White youth: the Far Right, Punk and British youth culture

‘White Youth’ recovers and explains the relationship between far-right organisations and British youth culture in the period between 1977 and 1987. In particular, it concentrates on the cultural spaces opened up by punk and the attempts made by the National Front and British Movement to claim them as conduits for racist and/or ultra-nationalist politics. The article is built on an empirical basis, using archival material and a historical methodology chosen to develop a history ‘from below’ that takes due consideration of the socio-economic and political forces that inform its wider context. Its focus is designed to map shifting cultural and political influences across the far right, assessing the extent to which extremist organisations proved able to adopt or utilise youth cultural practice as a means of recruitment and communication. Today the British far right is in political and organisational disarray. Nonetheless, residues tied to the cultural initiatives devised in the 1970s–80s remain, be they stylistic, nostalgic or points of connection forged to connect a transnational music scene

Militant antifascism:An alternative (historical) reading

This article offers an alternative historical reading of militant antifascism and argues that application of the “gang” designation is overly reductionist. Whilst there is a historical connection between “gangs” and militant antifascism, and militant antifascists do engage in “gang” behaviors, a “gang” designation pays no attention to the multiplicities of militant antifascism; its transnational evolution and character; and above all, the ideological motivations of the antifascists themselves.</p

Review Essay

Samir Gandesha, ed. Spectres of Fascism: Historical, Theoretical and International Perspectives (London: Pluto Press, 2020). - xii, 291 pages. - isbn 9780745340630.Lawrence Grossberg, Under the Cover of Chaos: Trump and the Battle for the American Right (London: Pluto Press, 2018). - xv, 165 pages. - isbn 9780745337920.David Renton, The New Authoritarians: Convergence on the Right (London: Pluto Press, 2019). - 280 pages. - isbn 9780745338170.David Renton, Fascism: History and Theory (revised edition of Fascism: Theory and Practice, 1999) (London: Pluto Press, 2020). - 192 pages. - isbn 9780745341194.Mike Wendling, Alt Right: From 4 Chan to the White House (London: Pluto Press, 2018). - vi, 294 pages. - isbn 9780745337951.The titles listed above are all published by the London-based Pluto Press, a radical anti-capitalist, internationalist and politically independent publisher. Originally founded in 1969, Pluto Press is one of Britain’s oldest radical-left publishers. Over fifty years on, their concern is to remain relevant, not to hark back to the past of 1960s radical protest, but to make timely interventions in the present. Nonetheless, past struggles remain a major source of inspiration for the publisher: ‘fascism and racism are on the rise. Refugees are fleeing authoritarian regimes and war. Tensions between corporations and workers are increasing, fuelled by austerity policies and deepening inequality. The world needs a Left Book Club for the 21st Century’, Pluto’s Managing Director declared in 2018.1 Without doubt, the publication of these five titles constitute a timely intervention. Collectively, they merit review as a sample, or ‘taster’ of how the radical left currently views fascism and the resurgent right. But the timing of this intervention aside, do they hold any special significance for the academic analysis of fascism today? For ‘At this moment’, as David Renton concedes in Fascism: History and Theory, ‘there is hardly any theory which is less fashionable among historians of fascism than Marxism

A Comparison between the Extreme Right in Contemporary France and Britain

Existing literature on the contemporary extreme right tends to follow a 'country-specific' approach. The primary intention of this article is to move beyond this approach and provide a comparative study of the contemporary extreme right in France and Britain. It transcends country-specific accounts in order to answer a specific research question: why has the French National Front achieved a level of political success which the British National Front has demonstrably failed to achieve? This comparison provides for the formulation of a conjunctural model of extreme-right political success which could be seen as an important theoretical innovation in the field of extreme right studies