Squadism was the practice of physical, anti-fascist direct action. The term, often used pejoratively by liberal anti-fascists eschewing violence, originated in the Anti-Nazi League, an anti-fascist campaigning organisation dominated by the heterodox Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party (SWP). The SWP formed "squads", fighting units, in 1977, initially to defend and steward meetings against violent attacks from the fascist National Front. However, other anti-fascist squads emerged separately from the SWP, such as the Sari Squad.
The National Assembly Against Racism (NAAR) was a British anti-racist and anti-fascist group.
Kareem Dennis, better known by his stage name Lowkey, is a British rapper and activist from London. He first became known through a series of mixtapes he released before he was 18, before taking a hiatus from the music business. He would return in 2008, with appearances on BBC Radio and at various festivals and concerts including the BBC Electric Proms, Glastonbury, T In The Park and Oxegen in the buildup to his first solo album Dear Listener, as well as collaborating with other British musicians to form the supergroup Mongrel. He released his second solo album, Soundtrack to the Struggle, independently on in 2011.
Kingslee James McLean Daley, known professionally as Akala, is a British rapper, journalist, author, activist and poet from Kentish Town, London. In 2006, he was voted the Best Hip Hop Act at the MOBO Awards and has been included on the annual Powerlist of the 100 most influential Black British people in the UK, most recently making the 2021 edition.
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.
Redwatch was a British website associated with members of the far-right British People's Party. It published photographs of, and personal information about, alleged far left and anti-fascist activists. It typically targeted activists in political parties, advocacy groups, trade unions and the media. The website's slogan was "Remember places, traitors' faces, they'll all pay for their crimes", a quote from neo-Nazi musician Ian Stuart Donaldson.
White power music is music that promotes white nationalism. It encompasses various music styles, including rock, country, and folk. Ethnomusicologist Benjamin R. Teitelbaum argues that white power music "can be defined by lyrics that demonize variously conceived non-whites and advocate racial pride and solidarity. Most often, however, insiders conceptualized white power music as the combination of those themes with pounding rhythms and a charging punk or metal-based accompaniment." Genres include Nazi punk, Rock Against Communism, National Socialist black metal, and fashwave.
The Socialist Workers Party (SWP) is a far-left political party in the United Kingdom. Founded as the Socialist Review Group by supporters of Tony Cliff in 1950, it became the International Socialists in 1962 and the SWP in 1977. The party considers itself to be Trotskyist. Cliff and his followers criticised the Soviet Union and its satellites, calling them state capitalist rather than socialist countries.
Steven Patrick Morrissey, known mononymously as Morrissey, is an English singer and songwriter. He came to prominence as the frontman and lyricist of rock band the Smiths, who were active from 1982 to 1987. Since then, he has pursued a successful solo career. Morrissey's music is characterised by his baritone voice and distinctive lyrics with recurring themes of emotional isolation, sexual longing, self-deprecating and dark humour, and anti-establishment stances.
The Anti-Nazi League (ANL) was an organisation set up in 1977 on the initiative of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) 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.
Unite Against Fascism (UAF) is a British anti-fascist group.
Rock Against Racism (RAR) was a political and cultural movement which emerged in 1976 in reaction to a rise in racist attacks on the streets of the United Kingdom and increasing support for the far-right National Front at the ballot box. Between 1976 and 1982, RAR activists organised national carnivals and tours, as well as local gigs and clubs throughout the country. RAR brought together black and white fans in their common love of music, to discourage young people from embracing racism. The musicians came from all pop music genres, something reflected in one of RAR's slogans: "Reggae, soul, rock'n'roll, jazz, funk and punk". The movement was in part founded as a response to statements by rock musicians such as Eric Clapton and David Bowie.
Martin James Smith is a British political activist, and a former National Secretary of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP); a position he held from 2004 until January 2011. He is reported to have left the SWP in 2013, following accusations of the rape of a much younger female member of the party.
The Committee for a Workers' International (CWI) was an international association of Trotskyist political parties and organisations. Today, two groups claim to be the continuation of the CWI, the refounded Committee for a Workers' International and International Socialist Alternative.
Anti-racism encompasses a range of ideas and political actions which are meant to counter racial prejudice, systemic racism, and the oppression of specific racial groups. Anti-racism is usually structured around conscious efforts and deliberate actions which are intended to create equal opportunities for all people on both an individual and a systemic level. As a philosophy, it can be engaged in by the acknowledgment of personal privileges, confronting acts as well as systems of racial discrimination and/or working to change personal racial biases. Major contemporary anti-racism efforts include the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and workplace anti-racism.
The Rock Against Racism Northern Carnival was a free music concert and march held on 15 July 1978; the concert taking place in Alexandra Park, Manchester. Jointly organised by Rock Against Racism and the Anti-Nazi League, the concert was preceded by a march through Manchester, starting at Strangeways on Bury New Road, at 12 noon. The concert featured Steel Pulse, Buzzcocks, Exodus and China Street – and was attended by around 40,000 people.
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 established 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.
"Own It" is a song by English rapper Stormzy featuring English singer Ed Sheeran and Nigerian singer Burna Boy, released on 22 November 2019 through #Merky and Atlantic Records as the fourth single from Stormzy's second studio album, Heavy Is the Head. It is Stormzy and Ed Sheeran's second collaboration of 2019, following Sheeran's "Take Me Back to London". It reached number one on the UK Singles Chart in January 2020, becoming Stormzy's third UK number one, and second as a lead artist, as well as Sheeran's ninth. It was also the first number one of the 2020s.
