This is how we defeat Britain’s far right - The Jewish Chronicle

You might guess from its title that this book will contain hand-wringing political prognostication from a woolly armchair pundit. Not so. Nick Lowles is the founder of the anti-racist group Hope not Hate (HnH), prior to which he was editor of the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight. When he writes about beating the far right, he can draw on decades of hard-won street-level experience doing exactly that. He details much of it here, concentrating on how HnH has worked closely with communities to repel the threat of far-right parties in local and parliamentary elections, both in the pre-internet era and, with adapted tactics, in the age of social media.

A Jewish readership may well arch a collective eyebrow at the phrases “anti-racist” and “anti-fascist”, wearily familiar as we are with the exceptions that routinely apply. But HnH is rare, perhaps unique, among groups thus self-styled in acknowledging and challenging the left-wing and Muslim hostility to Jews that today looms larger than the right-wing variety. Lowles acknowledges that “there will always be some who say Hope not Hate has not done enough on… left-wing antisemitism or Islamist extremism. And, of course, there might well be an element of truth to that… We spoke out against left-wing antisemitism, called for candidates to be withdrawn, and even produced manuals and training for activists to better understand the issues, but we undoubtedly could have done more.”

A Jewish readership may well arch a collective eyebrow at the phrases anti-racist and anti-fascist, wearily familiar as we are with the exceptions that routinely apply

Focusing on what they did do, Lowles recalls taking on “5Pillars, a Muslim media operation that advocates a strict interpretation of Islam, including support for a caliphate, Islamic penal codes and Jihad”, which has sought to capitalise on the conflict in Gaza, declaring the date of the 2024 General Election “Muslim independence day from Labour”. He notes that it has hosted on its podcast notorious far-right figures such as “former BNP leader Nick Griffin and Patriotic Alternative leader Mark Collett”, both of whom fall under Lowles’s definition of small-n nazis (“adhering to some or all of national socialist ideology” distinct from a broader far right in which he includes Nigel Farage’s Reform party). A disinterested observer might wonder what these Islamists and neo-Nazis have in common. A Jewish one could offer a hypothesis. Lowles confirms it: these guests were there among other things “to push their anti-Zionist agenda”.

HnH has also challenged what Lowles calls the “strident anti-Zionism” typified by George Galloway – which, granted, leaves it open as to whether it is the anti-Zionism that troubles him, or the stridency. In summary, while by Lowles’ own admission it tends to not to prioritise these manifestations of political antisemitism, HnH does at least have form for opposing rather than indulging or actively propagating them. Such scraps are as good as it gets for us right now, from the “anti-racist” quarter, which more commonly counts ordinary Jews – that is, those who, like any other ethnic group, identify with their homeland – among the racists rather than among the racists’ targets, so licensing fellow minorities and its own adherents to attack us.

Lowles’ case is that HnH operates on first principles – it will oppose what it deems to be racism directed at any group, from any group – and its track record does lend him some authority on this. His book offers a reminder of how Jews – justly frightened and appalled by the left’s own antisemitism, and its advocacy for the Islamist variety – would be unwise to seek illusory protection in the opposite direction. Formerly radicalised youngsters helped by HnH describe how hatred of Jews, and the paranoid conspiracies of Jewish control familiar on both political wings, are an invariable feature of far-right indoctrination.

True, some of the far right’s more prominent figure may talk a good game on supporting Jews

True, some of the far right’s more prominent figures may talk a good game on supporting Jews. Tommy Robinson (referred to by Lowles by the inherited surname Lennon rather than the assumed nom de guerre of Robinson) is one such. Robinson, who has a series of convictions for thuggery, fraud and contempt of court, has made a career out of his plausibility, to-ing and fro-ing between extremism and more moderate rhetoric as opportunity or audience require. Lowles gives chapter and verse on Lennon’s long history of grifting, dishonesty and inciting violence. In Maya Angelou’s famous dictum: when somebody shows you who they are, believe them the first time. Or if not then, at least the seventh or 12^th or 20^th. Lowles does not say so, but this reviewer will: civic peace and the rule of law, both of which Robinson has been at pains to undermine, are better friends to Jewry than the likes of Robinson will ever be. History shows that Jews seldom flourish under populism, demagoguery or illiberalism of any variety.

Lowles is frequently critical of the left over febrile issues such as grooming gangs and immigration, arguing that its refusal to acknowledge them, other than by shouting down anyone who so much as mentions them, leaves the field clear for the far right to capitalise upon them. “We can all complain about [Elon] Musk’s behaviour,” he writes, in reference to the X owner’s wading into the subject of grooming gangs, “but . . . councils, the police, government and local communities have failed to fully address this issue over the last 20 years, and it is this failure that has led us to this point.” He advocates that progressives abandon their cherished preference for lecturing the public over listening to it, and “take a leaf out of the far-right playbook” – strictly in terms of organisational strategy, that is, which in this writer’s view would certainly be an improvement on their present approach of replicating some of its moral squalor.

Lowles’ prescription against the far right at the national and international levels is: better democracy, stronger democratic institutions, and reversing the loss of social capital at the grassroots.

He is surely correct. These, alas, are harder things still to achieve than his undoubted successes in so many daunting local battles. But for anyone who would rather live in a society not riven by sectarianism and imported hatreds – no matter which side is in the ascendancy at any given moment – they are essential.

How to Defeat the Far Right: Lessons from Hope not Hate

by Nick Lowles

Harper Collins

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