The red triangle was in the news recently when the city of Berlin senate banned its use on activities related to the Middle East after the image was appropriated by Hamas supporters. There is some confusion as to the origins of the use of the red triangle in this context with some saying it represents […]
Anti-fascism
100 years ago: a grim anniversary Italy’s far right leaders would prefer to forget
By Alfio Bernabei On 16 August 1924 the body of Italian Socialist MP Giacomo Matteotti was found in woods about 15 miles outside Rome. The five men who had kidnapped and killed him on 10 June, all identified within days and all members of Mussolini’s secret police, had agreed not to disclose the place where […]
A historic day for the anti-fascist movement
Searchlight send its heartfelt greetings to all those who worked so hard to pull off Wednesday’s remarkable mobilisations around the country and to those who turned out in response. Sadly, the movement was caught unawares by the events which unfolded so rapidly after the Southport killings, but in the days since anti-racists have rallied and […]
New Attorney General was youthful Searchlight volunteer.
Britain’s fascists are getting a bit exercised by Keir Starmer’s appointment of Richard Hermer, KC, as the new Labour government’s Attorney General. For Mark Collett of Patriotic Alternative, it is enough that Mr Hermer is proudly Jewish to provoke a disapproving comment. However, had he managed to read to the end of the Jewish Chronicle […]
Cable Street: A new musical – Review by David Rosenberg
Cable Street : A new musical returns for it’s second run @Southwark Playhouse 6 Sept-10 Oct 2024 here The Battle of Cable Street in London’s East End on 4 October 1936 was undoubtedly the most iconic confrontation with fascism in 1930s Britain, although people in Stockton, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Bristol and Bermondsey will point to […]
Remembering a true anti-fascist legend
26 years ago today we lost Baron Moss, one of the great unsung heroes of the British anti-fascist movement. Baron was one of the leadership committee of the 62 Group which decided to launch Searchlight as a newspaper in 1964. And it was Baron who brought together Gerry Gable and Maurice Ludmer to relaunch […]
Honour for ex-62 Group fighter
Sir Gerald Ronson It really isn’t very often that Searchlight feels moved to congratulate someone upon receiving a knighthood, but we happily make an exception in the case of Sir Gerald Ronson, recently honoured for his services to philanthropy and the Jewish community. Gerald is, of course, best known as a hugely successful property developer, […]
Glenys Kinnock: Staunch anti-fascist and friend of Searchlight
Glenys Kinnock, 3rd from left, alongside Joan Lestor MP, a former editor of Searchlight in the 1960s, at an ANC ‘Year of the Woman’ meeting, London 1984 Searchlight is deeply saddened to learn of the death of Glenys Kinnock, Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead, a long-time friend and supporter of Searchlight who worked with us on […]
ANL footy fans had no truck with spycops disruptors – Paul Sillett reports
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
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
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 […]
Punk: Rage & Revolution, Leicester. Exhibition Review by Paul Sillett
Exhibition Punk: Rage & Revolution, Leicester Museum & Art Gallery, Until 3 September. Free entry Punk culture played an important part in countering fascists, so come celebrate it, says Paul Sillett If you were at all touched by the ‘punk explosion’ in 1976, this exhibition is a must! It gives an incisive historical overview of […]
OBITUARY: Jules Konopinski, last anti-fascist to fight with the 43 Group and the 62 Group
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 […]