Founded in July 1970 and active into the 1990s, Black Unity and Freedom Party (BUFP) was a Maoist Black Power group that evolved from Britain’s first Black Power organisation, the Universal Coloured People’s Association.Universal Coloured People’s Association (UCPA)Founded in June 1967, the Universal Coloured People’s Association (UCPA) was Britain’s first Black Power group, led by Obi Egbuna and Roy Sawh. UCPA held open meetings at Speakers’ Corner that were routinely spied on by Metropolitan Police Special Branch officers. The group quickly splintered, Egbuna leaving in April 1968 to found the Black Panther Movement and much of the organisation reforming in July 1970 as the Maoist Black Unity and Freedom Party.
The BUFP took a revolutionary and internationalist approach, working alongside majority-white political groups on campaigns that included Irish Republicanism. SDS undercovers were able to report on some BUFP activities, having infiltrated linked groups, for instance HN348 'Sandra Davies'HN348 'Sandra Davies'HN348 ‘Sandra Davies’ was a Special Demonstration Squad undercover officer who infiltrated the Women's Liberation Front, later known as the Revolutionary Women's Union, from February 1971 for two years. The Inquiry has released nearly 80 intelligence reports produced in her name, none of which justify her deployment, according to Inquiry Chair John Mitting. She was withdrawn as a precaution in February 1973 after a fellow SDS officer’s cover was blown. Her real name has been restricted. Full page: HN348 'Sandra Davies'
infiltration into the Women's Liberation Front.Women’s Liberation Front (WLF) Women’s Liberation Front (WLF) was a Maoist organisation founded in 1969 by members of the Revolutionary Marxist-Leninist League and closely affiliated to the British Vietnam Solidarity Front, Friends of China and the Revolutionary Socialist Students Federation. The WLF campaigned on key feminist concerns including equal pay, domestic work, childcare, and birth control, and its members were involved in industrial action and in broader left struggles. It changed its name to the Revolutionary Women’s Union in February 1972 and went into decline the following year. The WLF was infiltrated by HN348 'Sandra Davies', and reported on by HN45 'Dave Robertson'.Full page: Women’s Liberation Front (WLF)
Sources:
Rosalind Wild. Black was the colour of our fight. Black power in Britain, 1955-1976 Rosalind Wild, 'Black was the colour of our fight'. Black power in Britain, 1955-1976., Sheffield University, This thesis examines in detail the rise and fall of the British Black Power movement. It is the first book-length study of Black Power in Britain and the only one of any size written by a historian. It traces the roots of British Black Power in (1) the anti-colonialist traditions of immigrants from Africa, the Caribbean, India and Pakistarý the last three categories of which came to Britain in unprecedented numbers after 1955; (2) the influence of the contemporaneous black freedom struggle in the United States; and (3) most importantly the encounter with white racism in the United Kingdom., 2008.
Report on private meeting of North London Alliance in Defence of Worker’s Rights planning public meeting and demo, held at redacted venue on 7 July 1971
Report on attempts by a member of the London Alliance in Defence of Workers Rights to organise a picket of Tottenham Magistrates' Court where three members are on trial
Report on Women’s Liberation Front weekly meeting inc talk by Leila Hassan of the Black Unity and Freedom Party on the oppression of Black women, held at redacted private home on 23 Nov 1971
Report on a meeting of the Women’s Liberation Front discussing relations with other women's groups and support for someone on remand over Angry Brigade bombings, held at redacted venue on 4 Dec 1971
