National Assembly Against Racism

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]