‘Beware this Poison’: Fighting Fascism in 1970s Britain
The Wiener Holocaust Library has its origins in the work of Dr Alfred Wiener, who campaigned against Nazism and fascism in the 1920s and 30s. Dedicated to supporting learning about the Holocaust and its consequences, the Library also holds Collections on post-war fascism and anti-fascism in Britain.
‘Danger – Beware this Poison!’, Anti Nazi League
The 1970s was a decade marked by crises in Britain. In the context of widespread industrial action, power cuts and economic difficulties, social and economic unrest ensued. Against this backdrop, far-right groups like the National Front also projected a crisis relating to immigration. They increasingly alleged a threat to British life and culture. For the National Front, the advent of a multicultural society threatened their belief in the link between ethnicity, identity and Britishness.
In response to the growing influence of the far-right, a large anti-racist, anti-fascist movement emerged. Spearheaded by the Rock Against Racism movement and the Anti Nazi League, anti-fascist groups played a crucial role in fighting fascism in the 1970s and beyond.
This exhibition highlights far-right nationalist rhetoric and the anti-fascist, anti-racist responses that followed. Using items from the Wiener Holocaust Library’s unique archive, it highlights the struggle over immigration, race and nation in 1970s Britain.
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Post-war resurgence of the British far-right
After a peak in activity in the 1930s, nationalist groups had not usually been more than a peripheral phenomenon in British politics. In the wake of many British colonies gaining independence, the 1960s saw a resurgence of far-right groups who lamented Britain’s imperial decline.
‘The First Year’, The British National Party, 1960
Formed as a splinter group of the League of Empire Loyalists, the British National Party was founded in 1960. Led by John Bean, this neo-Nazi group aimed to ‘end coloured immigration and Jewish domination of Britain’.
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The British Movement, 1975
The British Movement was established in 1968. In their Founding Statement they declared that they wished ‘to restore and protect British freedom, repealing the alien laws suppressing free speech on racial matters and denying the freedom to discriminate in favour of our own people’.
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Evening Standard: June 21, 1948
After the Second World War, the British Nationality Act of 1948 facilitated migration by granting automatic British citizenship to citizens from any colony or dominion within the British Empire. The arrival of HMT Empire Windrush in 1948 is often used to represent the symbolic arrival of all Commonwealth citizens.
Citizens of the British Empire and Commonwealth were encouraged by the British Government to fill labour shortages in areas such as the transport network and the newly created National Health Service. Many of the migrants saw their arrival as a return to their ‘motherland’. The Evening Standard reported on the arrival of Empire Windrush with the headline ‘Welcome Home!’.
By 1965, Britain was home to nearly one million immigrants.
Passed by Harold Wilson’s Government, the Race Relations Act (1965) was the first piece of legislation in the UK to prohibit racial discrimination. The Act made the promotion of hatred on the grounds of ‘colour, race, or ethnic or national origins’ an offence and prohibited racial discrimination in public spaces. This was expanded to include employment and housing in 1968.
Extreme-right wing parties like the Greater Britain Movement described the law as a ‘menace’, complaining that it ‘forces the British people to mix […] resulting in a half-breed population’.
This sentiment was echoed by Conservative MP Enoch Powell who lamented the perceived ‘delusion’ of integration in his inflammatory ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech (1968).
‘Race Law Menaces Working Men’s Club’, Greater Britain Movement, c. 1965
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The National Front
Statement of Policy: National Front, 1967
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The National Front (NF) was founded in 1967, one year before Powell’s infamous speech. The NF formed a coalition of multiple extreme right-wing parties including the earlier British National Party and the Greater Britain Movement.
Their ideology was based on nationalistic racism but they sought to play down overt links with fascism. The NF’s Statement of Policy summed up the group’s position as: ‘The National Front upholds the wish of the majority of the British people for Britain to remain a White country’.
The NF believed in the repatriation of non-white immigrants and opposed European unity, laying the foundations for the widespread Euroscepticism later seen in British politics.
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Anti-Immigration
‘Send Them Back’, National Front, c. 1973
Opposing immigration was central to the NF’s policy. Asian refugees from Uganda, a former British colony, arrived in 1972. The NF exploited the arrival of the refugees, launching an anti-immigration campaign and a march drawing 1,500 people. The above pamphlets expressed outrage at ‘those Asians […] threatening Britain’.
‘Jewish Conspiracy’
‘Capitalism is Jewish’ Sticker, National Front, 1978
The NF’s ideology was also based on antisemitic notions of a ‘Zionist conspiracy’. The editor of the NF’s Spearhead magazine, published antisemitic articles such as ‘Did Six Million Really Die?’ (1974) which was widely promoted in the NF’s inner circles.
Peak in Activity
During the 1970s, Britain experienced a decade of economic challenges and social unrest. The country was hit by high inflation and unemployment culminating in the ‘Winter of Discontent’ in 1978-79 which saw months of industrial disputes. Public sector workers went on strike, and uncollected rubbish piled high on the streets. Alongside this unrest, the NF’s activities and popularity peaked during this decade.
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Greater London Council Election, National Front
Candidate, 1973
This election pamphlet was for an NF candidate in Hayes and Harlington in the 1973 Greater London Council elections. The NF received over 9,000 votes during this election and by 1977 this had grown to 119,000 votes.
A common theme in NF propaganda was the claim that white Britons could be protected from housing shortages and economic difficulties if immigrants were repatriated.
National Front, 1977
With photographs of Black and Asian Britons, this pamphlet exclaimed dismay at immigrants ‘taking over’ Britain.
Echoing this sensationalist rhetoric, the 1970s was marked by several instances of the NF’s racial violence. They repeatedly targeted Black and Asian areas to ‘declare the streets as theirs’.
These tensions culminated in the Battle of Lewisham (1977) and the Southall Uprising (1979), where the NF and police clashed with anti-fascist protestors.
‘Fascism in Britain may be a storm in a teacup, but to individuals deemed by fascists ‘un-British’ and condemned to live in that tea-cup’, it is still a poisonous, potentially lethal brew’. – Roger Griffin
‘Make Britain Great Again’, National Front, 1976
‘Your last chance…’, National Front, 1976
‘What do you think…’ Quiz, National Front, c.1976
Resistance to the far-right
A large anti-racist, anti-fascist movement emerged in response to the rapid rise of the National Front.
The Anti Nazi League
The Socialist Workers Party launched the Anti Nazi League (ANL) in 1977 in the aftermath of the Battle of Lewisham. Local ANL groups were formed to combat the growing fascism in Britain. By mid-1978 it is estimated that the group had around 50,000 supporters.
In their founding statement they labelled the NF Nazis, commenting that ‘for the first time since Mosley in the thirties, there is a worrying prospect of a Nazi party gaining significant support in Britain. […] They exploit the real problems of unemployment, bad housing, cuts in education, and in social and welfare services’.
The ANL won the endorsements of a large number of Trade Unions including groups at Ford in Dagenham and Yorkshire miners. They also harnessed support from members of the Labour Party and the prominent Indian Workers Associations.
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‘Danger – Beware this Poison!’, Anti Nazi League
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‘Why you should oppose the National Front’, Anti Nazi League
‘The Nazional Front is a Nazi Front’
The ANL’s core strategy was to brand the NF as ‘Nazis’ in an attempt to distinguish them from their more moderate supporters, as this pamphlet shows.
The ANL’s approach has been criticised for focusing on being anti-Nazi rather than also being consciously anti-racist.
Race Today and Kala Tara
Publications such as the British Black Power movement’s Race Today and the Asian Youth Movement’s Kala Tara (Black Star) instead highlighted the specific struggles of Black and Asian communities in Britain. As seen on the left, their campaigns often focused on self-defense against racial attacks. These groups were instrumental in defending their communities against fascists.
© May Day Rooms and Tandana Archive
Carnival Against the Nazis! Rock Against Racism, 1978
Rock Against Racism
The Rock Against Racism (RAR) campaign emerged in 1976 as a grassroots political movement. Their emergence was a response to Eric Clapton’s drunken rant on stage at the Birmingham Odeon a few weeks earlier where he declared, ‘Enoch was right […] I think we should send them [immigrants] all back’.
In 1978 the Anti-Nazi League joined forced with the RAR movement to organise a ‘Carnival against the Nazis’. The above flyer promoted the rally and subsequent Carnival in Victoria Park. With the motto ‘Love Music, Hate Racism’, the Carnival was headlined by the Clash, Tom Robinson and X-Ray Spex and attracted over 80,000 people. As Professor John Street has noted, ‘RAR made it cool to be anti-racist’. In 1978 alone the group organized 300 local gigs including its larger RAR Carnival in Victoria Park. This was followed by a second carnival in Brockwell Park in 1979, which drew a crowd of around 100,000.
Rock Against Racism, 1978 © John Sturrock
The Decline of the National Front
Beset with leadership tensions and divisions, the NF were a group in decline by the late 1970s. Despite putting forward 303 candidates at the 1979 General Election, the National Front failed to gain even 1% of the vote. The group’s decline was also facilitated by the rise of Margaret Thatcher’s New Right, which harnessed their nationalist ideology and marked its ascendence into the political mainstream. In her infamous ‘Swamping’ interview on immigration in 1978, she remarked, ‘We are a British nation, with British characteristics’ and that there exists a ‘fear that it might be swamped’. Thatcher’s absorption of such NF rhetoric was a key component in the NF’s inability to break the political mould.
The anti-fascist, anti-racist activity of groups like the Anti-Nazi League and Rock Against Racism movement were also instrumental in facilitating their downfall. In activating mass opposition and branding the NF as ‘Nazis’, their activity acted as a unifying force against fascism. Whilst the threat of the British far-right remained, the anti-fascist, anti-racist movement was crucial in defending Black and Asian communities in the 1970s and beyond.
Resisting Fascism, Warwick University Student’s Union, 1978
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‘Beware this Poison’: Fighting Fascism in 1970s Britain has been made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players, we have been able to curate and develop this online exhibition.
