The Camden Vietnam Solidarity Campaign (VSC) was one of several north London branches of 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), a national organisation that mobilised through local branches and ad hoc committees.
Camden VSC was active from October 1968 until at least November 1969. It held regular meetings and worked with the other VSC branches, including the North West [London] Ad Hoc Committee, as well as the Campaign for Nuclear DIsarmamament (CND)Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND)The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament is a mass organisation founded in 1957 that advocates for unilateral nuclear disarmament. In the early 1980s, it had around 100,000 members and attracted 250,000 people to its marches. Despite Special Branch and MI5 acknowledging that it was not a subversive organisation, it was spied on by both, including SDS undercovers HN65 'John Kerry' and HN88 'Timothy Spence' in the 1980s. and the Mayday Manifesto Group. It published a bulletin called Red Camden. Donal O'Driscoll, 1968 – Protest and Special Branch part 4: Infiltration by the Special Demonstration Squad, Special Branch Files, 14 Apr 2018.
It was spied on by 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', 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', HN325 Conrad DixonHN325 Conrad DixonConrad Hepworth Dixon was born on 27 January 1927 in Gillingham, Kent. He joined Special Branch in 1950 and became the first senior officer of the SDS in 1968. He worked on other high profiles cases after leaving the SDS, before retiring in 1973. He died in 1999.Full page: HN325 Conrad Dixon, Cameron Sinclair HN332HN332 Cameron SinclairCameron Sinclair joined the Special Demonstration Squad in 1968. He held the rank of detective inspector, so would have been considered a manager, but his roles varied, and included some undercover work in branches of the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign. Sinclair left the SDS at the end of 1968, but returned as head of the unit between July 1971 and February 1972. He then oversaw the SDS as chief superintendent of S Squad.Full page: HN332 Cameron Sinclair, HN326 'Doug Edwards'HN326 'Doug Edwards'HN326 ‘Doug Edwards’ was the cover name of an undercover police officer in the Special Demonstration Squad between November 1968 and May 1971. He infiltrated the Independent Labour Party and anarchist groups including the West Ham Anarchists. His real name has been restricted; he is referred to in the Undercover Policing Inquiry as HN326. Full page: HN326 'Doug Edwards' and HN328 Joan Hillier.HN328 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
As well as contributing to national demonstrations, Camden VSC engaged in various creative campaign tactics, for example, hosting a ’Liberation Tour’ visiting the premises of companies accused of complicity in the Vietnam war.
The Camden branch, and closely connected North West London Ad Hoc Committee, shared leading members with Australians and New Zealanders Against the Vietnam War (ANZAVW) and the Revolutionary Socialist Students Federation.Revolutionary Socialist Students Federation (RSSF)The Revolutionary Socialist Students Federation (RSSF) was founded in London in June 1968 and active until the end of 1969. Although short-lived, the RSSF created a national organisation, was central to the Vietnam war protests in universities and developed a critique of higher education. Several SDS undercover officers directly targeted the RSSF from July 1968. Full page: Revolutionary Socialist Students Federation (RSSF)
Undercover John Graham used the Camden VSC as a vehicle to gain information about the national organisation by befriending Geoff Richman, who was a member of the VSC national executive committee as well as a key organiser in the Camden branch.
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 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 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
