On 14 May,1981, at the age of only 54, Searchlight’s editor Maurice Ludmer died suddenly, depriving the post war anti-fascist and anti-racist movement of one of its leading figures. Maurice, famously, said “Never again” in 1946 when, as his 1981 Searchlight obituary written by the playwright David Edgar, recounted: “…a young British Army private, a […]
Peter Marriner: undercover hero of the anti-fascist movement
Peter Marriner, who has died at the age of 77, was an undercover informant in the extreme right for many years, and one of those extraordinary people, true heroes of the anti-fascist movement, to whom we owe an enormous debt of gratitude for their courage and self-sacrifice. But the story of his initial introduction into […]
Theatre Review: The Accidental Death of an Anarchist, by Dario Fo and Franca Rame
The Accidental Death of an Anarchist is a play that arose from events in December 1969, when Italian fascists bombed the Piazza Fontana in Milan, killing 17 people and injuring 88. It was the deadliest of several bombs planted that day by the group Ordine Nuovo (New Order) as part of the far right’s ‘Strategy […]
Paying tribute to Ray Hill
In the pantheon of heroes this country’s anti-fascist movement has produced, there is surely a guaranteed seat of honour for Ray Hill, Searchlight’s most celebrated ‘mole’, who sadly died on 14 May. No one (or at least no one who can yet be spoken of) has inflicted such damage on the extreme right movement, nor […]
