Stand Up To Racism (SUTR) – a front group for the Socialist Workers Party – is the self-appointed leader of anti-racism in Britain. In reality it is a liberal, opportunist organisation providing cover for the racist Labour Party.
The organisation claims to stand with migrants and refugees, but it consistently plays down Labour’s racism as attempting to ‘appease Reform’ and diverts political activity away from state racism and towards the far right alone. In practice, SUTR fails even to deliver on this stated aim of stopping the far right. In Newcastle on 27 September, for example, while FRFI and other anti-racists mobilised to block UKIP racists from demon-strating outside a hotel housing asylum seekers, SUTR held a separate rally away from the hotel.
SUTR strips anti-racism of its class content by separating it from the fight against imperialism. Its middle class character is reflected in its favourite slogan ‘Refugees are welcome here’. This sentiment flies in the face of reality: refugees and asylum seekers are actively under attack from the state, they are not ‘welcome’ in any sense.
The failure to link racism and imperialism is most evident in SUTR’s shameful position on Palestine. It does not recognise Zionism as a form of racism. Their website’s only article on Palestine is entitled ‘Hosting Tommy Robinson shows link between Israeli government and international far right’. Robinson’s invitation to Israel clearly exposes the link between racism and Zionism however SUTR is desperate to obscure this. Its article does not denounce the existence of the Zionist state or indeed mention Zionism at all. Instead, it concentrates its condemnation on individual right-wing Israeli government ministers, expressing mild condemnation of the genocide in Gaza, stressing its opposition to anti-Semitism and calling for ‘people of goodwill in all countries to come together’.
SUTR will never take a principled stand against British imperialism. Such a stance would threaten its trade union support and backing from the Labour left. SUTR’s elected officers and executive committee include Labour MPs and leading trade unionists, and the organisation is utterly steeped in the rotten tradition of the labour aristocracy and petit bourgeoisie. As such it is not a genuinely anti-racist organisation.
Kotsai Sigauke
