So it turns out there isn’t much to the fascist presence in Glasgow. At their big demo at George Square yesterday, not a soul was to be seen, save for two hapless nazis who showed up and were quickly chased off into a nearby train station. Faced with a square empty of fascists, we decided to play some tunes through a soundsystem and have a good time, happy to know that George Square belongs to the people, not to the nazis.
The fascists are still claiming victory though, as odd as that sounds. A few of them came to the square hours and hours before their demo was supposed to start, took a picture and posted it to their social media, claiming that they had managed to have their demo and fool the left at the same time! Well firstly, secretly having your demo earlier than planned isn’t a sign of strength, its a sign that you’ve completely shat it, you cowards. Secondly, four rather lonely looking fascists with a couple of flags isn’t a demo, it’s just a spare pack of wankers with shit politics.
Now, the fascists’ aim here yesterday was, as they had stated, to “March against Marxism”, to deal with the “communists and reds”, whoever they are. They may have failed spectacularly in that task, but that doesn’t mean we can just flippantly ignore their political message. We must recognise what a fascist means when they talk about the danger posed by communism to society: They add up into a big bundle everything and everyone they hate- migrants, refugees, LGBTQI folx, people of colour, disabled people, feminists, trade unionists, basically anyone that’s sick of being marginalised, and paint them all as part of a big communist and/or Jewish conspiracy to undermine the proper functioning of the world. One nonsense term they love is “Cultural Marxism”, which is just the rehashing of a term called “Cultural Bolshevism” that the Nazis used to refer to pretty much anything they disliked: Jazz, surrealism, fundamental human rights- you know, the stuff that makes life less boring and shit.
As it is the ideal world for these fascist clowns is a bland, rigid planet of obedient drones marching mechanically to the same military tune. A world with no place for any creativity, dissent or autonomy. We all know the end result already: Extermination, for you, us, and anyone else that makes the mistake of standing up for their own personality, ideals and rights. Well we’re having none of that. We don’t know about you, but we’re not up for being told what to do by some racist fatcat politician’s eager attack dog. The “White Scotland” that the fascists desire is still a Scotland with masters and bosses. Being the “Master Race” isn’t going to mean shit when your White landlord throws you out on the street and your White government cuts your benefits.
The migrant next door is not your enemy. The real enemy lives in a big mansion and owns the supermarket where you work shitty hours for shitty pay. The real enemy is the grinning, lying politician who is richer than most of us will ever be and yet claims to speak for “Real British/Scottish Working People”. And when you realise that, you also start to realise that your migrant neighbour is also poor and downtrodden, is also being sold out by politicians. You start to realise that actually, you and the migrant are comrades, kept down by the same capitalist system. Once you know that, well its time for you and the migrant to team up and fight for a better world. All we have is each other, and the longer we stay disunited and distracted, then the longer we allow the rich and powerful to get away with treading all over us.
The choice, then, is simple: Rebellion, friendship and freedom, or poverty, misery, and ultimately, concentration camps. You know where we stand. What about you?