The Vietnam Solidarity Campaign (VSC) was originally set up in 1966 by activists around the International Group

International Group

The International Group was the name taken by two groups of British supporters of the Fourth International.In both cases, the Group was formed as a public faction by members loyal to the International who felt that the then-current leadership of the British section of the Fourth International had...

 with the personal and financial support of Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these things...

.

Ralph Schoenman

Ralph Schoenman

Ralph Schoenman is an American left-wing activist who was a personal secretary to Bertrand Russell and became general secretary of the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation...

 acted both as Director of the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign and as Executive Director of the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation

Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation

The Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation was established in 1963. The foundation aims to continue the work of the philosopher and activist Bertrand Russell in the areas of peace, social justice, and human rights, with a specific focus on the dangers of nuclear war...

. Marxist

Marxism

Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...

 activists including Tariq Ali

Tariq Ali

Tariq Ali , , is a British Pakistani military historian, novelist, journalist, filmmaker, public intellectual, political campaigner, activist, and commentator...

, Ernie Tate

Ernie Tate

Ernest Tate, known as Ernie Tate, is a long-standing supporter of the reunified Fourth International, based in Canada.Born in Northern Ireland, Tate was recruited by Ross Dowson into the Canadian section of the Fourth International...

, Al Richardson, David Horowitz and Pat Jordan

Pat Jordan

Pat Jordan was a British Trotskyist who was central to founding the International Marxist Group. He had been a full time organiser of the Communist Party of Great Britain in Nottingham who had left the party with Ken Coates after the 1956 Soviet invasion of Hungary...

 also played a key role.

Members of the International Socialists

Socialist Workers Party (Britain)

The Socialist Workers Party is a far left party in Britain founded by Tony Cliff. The SWP's student section has groups at a number of universities...

 participated in the foundation of the VSC, but for the first year of its existence its presence was a token one only.

It organised a demonstration of 20,000 people in October 1967 that for the first time ignored police warnings not to enter Grosvenor Square, where the United States Embassy in London is located. In March and October 1968 two major demonstrations in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, sponsored by the VSC, drew more than 100,000 participants. Serious police violence was captured by press and television cameras during the March protest. The October demonstration was carefully planned to avoid any opportunity for a repeat performance, resulting in a peaceful march of 200,000 people across London. According to its newsletter, VSC branches were active in many British cities -- Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

, Sheffield

Sheffield

Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...

, Leeds

Leeds

Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

, Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

, Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

, Nottingham

Nottingham

Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...

 and Swansea

Swansea

Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...

. Even small towns, including Falkirk

Falkirk

Falkirk is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. It lies in the Forth Valley, almost midway between the two most populous cities of Scotland; north-west of Edinburgh and north-east of Glasgow....

 and Northold Park, counted VSC members.

The Vietnam Solidarity Campaign consistently badgered Harold Wilson

Harold Wilson

James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, FSS, PC was a British Labour Member of Parliament, Leader of the Labour Party. He was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the 1960s and 1970s, winning four general elections, including a minority government after the...

 and his government over Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

. Every issue of the VSC Bulletin contained a special section on "British Complicity" in the war, usually focusing on military R&D carried on by industry and universities. In its 1972 Vietnam Handbook, the VSC devoted a major chapter to "British Complicity," accusing Wilson of cutting a "shabby figure" as he consistently supported U.S. policy in Vietnam.