Category: Anti-Nazi League
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‘Fascists don’t obey debating club rules’: The National Organisation of International Socialist Societies and ‘No Platform’ in the 1970s
While researching my book on the history of ‘no platform’, there were some things that I was unable to touch on in the book and some of the documents that didn’t get included in the final draft relate to the National Organisation of International Socialist Societies, the student organisation of the International Socialists/Socialist Workers Party…
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The Workers Revolutionary Party and the Anti-Nazi League
This was originally posted on my Patreon here. A scan of the pamphlet discussed below can be found here. In mid-1978, the Workers Revolutionary Party published a pamphlet titled The Anti-Nazi League and Fascism, based on articles written for their newspaper, Newsline, by Jack Gale. The WRP, led by Gerry Healy, was an orthodox Trotskyist…
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The BNP and the hijacking of the Free Speech Society at Leeds University
In the House of Commons yesterday, the Tories’ Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill was debated. Labour MP Alex Sobel, who attended Leeds University, told the story of Mark Collett and Chris Beverley, who were BNP members that tried to overturn the ‘no platform’ policy at Leeds in the early 2000s, via the Free Speech…
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Southall 1979 pamphlet
Today is the anniversary of the police riot in Southall on 23 April, 1979 when police attempted to break up a demonstration against the National Front outside Southall Town Hall. There were numerous injuries and over 300 arrests, while one protestor, Blair Peach, was killed. Recently declassified files reveal much more about what happened at…
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Anti-fascists, the British left and the David Irving libel trial
On 11 April 2000, Mr Justice Gray found in favour of Penguin Books, who had been sued for libel by David Irving after the publication of Deborah Lipstadt’s Denying the Holocaust, which stated: Irving is one of the most dangerous spokespersons for Holocaust denial. Familiar with historical evidence, he bends it until it conforms with…
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Paperback edition of ‘British Communism and the Politics of Race’ is ready for pre-order!
This is just a quick announcement to let you all know that the paperback edition of my book British Communism and the Politics of Race will be out next month through Haymarket Books. You can pre-order it now here. You can read an interview I did with Selim Nadi for the Historical Materialism blog about the book…
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Forthcoming with Brill, ‘British Communism and the Politics of Race’
Ten years in the making, I am very happy to announce that Brill will be publishing my monograph British Communism and the Politics of Race as part of its Historical Materialism series later this year. You can pre-order a copy here. Here is a short blurb: British Communism and the Politics of Race explores the…
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After Grunwick: Trade unions and anti-racism in the 1980s
This is the latest post looking at the history of the turbulent relationship between the British labour movement and black and Asian workers in the post-war era, following on from posts on the Imperial Typewriters strike in mid-1974 and the Grunwick strike between 1976 and 1978. While Grunwick is seen as a turning point, there…
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From Powell to Brexit: My interview with the Weekly Worker on ‘race’, anti-racism and the British left
This week, the CPGB’s Weekly Worker (see here for more info on its background) conducted an interview with me about my forthcoming book, British Communism and the Politics of Race, as well as on my research in general and the anti-racist movement in Britain since the 1960s. You can read the full interview here. It…
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‘By whatever means necessary’: The origins of the ‘no platform’ policy
Recently the concept of ‘no platform’ was in the news again when there were attempts to cancel a talk by Germaine Greer at Cardiff University. While there is no doubt that the use of ‘no platform’ has expanded since its first use in the 1970s, the term is bandied about in the media with little…
New Historical Express 