by Theo Russell
Dear KPRF comrades, I thank you on behalf of the New Communist Party of Britain for organising this important conference, for your wonderful hospitality, and bring you warm greetings from our comrades and activists in Britain.
In the past five years the danger of a return to the events of the 1930s has become widely recognised, with the rapid rise right wing populist movements in the rich capitalist states.
We believe this is the result of capitalist globalisation, neo-liberal austerity policies, and the relentless decline in real wages and public social spending.
The relocation of factories overseas and closure of mines removed the basis for a stable family life and strong communities in many areas, and the number of union members with a basic political education and class consciousness declined.
The secure long-term jobs of old have been replaced by low-paid short term or “zero hours” contracts, and while ordinary workers pay ever more for basic utilities and taxes, the super-rich rapidly multiply.
The ruthless neo-liberal policies, regime changes, sanctions and wars by imperialism – which have caused the deaths of millions of people –created unprecedented migration from the poor south to the rich north.
We don’t believe the simplistic left liberal slogan “All migrants are welcome” is a realistic solution to the multiple multiple complex problems thrown up by this enormous migration. Instead, we advocate a mass struggle against these imperialist policies and massive economic support for the developing states.
In 2004 when the European Union expanded to the east, Britain was the only country to immediately open its borders to countries with wages many times lower, countries which were still recovering from the effects of the collapse of socialism.
Since 2000 several million new citizens have arrived in Britain per decade, but instead of building new housing, health and other services for them, public funding was cut year after year.
Over 90 per cent of these migrants arrived legally because of labour shortages, but of course the far right foment the fear of hordes of “boat people “.
Most of these migrants moved to poorer areas where local councils were already struggling financially, and while local residents can wait decades for state subsidised housing, they have to house migrants seeking asylum by law.
They also face are high levels of crime, addictions and mental health problems, and widespread despair and misery. In these areas schools, housing and health, and even the availability of places to buy healthy food, are extremely poor, where schools have to provide breakfast because their pupils get no breakfast at home and many people rely on so-called “food banks”.
According to the UN 30 per cent of children in the UK are living in poverty, almost two million people suffer from undernourishment, and we read in our media that many parents to go without food for days before payday so they can feed their children. And in 2024 this was the world’s fifth richest country in total wealth!
These communities quite rightly view the political and media classes in London with absolute hatred.
The housing of over 12O,000 asylum claims was handed to private contractors, who placed them in the poorest districts with cheap accommodation, and didn’t even warn the local authorities of their arrival. In these areas, according to media reports, many residents can’t even dream of staying in a hotel!
It would be hard to imagine policies better designed to create anger and resentment, and the perfect conditions for fascist groups to step in and mobilise the most backward, unorganised working class elements. But we shouldn’t over-estimate the far right danger in Britain.
Last year far right gangs attacked refugees, Muslims and the police for a week across England, but in every locality far greater numbers from local communities mobilised against them. But for the police presence, the fascists would undoubtedly have suffered a crushing defeat.
In the USA, a year after the storming of the US Capitol building in January 2021, the far right could only muster a few hundred activists in most state capitals, but recently five million people protested against Donald Trump.
While in the USA the police and national guard often defend the white racists, in Britain the far right constantly attack the police, and as a result in 2024 the far right mobs were strongly condemned by the Starmer government.
Even in the USA, where two citizens were shot dead in Minneapolis by the racist ICE police, the popular resistance movement and political backlash forced Trump to withdraw them.
While parties seeking a return to the 1930s are undoubtedly growing in many European countries, the only country where fascists have actually seized power is in Ukraine.
In the 1980s our party formulated the concept of “creeping fascism” after Margaret Thatcher launched an all-out offensive against trade union rights and the “welfare state”, and then moved to smash the coal miners. The attempts to roll back the gains of the labour movement over the past hundred years have continued relentlessly since then.
Today there are growing attacks on basic democratic rights across Europe, particularly aimed at the mass movement against Israeli genocide.
However we don’t believe that our ruling classes are considering doing away with their limited bourgeois democracy in the foreseeable future.
In Italy, the far right government of Giorgia Meloni, once a member of a neo-fascist party, has attempted to limit the number of migrants arriving. But there has been no move to suspend basic democratic rights, nor have the fascist parties been unleashed against their political enemies.
We believe the only genuine fascist dictatorship in the world is in Ukraine, where all democratic opposition and media have been smashed, and over a million people have died to serve NATO’s plans to surround and subvert the Russian Federation.
For us the main priorities for communists today are freedom and justice for the Palestinian people, and the complete eradication of resurgent Nazism in Ukraine. If Nazism is allowed to succeed in Ukraine, its scourge will inevitably spread. We remember the watchwords of past and present struggles: No Pasaran! Sie werden nicht durchkommen! Nyet Fascismu!
