For almost four decades Nick Lowles has been trying to push back against the far right. First with the research magazine Searchlight and later with the campaigning organisation Hope Not Hate that has helped foil bomb and murder plots, as well as working in communities to combat far-right propaganda.
He tells Helen Pidd about growing up in the 1970s with the National Front on the rise and how in the 1980s he helped infiltrate organisations such as the BNP and Combat 18. More recently Hope Not Hate’s work helped lead to Tommy Robinson being jailed. Through it all Lowles has had death threats and abuse.
After the huge far-right march in central London, he says, this is an exceptionally dangerous moment, but we must remember that the majority of people are still in favour of our multicultural society. “The far right have their sights on our multicultural society, the idea: can people of different faiths, different religions, different backgrounds live together peacefully and happily? Things that we never thought would be contested territory 20 years ago, 10 years ago, even five years ago, are now contested.”
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Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian
