Beating the Fascists: The authorised history of Anti-Fascist Action

[framed]

Framed is that one you put together?

That was our first leaflet, it was put out in the name of GAF, which was the forerunner of the AFA branch in Glasgow, before we had made contact with the national organisation. From what I remember, it was me and an anarchist woman T who did the layout together, cutting out bits from newspapers, using some stickers we made ourselves and doing the text on the other side on an old typewriter.

This was before yer fancy computers and desk top publishing programmes.

 

[Red Storm]

That was our first leaflet, it was put out in the name of GAF, which was the forerunner of the AFA branch in Glasgow, before we had made contact with the national organisation. From what I remember, it was me and an anarchist woman T who did the layout together, cutting out bits from newspapers, using some stickers we made ourselves and doing the text on the other side on an old typewriter.

This was before yer fancy computers and desk top publishing programmes.

The other side is on the archive too.

http://afaarchive.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/glasgow-afa-about-leaflet.pdf

 

[framed]

The other side is on the archive too.

http://afaarchive.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/glasgow-afa-about-leaflet.pdf

Fuxx sake, we even spelt 'fascist' as 'facist' on the heading on the other side of the leaflet. We were young and I blame T, cos she did the typing.

I'll do a piece about the anti-fascist archive for the TAL Blog this weekend to encourage a few more hits for the site.

 

[Joe Reilly]

Fuxx sake, we even spelt 'fascist' as 'facist' on the heading on the other side of the leaflet.

I actual fact 'facist' was an extremely popular in the early RA's too.

 

[framed]

I actual fact 'facist' was an extremely popular in the early RA's too.

It must have been the common thread that bonded us Joe, I always hated faces too...

 

[Joe Reilly]

Dave would have attended Red Action National Council meetings as one of the reps from Manchester, I was at most of these after 1990 representing Glasgow RA. I don't recall Dave ever being very vocal at NC meetings.

I remember a discussion over the IWCA, which I think took place at an AFA National Committee, where Manchester AFA presented an alternative proposal and Dave spoke to it. From what I recall, it was a mish-mash of one-issue lefty campaigns and stewarding duties for AFA that Dave proposed linking up as some kind of alternative strategy to the IWCA proposal of going straight to the working class and formulating a strategy based on their needs.

I may be misrepresenting Dave and Manchester AFA here as I can't remember the details of his proposal, but it'd be handy to have that to compare with the IWCA proposal at the same meeting. Do you remember that Joe (Reilly) and is there a copy of the Manchester/Dave proposal still around?

Pretty sure that it was an AFA NC and not a RA NC where this discussion took place, but time and memory might have fused some of these meetings together.

My one memory of DH contributing in the way you describe was at a national conference most likely in the 1994-95 'season' when in response to detailed proposal possibly around 'The Big Picture' doc he and GM came up with some sort of flibberty gibberty hodge podge of flimsiness that was immediately leapt on and savaged in matchless style by - your good self!

For some reason I was out of the hall at the time and the discussion had moved on when I returned, and I only heard about it when people were discussing it in awed tones in the bar afterwards.



Ps: one thing a lot of people misunderstand about RA is that while democratic discussion was intrinsic to how policy was produced, sometime requiring a very disciplined chair, this didn't mean that democracy meant settling for some middling compromise in the end. The reverse was often the case. So you had to bring your A game ...otherwise...

 

[framed]

My one memory of DH contributing in the way you describe was at a national conference most likely in the 1994-95 'season' when in response to detailed proposal possibly around 'The Big Picture' doc he and GM came up with some sort of flibberty gibberty hodge podge of flimsiness that was immediately leapt on and savaged in matchless style by - your good self!

For some reason I was out of the hall at the time and the discussion had moved on when I returned, and I only heard about it when people were discussing it in awed tones in the bar afterwards.



Ps: one thing a lot of people misunderstand about RA is that while democratic discussion was intrinsic to how policy was produced, sometime requiring a very disciplined chair, this didn't mean that democracy meant settling for some middling compromise in the end. The reverse was often the case. So you had to bring your A game ...otherwise...

Yes, I remember the RA National Council meetings, there was a lot of robust internal discussion at times, but I always felt that it sharpened us politically and the more theoretical discussions around new strategies pushed people to think outside of the previous 'norms' of the left.

As for that memory of mine, it must be the discussion at National Conference over 'The Big Picture' document that is the source of my confused recollection. I do remember speaking against their proposals, but I can't remember the exact details of what their 'alternative' amounted to, which suggests that it wasn't up to much.

 

[Porkmeister]

My one memory of DH contributing in the way you describe was at a national conference most likely in the 1994-95 'season' when in response to detailed proposal possibly around 'The Big Picture' doc he and GM came up with some sort of flibberty gibberty hodge podge of flimsiness that was immediately leapt on and savaged in matchless style by - your good self!

For some reason I was out of the hall at the time and the discussion had moved on when I returned, and I only heard about it when people were discussing it in awed tones in the bar afterwards.



Ps: one thing a lot of people misunderstand about RA is that while democratic discussion was intrinsic to how policy was produced, sometime requiring a very disciplined chair, this didn't mean that democracy meant settling for some middling compromise in the end. The reverse was often the case. So you had to bring your A game ...otherwise...

The reason why you missed it is cos it didnt take long!! I think Manchester always had at least 1 each year that took a doing, I can think of a couple of other occasions but that one was more than a wee bit out there!!

 

[Red Storm]

I actual fact 'facist' was an extremely popular in the early RA's too.

It's all the way through the 1988 We Are Red Action

 

[Red Storm]

I've wrote up my thoughts on Renton's review and the book.

To be honest its one of them where you write something up and then think have I just wrote utter bollocks for the sake of writing it

 

[framed]

I've wrote up my thoughts on Renton's review and the book.

To be honest its one of them where you write something up and then think have I just wrote utter bollocks for the sake of writing it

I think your notes and comments on the book so far are very fair RS.

One point in particular stands out to me and you've highlighted it yourself: The reference to 'AFA's support for the IRA'. This point is a deliberate falsification intentionally designed to further confuse, imho. AFA did not support the IRA, it had no position whatsoever on the question of Ireland. Red Action, on the other hand, outwith AFA, did support Irish republican organisations and support groups. For us, support work for Irish republicanism was separate to our work for AFA. However, for some others in AFA it became a bone of contention, largely in retrospect, it has to be said...

AFA would go to wherever the fascists were in order to confront them, that sometimes meant organising AFA squads around republican marches, because those marches were a focal point for fascist attacks.

It is not Red Action members who confused membership of AFA with membership of Red Action and/or support for the IRA, rather it is their opponents on the left who suffered from an inability to politically distinguish between organisations and the political objectives of anti-fascism.

IMHO the real objection of the 'objectors' is to Red Action... full stop. It is Red Action's leadership of AFA that they object to, despite the successful strategies for AFA that were developed and advanced by Red Action, not to mention the number of RA personnel who put themselves and their liberty on the line in the 'physical resistance' to fascism.

 

[Pickman's model]

I've wrote up my thoughts on Renton's review and the book.

To be honest its one of them where you write something up and then think have I just wrote utter bollocks for the sake of writing it

i think you make a number of good points well.

 

[Joe Reilly]

I've wrote up my thoughts on Renton's review and the book.

To be honest its one of them where you write something up and then think have I just wrote utter bollocks for the sake of writing it

No not really. I think its difficult to tackle head on - to take entirely seriously - when there is so obviously an not very well hidden anti-RA agenda is like a lattice through it. That RA is not even included in the index is proof of that. The talk of 'hitmen' (reminiscent of the SWP description of 'gangsters molls') and 'foot-soldiers' and the supposed political and 'social divisions' between them is like something you'd read in the Telegraph or the Mail. Indeed the success of AFA as BFT points out was that such fissures were never allowed to grow. One of the primary reasons for this was that the political 'organisers' were invariably either first ones through the door or the last ones out of it. At the same time at branch or committee level they had no more rights than anyone else. For new members this could be disconcerting.

On one occassion a branch saw a sudden spurt in membership, with a number of them being known to each other. So there they were happily discussing and suggesting policy without any apparent oversight for a number of weeks until more senior members began returning from 'the front' ie East London. When one of the latter who had taken his seat inconspiciously at the back raised a query about this or that proposal (which ran totally counter to AFA policy incidentally) there were some murmers of aggreement.

This got the chair's back up. 'That's all very well but we've been discussing this for weeks now and no one has ever seen you before!' which was greeted with delighted laughter by the less inexperienced who knew the individual whose credibility the chair had challenged, was one the best known (by fash and plod rather than the Left I mean) anti-fascists in the entire country. In other words though the leadership didn't wear pips the leading political organisers and the main security stewards were generally one and the same.

 

[Red Storm]

Found this today on the Bob from Brockley blog.

Most recently, on Facebook various people chatting about the troubles in the SWP, Toby Abse reminded folks of comrade Martin Smith's closeness to antisemite Gilad Atzmon (documented here), which provoked Smith first into attacking Toby, then into calling serious hardcore anti-Zionists like Roland Rance "closet Zionists". Funny if it weren't so sad. Anyway, along the way, he made lots of comments about his prowess as an anti-fascist streetfighter, citing his involvement in AFA, and calling Rance a "keyboard warrior". Rance replies: "In fact, I organised the first AFA conference in Bradford thirty years ago. We had stewards around the town to prevent a possible fascist attack, but had to call them back to conference in order to protect members of the local Asian Youth Movement from physical attacks by members of Red Action. I know all-too-well about racism masquerading as leftist anti-fascism."

More to read here.

 

[Red Storm]

Thanks for the comments

I might use the archive to see if there are any former AFA members or people around AFA to recount their stories regarding the IRA and social/strategical divisions within AFA.

 

[framed]

Thanks for the comments

I might use the archive to see if there are any former AFA members or people around AFA to recount their stories regarding the IRA and social/strategical divisions within AFA.

Don't dig too deep will ya?

 

[intersol32]

Thanks for the comments

I might use the archive to see if there are any former AFA members or people around AFA to recount their stories regarding the IRA and social/strategical divisions within AFA.

I'll try and get back to you over the weekend when I've collected my own personal thoughts and recollections on this. Hopefully it'll be of some use to you.

I'm pretty sure I gave Mal some stuff covering the same thing but it's still a worthwhile issue to cover again.

 

[Joe Reilly]

Found this today on the Bob from Brockley blog.



More to read here.

Brilliant! The old ones are the best. The organiser of the Bradford AFA conference was one Jeff Robinson. He did so with the express intention of winding AFA up and transform it into a more pliable safe and acceptable anti-racist organisation - without - RA. After the vote to approve the change was carried, it was pointed out that under his supervision only one side of the hall was counted!

Having lost the subsequent vote he ordered a second vote which he lost by an even bigger margin. He then conspired to provoke a leading member of RA (who was indeed notoriously easy to provoke!) by employing a local Asian to pick a fight with him.

Unbelievably he did his conspiring in the corridor during the break, where as I passed I caught the gist of it and arrived just in time to prevent a tear up between the targetted RA member and a large set Asian. The 'attack by RA on Bradford Asian Youth' is what he had planned to happen - but never did. As readers of BTF will know he want onto to suspend RA anyway. The meeting was immediately declared inquorate. But an inquiry was ordered anyway into 'RA's conduct' during the count. Even more absurd allegations followed.

At the inquiry he vehemently protested his innocence in regard to complaints of his role in the protracted anti-RA inspired debacle at the conference. 'He had nothing but the deepest respect for RA generally ...but' etc. It was then that Liz Fekete (who has been mentioned on this thread before) read out a long rambling letter from the bould Jeffrey where he repeatedly asked for her support to enable him to rid AFA of the pernicious influence of RA - 'name your price' and so forth.

The rest is history. Though Jeffrey still seems determined to invent his own.

 

[bignose1]

sidetrack but what's the advantage of a tagine over a normal casserole?

The shape....which is what its all about. The conical lid allows for the moisture to condensate and drip down. The rest is histgravy.

 

[Joe Reilly]

Brilliant! The old ones are the best. The organiser of the Bradford AFA conference was one Jeff Robinson. He did so with the express intention of winding AFA up and transform it into a more pliable safe and acceptable anti-racist organisation - without - RA. After the vote to approve the change was carried, it was pointed out that under his supervision only one side of the hall was counted!

Having lost the subsequent vote he ordered a second vote which he lost by an even bigger margin. He then conspired to provoke a leading member of RA (who was indeed notoriously easy to provoke!) by employing a local Asian to pick a fight with him.

Unbelievably he did his conspiring in the corridor during the break, where as I passed I caught the gist of it and arrived just in time to prevent a tear up between the targetted RA member and a large set Asian. The 'attack by RA on Bradford Asian Youth' is what he had planned to happen - but never did. As readers of BTF will know he want onto to suspend RA anyway. The meeting was immediately declared inquorate. But an inquiry was ordered anyway into 'RA's conduct' during the count. Even more absurd allegations followed.

At the inquiry he vehemently protested his innocence in regard to complaints of his role in the protracted anti-RA inspired debacle at the conference. 'He had nothing but the deepest respect for RA generally ...but' etc. It was then that Liz Fekete (who has been mentioned on this thread before) read out a long rambling letter from the bould Jeffrey where he repeatedly asked for her support to enable him to rid AFA of the pernicious influence of RA - 'name your price' and so forth.

The rest is history. Though, over a quarter of a decade later Jeffrey still seems determined to invent his own. In this, he is of course far from being the only one.

 

[bignose1]

Just got a copy of The Fugitive...on Kimble

 

[Red Storm]

I'll try and get back to you over the weekend when I've collected my own personal thoughts and recollections on this. Hopefully it'll be of some use to you.

I'm pretty sure I gave Mal some stuff covering the same thing but it's still a worthwhile issue to cover again.

Cheers.

Hopefully the archive can collect peoples memories on a certain subject or general tales or memories.

 

[audiotech]

Some years ago (before Reilly's era) I was active in Bradford, so the post above don't quite fit with my personal recollections of the individual mentioned. Therefore, I think it highly unlikely this person would involve himself in some of what's been posted here? Admittedly, some of the period spoken about I had by then moved away to find work, nevertheless, and to be specific, I'm prepared to consider my view of said person if there is any evidence presented of him 'conspiring to "provoke" in the "corridor"', as explicitly expressed? I do realise, this being an apparent "conspiracy", that any forth-coming evidence is remote.

Edit: Meantime, reading Hann's book (arrived earlier than expected), specifically chapter six, titled: "One, two, three and a bit, the National Front is a load of shit".

 

[LiamO]

Some years ago (before Reilly's era)

What?! the 1960's?

 

[audiotech]

1968 was a good year.

Edit: Oh and 'World Cup Willy' back in '66.

 

[LiamO]

Ah those were the days... jumpers for goalposts etc

 

[audiotech]

Yer ma knitted.

 

[intersol32]

This is a reply to Red Storm's question about the social and political background of AFA activists. Obviously it's only based on my own experiences and observations from being active in the Midlands and Northern region throughout the nineties.

The political makeup of those in the East Midlands particularly, was that the majority of people were from an Anarchist background. For some reason or another many had been involved in the hunt sabbing and animal rights movement, added to this was a sort of informal social network that went beyond it to include those linked to Class War and other (usually short lived) local Anarchist groups. I'd say this was a definite strength, as it meant those who were later to become active in AFA had all known each other for many years and were quite used to the idea of physical confrontation (and the necessity for it) as well as handling themselves when it came to dealing with the cops.

It's worth adding that a few of those in East Midlands AFA were later to join Red Action. Myself included. On a personal level Class War and some similar groups were finding it difficult to move away from the old stereotype of crusty, dog-on-a-rope Anarchism. Internal debate had been rife within CW and attempts were made for people to take it more seriously as a group. This included the publication of an internal document ("Childhoods End") that later drew comparisons to the IWCA document "Filling the Vacuum" and actually came to many of the same conclusions. At the point when these discussions pretty much exhausted themselves, was when some of us left to join RA. A group that definitely wasn't hamstrung by associations with crusty punks, and could carry itself with some confidence.

I wouldn't claim that this wasn't viewed with suspicion by many Anarchist members of AFA. Especially as it seemed that the new Red Action members just happened to be the area contacts for East Mids AFA. Nevertheless, despite a few grumblings I'd like to think that everyone was still keen to focus on the task in hand. It didn't stop us from being effective as a local group in any shape or form.

As for class background, there were several people included in the group who were of Middle Class origin. If I remember correctly there was one girl who was the daughter of a High Court judge. All of them were valued members, and weren't afraid to muck-in when it came down to it. Although they all probably had to put up with a fair amount of friendly ribbing.

I'll add more or you can just PM me if there's any specific questions.

 

[barney_pig]

Is childhoods end available online anywhere?

 

[bignose1]

Ah those were the days... jumpers for goalposts etc

Wally...(never buy an end terrace)