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 […]
News
UKIP – fallout starts after Nazi ban scrapped
Searchlight’s revelation last weekend that UKIP has ditched a ban on fascists and neo-Nazis becoming members, seems to have sparked a bit of a crisis in the party leadership. Image: Patricia Bryant resigned from UKIP on Friday Patricia Bryant, a member of the National Executive Committee, the party’s Agriculture Spokesperson, and lynchpin of UKIP in […]
Exclusive: Mutual suspicion and personal rancour plague UK Nazi unity talks – the inside story
It’s not easy for Mark Collett to eat even a few crumbs of humble pie. But after a disastrous split in his Patriotic Alternative group, reported last month by Searchlight, he has had to digest an entire plateful. Image: Mark Collett Desperate to reclaim some sort of credibility, Collett has taken part in “unity” discussions […]
UKIP throws open its doors to fascists and neo-Nazis
UKIP had opened its doors to let fascists and neo-Nazis join the organisation, ditching a ban on former member of fascist groups that has been in place since the party’s earliest days. The move is part of a further rightwards shift by a party desperately trying to avoid collapse. Membership rules before and after the […]
A dangerous triumvirate by Alfio Bernabei
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
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 […]
Former US soldier jailed for 45 years by Huw Davies
First published in the Spring 2023 issue of Searchlight magazine Melzer Planned a mass casualty attack on his own platoon A former US soldier and member of a neo-nazi group has been jailed for 45 years for planning terrorist attacks. Ethan Phelan Melzer, also known as Etil Reggard, a 24-year old man from Kentucky, was sentenced […]
One Week in Warsaw – David Rosenberg reports from Warsaw where a poignant anniversary was being commemorated
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 […]
Behind the new iteration of an age-old plot – Martyn Lester examines GB news presenter, Neil Oliver
Following an on-air diatribe delivered by GB News host Neil Oliver, Martyn Lester mulls over the possible source for the latest variant of the conspiracy theory that there is a sinister group bent on imposing a ‘one-world government’ First published in the Spring 2023 issue of Searchlight magazine Back in February, in what have been described as […]
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 […]
Nazi split update – The blame game begins
During the first ten days following a disastrous drubbing for the entire far right at England’s local elections, each of the fractious PA factions has interpreted these results as a vindication. Alek Yerbury’s barmy army took the results as confirmation that traditional politics offer no hope for fascist politics. All the usual reasons apply. The […]
Britain’s biggest Nazi group fractures – The Patriotic Alternative split and where it leaves Britain’s far right
By Gerry Gable As Searchlight has already reported, the UK’s largest nazi organisation has split down the middle. Of the 54 organisers in Patriotic Alternative (PA), 32 deserted its founder and leader Mark Collett in late April 2023 and defected to a new breakaway movement, the Homeland Party, led by PA’s national admin officer Kenny Smith. […]
Election disaster may mean nazi groups unite
Andrew Brons, British Democrats Mark Collett, Patriotic Alternative The 2023 local elections were a disaster for the entire spectrum of Britain’s far right. The last remaining openly fascist councillor, Julian Leppert lost his seat, and votes for other high-profile extremist candidates were down on last […]
Remembering the victims of the nail bombings
On the anniversary of Nazi David Copeland’s third and most deadly nailbomb attack on London in 1999, we remember his victims; those who died in the Admiral Duncan pub in Soho and the many more injured there, and in Brick Lane and Brixton. Searchlight worked with BBC Panorama to investigate not just Copeland’s bombing campaign, […]
Patriotic Alternative split latest: Et tu, Wesley?
Photo: Alec Cave alias Wesley Russell When Searchlight broke the news of a split in PA, some analysts saw it as “content creators” (staying with Collett and Towler) against “serious political activists” (defecting to Kenny Smith’s new Homeland Party). Smith himself contributed to this impression, criticising Collett’s over-emphasis on the minor celebrities […]
Searchlight analysis: Fascist and far right candidates in local elections, May 2023
Photo: David Hyden, so-called Independent candidate for Cannock South, on the campaign trail with fellow ex Patriotic Alternative activist, Connor Marlow, one of the leaders of the Homeland Party split. British fascists remain confused and divided in their approach to electoral politics, even allowing for the large proportion who have always preferred bombs to […]
PA rebels form Homeland Party
Beleagured PA leader Mark Collett The Patriotic Alternative split, revealed by Searchlight on Thursday, has hardened within the last 48 hours. Last weekend seven regional organisers wrote to PA’s egotistical leader Mark Collett and his deputy Laura Tyrie (alias Laura Towler), supporting criticisms by their national admin officer Kenny Smith. After failed attempts to mediate […]
Breaking news – Patriotic Alternative split
Photo: Kenny Smith with Scottish PA members As nazis worldwide prepared for their annual celebration of Adolf Hitler’s birthday, Searchlight is picking up reports of a bitter factional split in Britain’s leading nazi group, Patriotic Alternative. Searchlight has expected this split for months, between Mark Collett and his cult followers on one side, and […]
The Budaházy case, terrorism and the state
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
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 […]
