I came up with this zinger myself, but it's hardly original. Billy Bragg Tweeted it once, and copped a load of shit as a result. Me, I just thought it would be a cool thing to yell at fascists.
It made me think, though: How has it got to the point where fascists can appropriate Churchill, possibly history's most famous anti-fascist, and anti-fascists routinely condemn Churchill?
How, in short, has anti-fascism become an extreme position?
Anti-fascism is traditionally a mainstream position - and it has been until now. Not only WWII but the Falklands War and both Gulf Wars were fought on the basis of a bipartisan consensus that Fascism was bad, and resisting Fascism was, you know, good. The normal point of view.
The problem seems to be that anti-fascism as a political position has been appropriated by the anarchist contingent in particular, and what some call the "extreme" Left in general. This may have been inevitable as mainstream politics became more Rightwing, but modern antifascist activists have accelerated the process when, counter-intuitively, they should have been resisting it.
Then there is the issue of historical revisionism on the Left, which has chosen this exact moment to demonize Churchill. Now, Churchill really was kind of a bastard (to put it mildly), however it is spectacularly bad timing to "cancel" him just as the far Right are making a demigod out of him, when you consider that he led a coalition that destroyed Fascism.
The main problem though, is this: The anarchists have managed to make anti-fascism seem like an extreme position. They have played straight into the hands of the extreme Right, who try to portray themselves as reasonable, calm, interested in debate, and above all, holders of a mainstream, "normal" position - and then along come a load of sinister looking, black clad weirdoes who hide their identities and scream abuse - and the effect on anti-fascist activity is devastating.
When Fascists started showing up in my town, around 2012 or so, they were run out on a rail. At their peak, the anti-EDL demos had the entire city out on the streets - every decent, ordinary person showed up. This was in the mid 2010s.
Now, you're lucky to get an overgrown bus queue.
Some advice for the comrades
So here's my advice for the Left:
(1) STOP going on about fucking Churchill. I don't care what he did - you are NOT going to win a culture war on the subject of his legacy as he is still VERY POPULAR in England, you're just gonna have to leave that argument for another day. Pick your battles - There are more important things to talk about and do right now.
(2) BROADEN the anti-fascist movement. I don't mean broaden as in, let the Trots in (as they will run it into the ground like they do everything). I mean, broaden it as in let everyone in who subscribes to a basic premise that the far Right are not welcome on our streets (except the Trots, because fuck those guys).
Do this even if you have to work with Lib Dems and Tories (I mean, if you have to) - but especially with a view to recruiting what the online Right call "normies", people who consider themselves either apolitical or part of the political mainstream. Why? Because (a) that's how the Fascists came back - they did everything possible to appeal to "normal people", not freaks like us - and (b) anti-fascism used to be so mainstream that even Churchill, an arch-rightwinger, was anti-fascist. In fact, since the Fash seem to be trying to appropriate the man, you should probably make a point of mentioning that. Every time you see one of those skinheads: "Churchill was an anti-fascist!"
This brings me to another mistake that anti-fascists make, which is assuming that only violence can get fascists off the streets. Now I'm no pacifist... but surely the major reason fascists show up is because there is a promise of some violence! As long as there are more of them than there are of you, you aren't going to win - it's a numbers game.
If half the city shows up, you won't need to use violence - or rather, if it is necessary to use it, our side is guaranteed to win because the Fash will be outnumbered ten, twenty, a hundred to one! But you can only do that if you get anti-fascism out of the anarchist / leftist ghetto and back into the mainstream.
Obligatory quote time
I have a favourite Churchill quote of my own:
“If Hitler invaded Hell, I would at least make a favourable reference to the Devil in the House of Commons.”
This remark was supposedly made during World War II, when Churchill was considering an alliance with Stalin's Soviet Union following the Nazi invasion of Russia. As a right wing, racist Tory bastard, he had to build an alliance with a Communist state, people whom he had attacked in the past and would consider attacking four years later - HAD TO, because their mutual enemy was even more dangerous to him.
You can't afford to be overly picky about your allies when the Nazis are on the march, and the only reason they're able to paint you as extremists right now is because you ARE extremists. You've made yourselves into that by insisting that your supporters pass all kinds of political purity tests and vigorously denouncing people who are on your side when they fail to live up to your very high expectations.
I happen to quite like you guys, and I agree with most of what you say - but nonetheless, anarcho-communism isn't a mainstream political position and you're not going to build an effective anti-fascist movement on the back of it. So forget the purity tests and start recruiting normies - your future depends on it.
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