NO FREE SPEECH FOR NAZIS/NO PLATFORM FOR RACIST HATE

There are those who defend the rights of nazis to free speech. These include the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights and others who are organizing the shindig at the Liberty Memorial here in Kansas City far away from the Nazi rally planned for tomorrow.  They believe it is vital that we not challenge their right to freely express their racist beliefs, and that it is best to never directly confront them.

I am not one of those people.  I will be attending the true counter rally taking place directly where the nazis plan to rally at the Jackson County Courthouse.  Of course, even amongst those of us at the counter rally many still mistakenly cling to the quaint notion that nazis and their like have some sort of god given right to call for genocide, murder, and white supremacist mayhem.  They mistakenly think we are in some sort of intellectual debate or that if we shout down nazis we are the same as nazis.  This "objectivist" nonsense really must be defeated.

No one, I repeat, no one has the right to call for my death (I am a Jew and a Marxist).  More importantly no one has the right to call for mass murder and genocide.  No one has the right to organize for such.  Make no mistake about it, that is exactly what your local nazis are all about.

Still every time they appear, the calls for free speech appear with them.  I understand the confusion, but folks, I actually take a side.  I stand with John Brown against white supremacy.  I stand against nazism.  I stand against genocide.  When you allow them free reign to speak and organize and to call for hate and death, then you are in some sense allowing them space to create a movement to do just that.  I know that is not your intent.  I know we are on the same side.  I know that.  However, the practical result is just that.

When you argue that if we don't allow free speech for nazis then the State won't allow us free speech either, I believe you are making a huge error.  The State does not allow us free speech.  We fight for our right to speak.  We go to jail for our right to speak.  The history of the left, be it anarchist, Marxist, communist, anti-racist, anti-fascist, whatever, is full of people who have gone to jail for speaking out.  Many are sitting in jail right now for their speech.  They may be charged with some other crime, but you and I know why they are there.  We cannot depend on the State to protect us from nazis and we cannot depend on the State to guarantee our right to speak out and organize. We must depend on ourselves.  The State, its laws, its courts, its police are not their to protect the multitude.  They are there to protect and serve Capital and Power.  If we get in the way, they pounce on us.  The State is not our friend (this by the way is something else those planning the event in cooperation with city officials, local government leaders, not for profit CEOs, Executive Directors, Presidents, and "official" community representatives also do not get).  

Finally, you and I are not the State.  We are not the Constitution (which by the way was not handed down by God and used to say slavery was not a problem).  That said even the sacrosanct Constitution does not allow some  absolute right to free speech anyway.  You can't shout "fire" in a crowded theater, and you should not be allowed to shout out for "genocide" on a crowded planet.

This should not be construed as some sort of call for a violent confrontation tomorrow in Kansas City.  We can drown out this particular batch of white supremacists and put a stop to their organizing attempt in downtown Kansas City without physical assault, although we always reserve the right to self defense.  I am no pacifist.  There are times and there are places where a resort to force is the only alternative.  That is absolutely for sure.  I don't think tomorrow on the steps of the Jackson County Courthouse is such a time or such a place.  I understand the thinking of those who disagree with that and who feel nazis and their ilk deserve a more physical response.  It is just in this particular instance, I don't think it is necessary.  I hope it is not necessary.

That said, let me add one other thing, which I wrote yesterday somewhere else, which I think it is important that all of those taking part in tomorrows anti-nazi protest remember:

Meanwhile the fight against white supremacy, white skin privilege, and racism continue every day. Groups like the NSM are dangerous, obnoxious, full of bravado, but they are still a sideshow. They currently have few followers and little power. Groups like them represent a very small part of the whole white supremacist foundation upon which this country is built. Sure, they must be challenged whenever they rear their heads precisely in order to keep them a sideshow, but the real battle is much deeper, much more real, and much more difficult. The white supremacy and white skin privilege which is engrained in the very fabric of this country (and in fact in virtually all white people, even workers, by the very real material privileges the system of white skin privilege provides them) and which, by allowing them to identify as white ties them to the very system which oppresses the vast majority of us all ( though not equally), a system which is enforced by Capital and the white power structure (through its police and military if and when necessary) is our biggest enemy. We need to all remember that.

The following was written four years ago in Britain.  It was written in regard to the fascist British National Party.  It is taken from the blog of John Molyneux.

NO PLATFORM FOR NAZIS!

The recent appearance of BNP leader, Nick Griffin, has generated much discussion over the question of his right to a platform on the BBC and, more generally, over the issue of free speech for fascists. For me this is an old question about which I made up my mind in the course of the struggle against the National Front in the seventies. At that time we, Anti- Nazi League supporters and the left generally argued the case for no platform in every student union and trade union we could and pretty much won the argument throughout the labour and student movement. Today there is a new generation of fascists (the BNP, EDL etc) and anti- fascists and we need to have, and win, the argument again. This is my contribution.

The first reason for refusing Nick Griffin and other BNPers a platform on the BBC and elsewhere in public life is simply that they are NAZIS. I am not opposed to giving them a platform because I don’t agree with them or don’t like them. I don’t agree with (and actively dislike) Tories, and indeed Blairites, but I don’t want to no platform them. Its because they are NAZIS i.e. fascist followers of Adolf Hitler. Some people don’t realise this because it has long been Nick Griffin’s strategy to present the BNP as just British Patriots, but in fact Griffin and other BNP leaders, like fellow Euro MP Andrew Brons, are long standing hard core Nazis who go back to John Tyndall, the NF and Oswald Mosley of the British Union of Fascists (Hitler’s main supporter in Britain). Moreover Griffin is surrounded by hardcore Nazi thugs, like Tony Lecomber, with numerous convictions for racist violence and terrorism.

Nick Griffin

John Tyndall on left

Oswald Mosley in the 30s

Tony Lecomber (5 convictions under Explosives Act, 12 convictions total)

Some people who know the BNP are Nazis don’t realise what this means. Nazis are not just people with unpleasant views. They are a political movement bent on winning power with the aim of destroying democracy (and freedom of speech), destroying the labour movement (who are all ‘Communists’ in their eyes) and driving out, by intimidation and force, non- white ethnic minorities. Whatever Griffin may say in public, the BNP aim of achieving a white only, non- multicultural Britain could ONLY be achieved by smashing the trade unions and socialist organisations and violent intimidation and persecution of people of colour, and Griffin knows this.

The second main reason for not giving the BNP a platform is that we are not just talking about words here. Every time and everywhere the BNP gets a foothold or an airing of its views there is an increase in racist violence and attacks. This is what happened in SE London when the BNP had its headquarters in Welling, culminating in the racist murder of Steven Lawrence. Its what happened with former BNP member, David Copeland , the nail bomber who bombed Brixton, Brick Lane and Soho. Griffin will not go on TV and openly urge violence but that’s what his thug sympathisers on the street will hear and act on.

Stopping the BNP (and other fascists) from growing and building influence, including by stopping their marches, and denying them public platforms is therefore both a political duty, a necessary act of solidarity with all vulnerable minorities AND, for everyone of colour, LGBT people, Jews, Muslims, trade unionists, socialists etc a matter of self preservation. To put it personally, if the BNP were in power I, and people like me, would be in prison at best and most likely dead. In a town or community where they were dominant I and people like me would not be safe to walk the streets. Anyone who doubts this should check the historical record and see what the fascists did to Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht in Germany, to Antonio Gramsci in Italy, to Andreu Nin in Spain and to hundreds of thousands of rank and file socialists across Europe, long before they started on the Holocaust.

Some Common, but Mistaken, Arguments for giving the BNP a Platform

1. Put Griffin on TV, he’ll only make a fool of himself. Griffin was bad on Question Time, but the publicity he received enabled the BNP to get 3000 enquiries for membership. Every time Griffin or other BNP leaders get these platforms they get more publicity, become more accepted as part of the ‘mainstream’ and gain support.

2. The way to defeat the BNP is by rational argument. Rational argument will work for some people (mostly people who wouldn’t join or vote BNP anyway) but it will not work for many of those the BNP is trying to attract. The BNP’s essential appeal is not rational but emotive. Their appeal is to bigotry and hatred, to people who are fearful and want scapegoats and ‘strong leadership’. Gaining public platforms, such as on the BBC, increases that appearance of strength, as does successfully marching in the streets. Denying them a platform and driving them off our streets shatters that image of strength. The ‘master race’ doesn’t look very masterful when it is forced to flee with its tail between its legs.

3. The BNP are not Nazis because they British not German. This is an argument based on historical ignorance. The German Nazis are the best known example of fascism, but fascism was and is an international phenomenon and movement, which took power in Italy, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Rumania, Japan and elsewhere, and struggled for power in other countries including France and Britain. Today there are neo-nazi movements across Europe including in Russia and outside Europe, in the USA and India.

4. The British people have too much sense to be won over by the BNP. This argument can seem plausible and hard to answer without attacking ‘the British people’ but it is wrong on a number of grounds. Try out, for example, ‘The British people have too much sense to vote for Margaret Thatcher’. Or ‘The British people have too much sense to interested in trashy nonsense like Big Brother or I’m a Celebrity- Get me Out of Here.’ It is not true that the British have some special gene of common sense, unlike Germans, Italians etc , which makes them immune to fascism. What stopped Mosley in the thirties was not ‘British’ common sense but anti-fascist militancy at the Battle of Cable St. and elsewhere. Also the BNP does not have to win over all, or even most, of the British people (and the same applies to fascist movements in other countries). The fascists in Germany, Italy, Spain etc did not gain power by winning majority support but by being put in power in situations of extreme economic or political crisis by the ruling class of those countries in order to smash the left and the workers movement. For that they did not need to achieve a majority only a credible sixe and strength. This can certainly be achieved by the BNP in the future IF we let them.

5. Freedom of speech is an absolute principle, which must be granted even to Nazis. No, it is not an ABSOLUTE principle in this or any other society and cannot be. I do not have an absolute, or any kind, of right to turn up at the BBC and be allowed to speak on Question Time or any other programme, I have to be invited and so does Nick Griffin. Even elected MPs cant demand the right to be on TV, much as they’d like to. Try exercising absolute freedom of speech at the Tory Party Conference or the Labour Party Conference (remember Walter Wolfgang who shouted ‘Rubbish!’ at Jack Straw and was manhandled out by heavies.) Try exercising any kind of freedom of speech in a court of law when the judge tells you not to and you will end up in jail for contempt. In fact there thousands of such restrictions on freedom of speech, in the armed forces, in many jobs, on schools, in the police, and so on. You do not have, and should not have, a right to stand in the street and yell racist abuse at people (indeed you can be arrested for behaviour likely to cause a breach of the peace for a lot less than this). Yet, although the BNP may choose its words carefully this is essentially what the BNP does. They should be stopped before they get too strong for them to be stopped.

What all the above arguments have in common is that they treat the struggle against fascism as if it were some kind of reasoned debate with victory going to the side that presents the most logical arguments ( ‘Now is mass unemployment in Germany really caused by the Jews ? Let’s examine the evidence’) It is not. History shows that it is a social and political struggle ( an aspect of the class struggle) which if the fascists get strong enough will culminate in civil and world war. Defeating Hitler cost 50 million lives. I say ‘ Never Again! Stop them now – by any means necessary !’

John Molyneux
November 30, 2009

THE 43 GROUP: FIGHTING FASCISM AND CHANGING THE TIDE OF HISTORY

As stated in my previous post, a group of National Socialist (nazis) and their friends plan a rally in Kansas City this weekend.  I plan to join many others at the Jackson County Courthouse where white supremacists plan to meet to let them know what the people of Kansas City think of their ilk.  A few miles away in a large park, far from the action, another group of folks including city officials, political figures, establishment community leaders, representatives of various not for profits and NGOs will hold a talk fest to talk about it all in their version of how best to fight fascism, racism, nazism.  

Scission has already made clear where it stands:

Scission believes that a disciplined, yet free, counter rally in sight of the white supremacists makes far more sense then holding some festival far from the scene.  Scission believes a large turnout at the Courthouse counter rally is important for any number of reasons, not the least of which is the safety of those counter demonstrating.  It is also important that the white supremacists see what Kansas Citians really think of them, hear directly what Kansas Citians have to say to them, understand that Kansas Citians are not afraid of them.  Scission calls upon those planning the far away event to reconsider or, at a minimum,  to let those who attend their rally know that another event is happening which will express our outrage directly without any intent of violence. 

There are in fact a whole range of tactics advocated by various and asundry forces on how best to fight white supremacists when they make an appearance.  They range from direct conflrontation, to non violent confrontation, to ignoring their presence, to demonstrating somewhere else where there are no white supremacists around, to listening to speeches, to this that and the other thing.

Today, I want to cite what a group predominately made up of ex-Jewish servicemen, some women, and some non Jews as well in Britain decided to do...and did...to fight the spread of fascism in Britain after World War II.  They took the direct approach, but they did more than just physically break up fascist rallys in some sort of spontanious manner.  Known as The 43 Group these folks spyed on, scouted out, infiltrated, propagandized and carried out basically a military style operation to upend, succesfully I might add, the Mosely movement which was gaining a foothold in Britain at the time with its fascist, Jew hating rhetoric and physical attacks.  The 43 Group essentially said, "Not on our watch."

Posted below are two articles and a video.



First from Workers's Liberty

Fighting fascists after 1945

Author: 

 Charlie Salmon

Physical confrontation with fascist organisations is a controversial matter for the main strands of anti-fascism. For groups like Unite Against Fascism, on the deliberate calculation of the dominant left force within it, the SWP, such tactics are likely to scare off their media, religious and mainstream political supporters. Searchlight has a similar problem.

On the other hand, groups like Antifa appear, at least judging by their website and reported actions, to have elevated the idea of physically confronting the BNP and parties like them to a guiding principle.

There is a substantial degree of mistrust between these three groups — some of it based on the SWP/UAF’s sectarianism, some of it on antagonism towards the perceived recklessness of Antifa — which makes any honest accounting of militant anti-fascism problematic.

But historical examples of militant anti-fascism should aid us in understanding the place of physical confrontation in a working class, political anti-fascism. One example is that of the 43 Group, who campaigned against British fascists after the Second World war. In this issue we publish an inteview with Morris Beckman from the 43 Group.

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The notion that World War Two was a “war against fascism” is a popular myth used in the mainstream media and historical accounts as the ultimate justification for taking on Hitler’s Germany. This notion was held by a good many servicemen and women. Little could have done more to explode this idea than returning to post-war Britain and finding a resurgent fascist movement. Morris Beckman experienced just this after six years at sea as a merchant seaman.

“I’d been away for six years. On my return, I got the train to Paddington and a taxi to Hackney. My father and mother still lived in the same place.” Returning home, Morris sensed that something was wrong: “‘What’s the matter?’, I asked my father. ‘The Black Shirts are back, the fascists are back’. They’d been marching down the streets, chanting ‘we’re going to get rid of the yids’, they attacked synagogues. My mother and the neighbours were afraid to go out at night”.

For the Beckman family and the rest of the Jewish community in East London, the nightmare of the pre-war fascist movement was repeating itself. If World War Two was really a “war against fascism”, how could fascists still be marching through London?

“In the post-war period only two countries had large, organised fascist groups: Spain, where the fascists were in power; and Britain, where Oswald Mosley was attempting to re-start his British Union of Fascists. By this time everyone knew about the Holocaust.” The newsreels of concentration camp survivors, the horrific detail of the Holocaust and its consequences filled the newspapers but still, anti-semitism played a significant role in the post-war fascist revival.

For Morris and his friends there were just two topics of conversation: the fate of the Jews in Palestine and the threat to the Jewish community posed by Mosley’s re-constituted fascist group. The plight of the Palestinian Jews and those Holocaust survivors attempting to reach Palestine were influential factors in the 43 Group’s decision to fight back.

“Three years after the war thousands of Jews were still incarcerated in displaced persons camps. They could see Germans walking about free. This created an enormous amount of anger. The suicide rate in these camps was very high.” Those survivors who sought refuge in Palestine were continually blocked and harassed by Britain’s colonial forces. At the same time, the Jewish and Arab populations in Palestine suffered under a brutal colonial regime.

“The British had a habit in Palestine of flogging... one schoolboy, putting up political posters in Tel Aviv was caught by a British patrol. He was flogged”. In response, the Irgun (an underground, Zionist para-military organisation) captured and flogged four British soldiers.

On another occasion four Jewish students were sentenced to death by hanging. There was international uproar: “The French and Italians urged the British not to hang. Some MPs came out against the hanging. But Atlee ordered their hanging before the set date of execution”. In response, the Irgun captured three British soldiers and hung them.

The Irgun were certainly far, far removed from the politics of socialism — but their actions inspired Beckman and his friends to begin a fightback against fascism in Britain.

“We went up to the pub for sandwiches and saw an outdoor fascist meeting next to the Maccabi Sports Club. Jerrrey Hamm was on the platform. Britain Awake [by Oswald Moseley] was being sold. Instead of going to the pub we walked nine-abreast through the crowd, walked up to the speaker and said: ‘You’re doing a good job, I’d like to buy a couple of magazines’. Two fascists came towards us, we grabbed their heads and cracked them together. We dragged down the platform and smashed everything up.”

Beckman and friends returned to the Maccabi Sports Club to discuss what had just happened. They concluded: “The government won’t stop the fascists. The Board of Deputies won’t stop them. Only the communists are trying to stop them. There’s nobody else.” Thirty eight Jewish ex-servicemen and five women turned up to a subsequent meeting organised by word of mouth. “We had a discussion about what to do. We’d already made one attack, we decided to do it again. The meeting was a success!”

After numerous assaults on Jewish homes, shops and buildings — including a number of attacks where elderly Jews were thrown through plate-glass windows — an opposition organised itself. “The fascists didn’t expect the Jews to attack them. They didn’t expect Jews to be more violent than them. We deliberately went so hard at them that we filled A&E with very badly damaged fascists.”

Soon the original forty-three were joined by over one thousand others. “We were turning people away. We wanted seven to eight hundred who’d be an elite fighting unit. We had about 60 gentiles in our ranks. We had some contact with the Communist Party of Great Britain. Of our members, we had more than eighty different trades and professions, including doctors... We published a broadsheet called ‘On Guard’ for eighteen months. Non-Jews wrote for it including Douglas Hyde, editor of the Daily Worker... On Guard was sent out to trade unionists and some MPs.”

The 43 Group didn’t rely on stumbling into fascist activity. Their activities were very well planned and coordinated: “We infiltrated nineteen small fascist units by 1946. We had moles inside of them... We had about one hundred women who’d been in the war. They collected all the information that came in. By this time, the 43 Group wasn’t just based in London, we had branches in Newcastle and Derby.” Information came in from across the country. When the Group heard of some planned fascist activity, the organising committee met to discuss a response. Everything was planned, risks assessed and preparations made well in advance.

“When decisions were made we had six to seven hundred people ready to act. We never walked towards the fascists, we ran at them! This unhinged them. When we received information and decided a plan, we’d dish it out to our commandos who’d assemble a team. We never let up on the fascists.”

This consistent approach took its toll on the fascists: “Basically, what beat them was the fact that we were very disciplined and very flexible. We could put out ten teams of commandos all together, at the same time. We had loads of information. It worked out very well!”

As the momentum of the 43 Group grew, conditions around them changed: “By 1947 there was a tremendous surge of support from the grass-roots Jewish community. We had regular contributions coming in. At the same time, the first fascists started to come up to us, they said ‘no more fighting, we’ve finished with Mosley, can we talk?’ Sometimes we’d talk to them and they’d ask to join! We always replied ‘you’ve got to be convinced first’.”

One of the most prominent successes was the defection of Michael McClean, who left Mosley and started to speak on 43 Group platforms. “The fascists became afraid of us, they knew they couldn’t stop us. When I interviewed some of the fascists in the 1950s they told me ‘if you hadn’t destroyed us, nobody else could have’. We were the only consistent opposition, we took the only way possible to destroy them.”

The 43 Group was not founded with working class politics and was not rooted in the trade unions and political organisations of the working class; but it was a grass-roots — mainly communal — response to the regrouping fascist movement in Britain.

Its actions severely disrupted the unity and strength of Mosley’s supporters, destabilising their activities and driving a wedge between competing fascist leaders. It played a defining role in snuffing out the embers of pre-war fascism.

Although the main thrust of its efforts was the physical protection of the Jewish community and retribution for attacks on that community, none of the work would have been possible without sophisticated organisation, intelligence gathering and coordinated action.

Beckman and his colleagues started out with just forty three, and managed to build an organisation over one thousand strong. They responded to physical threats, intimidation and murder in the most effective way open to them. They met like with like.

• For more information see: The 43 Group, by Morris Beckman, Centreprise (1993). The Spiro Ark community group will hold a celebration of the 43 group early next year. www.spiroark.org

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From the Guardian

They stood up to hatred

Mark Gould meets veterans of the 43 Group, an organisation of Jewish ex-servicemen who waged a five-year war against Oswald Mosley's fascists

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• Mark Gould
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Harry Kaufman demonstrates how to turn a copy of the Guardian into a useful cosh. A tap across the palm gives a hint of the damage it would cause if it were swung in anger.

"This of course was only for self-defence," he smiles. "If you were arrested, you simply dropped it on the floor and it was just a newspaper. Others carried bits of lead piping, iron bars and things."

Kaufman, 77, stocky and full of life, is one of the younger survivors of a violent guerrilla army of British Jews who for five years waged war against Oswald Mosley's fascists on the streets of London and other big cities. Tonight, on Holocaust Memorial Day, Kaufman will be reunited with former comrades at a special event to commemorate the 43 Group.*

Morris Beckman, 88, one of the founder members, explains why it was set up. "I had been in the merchant navy, survived two torpedo attacks on the Atlantic convoys, and I came back home to Amhurst Road, Hackney to hugs and kisses. My mother went out to make some tea and my dad said, ' The bastards are back – Mosley and his Blackshirts'."

He, like thousands of British Jews, came home from the war thinking fascism was buried. Each week they saw fresh newsreel evidence of the Nazi genocide. But they were sickened to find Mosley released from internment and reviving the British Union of Fascists, which had flourished in Jewish areas such as the East End before the war. He says:

"The Talmud Torah (religious school) in Dalston had its windows smashed. Jewish shops were daubed 'PJ' (Perish Judah). You heard, 'We have got to get rid of the Yids' and 'They didn't burn enough of them in Belsen'."

With the Labour home secretary James Chuter Ede refusing to take action and the Jewish establishment urging peaceful protest, the demobbed Jews had had enough.

In April 1946, Beckman was one of 43 people (38 men and five women) who met at Maccabi House, a Jewish sports club in south Hampstead, and the 43 Group was born. "We wanted revenge – the Holocaust was in our minds. We decided we had to out-fascist the fascists," he says.

By 1947, the group had over 1,000 members – all war veterans — in London, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham and Newcastle, including 100 women and a network of gentile spies who infiltrated fascist organisations.

The toughest – former Royal Marines, paratroops and Guards – became the commandos, on call day and night to disrupt meetings and carry out raids. A network of London black-cab drivers provided eyes, ears and transport.

Ridley Road market in Hackney drew crowds of 700 to hear Mosley and junior demagogues rage against the "alien" menace. Beckman says the 43 Group would "salt" the crowd with infiltrators who would distract the police by fighting among themselves. Then two flying wedges of commandos would drive through from either side aiming to overturn the platform. If the meeting was disrupted the police were forced to close it down."

He estimates more than 2000 meetings were disrupted in this way. "They saw us as stereotypes, the nervous Jewish tailor clutching a bag of money, when we were young men, trained to fight. I interviewed some fascists years later and they said they left Mosley because they didn't want to get a beating. We made a lot of people A&E cases."

Money flooded in from prominent Jews such as the boxing promoter Jack Solomons and the businessman Sir Charles Clore. Every month Bud Flanagan (born Reuben Weintrop and a member of the Crazy Gang comedy quartet) sent a £30 cheque with a note saying "Good work, boys".

Kaufman signed up for the 43 Group after seeing a newspaper headline: "Jewish war heroes arrested after Mosley protest".

The group's team of forgers may have saved him from prison. "I was on top of somebody whacking him and a police officer grabbed me and said sort of 'You're nicked'. Behind me, Reggie Morris, a big bloke in a white mac, showed the officer a card: "Special branch. I'll take this one.

He marched me around the corner and said 'Now fuck off'."

He was arrested again in Tottenham and says he was only spared jail because he had been called up for national service in the RAF.

Jules Konopinski, 79, was a commando veteran of Ridley Road. He came to Hackney from Poland with his family in 1939. His mother's nine brothers and sisters died in the extermination camps. In 1946, his uncle, a survivor of Auschwitz, moved in. "I had eyewitness evidence of the Holocaust and there were these Nazis walking around saying the Jews are like rats."

When asked if he seriously injured anyone he will only say "Yes". He took part in raids on fascist homes, staked out cemeteries that had been the target of fascist daubings. "We visited one fascist at home after an attack and severely reprimanded him. We said if any one of ours is hurt again we will come back to find 10 of you."

Today, amid denunciations of Israeli aggression in Gaza, Beckman, Kaufman and Konopinski have no regrets and say they are proud of fighting fascism. Beckman concludes: "We defended the community by making it impossible for the fascists to terrorise us."

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VIDEO: THE 43 GROUP

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSNkTnIsWho

            

 "What we did by stopping these people was change the tide of history."

The '43 Group

The '43 Group