Ball Boys by David Edgar, published by Pluto Press, London, (January 1979). 17 pages.
This mini play was first presented at Birmingham Arts Lab, July 1975; it was directed by Edgar. It is said to be from a series of five short plays entitled Blood Sports.
On the back cover it is said to be a “satire on oppression and revolution”
[Although the pamphlet itself is dated 1978, according to BBIP (1980) it was actually published in January 1979.]
Fascists: A Social Psychological View of the National Front by Michael Billig, published by Harcourt Brace, London, (January 1979). 394 pages. Index.
[Not seen by compiler]
This is the paperback edition; see November 1978 re hardback.
[BBIP, 1980]
Benn’s Press Directory 1979, Volume 1, page 382 says Searchlight was established 1975, and owned by A.F. & R. Publications, 21 Great Western Buildings, 6 Livery Street, Birmingham 3. This appears to be the first reference ever to Searchlight in press directories.
Anti-Christian pagan cults and the ultra-right: the function of Odinism as myth and ideology by Gill Seidel and Michael Billig.
A paper presented at the Second Congress of the International Association for Semiotic Studies, Vienna, 1979.
FASCISM IN BRITAIN: An Annotated Bibliography by Philip Rees, published by Harvester Press, Sussex, (1979). 243 pages. Index. [Title on dust cover of book is Fascism in Britain].
On page 213, Rees lists Searchlight, as published from Spring 1965 to May 1967. He says also that it is “A vital source of information on the ultra-right...” So much for our distinguished academics.
FOREWARNED AGAINST FASCISM, No 5. Undated.
This issue was presumably published sometime between August 1978 and April 1979, the dates of issues 4 & 6 respectively.
Page 5: CAUSE FOR CONCERN, by Dave Roberts.
This is said to be “FIRST OF A 2 PART ARTICLE ON FASCIST PARA MIUTISM.”
Page 6: UNITY AGAINST FASCISM was published June 1976.
Page 6: Richard Haller is said to be the pseudonym of Les Vaughan.
Page 8: Liddle explains her policies “We are proud to be Marxist-Leninists”
Page 14 reports that A Well-Oiled Nazi Machine was published in August 1974 by A.F. & R. Publications of Cavell Street, East London, and that Ken Sprague edited Searchlight for four issues from January 1976.
Psychology, Racism & Fascism by Michael Billig, published by A.F. & R. Publications, Birmingham, (1979). 40 pages. Illustrated.
The author was, at the time, with the Department of Psychology, University of Birmingham. This booklet is anything but subtle. On its black cover appears a skull with a Star of David carved into or painted on its skull; suspended in mid-air in front of it is what appears to be a pair of callipers, and the whole thing is set on a swastika table cloth.
The foreword written by Robert Moore of the Department of Sociology, King’s College, University of Aberdeen, gives a foretaste of the perverted logic which pervades the entire “anti-racist” academic establishment:
“Victory in the second world war and full exposure of the results of Nazi racial policies seemed to have laid ‘scientific racism’ to rest and its epitaph was written by the scientific community in four UNESCO statements on race.”
And
“Most social scientists regard scientific racism as dead.”
Leaving aside the fact that the word racism is never but never defined by its enemies except in the most general, nebulous and dishonest of terms, the writer is asking us to believe that the outcome of the Second World War can be used to refute scientific theories about race. By the same logic, if the Nazis had won the war, their anti-Semitic ideology would have been validated and the theory of the all-pervasive Jewish world conspiracy would have been vindicated, Protocols of Zion and all!
The reference to the UNESCO statement on race is as disingenuous as this statement itself.
What social scientists regard is a matter of social(ist) opinion rather than biological fact. The reality is that there is no real evidence of “racial equality” in a broad sense. Different races have different levels of achievement, in particular, the White Race and to some extent the Yellow Race have created great civilisations while the darker races have created little or none.
This is the plain biological and historical reality. However, all civilisation is the result of the progress of science and technology (and other more nebulous “crafts” such as ethics etc), and these are the creation of a relatively small number of gifted individuals. It is as individuals that men (and women) should be judged, and raw intelligence is a very poor barometer of the worth of a human being. No one could ever accuse serial sex killers Ted Bundy or Dennis Nilsen of having low intelligence quotients. Nor indeed Lenin or Stalin. But for all their high intelligence and achievements in their chosen fields, it would have been far, far better for the rest of mankind if these four individuals had never existed.
Billig’s monograph kicks off proper with a chapter on Nazi Race-science which contains such references as “the perils of Jewish contamination” etc. In fact, the eugenics movement, which has a far older pedigree than Nazism, is not inherently anti-Semitic. Neither by the way are theories of racial supremacy; the introduction to the 1915 edition of the Comte de Gobineau’s classic THE INEQUALITY OF HUMAN RACES, was written by one Dr Oscar Levy, who praised the author as a “true prophet”.
Billig goes on to mention the 1958 establishment of the Northern League by British anthropologist Roger Pearson in order to foster “the interests, friendship and solidarity of all Teutonic nations”.
Somehow the author manages to make this sound obscene, but this is probably due more to the racist media’s ethno-masochistic crusade than to his sneering. Substitute the word Afro-Caribbean for Teutonic, or Asian, or Jewish. It doesn’t sound half as bad, does it?
In Chapter Two, the author throws the net around Professors Jensen and Eysenck as Race-science returns, and brings up the supposedly controversial but well-established IQ differences between American whites and Negroes. Again, we must stress that although this difference is real and largely genetically determined, it’s one thing to have a high IQ, and another thing entirely to use it. Mike Tyson probably has a greater than average IQ (black or white). He also had enormous talent, personality, charm, wealth, prestige, and was heralded as potentially the greatest heavyweight of all time. At the time of writing he is languishing in prison after being convicted of rape. Further comment would be superfluous.
Chapter Three brings in the Mankind Quarterly and ties this to the notorious Racial Preservation Society trial of 1968, which resulted in the acquittal of all defendants. Professor Billig also takes a swipe at Nathaniel Weyl for attacking racial intermarriage. Weyl is actually a Jew, a former communist, and the author of the excellent study Karl Marx: Racist, which exposes the truth about this great humanitarian and his wonderful though long discredited philosophy.
Predictably, anti-Semitism is dragged in again as the authorship of The hoax of the Twentieth Century is attributed to Arnold Butz. This book is said to be “fast becoming a modern anti-Semitic classic...”
It was actually written by Professor Arthur Butz and the only anti-Semitism which appears between its covers are the views of Nazi leaders quoted in context.
The author has a separate chapter on Professors Eysenck and Jensen. On page 29 he cites Jensen, who, in spite of his racist views, declares racial segregation to be immoral and running counter to the essential values of freedom and liberty.
Jensen also says that “people should be treated as individuals, not according to their racial, ethnic or social origin.”
Billig sounds dismayed at Jensen’s “liberal” views, but misses the point. On page 34, in his Conclusion, he quotes Noam Chomsky with approval: “A possible correlation between mean IQ and skin colour is of no [great] scientific interest...”
Chomsky was talking about skin colour; Jensen about race. Billig did not miss the point here, he was simply being patently dishonest. The author’s conclusion is that “some very big academic fish can be found in the murkiest of waters.” Which would indeed make a fitting epitaph for this distinguished Jewish professor.
[The above review was first published as an appendix to the 1994 pamphlet EYSENCK AND THE NAZIS: Another “Searchlight”Smear Exposed And Refuted.]
The Construction of ‘Race’ and Nation in National Front and Anti-National Front Discourse. is an unpublished paper presented to the SSRC Seminar Anthropology in Industrialised Societies of Western Europe, University of York, R. Grillo, convenor, (1979).
[Not seen by compiler; cited by Seidel in Discourse and Discrimination, Edited by Geneva Smitherman-Donaldson and Teun A. van Dijk, published by Wayne State University Press, Detroit, (1988), page 143. See Searchlight Criticial Bibliography 1988.]
Women and the National Front by Veronica Ware, published by A.F. & R. Publications, Birmingham, (1979). 40 pages. Illustrated.
According to the British Library Catalogue; the publication itself is undated. In the introduction on page 2 appear the following totally misleading statements:
“IN THE last few years much has been written about fascism and the National Front...”
“The NF however is not the only fascist organisation in the country...The British Movement is an openly fascist organisation...”
Nazism is not synonymous with fascism, but whatever one may think about the British Movement, it is undeniable that the National Front had more than a little pretence to democracy. It was (and remains) no more a fascist party than the former Apartheid régime of South Africa.
On page 3 the author says, “THE NATIONAL FRONT’S obsession with the supremacy of the White race is well-known...”
In this connection she quotes from Spearhead, January, 1977:
“There is no more fundamental political duty than the preservation of the race...”
Actually, rather than an obsession with the “supremacy” of the race, this very clearly refers to the “survival” of the race. What, one may ask, does Veronica Ware find so obscene about the idea of white survival?
On page 4 she refers to “the sick leaflet opposite”. This is actually a British Movement anti-abortion leaflet. Sick because it protests against the slaughter of (white) babies, perhaps?
Page 5 contains a number of highly dubious quotes attributed to Movement members.
On page 11 there is a photograph of a 1977 all-male National Front Directorate below which are two photographs of National Front “housewives” who stood as candidates, Sylvia Jones and (the now deceased) Helena Steven. The implication being that there is no room for women in a “Nazi” or “fascist” ie white, Britain.
On pages 12 and 13, the Front’s horror and disgust at the thought of inter-racial sex is revealed. On page 13 is a photograph of a leaflet issued by the (obviously non-existent) Keep Bourneville White Committee, warning white parents of an imminent “Race-Mixing Dance”.
Actually, the obsession of the National Front and their fellow travellers with the horrors of miscegenation is exceeded only by the desire of Searchlight and its fellow travellers to mongrelise the white race (and indeed all other races) out of existence. The pros and cons of miscegenation are beyond the scope of the current work, but it will suffice to say here that this is a very genuine fear for most people, and not just white people. The spurious nonsense that race doesn’t exist, and the all too often successful attempts to ostracise anyone who takes the opposite view, that not only does race exist, but that it is important and that racial integrity is worth preserving, is something which does far more harm to race relations than good. But of course, Miss Ware knows this already.
The author’s conclusion (page 19) is that: “Racism is the most dangerous and evil of these prejudices and everyone should be educated to realise the outcome of what might seem to many ‘natural’ racist feelings.”
Natural they are indeed, but what is the “inevitable” outcome of racism? Gas chambers of course, although for once this is left to the imagination.
“Racism is used in exactly the same way [as the non-existent] sexism to divide the work-force...”
Finally, the back cover of this short monograph explains:
Why you should subscribe to Searchlight
“Over the years it has produced a wealth of documentation and exclusive stories that have been taken up by the national Press and TV.”
The current publication has proved conclusively what a damning piece of self-advertising that final statement is.
Fascists: A Social Psychological View of the National Front by Michael Billig, published by Harcourt Brace, London, (January 1979). 393 pages. Index.
See entry for November 1978.
[BBIP, 1980]
MPs want action over racist Front by Craig Tyson, published in the (Johannesburg) Sunday Express, January 28, 1979, page 6.
Complaints about anti-Black and “anti-Zionist” pamphlets, 4 in 3 months, issued by the National Front. One MP wrote to the government demanding that the Front be prosecuted for inciting racial hatred. (Jack Noble said to be branch organiser). Ray Hill was heavily involved in this.
Jewish youth determined to turn back National Front published in the (Johannesburg) Sunday Express, February 4, 1979, page 16.
Four hundred Jews are said to have stormed through its city rally. Jack Noble (Secretary of the National Front) and his followers are said to be spreading anti-Semitic propaganda.
This is an important article; although it does not mention Ray Hill, his handiwork can he clearly seen in this. The anti-Semitism of this short lived but very nasty organisation appears to have been imported with him; it remains to be seen if he was inciting it for his own purposes or if he had already sold his soul to Organised Jewry; my guess is that this was a put up job, like so many Searchlight type inspired operations we have seen in Britain and which we have seen occasionally in the United States, either by the FBI or more usually by Jewish hatemongers inciting anti-Semitism for their own nefarious ends.
White Supremacy or Black Supremacy, published circa March 1979 by the South African National Front.
[Not seen by compiler.]
Ray Hill almost certainly had a hand in this pamphlet.
Beware the snooping NF: RACISTS’ COMPLAINTS FORCED RESIDENTS TO LEAVE by Jean Le May, published in the (Johannesburg) Sunday Express, March 4, 1979, pages 6-7.
Hill features heavily in this exposé of the South African National Front which shows the sort of man he really is. Told that SANF policies would lead to a large rise in the mortality rate of black infants he replied: “tough – but that’s natural selection”.
Top Herstigte resigns over link with NF: ERIC LOUW’S SON DISGUSTED BY ‘INSULT TO JEWISH BOYS’ by Jean Le May, published in the (Johannesburg) Sunday Express, March 11, 1979, page 10.
Ray Hill reported to have made a virulently anti-Semitic speech on an HNP platform.
National Front men in court over cash published in the (Johannesburg) Star, Thursday, March 29, 1979, page 4.
Hill is said to be on bail for fraud charges. This was a civil case. R30,000 said to have been misappropriated from the Sons of England Society. Of course, it wasn’t you, was it, Ray?
Values of British political extremists and potential extremists: a discriminant analysis by Michael Billig and Raymond Cochrane, (both of University of Birmingham), published in European Journal of Social Psychology, April-June 1979, VOLUME 9, ISSUE No. 2, pages 205-22. The paper was received 3 March 1978.
Hard Core by Martin Walker, published in the New Statesman, April 27, 1979, pages 598-9.
A review of Michael Billig’s Fascists...
Towards a Theatre of Dynamic Ambiguities David Edgar interviewed by Clive Barker and Simon Trussler, THEATRE QUARTERLY, Spring 1979, VOL. IX No. 33, pages 3-23.
From the foreword, page 3, “...of some three dozen plays Edgar has written since 1970...not one of them lies buried in a bottom drawer...”
Interviewer: Your educational background – prep school, public school, university – suggests a fairly conventional upbringing...
Edgar: Yes, fairly conventional...
What a prick.
All told, a very illuminating article; demonstrates exactly how much influence this cabal has had, and into how many far corners of our culture their poison has spread.
FOREWARNED AGAINST FASCISM, No 6, April 1979
Page 3 lists numerous alleged fascists, their addresses, and some phone numbers. On the list is the phone number of tennis player Buster Mottram, and the address of Sonia Hochfelder.
The following is quoted verbatim from page 5:
Our thanks to Sonia Hochfelder for the snippet of information sent, which we checked. Sorry that we cannot take up your offer to supply us with more information, “if we could give you good reason to do so”, an offer which I understand you have made to other anti-fascist organisations. Alas we cannott afford to bribe you, either with money or an exchange of information. For readers who are unaware, Ms Hochfelder was recently the security officer of the League of St George – before that she was a Maoist. Now, apparently she has also joined her local Conservative Party.
Here is a PDF scan of pages 1, 3, 4, 8 & 9 of the above. This is the best copy possible. This demonstrates clearly who it was began publishing details of home addresses.
Marxism Today, April 1979, Volume 24, Number 4, back page: this is a full page advert for Billig’s then recently published Fascists. It quotes from four reviews:
Peter Marsh in New Society
David Martin in the Sunday Telegraph
Brian Kirman in the Morning Star
and Searchlight
[This volume is actually Volume 23 but the March-May 1979 issues have been misnumbered.]
Warrant for NF chairman published in the (Johannesburg) Star, April 19, 1979.
[Based on photocopy.]
Barred: National Front boss faces visa curb by Ray Joseph, published in the (Johannesburg) Sunday Times, April 22, 1979.
This is one of a number of press cuttings I received from a South African source. Those familiar with the mischief making of Organised Jewry will readily discern a hidden hand at work here. Having jumped bail in England one would have though Hill would have kept his head down in a country with a large Jewish and even larger black population, instead no sooner had he landed than he set about involving himself in extremist politics. Notice that it was not him but Jack Noble who felt the brunt of the backlash. Hill only came a cropper when he was caught with his hand in the till.
[Based on photocopy.]
Front man fled on spare passport by Ray Joseph, published in the (Johannesburg) Sunday Times, (Early edition), April 29, 1979, page 17.
Hill faces charge of embezzlement published in the (Johannesburg) Star, May 11, 1979.
[Based on photocopy.]
Man in fraud prosecution flees to UK: Ex-NF chief in South Africa jumps bail by David Beresford, published in the Guardian, May 11, 1979, page 30.
Apparently published in another edition with the slightly different title of Man in fraud prosecution flees to Britain.
Politics and values in Britain: a test of Rokeach’s two-value model by Raymond Cochrane, Michael Billig and Michael Hogg, published in The British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, Volume 18, Part 2, pages 159-67, (June 1979).
Ex-British Movement official in court 10 years after attack published in the Leicester Mercury EXTRA, July 4, 1979, page 5.
Hill said to have fled to South Africa to avoid charges. Previous convictions for violence and strong political convictions.
Peter Josephs, owner of the Chameleon café King Street, Leicester, was assaulted on August 21st 1969. Hill denied ABH but admitted common assault. Hill also denied damaging cups, saucers and a ceiling! Two witnesses had since emigrated. Hill said he’d gone to the café to “sort out previous difficulties”. This resulted in him being shown the door; outside he was said to have hit Mr Josephs several times in the face. He was given a 9 months sentence suspended for 12 months; he was also in breach of a six month sentence which was renewed for 3 years.
Right-wing man sentenced published in the Jewish Chronicle, July 13, 1979, page 10.
Swastikas in Madrid by Gill Seidel, published in New Society, August 9, 1979, Volume 49, No 879, pages 285-6.
Professor Eysenck’s political psychology by Michael Billig, published in Patterns of Prejudice, Sept-Oct 1979, Vol 13, No 5, pages 9-16.
This is basically a smear on Eysenck’s research into the psychology of extremism, but what else would one expect from someone of Billig’s impeccable antecedents? And from the theoretical journal of the Institute of Jewish Affairs?
Nazis are suspected of bomb attacks published in the Guardian, Staff Reporter, September 10, 1979, page 2.
A total of seven bombs the previous year may be the work of Wotan.
Police said no arrests had been made but that supporters had been kept under surveilance. A house of one of the organisers had been searched. Six bombs went to left wing targets, one to Conservative Central Office.
Police said to have seen a recruiting document “If you decide to join us...I promise uou [sic] a very flammable future.”
Rather more than a small drinking club of Nazi nutcases: DAVID LEIGH follows the bombing trail that leads back to the supporters of SS Wotan 18 published in the Guardian, September 10, 1979, page 13.
Describes Wotan as military fantasists. Wotan said to have recruited through an advert in the far right League Review; police say the group made up of 30-40 diehards. Wotan said to be a recruiting agency for Column 88. The first bomb went to Roger Prowse, the SWP man of High Wycombe, a by-election candidate.
Thames Valley Police “asked the editor of Searchlight, an independent anti-Fascist magazine in Birmingham, to brief them on right-wing groups.”
Arrests were made but led only to Race Act prosecutions.
“The grand total of police achievement was the successful conviction and fining of two men for conspiracy to contravene the race relations act: and the conviction of one Wotan member for possession of a bullet.”
Anti-terrorist squad were reluctant to lay these bombings definitively at the door of right wingers.
NF man cannot return without a visa by Kevin Stocks, published in the (Johannesburg) Sunday Times, September 30, 1979. [Based on photocopy.]
The [SA]NF man concerned is Ray Hill, of course.
Ten Years of Political Theatre, 1968-78 by David Edgar, THEATRE QUARTERLY, (also known simply as TQ), Winter 1979, Vol. VIII, No. 32, pages 25-33.
Enlightening article on subsidised socialist theatre, and revolutionary actors.
FOREWARNED AGAINST FASCISM, No 7, October 1979
The price has now risen to fifteen pence.
Pages 3-6 is a list of alleged fascists and their addresses.
On page 3 is listed one Joseph Cohen as a National Front member, admittedly with a question mark appended.
As can be seen, this magazine made a practice of publishing “fascists” names, addresses and phone numbers
Page 16: CHILE THE JUNTAS LINKS, PART 2, an unsigned article.
OUTLOOK by Heimdall, published in League Review, December 1979, Volume 1, No 27, pages 17-9. (Based on photocopy).
This particular Heimdall was (I am reliably informed) written by Steve Brady and contains a nationalist view of the activities of Richard David Roberts. According to this, Roberts denounced Searchlight as being funded (£7,000 a year) by “Israeli intelligence”. Roberts may have believed this, but I don’t. Heimdall also says that Roberts was disowned by Searchlight while it was still controlled by Maurice Ludmer; this may be the case, and as he was obviously better informed than me I will defer to his superior knowledge. Regardless of this, after Ludmer’s death, Gable and his shikse sidekick Ware clearly lied about his involvement with the organisation, and Gable’s later traducing of him is positively shameful.
To Searchlight Critical Bibliography 1978
To Searchlight Critical Bibliography 1980
Return To Critical Bibliography Introduction
Return To Critical Bibliography Index
Return To Site Index