Welcome to Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism!, the newspaper of the Revolutionary Communist Group. In this issue we lead with the victory of our comrade Sarah against the sustained efforts of the British state to criminalise solidarity with the armed resistance of the Palestinian people. We have always argued that what we win in the courts we must first win on the streets and September’s victory showed, above all, the importance of collective, anti-imperialist organisation to defend our political principles. In a climate of intensifying inter-imperialist rivalry, as Labour under Andy Burnham sounds ever louder the drums of war and whips up the forces of racism, nationalism and chauvinism, the need to resist through collective organisation and to fight for socialism is ever more urgent. Together we are stronger, and we urge you to join us.
The SOAS 2 victory also demonstrated the need to defend the right to jury trial, to fight against the pernicious Terrorism Act 2000 in its entirety and to step up our efforts to defend others facing persecution for their solidarity with Palestine, including our comrade Maya, who faces trial in March 2027 in Brighton for using the phrase ‘Victory to the Intifada’, as well as the Filton defendants and others (p5). The state is extending its repressive apparatus in an attempt to ensure no resistance emerges as Labour continues its drive to war in Ukraine (p16) and supports the US war against Iran and Saudi attacks on Yemen (p11).
The working class in Britain has no appetite for war, as it bears the brunt of soaring energy prices and sees state spending diverted from benefits and welfare to the weapons industry and the ramping up of hostility against young people, the unemployed, trans people, migrants and the disabled (p6). Already the media is pushing a narrative that Britain must ‘prepare for war’ as the government urges us to stock up on canned goods. Alongside this narrative, Labour is stoking the flames of racism and right-wing nationalism as it continues to ratchet up repressive legislation against migrants, sowing the wind with racist rhetoric about ‘small boats’ and reaping the storm of balaclava-clad, fascistic thugs patrolling the beaches of Dover and Portsmouth (p3).
There are lessons to be learned from the Battle of Cable Street 90 years ago (p12) when the working class of the East End, led by predominantly Jewish communists, confronted not just Moseley’s fascists but the forces of the British state who protected them. In contrast to the majority of the British left, the RCG understands that to limit the fight against racism to opposing the stormtroopers of the petit-bourgeois far-right is to divert the struggle from the source of racism in Britain – the imperialist state itself.
Yet amidst the gathering clouds of imperialist war, repression and racism, the flame of Cuban socialism continues to burn, still demonstrating – despite the suffocating conditions imposed on it by the United States blockade – that only socialism can offer hope for the working class. Comrades who took part in the Jose Marti brigade to Cuba this summer – marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of the communist leader Fidel Castro – report on the continued commitment of the Cuban working class to building socialism on pp8 and 9. Cuba has always offered unconditional solidarity to the working class of the world – now is the time for communists to step up our solidarity with Cuba. Just as in 1936 the defence of the Spanish Republic became a rallying cry for communists and progressives everywhere (p12), today, even more so, socialist Cuba demands the same resounding solidarity.
On p7, we look at how environmental destruction is being driven by capitalism, which is fuelling what is increasingly becoming an irreversible climate catastrophe in its headlong drive for profits, threatening tens of millions of people with starvation, instability and death. It is clear that only socialism can reverse the process, bring about sustainable development and save the planet and its people.
The RCG is fighting to build an anti-imperialist, working class movement on the streets of Britain willing to confront the racism, repression and war-mongering of the Labour government. We stand for struggle, solidarity and socialism. Join us.
