Abstract
The 1970s campaign against fascism was one of the largest protest movements that Britain has ever seen.1 It took place during the fall of the 1974–79 Labour government. The far-right National Front then claimed up to 20,000 members. The party put up 413 candidates in local elections in 1977 and threatened to achieve further breakthroughs in the 1979 general election.2 National Front slogans against immigration resulted in violence against immigrants and black Britons. Where Front candidates polled well, the number of anti-racist attacks rose. Anti-fascists responded with a wide range of initiatives. The single largest campaign, the Anti-Nazi League (ANL), distributed around nine million leaflets between 1977 and 1979, warning of the danger posed by the far right. Around 250 ANL branches mobilised some 40,000 to 50,000 members. Through individual donations, the League raised £600,000 between 1977 and 1980. Other groups including Rock Against Racism (RAR) also took part in the campaign.3 Probably around half a million people were involved in anti-racist activity, joining demonstrations, giving out leaflets or painting out graffiti. By the end of the decade, the National Front had been forced into retreat.
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Notes
D. Widgery, Beating Time: Riot ‘n’ Race ‘n’ Rock and Roll (London: Chatto and Windus, 1986);
P. Gilroy, There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack: The Cultural Politics of Race and Nation (London: Routledge, 1987), pp. 114–62, 117–18;
J. Savage, England’s Dreaming: Sex Pistols and Punk Rock (London: Faber and Faber, 1991);
P. Alexander, Racism, Resistance and Revolution (London: Bookmarks, 1978);
N. Copsey, Anti-Fascism in Britain (London: Macmillan, 2000);
R. Messina, Race and Party Competition in Britain (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989), pp. 109–25.
M. Walker, The National Front (Glasgow: Fontana, 1977);
R. Thurlow, Fascism in Britain: From Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts to the National Front (London: I. B. Tauris, 1998), pp. 245–67;
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I. Goodyer, ‘The Cultural Politics of Rock Against Racism’ (MA Thesis, Sheffield Hallam, 2002), p. 3.
C. Fischer, The Rise of The Nazis (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995);
R. Griffin, Fascism (Oxford, 1995), p. 7;
also R. Griffin (ed.), International Fascism: Theories, Causes and the New Consensus (London: Arnold, 1998).
P. Coupland, ‘“Left-Wing Fascism” in Theory and Practice: The Case of the British Union of Fascists’, Twentieth Century British History, 13, 1, 2002, pp. 38–61.
D. Renton, ‘Can the Oppressed Unite? Women and Anti-fascism in Britain 1977–1982’, in C. Barker (ed.), Alternative Futures and Popular Protests 2000 (Manchester: Manchester Metropolitan University, 2000);
D. Renton, ‘Anti-fascism in the North West 1976–1982’, North West Labour History 27, 2002, pp. 17–28.
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D. Clark, We do not want the Earth (Whitley Bay: Bewick Press, 1992), p. 138.
ANL, ‘Founding Statement’, leaflet, 1977; for Ernie Robert’s support, E. Roberts, Strike Back (Orpington: Ernie Roberts, 1994), pp. 251–4.
D. Widgery, Beating Time p. 17; K. Leech, Struggle in Babylon: Racism in the Cities and Churches of Britain (London: Sheldon Press, 1988), pp. 84–5;
Bethnal Green and Stepney Trades Council, Blood on the Streets (London: Bethnal Green and Stepney Trades Council, 1978).
R. Messina, Race and Party Competition in Britain, p. 118; D. Field, ‘Flushing out the Front’, Socialist Review, May 1978;
E. Roberts, Strike Back (Orpington: Ernie Roberts, 1994), p. 252;
Anti-Nazi League, Inside the National Front, Sheffield’s Nazis Uncovered (Sheffield: Sheffield ANL, 1979); B. Dunn, ‘No to NF’, Morning Star, 15 November 1978.
J. Rose, Solidarity Forever: One Hundred Years of Kings Cross ASLEF (London: Kings Cross ASLEF, 1986), pp. 49, 73.
See the leaflets produced by national unions: ASTMS, Stop Racism at Work! (London: Community Relations Group, 1976);
General and Municipal Workers’ Union, Race Relations at Work (London: GMWU, 1976?);
Trades Union Congress, Trade Unions and Race Relations (London: Trades Union Congress, 1977?).
SWP, Southall: The Fight for our Future (London: SWP, 1979), p. 2.
N. Todd, In Excited Times (Newcastle: Bewick Press, 1995), pp. 8–11.
D. Renton, ‘Not just Economics but Politics as well: Trade Unions, Labour Movement Activists and Anti-Fascist Protests 1945–51’, Labour History Review 65, 2, 2000, pp. 166–80.
This paper should also be compared to the accounts which appear in D. Renton, Fascism, Anti-Fascism and the 1940s (London: Macmillan Press, 2000);
D. Renton, ‘The Police and Fascist/ Anti-Fascist Street Conflict 1945–1951’, in C. Barker (ed.), Alternative Futures and Popular Protests 1997 (Manchester: 1997); and D. Renton, ‘Fascism and Anti-fascism and Britain in the 1940s’, A. L. Morton Memorial Lecture, Socialist History Society, London, 15 September 2001 (published on tape by the Socialist History Society).
For Peter Sedgwick’s views on fascism, see P. Sedgwick, ‘The Problem of Fascism’, International Socialism 42, 1970, 30–4.
N. Harris and J. Palmer (eds), World Crisis: Essays in Revolutionary Socialism (London: Hutchinson and Co., 1971), pp. 27, 34.
Revolutionary Communist Group, The Anti-Nazi League and the Struggle against Racism (Revolutionary Communist Group: London, 1978).
P. Hain (ed.), The Crisis and Future of the Left: the Debate of the Decade (London: Pluto, 1980), p. 7.
C. Sparks, ‘Fascism in Britain’, ‘Fascism and the Working Class, part two: the National Front Today’, International Socialism Journal, 3, 1978, pp. 17–38; Messina, Race and Party Competition, p. 110;
M. Harrop, J. England and C. T. Husbands, ‘The Bases of National Front Support’, Political Studies, 28, 2, 1980, pp. 272–83, 282; also C. T. Husbands, ‘The National Front: A Response to Crisis?’, New Society, 15 May 1975; S. Taylor, ‘The National Front: Backlash or Boot Boys?’, New Society, 11 August 1977.
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© 2005 David Renton
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Renton, D. (2005). Guarding the Barricades: Working-class Anti-fascism 1974–79. In: Copsey, N., Renton, D. (eds) British Fascism, the Labour Movement and the State. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230522763_8
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