No Retreat: The Secret War Between Britain's Anti-Fascists and the Far Right

In the late 1970s, racism was on the march. The bootboys and skinheads of the National Front and the British Movement paraded their extremist views and targeted etnic minorities and political opponents-until a group of working-class, left-wing activists decided to fight back. They vowed to drive the nazis off the streets not with placards and speeches but by any means necessary. The Squads: were born-and so began the secret conflict between the anti-nazis and the far right. Shopping centers, meeting halls, concert venues and pubs became the settings for a series of pitched battles that raged from London to Glasgow, Leeds to Machester. And slowly the far right were beaten from the streets. In 1985 Anti-Fascist Action was formed to carry on the fight and to "oppose fascism both physically and ideologically." AFA's Stewards' Group superceded the Squads and led the assault on the emergent British National Party and its violent henchmen.