knee jerk anti-fascism i think is typified by UAF / lancasteruaf / and on indymedia by the posters who claim to be antifa ( though the antifa i know are much more savvy so i suspect they are not ) and worst of all the multiple personality poster "troll destroya" ( aka sold estroya / wottalottanutzinobbz / mary mary / communities united / lizzie lux / toilet duck / robe sphere / demmi god / troll deflator and a dozen other names on indyuk in the last week or so )

instead of trying to understand social movements of the right it decides anything it does not understand of the right is fascist and neo nazi ( they use the word interchangably) . worse they fail to see changes in fascism ( in particulalry the rise of 'post fascism in Italy and France) and try to box it all into some 1930s model of fascism. This is an error of disasterous proportions as the parctice that flows from this mistaken theory is then, and it has been shown to be, a total failure that see both the BNO and EDL expanding at a fast rate in working class and lower middle class communities.

so the BNP are fascist, and that we will i am sure agree in that their role is to divide the working class in teh interests of the capitalists state. But really it is more importnat that they are 'post fascist' in that they are anti state, they are loyalist, they are not revolutionary, they are not into military expansionism and they are multi cultural having sikh, jewish and muslim supporters and indeed elected councillors of those backgrounds. attempts to link them with hitlerism and nationals socialism fall on deaf ears in the disempowered white communities they organise.

But the EDL are not fascist nor racists, nor neo nazis though they certainly do attract people who are. EDL have regularly denounced fascism and particularly hitlers german fascism and those who support them. They have on video burnt a nazi swastika  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkKmzNpUBM4 Y

You will also notice that in this video that several of the EDL members are black. EDL have consistently carried placards saying 'black and white unite' and attacking the BNP ( who themselves denounce the EDL as a state provocation which may have sone element of truth) . The leader of the London Division of EDL Joel Titus is himself mixed race and has stated he is proud of his black roots. At a recent london demo EDL members 'did' a group of neo nazis in and outside a Whitehall pub who had been taunting them over their not being racist and anti-semitic. Another of their key activists is an american jewish zionist student in London. They couch their anti muslim slogans from the POV of human rights against those who would take rights away from women and gays.

Many 'kneejerk anti fascists' don't understand how EDL is not fascist as the role it plays in society, that of dividing people is the role fascist groups also play.

But EDL is clearly not fascist but loyalist, that means loyal to british constituitional democracy, the queen and rights for all. They simply do not understand why they the white and mixed race and black working class who were once one of the most privilaged working classes in the world ( due to both imperialism and the strength of the trade unions) but has been disempowered, while individuals who have killed over a hundred brits in the last few years at 9/11 and 7/7, from migrants communities with deeply conservative social values that appear opposite to everything british 'fair play' ( myth or not) stands for, are propagating reactionary politics on the streets.

and when you look close at the EDL via it's forums and the individuals involved you clearly see that loyalism is what they are. Their basis is in ex squaddies and the chants "no surrender to al queda" are a direct descendent of the "no surrender to the IRA". they like most people in this country think this is the best country in the world even though it is going to the dogs. and they are prepared to fight for it, and many of them have directly fought for it and know people who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now britain is guilty of many crimes but the fact remains is it is one of the most socially mixed, most socially progressive countries in the world.

So what does this failure to understand mena for the tactics

Simply that they are a failure. With the BNP HnH/UAF have produced millions of anti BNP leaflets and newspaper of the last few years but as they mistake what the BNP advertise themselves as and as they mistake what people vote BNP ( essentially as a protest) they fail to hurt the BP to any extent. There is also a danger that at some stage people who vote BNP as a protest will begin to believe they are fascists as they are told they are. And then we realy are up shit creek! ANti fascism has almost nothing pratcial useful to offer as it is negative. Simply telling people not to vote BNP or that they are fascists does nothing useful to pratically help

The same with the EDL. So when people attack them for being fascist they fail to hit any target with the EDL and their periphery. Indeed many ordinary onlookers will draw the conclusion that the EDL are right, as the left seem to be keener on attacking white lads that muslim jihadis and fundies. to attack a group for being racist when they have black members and to attack them for beng nazis when they fight with nazis clearly just does it work

SO what should we do. Re the BNP i think the anti nazi stuff has a role but only works when it comes from people who are respected and indeed this is the key issue. If you wish to change society you will not do it by screaming and shouting chanting and running around the streets. You will do it by working consistently and respectfully with teh people where we live and work. If you just parachute into areas and leflet anti nazi material yu will persuade some people but actually convince others that you are not interested in people every day existence while the BNP are.

Equally we have to deal with the issue the BNP are using, whether housing or work. We do not need anti BNP coalitions but coalitions that deal with the everyday problems people face. it is this that will undercut the BNP and if push comes to shove provide the numbers to physically drive them out if needs be.

And the same for the EDL. They do have a point that a decent left would be taking on board and increasingly anti fascists like Phil Dickens in Liverpool are arguing, that the Islamo fascists Hamza and Choudary and their crews need confronting as much as the BP as their role insociety is as bad. personally as a white w/c man i would think it best if we support progressive muslims to smash these muslim fascists and let us get on with destroying the BNP. So first we need, if we claim to be anti fascist, to be consistent and oppose all fascism. second these idiot attempts to physically confront the EDL need to stop. If it were not for the police the anti fascists would quite simply get mullahed. Progressive community campaigns are best but they have to take on board the neccessity to stand up against all reactionaries, british or muslim. if they simply condemn the EDL they fail

But more important we need provide an alternative to the BNP and EDL. We have lived through 30 years now of neo liberalism and it has seen working class communities dismembered and disempowered. Bizarrely much of the activist and the @ movement ( part from class war and a few otheres) has almost entirely spent the same time absenting itself from these very communities at best and at worst condemning them for being reactionary. This has been disasterous as now people see the BNP and EDL, not the @/left, as both radical and the default option for protest.

we need to junk activism and all the pet indymedia distractions, circuses, SHAC, biolabs, palestine, edo, etc etc and understand that if we want to change society we can not do it from the outside but only from the inside. that if we want to change society it will only happen when the majority want it.

start talking to your neighbours, to your colleagues, start building from the base :)