The Vietnam Solidarity Campaign (VSC) was formed in 1966 as a collaboration between the International Marxist Group (IMG)International Marxist Group (IMG) The International Marxist Group (IMG) was a Trotskyist group in Britain in 1968-1982. It was the British Section of the Fourth International and a vital part of the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign. At its peak, in the 1970s, the IMG had around 1,000 members and supporters. The IMG was spied on by HN336 'Dick Epps', HN340 'Andy Bailey' and HN353 'Gary Roberts' during the 1960s and 1970s; several other SDS officers reported on it.Full page: International Marxist Group (IMG)
and the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation (BRPF).Bertrand Russell Peace FoundationThe Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, which still exists, was created in 1963 by mathematician and philosopher Russell to 'further the cause of peace, and to assist in the pursuit of freedom and justice.' It was part of a coalition of groups that formed the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign (VSC) in 1966 to organise mass protest against the escalating Vietnam war. It is only mentioned in SDS reporting in connection with the VSC.
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 SDS was explicitly created to spy on this group, and other organisations mobilising for the 27 October 1968 anti-Vietnam war demonstration, although surveillance of the VSC predated the SDS' creation. The VSC's campaigning activities sharply declined in 1969 until it ceased to function from October of that year. It was succeeded by the Indo-China Solidarity Campaign.Indo-China Solidarity CampaignThe Indo-China Solidarity Campaign was formed in 1972 by Trotskyists and Maoists as a sucessor to the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign. It was reported on by HN45 'Dave Robertson' and HN338 in 1973 and is mentioned in Special Branch Annual Reports.
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Poster Workshop (1968). Creative Commons.
The VSC took shape in June 1966 at a conference at the Mahatma Gandhi Hall in London, instigated by the IMG and BPRF,and attended by 200 people from across the left.
A national committee was formed with representatives from the International Socialists , IMG and BRPF. Ralph Schoenman, the executive director of the BRPF, became the VSC's director.
Tariq AliFirst Witness Statement of Tariq Ali (non state core participant), given in the UCPI, Tranche 1, Phase 1, 2 Mar 2020.View Document, John La Rose, Ernest TateFirst Witness Statement T1P1 of Ernest Tate (non state core participant), given in the UCPI, Tranche 1, Phase 1, 31 Jan 2020.View Documentand other prominent Marxist and anticolonial writers and thinkers took on key roles. However, the campaign's everyday work was organised through local branches and ad hoc committees.
The latter were a critical method for organising across different factions, allowing people to work together to plan protests. Initially, local groups were formed through IMG branches; this dynamic shifted as the campaign gathered momentum. Local VSC branches were set up across London, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham, Sheffield and Swansea.
The VSC had a fractious relationship with the Maoist groups associated with Abhimanyu Manchanda, a leading Marxist-Leninist. At the VSC's 1966 conference, Manchanda walked out and formed 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)
Nevertheless, the BVSF never completely cut its ties with the VSC, attending its demonstrations and participating in the VSC ad hoc committees. Several VSC branches, such as Notting HillVSC Notting HillNotting Hill Vietnam Solidarity Campaign (VSC) was a west London branch of the national VSC organisation. Formed in 1968, the Notting Hill branch split from the national VSC to align with Abhimanyu Manchanda's Britain Vietnam Solidarity Front. It was reported on by several undercover police officers HN68 'Sean Lynch', HN330 'Don de Freitas', HN331, HN323 Helen Crampton, HN328 Joan Hillier, HN338, HN326 'Douglas Edwards', HN332 Cameron Sinclair, HN345 'Peter Fredericks' and HN321 'Bill Lewis'.Full page: VSC Notting Hill and Earl's CourtVSC Earl's CourtEarl’s Court Vietnam Solidarity Campaign (Earl’s Court VSC) was a branch of the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign (VSC). Formed in 1968, Earl's Court VSC was dominated by Maoists and split from the VSC in September 1968 to realign with the British Vietnam Solidarity Front (BVSF). Undercover police officers HN218 Barry Moss 'Barry Morris' and HN335 Michael Tyrrell infiltrated the group and officers HN68 'Sean Lynch', HN318 Ray Wilson, HN322, HN327 David Fisher, HN331, HN334 'Margaret White' reported on it.Full page: VSC Earl's Court, were dominated by Maoists.
Drawing a youthful crowd energised by the global anti-war movement, the VSC organised several highly successful protests in 1967 and 1968, including strikes and university occupations as well as mass demonstrations. The VSC made strong international connections, for example, with the Sozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund (SDS), the West German student movement, and in France.
The mass demonstration in London on 17 March 1968 was crucial to the development of both the anti-war movement and the apparatus of political policing. Protestors tried to occupy the US embassy in Grosvenor Square, central London, leading to a 'riot' and more than 200 arrests.
The perceived failure of policing control was the source of deep concern for the Metropolitan Police and Harold Wilson's government. Special Branch used the protest as the rationale for proposing the creation of the Special Demonstration Squad (at the time called the Special Operations Squad).
Pathe film of March 1968 VSC demonstration
The VSC continued organising mass demonstrations into 1969, although they were less well attended as people turned to other liberation struggles such as those in Ireland and Palestine.
Policing the VSC
The VSC faced both covert and explicit police repression in the course of organising against the Vietnam war. In the run-up to the 27 October 1968 demonstration, for example, members of the VSC central committee were tailed by several police cars as they attempted to find a space to meet after their booking at Sheffield Students' Union was revoked and pubs refused to accommodate them. The group finally held their meeting in a bomb crater near Ringinglow, on the edge of Sheffield, before the local police threatened them with arrest for trespass.
Tariq Ali, a core participant in the inquiry and founding member of the VSC, described to the Inquiry how phone tapping, interference, and the presence of Special Branch officers in a pub next to the VSC headquarters in Toynbee Street, was well-known to activists at the time.
The group was spied on by all the SDS officers deployed in 1968, as well as others as it went into decline. These included: HN321 William Paul "Bill" LewisHN321 'Bill Lewis''Bill Lewis' was the cover name of an early SDS officer who infiltrated the Lambeth branch of the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign and the London branch of the International Marxist Group from 1968 to 1969. He was given the nominal HN321 in the Undercover Policing Inquiry to which he provided a witness statement. He was not asked to give oral evidence.Full page: HN321 'Bill Lewis', HN68 'Sean Lynch'HN68 ‘Sean Lynch’HN68 ‘Sean Lynch’ was the cover name used by a former Special Demonstration Squad undercover officer deployed between 1968 and 1974 into groups related to political violence in Northern Ireland. He held a managerial position as second-in-command of the SDS between 1981 and 1983 and retired from the Metropolitan Police in 1993. He is dead.Full page: HN68 ‘Sean Lynch’, HN218 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', HN330 ‘Don de Freitas’HN330 'Don de Freitas''Don de Freitas' was the cover name of Detective Sergeant HN330 who was an undercover officer with the SDS between September and October 1968. He infiltrated the Havering branch of the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign with HN334 'Margaret White'.Full page: HN330 'Don de Freitas', HN334 ‘Margaret White’HN334 'Margaret White''Margaret White' was the cover name of Woman Detective Constable HN334, who was an SDS undercover officer between August and November 1968. She attended meetings of various branches of the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign (VSC) and International Socialists before infiltrating the Havering branch of the VSC alongside HN330 'Don de Freitas'. To do so, White and de Freitas posed as a couple.Full page: HN334 'Margaret White', HN336 'Dick Epps’HN336 'Dick Epps'‘Dick Epps’ is the cover name used by the former SDS undercover officer deployed into the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign, Stop the Seventy Tour and the International Marxist Group from late 1968 to mid-1970. For the Undercover Policing Inquiry and Operation Herne, Epps is referred to by the cypher HN336. In 2002, Epps appeared on the True Spies television documentary, using the pseudonym ‘Dan’. Full page: HN336 'Dick Epps', HN323 Helen CramptonHN323 Helen CramptonHelen Crampton was not a typical SDS undercover officer. Between August and November 1969 she attended a couple of meetings of the Notting Hill branch of the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign, a group that was heavily infiltrated by at least four other undercover officers. Her principal role appears to have been as a witness for planned criminal proceedings against a Black Power activist and VSC supporter. Following his conviction in February 1969, Crampton was transferred back to ordinary Special Branch duties. She is dead and her cover name, if she used one, is not known., HN328 Joan HillierHN328 Joan HillierJoan Florence Hillier had only recently joined the Metropolitan Police Special Branch when she was recruited into the first cohort of Special Demonstration Squad officers on 31 July 1968. An administrator in the SDS back office, she attended a handful of Notting Hill Vietnam Solidarity Campaign meetings in October 1968 but left the SDS in July 1969, moving to A Squad. She retired from the Metropolitan Police in 1984.Full page: HN328 Joan Hillier, HN331HN331HN331 was an undercover officer in the SDS who infiltrated the Notting Hill and Earl’s Court branches of the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign between August and December 1968, as well as two meetings of LSE students in the run up to the 27 October 1968 anti-Vietnam war demonstration. He died in a road traffic accident in the 1970s and his cover name has been lost. HN331’s real name was restricted by Inquiry Chair John Mitting.Full page: HN331, HN335 Mike TyrrellHN335 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 HN338.HN338 HN338 was an undercover officer in the SDS between at least April 1970 and December 1973. He initially spied on Agitprop and then the International Marxist Group, plus several related organisations, notably the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign and Anti-Internment League. He is dead, his cover name has been lost and his real name is restricted.Full page: HN338
Sources
Tariq Ali, Street-fighting Years: An Autobiography of the Sixties. Tariq Ali, Street-fighting Years, Verso, 2015.
Ernest Tate, Revolutionary Activism in the 1950s and 1960s, volume two.Exh 1 to Witness Statement Ernest Tate: Revolutionary Activism in the 1950s & 60s: Ernest Tate, A Memoir, Volume 2', Tranche 1, Phase 1, 12 Nov 2020.View Document
Letter from Ministry of Public Building and Works to Commissioner MPS re Vietnam Solidarity Campaign application for a demo in Trafalgar Square in March 1968
Report on private meeting of the VSC held to discuss policy for upcoming International Solidarity Demo and announce numerous events, held at Earl Russell pub on 15 Feb 1968
Reports on the March 1968 Anti-Vietnam War demo inc stats on prosecutions, a transcript of speech by David Clark, and a redacted 33 page list of persons arrested
Report on meeting of Camden Human Rights Year discussing the March 1968 Grosvenor Square Vietnam War demo and protest in general, held at unspecified venue on 26 April 1968
Report that Tariq Ali will be addressing Havering Young Liberals on 'Will Britain see a Revolution?', to be held at 1A Westland Avenue, Hornchurch on 21 May 1968
Report on march by people inc W London VSC, the Black Power Movement, and the Wednesday Group Powis Square to tear down fencing inc details of 10 arrests, held on 25 May 1968 from Portobello Road
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)
Report on public meeting of Notting Hill VSC on the subject of imperialist aggression in Vietnam, held on Notting Hill Gate's junction with Pembridge Gardens W11, 18 Aug 1968
Report on public meeting of Notting Hill VSC on the subject of American aggression in Vietnam, held at Westbourne Grove junction with Queensway W11 on 20 Aug 1968
Letters from Special Branch Ministry of Public Building and Works (copied to Home Office) about Vietnam Solidarity Campaign's request to hold a demo in Trafalgar Square on 26 Oct 1968
Report on Notting Hill VSC meeting inc discussing summonses given to members involved with Powis Square demo of 25 May, held at Essex Church Hall W8 on 28 Aug 1968
Report that a member of the National Executive of Young Liberals is secretly working for International Socialists and trying to get YL to support the VSC ‘Autumn Offensive’ demo on Oct 27
Report on a meeting between HN332, Riby Wilson and Lady Jane Birdwood concerning the upcoming VSC ‘Autumn Offensive’, held at Birdwood's home on 5 Sept 1968
Report on weekly meeting of the Notting Hill Vietnam Solidarity Campaign on the subject of ‘British Imperialism and the complicity with US aggression in Vietnam’, held at Queensway junction with Westbourne Grove W2 on 10 Sept 1968
Report on a meeting of the October 27th Committee for Solidarity with Vietnam inc protest leaflet handed out at 'Green Beret' film, held at the Union Tavern WC2 on 22 Sept 1968
Report on a meeting of the Havering International Socialists, talk 'What is Revolution' and info on 27 Oct Vietnam demo, held at Laurie Hall, Romford on 26 Sept 1968
Report on meeting of Earls Court VSC on upcoming 'Autumn Offensive' demo and American aggression, held at Earls Court Road / Hogarth Road junction SW5 on 26 Sept 1968
Three documents one the 'Militantr Demonstration' leaflet: 1) Statement of Helen Crampton HN323 on meeting of the Notting Hill branch of the VSC held at Essex church on 9 Oct 1968; 2) Leaflet titled “The Potential of a Militant Demonstration; 3) Extract f
Report on public meeting of Earls Court VSC held on the subject of the ‘Vietnam War and American aggression, held opposite tube station the tube station on Earls Court Road SW5 on 10 Oct 1968
Report on a public meeting of the SE London Ad Hoc Committee of the VSC on the Vietnam War and plans for Oct 27 1968 demo, held at Co-op Hall, Catford on 11 Oct 1968
Sunday Times article ”Playboy’ Ali attacked as marchers get militant’ by Alexander Mitchell, detailing factionalism in anti-Vietnam War movement and route of Oct 27 march
Report on public meeting of Notting Hill VSC on the subject of American aggression in Vietnam, filmed by BBC, held at juntion of Westbourne Grove and Queensway W2 on 15 Oct 1968
Guardian article ‘Mr Callaghan will stop "violent" students entering’, Home Secretary barring foreign students with records of violence from entering the UK ahead of the Oct 1968 Vietnam demo
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)
Telegram from DI Saunders to CSI Special Branch, authored by Sgt Creamer, on actions of a large group of anarchists in the vicinity of Grosvenor Square
Report on a meeting of Kilburn and Willesden VSC, held at Community Centre, Tollgate Gardens, Kilburn High Road brefore decamoing to a pub on 17 Dec 1968
Internal VSC policy discussion document, written after Oct 1968 demo, placed on file as representing "the views of a substantial non aligned minority in the VSC"
Report on private meeting of Camden VSC discussing protests during the Nixon visit and the group bulletin, held at the Laurel Tree pub, Bayham Street NW1 on 26 Feb 1969
Recommendation for Commendation or Reward for four officers inc HN323 Helen Crampton involved in the prosecution of a man who distributed the leaflet 'The Potential of a Militant Demonstration'
Report on private meeting of Camden VSC discussing attendance at upcoming demos at Heathrow Airport and the House of Commons, held at a private residence on 4 Mar 1968
Report on public meeting of Camden VSC possibly where HN329 agreed to write for Red Camden, held at the Laurel Tree pub, Bayham Street NW1 on 14 May 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 meeting of the Working Committee of the VSC held to discuss a 'Mass Mobilisation' scheduled for 23 Nov 1969, held at Conway Hall on 6 Sept 1969
Report of a meeting of the Working Committee of the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign to plan demo on 25 Jan against PM visiting USA for talks with the president, held at Conway Hall on 30 Dec 1969
Report on meeting of Vietnam Solidarity Committee to consolidate and discuss all peace movements and anti-Vietnam war organisations, held at Conway Hall on 2 Feb 1970
Report on meeting of the Working Committee of the VSC to discuss preliminary arrangements for upcoming events inc April Conference and broad left meeting, held at Room 1, 13 Whites Row E1 on 10 Feb 1970
Report on meeting of the Working Committee of the VSC inc appointing a new secretary after the resignation of the previous one, held at Rm1, 13 Whites Row on 23 Feb 1970
Report on meeting of the VSC April 19th Ad Hoc Committee changing date and route for the demo, held at Red Mole offices, 182 Pentonville Road N1 on 31 March 1970
Report on meeting of the VSC April 26th Ad Hoc Committee inc plans for a fundraising social at Camden Studios on 19 April, held at 182 Pentonville Road on 10 April 1970
Report on VSC meeting inc discussion of a letter received from The Guardian regarding reporting on a recent demo, held at Queens Arms, Penton Street W1 on 4 May 1971
