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For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction 97

serve as important footnotes in any historiography of twentieth century


For every action there is an equal left politics in the United Kingdom.
Writing of the period 1974-9, Ken Livingstone states: ‘University-
and opposite reaction: two educated radicals and feminists were joining the Labour party and
changing its working-class ethos.’1This was an era where working class
responses on the British left to the communities were changing significantly – through de-industrialisation
and rising unemployment, and in terms of their make-up, due to the
rise of identity politics – the cases immigration from Commonwealth countries that had begun in the
post-war period.2 One of the responses to this from an evolving Labour
of Class War and Red Action Party was the development of a ‘municipal multiculturalism’ where what
were considered to be disadvantaged communities, were both catego-
rised by their ethnic and religious origin, and encouraged to apply for
Paul Stott funding and support from local authority budgets on that basis3. The
days of colour blind socialism, agitating either for workers control of
production or the community, seemed dated, indeed the broader left
appeared increasingly concerned with multiculturalism and group
uring the 1980s a profound shift occurred within the British left.

D
rights.4
The anti-racist and multicultural approach of Ken Livingstone’s All three of the main political parties adopted electoral practices
Greater London Council (GLC), and that of a series of local seeking to not only reflect the ethnic base in many constituencies, but to
authorities, was accompanied by an emerging women’s movement and make particular use of South Asian Muslim community elders.5 It has
the positioning of questions of gender, race and sexuality at the centre of arguably been Labour that has most benefitted from such practices and
left wing politics. indeed generally from the participation of ethnic minority voters – with
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This article two thirds supporting the party at 2010 election.6 Secondly, there is
contends that some very specific responses occurred to these changes, evidence that a professional, left- leaning middle class was emerging,
and focuses on two revolutionary organisations which emerged – Class especially in London, which considered itself well served by, for example,
War from the anarchist tradition and Red Action in the marxist tradi- an institution as committed to diversity as the Greater London Council
tion. Both rejected any diminishing of the centrality of class – and these (GLC). By the mid-1980s, whilst Labour was the third most popular
groups identity frequently pivoted on this rejection, even though within party for middle class voters nationally, in London ABC1 electors were
Class War in particular there was at times contestation concerning the supporting Labour ahead of the Tories by 39% to 28%.7 Municipal
perceived diminishing of broader areas of repression. multiculturalism also saw a black middle class being cultivated. By 1988
Whilst Red Action and Class War developed some influence, recogni- it could be observed:
tion and public profile, the left they critiqued was broadly able to ignore
or exclude them. There was little or no sustained debate, from larger In 1979 there were fewer than a dozen black community groups in
currents, of their positions. This paper uses primary sources to illustrate Hackney. Today there are more than 300, all reliant on council
the extent to which both Class War and Red Action developed broad hand-outs. The council has used an explosion of projects to create a
intellectual justifications concerning the primacy of class and as such new black leadership answerable to its funding body.8

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98 Paul Stott For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction 99

There were dissenting voices. A questioning of, or opposition to the Where is the man who’s speaking up for me? ‘Community leaders’
political direction and emphasis provided by this ‘cultural turn’ was broad, want more black shop keepers, the unions a say in the jobs thrown
if dissipated. Tariq Modood notes multiculturalism always had its critics away, and I’m told that my home’s in a nuclear free zone, that ain’t
on the left9. Whilst some unease flourished merely at times of controversy much help when there’s bills to be paid, ‘Police accountability’,
or crisis10 more fundamental critiques in the 1980s took in elements ‘Non-nuclear defence strategy’ this foolish ideology’s made the fight
within the left of the Labour Party, trotskyists from the Militant Tendency a mockery!13
and those who saw no possibility of a parliamentary road to socialism,
such as the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), to name just three. Two revolutionary organisations in particular were to develop this alien-
In his memoir, Ken Livingstone writes of how older figures in the ation and use it repeatedly for their own ends, whilst simultaneously
expanding London Labour Party of the 1970s and 80s, such as Lambeth’s rejecting racism, sexism and homophobia. It is the contention of this
Ted Knight, considered questions of race, homosexuality and feminism paper that Class War and Red Action developed a political identity that
diversions from the class struggle. Derek Hatton expressed similar views was in part shaped by a rejection of the cultural turn outlined above.
when rejecting the concept of positive discrimination:
Class War
The view of Militant, and that of the Liverpool District Labour
Party, has always been that while accepting there is discrimination, The first edition of the tabloid Class War appeared in Swansea in 1983
the problems of the black community are part of the overall produced by local anarchists inspired by the inner-city riots of 1981.14
struggle. It is a class problem, and a socialist problem, and must be Although a high profile anarchist of an earlier generation, Albert Meltzer
solved within that wide framework.11 (1920-1996) recognised the intervention of Class War the newspaper ‘It
was a clever use of the sort of language used by the tabloids, using their
Mike Freeman of the RCP was particularly cutting about Labour and the own style to express the disillusion felt by young long term unemployed.’15
broader left’s failure to develop anti-capitalist politics in opposition to This agitational approach was ideally suited to the open class warfare
Thatcherism, instead embracing a strategy based on little more than of the 1984-85 Miners Strike. When angry pickets ‘roughed up’ the
survival: Chairman of the National Coal Board, Ian MacGregor, the front page of
Class War reported ‘We should have finished the fucking bastard off there
Now deprived of any real financial or political autonomy, local and then.’16 These industrial disputes, and the inner-city disturbances of
councils merely provided a platform for aspiring Labour parliamen- the Thatcher years, served to emphasise what, to Class War, was a core
tarians such as Livingstone, Bernie Grant and David Blunkett. problem. In some distinction to the miners and the rioters taking the
Left-wing Labour councils also provided quango jobs for left activ- fight to the class enemy, the physical make-up of the revolutionary left
ists and cash for left campaigns. As a result the left could soldier on was unimpressive. Put simply, it was composed of, and/or controlled by,
when its base of popular support had withered away.12 the middle classes. As such:

The sense of alienation felt by those these circles was ably encapsulated The new concerns of the British left now reflect the political,
by Manchester band Easterhouse, RCP supporters named after one of economic and cultural aspirations of the middle class more than
Glasgow’s most notorious housing estates. In their track ‘Out on Your ever before. Within the Left, and liberal movements such as ecology
Own’ they asked

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100 Paul Stott For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction 101

and feminism, debate is conducted within a narrow band of ‘accept- From this position, the class struggle could then take a genuinely revolu-
able’ options.17 tionary turn:

Class War argued that the function of the middle class was now to These class controlled areas could be the pre-figurative forms of the
manage the working class in the interests of the ruling class. future society we wish to see created – of the workers and commu-
nity councils. As the question of who controls an area becomes
Labour councils have savaged services to the working class, left increasingly contested, so will a heightened class consciousness
thousands of homes empty, evicted squatters and adopted hare- develop.24
brained schemes for institutionalised anti-racism and anti-sexism
which are loathed by the working class.18 This commitment to direct action in the community, and the political
structures which could emerge from it, was one Ian Bone saw as pivotal
Core elements of cultural politics were mocked – middle class feminists to Class War’s initial success. A dialectical process of ‘practice, theory,
were characterised as both an embarrassment and as primarily concerned better practice’ characterised demonstrations such as Stop the City:
with their own status: ‘These wimmin use sisterhood like the masons use ‘Small scale event first time, massive success second time, complete fiasco
brotherhood – for self-interest, money and power.’19 Whilst an attempt third time as the cops go their act together. You then develop other
was made to introduce the group’s interpretation of class politics into the tactics and actions.’25
green movement via a short lived ecological column ‘Muckspreader’, the Perhaps Class War’s most notorious feature was to be found on page
limitations of environmentalism were consistently ridiculed by articles three of its newspaper. Whilst the UK’s best-selling tabloid The Sun used
such as ‘Top Ten Eco-Toffs’20 – with Prince Charles narrowly beating Zac this page to feature the bare breasts of a topless young woman, Class War
Goldsmith to the top spot. would feature a police officer who had been beaten up in a riot, at a
As well as expressing disdain for the membership of left organisations, demonstration or on a picket line. In a centre page feature ‘Class Culture
Class War declared their leader’s strategies to be redundant. By the time and Politics’ the rationale behind this was explained:
of the collapse of the Soviet Union, trotskyist and communist organisa-
tions in the UK were portrayed as relics, unable to keep up as the class The media portray anti police violence ‘poor defenceless bobby
struggle switched from the workplace to the community, and in partic- suffering a vicious attack from evil blacks/strikers/anarchists’. The
ular the inner cities ‘The left continued its motion passing votes in left go the other way with pictures of vicious-looking coppers
NALGO21 and demanding this, that or the other of the TUC, but the beating the shit out of a defenceless black/striker/lefty. Anyone
punters didn’t give a toss.’22 In an editorial in the first issue of Class War’s falling for the lefty account is likely to be totally demoralised,
theoretical journal, The Heavy Stuff, Ian Bone emphasised both the fearing that the slightest murmur of dissent will be met by an imme-
primacy of community based struggles and their potential: diate and extremely violent response from some huge invincible
baton wielding cop.26
However these struggles are initiated it is vital to widen them out to
raise the central question of working class control of our own areas. In terms of opposing sexism and racism, Class War thus sought positive
Once we control our own territory then a sound base will have been images of people fighting back against such entities, as a method of
built for a generalised onslaught on capitalism and the ruling class engendering both solidarity and future action. A recurring image in Class
as a whole.23 War literature was a picture of a young black man in the 1985

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Handsworth riots in Birmingham, armed with a petrol bomb, next to the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) from consideration (presum-
slogan ‘The Working Class Strikes Back’. A significant plank of left ably due to their reformist natures). Whilst the prosperity that workers
politics in this era – exposing police racism and/or malfeasance by refer- had experienced into the 1960s was accepted as part of the reason for this
ence to the power of the state and its attacks upon minorities or trades isolation, Red Action also blamed revolutionaries themselves: ‘According
unions, was therefore turned upside down. Here agency was to lay, not to the popular image they were nothing more than a bunch of students
with the state, but those in conflict with it. having their little fling before starting their careers.’31 A left well versed
in intellectual debate and theorising, naturally gravitated towards the
Red Action university campus as opposed to the factory floor where ‘they comforted
and complemented each other’.32
An organisation which combined militant anti-fascism, marxism and To Red Action, it was the International Socialists (renamed the Socialist
Irish republicanism, Red Action’s political roots go back to the anti- Workers Party, or SWP, in 1977) who had made some effort to orientate
fascist ‘squads’ of the 1970s, who physically fought National Front (NF) the revolutionary left towards the working class, via the newspaper Socialist
members in a battle for the right to organise politically in working class Worker33and through participation in the pickets and solidarity actions of
communities. the growing industrial conflict of the 1970s. This was combined with anti-
In 1976, 91 National Front candidates took 119,000 votes in the fascist work against the NF from the SWP created Anti-Nazi League
Greater London Council elections, beating the Liberals in 33 places.27 (ANL) and the SWP’s effective use of music in mobilising working class
NF strategy was to raise political tensions where possible28 and hold high youth against racist ideals via Rock Against Racism (RAR).34
profile marches in areas with large migrant populations. In this period As unemployment grew to disturbing levels, the SWP’s Right to Work
the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) leadership sanctioned ‘squads’ – campaign attracted young people, many attending political events for the
groups of young anti-fascists who would protect party paper sales, and first time in their lives. The SWP also established rank and file groups
physically challenge fascists.29 Although tactically increasingly successful, where members in particular trades unions would meet and discuss
the accompanying influx of new working class members, all participants workplace issues, often bringing into debate workers who would not
in these actions, introduced some challenges for the SWP. One of those follow broader party policies, but were motivated to discuss issues which
involved in the squads, Jim Kelly, recounts: directly affected them.35
Within the SWP, an ideological commitment to physically opposing
These new recruits found it difficult to relate to the older, more fascism had been declared as early as 1974. In an article entitled ‘Fists
conservative middle class people who had been party members since against fascists’ Chris Harman had written:
their student days. Many left because of the arrogance and political
snobbery of these self-proclaimed revolutionaries.30 There is only one way to stop a fascist movement in its tracks. Its
adherents have to be driven physically from the streets. Fascist
Red Action formed in January 1982. Its founding statement ‘We are Red movements disintegrate when they can no longer march and
Action’ stressed that whilst they were launching a new group as a conse- threaten those they hate: there is little else to bind them together.36
quence of disputes within the SWP, the criticisms they made of that
organisation could be applied across the revolutionary left. The document Such an approach was ideologically consistent for a self-declared trot-
stressed the long term isolation of the revolutionary movement from the skyist organisation. In a core statement of anti-fascist practice, Leon
British working class, and excluded both the Labour Party and Trotsky had declared:

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104 Paul Stott For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction 105

But how to disarm the fascists? Naturally, it is impossible to do so meetings and paper sales, we were viewed as a political embarrass-
with newspaper articles alone. Fighting squads must be created. An ment. The working class character of the Squads did not sit easily
intelligence service must be established. Thousands of informers with the overwhelmingly middle class membership of the party, and
and friendly helpers will volunteer from all sides when they realize the cultural gap tended to exaggerate differences between the two
that the business has been seriously undertaken by us. It requires a groups.43
will to proletarian action.37
The party’s 1981 pre-conference bulletin contained an article ‘Fighting
To this setting of proletarian action, many of those who were to establish the nazis’ by Leeds SWP which argued the group faced destruction if it
Red Action, joined the SWP. However, right from the start the type of continued attacking the NF. That August, the expulsions began.44 Whilst
concerns expressed by Jim Kelly over the perceived middle class nature of still in prison for his anti-fascist activities, Steve Tilzey received a letter
the party, had to be overcome; from the SWP informing him of his expulsion. Other squaddists were
forced out after appearing in front of a control commission established
It seemed to be a fair assumption that as long as the politics were by the party.45
right, and to us they certainly were, then in time more and more Red Action’s foundation statement is explicit that differences in class
workers would join and the party would become overwhelmingly and culture between these opposing camps played a crucial role in this
working class in content. Those that pointed to the cultural char- split:
acter of the party for their own unwillingness to join it, were to us
just finding any excuse.38 We were all from the working class, and most of our strongest critics
were from the intellectual or professional working groups within the
Following the NF’s inability to make a national breakthrough at the party. Each side had correspondingly different values, and standards
1979 general election, and the ascendancy of Mrs Thatcher, the amount of behaviour, that came with their social background.46
of space devoted to anti-fascism in Socialist Worker began to fall.39 Some
formal ANL activity continued into 198040 or even 198241 but the SWP Despite this, Red Action’s ostracism by the SWP’s leadership was not as
leadership increasingly sought to redirect their members focus away from extraordinary as the activists themselves declared it. John Callaghan
the fight against the NF, and the more militant British Movement, to points to the purging of the feminist structure Women’s Voice by the
what was considered a pressing case – the struggle against Thatcherism. SWP hierarchy in 1981, and earlier, similar treatment of a gay rights
‘Among those that disagreed with this line of thought were all of the organisation.47 Nor does Red Action dwell on structural analyses of the
future founders of Red Action.’42 failure of the SWP in this period. For example, that the impact of the
Class, and culture, also appear to have been central factors in these party’s turn to rank and file industrial organisation in the 1970s was in
disagreements. Steve Tilzey was an SWP member who continued practice negligible: ‘The attempt to build rank-and-file trade union
opposing the far-right, one of nine such activists jailed in Manchester in organisation under SWP control failed miserably and those that existed
1981. He observes: withered on a limb.’48 Callaghan notes that the only groups which
seemed to survive were amongst the white collar professions – social
...moves were afoot by the SWP leadership to oust the troublesome work, teaching and the civil service. Should we be surprised that anti-
‘squaddists’. Now that the threat from the fascists appeared to have fascist and anti-racist currents established by the party in the ANL and
receded and they no longer needed the Squads to protect their RAR also came to whither?

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Whilst the party had earlier prioritised a response to fascists which tions such as the Workers Revolutionary Party (WRP), capitalism’s
included physical intervention, it was not a perverse strategy for a collapse should not be considered imminent. In positional terms, Red
socialist organisation in 1979-81 to conclude its priority should be Action located itself in-between the leninist left, which was seen as
opposing Thatcherism. Equally, the squaddists were warned. In 1974 authoritarian, and anarchism, which was condemned as unworkable –
Chris Harman, whilst calling for ‘Fists against fascists’ cautioned against ‘We must start afresh.’54 Yet in other ways Red Action was far from
overestimating their importance, and ended his valediction by reminding innovative politically. As with rival organisations, its newspaper stressed
his comrades of the bigger picture: its own (correct) interpretation of marxism and flayed those who were
considered to be travelling on the wrong ideological path. This was
That does not mean that revolutionaries should ignore the fascists. accompanied by some of the poorest production values on the revolu-
By hindering their activities now we can make it more difficult for tionary left (a highly competitive field) with lengthy articles squeezed
them to develop into an important force at a later stage. It would be onto each page written in a particularly tiny font.
criminal of us to neglect this task. But it has to be seen as subordi- As with Class War, Red Action looked to establish distance from
nate for the time being to the work of extending the influence of perceived rivals on the left on the issue of class. ‘Red Action’s identity
revolutionary ideas and organisation in the localities and in the depends primarily on its class composition and class practice. Theoretical
factories.49 positions are ultimately no more than articulations of class location.’55
The rise of New Labour and the intellectual challenges it posed for
As Red Action established itself as a political organisation, it focused communists and socialists readily fitted Red Action’s combative stance:
primarily on anti-fascism, and supporting Irish republicanism. In 1985 ‘The Labour left is the constituency of the white-collar dissent, the
it was instrumental in the establishment of Anti-Fascist Action (AFA). minions of the Labour bureaucracy, the radical force of reformism at a
This group distinguished itself by maintaining a strong focus on physical time when capital has abandoned reform.’56
opposition to fascists, arguing ‘lobbying the state around issues of police On the far-right, Red Action’s former rivals in the National Front had
brutality, deportations and institutional racism was an area of political been eclipsed by a splinter organisation – the British National Party
work already extensively covered by the left-leaning liberals.’50 In terms (BNP). This organisation shifted its focus after March 1994, from a
of Northern Ireland, Red Action developed links firstly with the Irish concentration on street activism, to a more electoral strategy, where
National Liberation Army (INLA) and its political wing the Irish conflict was to be avoided rather than embraced.57 This, combined with
Republican Socialist Party (IRSP)51 before latterly and more substantially the replacement of John Tyndall as party leader by Nick Griffin in
supporting what had become orthodox Irish republicanism in the shape September 1999, and the emergence of Eddy Butler as an electoral strat-
of Sinn Fein and the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA). This egist invigorated British fascism, and the BNP began to achieve a degree
was not mere rhetorical support – Red Action members Liam Heffernan of electoral support, albeit from a very low base.
being jailed for INLA activity, whilst Pat Hayes was convicted for his role By the time New Labour came to power in 1997, the changes engen-
in IRA bomb attacks in England in 1992 and 1993.52 This ability to dered by the cultural turn in left politics were becoming clearer, not just
commit practically, rather than merely rhetorically to the republican in the UK, but across many liberal democracies. An academic proponent
cause, is exceptional on the British left. of these developments was able to write:
In ideological terms, trotskyism was considered dated and lacking in
application given the changes to the post-Second World War economy.53 the egalitarian acknowledgment of difference has been incorporated
There was a clear acceptance that contrary to the predictions of organisa- into mainstream political and managerial consciousness in most

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108 Paul Stott For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction 109

countries that I am concerned with and has made steady progress into a taken-for-granted assumption that practice across ethnic lines
through the 1990s and into the twenty first century.58 was inappropriate or risky.61

Tariq Modood saw these changes as beginning on the political left, The Red Action dominated AFA saw such strategies as disastrous.
before spreading to the centre and centre-right. But what did this shift Referring specifically to Tower Hamlets, where the BNP had its first
mean in practice for working class communities and those seeking to councillor elected in 1994, and the north west of England where the
organise politically within them? How should revolutionary organisa- fascists were to enjoy electoral success a decade later, AFA accused both
tions address these shifts? Red Action responded with declared the Labour Party and the broader left of ‘a mindset that saw the white
opposition. working class as the enemy.’62
It is necessary to recognise just how significant these changes had Racial segregation, a separation of some working class areas from
been. Kenan Malik establishes that in Birmingham in the 1980s the political structures and the air of competition for scarce resources, was to
Labour City Council created nine umbrella groups to reach out to form the backdrop to physical conflict. Inner-city disturbances in
different ethnic minorities. Here policies ‘did not respond to the needs Bradford (1995 and 2001), Oldham, Burnley, and Stoke (2001) and
of communities, but to a large degree created those communities by Birmingham (2003) were to contain a significant element of inter-racial
imposing identity on people.’59 Internal conflicts within these declared violence63 especially when compared to the riots of the 1980s64 or to the
groupings – for example of class or gender – were ignored. From this struggles against the NF. In most areas, these conflicts tended to be
process ‘community leaders’ emerged, who Malik sees acting as gate- Muslim versus white, in Birmingham they were characterised by clashes
keepers between particular communities and authority. Whilst once between black youths and Muslims.65
equal rights meant campaigning against any situation where different It was in this period that, in intellectual terms, Red Action was to
races may be treated differently, to Red Action: undergo a renaissance. Its political critique of what it considered to be the
left’s shibboleths, took robust shape during the first and second terms of
Today, without noticeable pause for breath, it means campaigns for the Blair government, as the BNP began to challenge Labour electorally in
segregation: separate schools, youth clubs, demands to use different certain constituencies. Moving from a newspaper to a magazine, the publi-
languages, and an insistence on the maintenance and celebration of cation Red Action developed a substantial critique, from the left, of
particular cultural practices.60 multiculturalism. Writers traced the development of ‘diversity’ to the Cold
War, and the concerns of the US establishment it could be outflanked both
A consequence of this has been to reinforce any tendency for social at home and abroad by the communists on the question of race. Moves to
antagonisms to travel horizontally rather than vertically. In particular address this challenge saw the Black Panthers argue that the CIA was using
towns, policies intended to counter racism (for example in youth work) black cultural nationalism for its own ends.66 In 1968 Home Secretary Roy
appear not to have undermined racist attitudes but instead to have Jenkins announced that Britain was now promoting cultural diversity.
stimulated or reinforced segregation, with a These precedents lead Red Action to state that historically:

belief that ethnic minorities needed separate, ethnic-specific ...multiculturalism is not a creature of the left but of the right. For
community and youth provision to bolster identity and to provide the establishment multiculturalism is not seen as major social
refuge against undisputed racial discrimination and prejudice. In change but as an alternative and bulwark against it. Today that is
Oldham, and nationally, this policy direction seems to have ossified still the principal attraction.67

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In 2001, the Red Action website proclaimed ‘Time for anti-fascism to Racism in Britain has caused the isolation of many ethnic groups.
dump multiculturalism’ prominently attacking the performance of the The response to this treatment on a local and national level has been
latest political party to be formed to the left of Labour, the SWP influ- the setting up of black political organisations. This has been a
enced Socialist Alliance (SA). Such was the political distance of this new necessary step, due to the crippling effect of racism on the British
initiative from sections of the working class, Red Action accused the SA white working class. While we welcome such initiatives we push for
of avoiding white areas of Oldham in its canvassing, choosing in prefer- a wider class consciousness within these movements.69
ence exclusively non-white districts
Yet some in the organisation argued Class War members in its largest
...while the SA ‘intervention’ allowed impeccably white liberals to group, London, failed to address the issue of racism, simplistically
wear their multicultural heart on their sleeve for a few hours, the turning it in other directions. In a resignation letter, two members stated:
BNP is presumably going about its business establishing a bridge-
head for the local elections in 2002 unhindered. This is not to We’re alarmed by the lack of action on, and understanding of
suggest that the SA is politically equipped to win white working class racism. At the last conference social Neil asked half a dozen people
minds. It is merely to point out that it has no ambition to do so.68 who it was that was doing good, active work against racism in
London, because we wanted to get involved. Only one person had
The distance from the practice of the SWP and groups it established in any suggestions…….As far as Class War is concerned, anti-racism
the 1970s, such as the Anti-Nazi League and Rock against Racism, is means beating up the BNP, and racism means racist attacks.70
distinct. The white working class the BNP was attempting to win to its
views, was not debated with or challenged, but was now ignored. Ethnic Simultaneously, Class War contained members disgruntled that an
communities were the sole focus of concentration, and, as with the local emphasis on anti-racism could dilute the organisation’s revolutionary
authority youth initiatives referred to above, practice across ethnic lines politics. In a wide-ranging resignation statement, Pete Parry of Plymouth
considered risky. What is consistent however, across several decades, is Class War expressed a series of complaints about Class War’s political
Red Action’s concern that the left lacked the tools to address core ques- weaknesses, in particular the prioritising of activism over internal debate,
tions facing working class communities, and in particular to address the and most substantially that:
challenges posed by fascist organisations. In this struggle, the politics of
the cultural turn were viewed not as a progressive solution, but as part of The CWF (Class War Federation) still hasn’t come out and said that
the problem. the unions are anti-working class, that class is more important than
race and gender, and that the Trotskyist parties are part of the capi-
Tensions within Class War talist camp. This total inability to draw clear class lines on the issues
that surround us is testament to the CWF’s confusion and lack of a
Whilst Red Action appears to have been characterised by an ideological strong class analysis.71
consistency and coherence, Class War was, at times, deeply divided over
the question of where to position sexual and racial politics. Its most In a little over eighteen months, Class War had lost members unhappy
detailed theoretical statement, the book ‘Unfinished Business’ appears at the organisation did not focus enough on anti-racist issues, and another
one stage to endorse the type of separate black organisation advocated on frustrated that such issues had not been clearly categorised as subordinate
the Labour left in the 1980s: to the wider class struggle! Following Parry’s resignation, Class War

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112 Paul Stott For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction 113

groups in Leeds and Bristol now saw a failure to address gender issues as Both groups pointed to the tendency of the revolutionary left to disil-
the perhaps insurmountable barrier: lusion and damage working class people it came into contact with:

Part of this is a legacy of the paper’s early macho ‘street-fighting’ Now we remembered how we had defended the party from the
image. Men massively outnumber women in the membership, and criticism of friends, and accused them of judging it on the basis of
no matter how much we change the tone of the paper, its image will old stereotypes that no longer applied. But now we had to admit
still haunt us. As Bristol CW have pointed out, this has become a that we with our intellectual pretensions were wrong, and our
serious burden: it prevents the very people we need from joining.72 politically ‘backward’ peers were right.76

Class War went further


There is perhaps a simple explanation for such divergence of opinion,
and differing expectations. In what is arguably the standard assessment Our approach to the Trotskyist left should not be one rivalry, but of
of contemporary British anarchism, Benjamin Franks declares: ‘Class outright hostility. They suck people in and feed off their initial
War, because of its wide membership, has writers promoting contradic- enthusiasm, energy and money, but puke out the majority of people
tory views.’73 At times of political momentum, with high levels of at the other end cynical, bored and apathetic.77
activism and comparative success (for example during the campaign
against the poll tax when Class War gained national notoriety, or when Any hostility Class War and Red Action expressed towards the revolu-
carrying out direct action) the holding of contradictory views may cause tionary left was returned with a surly indifference. Rarely, if ever, did any
little turbulence. In less receptive political times, such differences poten- of the bigger revolutionary currents, from the orthodox communist or
tially matter to individuals significantly. trotskyist traditions, engage seriously with the analysis either group put
forward. Whilst references to the SWP, Militant/Socialist Party or the
Implications: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction Communist Party of Britain/Great Britain were commonplace in Class
War and Red Action’s literature, a regular reader of Socialist Worker,
Both Red Action and Class War considered themselves as standing apart Militant or the Morning Star would be forgiven for not knowing two of
from a left which was seen as both failing and indeed, failed. Further their biggest critics existed. Not until 2011 did the largest group on the
similarities may be also detected in the two groups. In terms of their left, the SWP, feel the need to produce a formal rebuttal of anarchist ideals,
discourse, each would disparage the ‘loony left’ in a surprisingly similar and much of that is devoted not to contemporary debates but arguments
manner, if from different motivations, to the national media. Consider and events from the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century.78
this comment on a bête noire of the tabloid press, the London borough Somewhat ironically, given the disdain both currents appeared to feel
of Hackney: ‘A loony left Labour Council has failed miserably in its bid for the revolutionary milieu, Class War and Red Action each publicly
to sack a Class War activist who called the Trafalgar Square rioters turned towards the very left they had long disparaged. From 1995, Red
“working class heroes”.’74 From Red Action, the charge of being ‘loony Action sought to respond to a shifting political landscape by seeking
left’ was made towards the organisation where many members began debate, discussion and ultimately new political structures. Wearing their
their political lives – the SWP. In their post expulsion statement they London AFA hats, Red Action members developed a discussion docu-
argued: ‘The SWP today, although probably still larger than the other ment ‘Filling the Vacuum’79 which was circulated not just within AFA and
groups has no more significance to the working class than the rest of the Red Action, but across the far-left. This stressed the danger of any
“loony left”.’75 incoming Labour government to anti-fascists

Twentieth Century Communism – Issue 9 Twentieth Century Communism – Issue 9


114 Paul Stott For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction 115

The working class is increasingly alienated from Labour, the BNP’s We now need new ways of organising that can appeal to the whole
strategy can be entirely reliant upon this alienation: ‘they really hate working class, young and old, men and women, black and white.
Labour’ etc. The total ineptitude and the tangible contempt that With a wider base in our class and a better vision of the future, we
exists in some areas between Labour and its former constituency has can build up something much more useful than Class War.83
locally and nationally begat the BNP.
Looking back, some fifteen years later, neither group’s turn towards the
AFA sought to organise anti-fascists for this declared new era. If so, revolutionary left appears to have borne much fruit. No consequent
others were not listening. A mere seven groups attended a subsequent publication or grouping flourished from the declared disbanding of Class
discussion meeting on 1 July 1995 in London – Analysis, Anarchist War. Instead those who had opted to continue the organisation and
Communist Federation, Class War, Communist Action Group, Open newspaper did so for well over a decade, having happily lost their rivals.
Polemic, Red Action and the Provisional Council of the Communist At the time of writing, founder Ian Bone is heading a Class War 2015
Party of Great Britain.80 general election campaign, although only a handful of constituencies,
Although a new organisation oriented to the working class did eventu- mostly in London, have declared candidates.84 The Red Action initiated
ally emerge, after AFA drifted into dissolution, the Independent Working IWCA maintains a small presence, but the group enjoys little or no
Class Association (IWCA), it did not prosper. Established to replace public recognition and activity is sparse. The front page of its website
AFA, only a handful of branches formed across the country. Adopting carries only six articles from 2011-13, and to date, no analysis in 2014 at
the occasional position of standing in elections, the IWCA candidate for all.85 Both Class War and Red Action increasingly appear to have repre-
London Mayor in 2000, Lorna Reid, received 9,452 votes, just 0.5%, sented a lost left.
and played a negligible role in the campaign’s debates. One IWCA coun-
cillor took office, Stuart Craft, who represented Northfield Brook in Conclusions: The Lost Left
Oxford from 2002-2012.
In 1997, Class War underwent that most left wing of political Class War and Red Action developed distinct rejections of the cultural
processes – a split, between those who wished to continue with the turn in left politics. The primacy of class, and the problems that may
organisation, and those who felt ‘the Federation remains a tiny group emerge by replacing this concentration with a focus on other issues, was
with a big image which has outlived its usefulness.’81 To address this, the central to both organisations’ declared identity. In an era of municipal
majority faction within Class War travelled a similar path to Red Action, multiculturalism, both reacted stridently against prevailing leftist ortho-
turning not to the broader working class but the political left, and doxies, a reminder of the maxim that for every action, there is an equal
signing off with a newspaper edition designated as ‘an open letter to the and opposite reaction.
revolutionary movement’.82 In time however, the organisations appear to have been affected in
The influence of the cultural turn in politics cuts deep. The inability distinct ways by the consolidation of cultural politics. Whilst Red Action
to develop an organisation which was seen as representative in terms of developed a continued and arguably sophisticated critique of state multi-
women and minorities appears to have been central to this declaration of culturalism under New Labour, many within Class War became
failure. Concern about this is found throughout the sixteen page open concerned whether they reflected an increasingly diverse working class.
letter – on pages 2, 5, 6, 13 and 14. As the editorial page states: Indeed some were willing to scuttle the organisation, so central did this
issue become to their own political identity. A further example, perhaps,
that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Twentieth Century Communism – Issue 9 Twentieth Century Communism – Issue 9


116 Paul Stott For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction 117

Although both groups stated strong criticisms of the revolutionary 11. Derek Hatton, Inside Left: The story so far. London: Bloomsbury, 1988,
left, and even expressed hostility, neither developed a permanent distance p120.
from the UK’s small revolutionary milieu, returning to it in times of 12. Mike Freeman, The decline and fall of British labourism, in Confrontation:
political cleavage. Whilst some members of Class War and Red Action theoretical journal of the Revolutionary Communist Party. No.4,
continue their political activism today, there is little evidence that Summer 1988, p35.
critiques of the cultural turn in left politics are likely to gain significant 13. Easterhouse, Out on your own, Contenders LP, 1986. London: Rough
acceptance, or even a substantial debate, on the revolutionary left. Trade. Available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtv56g46P2U
Last Accessed 2 January 2014.
14. On the origins of Class War, see Ian Bone, Bash the Rich: True life confes-
Notes
sions of an anarchist in the UK. Bath: Tangent, 2006 and also Benjamin
1. Ken Livingstone, You can’t say that: Memoirs, London: Faber and Faber, Franks, Rebel Alliances: the means and ends of contemporary British anar-
2011, p120. chisms. Edinburgh: AK Press and Dark Star, 2006.
2. See for example Michael Collins, The Likes of Us: a biography of the white 15. Albert Meltzer, I couldn’t paint golden angels. Edinburgh: AK Press, 1986,
working class, London: Granta, 2004. The extent to which the British p338.
working class has always been multicultural is debated. Selina Todd’s The 16. Class War, 1984. Un-numbered 4 page newspaper.
People: The rise and fall of the working class, London: John Murray, 2014 17. Class War. Unfinished Business: the politics of Class War. Stirling: AK
is a recent declaration of the view that it has always worked alongside Press, 1992, p7-8.
migrants. 18. Class War. A decade of disorder. London: Verso, 1991, p78.
3. Kenan Malik, From fatwa to jihad: The Rushdie affair and its legacy. 19. ibid, p101.
London: Atlantic Books, 2009. Keith Thompson, Under siege: Racial 20. Class War, Issue 81, 2001.
violence in Britain today. London: Penguin, 1988. 21. NALGO was the National Association of Local Government Officers, a
4. Kenan Malik, From fatwa to jihad. trades union representing white collar council workers. In 1993 it become
5. Tahir Abbas, Islamic radicalism and multicultural politics: The British one of the organisations to found Unison.
experience. Abingdon: Routledge, 2011. 22. Class War, Issue 50. 50 V Signs To the Ruling Class. (Undated, but 1991).
6. Prof Anthony Heath and Dr Omar Khan. Ethnic minority British election 23. Ian Bone. Intro. The Heavy Stuff. Issue 1, Class War. n.d, p3.
study – Key findings. Runnymede Trust, 2012. http://www.runnymede- 24. Ibid.
trust.org/uploads/EMBESbriefingFINALx.pdf Last Accessed 14 May 25. Ian Bone, I Started …so I’ ll finish it, Animal Issue 1, 1997, p9.
2014. 26. Class War. Class Culture and Politics. Issue 47, n.d, p8
7. Ken Livingstone, You can’t say that, p264 27. John Bean. Many Shades of Black: Inside Britain’s Far-Right. London:
8. Keith Thompson, Under siege: Racial violence in Britain today. London: New Millenium, 1999.
Penguin, 1988, p104 28. See for example Martin Walker, The National Front. London: Fontana/
9. Tariq Modood, Multiculturalism. Cambridge: Polity, 2008. Collins, 1978.
10. To take one set of examples, Abbas lists a series of controversies involving 29. In the absence of an overall assessment of the squads by the SWP, this
some British Muslims from the mid-1980s onwards. Tahir Abbas, Islamic article relies heavily on the memoirs of participants such as Sean Birchall,
radicalism and multicultural politics: The British experience. Abingdon: Beating the Fascists: The untold story of Anti-Fascist Action, London:
Routledge, 2011, p130. Freedom Press, 2010 as well as Jim Kelly and Mark Metcalfe, Anti-Nazi

Twentieth Century Communism – Issue 9 Twentieth Century Communism – Issue 9


118 Paul Stott For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction 119

League: A critical examination 1977-1981/2 and 1992-5. London: No.70, Mid-June, 1974, p7. http://www.marxists.org/archive/harman/
Resistance, n.d. 1974/06/fists.htm Last accessed 12 May 2014.
30. Jim Kelly and Mark Metcalfe, Anti-Nazi League: A critical examination 50. Sean Birchall, Beating the Fascists, p135.
1977-1981/2 and 1992-5. London: Resistance, n.d, p5 51. Jack Holland and Henry McDonald, INLA: deadly divisions. Dublin:
31. Red Action, We are…… Red Action: A short history of where we came from Torc, 1994.
and why?, n.d, p5. 52. Larry O’Hara, Turning up the heat: MI5 after the cold war. London:
32. Ibid, p.6. Phoenix, 1994.
33. Chapter 5 of John Callaghan’s British Trotskyism, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 53. Red Action, We are…… Red Action.
1984, provides a critical account of the IS/SWP in this period. 54. Red Action, We are Red Action, Issue 65, Spring 1993, p12.
34. For assessments of RAR see David Widgery, Beating Time: riot ‘n’ race ‘n’ 55. Red Action, State capitalism: Reply, Issue 63, 1992, p3.
rock ‘n’ roll, London: Chatto and Windus, 1986 and also Matthew 56. Red Action, My enemy’s friend is also my enemy, Issue 72, Autumn-Winter,
Worley, Oi! Oi! Oi! Class, locality and British punk. Twentieth Century 1995, p5.
British History, Vol 24, No: 4, pp606-636. 57. Sean Birchall, Beating the Fascists: The untold story of Anti-Fascist Action,
35. Red Action. We are…… Red Action: A short history of where we came from London: Freedom Press, 2010
and why?, n.d. 58. Tariq Modood, Multiculturalism, p88-9.
36. Chris Harman, Fists against fascists. International Socialism (First Series) 59. Kenan Malik, From fatwa to jihad: The Rushdie affair and its legacy.
No.70, Mid-June, 1974, p5-7. http://www.marxists.org/archive/ London: Atlantic Books, 2009, p67.
harman/1974/06/fists.htm Last accessed 12 May 2014. 60. G O’Hallaran, Race attack. Red Action, Vol 3 Issue 5, February-March
37. Leon Trotsky, Fascism what it is and how to fight it. 1969. http://www. 1999, p7.
marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1944/1944-fas.htm Last Accessed 12 61. Paul Thomas, Moving on from ‘anti-racism’? Understandings of ‘community
May 2014. cohesion’ held by youth workers. Journal of Social Policy, 36 (3), 2007
38. Red Action, We are…… Red Action: A short history of where we came from p444.
and why?, n.d, p12-13. 62. Sean Birchall, Beating the Fascists, p317.
39. ibid. 63. Home Office, 2001. Community Cohesion: A Report of the Independent
40. Chris Bambery, Euro-fascism: The lessons of the past and current tasks. Review Team Chaired by Ted Cantle and University of Bradford, 2002.
International Socialism 60, 1994, pp3-75. Bradford One Year On: Breaking the Silences.
41. Sean Birchall, Beating the Fascists. 64. Kenan Malik, From fatwa to jihad.
42. Red Action, We are…… Red Action, p17. 65. The groups of people listed in this sentence are deliberately placed in
43. Dave Hann and Steve Tilzey. No retreat: the secret war between Britain’s alphabetical order, as no attempt is made to apportion responsibility for
anti-fascists and the far right. Lytham: Milo Books. 2003, p87. particular clashes.
44. Sean Birchall, Beating the Fascists. 66. G O’Hallaran, Branded, Red Action, Vol 3 Issue 2, August-September
45. Dave Hann and Steve Tilzey. No retreat, p89. 1998, p6-7.
46. Red Action, We are…… Red Action, p22. 67. ibid, p7.
47. John Callaghan, The far left in British politics. Oxford: Blackwell, 1987. 68. Red Action, Time for anti-fascism ‘to dump’ multiculturalism. 4 June 2001.
48. ibid, p101. http://freespace.virgin.net/pep.talk/RAmult.htm Last accessed 5 January
49. Chris Harman, Fists against fascists. International Socialism (First Series) 2014. Red Action’s website has long since disappeared from the web,

Twentieth Century Communism – Issue 9 Twentieth Century Communism – Issue 9


120 Paul Stott

although significant print outs from it are in the authors possession.


There is a select archive of over twenty years of Red Action’s opinions at
http://www.redactionarchive.org and some articles appear on a variety of
Revolutionary music or music for
69.
other websites.
Class War. Unfinished Business: the politics of Class War. Stirling: AK
revolution? Thirteen paragraphs on
70.
Press, 1992, p64.
Class War, Internal Bulletin 39. Letter to all CWF members from Neil and
Cornelius Cardew: the composer
Gail of London Class War, 1993. and his communism.
71. Pete Parry, My reasons for leaving Class War. Class War Internal Bulletin,
Number 47, March 1995.
72. Leeds Class War, The second coming: revolutionary politics in our time. Mike Waite
Class War Internal Bulletin 55, 1996.
73. Benjamin Franks, Rebel Alliances: the means and ends of contemporary
British anarchisms. Edinburgh: AK Press and Dark Star, 2006, p189. Note to the reader, in the spirit of Cardew’s experimental works:
74. Class War, Class War 1 Hackney Council 0, Issue 41,n.d, p3.
75. Red Action, We are…… Red Action, p31.
The following paragraphs can be read in the order in which they appear below;
76. Ibid, p27.
or by following the sequence in which they are numbered; or in any other order
77. Class War, Class Culture and Politics, Issue 47, n.d, p9.
determined by the reader. It is not necessary to follow this instruction.
78. John Molyneux, Anarchism: a marxist criticism. London: Bookmarks.
2011. Paragraph one: beginnings and ends. Cornelius Cardew, born in 1936,
79. London AFA, Filling the vacuum. https://libcom.org/library/filling- spent his childhood in an ‘atmosphere of libertarian bohemianism’.1 His
vacuum-london-afa 1995. Last accessed 14 May 2014. father was a modernist potter and an unconventional Colonial Service
80. Class War, Report of Red Action Sponsored Meeting. Anthony, London officer, helping train ceramists in West Africa during one phase of a
Class War, Internal Bulletin 49, 1995. varied and celebrated career.2 The family home at Wenford Bridge, on
81. Class War, Class War is dead… Long live the class war! Issue 73, 1997, p2. the edge of Bodmin Moor, comprised an old inn and barns without
82. Class War, Issue 73. electricity or running water. During the war, the young Cornelius
83. Class War, Class War is dead… Long live the class war! Issue 73, 1997, p2. became a chorister with the evacuated Canterbury Cathedral Choir
84. Class War, 2014. See http://www.classwarparty.org.uk/ Last accessed 14 School, excelling in cello and piano lessons. At the Royal Academy of
May 2014. Music (1953-57) he turned rebelliously, to European serialism. Next, a
85. IWCA, 2014. See http://www.iwca.info/ Last accessed 14 May 2014. scholarship to Darmstadt, and a couple of years working in Cologne:
assistant to Karlheinz Stockhausen. From the early 1960s, Cardew
worked mainly in London – teaching music, doing graphic design,
writing, performing in other composer’s ensembles, composing for tele-
vision and film and securing commissions for his own music.
Relationships, marriages, family and children were fundamentally
important elements of life, if not always settled and stable.

Twentieth Century Communism – Issue 9 Twentieth Century Communism – Issue 9

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