Category: no platform
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‘No platforming’ homophobes in the 1980s
As it is LGBT+ History Month in the UK this month, I thought I’d share a short story of protest against homophobia in Britain in the 1980s by students at Swansea University. This story can be found in my book No Platform: A History of Anti-Fascism, Universities and the Limits of Free Speech. When the…
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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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Legislating the free speech on campus culture war in the 1980s
This was originally posted on my Patreon here. This month is the 35th anniversary of the introduction of the Education (No. 2) Act 1986 which was a response by the Thatcher government to the disruptive protests on campuses in the mid-1980s which included the shutting down of talks by Conservative MPs. It is particularly prescient…
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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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Collected reviews of ‘No Platform’ book
My book, No Platform: A History of Anti-Fascism, Universities and the Limits of Free Speech, has been out for a year and has been reviewed in several publications. I thought I’d collect them here, particularly as they’re an easy reference point for me then. Review by Nick Hillman in Times Higher Education. Mike Makin-Waite, ‘Controversial…
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When the fascists went to university (and the campaigns to keep them out)
Recently there have been several mentions of Oswald Mosley being invited to speak at universities in the early 1960s. One from a piece in The Times opining for the ‘lost days of campus free speech’ and then related to Max Mosley’s recent passing, who invited his father to speak in 1961 when Secretary of the…
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A short interview about ‘no platform’ with Marta Santiváñez
Last year the journalist Marta Santiváñez interviewed me about the history of ‘no platform’ as she was writing a chapter for Charlotte Lydia Riley’s edited book The Free Speech Wars. A few excerpts were published in the chapter, but I thought I would post (with Marta’s agreement) the original interview transcript. This interview was conducted…
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Media platforms and social media deplatforming: Some history and context
With the decision by Twitter and Facebook to deplatform Donald Trump and other far right accounts, as well as on-going debate about the reporting on the far right by the media, I thought I’d post this excerpt from book, No Platform: A History of Anti-Fascism, Universities and the Limits of Free Speech. While it is…
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Review of ‘No Platform’ in Twentieth Century British History
I am excited that my book has had its first review in an academic journal, Twentieth Century British History, and can report that it is very positive! The review, by Hallam Roffey at the University of Sheffield, concludes with the following: This is, though, a crucial intervention and an imperative text for those interested in…
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The ‘Battle of Cable Street’ and the Origins of ‘No Platform’
Tomorrow (October 4) is the anniversary of the ‘Battle of Cable Street’. This post, adapted from my book, looks at how this event in 1936 influenced anti-fascists and the student left in the 1970s in their adoption of the ‘no platform’ policy and tactic. ‘No platform’ emerged out of a much longer anti-fascist tradition in…
New Historical Express 