File WA 2/3 - Welsh Committee Against Racialism

The Welsh Committee Against Racialism was inaugurated at a meeting convened by the Wales Trades Union Congress at Transport House, Cardiff, on 26 July 1976. The idea of establishing a broad-based representative body to co-ordinate the movement against racism in Wales arose from an initiative to place an advertisement in the South Wales Echo, signed by prominent public figures, declaring outright opposition and condemnation of 'racial antagonism, prejudice and discrimination'. George Wright, General Secretary of Wales T.U.C., had been instrumental in organising this declaration and was largely responsible for the subsequent formation of the Committee. General members of the Committee were drawn from various political, labour and cultural movements and organisations in Wales. The Committee also operated a system of affiliation by which many more organisations and individuals allied themselves to the Committee and its work.

The Committee eventually established two local branches, the West Wales Committee Against Racialism, based in Swansea, in 1977, and, after an earlier failed attempt, the Cardiff Committee Against Racialism in 1978. It also established links with other like-minded organisations, particularly the Newport Anti-Racist Group, the South Glamorgan Committee for Community Relations and the Commission for Racial Equality. The Committee organised several local public meetings on issues of racism, primarily in South Wales, which were addressed by prominent figures and politicians involved in race relations. The first one-day all-Wales conference on racialism, under the auspices of the Committee, was held on 25 June 1977 at the Temple of Peace, Cathays Park, Cardiff, with eighty delegates attending. A second one-day conference was held on 15 April 1978, also in Cardiff. The Committee was also joint organiser, with the Cardiff Anti-Nazi League, of a highly successful Carnival Against Racialism on 15 July 1978 at Sophia Gardens Pavilion, Cardiff. This was the first such event of its scale and nature to have been staged in Cardiff.