Tommy Robinson, Zionism and fascism

Supporters of Tommy Robinson march in London on 27 July (Picture: Guy Smallman)

Tommy Robinson is not a puppet of Zionism. The far right assaults are centrally about refugees, migrants and Islamophobia rather than being a pro-Zionist militia.

But it was no accident that Robinson opened speeches at his 27 July demonstration with, “Not a Palestinian flag in sight—this is what our capital city should look like.”

People who hate Muslims are particularly enraged—and frightened—by the Palestine protests. Large numbers of Muslims, alongside others, have poured onto the streets against Israel’s genocidal assaults and their backers in Britain.

These protests have defied the government’s slurs, threats and repression. What could be more horrifying to the Islamophobes than Muslims—particularly Muslim women—taking a political lead?

Firstly, the far right is revolted by the Palestine protests because it is Islamophobic. Attacking the Palestine movement is absorbed into the Islamophobia of the far right.

Islamophobia is a central element of modern fascism and far right parties such as Reform UK. That means trumpeting Israel’s role as a “fighter against Muslims”. It’s why Robinson has been proudly pictured with Israeli soldiers.

But the people trying to incinerate refugees in Rotherham and Tamworth this month weren’t waving Israeli flags or chanting for Binyamin Netanyahu.

Fascists across Europe haven’t dropped antisemitism. The “globalist” forces they frequently criticise are usually a code for “Jewish finance”.

And they foreground their hatred of Muslims as a threat to “national culture”, “Christian society” and white unity.

Many peddle the disgusting “great replacement theory” that elite groups—often claimed to be Jewish—are importing migrants to swamp and outnumber indigenous populations.

The modern far right is often antisemitic and Islamophobic. Hungary’s leader Viktor Orban patches together a nationalist ideology that mixes slurs about Jews, hatred of refugees, denunciations of Islam and support for Israel.

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Robinson’s racism builds on the mainstream parties’ own version of Islamophobia. From the mid-1970s onwards, Labour and Tory governments have sought scapegoats to deflect from their own role in implementing neoliberalism. These same governments need to find ideological cover for their constant imperialist warmongering.

People have been directed to vent their hatred against migrants and Muslims rather than the rich and corporations.

Islamophobia existed before the “war on terror” and Tony Blair’s and George Bush’s war on Iraq. But it hugely accelerated as a cover for the endless assaults in the Middle East. As racists chant foul anti-Muslim slogans, they are entirely in-keeping with the ideology of the “clash of civilisations” so central to imperialism in the 21st century.

It’s always a mistake to see fascism as simply a puppet of other forces. Fascism, if it becomes a serious movement, develops its own mass base, momentum and partial autonomy from other forces.

Fascism usually draws its base from the “petty bourgeois”—the small businessman, the self-employed professional, the minor landlord.

This insecure class, without the social power of big corporations or potential power of the working class, can be dragged behind the despairing fake-radicalism of fascism.

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Having established a base, fascism can then pull around it sections of workers and the unemployed.

The Nazis in the 1920s and the 1930s were not the direct creation of the German ruling class. Although, a significant part of big business eventually gambled on Adolf Hitler when it felt it had no other way to break working class resistance. At times of extreme political and economic crisis sections of capital give fascism a leg-up into power.

The millions who have marched in solidarity with Palestine in Britain are a crucial component of the opposition to fascism, the far right and Islamophobia. And they are also a target of the racists.

That’s why Palestine campaigners should be part of every anti-racist demonstration with their flags and banners.

And speakers from organisations such as the Stop The War Coalition and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign should be part of anti-racist meetings and mobilisations.