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Patriotic Alternative conference exposes weaknesses and international connections

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Rogue’s gallery, left to right: David Clews, Laura Towler, Joel Davis,  Mark Collett, Tony Hovater, Warren Balogh Fearful of internal splits and anti-fascist infiltration, Patriotic Alternative abandoned plans to stage their conference in an expensive hotel (as they have done at least once a year since the group was founded). Instead, they gathered in the […]

International Nazi network meets in UK – The inside story

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In recent weeks splits within Patriotic Alternative, the most extreme and active far right organisation in the UK, have widened. Fascists who until a few months ago were supposedly comrades in campaigns of race-baiting, are now bitter personal enemies. One significant development is that PA’s leadership have become even more explicit in identifying themselves with the […]

Pro-Ukraine nazi militia leader attended secret UK training camps

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Images: top, Denis Nikitin, aka Kapustin, with his Russian Volunteer Corps in May this year; bottom left, camps organiser Larry Nunn (with loud hailer); bottom right, Arkadiusz Rzepinski, leader of the UK section of far right Polish group NOP [National Rebirth of Poland] This article first appeared in Searchlight Summer 2023 issue. THE LEADER OF a […]

Slick operator who led Italy’s fascist revival – Alfio Bernabei looks back at Berlusconi’s legacy

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Silvio Berlusconi, 1936–2023    Photo: European People’s Party    Silvio Berlusconi helped rehabilitate fascism by falsifying the historical truth and lying about the crimes committed in the name of fascism. He did this by using a mixture of ignorance and persuasion, laced with seductive doses of panache and bonhomie amid plenty of televisual entertainment. Over the […]

Theatre Review: The Accidental Death of an Anarchist, by Dario Fo and Franca Rame

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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 […]

A swap shop where the far right trades ideas – European Conservative Political Action Conference

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Topping the bill at this year’s CPAC, Hungary’s authoritarian leader Viktor Orbán advocated a far-right takeover of liberal democracies, by following his example. Martin Smith gains an insight into the developing links between global extremists This year’s European Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) was held on 4 and 5 May at the Bálna Centre in […]

National Conservatism: gateway to the far right?

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Concerns over falling birth rates and high immigration loomed large at the recent National Conservatism conference in London. Star turn, Conservative MP Miriam Cates, is exercised by both. But what’s the connection?  David Edgar sifts through the rhetoric First published in the Summer 2023 issue of Searchlight magazine  Credit: National Conservatism You Tube channel The […]

A dangerous triumvirate by Alfio Bernabei

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First published in Spring 2023 issue of Searchlight magazine Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s comments on the Fosse Ardeatine massacre during the Second World War set an alarming precedent, signalling the start of a process by the far right government to recast the past, warns Alfio Bernabei Italian President Sergio Mattarella (left), with the unwholesome trio of […]

Trump indictment splits MAGA base by Leonard Zeskind

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First published in the Spring 2023 issue of Searchlight magazine Despite waning support, with many right wing groups now turning to white nationalists, Trump still leads the pack of Republican presidential wannabes. Leonard Zeskind weighs up his chances Trump  Photo: Gage Skidmore https://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/51826153195/in/photostream On 19 April 2023, as anti-racist demonstrators carried placards in North Kansas City, a […]

‘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 […]

One Week in Warsaw – David Rosenberg reports from Warsaw where a poignant anniversary was being commemorated

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First published in the Spring 2023 issue of Searchlight magazine 16th April 2023 commemorative march led by women activists  photo by David Rosenberg Warsaw, Sunday 16 April. Three days before the Polish Government is due to host the official 80th anniversary commemoration of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, when their chosen guests will assemble in front […]

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 […]

The Budaházy case, terrorism and the state

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Martin Smith uncovers the unholy alliances between far-right and neo-nazi parties, and why they are campaigning for the release of terror gang members responsible for violent attacks on government officials and LGBT+ groups in the latter 2000s Far-right unity: Campaigners to free Budaházy come from across the far-right spectrum. (The banner reads: ‘Freedom to Budaházy! […]

Endgame for Oath Keepers – by Leonard Zeskind

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In the first conviction of its kind against white supremacists, many of the group’s leaders were found guilty of seditious conspiracy. These verdicts will certainly lose the group its lawful kudos, suggests Leonard Zeskind     Proud Boy: EnriqueTarrio         Oath Keeper: Stewart Rhodes Photo: Anthony Crider More than two years after a Trump-inspired […]

Cardiff says no to a sculpture honouring Marconi, “fascist, racist, and anti-Semite.” By Alfio Bernabei

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The news that a sculpture honouring Guglielmo Marconi, the “father of radio”, could be abandoned after Cardiff councillors learned of his support for Mussolini has been greeted with relief by Italian antifascists. The fascists, as expected, are incandescent with rage. Eead article on ANPI London Facebook page by Alfio Bernabei here