Anti-fascism
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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, Continue reading
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Your tour guide is a wanted terrorist…
How a Searchlight investigation into a tour guide company first exposed links between the National Front and London-based Italian fascists wanted for terrorism Continue reading
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British Movement – Our part in its downfall
The last of my articles about the exploits of anti-fascist super mole Ray Hill. This time – how he engineered the collapse of British Movement, then the UK’s biggest openly neo-Nazi organisation. Continue reading
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When a fugitive fascist terror cell broke cover…
How an Italian fascist terror cell broke cover in London to support a comrade accused of murder and a £10 million pound bank raid … Continue reading
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Peekskill 1949 – “the first great open manifestation of American fascism”.
This weekend marks the anniversary of one of the great stands against American fascism, at Peekskill, NY, in 1947. And at the heart of it was the great black American singer, Paul Robeson. Continue reading
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The Coup Maker
GK Young – the senior British intelligence officer who helped overthrow the Iranian government in 1953 and went on to plan for a military coup in Britain. Continue reading
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BDP leader Andrew Brons’ youthful dilemma: do we bomb synagogues or not?
British Democrats leader Andrew Brons poses as the respectable face of British fascism – but he has never apologised for supporting “well intentioned” synagogue bombing… Continue reading
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When Combat 18 nazis plotted to murder a journalist investigating them – the inside story
A few weeks ago I wrote about the 1993 investigation by Searchlight and ITV’s World In Action, into the neo-nazi terror group, Combat 18. We exposed C18’s responsibility for death threats, beatings, letter bombs and arson attacks. On camera, C18 leader Charlie Sargent threatened me that I would get “a bullet in your head… that’s… Continue reading
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Chasing nazis across the sea to Ireland…
It’s not often you get to play a part in the total destruction of a far right group. But that’s what happened after the broadcast, 42 years ago this week, of a TV investigation into Nazi gun running in the UK. Continue reading
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The killing of an anti-fascist -Red Lion Square, June 1974
On 15 June 1974, anti-fascist Kevin Gately was killed, almost certainly by police, on an anti-National Front march in London. I was there, and this is a very short personal recollection of the day. Continue reading
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.
andy bell 