Inspired by the student uprising in France, the Revolutionary Socialist Students Federation (RSSF) was formally constituted in June 1968 at the London School of Economics (LSE) and was active until the end of 1969.
Comprising socialist student groups containing both Maoist and Trotskyist elements as well as members of New Left Review (NLR) and assorted libertarians, the RSSF sought to act as a revolutionary counterweight to the National Union of Students (NUS). It had active chapters across the country, including in Bradford, Leeds, Sheffield, Hull and Manchester.
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Towards A Revolutionary Student Movement, RSSF publication
The RSSF worked with both the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign (VSC)Vietnam Solidarity Campaign (VSC)The Vietnam Solidarity Campaign (VSC) was formed in 1966 as a collaboration between the International Marxist Group and the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation. Though dominated by Trotskyists, the VSC was able to forge broad coalitions across the left through its use of ad-hoc committees to plan specific actions. The VSC’s campaigning activities went into sharp decline in 1969, ceasing to function from October that year. Full page: Vietnam Solidarity Campaign (VSC)and the later breakaway organisation, the Britain Vietnam Solidarity Front (BVSF)Britain Vietnam Solidarity Front (BVSF) The Britain Vietnam Solidarity Front (BVSF) was a Maoist group that existed from June 1966 to 1973, though its activities were in serious decline after the height of the protests in 1968. It was founded in parallel with the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign (VSC) after Abhimanyu Manchanda staged at walkout at the latter’s founding conference, reconvening to hall nearby to organise under an alternative name and with closer ties to Maoism. Full page: Britain Vietnam Solidarity Front (BVSF)
and shared an office with the VSC in east London from August 1968.
The heart of the London RSSF was focused on London School of Economics (LSE), a radical centre for the student movements and the anti-Vietnam war protests in the late 1960s. In October 1968, some 3,000 students occupied the LSE following an attempt by management to close the university ahead of the 27 October anti-Vietnam war demonstration.
Occupations of the university in late 1968 and early 1969 received considerable press and police interest. Numerous arrests took place, legal action was taken against student ‘ringleaders’, and LSE staff who also worked as editors at the NLR were dismissed from their jobs over their support of the student occupations.
Though the RSSF was committed to the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism and imperialism and the formation of ‘red bases’ in the universities as centres of opposition to the capitalist system, it was also involved in attempts to democratise these institutions and to open access to higher education in general.
The RSSF also campaigned within the NUS against the bureaucracy and for mass democracy and open political debate which, at the time, was banned by the union’s constitution.
The RSSF held three national conferences in London, the first drawing 1,500-2,000 students, and similar – though smaller – events in Manchester and Leicester. Reports of RSSF activities were published in the three issues of the short-lived journal Student International and the RSSF briefly produced its own journal, Escalate.
Ideological divisions between Maoists and Trotskyist groups within the RSSF leadership meant the organisation was politically unstable; by the end of 1969 it had largely ceased to function. Though the RSSF was short lived, it played an important role in recruiting students into the broader left-wing milieu, many RSSF activists going on to take leading roles in Communist, Trotskyist and Maoist groups in the 1970s.
SDS undercover officers directly targeted the RSSF from July 1968 to the end of 1969. They included HN135 ‘Mike Ferguson’HN135 Michael 'Mike' FergusonMichael (Mike) Ferguson started as an undercover officer in March 1969 with HN336 ‘Dick Epps’. He infiltrated the Maoist Britain Vietnam Solidarity Front, the Islington branch of the Irish Civil Rights Solidarity Campaign and the Stop The Seventy Tour. His deployment ended in July 1970. Ferguson would return in the late 1970s to lead the SDS for a couple of years. He retired in 1985 and died in 1999 at the age of 60.
, HN218 ‘Barry Morris’ Barry MossHN218 Barry Moss 'Barry Morris'HN218 is the nominal given to SDS officer Barry Moss 'Barry Morris', who spied on the October 27th Committee for Solidarity with Vietnam and Vietnam Solidarity Campaign during his short deployment in 1968. He later returned as Detective Chief Inspector in charge of SDS operations in February/March 1980, eventually rising to become Commander of Special Branch in October 1996. He retired in 1999.Full page: HN218 Barry Moss 'Barry Morris', HN329 ‘John Graham’ HN329 'John Graham'HN329 is the nominal given to SDS officer 'John Graham', deployed from August 1968 to September 1969. He spied on the Camden, Kilburn and Willesden, and Hampstead branches of the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign, and on the Revolutionary Socialist Students Federation. Graham claims his memory of his time in SDS is poor but gave evidence about fellow officers being convicted in their undercover identities, being taken off the squad for refusing to attend a meeting and taking a female activist he had spied on to dinner after the end of his deployment.Full page: HN329 'John Graham', HN335 ‘Mike Tyrrell’ HN335 Mike TyrrellHN335 Michael 'Mike' Paul Tyrrell was an early SDS undercover who infiltrated the Earls Court branch of the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign; Britain Vietnam Solidarity Front; Revolutionary Socialist Students Federation; West London Palestine Solidarity Campaign and connected Maoist groups from September 1968 to February 1970. Now dead, he has been given the nominal HN335 in the Undercover Policing Inquiry. His cover name is unknown and was not recalled by other undercovers.Full page: HN335 Mike Tyrrelland HN322.HN322HN322 was born in the late 1940s, joined the Metropolitan Police in the early 1960s and served in the SDS for five weeks between October and December 1968, but was never deployed into any group. After leaving the SDS he continued his career in Special Branch. He retired in 1998 at the rank of detective inspector.Full page: HN322
Other SDS officers indirectly monitored the RSSF through its associations with the VSC and BVSF and, latterly, the steering committee of Irish Civil Rights Solidarity Campaign (ICRSC).Irish Civil Rights Solidarity Campaign (ICRSC) / Irish Solidarity Campaign (ISC)The Irish Civil Rights Solidarity Campaign (ICRSC) was an umbrella organisation that sought to bring together organisations campaigning against Britain’s actions in Northern Ireland. It was active from 1969 to 1973, changing its name to the Irish Solidarity Campaign (ISC) in September 1970. It had multiple local branches, a central steering committee and close ties to the Anti-Internment League. The ICRSC/ISC was spied on by HN298 'Michael Scott', HN299/HN342 'David Hughes' and HN340 'Andy Bailey'.Full page: Irish Civil Rights Solidarity Campaign (ICRSC) / Irish Solidarity Campaign (ISC)
Report on a meeting of the Steering Committee of the Irish Civil Rights Solidarity Campaign, held at the Dolphin pub on 14 Oct 1969, attaching a copy of 'Free Citizen' a People's Democracy publication
Report on a weekly meeting of the Steering Committee of the Irish Civil Rights Solidarity Campaign, held at private room of the Dolphin pub on 19 Aug 1969
Report on meeting of the Working Committee of the VSC (inc HN329) to decide a date for an Autumn Mobilisation, held at home of Nat. Sec. Upali Kooray at 37 Grafton Way W1 on 24 July 1969
Report on private meeting of the London Revolutionary Socialist Students Federation and attaching a leaflet advertising an 'Emergency Conference' on 22 June, held at Room 229, Portland Hall, Little Titchfield Street W1 on 11 June 1969
Report on weekly meeting of the Britain-Vietnam Solidarity Front, discussing RSSF conference and participation in 7 April CND march, held at Union Tavern, King's Cross Rd on 30 Mar 1969.
MI5 Note for File reporting meeting ensuring close co-operation with Special Branch, inc Dixon detailing SDS deployments, held at Scotland Yard on 14 Jan 1969
Report on upcoming demo against police brutality organised by te Revolutionary Socialist Students Federation, to be held from Charing Cross Embankment to New Scotland Yard on 14 Dec 1968
Memo from Commander Special Branch to Commander ‘A’ with info on attendees plans for the Oct 1968 Vietnam War demo, inc circular from October 27th Committee for Solidarity with Vietnam (attached)
Report on a conference of the Joint Committee of Communists held on 'A democratic education to serve the people', held at Reading Room of Regent Street Polytechnic W1 on 7 Sept 1968
Report on private conference held by the Joint Committee of Communists on the subject of 'A democratic education to serve the people', held at Reading Room, Regent Street Polytechnic W1 on 7 Sept 1968
Report on a group of people, inc Manchanda, seen meeting, going to the pub then on to a meeting of the Revolutionary Socialist Students Federation at Regent St Polytechnic on 4 Sept 1968
Minutes of a meeting of the Official Committee on Communism (Home) discussing student protest and how to disrupt and counter-propagandise it (CAB 301-509)
