| Gerry Gable | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 1937 (age 75) |
| Spouse | Sonia Gable |
Gerry Gable (born January 1937) is a British political activist. He was a long-serving editor of the anti-fascist Searchlight magazine.
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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 Daily Worker newspaper, leaving after a year to become a Communist Party trade union organizer. He stood unsuccessfully for the Communist Party on May 10, 1962 at Northfield Ward, Stamford Hill, North London.[1]
He was involved in the formation of the militant anti-fascist organisation, the 62 Group.[1][2]
In November 1963, Gable was arrested and held at Hornsey police station following an attempt to enter the Mayfair flat of Holocaust denier David Irving.[2] On January 14 1964, he admitted burglary with intent to steal private papers, for which he was fined £28.[3] At his trial, counsel for the defence told the court, "they hoped to find material they could take to Special Branch".[4]
Gable was involved in the formation of the anti-fascist 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.
In 1984 Gerry Gable was commissioned by the BBC to produce research for a BBC Panorama programme "Maggie's Militant Tendency". The episode was to focus on a claim of right-wing extremism in the Conservative Party. Gable claimed that his research drew upon the information previously published in Searchlight.[5] Gable "was the man mainly responsible for the programme"[6] according to the Labour Party member of parliament Robin Corbett.
The claims by Gable that two Conservative party figures, 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." [7]
The BBC capitulated on 21 October and paid the pair's legal costs from the publicly funded license fee. Hamilton and Howarth were awarded £20,000 each and in the next edition of Panorama on 27 October, the BBC made an unreserved apology to both.}}
Gable stepped down as editor of Searchlight magazine in 1998 to make way for younger members of the team.