Photo: Andy Bell, May 2022
Ray Hill, that giant of the anti-fascist movement passed away this morning after being diagnosed with cancer only a few weeks ago. It’s 40 years since Ray, then a dyed-in-the-wool nazi, underwent a profound conversion and pledged the rest of his life to fighting fascism, first and most devastatingly as an infiltrator for Searchlight. He wrought absolute havoc on the far right: he destroyed British Movement and the fledgling British Democratic Party; he went to the heart of the nazi terror cells who were then bombing and killing in France and Germany; and he was central to uncovering the safe housing network that brought wanted Italian fascist terrorists to Britain.
Ray was an extraordinary man and our movement is immeasurably the poorer for his passing. RIP Ray.
Searchlight extends its condolences to Ray’s family and friends.
RIP Ray.
It was a privilege to have known you.
A great man. A privilege to have known him in the early 90s. His book shaped me a lot and moved me to searchlight too.
What does Searchlight have to say about the Nazis of Ukraine? There is no doubt that the Nazis are in control of Ukraine. The mainstream media were reporting on this eight years ago.
In case anyone thought Nazism is not in part State Organised, Ray Hill showed the way ordinary people win against The Far Right and the parts of State which are Nazi. Rest in Peace, Ray. You won.
I never met Ray Hill; I never saw him speak but I am so sad at his passing. He was my hero, my inspiration and he changed my life.
I was in my mid-teens when I first found “The Other Face of Terror”, the brilliant memoir he wrote with Andrew Bell. I read it in two days and then immediately read it again, it was one of the most compelling books I have ever read.
Less than ten years later, I was a member of the British National Party, passing information to Gerry Gable and my contacts who I knew as Peter Brighton and Dave from Manchester, I was a much, much lower-level Mole than Ray but I was doing my bit and I was mixing with National Socialists who had known Ray and had trusted him. In London in the 1990s, I had the sense that the BNP was still very much a threat, causing immense division with in society but things could have been so much worse if it wasn’t for the work that Ray and others had done.
Bizarrely on the merchandise stall at one BNP Rally, I found old audio tapes for sale, including speeches by Ray. John Tyndall came over, not to complain about the presence of the man who betrayed him but that the Nazi White Power CDs were taking up too much space. I smiled to my self, knowing that Ray would be very happy to know that as always Searchlight had there people at the meeting, to keep an eye on JT and the other National Socialists.
Ray was a great man, tremendously brave. He single handedly devastated potentially lethal fascist networks in the early 1980s at a time when electoral Nationalism, primarily in the form of the NF, was on the retreat. The new danger, terrorism, violence, even more attacks on ethic minorities, was very real and very credible. Enter Ray, who, despite the lies from the Tyndalls, Reed Herberts and co, was not suspected for a second. He moved in and out of these groups with deftness, ease and fortitude. I knew him pretty well at one time before he moved location. Even in later years he could still rally anti fascist activists with his powerful speech. RIP Ray, and all insiders.