Editing Gerry Gable

{{Short description|British political activist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2018}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2018}}
{{Infobox person
| name          = Gerry Gable
| image         = <!-- filename only, no "File:" or "Image:" prefix, and no enclosing [[brackets]] -->
| alt           = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software -->
| caption       = 
| birth_name    = <!-- only use if different from name -->
| birth_date    = {{Birth date and age|df=yes|1937|01|27}}
| birth_place   = [[United Kingdom]]
| death_date    = <!-- {{Death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} (DEATH date then BIRTH date)  -->
| death_place   = 
| nationality   = 
| other_names   = 
| occupation    = Editor of the anti-fascist ''[[Searchlight (magazine)|Searchlight]]'' magazine
| years_active  = 
| known_for     = 
| notable_works = 
}}
'''Gerry Gable''' (born 27 January 1937) is a British political activist. He was a long-serving editor of the anti-fascist ''[[Searchlight (magazine)|Searchlight]]'' magazine.

==Background==
The son of a [[Jewish]] woman and an [[Church of England|Anglican]] father, Gable grew up in post-war east London identifying as Jewish.<ref name="Internet">{{cite web |url=http://www.aijac.org.au/review/1999/242/gable.html |title=''Smashing Against Rocks'' |access-date=2006-07-13 |url-status=bot: unknown |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110516212859/http://www.aijac.org.au/review/1999/242/gable.html |archivedate=May 16, 2011 }} 1999 Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council article on Gable</ref> As a youth, Gable was a member of the [[Young Communist League]] and the [[Communist Party of Great Britain]], and worked as a runner on the Communist Party's ''[[Morning Star (British newspaper)|Daily Worker]]'' newspaper, leaving after a year to become a Communist Party [[trade union]] organiser. He stood unsuccessfully for the Communist Party in 1962 at Northfield Ward, [[Stamford Hill]], [[North London]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/wwq0mz |title=Searchlight and the State |work=Anarchy 36, 1983, as reprinted on the Kate Sharpley website}}</ref> He left the Communist Party because of their anti-Israel policy and because "first and foremost [he has] always been a Jewish trade unionist".<ref name="Internet"/>

Joined by other Jews and anti-fascists, many ex-servicemen and members of the (Spanish) International Brigades, the [[militant anti-fascist]] organisation [[62 Group]] was formed to confront fascists organising on the streets.<ref name="Internet" /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/features/article/4/standing-up-to-fascism-a-celebration-of-the-43-group |title=Neo-Nazi leader Colin Jordan's legacy] |website=www.hopenothate.org.uk}} {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725100430/http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/features/article/4/standing-up-to-fascism-a-celebration-of-the-43-group |date=2011-07-25 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thejc.com/lifestyle/lifestyle-features/neo-nazi-leader-colin-jordans-legacy |title=Standing up to fascism: A celebration of the 43 Group |website=www.thejc.com}} {{dead link|date=March 2025}}</ref>

Gable organised intelligence for the 62 Group on fascists, including using infiltrators to help build a defence policy for the community against fascist attacks. This led to the formation of the anti-fascist magazine [[Searchlight (magazine)|''Searchlight'']] in the mid-1960s, along with [[Reg Freeson]], [[Joan Lestor]], [[Maurice Ludmer]] and others. Gable and Ludmer remained active in Searchlight Associates and re-launched the magazine in 1975.<ref name="Internet" />

==1963 burglary of David Irving's flat==
By November 1963, [[David Irving]] was in England when he called the [[London Metropolitan Police]] with suspicions he had been the victim of a burglary by three men who had gained access to his Hornsey flat in London claiming to be [[General Post Office]] (GPO) telephone engineers. Gable was convicted in January 1964, along with Manny Carpel. They were fined £20 each, with Gable being fined an additional £5 for the theft of a GPO pass.<ref>{{cite book |last=Copsey|first=Nigel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gxgxDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT194 |title=Anti-Fascism in Britain |publisher=Routledge |year=2016|page=194 |isbn=9781317397618}}</ref>

==BBC libel litigation==
In 1984, the BBC commissioned Gerry Gable to produce research for a BBC ''[[Panorama (British TV programme)|Panorama]]'' programme "[[Maggie's Militant Tendency]]". The episode was to focus on a claim of right-wing extremism in the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]]. Gable claimed that his research drew upon the information previously published in ''Searchlight''.<ref>''Searchlight'', No.130, April 1986, p2</ref> The claims by Gable that two Conservative Party figures, [[Neil Hamilton (politician)|Neil Hamilton]] and [[Gerald Howarth]], were secret extremist Nazi supporters was met with libel action against the BBC. The programme had alleged (not admitted as evidence in court) that Hamilton gave a Nazi salute in Berlin while 'messing around' on a Parliamentary visit in August 1983. ''[[The Guardian]]'' reported that "Writing for the ''Sunday Times'' after the collapse of the case, he admitted he did give a little salute with two fingers to his nose to give the impression of a toothbrush moustache. "Somebody on the trip clearly did not share our sense of humour," he wrote."<ref>{{cite news | url = https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/dec/22/hamiltonvalfayed.jamiewilson3 | location=London | work=The Guardian | first=Jamie | last=Wilson | title=Who will listen to his story now? | date=December 22, 1999}}</ref>

The BBC later capitulated and paid the pair's legal costs. Hamilton and Howarth were awarded £20,000 each and in a subsequent edition of ''Panorama'', the BBC made an unreserved apology to both.{{cn|date=March 2019}}

In 1989, ''[[Private Eye]]'' magazine falsely claimed that Reginald Gulliver-Buckingham, a member of the military police, had plotted to abduct and murder Gable. The High Court ordered that substantial damages be paid due to the libellous claims.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=_-FAAAAAIBAJ&pg=4869,3951551&dq=gerry+gable+private-eye&hl=en |title=Eye pays security chief for libel |work=Evening Times |date=13 December 1989 |accessdate=28 January 2014 |page=25}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{cite news | last = Gable | first = Gerry | title = Gerry Gable: Well-aimed eggs aren't enough | url = https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/gerry-gable-wellaimed-eggs-arent-enough-1702167.html | work = The Independent | date = 10 June 2009 }}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gable, Gerry}}
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:1937 births]]
[[Category:British communists]]
[[Category:Jewish socialists]]
[[Category:Communist Party of Great Britain members]]
[[Category:British Jews]]
[[Category:Jewish British activists]]
[[Category:British people convicted of burglary]]
[[Category:British magazine founders]]