We mustn't look the other way
Wednesday 14 September 2011
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EmailThough I share Anindya Bhattacharyya's disgust at the EDL, which he expressed in his letter (Don't confuse the issue - EDL supporters are racist thugs, M Star September 9), I found his reasoning a little too haphazard and worryingly pessimistic.
Like so many far-right groups the EDL have a top brass who hold toxic views, but who are less than transparent about their own racist views, even with their own members.
The BNP image change from "boots to suits" was a clear case in point where a fascist political party leader wisened to the fact that he could sell himself to more people if he concealed exactly what it is he hopes to achieve in the long term.
The left should not seek to incorporate the views of the EDL - in contradistinction to the opinions of Maurice "Blue Labour" Glasman - but we must be cautious when trying to understand what really motivates EDL activists. Being overly dismissive ignores long-held principles of the false class consciousness of people under capitalism.
Furthermore, to say that these men and women are on the good side of the current economic system because they go drinking in the pub is crass at best, as anyone who has ever been to a socialist meeting in the evening will tell you.
To be sure, the ideas that the EDL hold could not be further from those of our own, but we'd do well to remember that anti-Muslim propaganda is the meat and drink of our mainstream media, and many of our politicians too.
They've created the conditions under which many people feel threatened and vulnerable in their communities and we on the left should contextualise and challenge that.
Carl Packman
London SW4
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