Last Saturday, on 4th April, the far-right group PEGIDA demonstrated in London. Whilst this reactionary outfit was only able to muster dozens to their protest, hundreds of workers and youth marched and rallied on the counter-demonstration to defiantly oppose the far right and their racist, Islamophobic ideology.
Last Saturday, on 4th April, the far-right group PEGIDA demonstrated in London. Whilst this reactionary outfit was only able to muster dozens to their protest, hundreds of workers and youth marched and rallied on the counter-demonstration to defiantly oppose the far right and their racist, Islamophobic ideology.
Socialist Appeal supporters and students from the Marxist Student Federation were present on the counter-demo, standing up to the far right, and handing out the following leaflet explaining how to fight the far-right with militant united action and revolutionary socialist policies.
On the 4th April 2015 the far-right group PEGIDA will be holding a demonstration in London, following their first UK demo in Newcastle’s city centre in late February. This group began in October 2014 by holding weekly demonstrations in Dresden, Germany, against the “Islamisation of Europe and the West”. While they had a slow start in building support, PEGIDA were able to bring 25,000 people onto the streets of that city on the 12 January this year.
They are openly anti-immigrant, with a specific emphasis on opposing Islam. They have attempted to portray themselves as concerned citizens and protectors of European culture. Their leaders, however, have been photographed dressing as Nazis and KKK members and caught making comments about immigrants being “animals”, “scumbags” and “trash”.
As their demonstrations have grown, so too has opposition to this group, as its far right nature and the threat that it poses to working people have become evident to wider and wider layers. With the rise of PEGIDA we have also seen a subsequent rise in counter-demonstrations, including on 10 January where a minute silence was held in front of Dresden’s Frauenkirche to mourn the death of the victims of the Charlie Hebdo shootings and to openly affirm their antipathy to such forces as PEGIDA, who opportunistically use these events in an attempt to divide our communities.
Origin of Islamic Fundamentalism
Islamophobia has been part of the mainstream media’s message for over a decade. The “clash of cultures and civilisation” was used in the West to inflate a boogeyman, a threat to Western values necessary for capitalism after the fall of the Soviet Union. It was a means by which to divert the political consciousness of working people away from the growing inequality in society and to frighten people into submission. This allowed for the further curtailment of democratic rights in many countries in the west all in the name of the “war on terror”.
However, Islamic fundamentalism did not fall from the sky, but has a material basis built up over a prolonged period of time through support from Western imperialism. The Pakistani Revolution of 1968-69 and the Saur Revolution in Afghanistan in the late 70s, along with a number of progressive, left wing movements across the Middle East and North Africa in that period were an open threat to the dominance of the American, French and British imperialism. To counter such movements the US in particular started to heavily fund groups like the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Al Qaeda and the Taliban in the Middle East and Afghanistan as a reactionary counter-weight to growing anti-imperialist movements.
These groups are like Frankenstein’s monster. Born and developed through Western intervention, now out of control it attacks its former master and creator, providing the excuse for direct military intervention. The recent wars in the Middle East have sown such chaos and destruction that even further fertile ground has been laid for the flourishing of these groups which we see taking its most finished form in the growth of ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
This is the real base of Islamic fundamentalism and it is as much a part of the fabric of capitalism as the far right and fascist movements in Europe which oppose it.
Crisis of Capitalism
At the present stage, the organic crisis of capitalism is creating a profound polarisation amongst the populations of all countries.
The progressive side of this polarisation can be seen in the election victory of SYRIZA in Greece, the rise of PODEMOS in Spain, and mass movements of workers and youth in one country after another who are fighting back against the effects of austerity.
On the other side, the rise of reactionary pro-fascist movements in Ukraine and Golden Dawn in Greece, along with a growth in electoral support of far-right groups like the Front National in France and UKIP in Britain, is a move by part of the ruling class to divide and attack workers open to taking the road of class struggle.
This has further led to anti-immigrant rhetoric and the language of the “clash of cultures” used by politicians, whipping up extreme hatred. People are looking for a solution to the problems they face: problems of unemployment, low wages, cuts to schools and healthcare and other attacks on the working class. Without a revolutionary socialist alternative this is expressing itself through sharp turns to the left and to the right amongst wide layers of people.
Whilst the growth of far-right and fascist groups is weak at the current time, it is still absolutely necessary for working people to oppose them and for revolutionary Marxists to take up the social questions at stake, explaining that
the only solution to them lies in the socialist transformation of society as a whole.
Demo and Counter-Demo in London
Since the events surrounding the Charlie Hebdo shootings in France on 7 January 2015 PEGIDA have announced themselves as being a European wide movement and we have seen demonstrations and groups popping up in Norway, Denmark, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden and other European countries, including the UK, declaring themselves as part of PEGIDA.
This is the backdrop behind which they have announced their demonstration in London. A response must be forthcoming from the organised working class, starting with the trade unions. Rail and bus unions must refuse to transport Pegida supporters into London. Trades Councils must mobilise the wider community in opposition to this affront to the working class.
The International Marxist Tendency stands side by side with other groups in their fight against Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, racism, sexism, homophobia and all other forms of oppression used to divide the working class and we will do our duty in building this counter demonstration against Pegida. We also call on others, be they individuals or members of local groups, to do the same.
In so doing though, we must also state emphatically that simply opposing such forces in and of themselves, whilst necessary, is not enough. We must also understand the origins of such groups, their social base and the means by which we fight them in order to stop them once and for all. It is for this reason that we’ve written this statement.
Socialism is the only solution
The existence of Islamic fundamentalism and the rise of the far-right and fascist groups in the modern period are both symptoms of the decaying nature of the capitalist system. The only way to challenge both is to challenge the foundation upon which they are nourished by fighting to destroy the capitalist system at its roots and to replace it with something fundamentally different. The only solution to the social ills which we face – unemployment, poverty, oppression and attacks on the working class in the form of governmental austerity and cuts to their, wages, terms and conditions in the workplace – is to fight for a fundamental change to take place in society.
We need a revolutionary socialist transformation, which would take the wealth and productive forces out of the hands of the tiny few families of rich individuals who run the world and to place them under the democratic ownership of the working class in the UK, Europe and the world. In doing this we would unite all people across religions, nationalities, gender, sexuality and those who have disabilities in a show of solidarity which would lay the basis for a genuinely democratically planned economy, providing everyone with the freedom they need for their own self-development.
We encourage everyone to join us in opposing Pegida and to join the International Marxist Tendency in our struggle for the socialist transformation of society
