Britain narrowly avoided its own ‘Kristallnacht’. It needs to be a very quick lesson for the future.

Since Tuesday 30 July, there has been an uprising of far-right terror on British streets. Beginning on the aforementioned night, the Southport Mosque was viciously attacked after a vigil held for the child victims of the Southport Stabbings. At the event there was already the germinal of violent disorder, despite the attempts of the community to hold a peaceful and respectful vigil for the tragedy.

Those men who attended that vigil were reportedly intoxicated, aggressive, and gravely inconsiderate of the grief of the loved ones in attendance. They would soon after go on to attack the local mosque, willingly or unknowingly believing false information that the stabbings had been carried out by a Muslim asylum seeker, and thereby aiding to light the kindling for a fascist revolt on the British Isles.

The fuel to this flame was the now infamous propaganda campaign, led by some of the British far right’s most influential figures – resulting in race riots.

Where has the fight against the far right been?

In the coming week since this has occurred, we have come to see clashes on the streets between these rioters and the police/the antifascist public, the latter who have come out to valiantly defend their communities against the blood thirsty and blood curdling attacks of the far-right.

Yet the relatively new rebirth and cancerous growth of British fascism was without question not unprecedented, not unpredicted, and not unpreventable.

For years, Black and brown people and many on the left in this nation have demanded a fight against British fascism, yet to no avail.

The EDL (officially defunct for over a decade), Patriotic Alternative, and the similarly defunct Pie and Mash Squad; these organised groups of racist, fascist, neo-Nazi thugs have operated in the UK for long enough that the British upper classes – those with disproportionate material influence in the nation – to have noticed and acted accordingly.

Yet as in eras gone by, the liberal and conservative factions of the political class, with their eye on authority and capital, have drastically failed to protect us, and it has led to this monstrosity.

It has taken direct violent attacks on holy places, hotels, and Black and brown members of the public for the government to even attempt to act decisively. This, even then, they have failed to do, as the people of Bristol were left as the last and only line of defense against an attack on the Mercure Hotel on Saturday 3 August.

Similar phenomenon has, however, been seen before.

Kristallnacht

On November 7 1938, Herschel Grynspan, a Polish Jew whose family had been victims of Nazi persecution, opened fire on German diplomat Ernst vom Rath, assassinating him in Vienna, Austria.

In Germany over the coming days and nights, after tensions had been stoked by the conspiracy theories of Minister for Propaganda Joseph Gobbels, wide-scale attacks on Jewish educational institutions, synagogues, and businesses lit up the German sky with flames. And while the differences between the two events are crucial – the 1938 assassination was overtly political, whereas the murders of the three girls were not (crucially, those three victims were entirely innocent).

Further, the violence in the case of Kristallnacht was largely coordinated by a centralised state apparatus, whereas the attacks of recent weeks have not been. Despite this, however, the similarities of the retaliations are striking.

Both events hinged upon a conspiracy of sedition from within, spread by powerful individuals (both within the state and without) of a racially different caste that sought to supplant or subvert the purity and legacy of the nation. Both events are characterised by chaotic attacks on key infrastructure of those communities. And both were indiscriminate in their attacks on the ethnic minorities.

Though the demonstrable similarities of these two events, a critical difference prevails: actions can still be taken to combat fascism in this country.

The far right in the UK has to be countered

The coordinated defense of the people of this country by antifascist elements everywhere has been inspiring, but it must grow. The failure of the police in some areas of the UK to adequately defend against terror has seen the arsine attack on the Holiday Inn in Rotherham, which threatened the lives of asylum seekers reportedly housed inside.

This cannot be allowed to continue. British antifascism must become omnipresent and attentive in order for our country and the people who live in it to be safe.

The philosopher Hannah Arendt states in her book the Origins of Totalitarianism:

In each one of us, there lurks such a liberal, wheedling us with the voice of common sense… There is a great temptation to explain away the intrinsically incredible by means of liberal rationalizations.

What was meant by these statements is that the temptation to overlook fascism when it is on the rise is great, but must at all cost be avoided.

That complacent emotional and rational impulse has been (and will continue to be) followed by the British Conservative and Labour parties and their supporters for nearly a decade and a half now, and was followed by them during the first rise of ultra-nationalism in Europe. It cannot, for the sake of our livelihoods, be allowed to continue.

The only consequence of that realisation, then, is a call to action.

It is imperative that every breathing human being that resides on the British Isles seeks to oppose fascism in their community and beyond. Antifascism is essential for a society in which the horrors of fascism are historically apparent, and because of that it is the responsibility of all who are able to be engaged in it, in whatever capacity they are able.

It is the most important issue of our time, for if we fail to address it, everything we hold dear is at risk.

Featured image via the Canary