitude and bravery, and a willingness to fight back that I wished many more of my comrades shared, but this misses the point of what Anti-Fascism is.

Anti-Fascism is not about two groups of White men having a big fight in a carpark, and by counting the number of injured, the number of captured trophies or missiles thrown declaring the day a success. Success is counted by the degree to which Fascists were physically prevented from posing a threat to People of Colour, Sexual Minorities, Religious Minorities, from the Far Left, or anyone they confuse for being one of tfhe above. And did this happen in Dover?

No. National Front was able to march ‘where they wished’. If they had felt up for it they could have attacked people on the streets, and if they had done so I’m sure the police would have been as slow as ever to do anything about it. Some marked the fact that we delayed them for some time as a victory, but I struggle to see it. They were forced to stand around for a bit, but got to pelt Antifa with bricks twice, so probably quite enjoyed themselves for the most part.

I think perhaps some took my account of Dover as a critique of those who were there on the day, but this is not how I felt at all. Considering we were both outnumbered and also had to deal with the police doing everything to facilitate the Fascists I think the Antifa there on the day did the utmost they could have, but that doesn’t make it a victory. Refusing to acknowledge that we failed in Dover, that Fascists were able to make a clear threat to migrants, will just encourage the complacency that meant half empty coaches left London to go to the Demo.

AFN seems to pursue a propaganda strategy that focuses on bigging up what went well and minimising what didn’t, not an unusual strategy, but one I don’t feel like is working. Liverpool was obviously a massive victory, but such success didn’t really seem to bring a boost to the movement or certainly one that wasn’t reflected in the numbers in Dover, who seemed to be the hardcore of Antifa in the South of England. I feel that in situations of Anti-Fascist demonstrations minimising what went wrong will only encourage complacency.

The AFN statement that seemed to focus on ‘’Things went okay, but everyone needs to take Anti-Fascist demonstrations a lot more seriosuly’’ is not something which I can see working. If you want people who did not take Dover seriously to take it seriously then you need to make clear why they should, and if you did not make clear that we failed, and do so with evocative language, no one will be shocked out of their complacency.

We need to not only show why Fascists are a threat to us all, but why it is necessary for those outside the dedicated hardcore of Antifa to be out on the streets anywhere in this nation doing whatever is needed to stop Fascism.