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Solidarity with Vietnam October 1968. Victory to the armed struggle of the NLF

In Uncategorized on June 30, 2025 by kmflett

The image is from Ken Muller on FB.

Its a reminder about the authoritarian drift of the British State in the intervening period.

The State was indeed very twitchy about the 27th October 1968 demonstration, which gathered 100,000 people and a large number of police (largely to protect the US Embassy, then in Grosvenor Square, to which the majority of the march was not going).

If you are puzzled about the 2pm assembly time- most central London demos in 2025 would assemble around noon (police allowing) in 1968 pubs opened 12-2 and 7-10.30pm on a Sunday…

The Home Secretary, Jim Callaghan, pressed in the Commons about action, took a relaxed view noting that nothing too dreadful had happened. On the quiet however he set up the special police unit now known as Spycops to infiltrate and report on the left.

The flyer was produced by the Revolutionary Socialist Students Federation. Notably the march was in solidarity with the armed struggle of the National Liberation Front against US forces. It was of course ultimately successful.

Ho Chi Minh, btw, former resident of Crouch End and keen snooker player, had a very good beard but was not entirely friendly to all left currents (shall we say at this distance)

Its an image for Keir Starmer and Lisa Nandy to review. Can it be retrospectively banned or removed from the BBC news site where some details are archived?

Footnote

The march itself organised by the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign (VSC) was also to an extent divided. The VSC led by the orthodox Trotskyists of the International Marxist Group, and also encompassing the International Socialists and some members of the Young Communist League wanted the march to be peaceful and go from Charing Cross via Whitehall to a rally in Hyde Park. Maoist opponents (remembering this was not long after a split in British Communism with the Maoist Communist Party of Britain(ML) led by Reg Birch) wanted a more direct confrontation in Grosvenor Square where the US Embassy was.

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