North London Alliance in Defence of Workers Rights (NLADWR)

The North London Alliance in Defence of Workers Rights (NLADWR) was formed in April 1971 by Maoist groups, including the Mao Tse-Tung (Zedong) Study Group, members of the Revolutionary Marxist-Leninist League (RMLL) Revolutionary Marxist-Leninist League (RMLL)  The Revolutionary Marxist-Leninist League (RMLL) was a small Maoist political party instigated by Abhimanyu Manchanda in 1968 after his expulsion from the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1965. There were a number of other organisations closely related to it, such as the British Vietnam Solidarity Front, Friends of China, and the Women’s Liberation Front. The RMLL was targeted by HN335 Mike Tyrrell, HN45 ‘Dave Robertson’ and HN348 ‘Sandra Davies’. Full page: Revolutionary Marxist-Leninist League (RMLL)  and its later splinter group the Marxist-Leninist Workers Association (MLWA). Marxist-Leninist Workers Association (MLWA) The Marxist-Leninist Workers Association was a small, London-based Maoist group active from 1971-1973. A relatively closed group, its main activity was political education classes for its members. The MLWA was spied on by SDS undercover HN45 ‘Dave Robertson’ from the time it formed. Full page: Marxist-Leninist Workers Association (MLWA)  

NLADWR was a community-orientated, broad-front organisation that allowed the founding groups to co-ordinate public meetings, film showings, rallies, demonstrations and pickets and to engage with other campaigning bodies. The group produced a bulletin and campaigned against the 1971 Industrial Relations Act, 1971 Immigration Act, and other manifestations of state racism and police brutality. 

From mid-1971 to the end of 1972, NLADWR held street meetings, rallies and demonstrations in Wood Green and Hornsey with groups including the Black Unity and Freedom Party (BUFP) Black Unity and Freedom Party (BUFP) 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. BUFP took a revolutionary and internationalist approach, working alongside majority-white political groups on campaigns that included Irish Republicanism and women’s liberation. SDS undercovers were able to report on some BUFP activities, having infiltrated linked groups. , Women’s Liberation Front (WLF) 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) , the Hackney United Tenants Association Ad-Hoc Committee (HUTAAC) Hackney United Tenants Ad-Hoc Committee The 1972 SDS Annual Report listed the Hackney United Tenants Ad-Hoc Committee as a primary target. No independent information is available about this organisation, but according to the SDS, it was Maoist in political orientation.  and Schools Action Union (SAU). Schools Action Union (SAU) Schools Action Union (SAU) was a movement of school children active in the late 1960s and the 1970s. The union campaigned for free school meals and against school uniforms, corporal punishment, and detentions by organising school strikes and marches. HN348 'Sandra Davies' reported on SAU. Full page: Schools Action Union (SAU)  

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Several protests ended in clashes with police leading to the arrest of NLADWR members and, in February 1972, the imprisonment for three months of leading organisers Dave Mackinnon and Kobad Ghandy. This stymied the public activities of NLADWR to a degree, though in the interim it gained control of SAU, shortened its name to the London Alliance in Defence of Workers Rights (LADWR) and produced a printed broadsheet newspaper. 

The LADWR played an active role in the Anti-Imperialist Co-ordinating Committee, protested against US imperialism in Vietnam and, towards the end of 1972, began to organise against the National Front (NF). National Front (NF) The National Front was a far-right and openly racist organisation that formed as an alliance of several small far-right groups that were operating on the fringe of British politics in the 1960s. These groups included the British National Party and the League of Empire Loyalists. It rose to prominence in the 1970s and 1980s, organising marches and standing candidates at local and national elections. While not a focus of the SDS, the party was for many anti-fascist groups that the SDS did spy on. HN303 Peter Collins was sent to spy on the group not by the Metropolitan Police, but by the group he was sent to monitor - The Workers Revolutionary Party.  

The first mention of the NLADWR in SDS files appears shortly after the group was founded, in a report by SDS undercover 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'  who had infiltrated the Maoist WLF, latterly the Revolutionary Women’s Union (RWU).

In July 1971, HN45 ‘Dave Robertson’ HN45 'Dave Robertson' 'Dave Robertson' is the assumed name of an undercover in the Special Demonstration Squad, active between October 1970 and 6 February 1973. He infiltrated Maoist groups connected with activist Abhimanyu Manchanda, including the Revolutionary Marxist-Leninist League, British Vietnam Solidarity Front and early meetings of the Women's LIberation Front. Robertson was withdrawn after 6 February 1973 when he was recognised as a police officer by a friend of one of the people he was spying on. In the mid-1980s he returned to work for the SDS for three years in a variety of administrative roles. Full page: HN45 'Dave Robertson'  joined the NLADWR and reported on meetings in private homes throughout the rest of 1971 and 1972. In February 1973, MI5 enquired whether two members of the NLADRW had a phone at their new address, suggesting ongoing interception of phone calls. 

That month, however, a member of the public recognised Robertson as a police officer at a meeting. He was immediately withdrawn from deployment, along with female officers Davies and HN346 Jill Mosdell HN346 Jill Mosdell HN346 Jill Mosdell was an SDS undercover who spied on anti-apartheid campaigns - the north-west London Stop the Seventy Tour, south-west London Action Committee Against Racialism and the Anti-Apartheid Movement - from at least April 1970. She later infiltrated Maoist groups in north London. She was withdrawn in February 1973 after fellow undercover HN45 ‘Dave Robertson’, who was spying on similar groups, was recognised as a police officer. Mosdell is dead and her cover name is unknown. Full page: HN346 Jill Mosdell  who had just started reporting on Maoist groups to the SDS.

Sources

Marxists Internet Archive, Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism On-Line Below is a list of useful pages and documents on the North London Alliance in Defence of Workers Rights. The Rise & Fall of Maoism: the English Experience North London Alliance in Defence of Workers Rights: Bulletin 1 Class War 1 Class War 2 Encyclopaedia of anti-Revisionism On-line (website), Marxists Internet Archive.