| Editor | Gerry Gable |
|---|---|
| Categories | Politics |
| Frequency | Quarterly |
| Publisher | Gerry Gable |
| Founded | February 1975; 50 years ago (1975-02) |
| Company | Searchlight Magazine Ltd |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Based in | London |
| Language | English |
| Website | searchlightmagazine.com |
| ISSN | 0262-4591 |
Searchlight is a British magazine, founded in 1975 byGerry Gable andMaurice Ludmer, which publishesexposés aboutracism,antisemitism andfascism in theUnited Kingdom and elsewhere.
Searchlight's main focus is on thefar right in the United Kingdom, as well as covering similar entities in other countries. The magazine is published and edited by Gerry Gable. An archive of historical materials associated with the magazine, The Searchlight Archive, is housed at the University of Northampton.[1]
The magazine is published quarterly, but it will cease paper publication after the Spring 2025 issue, the 50th anniversary of it being in print. Investigations and reporting will continue online.[2]
The currentSearchlight magazine was preceded by a newspaper of the same name, which was founded in 1964 by left-wingLabour Party Member of ParliamentReg Freeson with Gerry Gable as "research director".[3] In 1967, in the fourth issue of the paper, Freeson announced his decision to stand down as editor after being promoted to a ministerial role in the UK government. He said that fellow MPJoan Lestor would be taking over as editor, but no further issues were actually published. However, Gable, Maurice Ludmer and others stayed together as Searchlight Associates. In 1974 they published the pamphlet 'A Well Oiled Nazi Machine', in response to the rise of theNational Front. This brought renewed attention to the group, and helped raise funds to establish a monthly magazine in 1975.[3] The pilot issue of the new Searchlight appeared in February 1975, with Ludmer as Managing Editor and Gable as Editor.[3][4]
Ludmer and Gable were also amongst the first sponsors of theAnti-Nazi League, with Ludmer sitting on its first steering group.[5]
In the Ludmer years,Searchlight had a close relationship withCARF, theCampaign Against Racism and Fascism, a magazine published by the (London) Anti Racist-Anti Fascist Co-ordinating Committee (a Federation of the Anti-Fascist Committees that had sprung up all over London in the mid-1970s).CARF merged withSearchlight in 1979, becoming an insert (with separate editorial control) at the back of the magazine, but this arrangement ended following disagreements in the early 1990s. WhenCARF launched its own separate magazine, it led the first issue with a statement explaining the split fromSearchlight. This centred onCARF being unhappy thatSearchlight was, in its view, over-focused on antisemitism and not focused enough on anti-black racism.
After Ludmer's early death in 1981, British academicVron Ware briefly took over the editorial role until 1983.[6] Following this Gable returned as editor, in a role he held until 1999.[3]
TheBritish National Party made a complaint to theCharity Commission of England and Wales aboutSearchlight and the associatedSearchlight Educational Trust. The two anti-fascist bodies were investigated as it had been claimed that the Educational Trust had been engaging in political activity incompatible with its charitable status.
The Commission's report stated that, in its opinion, the Searchlight Educational Trust had gone beyond the Commission's guidelines on political activities. The charity agreed to follow the Commission's recommendations after the complaint was upheld in 2003 with the Commission deciding that there was a need for a greater distinction between the public activities ofSearchlight magazine and the educational trust. No action was taken against Searchlight.[7]
Consequently, Searchlight divided into three main bodies:Searchlight magazine, the monthly anti-fascist and anti-racist magazine; Searchlight Information Services (SIS), a research and investigatory body which briefs governments, politicians, journalists, and the police; and, finally, Searchlight Educational Trust (SET), a charity devoted to challenging and defeating the extremism, racism and fascism.[8] SIS and SET later joined theHope not Hate campaign, and are no longer associated withSearchlight magazine.
SinceSearchlight split with Hope not Hate in September 2011,Searchlight has opposed co-operation with the state.[9]
Larry O'Hara commented in a book on political organisations published in 1994:
"Without doubt there are matters on whichSearchlight is usually reliable—election results, court-cases, as well as the occasional publication of primary source documents. Outline sketches of individual careers are of rather more mixed reliability. And when it comes to actual interpretation of the significance of events on the far Right,Searchlight is often very questionable indeed."[10]
In his history ofAnti-Fascist Action (AFA), author Sean Birchall includes several instances of what AFA considered questionable tactics bySearchlight.[11] In the 1990s,Direct Action Movement, which had been part of AFA, was among the first to criticiseSearchlight's motives and tactics.[citation needed]
Also, in 1984, editor Gerry Gable was commissioned by the BBC to provide research materials for aPanorama programme, "Maggie's Militant Tendency". The episode was to focus on a claim of right-wing extremism in theConservative Party. Gable asserted that his research drew upon the information previously published inSearchlight.[12] In response to the claims by Gable that two Conservative Party figures,Neil Hamilton andGerald Howarth, were secret extremist Nazi supporters, actions for libel were brought against the BBC and Gable. The programme had alleged (not admitted as evidence in court) that Hamilton gave a Nazi salute in Berlin while 'messing around' on a Parliamentary visit in August 1983.The Guardian reported that "Writing forthe Sunday Times after the collapse of the case, he admitted he did give a little salute with two fingers to his nose to give the impression of a toothbrush moustache. "Somebody on the trip clearly did not share our sense of humour," he wrote."[13] The BBC capitulated on 21 October, and paid the pair's legal costs. Hamilton and Howarth were awarded £20,000 each, and in the next edition ofPanorama, on 27 October, the BBC made an unreserved apology to both. The case against Gable was dropped.[citation needed]
Gable is known to have links withMI5.[citation needed] His leaked 1977London Weekend Television memo stated that he had "given names I have acquired to be checked out by British/French security services".[14] A 1987 profile referred to Gable's "wide range of contacts, including people in the secret services".[15]
The magazine has hostile relations with some other anti-fascist groups in Britain. The magazine group was originally part of the steering committee ofUnite Against Fascism and resigned their position after differences over tactics.[16]
Sonia Gable wrote critical articles on her blog[17] aboutSearchlight's former creation,Hope not Hate, a highly visible civil rights campaign from which it split in late 2011.[18]
Despite this,Searchlight maintains friendly relationships with other groups, such as Australia's FightDemBack and some other groups.[citation needed]
Searchlight relies for its material on those involved in the far right. This includes a range of infiltrators, defectors and casual informers. The best-known defectors wereRay Hill,[19] andMatthew Collins,[20] now of theHope not Hate campaign.
In 2013 it was revealed that BNP member Duncan Robertson[21] had been aSearchlight informer,[22] in particular of theNew Right group.[23]
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In the early years of the 21st century,Searchlight launched two interlinked anti-BNP andanti-racism campaigns, Stop the BNP andHope not Hate. Hope not Hate received endorsement and national publicity from theDaily Mirror newspaper, and revolved around an annual two week bus tour in the run-up to local elections.[24]
In the2010 general election campaign, SIS spent in excess of £319,000, primarily targeting the BNP.[25]
SinceSearchlight split from Hope not Hate, it has concentrated on publishing the results of its investigation, research and intelligence gathering and supporting direct action against fascist demonstrations, such as those of theEnglish Defence League in Walthamstow on 1 September 2012 and Chelmsford on 18 August 2012.[26] As well as articles exposing the BNP, EDL and the moves towards the formation of a new party spearheaded by the former BNP MEP and veteran fascistAndrew Brons,Searchlight has focused on the areas where the far right and Conservative ultra right meet, such as theTraditional Britain Group, and theNew Right, the powerhouse of far-right ideological development.[27][28][29]
Searchlight has a long-standing affiliation with the arts, which was strongly championed by former editorMaurice Ludmer. In the past this included a regular monthly column "What their papers say"[30] which took a satirical look at the current political landscape.
Searchlight runs regular benefit events which feature the work offolk singers,poets and other arts professionals. On 6 January 2014 it launched a new arts section on its website.[31] This opened with the fictional diary of Greg Goode,[32] a US national recently moved to London in search of the truth. The column, which runs monthly, features a bizarre blend of rhyming poetry, hyperbolic narrative and song.[33]
In the Autumn of 2014Searchlight launched a standalone online arts magazine calledSearchlight Magazine Arts[34] The site contains interviews, articles, songs, fiction and documentaries, and celebrates the diverse arts movement in the UK and further afield. The aim of the magazine is to tell the arts stories no one else is telling and to put a wry slant on a range of unusual topics and causes.
In 2012,Searchlight magazine partnered with theUniversity of Northampton to create the Searchlight Archive.[1] The archive is "one of the most extensive and significant resources of its type in Europe."[35] Open to the public since 2013,[36] it features a wide range of original source material, including oral histories, back editions of magazines, journals, flyers and other materials from groups on the far-right as well as far-left.[37] The collection's largest section of material is on far right movements, such as the British National Party.[1]
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