REPORT BY MARTIN McNAMARA & MARK PIGGOTT
“You work with six other white guys on a building
site. If any of those guys makes a racist statementstarts going on about the
blacks, you isolate him. Point at him and say, ‘What a fucking jerk’. Get everyone
against him. Then he’s on his own. If he still persists in his racism, you hit
him over the head with a house brick.
The speaker is Joe Reilly, the self-styled leader
of Red Action. Reilly is a tall, lean Dubliner whose eyes stare confidently
from behind tinted glasses. He is addressing a contingent of Red Action hard
core at one of their weekly meetings upstairs in a seedy North London pub. Before
him are a gang of twenty young white men and one Asian, lounged around with
pint glasses and hangovers from the previous night’s fund-raising social for
INLA members who are in jail. These are skinheads and casuals who would look
more at home at a National Front demo than at a meeting of revolutionary socialist
anti-racists. But then Red Action is no ordinary left-wing organisation.
In 1981 the Socialist Workers Party expelled
a number of its members. There were many reasons, both political and social.
Within the SWP a section had found themselves to be at odds with the leadership
of the party, who were mainly middle class and well educated. This same crowd
that seemed always to be at the front of the SWP demos, taking the flak, found
themselves drinking together and getting more dissatisfied. There were rows.
Many had joined the SWP because of its links with the Anti-Nazi League. The
confrontational policies of the ANL, fighting the National Front on the streets,
were the sort of politics they could understand. Now the SWP wanted to disband
ANL, but this crowd felt there was still a need for them. They didn’t want to
sit down and talk about fascism, they wanted to go out and hit it.
They found themselves at odds with the rest of
the movement. They were called racists, sexists, pissheads basically, whose
only interest in being in the SWP was that it was a good excuse for a ruck.
And then there were the political lines they wanted the party to take, especially
over the Irish issue —they wanted full support for the IRA. Inevitably some
were kicked out. Many others left voluntarily. Their new party was to become
Red Action.
Despite being based mainly in London and numbering
hundreds rather than thousands, Red Action have earned a reputation as the hard
men of the Left. A typical Red Action member is white, male, working class,
aged between 25 and 35, is a heavy drinker and is likely to have been charged
at least once for offences such as drunk and disorderly and GBH. There are some
women members and a small number of Asians and blacks, although in our time
spent researching Red Action we didn’t see much evidence of either group. But
at the same time, after sitting in on their meetings, after evenings spent in
pubs with them, watching them drink more and more, we never heard one of them
tell a joke that could be called racist or sexist.
Most other left-wing groups refused to comment
on Red Action, any further than to say they did not agree with them or their
policies. Islington Anti-Racist Anti-Fascist Action (ARAFA) are a group that
work in their local community trying to identify racist elements and put pressure
on local council and the police to act against racists. The group experiences
of Red Action have left them less than enthusiastic about their activities.
We went to an ARAFA meeting to find out their views on RA and were met with
a hostile response. The outcome at the meeting was a statement put together
on the spot, and endorsed by the group as a whole. The statement reads: “Islington
ARAFA disassociates itself from any article primarily solely focused on Red
Action. The focus of any article should be on the positive aspects of the anti-racist,
anti-fascist movement with no more than a small mention of Red Action (ie, one
paragraph)
The Labour Party perhaps unsurprisingly, has never
heard of Red Action. A spokesman at the party’s HQ told us, “Our views on violence
for political or social change are the same whether that violence is from the
Left, Right or centre. As far as we’re concerned these people are no different
from the National Front if they pursue violent confrontation over the democratic
process!’ Only the anti-fascist magazine, would comment favourably about Red
Action, saying “We support them unconditionally in their fight against fascism,”
with Gerry Gables, editor of the magazine, adding, “They’re a good bunch of
boys and girls!’
Most of the groups just didn’t want to discuss
them. What frightens many people on the left about Red Action is not that they’re
big boys who are going to come round and break a few heads. It’s the damage
they feel that RA can do to the whole left-wing ‘cause’ To understand their
reluctance to speak to the press about Red Action, you have to look at the way
the Left have been treated by Fleet Street, the way attempts to promote racial
awareness or the rights of homosexuals or women are jumped on and distorted
to fit into the ‘loonie leftie’ tag. Red Action, as the Left see it, is just
another club with which the right wing press beat them over the head.
Although the Left have reservations about Red
Action, there have been many occasions when they’ve been thankful for their
muscle. When anti fascists picket a pub that is used by the NF, it is Red Action
who are at the forefront. They’re not invited but they’re there. Their philosophy
can be sums up as, ‘When racists hit, we hit back harder' Critics see them as
the National Front with a few left-wing credentials tagged on. To others they
are the only left-wing group that the National Front are afraid of. The NF were
not too keen to discuss them, Ian Stewart, lead singer of the racist British
Movement band Skrewdriver, told us: “The only real street battles the NF has
been involved in have been with Red Action!’
The NF’s attitude to RA can best be shown by an
incident that took place a few years ago. A freelance photographer received
a tip-off that about 200 members were going away for a weekend of para-military
exercises. They were staying on a country estate in Hampshire owned by one of
the richer sympathisers. The photographer took along two members of RA as minders.
They were driving around the estate looking for a way of climbing in when they
were met by Derek Holland and Graham Burrows, two of the big wheels in the NF,
walking down the road in the opposite direction. As soon as the two NF men saw
who was in the car, they turned around and ran as fast as they could back into
the estate. They had recognised the Red Action members. The weekend’s paramilitary
exercises were called off and the NF members had to be content to sit in and
discuss politics.
Other incidents that have led the Front to be
so cautious include a battle outside the Shakespeare, a one-time NF pub near
Chapel Market in Islington, North London two years ago. The Front had long been
selling their newspapers in Chapel Market, and had been ‘moved off’ several
times by Red Action; but they still used the Shakespeare. An eyewitness describes
what he saw:
“There were about fifty NF on one side of the road, and a similar number of
Red Action on the other side. At first they were just throwing insults, then
pool balls and cues. Then Red Action charged, and the NF ran. I saw Red Action
catch a few of them. They were using these big, heavy bar stools, smashing the
legs down on the skinheads’ faces!’ Danny O’Brien, a leading figure in Red Action,
is more modest about the incident. “There was a number of clashes between Red
Action, along with other anti-fascists, and the National Front. In the end they
were stopped from using the pub!’
O’Brien is a founder member of RA. He is in his
early thirties, a short, stockily built labourer whose cheerful amenability
disguises the fact that he has been in the forefront of just about every piece
of violence RA have been involved in. “We’ve taken out all the top men in the
NF over the last couple of years;’ he says with a smile, and you get the impression
that he isn’t just boasting. A Londoner of Irish heritage he is on the executive
of RA. We arranged to meet O’Brien on a Saturday night at a pub in North London,
but he was arrested at the door and taken off to the cells for a night on a
charge of being drunk and disorderly. Apparently it’s something that happens
to him from time to time and he rang up later in the week to apologise.
“What makes us different to other left wing groups;’
O’Brien told us later, “is that the bulk of our membership are white, working-class
street-fighters. We get a lot of stick for that. That is a problem we’re aware
of. But the problem with a lot of other left-wing groups is that they’re top-heavy
with middle-class professionals. There’s nothing wrong with being middle class,
it’s just there’s something wrong if they can’t attract working-class people!’
Another criticism directed at Red Action is the
lack of black people. “A lot of the Left, I think, are really patronising towards
ethnic minorities. We feel our propaganda shouldn’t be aimed at the victims
of fascism, you can’t tell them about racist attacks because they live it. Our
propaganda should be aimed at the potential recruits of fascism!’
O’Brien wanted to stress that there is a thinking,
political side to Red Action. ‘The people who join Red Action do so because
they believe in revolutionary socialism. They don’t just do it because they
want to beat someone up. Sometimes in the past we haven’t been too discerning
about our members. But it is so unrewarding to be a member of Red Action that
you don’t get people joining for the wrong reasons!’
An overheard conversation between two skinheads
sitting on a bus is one example of people joining for ‘wrong reasons’. It is
a Saturday afternoon and they are on their way home from a football match. They
are having a heated argument about which group they should join - the NF or
Red Action. The problem for them is trying to decide which will offer the greater
opportunities for nicking. One feels that because Red Action are the smaller
organisation, they’ll get picked on more and that will mean more fights. The
other feels that the NF will offer a greater selection of opponents from black
and other ethnic groups, from the police and from the wide range of left-wing
groups. The two get off the bus, still arguing, unable to come to a satisfactory
decision.
O’Brien is unconcerned that some Red Action members
have previously been involved with the National Front. “I don’t think that’s
anything to be ashamed of. Most of us, myself included, held racist views. If
someone flirts with the NF in their teens, I’m not saying it’s good but a lot
of quite decent people get involved. But they learn!’
When you’re growing up as a young white male,
ways of finding excitement usually involve friends, fighting and football. The
NF knows that; that’s how it gets its members. Red Action, unlike most left-wing
groups, knows it too.
West Ham United’s Inner City Firm (ICF) are a
long-established and notorious football crew with strong NF connections, at
least until recently. Now there are rumours that NF paper-sellers get beaten
up outside Upton Park, West Ham’s home ground, and that the Firm itself has
been taken over by Red Action and SWP supporters.
Their methods of persuasion are evidenced by a
reported incident between two strapping young men sitting at the bar late one
evening in a dubious East Ham pub. The two were strangers, but wearing similar
claret’n’blue West Ham colours, they were soon engaged in the usual lighthearted
tomfoolery. At some point one of them began to tell a racist joke, prompting
the other to knock him off his stool and proceed to beat him up. He was then
placed back on his stool and told why he had been given such violent treatment.
The recipient of this crash course in race awareness is now a fully paid-up
member of RA.
What puts many people off Red Action is their
support for the INLA and IRA. “We could double our membership in six months
if we toned down on Ireland” says O’Brien. Red Action’s involvement in Northern
Ireland consists of raising money for INLA prisoners and giving them and their
families’ moral support. “We organise trips to Belfast each year and many of
our members, who come from white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant traditions and have
no personal connections with Ireland, are finding that they agree with the struggle!’
The stand on Ireland is typical of Red Action. “If you want a revolution;’ says
O’Brien, “there’s going to be war, bloodshed, death. You can’t have a revolution
with roses!’
O’Brien cites RA’s stand on Ireland as another
reason that he believes its members join for the right reasons. “Our politics
are quite demanding. A dilettante will not join a small left-wing group that
sells papers saying ‘Up The IRA, it’s dangerous!’
The ‘Bloody Sunday’ march in London in January
looked dangerous. In the previous week the Commons had been told there would
be no prosecutions of the RUC over their alleged ‘shoot to kill’ policy and
the Birmingham Six had had their appeal turned down. Red Action had their contingent
at the march, along with virtually every other left-wing group. The National
Front announced that they would be holding a counter-march to oppose the ‘IRA
followers insulting the British people! Violence was expected.
Police presence was heavy and it soon became obvious
that the marchers and counter-demonstrators would not have any chance to get
near each other. The NF contingent were lined up behind a row of crush barriers
and surrounded by mounted police. Fifty ugly-looking skinheads and some of the
NF’s top men, including Steve Brady, stood baying at the marchers. They were
shouting, “IRA scum!”, the marchers were shouting “Nazi scum!” Some of the marchers
moved towards them, only to be hurled back in line by the police. The NF were
shepherded away up aback street, but not without a few arrests on both sides.
It was only later, when we met up with some of
the Red Action contingent, that we discovered a few had managed to get into
the NF ranks. “We were right in the middle of them;’ boasted Malcolm, an 18-year-old
RA member. ‘They didn’t even notice. They were shouting, ‘Hang the IRA’ at the
marchers and we said, ‘Here we are! Come on then!’ and they all just backed
off. They didn’t want to know!’ The marchers were all heading for the rally
in the town hall with speakers including Ken Livingstone and Diane Abbott, but
he wasn’t interested: “Fuck the rally. I want to get at the NF!”
Malcolm was introduced to RA by a friend of his
girlfriend’s a year and a half ago. Since then he has been one of the movement’s
more enthusiastic members. He was eager to tell us about RAs latest scheme:
“We want to restart Rock Against Racism. We’re gonna call it the Cable Street
Beat.
“Rock Against Racism was aligned to the Anti-Nazi
League, putting on gigs featuring top musical acts of the day. Cable Street,
in the 1930’s, was the scene of a famous East End battle between local Jews
and Mosley’s Blackshirts, which the Jews won overwhelmingly. According to Malcolm,
“We’ve already got some badges made up and some gigs lined up in Brixton!’
At the meeting above the pub, Reilly is trying
to get some sort of reaction from those present. In front of us a red-headed
young man is slumped in his chair, his eyes closed, the beer glass in his hand
looking close to slipping from his fingers. He is not taking part in the discussion.
Reilly wants to get across the ways you can deal with racism; isolating racists.
One member wants to attack a Skrewdriver gig. The crowd gets more animated at
the thought of violence. Reilly dismisses the idea on practical grounds - he
doesn’t think RA could get the necessary couple of hundred people together at
the moment. The crowd slumps back into apathy.
“We should never have survived;’ says Danny O’Brien.
“We didn’t have any of the brains or the organisational abilities. We just wanted
to meet the fascists head on. We’re the abortion that lived!’
