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When nazis planned to bomb the Notting Hill carnival – the inside story
45 years ago this month, Searchlight broke one of the most important stories it has ever investigated – British nazis were planning to bomb the Notting Hill Carnival but were thwarted by Searchlight’s mole, Ray Hill. I was there. This is the inside story. When Ray Hill, Searchlight’s most famous ‘mole’ in the British far right,… Read more
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Belarus posthumously prosecutes nazi war crimes fugitive we investigated forty years ago
This is an extended version of an article first published by Searchlight on 6 March 2026 The Supreme Court of Belarus has announced that it will begin criminal proceedings against Antanas Gecevičius, better known in Scotland as Antanas Gecas, for genocide. The case is scheduled to open on 18 March. The defendant has been dead… Read more
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Theatre review: Here There Are Blueberries, by Moisés Kaufman and Amanda Gronich
This extraordinary production at Stratford East lands with the quiet, cumulative force of a dossier being opened in front of you. What emerges is not a conventional piece of Holocaust drama but an inquiry into how very ordinary people become functionaries of atrocity, and how institutions charged with memorialising victims must navigate the unsettling images… Read more
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Obituary: Gerry Gable (1937-2026), architect of modern British anti-fascism
The death of Searchlight’s founder Gerry Gable at the age of 88 marks the passing of a man without whom modern British anti-fascism would scarcely be recognisable. For more than sixty years, he stood at the centre of the struggle against fascism and the extreme right, as a relentless organiser, investigator and strategist. To many, Gerry was anti-fascism:… Read more
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Peter Marriner: undercover hero of the anti-fascist movement
Peter Marriner, who has died at the age of 77, was an undercover informant in the extreme right for many years, and one of those extraordinary people, true heroes of the anti-fascist movement, to whom we owe an enormous debt of gratitude for their courage and self-sacrifice. But the story of his initial introduction into… Read more
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My time as Searchlight editor – unremitting but worth every single second
The anti-fascist magazine, Searchlight, is celebrating its 50th anniversary and to mark the occasion has produced a final, bumper, 72-page issue before it migrates completely online. It’s a fabulous read, and I urge everyone to buy it. Each of its surviving editors down through the years have written about how, and why, they became involved,… Read more
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About Me
I’ve been an active anti-fascist since 1974, working for Searchlight magazine from 1975 till 1989. From 1983 till 1989 I was its editor and co-wrote ‘The Other Face of Terror’, with Ray Hill, the celebrated Searchlight infiltrator into the European neo-Nazi movement. After that, and for the next 20 years, I worked as an investigative journalist with ITV’s World in Action and the BBC’s Panorama. I blog about the history and practice of anti-fascism, especially in the UK.
Recent Posts
- When nazis planned to bomb the Notting Hill carnival – the inside story
- Belarus posthumously prosecutes nazi war crimes fugitive we investigated forty years ago
- Theatre review: Here There Are Blueberries, by Moisés Kaufman and Amanda Gronich
- Obituary: Gerry Gable (1937-2026), architect of modern British anti-fascism
- Peter Marriner: undercover hero of the anti-fascist movement
andy bell 