People's History of the Anti Nazi League: 1977-1981

by Geoff Brown

1977. Labour in government. Unemployment growing and despair spreading. The National Front on the march and rising fast at the polls. Racist attacks on Black and Asian communities increasing. Then came the Anti Nazi League. A vibrant mass movement challenging the NF and racism on the streets, in workplaces, in colleges and schools. The ANL broke the back of the NF. This definitive history of the Anti Nazi League draws on extensive interviews with leading figures and local activists, along with contemporary coverage in the national, local and music press.

Genres: History

322 pages, Paperback

Published July 24, 2025

Reviews

[Martin Empson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A remarkable account of the massive anti-fascist movement that grew in Britain in response to the rise of the Nazi National Front in the 1970s. Geoff Brown begins with the racist scapegoating of Enoch Powell, and shows how the Nazis grew in a fertile atmosphere of economic crisis, offical racism and lack of class struggle from below. The Anti-Nazi League, launched as a United Front between revolutionary socialists, Labour MPs, left and cultural figures such as footballers and musicians, became a mass, rank and file movement, involving hundreds of thousands. Brown's book does not neglect the political context or the theory of the United Front - but its biggest strength is its archival material and its interviews with activists - both leading figures and ordinary people. The book is a treasurer trove of memories, stories, anecodotes and inspirational recollections. Even those who lived through it probably don't remember everything. Sadly the right are rising again, fuelled once again by fascist ideologues and government racism. It is a truism that this book is timely. But more importantly it is a manual for everyone who wants to learn the lessons of how we stopped the Nazis then so that we can do it again.

[Markus West · Rating 5 out of 5]

The people’s history of the ANL, or “the ANL book” as it’s quickly become known in Manchester, is a triumph of anti fascist writing.

It’s hard to find a critique for the book. The density of information, the ease of access to its most important ideas, its clear roots in the author’s experience of organising movement - all culminate into a work that genuinely animates the reader.

As a trade unionist myself, the most striking elements of the book related to the scale of class struggle against fascism. The book argues comprehensively that the role of the ANL and RAR in changing culture to be intolerant to racism was likely the biggest factor in its victory. Nevertheless, I can’t avoid the temptation to dream about how different the current anti fascist movement - which inherits a lot of the cultural victories of the ANL - could be as an extension of a fighting working class in the same way that the ANL was. The stories of Indian Workers Associations halting fascist marched in their tracks and NUM branches shaming racists into silence with stickers are enough to bring a smile to the face of even the most disillusioned worker in 2025.

The final beat is perhaps the most important. Thousands went to the streets during the BLM protests of 2020. The questions for today’s anti racist movement are “where are they now?” And “how do we best engage them?”. I think the nascent together alliance will be a big part of the answer.

[Sky Harrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

As shown by Geoff's notes and bibliography much can be said about the Anti Nazi League. Indeed in conversation with people about it you always hear something new. What Geoff has done is successfully mix archival study, personal experience and political analysis into a book which is both scholarly and page turning.

Although this is undoubtedly a text for the time, I expect whenever the fascists raise their heads again activists can return to this book as a source of guidance and direction.

[Alistair Stewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

To be able to say that this book is so timely and necessary, which it is, is a source of no pleasure at all. Racism, in forms sometimes new and sometimes horribly familiar, is resurgent in the UK, fuelled by the poisonous politics of the Tory Party, Reform UK, openly fascist groups and now the leadership of the Labour Party. The background is a world of falling living standards, widespread poverty, wars, a housing crisis and the erosion of public services.

We desperately need to find new ways to unite and give purpose to the anti-racist majority, and to beat back today’s Nazis. Geoff Brown’s A People’s History of the Anti-Nazi League is a very important resource for this task. Not because it offers us a blueprint of ‘how to do it’, although it assembles a whole host of inspiring examples, and paints a vivid and inspiring picture of what a successful united front looked like in practice. And not because the 2020s are like the late 1970s – while many of the generation radicalised by the ANL are still very much alive and kicking, the world has changed in so many ways, although there are many important lessons which still apply.

Most of all, this book hits the spot by recreating a sense of the creative energy of tens and hundreds of thousands of ordinary people which was unleashed by the combination of the Anti-Nazi League and Rock Against Racism, the togetherness which made people feel strong, optimistic and able to face down their fears and become the force which in the end sent the National Front and their allies packing. Sometimes the account, going backwards and forwards in place and time, can feel chaotic, but that is in some ways an accurate reflection of the times.

Our times, chaotic in their own way, are different, and we will need to find our own solutions. We will need every tool in the box, and along the way we should definitely read this book.