Author: This was written after consultation with a few folk who’ve run and trained in Red Gyms across the U.K.; however, the responsibility for any offence caused lies entirely on the shoulders of one bloke, who, while not everything could possibly be true, has definitely had more than one fight in a ditch.
“If we have mass mobilisation, we won’t need kung fu” – an actual quote by a local SUTR organiser.
This has been written in response to “An organiser’s guide to being punched in the face by your friends” article published back in August 2026 to provide, in a comradely way, a perspective other than the Liberation Martial Arts approach on acquiring the physical skills e useful to anti fascists in the U.K today. With the sudden appearance of militant black block fascism on the streets of Dover and Portsmouth, it is also timely. We need an anti-fascist movement that is prepared for this. If we do not ‘fight like fascists’, and cannot depend on the police, how will we face them when push comes to shove?
Now, no one thinks that fascism is going to be defeated in a fist fight. That’s a much taller order, and we might even need a revolution. In the meantime, however, there have been, are, and will be street skirmishes. There are gigs and meetings that need stewarding; hotels and migrant accommodation that need to be defended.
We’re rarely going to enjoy the luxury of outnumbering the far-right in the street 100-1. These days, especially outside of major cities, we’re increasingly getting just even numbers – or worse.
Also, it’s worth noting that anti fascism isn’t the only left-wing struggle where things get unpredictably physical; hunt sabotage, or tree-sitting also carry the risk of physical confrontation. For some of us, just walking the streets of increasingly fascist Britain might be enough to provoke a confrontation. Often we might be outnumbered; our aim is to never be outgunned. Sometimes, just sometimes, it might be handy to know how to actually fight.
There’s no need to create a false opposition between getting numbers out on the street and developing skills. We’re not suggesting that it’s necessary to have any skills at all to respond to the kind of mass call-out that happens if UKIP, Raise the Colours, (or whatever ungodly form Tommy Robinson’s latest grift has assumed) decides to march through your town. Your anti fascist group should be rooted in as much community activity with as wide a base as possible. We should aim to upskill everyone and, perhaps more importantly, take on and use skills and resources that already exist in our communities
However, we need to acknowledge that, at the core of that call-out, there is likely a small, self-appointed group. This article explains why we think developing skills among that group should not be considered elitist, exclusionary, or macho. In fact, putting others down is unsafe for anti fascism as a whole.
IN THE RED CORNER
What is a Red Gym? Red Gym is a very loose term for anywhere lefties get together and train. Self-defence, fitness, community building, all this and more can come under the mantle of a “Red Gym”. Usually the term is associated with some variation of martial arts, but some clubs have links and overlap with football teams and other sporting activities. Over the life span of a Red Gym you might see emphasis on one or more of these aspects as external circumstances or fashion dictate. What your local Red Gym can offer will depend on facilities, the expertise and experience of local activists and so on. Red Gyms will often actively work to provide training and a space for refugees and other marginalised groups.
SITTING ON DEFENCE
The core aim of our training is community defence.
Before we get into all that nasty kicking, punching and gouging business, let’s take a minute to think about what we mean by self-defence.
Put simply, any action taken that preserves your safety is self-defence. Looking left and right when you cross the road is an act of self-defence; it’s also a skill that you practiced slowly at first under supervision but ultimately had to perform on your own in real life.
The basic self-defence scenario taught in, say, Krav Maga, RealityCombat™, or similar is something like a mugging or a pub confrontation. An unwanted assault by an unknown assailant against (usually) a lone defender. The objective is straightforward: to preserve personal safety by winning or escaping. That model can obviously be useful as a training basis, but it does have limitations.
As political activists, we’re trying to achieve certain goals – we might not have the option of running away. We face opponents who aim to disrupt our goals (or vice versa) and who may employ threats and violence to achieve this. Escaping to safety might be a less desirable option than standing our ground.
Key concepts in community defence:
WHAT ARE YOU FUCKING LOOKING AT?
We need to consider how we collectively deploy our bodies in a tense situation. Do we huddle or spread out? Are we aware of what is happening peripherally? What is the terrain? Do we have eyes on each other?
This is tricky to practice in the gym as it involves (most) people’s least favourite thing- role-play. (unless you already spend your weekends being a half-orc cleric) But if we can get the numbers in a confined space and get the abuse flowing, then we can create quite a convincing pre-fight scenario.
Learning to carry ourselves with confidence, and to do that in groups, can deter and defuse aggression before it even starts. We can learn to escalate to de-escalate.
WORKING TOGETHER
As left activists, we work in groups, so we need to train in groups and think about techniques and drills that replicate this (Examples might include sparring against multiple opponents or practising getting our comrades off the floor in a melee).
Even in a mass mobilisation – small numbers of organised violent people can cause a panic amongst much greater numbers. It’s useful to have groups who work together, trained and conditioned. Learning how to fight in this way is not an individualistic endeavour – it’s about learning the skills to keep your community safe.
KEEPING IT REAL
We should practice in areas where space is confined, light levels are different, footing is uncertain, and surprises happen.
We need to think about how confrontations develop and at what range.
We should always be looking to integrate into our training our real life experiences. This is a really important part of our work. We actively discuss incidents and accidents that have occurred and break them down to figure out what went well and what went badly.
SITUATIONAL AWARENESS
Being aware of your surroundings is very important. Take deflagging as an example – one of your comrades is up a fifteen-foot ladder. One of the ground crew spotting that the same van has driven past twice and alerting them is a more useful piece of self-defence than any slick kick and punch combination. How much good does a black belt do if you’re up a ladder and the baddy is at ground level?
We can think about states of awareness using the traffic light system.
WHITE – totally at rest, unaware, relaxed, scrolling reels, reading theoretical arguments about martial arts on the internet.
YELLOW – aware, taking mental notes, not distracted.
AMBER – pre-fight.
RED – violent conflict.
Amber and Red, we can practice in the gym (to a certain extent)
Yellow: Can you sneak up on your mates (and depending on how well you know them) tap them on the shoulder/wrestle them to the ground while shouting “Red Scum”. Help each other stay switched on and aware while out and about.
ADRENALIN, PRESSURE AND PLAY.
Play is great. It’s also incorporated into pretty much every system of combat sport or self-defence. Every session in the world starts with some variation of “touch shoulders,” “tag,” “bacon wrestling,” or shadow boxing.
It can’t be the whole story, though. We have to test what we’ve learned under pressure. We need to consider how to apply that pressure in training so that we are ready for it and it enhances our skills rather than paralysing us in the moment. We shouldn’t be aiming to stay inside our comfort zones but rather working toward expanding them.
In an actually violent situation, adrenaline will surge through the body. This does have some real advantages in terms of gross physical power, withdrawal of blood from the extremities of our bodies, dulling of pain etc. But it comes with drawbacks, e.g shaky legs, getting caught between a fight-or-flight response and the loss of fine motor skills. Our cognitive skills are impaired and we will fall back on drilled responses.
We need to, as far as possible and with all the caveats around training safely, recreate that adrenaline surge in training. Not as a constant state, which would be practically impossible in any case, but regularly, as a pressure test.
Any system of teaching martial arts of self-defence that does not include this vital part of training is likely to fall apart under real-life circumstances. Worse still, such a system may induce false confidence that will actually put practitioners in more danger.
COMBAT SPORTS & FIGHTING
We love combat sports!! Chances are that anyone sufficiently motivated to set up a dedicated training space for lefties is also going to be training or has trained elsewhere. The choice of sports relevant to community defence is wide, Boxing, Muay Thai, K1, Karate, MMA etc etc. Literally knock yourself out.
Your Red Gym should actively encourage training elsewhere, and the bringing back of those skills to improve the general quality of the space. Most combat sports places are a long way from the caricature drawn in some lefty circles (which makes them sound like a prison boxing club in a Guy Ritchie film). Getting people to train elsewhere, or bringing already trained individuals in, means bringing new skills into your space; it stops the emergence of “lead coaches or guru figures who have the secret training they’ve frightened everyone else away from acquiring. .
Systems that mystify the process of learning and tell you that they have the one true path are an old story in martial arts. Any system that tells you theirs is the only way (especially one that hides behind a paywall) is to be treated with caution. There are a lot of different ways to be an anti fascist, be curious, ask questions, and listen to all lived experience.
However, it is important to maintain the distinction between combat sports and community defence. Many of the people who train with you will be doing so not out of any huge enthusiasm but because they recognise that they might need the skills and conditioning. We aim to learn techniques that work under stress, to do “reasonably well under extreme circumstances” that can be drilled into muscle memory and don’t require dedicated martial arts training (that most people are not up for)
In a combat sports scenario, you are paired up for a one-on-one duel with someone of similar weight and size in a well-lit and unobstructed space with a referee to ensure fair play and safety. Real violence is unexpected, scrappy, high-adrenaline, and often unfair. It might involve weapons or multiple attackers. It’s unfair to characterise training for this as macho or exclusive.
We train with the philosophy that physical ability and skill come second to mindset, and the idea that we can build that mindset in anyone.
Some of the most dedicated street AF we know are women or non-binary, physically small, and don’t fit any warrior stereotypes. Their wish to take risks “use their body to represent and protect their communities” should not be written off. Learning how to fight is important for anti-fascism, and why ‘having fun instead’ is – although preferable to most of us- just not gonna cut it.
SEE YOU ON THE STREETS!!
