Searchlight (magazine)
Searchlight is a British magazine, founded in 1975 by Gerry Gable and Maurice Ludmer, which publishes exposés about racism, antisemitism and fascism in the United Kingdom and elsewhere.
Editor
Monthly
February 1975
Searchlight Magazine Ltd
Searchlight's main focus is on the far 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]
Criticism[edit]
In his history of Anti-Fascist Action (AFA), author Sean Birchall includes several instances of unreliability and questionable tactics by Searchlight.[10] In the 1990s, Direct Action Movement, which worked with the AFA, was among the first to criticise Searchlight's motives and tactics.
Also, in 1984, editor Gerry Gable was commissioned by the BBC to provide research materials for a Panorama programme, "Maggie's Militant Tendency". The episode was to focus on a claim of right-wing extremism in the Conservative Party. Gable asserted that his research drew upon the information previously published in Searchlight.[11] In response to the claims by Gable that two Conservative Party figures, Neil Hamilton and Gerald 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 for the 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."[12] 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 of Panorama, on 27 October, the BBC made an unreserved apology to both. The case against Gable was dropped.
Publisher Gerry Gable is known to have links with MI5. His leaked 1977 London Weekend Television memo stated that he had "given names I have acquired to be checked out by British/French security services".[13] A 1987 profile referred to Gable's "wide range of contacts, including people in the secret services".[14]
Relations with other anti-fascist groups[edit]
The magazine has hostile relations with some other anti-fascist groups in Britain. The magazine group was originally part of the steering committee of Unite Against Fascism and resigned their position after differences over tactics.[15] Sonia Gable wrote critical articles on her blog[16] about Searchlight's former creation, Hope not Hate, a highly visible civil rights campaign from which it split in late 2011.[17]
Despite this however, Searchlight magazine maintains friendly relationships with other groups, such as Australia's FightDemBack and some other groups.
Informants[edit]
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 were Ray Hill,[18] and Matthew Collins,[19] now of the Hope not Hate campaign.
In 2013 it was revealed that BNP member Duncan Robertson[20] had been a Searchlight informer,[21] in particular of the New Right group.[22]
Arts[edit]
Searchlight has a long-standing affiliation with the arts, which was strongly championed by former editor Maurice Ludmer. In the past this included a regular monthly column “What their papers say”[29] which took a satirical look at the current political landscape.
Searchlight runs regular benefit events which feature the work of folk singers, poets and other arts professionals. On 6 January 2014 it launched a new arts section on its website.[30] This opened with the fictional diary of Greg Goode,[31] 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.[32]
In the Autumn of 2014 Searchlight launched a standalone online arts magazine called Searchlight Magazine Arts[33] 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.
Archive[edit]
In 2012, Searchlight magazine partnered with the University of Northampton to create the Searchlight Archive.[1] The archive is "one of the most extensive and significant resources of its type in Europe."[34] Open to the public since 2013,[35] 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.[36] The collection's largest section of material is on far right movements, such as the British National Party.[1]