We shouldn't depend on the state to ban EDL marches - we have to do the job ourselves. Why? For one thing, if they ban a fascist march, they can ban a workers' protest. Even worse, what happens if they subsequently decide to allow a fascist march? If we have relied on the state, instead of organizing ourselves, we are left totally unprepared for future anti-fascist action.
The reason the capitalist state is not a dependable weapon against fascism is that both arise from capitalism.
We know the state serves the bosses, because it's used to attack us, as at the G20 protests. Fascism is also the bosses weapon - their ultimate WMD, used to smash the workers' movement when the system enters a terminal crisis.
They won't use it yet. They'll keep groups like the EDL at arm's length. They may even ban certain events or organizations. But the fascist virus will never be destroyed by capitalism. Rather, it will act as a willing host, allowing the infection to lie dormant, or slowly spread and mutate into more virulent forms.
The only cure is to terminate the system itself, and replace it with one where workers hold the power and create a society without exploiters.
That's another reason we need to do the anti-fascist work ourselves. In the course of mobilizing to drive the EDL off our streets, we can begin to build the organizations we need not only to defend ourselves, but for other struggles, too.
Most urgent, however, is the creation of an anti-fascist defense league - let's not wait for more attacks like those around City University before we take this vital step.
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