Searchlight Magazine

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Searchlight is a British anti-fascist magazine founded in 1975 that publishes extensive reports on racism , anti-Semitism and fascism in the UK. Searchlight's main focus is on the British National Party (BNP), Combat 18 and other right-wing extremists , although criticism of the UK Independence Party and parts of the Conservative Party has also been published. She is a member of the Antifa-Net . International Antifascist Network for Research and Action .

editor

The driving force behind Searchlight is editor Gerry Gable . Both Gable and Morris Ludmer , the first editor of Searchlight , were members of the Communist Party of Great Britain .

activities

The magazine published the book White Noise in 1998 , in which it reported on the international neo-Nazi music scene with a focus on the English-speaking world . The book was translated into German.

criticism

Over the years in a monopoly position, Searchlight developed the claim to have the sole expertise in the field of right-wing extremism. Searchlight , meanwhile, has been criticized as a dubious source by both left and extreme right organizations. Left-wing critics accuse Searchlight of links with British security agencies. The disbanded group Anti-Fascist Action declined to work with the magazine because of this connection.

The most persistent and in-depth left critic of the Searchlight organization is the anti-fascist and editor of Notes From the Borderland , Dr. Larry O'Hara . In 1992, O'Hara said:

"Without doubt there are matters on which searchlight 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. "
(German: “Without a doubt, there are concerns that are usually reliable regarding Searchlight: election results, court cases and also the occasional publication of primary sources.
Abstracts of individual résumés are of rather mixed reliability, and when it comes to interpreting the significance of events within the radical right, Searchlight is indeed often questionable. ")

In his 1996 study Searchlight for beginners , O'Hara accused Searchlight of knowingly fabricating horror tales and exaggerating current anti-Semitism in order to obtain financial support from Jewish interest groups. Searchlight called this a conspiracy theory and also classified O'Hara's study A Lie Too Far as a product of "Nazi counter-intelligence" (German: "Nazi counter-intelligence"). In O'Hara, who is a member of the Green Party , Searchlight did not see an independent publicist, but "a political errand boy for Patrick Harrington " (German: "a political errand boy from Patrick Harrington") (formerly leader of the National Front ) and a " nazi fellow traveler ”(German:“ Nazi Weggenossen ”) ( Searchlight No. 216, June 1993).

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d e See Paul Mercer: Directory of British political organizations 1994, Longman, 1994, p. 299
  2. ^ Searchlight, Antifascist Info Sheet , Enough is enough , rat: White Noise. Right-wing rock, skinhead music, Blood & Honor - insights into the international neo-Nazi music scene , Münster, Unrast Verlag , 2001, ISBN 978-3-89771-807-4
  3. ↑ Cf. Larry O'Hara: At war with the truth. The true story of Searchlight agent Tim Hepple , 1993
  4. ↑ See Larry O'Hara: A lie too Far - Searchlight, Hepple and the Left , London 1993
  5. ↑ See Larry O'Hara: Searchlight for beginners , 1996
  6. ^ Nigel Copsey: Anti-fascism in Britain , Macmillan, 2000, p. 82