The line of the police is to defend the exercise of the formal democratic rights of the fascists, on the one hand, and not to “see” the violations of the democratic rights of the fascists’ victims. Meanwhile, the cops take full advantage of any violation of bourgeois-democratic law that the antifascists may commit. In any kind of confrontation between antifascist and fascist forces, the basic line of the cops is to protect the fascists in any way they can and to join in the victimization of the antifascists.

—Farrell Dobbs, May 6, 1975

These remarks made 30 years ago by a leader of the Socialist Workers Party who helped lead the Teamsters organizing battles in the 1930s—confronting antiunion frame-ups and fascist goons in the process—aptly describe the reasons behind the October 15 police riot in Toledo.

“Not on our streets!” was the message sent by hundreds of young Blacks and other residents of northeast Toledo when the fascist National Socialist Movement attempted to march through the Black community there under police escort. The counter mobilization against this rightist provocation struck a blow for all working people.

Faced with a rapidly growing protest, city officials and the cops cancelled the fascists’ permit to march and forced them to leave. The cops then took advantage of the presence of gang members to justify their assault on the antifascist protesters. Responsibility for the violence lies squarely with the police.

City officials now say they’ll try to prevent “hate groups” from assembling in residential areas in the future. The real aim of such moves is to shut down space for working people. The labor movement should oppose any such steps and call for releasing those arrested October 15.

The call by the handful of Nazis to rally “whites” to take back “their neighborhood” fell on deaf ears. This registers the irreversible changes in attitudes among working people that have their roots in the gains of the movement for Black rights in the 1960s and ’70s. That consciousness has been deepened by subsequent battles for affirmative action and for unionization. It will be further advanced in current and coming struggles as workers stand up together to the intensifying assaults by the bosses on our jobs, wages, and very conditions of life.

The rebellion in Toledo took place on the same day 150,000 people, overwhelmingly Black, rallied in Washington at the Millions More Movement action. It was the largest mobilization of African Americans in a decade. Both events are further registration of a change in the political situation in the United States—a greater readiness to mobilize in the streets to defend the interests of the working class and change the relationship of class forces in the process. A shift that bodes well for working people.
 
 
Related articles:
Toledo: protesters counter Nazi rally in Black community
Dozens arrested in cop riot; mayor declares curfew  
 
 
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