National Assembly Against Racism

The National Assembly Against Racism (NAAR) was a British anti-racist and anti-fascist group.[1]

NAAR was a predominantly black-led national anti-racist grouping, formed after the acrimonious collapse of the Anti-Racist Alliance. It first met on 4 February 1995, when it launched the Anti-Racist Charter for the New Millennium, endorsed by Bill Morris of the Transport and General Workers Union and Labour MPs Diane Abbott and Keith Vaz.[2]

Lee Jasper, race relations adviser to Ken Livingstone, the mayor of London, was NAAR's chair. Socialist Action played a key role within it.[3] NAAR's student arm was Student Assembly Against Racism, organised in 1995.[4]

By 2003, its co-chairs were black Labour MP Diane Abbott and councillor Kumar Murshid, a close ally of Livingstone.[5] It had active local groups in Birmingham, Coventry, Lewisham, Manchester and Sheffield.[6]

NAAR merged with the Anti-Nazi League[7] into the Socialist Workers Party (UK)-led Unite Against Fascism (UAF) in 2003,[8] Jasper joining UAF's first steering committee and NAAR's Sabby Dhalu acting as joint secretary with SWP/ANL's Weyman Bennett.[9]

References
  1. Stefano Fella; Carlo Ruzza (24 December 2012). Anti-Racist Movements in the EU: Between Europeanisation and National Trajectories. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 67-68. ISBN 978-0-230-29090-7. Retrieved 21 August 2017.
  2. Peter Barberis; John McHugh; Mike Tyldesley (26 July 2005). Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations: Parties, Groups and Movements of the 20th Century. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 107. ISBN 978-0-8264-5814-8. Retrieved 21 August 2017.
  3. Martin Bright "Secret sect giving PSC mask of respectability" Jewish Chronicle 19 September 2009
  4. Peter Barberis; John McHugh; Mike Tyldesley (26 July 2005). Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations: Parties, Groups and Movements of the 20th Century. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 119. ISBN 978-0-8264-5814-8. Retrieved 21 August 2017.
  5. Nigel Copsey Anti-Fascism in Britain
  6. Nigel Copsey Anti-Fascism in Britain
  7. Independent, The (2009-06-10). "What's the best way to fight the BNP?". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2022-06-18. Retrieved 2022-02-28.
  8. Stefano Fella; Carlo Ruzza (24 December 2012). Anti-Racist Movements in the EU: Between Europeanisation and National Trajectories. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 67-68. ISBN 978-0-230-29090-7. Retrieved 21 August 2017.
  9. "Unite Against Fascism: Powerful forces are coming together in a new coalition called Unite Against Fascism to confront the threat of the British National Party" Socialist Worker

Further reading


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