Red Action
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Red Action is a small London-based leftist group.
The organization was formed following the expulsion of several activists from the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) in 1981 for their involvement in what was called squadism, a term that refers to violent actions against far right racist groups. The expelled activists regrouped around a paper named Red Action. They earned notoriety for their tactics of violently confronting racist and fascist opponents on the streets, and for their support of Anti-Fascist Action. Red Action had close links with the Irish Republican movement (this being one of the sources of their original discontent with the SWP).
Red Action has become more interested in the electoral process, and the group joined the Red Front in 1987 and the Socialist Alliance in England and Wales in 1999. Red Action members left this organisation, along with the Socialist Party of England and Wales, citing the domination of the SWP over the organisation. Some Red Action members went on to found the Independent Working Class Association.[1][2]
In Ireland
A number of republicans and socialists in Ireland convened under the Red Action banner, campaigning on various issues, as well as producing documents on the history of radical politics in Ireland.[3] However the organisation is largely defunct since 1996. Some former activists in Dublin went on to found Working Class Action.[4]
1993 Harrods bombing
In January 1993 a Harrods bombing took place when a package containing 1lb of Semtex plastic explosive ripped the front off of the store. It was planted on behalf of the PIRA by two prominent members of Red Action (and Anti-Fascist Action).[5] The two men who were convicted for carrying out the bombing were Jan Taylor, a fifty-one year old former corporal of the British Army and Patrick Hayes, a forty-one year old computer programer with a degree in business studies from Central London Polytechnic.[6] In March 1993, police captured the couple at Hayes' home in Walford Road, Stoke Newington, north London.[7] Neither of the two men were Irish people—both of them politically originated as Trotskyite Socialist Workers Party activists in the 1970s, before eventually becoming PIRA terrorists, bombing their home country.[6] Hayes told the court, "I am proud of everything I have done".[6] The two men were sentenced to thirty years' imprisonment in May 1994.[6] Historian Tony Geraghty has claimed that their actions led to vast state surveillance in Britain in the following years and tighter restrictions on freedom of movement.[6]
References
Footnotes
- ^ 1985-2001: Anti-Fascist Action (AFA) | libcom.org
- ^ Red Action 2000 - Shaping The Future
- ^ Against the Red Flag : Socialism and Irish Nationalism (1830 - 1913) by Mags Glennon (Red Action)
- ^ Working Class Action
- ^ [1]
- ^ a b c d e Geraghty, The Irish War: the hidden conflict between the IRA and British Intelligence, 163.
- ^ Mickolus, Terrorism, 1992-1995: a chronology of events and a selectively annotated bibliography, 282.
Bibliography
- Mickolus, Edward (1997). Terrorism, 1992-1995: a chronology of events and a selectively annotated bibliography. Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313304688.
- Geraghty, Tony (2000). The Irish War: the hidden conflict between the IRA and British Intelligence. JHU Press. ISBN 0801864569.
External links
- Homepage
- Charge of the New Red Brigade article from the Independent