Experienced antifascists have long realised that fascist fantasies about ‘Aryan hard-men’, also long propagated by Searchlight, were far from the truth. The reality is that most fascists are snivelling little cowards.
So it is with 'Redwatch', the reality is very far from the myth Searchlight have helped to create. The site is filled with photos taken from Indymedia and suchlike, showing trade unionists, anti-war protestors, students, and liberal anti-racists. Along with the photos are a sprinkling of contact details gleaned from public sources. Much of this information is out of date, and frankly drivel.
Included in the glaring lack of information posted on 'Redwatch', mixed in with pictures of people who happened to go on a demo at some point in their lives, are pics of a few militant antifascists. But so what?
Do we really care that Kevin Watmough, the main architect of Redwatch, knows what a few of our comrades may look like? Do we f**k! Watmough, of 58 Abbeydale Oval, Leeds, LS5 3RF is typical of the fascist reality - A pathetic degenerate, who when he leaves his bedroom, shambles about in his dirty, un-ironed clothes, afraid to take his eyes from the pavement.
'Redwatch' may be violence by proxy, but there’s a big difference between Watmough cackling in his bedroom because he’s taken a new picture from Indymedia, and any threat. Despite the occasional secret gatherings of inbred swastika-wearing morons, the far-Right are not in a position to carry out their pathetic fantasies.
If it were not for the likelihood that we’d be inundated with unwanted pizza, and we thought these cowards would actually come to us for a change, we’d post up our addresses ourselves, so that we didn’t have to spend so much time chasing gutless Nazis.
The reality is that we know more about the fascists than they ever will about us, and unlike them we have the guts and determination to act. While we advise all antifascists to take their personal security seriously, 'Redwatch' is a joke.
Despite their well-publicised antipathy, the state manipulated bogey-man 'Redwatch', and the state affiliated Searchlight, enjoy an almost symbiotic relationship. If 'Redwatch' didn’t exist, then Searchlight would probably invent it - that’s if they didn’t anyway!
Comments
Hide the following 46 comments
ok nice post but lets stick to the facts, no need to slander searchlight
06.05.2008 15:39
james
Searchlight are State
06.05.2008 15:55
Mal
So?
06.05.2008 16:11
Jace
FH
06.05.2008 17:29
According to the Nazis - a ridiculous statement that AFA, Antifa and Larry O'Hara seem happy to repeat ad nauseum.
Dead bloke
Don't be intimidated by these clowns
06.05.2008 17:34
Belt&Braces
Searchligh ARN'T working against redwatch
06.05.2008 17:41
I'm half way through a book called white 'riot' by Nick Lowles of Searchlight, telling the story of combat 18. It is frankly the most depressing thing ive ever read, painting them as hard as fuck muscle men and condemning them for bullying poor defensless lefties - ignoring the fact that most of them were all mouth no trousers bedwetters who never really posed a serious threat to anyone except their own 'comrades' who they frequentley fell out with before all getting nicked and fading into obscurity.
Dont be afraid of these bastards, dont let searchlight make you afraid of them!
(A) Sab
Wake up!
06.05.2008 17:50
'Destabilising the Decent People' by Duncan Campbell, Bruce Page, Nick Anning, New Statesman 15/2/1980.
"The answer to your question, do we monitor anarchist groups, is no in general and yes in individual cases."
Gerry Gable, publisher of 'Searchlight', 27/1/1986
"I have now given the names I have acquired to be checked out by British/French security services, especially the French and German stuff is being checked by Geoffery Stewart Smiths Institute. He has strong CIA links."
Gerry Gable, 2/5/1977
"It is a documented fact that Gable has been passing information to Special Branch, MI5, and foreign security forces for 20 years; acting as a conduit for misinformation and 'black' propoganda between MI5 and the media, aimed in at least one case in affecting the course of criminal proceedings against fellow journalists."
Anarchy magazine, No 36.
All this, long before AFA, where we saw first hand the malign and destructive influence Searchlight had.
Not so green
Searchlight should NOT be trusted
06.05.2008 17:56
AntiBNP
And?
06.05.2008 18:03
So Searchlight passed names along to their contacts to get them checked out. Makes sense to me. The arch-tosser Tim Hepple infiltrated all kinds of groups including Green Anarchist. If they'd thought for one minute to ask their own 'intelligence metwork' (meaning other local activists) if they'd known anything about this guy, they could have saved themselves a lot of bother.
It's about time some people learned something about intelligent networking and stopped throwing stupid statements about which just cause unnecessary problems.
Bertanernie
What would you have them do?
06.05.2008 18:14
I assume you mean Redwatch at the end there? What precisely would you have them do? I know the people involved in Lancaster Unity (formerly UAF) and they're just ordinary folk who do what they can. Searchlight I don't know but we can hardly expect them to provide bodyguards for everyone.
"Dont be afraid of these bastards, dont let searchlight make you afraid of them!"
Searchlight doesn't make me afraid of them. I can give as good as I get. But a lot of people can't and you can see why they worry. You only need one of these fuckers to go off at half-cock (Robert Cottage anyone). And if people are getting phone calls and shit, well, that's intimidating. Maybe not to you or me but to a lot of people, especially those with kids and especially if you've watched stuff like the Secret Agent with those nazi twats talking about rocket launchers.
Lancashire Lad
FAO Bertanernie
06.05.2008 18:28
Not so green
Never Again!
06.05.2008 18:33
Antifa member
Redwatch ARE a joke
06.05.2008 18:43
Roger Jolly
Fingers
06.05.2008 19:06
So break his fucking fingers. You know where the little shit lives.
Non
I am laughin
06.05.2008 19:10
Felix
Don't tell him your name Pyke!
06.05.2008 19:14
Scary stuff!
Laughin 2
Fingers
06.05.2008 19:17
Big up the Non!
Watmough's address
06.05.2008 19:20
In the know
Don't be scared of fascists, whatever their size
06.05.2008 19:48
See the Nazi standing behind Watmough in the pic with the original post?
This is him 5 minutes later!
STILL laughing
The Searchlight "campaign" against Redwatch
06.05.2008 23:32
This dummer than dum campaign was only launched to fill a vaccum as Searchlight studiously avoided reporting the closing down of the BPP's Leeds Mailbox address by the 635 Group and the hospitalisation of veteran Nazi Eddy Morrison. With a glaring gap in the magazine's coverage of what it likes to call the 'Yorkshire Crazy Gang' that month, we were instead told to watch out for a new campaign in the next issue. What we got was their pitiful anti-Redwatch campaign, and 2 years later all they've come up with is that you write to the home secretary!
People say they read this rag to find out info on the Fash. Since when did it ever contain any quality info of use to genuine antifascists? Instead, it contains a load of bollocks about various Searchlight elevated bogey-men such as C18, trying to pass off every drooling Nazi degenerate as a street-hardened psychopath. There's more concrete information on fascists in the 8 pages that make up the first issue of 'No Pasaran!', which is free, than you'll ever find in a £3+ copy of Searchlight. For some, fascism is just an industry. No wonder, like the likes of the SWP, they don't want things hotting up and spoiling their business. Searchlight is for mugs.
Auntie
One from the files
07.05.2008 00:01
Kevin Watmough
The boat is a genuine 100/1 scale model of the SS Derflinger which was captured by the British at Port Said in 1914, and used as a troopship. Kevin often re-enacts the final ill fated journey of those brave white men, in his bath. A scrubbing brush or a bar of soap is used to represent the British sub which crept up on the unaware Krauts.
Its quite a moving moment.
This photo was taken from a hidden camera fitted onto a shaving socket.
Clever eh?
MFI Agent
Ring me you wankers
07.05.2008 08:19
Mark Barnsley
Watters In The Bath
07.05.2008 08:44
concerned of gipton
Ratface calling?
07.05.2008 08:47
The real MB
Am I worried
07.05.2008 09:13
Do I care / am I worried? NO!
I find myself in some good company :-)
landale
Well Said
07.05.2008 09:56
Antifascist
Watmough
07.05.2008 10:11
Danski
Watmough
07.05.2008 11:12
Antifascist
Manchester
07.05.2008 15:00
ANTIFA AND ANTICHRIST
Fuck all...
07.05.2008 15:53
I think the fash are trying to sell it as a massive victory against Antifa, even though the two groups are a million miles from each other.
Rudeboy
Manchester
07.05.2008 16:11
Antifa
I should clarify...
07.05.2008 17:33
Rudeboy
Laugh a minute
08.05.2008 09:53
Rev Communist groups have sod all to do with Antifa!
Simone
No Pasaran!
12.05.2008 07:54
Antifa
Homepage: http://www.antifa.org.uk
What an utter load of piffle.
18.05.2008 10:38
The Hills Have Eyes
Sure the hills have eyes and ears
18.05.2008 12:33
Harlequinade
Can any of you idiot nazis actually read?
19.05.2008 08:12
Antifa member
Antifa member....
20.05.2008 16:28
Zaazaa
Wotnomates
23.05.2008 10:39
I Hate The Fash
"Inbred" seems to be a favourite slur in Antifa articles/comments
24.05.2008 19:56
I dont see what the offspring of incestual relations have done to deserve association with Nazi scum.
I guess some anti-fascists believe the vile hatred and stupidity of Nazis can be explained by "bad eugenics", or at least believe jokes that imply such are acceptable.
Maybe antifa members would view an activist with a physical deformity and a history of cousin-cousin marriages with more suspicion than they would view someone with "perfect features" and a history of "good breeding" ?
Maybe measure some skulls before we accept someone as a worthy militant ?
Sam Langford
"I hate the fash"
24.05.2008 22:28
"Is it me or does the picture of Wotnomates at the top of this article remind you of the thick kid at school presenting the picture he's been painting all afternoon to his parents, the facial expression - mix of mental simplicity and pride - as he holds the badly drawn and crumpled warercolour of "Mi mummee and daddyeez howse by Kevun Wotmow 3C" is funny as fuck."
It's you. What, were you the school bully? Did you used to laugh at the scruffy kids with bad spelling? You know, the ones who used to do woodwork and gardening? The "thick kid?" Nice. Your posting is very insightful, of you, and somehow you even manage to come out worse than those you belittle. That's one hell of a feat, to take a noble cause to the other end of the spectrum. Go on - how much farther can you stoop?
Harlequinade
Harliniquade
25.05.2008 21:18
What I was doing was making Wotmough a figure of fun, something to make fun of. The less seriously these people are taken the less likely they are to find followers and supporters.
I would have thought that that was quite obvious, obviously not.
Now then to more important matters, are you a self righteous Liberal or a Fascist scumbag?
I Hate The Fash
It's good to eliminate our own prejudices and strive to think more progressively
26.05.2008 13:27
BUT I agree with Harlequinade's comments.
To mock the Nazis by rallying around prejudices that make fun of the "unfortunate", "the thick", "the ugly", "the inbred" or whatever, is hardly diametrically opposed or broken away from the very ideology that we are supposed to be opposing.
Either it is okay to make jokes about "the thick kid", the inbred, and people with physical or mental deficiences or it is NOT.
For me, it is not.
sam langford
I love the fash
27.05.2008 00:18
So, you consider the highest priority to be whether I am a “self righteous liberal” or a “fascist scumbag?” That’s the most important matter, right? I thought your priority was towards fighting racial division in our communities.
I don’t have to justify myself – you do. You have to justify using the language of “the enemy.” You have to justify belittling people on the basis which you have chosen. Intelligence, breeding, status? You have to justify your position, because you are the one who is speaking the language of war. Is that what you want? War? Are you not simply trying to polarise the argument? I think you are.
Now, if what you’re really after is a good set to, then you only have to phone up your fascist chums, arrange a place and a time, and you can knock ten tons of shit out of each other. You have my blessing – go for it. You’ve done it before. But don’t try to justify your activity as being in any way related to the vigilance which our communities continue to express towards self obsessed sado masochists like you.
Think on it.
Harlequinade
Harlequinade
28.05.2008 09:09
Seriously though, I don't like violence BUT
And this is a very big but. The fascists use violence, they assault people in the street, throw bricks through windows, burn houses. Waving yellow paper lollypops at them is bloody useless, it doesn't work, I wish it did believe me but it doesn't, sad but a fact of life. I'm not a sado masochist or anything else you accuse me of just a realist. When people are frightened to walk the streets merely because of the colour of their skin, or are not safe in their own homes then something has to be done at a grass roots street level basis. Its not good, its not nice but its a reality.
Would you make the same comments at those who rose up in the Warsaw Ghetto, at those who fought in the Spanish Civil War, those who fought Nazism in WW2, or various European resistance/partisan movements 1939 - 1945? I doubt it.
I have seen friends suffer at the hands of these thugs purely because of their race. I have lived in an Asian area and come home after a nightshift to find that BNP supporters have stormed down the street putting people's windows through. I heard kids crying the next morning too scared to walk to school. Two Asian men were battered with iron bars a short walk away merely because they were Asian.
I don't why you so vehemently oppose militant antifascism, maybe (and yes I'm surmising here and if I'm wrong I apologise) you live in a nice safe middle class area where that sort of thing just doesn't happen, or maybe the thought of organised working class resistance scares you, I don't know. But the fact is the fascists are a real threat, to the working class of all races, "nationalities" genders and sexual orientation, and just a small threat, but to the people at the brunt end of it a very dangerous and terrifying threat.
And they have to be stopped.
I Hate The Fash
Hatred as a negative
29.05.2008 12:07
The incidents you describe are horrible and not to be tolerated, absolutely. Self defense and solidarity with targeted communities are wholly appropriate front line responses - I think posters have said as much in the past. But not violence for violence' sake. And not premeditated attacks.
And we're not talking about Warsaw, or any of these other places where people were literally fighting for their lives. The kinds of contexts which are applicable are, say, apartheid, albeit at a much smaller and less institutional level, or similarly US Segregation. In both these equivalent cases victory came about by passive resistance - I know ANC had an armed wing but they were pretty inactive for a very long time. And we all know about MLK. And it's because they occupied the moral high ground.
Equally, coming from a position where you are already on the moral high ground then you have a responsibility. Because you are better than the people who run down streets putting in windows and attacking people with iron bars. So you don't need to resort to these kinds of tactics. And that includes the language you use, especially when that language is highly prejudicial and characteristic of those you oppose. Same with this putting up of mug shots (read into that what you will) - if Redwatch wanna do it, let them. So what, as you say. But don't stoop.
And a good last example is Northern Ireland. How many years of tit for tat, and for what? You beat the thugs by marginalizing them. You push them to the side. Let them show what good upstanding citizens they are, or not, as we all know the case to be. But that also means you don't lump every person who has voted BNP into the one boat, unless you really do want a war.
Personally, I have no taste for war of any flavour.
Harlequinade