I'm ready to be roasted (noplatform.antifa.net/index.html)

Name: pan

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Product:	noplatform.antifa.net/index.html
Date:	21/12/01 (61 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: No nonsense.

Disadvantages: Not a pretty web site by a long shot.

Judging by the various comments and ops for Anti-Fascist Action I ought to prepare for a flaming or too...

It seems to me that most people have completely missed the point about AFA. The focus has all been on 'violence', with plenty of pacifist bleating about anti-fascists being as bad as the fascists. I'm sorry, but people who spout that kind of thing either have no sense of history, or else they are so far removed from political and social reality as to render further discussion superfluous.

What's worse, they have completely missed the intelligent analysis that AFA have been putting forward for a number of years. Which other group on the Left has been questioning the line on multi-culturalism? Who else has been asking the hard questions about why support for the BNP is on the rise?

Anyway, I've already got an op on AFA, and this one is supposed to be about No Platform. Who are they? Well, No Platform are another militant anti-fascist group, and their emphasis is on physical opposition to the kind of street-fighting Nazi that we had all hoped had died out for good. Unlike the BNP, who are doing their level best to persuade everybody that they are a respectable political party (and not a bunch of closet Nazis), the National Front and Combat 18 believe in good old fashioned violence as a strategy. This means racial attacks, attacks on opponents (Right-wing as well as Left-wing) and general aggro. It means joining up with football firms and the like as well.

How do you fight this type of fascist violence? Do you take the pacifist line and refuse to counter their violence? Or do you take the line of people like the Anti-Nazi League who appeal for new laws, rougher police action and so on? No Platform take a harder line. You counter fascist violence with anti-fascist violence.

The web site includes lots of news and reports from various actions. There are articles on fascism, links to interesting web site
s and so on. It's not a slick operation by any means, but then I guess producing fancy web sites isn't what No Platform are about.

Personally I think AFA have got the analysis spot on. I also believe that they are right to focus on the real political threat posed by a resurgent BNP. However, given a reactivated and violent National Front, I also believe that a response like No Platform's is required as well.

Summary: