“The revolution,” went the song, “will not be televised.” However, the counter-revolution will. Every type of media – print, radio and television– will be used to build fascist forces whenever capitalism needs them.
Building the International Communist Workers’ Party and distributing Red Flag, to mobilize the masses for communism, are our best counters to this reactionary situation.
The vicious murder of the British soldier, Lee Rigby, by Islamic jihadists, together with the press coverage it received, is a case in point. The press guaranteed two immediate beneficiaries: the British Army and the fascist English Defense League (EDL).
First, the groundswell of sympathy for the unarmed Rigby is being used to justify further British imperialist war designs in Syria. Secondly, the homegrown fascist EDL was emboldened not just to demonstrate but to carry out hundreds of attacks on mosques and Muslim individuals.
Incidents like this have a name: “the propaganda of the deed.” It is a classic capitalist method of undermining class consciousness. A racist atrocity is answered by a nationalist atrocity. The working class becomes divided and explodes in anger against itself. It is fatal to be passive as these scenarios develop.
Our weapon is in our hands. Red Flag calls for a communist world free of capitalism-imperialism, based on money and production for profits. Eliminating them will eliminate the material base that gave rise and perpetuates the poisonous ideologies of racism, sexism, nationalism, patriotism and religious fanaticism. It will create a world without borders or nations, where the international working class will share everything according to need. Red Flag channels the growing anger of the working class to fight for this vision.

Destitution on a Large Scale
And the working class today in Britain has plenty to be angry about. “Destitution, hardship and hunger on a large scale,” reported Oxfam recently, describing the situation. It talks of people walking miles (unable to afford the bus) to a private food pantry, only to be turned away because it had run out of food. In Manchester, home of two of the world’s five richest soccer clubs, a quarter of the population lives in extreme poverty.
As always, racism intensifies the horror, and black youth bear the brunt of that racism. Back in 2010 (over two years before the start of the government’s ‘austerity program’) their unemployment rate was 53%! A desperate situation which, in the last thirteen years, has seen more black youth murdered than British soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Out of a community that makes up 2.8% of the population, they represent 40% of those incarcerated in the juvenile system.
No wonder, given this overall picture, the British state machinery fosters Islamic fascism (jihadists) on the one hand and British fascism (EDL) on the other. Better for them that those who walk to the (empty) food pantry attack one another than unite!

Capitalist-Imperialists: The Biggest Fascists
Michael Adebolajo, one of the jihadist killers, and British intelligence have a long history of interaction. The British government twice plucked him from a Kenyan jail as he attempted to join Al-Shabaab, the East African jihadist group. At least one report claims he was recently seen trying to recruit youth to join jihadists in Syria (to fight for British imperialist interests there). “We want to start a war,” Adebolajo said when asked why he hacked to death the British soldier.
The capitalists worldwide, like in Bangladesh, are using religious fundamentalism hoping to divert Muslim workers from the path of revolution. Muslim workers in England should not fall for this trick. But, the biggest danger is white workers in England falling prey to the anti-Muslim racism being pushed by the British rulers. Instead of goose-stepping behind these butchers, they need to unite with Muslim and non-white workers to fight for communism.
Working-class soldiers in the capitalist-imperialist armies are key to communist revolution. Without them revolution is not possible. They are not the enemy. They must, however, be won to communist ideas and to turn the guns around on the bosses. Revolutionary youth should join the bosses’ armed forces to recruit these soldiers.
Instead of racial war, let’s organize class war for communism to wipe all bosses from the face of the earth. Today, the “propaganda of the deed” is operating in Britain, but as a tool of bloody counter revolution it can be used anywhere. Let these events serve as a warning; it is urgent we build our revolutionary forces. Help distribute Red Flag! Join and build ICWP.