THE Communist Party of Britain (CPB) has always been at the forefront of campaigns against racism and fascism. We recognise, however, that situations and organisations of workers change; this must be reflected upon.

The CPB congress in November will see several major debates, including on racism and fascism.

The “stop the boats” campaign by the Conservative government and large sections of the mass media against asylum-seekers and other immigrants can only raise tensions and threaten race relations as millions of people confront rising bills, poverty, unemployment, poor housing and deteriorating services.

To its disgrace, the Labour Party leadership refuses to campaign against racist policies and racist laws, allowing the scapegoating of ethnic minorities to continue largely unchallenged except on grounds of efficiency.

The CPB will continue to support all broad-based initiatives to combat racism, working with trade unions, the TUC anti-racist network, Stand Up to Racism, Hope Not Hate, the Liberation Movement, migrants’ organisations and others.

We want to see a mass campaign for anti-racist immigration and nationality laws. This campaign has already brought together the Indian Workers Association (GB), the Bangladeshi Workers Council, Caribbean Labour Solidarity and Jewish Voice for Labour.

Anti-Gypsy, Roma and Traveller manifestations must also be opposed, and we should call for reparations for slavery, based on anti-imperialism and class.

We have committed ourselves to increasing efforts internally and in the wider labour and progressive movements to identify and combat anti-semitism (whether unwitting or intentional).

Anti-fascists will also recognise that the failure of the British National Party’s electoral strategy has turned some fascists back to confrontational and violent street activity; fascists must be opposed on every front and, wherever possible, denied a platform by mass activity.

Already we have seen anti-fascists standing with others who oppose fascists attacking migrants and refugees placed in hotels and barges. These campaigns show the possibility of unity being led by — and not acting for — local communities and trade unions.

As an internationalist party, we are committed to fighting fascism worldwide and will intensify our work to this end, both with communist and workers parties internationally and their organisations domiciled in Britain.

It is important to commemorate and draw lessons from struggles against fascism and racism internationally and in the past. Therefore, for example, the CPB will seek to increase its co-operation and involvement with the International Brigades Memorial Trust.

As well as helping to organise major events to mark the Battle of Cable Street, we will liaise with other anti-fascists to initiate broad-based celebrations of other victories over fascist mobilisations in England, Scotland and Wales.

I write this 87 years after the battle of Cable Street in east London. As highlighted in Granite and Honey, the biography of Phil Piratin by Kevin Marsh and Robert Griffiths, the British Union of Fascists had targeted the long-term unemployed for recruitment into their ranks, so Communist Party members and their allies worked with the National Unemployed Workers Movement.

Local trade unions were approached as were Jewish organisations, as Jews were targeted by the fascists and blamed for the high levels of unemployment and underemployment. 

The housing question was another conflict area for anti-fascists and fascists. Those people who supported fascist parties were approached and persuaded to alter their views. Many joined the anti-fascist work.

Today, the government’s rhetoric and policies alongside the capitalist media have fed the racist narrative. The Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s recent speech to a right-wing think tank in the US where she proposed the tearing up if the refugee convention has been widely condemned, as she knew it would be.

She has been supported by elements of her faction in her party, but for anti-racists what she said is racist and xenophobic — it feeds the dangerous narrative that we, as a nation, are under attack.

The most recent Migration Observatory poll highlights contradictory attitudes, with 52 per cent favouring a reduction in immigration with 60 per cent wanting more high-skilled immigration. Stricter border controls are way down the list of priorities.

We all have a responsibility to challenge the underlying assumptions and trade unions are best able to do this.

Likewise, we must build links with migrant organisations. Many people are not allowed to work. Many have the skills in occupational shortage areas.

Unity is vital across our anti-war and anti-austerity movements, along with trade unions, pensioners’ groups, and faith groups. We need to build resilience in our workplaces and communities. We must work with those who use online racism often internationally. We must challenge fascists wherever they arrive from.

Tony Conway is the convener of the Communist Party of Britain’s anti-racism anti-fascism commission.