Campaign Against Racism and Fascism (CARF) was an anti-racist group and publication based in London which originated in the mid 1970s as an anti-racist/anti-fascist paper published by the federation of Anti-Fascist Committees in Greater London (Anti-Racist, Anti-Fascist Co-ordinating Committee). From 1979 it appeared as a section within the anti-Fascist Searchlight magazine, produced by the CARF Collective based at the Institute of Race Relations, and later still it split with Searchlight to publish as an independent magazine for some years before closing down in 2003. The CARF group then operated as a support group for the IRR's news output.
The journal CARF was first published in 1976 by the Richmond & Twickenham Anti Racist Committee. In 1977 it was adopted as the paper of the (London) Anti-Racist, Anti-Fascist Co-ordinating Committee (ARAFCC) - a federation of the broad-based anti-fascist committees that had sprung up across Greater London in response to the growth of the National Front and its Strasserite offshoot, the National Party. [1] ARAFCC and CARF were also associated with the Institute of Race Relations (IRR). Liz Fekete was part of both CARF and IRR. [2]
When ARAFCC wound down in 1979 CARF continued to publish under an agreement with the then editor of Searchlight , Maurice Ludmer, with whom they had generally good relations, and CARF appeared for several years as a separately edited section within Searchlight. This arrangement continued after the untimely death of Ludmer in 1981, but was put under some strain by the perception that Searchlight maintained too close a relationship with pro-Zionist groups (Zionism being regarded as a racist ideology by some leftist and anti-racist groups and organisations in the UK).
This strain came to a head in the 1990s when Searchlight editor Gerry Gable was accused of racism for promoting openly pro-Israeli/pro-Zionist groups. The CARF editorial group decided to end their relationship with Searchlight. CARF was re-launched as an independent publication and survived for over a decade until it was dissolved in 2003. [2] The CARF Editorial Collective continued to meet and to operate for some time as a support network for the IRR.
Searchlight is a British magazine, founded in 1975 by Gerry Gable, which publishes exposés about racism, antisemitism and fascism in the United Kingdom and elsewhere.
Gerry Gable is a British political activist. He was a long-serving editor of the anti-fascist Searchlight magazine.
The National Assembly Against Racism (NAAR) was a British anti-racist and anti-fascist group.
Troy Southgate is a British far-right political activist and a self-described national-anarchist. He has been affiliated with far-right and fascist groups, such as National Front and International Third Position. He co-created the think tank New Right alongside Jonathan Bowden and is the founder and editor-in-chief of Black Front Press. Southgate's movement has been described as working to "exploit a burgeoning counter culture of industrial heavy metal music, paganism, esotericism, occultism and Satanism that, it believes, holds the key to the spiritual reinvigoration of western society ready for an essentially Evolian revolt against the culturally and racially enervating forces of American global capitalism."
Ambalavaner Sivanandan, commonly referred to as A. Sivanandan or "Siva", was a Sri Lankan and British novelist, activist and writer, emeritus director of the Institute of Race Relations (IRR), a London-based independent educational charity. His first novel, When Memory Dies, won the 1998 Commonwealth Writers' Prize in the Best First Book category for Europe and South Asia. He left Sri Lanka after the 1958 riots.
Newham Monitoring Project (NMP) was a grassroots community-based anti-racist organisation in the London Borough of Newham, London, England. Its aim was to provide support work against racial discrimination and violence, police misconduct and around civil rights issues. It provided advice, support, advocacy and a 24-hour emergency helpline to members of the black community facing racism. It undertook community outreach and educational projects and campaign work around issues arising from its casework.
The Institute of Race Relations (IRR) is a think tank based in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1958 in order to publish research on race relations worldwide, and in 1972 was transformed into an "anti-racist think tank".
Anti-Fascist Action (AFA) was a militant anti-fascist organisation, founded in the UK in 1985 by a wide range of anti-racist and anti-fascist organisations.
The Battle of Lewisham took place on 13 August 1977, when 500 members of the far-right National Front (NF) attempted to march from New Cross to Lewisham in southeast London and various counter-demonstrations by approximately 4,000 people led to violent clashes between the two groups and between the anti-NF demonstrators and police. 5,000 police officers were present and 56 officers were injured, 11 of whom were hospitalised. 214 people were arrested. Later disturbances in Lewisham town centre saw the first use of police riot shields on the UK mainland.
The far right in Switzerland was established in the course of the rise of fascism in Europe in the interwar period. It was a mostly marginal phenomenon in the Cold War period, excepting a surge of radical right-wing populism during the early 1970s, and it has again experienced growth alongside the right-wing Swiss People's Party since the 1990s.
The John Brown Anti-Klan Committee (JBAKC) was an anti-racist organization based in the United States. The group protested against the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and other white supremacist organizations and published anti-racist literature. Members of the JBAKC were involved in a string of bombings of military, government, and corporate targets in the 1980s. The JBAKC viewed themselves as anti-imperialists and considered African Americans, Native Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Mexicans to be oppressed colonial peoples.
Maurice Ludmer (1926–1981) was a British anti-fascist activist and journalist. His father was a Salford hairdresser and mother a teacher of Hebrew. His family moved to Birmingham in 1939. As a young man he was interested in sport and joined the Young Communist League. During the Second World War he served in the British Army. It was the shock of a visit to Belsen concentration camp which influenced his life.
Greater London Association of Trade Union Councils (GLATUC) is the largest County Association of Trades (Union) Councils in the Uk and covers the Greater London area. As the official Trades Union Congress body for London GLATUC seeks to co-ordinate activity by Trades (Union) Councils across the capital and works with individual unions and other organisations on a range of campaigns and activities. It is part of the national Trades Union Congress.
Hope not Hate is an advocacy group based in the United Kingdom which campaigns against racism and fascism. It has also mounted campaigns against Islamic extremism and antisemitism. It is self-described as a "non-partisan, non-sectarian organisation." The group was founded in 2004 by Nick Lowles, a former editor of the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight. It is backed by various politicians and celebrities, and it has also been backed by several trade unions.
The Anti-Nazi League (ANL) was an organisation set up in 1977 on the initiative of the Socialist Workers Party with sponsorship from some trade unions and the endorsement of a list of prominent people to oppose the rise of 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.
Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were opposed by many countries forming the Allies of World War II and dozens of resistance movements worldwide. Anti-fascism has been an element of movements across the political spectrum and holding many different political positions such as anarchism, communism, pacifism, republicanism, social democracy, socialism and syndicalism as well as centrist, conservative, liberal and nationalist viewpoints.
Unite Against Fascism (UAF) is a British anti-fascist group.
Post–World War II anti-fascism, including antifa groups, anti-fascist movements and anti-fascist action networks, saw the development of political movements describing themselves as anti-fascist and in opposition to fascism. Those movements have been active in several countries in the aftermath of World War II during the second half of the 20th and early 21st century.
The Anti-Racist Alliance (ARA) was a British anti-racist organisation formed in November 1991. It was formed mainly by black activists in the Labour Party.
Opposition to the National Front involved various actions taken against the National Front, a far-right political party in the United Kingdom.