Dave Hann - Physical Resistance: A Hundred Years of Anti-Fascism

Winchester, UK
Washington, USA

First published by Zero Books, 2013

Zero Books is an imprint of John Hunt Publishing Ltd., Laurel House, Station Approach, Alresford, Hants, SO24 9JH, UK

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Text copyright: Dave Hann 2012

ISBN: 978 1 78099 177 1

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publishers.

The rights of Dave Hann as author have been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Design: Stuart Davies

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by Louise Purbrick

The workers next step against fascism: 1924 1934

A cause worth fighting for: 1935 1940

Hold Madrid for we are coming: 1936 1939

On Guard: 1940 1953

You cant beat fascism with fine carpets on the floor: 1953 1967

One, two, three and a bit, the National Front is a load of shit: 1966 1979

No Retreat: 1979-1990

Getting out of bed: 1990-2011

In memory of Dave Hann, with respect and in solidarity. Dedicated to all the people whose histories helped create this book and all those who stood alongside them in their fight against fascism.

Doesnt a breath of air that pervaded earlier days caress us as well? In the voices we hear, isnt there an echo of the now silent ones?
Walter Benjamin

When Dave Hann died on 29 September 2009, he left 30 in the bank and a manuscript of over 100,000 words. He had little money of his own because as a jobbing builder, he would work for the cost of his materials plus a day rate then hand over most of his earnings to me to put into our household budget. Daves manuscript was, and is, a far more substantial inheritance than any amount of money, large or small. It represents his commitment to the politics of anti-fascism and his desire to tell the stories of people like him. Dave fought fascism and his is an activists history of the anti-fascist struggle.

He started writing Physical Resistance, working under the tentative title A Cause Worth Fighting For, in 2005. But, before he made the decision to start typing in his opening sentences, he had, like many anti-fascist activists, acquired a great deal of knowledge about the struggle in which he participated. Reading about collective actions or individual lives in leaflets, pamphlets and books bought and sold at anti-fascist meetings is part of a culture of activism. Anti-fascists have produced their own literature recording its strategies and struggles, which are put to use in discussions and debates. Past struggles inform present ones; they provide a guide. Also, Dave liked books. Our shelves were always full of books about anti-fascism.

Writing his book, this book, was part of the rhythm of our lives. We ran out of space on our shelves for the multifarious materials he bought, usually through second hand bookshops or internet dealers, to help his research. He was always pleased get hold of another pamphlet written by a 1930s trade unionist, more biographies of International Brigaders or a little known International Socialists publication; I did not always hide my dismay about where we might put it all in our tiny terraced house. Books and papers were stacked in piles in the corners of our living room. If Dave had a break between building jobs, he would work on his book. He would write in the hours between dropping and collecting our children from school. When I returned from work, he might start again in order to finish a paragraph, sitting at the same table where I sit now to write this. Dave wrote paragraph by paragraph and produced a linear narrative that wove together life histories and political actions in strict chronological order. Occasionally, he would go back over a paragraph and add more details or amend a date but he did not plan, produce drafts or edit his writing in the ways that academics, like myself, have been schooled, cutting our cloth to suit our means. Dave Hanns practice of writing did not conform to the conventions of the textbook, academic monograph, chapter in an edited collection or journal articles. It is, for example, longer. The length of the manuscript straightforwardly reflected what Dave believed had to be said rather than what it might be possible to include in the race for a deadline or the completion of research within limits of funding.

Physical Resistance was not Daves first piece of writing. Under two pseudonyms, Saboteur then Will Scarlet, he had been a punk poet and, when I first met him in 1994, he was an editor and writer for Red Attitude , the Manchester United Anti-Fascists fanzine. In 2003 he, and his friend Steve Tilzey, put together their biographies as anti-fascists in No Retreat . Spanning the late 1970s to the mid-1990s and their experiences of Anti-Nazi League and Anti-Fascist Action, it is both a celebration of fight against fascism and a contemporary tale of comradeship and friendship between people thrown together through the act of political struggle. It was received by most of its readers in something like these terms, but was also caught up in the sectarianism that besets political organisations and the tendency to vilify character rather than acknowledge political differences. There was only one criticism Dave took seriously: he had written about himself. He was only one of many. That he knew. He felt honoured just to stand in line. Most anti-fascists understand that everything they do from writing, distributing or reading anti-fascist texts, defending anti-fascist events, breaking up fascist meetings, halting fascist marches, fighting them whenever necessary is a collective endeavour. This was origin of Physical Resistance: to write the collective history of anti-fascism.

Letter from Howard Andy Andrews

Such a history could not be written using books, not even the number piling high on our floor. Dave sought out anti-fascists to interview. He sent letters to International Brigaders. A page from Howard Andy Andrews is typical of the courtesy of their replies and they not only spoke about their experiences in the Spanish Civil War but involvement in anti-fascism before they volun- teered and after they returned.

Dave spoke to people he knew, or knew of, from his days of street activism. When unable to locate participants in anti-fascist movements to which he had read references, he advertised. On three successive days in June 2005, the Morning Star ran the following request: I would be particularly interested in hearing from anyone involved in the V Corps, the 43 and 62 Groups and the Yellow Star Movement. Of the people whose accounts of anti- fascism are included in Physical Resistance, some are already, like Morris Beckman, heroes of its history. Others, such as Betty Davis or Sheila Lahr, are not well known. But all hold the history together. The lives of anti-fascists overlap. For example, student activist Nick Mullen and former 43 Group member Monty Goldman were both in Red Lion Square in 1974 when Kevin Gately was killed by a police baton charge. They did not know each other or share a party affiliation. Anti-fascists from different political organisations were located by Dave not in order to judge them or weigh up the success or failure of their partys line but to ensure that persons contribution to a collective history was recognised.