THE MURDER of Ahktar Ali East Ham last week, allegedly by skinhead came as no surprise to socialists in the area. East London is infested by gangs of skinheads who support the Nazi British Movement (BM). This problem is not confined to East London. Attacks on blacks by skinhead gangs in the London borough 0f which includes Southall, are now a daily occurrence.
The gangs of white youths who invaded the Sparkbrook area of Birmingnam a lew Weeks ago, Pakistanis and smashing up Asian were skinheads organised by the British Movement. Nazi skinhead gangs frequently travel London's Piccaally tude line, decea m comdal jackets with the BM's distinctive lion and Union Jack badge, looking for blacks and gays to beat up. In short, penetration the gangs is reaching epidemic To understand why this is happening, we have to look at the crisis of the National Front (NF). During the early seventies the NF managed to establish itself as the dominant fascist group in Britain, by trying to get away from the Nazi image, trying to look like a 'respectable' nationalist 'patriotic' organisation.
Immigration was the main issue on which it played, but it was by no means openly Nazi. Anti-semitism was played down. Ex-colonels and retired group captains were recruited fronts for the hard-core leadership around Webster. In the 1977 GLC London local elections the National Front got nearly 100,000 votes.
The NF went into crisis, however, youths, under the pressure of two different things. First, the campaign run by the Anti Nazi League effectively blew the NF's cover; the NF was firmly iden. tified as a Nazi organisation. Many of the NF's potential supporters frightened off. Then, the NF suffered Thatcher's Tories Ealing, power.
'respectable squeezed as Thatcher seemed to adopting more and more of the NF's programme.
Ranks The resulting pressure on the NF led many in its ranks to demand a fascism semitism. The drift in this direction by a section of the NF's man. form the British Peoples Party, and ship led to the split in the Midlanas skinhead propor- the growth of support for the British Movement.
Dual membership of the NF and the British Movement is common. The British Movement is open about its Nazism. Its leaders have links with the Ku Klux Klan in the US, and Nazi groups all over Europe. It claims that the National Front are just right-wing Tories, not real fascists.
The British Movement have been able penetrate gangs, organising them around antiand black violence.
unHe fascists. But the gangs, especially the young all-male particularly fertile BM.
Nazi Large numbers of these young cult of violence, and ability to black were The room for a right-wing be needed.
organisation was be traditional union. street fighting and antilosder- Racism to stop skinheads tone' skinhead to Of course it is far groups. all skinheads gangs have proved ground for the thugs cannot be won by the propagan. of confidence amongst anti-racists.
List ch da of anti-racists and the left. Their and the elan and mystique which the BM's Nazi filth gives them, makes them completely alien to the left's propaganda. The only answer for this hard core is the method of self-defence, a willingness organise to • prolec communities against their violence. Whatever limited progress is made by the methods of propaganda self defence against racist gangs will The left needs to start to organise again on an anti-racist basis among youth — to re-vitalise Rock Against which has tended to die away. The National Union of School Students has an important role to play - which is one reason why we need a mass campaigning NUSS, not a rump of revolutionaries masquerading as a (Perhaps we should also ask some of those bands who came to fame on the back of Rock Against playing Ior lascis and do some RAR gigs again - UB 40, are you listening?)
Some skinheads are into two.
mixed reggae-punk bands Using these bands in RAR gigs on a wide scale could be an important was of combatting the Nazi influence. But we are in a different period than when RAR started. In all probability RAR gigs with two-tone bands would have protected by It is time for the left to grasp the fact that fascism has not been pletely defeated by the ANL It has suffered a severe reverse and changed its spots. We need to take the offensive again, to re-create an atmosphere
By Colin Talbot, the monopoly. a fair share of the wealth we create?