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Abstract
Antifascism has regularly been typecast as a form of action which only includes militancy and violence and does not seek to diversify its tactics when combatting fascism. This article highlights that throughout the twentieth century in Britain, militant antifascists have repeatedly worked with more moderate and liberal groups in order to develop a wider repertoire of ways and means to fight those they deem fascist. After the Second World War, organisations such as the 43 Group developed political aims in order to work towards their main aim of combatting the far right on the streets. In additional to this, this article shows the ways in which many groups ‘pivoted’ to other forms of campaigning to support the dominant campaign of the day, whilst still maintaining antifascist activism, thereby creating new networks and communities of activism.
Data statement
Physical Data supporting this publication is stored at the Searchlight Archive that is managed by the University of Northampton, and details on how to access this can be found here: https://www.northampton.ac.uk/about-us/services-and-facilities/the-searchlight-archives/. List of archive boxes consulted from this collection are: Uncatalogued material - Box labelled Videos; SCH/01/Res/SLI.
Notes
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23 Steve Silver, “The 62 Group,” August 26, 2022, https://libcom.org/article/history-62-group.
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25 Silver, “The 62 Group”.
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27 Silver, “The 62 Group”.
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29 Daniel Gorman, ‘The Movement for Colonial Freedom’, in Uniting Nations (United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2022): 152–83, (168).
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31 Silver, “The 62 Group”. Steve Silver, “The 62 Group,” August 26, 2022, https://libcom.org/article/history-62-group.
32 Silver, “The 62 Group”.
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34 Connecting Histories, “The Co-ordinating Committee Against Racial Discrimination.”.
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38 Connecting Histories, “The Co-ordinating Committee Against Racial Discrimination.”.
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43 Ibid., 4.
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45 Letter from Otto Frank to Maurice Ludmer, Jan 1977. Held at: Northampton, University of Northampton, Searchlight Archive, Uncatalogued material – Box labelled ‘Videos’.
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53 Searchlight, “Front Page,” Searchlight No.54, December 1979, 1.
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60 Higgs, “From the Street to the State,” 75.
61 Bourne, “CARF,” 94. Michael Higgs, “From the Street to the State: Making Anti-Fascism Anti-Racist in 1970s Britain,” Race & Class 58, no.1 (2016): 66–84, 71.
62 Higgs, “From the Street to the State,” 73.
63 Ibid., 73.
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66 Richard Thurlow, Fascism in Britain: From Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts to the National Front (London: I.B Tauris and Company Ltd, 1998), 256.
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70 Ibid., 52.
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72 Searchlight, ‘Petition to the home secretary on Nazi war criminals, Searchlight, No.149 November 1987, magazine insert.
73 UK Parliament, “Register of All-Party Groups,” www.parliament.uk, October 31, 2023, https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200001/cmoldparty/cmparty/memi308.htm
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77 Ibid., 342. UK Parliament, “Register of All-Party Groups,” www.parliament.uk, October 31, 2023, https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200001/cmoldparty/cmparty/memi308.htm.
78 Haus der Geschichte Österreich, “Erinnern: Die Gegenwart der NS-Vegangenheit,” November 05, 2023, https://hdgoe.at/erinnern_gegenwart_der_ns_vergangenheit.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Siobhán Hyland
Dr Siobhán Hyland is Associate Lecturer at the Open University and Research Assistant at the Centre for Historical Studies, University of Northampton. Siobhán received her PhD in 2023, thesis entitled, ‘Searchlight Magazine’s Investigative Antifascist War Crimes Campaign to Uncover Second World War era Nazi War Criminals Living in Britain, 1980–1990s’. Email: [email protected]