Hundreds of Anti-Fascists Drive Out Fascists Trying to Incite Anti-Muslim Hatred
BARCELONA, SPAIN, August 18—After the terrorist attack in Las Ramblas in Barcelona, far-right movements like National Democracy, the Falange, Catalonia Platform, and Identity Generation or Somatemps called a racist rally precisely at the point where the tragedy occurred on August 17 in which the jihadists killed 14 people and injured over 100.
This group of 50 Nazis that came the following day with placards like “Refugees are Not Welcome Here,” and “No to the Islamization of Europe,” protected by the local police, thought that their racist sentiment was going to win over the masses. But they got a big surprise. Hundreds of workers, mostly youth, came out to confront them with slogans like, “You Fascists are the Terrorists” and “Fascists Out of Our Neighborhoods.” They cornered the fascists. The police intervened to protect them as they sent them home.
We distributed several Red Flags and talked to several young people. Everyone was happy to remember that Barcelona has been an important part of recent history in the fight against the far right, and the fight against Franco. They were proud of the city for still preserving those ideals in the fight against racism and xenophobia.
After the march, we spoke to a couple of groups of people, saying that to defeat terrorism we will have to fight directly against capitalism with communist revolution. It’s capitalism that’s creating all the terror and dividing the working class. To defeat terrorism, we need a political line that can really fight it. We need dialectical materialism to help us understand how things work and a political line which will lead to building communism.
This led to a wide discussions, in which everyone contributed. We said that the line that the International Communist Workers Party is building is that of is mobilizing the masses for communism, spreading and acting on communist ideas in a mass way
We said that the capitalists have created all these fascist movements. They’re tools to establish police states which at the same time sharpen the attacks on all workers. The capitalists are the ones who create wars in countries like Syria, wars that only benefit the imperialists and not the working class.
While some looked at us with suspicion, others applauded. They knew that this political line is the one that really fights for the working class. We got out more Red Flags at the end and got a few names. We’ve talked to one of the guys we met already and hope to meet with him and the others soon.
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