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Anti-fascism

ANL footy fans had no truck with spycops disruptors – Paul Sillett reports

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Nazi crew The National Front on the terraces in 1987  Pic credit: Searchlight It has long been known that the state uses undercover agents to infiltrate political organisations and feed back to the security services all manner of information. The quality of this intelligence, however, is another matter. Recent revelations about police infiltration of an anti-fascist […]

Jane Loftus – trade union and anti-racist stalwart

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  Searchlight would like to pay tribute to Jane Loftus, President of the Communication and Workers Union who died yesterday after a short illness. Having joined CWU in Liverpool in 1982, Jane became the first woman to hold the position of Chair of the Postal Constituency as well as the first woman to become National President.  […]

‘No’ to a street named after an antifascist. The decision by Lucca’s town council makes headlines in Italy by Alfio Bernabei

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Sandro Petrini, antifascist The town council of Lucca, one of Tuscany’s most treasured artistic places and favoured destination for tourists from all over the world, has rejected a motion in favour of naming a street after a leading figure of antifascism. Traditionally a stronghold of the left, the council came under the control of the […]

OBITUARY: Jules Konopinski, last anti-fascist to fight with the 43 Group and the 62 Group

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By Daniel Sonabend, historian of the 43 group Jules Konopinski – veteran anti-fascist  On the 11 September 1949, the militant anti-fascist 43 Group, alongside communist allies, held a meeting outside Hackney Town Hall, preventing a march of Oswald Mosley’s Union Movement from commencing there. However, Geoffrey Bernerd, the 43 Group’s co-chairman, found himself confronted by […]

Barbara Cohen: A life well spent fighting injustice and discrimination

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Barbara Cohen: Friend, supporter and contributor to Searchlight magazine  Searchlight’s team is devastated at the news that Barbara Cohen, a life-long fighter against inequality and injustice and a long-standing friend, supporter of and contributor to Searchlight, died suddenly last Thursday 8th June. We send heartfelt condolences to Barbara’s family and friends, and everyone who worked […]

Searchlight wishes photographer birthday greetings

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  David Hoffman is celebrating another year and here at Searchlight we salute him for his doggedness for over 50 years as a photographer on the frontline of social justice reporting. David Hoffman has documented so many key events over the years and we are honoured that he has worked with us during his long […]

‘We must not waste our lives in dull inaction’ – 100th anniversary of Pankhurst’s address to anti-fascist meeting

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Alfio Bernabei reports on the commemoration of an event addressed 100 years ago by suffrage campaigner and socialist Sylvia Pankhurst, who was one of the first to warn the world outside Italy of the dangers of fascism – a warning that still holds today First published in the Spring 2023 issue of Searchlight magazine Dondi’s […]

Frene Ginwala, 1932–2023 Activist who helped expose genesis of plot to kidnap ANC leaders

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Obituary by Andy Bell – originally published in Spring 2023 Issue of Searchlight magazine Searchlight was saddened to hear, just as our last issue went to press, of the death of Frene Ginwala, the veteran ANC activist and first Speaker in the post-apartheid South African parliament [National Assembly] who has died aged 90 years. Searchlight […]

Remembering Blair Peach

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Remembering Blair Peach  On this day we remember Blair Peach, a teacher who was taking part in an Anti-Nazi League demonstration against a National Front election Meeting in the Town Hall in Southall, West London in 1979. Blair Peach was hit on the head and died later that day in hospital. The police investigation concluded […]

Ray Hill obituary: The Guardian

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Ray Hill, anti-fascist activist, born 2 December 1939; died 14 May 2022 Former neo-Nazi activist who changed course and threw himself into campaigning against racism and rightwing extremism Read full obituary at The Guardian website here

Paying tribute to Ray Hill

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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 […]

RIP Ray Hill

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Photo: Andy Bell, May 2022 Ray Hill, that giant of the anti-fascist movement passed away this morning after being diagnosed with cancer only a few weeks ago. It’s 40 years since Ray, then a dyed-in-the-wool nazi, underwent a profound conversion and pledged the rest of his life to fighting fascism, first and most devastatingly as […]