Red Action was a British

leftist Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social hierarchies. Left-wing politi ...

political group A parliamentary group, parliamentary caucus or political group is a group consisting of members of different political parties or independent politicians with similar ideologies. Some parliamentary systems allow smaller political parties, who a ...

formed in 1981. It became known for violently confronting groups such as the

British National Party The British National Party (BNP) is a Far-right politics, far-right, British fascism, fascist list of political parties in the United Kingdom, political party in the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in Wigton, Cumbria, and is led by Adam ...

on the streets, and for being the main organisational force behind

Anti-Fascist Action Anti-Fascist Action (AFA) was a militant anti-fascist organisation, founded in the UK in 1985 by a wide range of anti-racist and anti-fascist organisations. It was active in fighting far-right organisations, particularly the National Front a ...

.Zephaniah, Benjamin. 28 February 2016. "Benjamin Zephaniah on fighting the far right: 'If we did nothing we would be killed on the streets' Books The Guardian". ''The Guardian''.
/ref> In 1995, ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' estimated that it had between 20 and 30 branches with 10–15 activists in each, and the paper stated that the group "enthusiastically espouses the use of violence"; it also set out links between Red Action and the Irish republican movement, and stated that members operated primarily in large cities such as London, Manchester, Leeds and Glasgow. The group was formed by

activist Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived common good. Forms of activism range from mandate build ...

s who had been expelled from the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) for their involvement in alleged " squadism" (violent actions against

far right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and Nativism (politics), nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on ...

racist groups). The expelled activists regrouped around a paper named ''Red Action''. After several years, the group became more interested in the

electoral process An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...

, and it joined the Red Front electoral alliance in 1987 and the Socialist Alliance in England and Wales in 1999. Red Action members then left this organisation, along with the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

, citing the domination of the SWP over the organisation. Some Red Action members went on to found the Independent Working Class Association.

References

External links

Red Action archive
* ttps://libcom.org/tags/red-action Red Action material at Libcombr>As Soon As This Pub Closes - Red Action section
satirical profile by John Sullivan Anti-fascist organisations in the United Kingdom Anti-racist organisations in the United Kingdom Political parties established in 1981 1981 establishments in the United Kingdom {{UK-poli-stub

References

Further reading

External links