Description
Date: 11th February 2026, 6:30PM
Join us for the launch of this essential new book with author Geoff Brown, special guest speaker Kate Alexander, and others.
PLEAST NOTE: There are no physical tickets, your name will be added to a guestlist which will get you entry on the night. Please select 'pick up' upon checkout to avoid a shipping charge.
1977: Labour in government, unemployment growing, 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 that built groups in workplaces, unions, schools and colleges, challenged the NF on the streets, and broke the back of the fascist threat.
Written by the ANL's full-time organiser in Manchester and drawing on many in-depth interviews, this book tells the story of how ordinary people built one of Britain's most successful anti-fascist movements. Together with Rock Against Racism, they organised two national carnivals supported by tens of thousands, distributed nine million leaflets, and sold seven hundred thousand badges. By 1981, the National Front was broken as a national organisation.
This history couldn't be more urgent. With racism and the far right resurgent across the UK today, we desperately need to learn from movements that successfully united and mobilised against fascism. Brown's book offers a treasure trove of stories and inspirational recollections from both leading figures and grassroots activists who built this movement from below.
About the Speakers:
Geoff Brown served as the ANL's full-time organiser in Manchester during this crucial period and witnessed first-hand how mass grassroots organising defeated fascism on the streets, in workplaces, and in communities across Britain.
Kate Alexander is Emeritus Professor at the University of Johannesburg, Director of the Centre for Social Change, and holds the South African Research Chair in Social Change. A former ANL National Organiser she brings direct experience from the frontlines of the anti-fascist struggle. Her work on protests, social movements, and labour history spans decades and continents.
