SPITE ITS CLAIMS to be a spectable political party, the cal Front is showing more $ more signs of its fascist pedigree. bind the bizarre and hysterical adis in its election manifesto i the ill-effects of playing "gle-chythms on the BBC e grim spectre of anti-Jewish paganda is steadily gaining Unt last year the Front great care to play down •semitic propaganda, The rallels with Hitler's Nazis didn't a with their attempts to cultite a respectable image. Recently se worries seem to have gone by board. References to Jews and wah beliefs appear with masing frequency and promince in the pages of NE publicaAn article in the May issue of Spearhead on Jewish religious requirements for animal slaughter carried the headline Alien cruelty to British animali." NF 'red scare" articles label Bert Kameison, Communist Party industrial organiser as an alien because of his Jewish origins, while the Jewish background of Leon Frotsky (alias Lev Davidovitch Bronstein), and certain other Marxist writers is ¡aven particular prominence.
SINISTER
Far more sinister is the masscirculation, by individuals not unconnected with the NF (see Red Weekly, 15 August 1974) of the pro-Nazi pamphlet Did 6 million really die? attempts to write off the Hitler regime's genocide against the European Jews as sone sort of collective delusion.
More directly linked to the Front is the warning from its chairman, John Tyndall, that the Front's repatriation policy would extend to all Jews who could not prove themselves sincere British "patriots':
All this seems, on the surface, odd for an organisation led by individuals who are usually cager to hide their open Nazi backgrounds. Why should it expose itself by raking up so blatantly the favourite "bogey' of the NazisT The deliberate sowing of anti-Jewish propaganda by reactionaries in so many countries and over so many years & not an acci dent of history. The social history of the Jews from pre-capitalist society up to the present day has made them excellent scapegoats for all the ills of capitalism itself The carly traders and merchants who were the forerunners of modern capitalism were often drawn from racial minorities-Jews in Furope, Chinese in South Asia, for PORTSMOUTH Two thousand people in Portsmouth have signed a petition of support for versives.
BIRMINGHAM example. Various historical factors drove many Jews from Palestine to become "primitive capitalists" in other lunds. With the rise of capitalisin proper, they increasingly came into competition with the developing local capitalist class. The "greedy", capitalist' Jews were made the scape-goats for the evils of capitalism by their no less greedy or capitalist non-Jewish competitors.
At the same time many Jews were pushed into becoming workers for the new tising capitalism, and played a major part in the socialist organisations which developed in the struggles of the workers against the new, capitalist ruling class Thus the Jews came to occupy two positions in the Alice-in-Wonderland world of fascist demagogy: on the one hand "greedy capitalists", and on the other hand bolshevik subThey were the ideal scapegoat on which fascism in the 1920s and 30s could pin the blame for the The occupation at Birmingham Polytech is gaining increasing support. There are more students involved now than when it started.
The NUS executive has called a national demonstration on 23 October against cut-backs in higher education and in support of the strug gle aglinst cut-backs at Birmingham Polytech, The demonstration will be addressed by Pat Hickey a member of UCATT and convenor for the Wimpey sites, John Kandall, NUS president, and a Labour MP.
A General Meeting of over 500 students at Birmingham University voted to strike on 23 October in support of their colleagues in the On election day 700 out of 900 students at the College of Food and Domestic Science demonstated against the decision of the Birminghani City Council to sell a plot of land adjacent to the college, The land has gone for E150.000 to a property speculator, despite the fact that the college desperately needs room tor expansion.
Fishing.
On the same day that the NUS are organising their demonstration against cut-backs UCATT is abo holding a demonstration in the city. The building workers' demonstra tion will be against 'lump' labour and for more state spending fo avoid unemployment in the building trade. It is regrettable that the UCATT and NUS demonstrations are It is education on the cheap which has caused numcrous building pro grumones to be scrapped and redundancy for many workers. A joint fight must be waged for more public spending and building. Nevertheless the NUS demonstration in Birmingham, leaving Gosta Green at 1.00pm, needs massive student support to show Wilson and his crew that students This term has aiso seen college ASTMS and NALGO workers considering national strike action to back their claims for higher wages.
Students can take solidarity in two ways. Firstly by giving financal aid, by giving these workers a platform, and support on the picket line, Secondly, students can pur CAUSES more pressure on the Labour Government by raking direct action against the cuts which force students to pay higher prices and rents or leave problems that hit the middle-classes as a result of the world economic crisis. Squeezed out of their comfortable niche in sociely by the brutal confrontation of the major clisses, the idea of a devious conspiracy between Jewish Minanciers and communists was believed, and ahti-Jewish purges accepted as a cure for all the ills of society.
In the context of the acute econoinic.crisis now unfolding, it is not surprising that the National Front should come closer every day to resurrecting the basic idea of fascist thinking. The temptation of anti-semitism as a means of dividing worker from worker, of erecting scapegoats across class. lines, and of appealing to the contused fears of the middle classes is too great to set aside for the sake of preserving their "respectable image, It is in the interests of both sections to fight together in oppo sition to cuts in public spending.