To stop the far right, the UK Left must confront the roots of racism

In the UK in the late 1970s and early 1980s I would often say to my wife: anti-racist White friends from the British Left said: “If you don’t organize within white working class communities to fight racism, we could face the threat of racist pogroms in this country 40 years from now.”

I wasn’t alone. During this time, Black organizers – we used the term ‘black’ politically to unite Afro-Asian people in the UK around common struggles – participated in ongoing discussions with representatives of the white left.

We were primarily interested in how white leftist groups organized within our communities, viewing us as people who would readily join their agenda.

While we appreciated the solidarity, we knew that the real struggle was between white working-class communities fed by a relentless stream of racist and imperialist propaganda.

How right we were.

Like much of the UK, my hometown of Bradford was the focus of controversy.

The left consisted of many groups: the International Marxist Group, which would take you straight to the library and never let you leave; International Socialists will take you from the library to the bar; Workers’ Revolutionary Party – those who don’t know what a library is think it’s just a fancy name for a bar; The Revolutionary Community Party, which only reads books directly from the police infiltration manual, and the Communist Party, which was so caught up in European communism that it forgot the libraries even existed. By the way, don’t ask the Militant Tendency about the Labor Party, they’ll throw Labor’s Clause 4 at your head before you’ve even finished the question.

But often these groups have failed to confront their complicity in imperialist narratives.

Just like today, where there are few camouflage supports ZionismIn the 1970s and 1980s some, as in Northern Ireland, denied the colonized and oppressed the right to take up arms.

These positions have led us to question their true commitment to dismantling the imperial state or standing up to systemic racism.

Far-right pogroms in the UK: A new normal?

Our efforts to connect the anti-racism struggle in Britain to the country’s struggle colonial The past and the imperialist present were constantly pushed aside theoretically.

As Neem Malik, an activist from the Midlands, recalls, “The white left thought they knew what was best for us. They dictated how we should organize and what slogans we should run with. Even now, with the rise of Islamophobia, they continue to underestimate. How bad is the situation?” desperate.”

Their paternalism was evident even in their chants.

While we marched with slogans like “Black people must unite – here to stay, here to fight; Black people have the right – here to stay, here to fight”, whites on the left were chanting “Black and white -“. unite and fight as if we were treated equally in society and in leftist spaces.”

Like British BlacksWe had to solve our own challenges before we could unite on their terms.

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As Amrit Wilson, activist and author of the groundbreaking book Finding a Voicehe says: “The White Left had a direct relationship with us Black organizers. They were mainly interested in recruiting us or giving us leadership. There were many cases where we encouraged them to organize against racism in white communities rather than giving us leadership. But they mostly ignored our pleas.” .

“As a result, even as we battle the vicious sexist racism of the state and our communities’ patriarchies shaped by the legacy of feudalism, we find ourselves confronted by the racism and sexism of the predominantly male white Left. Of course, the sexism and subsequent fraternization of the predominantly male-dominated Asian youth movements involve erasing our experiences of racism.” There was ‘white feminism’.”

Phill Griffin, an activist from the 1960s, argues that the current rise of the far right in the UK cannot be blamed solely on the left’s collective failure to organize against racism in working-class communities. “The reality is that they are not fully organized in working-class communities.”

The extraordinary rise of racism in Britain today is therefore not only the fault of the Left, but also the continuing – and essential – policy of the Left. British imperialism. But if deep-rooted anti-racist organizations had formed in working-class communities at the time, we might not be facing the harsh realities of today.

If history has taught us anything, it is that failure to confront the roots of racism, both in the streets and in imperialist foreign policy, has dire consequences.

As I mentioned in my last article New ArabThe rise of far-right ideologies reflects the failures of the past. The question remains: Can we catch history by its wings and defeat the signs of the pogroms, or will history continue to kick us in the ass?

Tariq Mehmood is an award-winning novelist and filmmaker. In 1981 he was a leading defendant in the Bradford 12 trial.

Co-directed InjusticeAuthor of the groundbreaking film and its sequel about deaths in British Police Custody. extreme violence. Currently in production Film in Bradford 12. He wrote his first novel Waiting for trial: Hold Your Hand to the SunPenguin 1983. Since then he has written numerous novels; the last one Second ComingDaraja 2024. He is also an associate professor at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon.

Follow him on Twitter: @TariqMehmood000

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The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff.