Anti-Nazi League: Difference between revisions

|extinctiondissolved = 1981

The '''Anti-Nazi League''' ('''ANL''') was an organisation set up in 1977 on the initiative of the [[Socialist Workers Party (BritainUK)|Socialist Workers Party]] (SWP) with sponsorship from some trade unions and the endorsement of a list of prominent people to [[Anti-fascism|oppose]] the rise of [[Far-right politics in the United Kingdom|far-right groups in the United Kingdom]]. It was wound down in 1981. It was relaunched in 1992, but merged into [[Unite Against Fascism]] in 2003.

In its first period, 1977–1982, the Anti-Nazi League was launched directly by the SWP; it was effectively its front organisation.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Boothroyd|first1=David|author-link=David Boothroyd|title=The History of British Political Parties|date=2001|publisher=Politico's|isbn=1-902301-59-5|pages=303|url=https://books.google.co.ukcom/books?id=kgSJAAAAMAAJ&dq=inauthor%3A%22David+Boothroyd%22&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=%22anti+nazi+league%22|language=en}}</ref> Many trade unions sponsored it, as did the [[Indian Workers' Association]] (then a large organisation), and many members of the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]], including MPs such as [[Neil Kinnock]] and future MPs such as trade unionist [[Ernie Roberts]] and anti-apartheid campaigner [[Peter Hain]].<ref name="International Socialism">{{Citationcite neededweb|url=http://lovemusichateracism.com/about/ |title=The Anti Nazi League and its lessons for today |publisher=International Socialism | date=May1 2007July 2019 |access-date=2023-02-16}}</ref><ref name="Sabbagh2018b" /> According to socialist historian [[Dave Renton]], the ANL was "an orthodox [[united front]]" based on a "strategy of working class unity", as advocated by [[Leon Trotsky]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Renton|first=Dave|title=''Fascism: Theory and Practice''|publisher=Pluto Press|date =25 December 1998|isbn =0-7453-1470-8}}</ref> Critics of the ANL, such as [[Anti-Fascist Action]]<ref>''Fighting Talk'' no.22 October 1999</ref> argue that the ANL's co-operation with "[[bourgeois]]" groups who work closely with the state, such as ''[[Searchlight (magazine)|Searchlight]]'' magazine and the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]], rule out this description, making it a classic [[popular front]].

Most of the ANL's leafleting and other campaigns in the 1970s were in opposition to [[far right]] groups which it claimed were not just racist but fascist, such as the [[National Front (United KingdomUK)|National Front]], an organisation led by [[John Tyndall (politicianfar-right activist)|John Tyndall]] who had a long history of involvement with openly fascist and Nazi groups. The ANL also campaigned against the [[British Movement]] which was a more openly Hitlerite grouping.

The ANL was linked to [[Rock Against Racism]] in the 1970s, which ran two giant carnivals in 1978 involving bands such as [[The Clash]], [[Stiff Little Fingers]], [[Steel Pulse]], [[Misty in Roots]], [[X-Ray Spex]] and [[Tom Robinson]], attended by 80,000 and then 100,000 supporters.<ref name="Love Music Hate Racism">{{cite web|url=http://lovemusichateracism.com/about/ |title=Love Music Hate Racism |publisher=Love Music Hate Racism |access-date= |accessdate=2014-07-26}}</ref>

In April 1979, an ANL member, [[Death of Blair Peach|Blair Peach]], was killed following a demonstration at Southall against a National Front election meeting. Police had sealed off the area around [[Southall Town Hall]], and demonstrators trying to make their way there were blocked. In the ensuing confrontation, more than 40 people (including 21 police) were injured, and 300 were arrested. Bricks were allegedly hurled at police, who described the rioting as the most violent they had handled in London. Peach was among the demonstrators. During an incident in a side street 100 yards from the town hall, he was seriously injured and collapsed after being struck on the head, allegedly by an unauthorised weapon used by a member of the police [[Special Patrol Group]]. Peach died later in hospital.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/23/newsid_2523000/2523959.stm|title=BBC 1979: "Teacher dies in Southall race riots" | date=23 April 1979 | accessdateaccess-date=1 January 2010 |work=BBC News}}</ref>

In 1981, with the eclipse of the [[National Front (United Kingdom)|National Front]] and collapse of the [[British Movement]], the initial incarnation of the ANL was wound up.{{citation needed|date=March 2017}}

Some elements within the ANL opposed the winding up of the organisation, including some members of the SWP. After being expelled from the [[Socialist Workers Party (BritainUK)|Socialist Workers Party]] some of these elements formed [[Red Action]] and with others organised [[Anti-Fascist Action]].<ref name="autogenerated2003"/>

In the early 1990s, the far right, and in particular the [[British National Party]] (BNP) was resurgent both electorally and in terms of racial attacks (from 4,383 in 1988 to 7,780 three years later).<ref>''The Guardian'', 20.2.93</ref>{{page needed|date=June 2021}} [[Anti-Fascist Action]], now the longest established national [[anti-fascist]] organisation in the UK at that time, organised well-attended events in October 1991 – a Unity Carnival in East London attracting 10,000 people and a march through [[Bethnal Green]] attracting 4,000 people – prompting other left-wing groups to launch anti-racist and anti-fascist organisations, including the [[Anti-Racist Alliance]] (ARA) in November and the re-launch of the ANL two months later.<ref>Keith Popple (1997) "Understanding and tackling racism among young people in Britain' in Keith Popple, Jan Laurens Hazekam, eds, ''Racism in Europe: A Challenge for Youth Policy and Youth Work'', London: UCL Press, p.20</ref>

When the National Front and the British National Party had been led by John Tyndall, his record of involvement in openly neo-Nazi groups made it far easier to assert that the National Front and BNP were fascist or [[Neo-Nazism|neo-Nazi]] in nature. Similarly, Tyndall's convictions for violence and [[incitement to ethnic or racial hatred|incitement to racial hatred]] provide ample grounds for the ANL to claim both organisations were racist.<ref>Sandra Laville and Matthew Taylor, [https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/jul/20/otherparties.thefarright "A racist, violent neo-nazi to the end: BNP founder Tyndall dies"], ''[[The Guardian]]'', 20 July 2005.</ref> After 1992, the ANL and other anti-fascists argued that the BNP remained a Nazi party irrespective of the fact that under the leadership of [[Nick Griffin]] it adopted what the ANL described as the 'Dual Strategy' of cultivating respectability in the media while retaining a cadre of committed fascists. This position was countered by BNP members who claimsaid that their party is increasingly democratic in its nature. An investigation by ''[[The Guardian]]'' newspaper (on 22 December 2006) affirmed the ANL's viewreported that the BNP remainsremained a fascist party.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/farright/story/0,,1977445,00.html|title=''The Guardian'': "Racism, recruitment and how the BNP believes it is just 'one crisis away from power'" | location=London | first=Ian | last=Cobain | date=22 December 2006 | accessdateaccess-date=26 March 2010}}</ref>

ANL's relaunch was criticised by other anti-racists. The recently launched broad-based Anti-Racist Alliance said: "The ANL is an exercise in nostalgia. These people are living off the glory of a few years in the late 1970s, when we're setting up a long-term challenge to racism in Europe, an anti-racist organisation that will live in the community and in the mainstream of political life." ARA's chair [[Ken Livingstone]] used his column in ''[[The Sun (United Kingdom)|The Sun]]'' to denounce the ANL as an SWP front. Anti-fascist magazine ''[[Searchlight (magazine)|Searchlight]]'' criticised the "politics of deceit being practised by the SWP", accusing the ANL of deliberately exaggerating the danger posed by the BNP.<ref name="Anderson">Paul Anderson "[http://pandersonjournalist.blogspot.co.uk/1993/10/anti-racists-at-odds_7810.html Anti-Racists at Odds]" ''New Statesman & Society'', 15 October 1993</ref>

In 1993, the ANL organised a demonstration, attended by up 15,000 people (and marred by [[1993 Welling riots|police provocation and violence]])<ref>Transpontine [http://transpont.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/racist-murder-in-se-london.html Racist Murder in SE London] 8 January 2012</ref> at the BNP's bookshop in [[Welling]], in the wake of the killing nearby of black teenager [[Murder of Stephen Lawrence|Stephen Lawrence]], attended by Stephen's mother [[Doreen Lawrence]]; ARA held a rival protest in central London on the same day.<ref>Andrew Hosken, ''Ken: The Ups and Downs of Ken Livingstone'', Arcadia Books, 10 April 2008: Chapter 18: 1985–1994. Ken and the rise of Socialist Action, 1985–1994, p.265</ref><<ref name="Anderson"/> However, Doreen Lawrence came to realise that the ANL was a "front for the Socialist Workers Party". She later wrote that "the various groups that had taken an interest in Stephen's death were tearing each other apart and were in danger of destroying our campaign which we wanted to keep focused and dignified", and Doreen and Neville Lawrence wrote to both the ANL and ARA to demand that they "stop using Stephen's name".<ref>Doreen Lawrence, ''And Still I Rise, Seeking Justice for Stephen'', [[Faber and Faber]], 2006, pii7</ref>

In 2004, the ANL affiliated with the [[National Assembly Against Racism]] to relaunch as [[Unite Against Fascism]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/david_tate/2006/05/love_music_hate_racism.html|title=''The Guardian'': "Unite against Facism: let's hope so" | location=London | date=24 May 2006 | accessdateaccess-date=25 April 2010 | first=David | last=Tate}}</ref><!-- The misspelling of "fascism" as "facism" is in the actual title, so don't change it --><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.socialismtoday.org/83/antifascism.html|title=''Socialism Today'': "The politics of anti-fascism"}}</ref> The ANL National Organiser at the time of the creation of Unite Against Fascism was [[Weyman Bennett]], a member of the Central Committee of the Socialist Workers Party as was Julie Waterson, its previous National Organiser.<ref>[ {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924103502/http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=30027 "|date=24 September 2015 }}{{cite web |author1= |title=Julie Waterson (1958–2012)"], ''|url=http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=30027 |website=Socialist Worker'', No.2329,|access-date=7 June 2024 |date=17 November 2012}} No.2329</ref>

In August 2018, the Shadow Chancellor [[John McDonnell]] called for a revival of "an Anti-Nazi League-type cultural and political campaign" following a number of far-right and racist incidents in the UK, including fascistan attacksattack on a socialist bookshop by members of the far-right and [[UK Independence Party|UKIP]], marches in favour of far-right activist [[Tommy Robinson (activist)|Tommy Robinson]] and high-profile [[Islamophobia in the UK Conservative Party (1997–present)|Islamophobia in the Conservative Party]].<ref name="Sabbagh2018a">{{cite news |last1=Sabbagh |first1=Dan |title=John McDonnell: revive Anti-Nazi League to oppose far right |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/aug/07/john-mcdonnell-revive-anti-nazi-league-oppose-far-right |accessdateaccess-date=20 August 2018 |work=The Guardian |date=7 August 2018 }}</ref><ref name="Sabbagh2018b">{{cite news |last1=Sabbagh |first1=Dan |title=Anti-Nazi League founders call for new national campaign |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/15/anti-nazi-league-founders-call-for-new-national-campaign |accessdateaccess-date=20 August 2018 |work=The Guardian |date=15 August 2018 }}</ref> This "welcome and timely" call to action was supported in a ''[[The Guardian|Guardian]]'' letter signed by the league's founders, which included former Labour minister [[Peter Hain]], political activist Paul Holborow and leading musicians from Rock Against Racism.<ref name="Sabbagh2018b" />

==ReferencesNotes==

*[https://web.archive.org/web/20050205214949/http://dkrenton.co.uk/anl/anl.html Historical perspectives on the Anti-Nazi League] (archived 5 February 2005)

[[Category:1981 disestablishments in the United Kingdom]]