David Rosenberg’s speech in Whitehall at the protest by Stand Up To Racism and allies against the march and rally in Parliament Square by Tommy Robinson and far-right supporters

Greetings from the Jewish Socialists Group (JSG), a group founded in the 1970s when the National Front were growing rapidly and holding provocative and intimidating marches through inner-city areas where Caribbean and Asian immigrants were eking a living in the face of widespread discrimination.

Those who founded the JSG had cut their teeth politically as teenagers in working class Jewish communities in the 1930s battling the twin evils of poverty and fascism.

They, and we who are active in the JSG today, have always understood that link between poverty and fascism – how fascism offers the most false, deceptive and crude answers to ordinary working class people who are genuinely struggling. Fascism promises to restore people’s pride in who they are, offering them ultra-nationalism, a flag, and someone to hate, in place of food on the table, a secure and well-paid job, good quality secure housing in the homes they need, and a better standard of living for all.

And when you look at things this way you can see how useful are the pathetic individuals who become figureheads of far-right movements, to those who want to maintain a capitalist economy where the rich increase their wealth by keeping the poor, poor.

It’s all too easy to focus excessively on those figureheads who become leaders of far-right movements, though you do wonder who staffs their quality-control departments. But it is much more important to understand the economic and political role that these movements play, whether they call themselves British Union of Fascists, National Front, British Movement, BNP, Britain First, EDL or anything else, when their honest name is UND – Ultra-Nationalist Dupes – who help maintain capitalism and misery.

Anti-fascism is part of our group’s DNA and it will always be central to our work. Because Jewish people had long experience of combating fascism through the 20th century, we know that every far-right movement in Britain through that century, and in this one, has won support from at least two classes, recruiting foot-soldiers from the more impoverished classes but financed by a much more comfortable class. Every prominent fascist movement in Britain or indeed in Germany, in Spain, in Chile, has been partly or significantly enabled by right-wing mainstream capitalist interests.

When the BNP had their temporary breakthrough in Barking and Dagenham between 2006 and 2010, winning 12 local councillors overnight, and then putting up more than 400 candidates nationally in the 2010 General Election, that work wasn’t financed by the struggling poor in Barking and Dagenham.

So we focus our anti-fascist work, not just on combating them on the streets when they show themselves, but by working to bring together the range of communities threatened by the fascists in a common struggle against them. And at the same time we challenge the economic and political conditions that give rise to them. We seek to build anti-fascist majorities in local areas around the country, and that means bringing together a movement of black and white, cross generational, a movement committed to challenging racism and bigotry in every form, and refusing to let our enemies divide us.

Every effort is being made to divide us. Not least when the execrable Suella Braverman was Home Secretary, trying to prove she could be more hard-line than Priti Patel, by encouraging Tommy Robinson and his rag-bag of followers to invade central London to intimidate the vibrant, multi-cultural movement that has been holding powerful marches against the genocide in Gaza and the British Government’s complicity in it. Our group is proud to be part of the Jewish Bloc that has been a significant presence on every one of those national marches, supporting justice for Palestine and visibly giving the lie to those who say central London is unsafe for Jews.

But anti-fascists live in dangerous times. Look across Europe – where there will be elections to the European Parliament in a few days. The forecast is that far-right parties (who combine their ultra-nationalism with Islamophobia, anti-Black and anti-Roma racism, antisemitism and anti-migrant, anti-refugee sentiment), will grow in strength and influence. A new united far-right bloc led by Meloni and le Pen is likely to emerge as one of the biggest blocs.

Look across the water to America where Donald Trump despite his setback could win power again. Trump has spent most of his life steeped in close friendships with white supremacists and antisemites. He is a rabid Islamophobe. And yet, in recent days, we have heard both Keir Starmer and David Lammy calmly say they would be happy to sit down with him if, as expected, Labour will be in government.

We know that the Tories have had many, many decades of deepening and finessing their racist nationalism. It is galling to see the Labour Party – who still have many good anti-racists at the grassroots, being led by people so committed to Atlanticism, whichever far-right jerk may be running America. It is galling to see them pushing the most vacuous Union-Jack-waving nationalism here, while trying to oust black and brown left wingers in the party, and to see how they have cheapened the fight against real antisemitism by using false accusations as a political football in a factional fight against the left. And it is galling to find them just as wedded to the Tories’ crude “Stop the Boats” slogan that shamefully treats refugees as a problem rather than assets to our society.

As Jewish socialists we stand with all victims of racism and we are mightily glad that Diane Abbott and Faiza Shaheen are fighting back! And we take inspiration from all who are fighting back against racism, against nationalism, against fascism, across the globe, for a world without borders, a world based on humanity, equality and solidarity. No Pasaran!