Fight Dem Back - Politics

Politics

The group was founded by a collective of internet activists from across Australia and New Zealand in late 2004. In Sydney, these people included the lawyer Mat Henderson, generally known as 'Darp', who prior to starting the group was mainly known as a prolific blogger, winning best NSW blog in the 2005 Australian blogging awards. In Melbourne, the organisation was headed up by Cam Smith, a multimedia producer and radio journalist. In Perth, Donald Oorst, a part-time academic and author helped build the group up. In New Zealand, the public faces of the group were Robert Trigan and well known community activist and anarchist Asher Goldman from Wellington whilst many other individuals toiled away under the guise of their online pseudonyms. Trigan left FDB and New Zealand in July 2005 for New York

In some European countries there has been mutual dislike between more moderate (or 'liberal anti-fascist') groups, for example Searchlight, and more radical (or 'militant anti-fascist') ones, for example Anti-Fascist Action (AFA). The main areas of difference could be summarised as follows:

• willingness to work with the State: groups such as Searchlight will generally, for example, pass on information to and work with the police, groups such as AFA generally will not.
• analysis of fascism as either a form of, or opposed to, capitalism: groups such as AFA generally take the view that the difference between fascist groups and mainstream political parties is one of degree, whereas more moderate groups generally take the view that the difference is a clear difference of kind. Similarly, groups such as AFA as less likely to make a distinction between fascism and extreme conservatism.
• generally speaking, groups such as AFA will use what they call direct action and what their opponents call violence, whereas more moderate groups will use legal means.

By these criteria, Fight dem Back should be compared to the more moderate groups such as Searchlight, as it describes its operations as purely intelligence gathering and dissemination. However the split between moderate and radical anti-fascists does not seem to have happened in relation to the group. For example they interviewed, with implied approval, two former members of the British Anti-Fascist Action, and there has been little or no criticism of the group from the left. They also ran an approving article marking the anniversary of the 'Battle of Cable Street' . Fight dem back officially espouse a non-sectarian platform. The group draws its membership from traditional left-leaning cliques but also directly from the various ethnic community groups who are affected by race-hate activism.