Wandsworth Anti-Fascist/ Anti-Racist Committee (WAFARC) grew from and was sponsored by Wandsworth TUC in the mid-1970s, but was separate and acted autonomously. WAFARC featured in two reports by HN300 ‘Jim Pickford’ and was named as a main surveillance target in the 1976 SDS Annual Report.
Organisations like WAFARC started with early trade union input but were designed to be both community-led and autonomous from trade union councils. It was originally a committee of Battersea and Wandsworth Trades Council. However, WAFARC had members who were not trade union members but who had joined to counter the considerable fascist threat at the time.
Although the Inquiry stated that Pickford targeted this group ‘Bob’, who belonged to both the Anarchist Workers Association and WAFARC, said that although Pickford may have attended one or two earlier meetings, he was not present when the group became part of the mobilising committee to oppose the National Front March from New Cross to Lewisham, which ended in violent clashes that became known as Battle of Lewisham.
Before the disclosure of Pickford's reporting about the group, former member ‘Annie’ said she was certain that Pickford did not attend any meetings. However, she thought Pickford could instead have gathered information from talking to comrades from the AWA and WAFARC in the pub. Members of both groups and other local activists regularly gathered in the Spread Eagle pub on Wandsworth High Street.
From the mid-1970s, WAFARC organised several marches and meetings to oppose the National Front. It focused on mobilising locally in the years before the Anti-Nazi League, founded in 1977, could organise nationally.
WAFARC members favoured physically confronting the fascist threat. But the group also organised fundraisers, on one occasion booking Dire Straits to play, just as the band was winning national acclaim. ‘Annie’ commented that around 1979:
With the fascist groups in eclipse under Thatcher, WAFARC eventually organised the well-attended conference that set up Wandsworth Against Racism (WAR) in its place, intended to be a broader, community-based organisation with educational and campaigning objectives and a greater emphasis on opposing racism in society generally, including state institutions.
However, she added that ‘this new organisation never developed much of a sense of purpose or clear objectives and, lacking activists, withered away’.
Sources: Chris Brian: interviews and correspondence with ‘Annie’ and ‘Bob’.