Author: | Date: July 2005
Moving on
Editorial July 2005
This month Searchlight leaves Unite Against Fascism. Searchlight had members on UAF’s steering committee but, like others, we found it difficult to function when decisions were being made elsewhere. But the prime reason for our departure is because it is incompatible for us to be in an organisation that is pushing a different strategy to our own. We believe that localised campaigning on broader issues than racism, fundamental as racism is, is the key to turning back the British National Party’s electoral advance.
We have found it impossible to work with UAF in any meaningful sense for some considerable period of time. However, the final straw has been public accusations that we are pandering to racism by addressing the issue of the grooming of young women in Keighley. We believe that if we did not address the issue then the BNP would be given a free hand to use it to garner votes.
We believe that what is needed is not a big national campaign, but localised campaigning to counter the BNP’s own targeted campaigning. Local campaigns should ideally be rooted in the trade union movement – because of its capabilities – which in turn should mobilise the broadest possible alliance of forces. And because fascism is about more than racism we simply do not believe that UAF’s concept of black leadership is appropriate for an anti-fascist organisation. Racism is just one part of what fascism is about and it cannot be reduced to it.
Also, there was only ever so long that we could participate in an organisation which had leading figures conduct a whispering campaign about Searchlight being “Zionists”.
Leaving UAF will allow us to get on with the work that we are doing with trade unions and local groups unhindered. We have no intention of engaging in an ongoing row with UAF or of setting up a rival national organisation. We also recognise that there are good activists on the ground who will carry on identifying with UAF whom we will continue to work with in the future.
We are looking to the future confident in our approach, having learnt a lot from the intensive campaigning that we have been involved in over recent years. The BNP are trying to present themselves as a respectable alternative political party; mainstreaming. Time is short, they have made considerable headway – their 21 local councillors are testimony to that. The BNP will be defeated by activists on the ground, in our communities, in the council wards that they fight electorally. Ultimately, that means winning the battle of ideas, and to win you have to prove yourself relevant to people’s lives. Dismissing people’s concerns because they are about issues we do not want to discuss is not an option if we are to be successful against the BNP in the May 2006 council elections.
© Searchlight Magazine 2005
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