The Spartacist League of Britain (SLB) was founded in 1978 as the British section of the Trotskyist International Communist League.
HN106 '‘Barry Tompkins,’ surveilled the group between 1979 and 1983. He did not become a member and primarily attended public meetings organised by the SLB. However, Tompkins was trusted enough to be invited to the group’s private office.
The SLB’s origins were in two factions within the Workers’ Socialist League, from which the Leninist and Trotskyist Factions broke away in 1978. Along with the London Spartacist Group, they launched the SLB as a small, disciplined cadre organisation committed to uncompromising revolutionary politics.
During Tompkins’ deployment (1979-1983), the SLB was active within Britain’s left. Its main publications—Spartacist Britain and later Workers Hammer—set out its ideological line. They featured dense polemics, especially against other groups.
For example, the organisation called the British Labour Party a ‘bourgeois instrument’. It condemned Stalinism as a ‘betrayal of socialism’. It also criticised its fellow Trotskyist groups, such as the Socialist Workers Party, for what it called their ‘centrist vacillations’.
SLB members also took part in anti-racist campaigns, anti-fascist protests, and industrial disputes.
The Spartacist League of Britain maintains an online presence.
International Surveillance
Surveillance of Spartacist organisations occurred internationally. In Australia, the New South Wales Special Branch monitored the Spartacist League of Australia, keeping files on members and recording their international connections. In the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation surveilled the Spartacist League of the US under COINTELPRO and subsequent programs, treating it as a threat despite its small size.
Sources
Undercover Research Group. HN106 'Barry Tompkins' (alias).
Splits and Fusions. From Cradle to Grave: The Spartacist League of Britain.