Fascism walks on two legs

by David Lethbridge, Co-director of the Bethune Anti-Fascist Institute, 
Canada

Many anti-racist and anti-fascist organisations don't recognise fascism 
when they see it. They expect fascism to emulate the past — to wear 
swastika armbands, or shout "Heil Hitler", or hide under Klan hoods. Not 
that there isn't plenty of that kind of activity. 

In Winnipeg, and in Victoria (British Columbia), Sigrdrifa, a new 
organisation devoted to "white women" has been established, with branches 
in Michigan and Florida. Publications include Sigrdrifa Magazine, 
the newsletters Voice of the North and Voice of the South, 
Vor — Our Sisters' Voice (a female prisoner outreach effort), and a 
website.

Post office box numbers indicate that the organisation is allied with 
Women's Aryan Unity. Sigrdrifa pages are full of praise for the 
violent Aryan Nations offshoot, The Order. 

The group's Mothers of the Movement project aims directly at "white 
racialists concerned with parenting issues and their children's future", 
while ABC — Aryan Beginnings for Children seeks to entice young 
children.

ABC intends to develop a "Kid Friendly web page" and to offer "activity, 
colouring, game and craft books for children", as well as a variety of 
materials for pregnant women and new mothers. 

A series of White Heritage colouring books is in the works. ABC 
Kid Works Internet page will shortly provide printable stories and 
games designed to indoctrinate a new generation of fascists.

The Christian Identity website Cry Aloud located in Burnaby, British 
Columbia, promotes violence against the First Nations (the indigenous 
peoples of Canada). 

Other recent examples range from Aryan Nations member Buford Furrow's "wake 
up call to America to kill Jews" which resulted in an armed attack on a 
group of children in Los Angeles, to the Church of the Creator murders in 
the US Midwest.

Most anti-racist organisations spend their time combating these kinds of 
neo-fascist groups. And some don't even bother to do that. The professional 
multicultural societies and mainstream conservative human rights 
organisations rarely go that far.

Perhaps once or twice a year they put on a "workshop", invite a few anti-
racist speakers, applaud politely, and then settle down to organising their 
next "ethnic food festival" or "diversity celebration".

But real, militant, anti-fascists recognise that resistance is a two-front 
struggle. There is the real necessity to fight the racist and fascist 
organisations that constantly recruit, sell hate propaganda, and engage in 
acts of social violence.

But equally if not more important, is the struggle against the fascist 
tendencies of the capitalist state itself — tendencies that the 
conservative anti-racists and multicultural professionals refuse to fight 
or even recognise.

And why? Because the leadership of the imperialist capitalist states do not 
wear Klan hoods or swastika badges. On the contrary, the leadership drapes 
itself in conservative clothing and in the language of "democracy" and 
"humanitarianism".

Few of the conservative anti-racists and multicultural professionals 
protested when the US-led NATO forces engaged in the massive and criminal 
bombardment of Yugoslavia.

And now the US is proposing that the Organisation of American States 
develop a multi-national Latin American force to "intervene in threatened 
environments". In short, a new Latino NATO.

No doubt Colombia will soon be targeted for a US-led war to protect 
"democracy" against the progressive and socialist insurgency. US officials 
claim that the leftist guerrillas are funded by narcotics, but the truth is 
that the Colombian government and the paramilitary death squads are funded 
by narcotics, as well as by direct US financial aid.

Nor does it bother them that their ally in Kosovo — the KLA — is strongly 
financed by drug trafficking. What's more, it is necessary to recall that 
the US has worked hand-in-glove with every fascist dictatorship throughout 
Central and South America.

Washington has no interest in Latin American democracy. Its goal is to 
extend imperialism's military and economic domination, and to suppress 
every struggle of working people for social justice, workers' rights, and 
an economy in their own favour. 

Capitalist imperialism on the verge of the new millennium shows every sign 
of moving in a fascist direction — world domination and the economic 
enslavement of the working class. Within the belly of this beast, openly 
neo-Nazi and neo-fascist organisations are stepping up their grisly work.

Fascism walks on two legs, not one. If fascism is to be defeated, anti-
fascists and anti-racists everywhere must ensure that the two-front 
struggle is carried forward.

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People's Voice, Communist Party of Canada