I. FASCISM OFFERS A SCAPEGOAT

FIFTEEN years after the horrors of Belsen, Buchenwald and the other fascist concentration camps, the menace of fascism is once again raising its head in western Europe.

De Gaulle’s victory in France a year ago, and the brutal atrocities against colonial peoples in Algeria, Cyprus, Kenya and Nyasaland, have strengthened the fascist demagogues in their belief that the hour is approaching.

Notting Hill is a training ground for the fascists. In this district, inhabited by some of the poorest of the white population of the metropolis, and by 10,000 coloured immigrants, the fascists have for months been active, trying to whip up racial tension.

In Spain in 1936 the fascist General Franco was quick to use Moorish troops against the working people of Spain.

For the fascists the colour bar is the same sort of pretext that anti-Semitism was in east London in the thirties. It is simply a means of dividing working people on racial lines, and so preventing them from Organizing in common action to improve their Fascism takes root primarily among the lower middle class and among the less skilled and less advanced sections of the working class. And in ,Notting Hill fascism speaks with two voices.

To the lower middle class it says: ‘We love peace and hate violence. All we want is for the coloured people to go back to their own countries.’

In the slum streets it says to the young people: ‘Have a go at the niggers.’ - Among the middle class, the fascists try to create the feeling that prosperity will return if the coloured people are not allowed to enter Britain.

Among the poor people, the fascists are busy spreading all kinds of lies to inflame their passions and to divert their quite justified indignation against racketeer landlords, employers and Tories into indignation against a scapegoat: the man with a differently coloured skin.

That was exactly Hitler’s propaganda method in the late twenties and early thirties.

Notting Hill today is a breeding ground for future British Hitlers. That is why all serious workers must understand what is going on there, and what can be done to put matters right. once again supplying funds to various fascist organizations.

The fascist demagogues do not mind the sneers of the Press, because they know that the capitalist class in Britain needs to protect its property and privileges, and that when that power and_ those privileges are seriously challenged the capitalist class will be only too willing to use the fascists who have shown that they can do the job.

So there is a certain amount of competition at Notting Hill among various brands of fascist thugs, to prove to the big employers that they are a force to be reckoned with.

Big strikes are in prospect in industry. The employers will be needing an army of scabs—people who go to work in a factory whose workers are out on strike for higher wages, or for shorter hours, or against sackings.

What better recruiting ground than the poor white population of Notting Hill? This is part of the service that fascism gives to the employing class.

In many industries there are now skilled workers from the colonies, and many of these have proved themselves good, loyal trade unionists.

If tomorrow strikes break out in these industries, if tomorrow unemployment spreads in these industries, we can easily see how race hatred can be used against the trade unions, against the interests of the whole working class.

What is happening in Notting Hill is the beginning of a fascist movement among the unorganized white The main target is not the coloured population. For the fascist leaders the main target is organized Labour.