Black Unity and Freedom Party
By 1970, migration to Britain from the country's former colonies in the Caribbean, West Africa and South Asia had led to substantial communities in its major cities, particularly London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol and Cardiff.
However, there was significant opposition to black settlement, stemming from the perceived racist attitudes fostered during Britain's colonial and slave trader history.
In addition, far-right organisations such as the National Front and a perception of racism in the ranks of the police and other institutions contributed to an atmosphere of social conflict.
In addition there would be pieces about the apartheid regime in South Africa and party analyses of various controversies such as the education of African-Caribbean children in British schools.
The main avenue of distribution was BUFP members standing on city street corners and engaging (usually black) citizens in conversation.
Some editions were placed in left-wing or black-owned bookshops, such as the Index Book Centre and the Black Cultural Archives, both situated in Brixton, south London.
Internally, the party had a democratic structure, regularly electing officials to carry out tasks such as Treasurer, Black Voice editor and General Secretary.
The organisation also gave initial support to Omali Yeshitela's call for establishing an African Socialist International to coordinate black revolutionary activities across the world.
By 1995, the BUFP regarded Howe as a "sellout", complaining that he used his TV programme Devil's Advocate to promote white racists, that he depicted Black men as violent and that he had forgotten his roots when he declared "I have no nation or country" in an interview in the newspaper The Guardian (20 March 1995).
Perhaps surprisingly, most of the membership, although often of labouring class origins, were employed either as professionals - such as teachers, doctors or accountants – or as minor local authority officials.
Therefore, in order to protect their membership of a far-left, radical organisation becoming known, some members would either adopt pseudonyms when addressing public meetings, such as "Lumumba" – or just use their first name, such as "Sister Annette", etc.
A radical revision aimed to create a new body with more appeal to the African-Caribbean youths who had grown up in a post-apartheid, post-colonial and post-Soviet political climate.
Unlike the BUFP, it did not admit Asians and labelled itself as "Scientific Socialist" rather than refer to the European theorists Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin.
In addition, the lack of the word "party" in its title was deemed to be of crucial significance - signalling a potential retreat from outright battles in the political arena.
