Today marks the 80th anniversary of the murder of Dietrich Bonhoeffer in the final days of the Second World war. The sounds of the bombardment of the advancing Soviet army showed defeat was near for the Nazis, but their priority was to kill internal enemies threatening them. The killing of Bonhoeffer, a German theologian and […]
Anti-fascism
Searchlight Magazine’s final issue – more of an ‘au revoir’ than a ‘goodbye’
Searchlight the printed magazine is bowing out after half a century in continuous publication. It was launched with a February 1975 cover date, and the 50th anniversary issue is out now. The new magazine was in part the reincarnation of a (very) occasional newspaper of the same name, launched by some of the people who […]
50 years and counting: Searchlight’s Past, Present and Future
In early 1975 two antifascist activists published a small magazine. It was 20 pages long, black and white, and most of its content was about the then fast-growing National Front. There was only one picture, on the front cover: a leather-jacketed young fascist, wearing dark glasses and carrying a union jack, above a familiar antifascist […]
The end of an era for the anti-fascist movement – Searchlight founder Gerry Gable retires
With the publication of the final print edition of Searchlight, the magazine’s founder and often-times editor, Gerry Gable, has announced that he is stepping back from running the magazine. The final issue, a huge 72-page look back over the magazine’s history and achievements, comes shortly after Gerry’s 88th birthday, and in it he writes that: […]
Searchlight – the great achievement of post-war anti-fascists
When I sat down with a couple of former 62 group leaders in 1975 to discuss possibly relaunching Searchlight, the anti-fascist newspaper we had published in the mid-60s, I had no idea that it would set a course for me for the rest of my life. The newspaper, which appeared only four times, was the […]
Britain First’s Nuneaton humiliation
A thousand flags. £10,000 on PA system, staging and a dozen portaloos. Much boasting. Claims that hundreds would be attending. Six coachloads… which turned out to be minibuses. Everyone was emailed multiple times pleading for members and supporters to chip in a tenner for what turned out to be a humiliation. Few did, and now […]