The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller
Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
groups.
Many miners joined the CPGB in the
1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPGB founded the ''Daily Worker'' (renamed the
''Morning Star'' in 1966). In 1936, members of the party were present at the
Battle of Cable Street
The Battle of Cable Street was a series of clashes that took place at several locations in the inner East End, most notably Cable Street, on Sunday 4 October 1936. It was a clash between the Metropolitan Police, sent to protect a march by mem ...
, helping organise resistance against the
British Union of Fascists
The British Union of Fascists (BUF) was a British fascist political party formed in 1932 by Oswald Mosley. Mosley changed its name to the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists in 1936 and, in 1937, to the British Union. In 1939, fo ...
. In the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...
the CPGB worked with the USSR to create the
British Battalion
The British Battalion (1936–1938; officially the Saklatvala Battalion) was the 16th battalion of the XV International Brigade, one of the mixed brigades of the International Brigades, during the Spanish Civil War. It comprised British and Do ...
of the
International Brigades
The International Brigades ( es, Brigadas Internacionales) were military units set up by the Communist International to assist the Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. The organization existed f ...
, which party activist
Bill Alexander commanded.
In
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, the CPGB mirrored the Soviet position, opposing or supporting the war in line with the involvement of the USSR. By the end of World War II, CPGB membership had nearly tripled and the party reached the height of its popularity. Many key CPGB members became leaders of Britain's trade union movement, including most notably
Jessie Eden
Jessie Eden (née Shrimpton; 24 February 1902 – 27 September 1986) was a British trade union leader and communist activist, most famous for leading between 40,000 to 50,000 households during the Birmingham rent-strike of 1939. She was also in ...
,
Abraham Lazarus
Abraham Lazarus (1911–1967) was a leading British Communist activist, charity worker, and anti-fascist, most famous for leading numerous high profile factory strikes in London and Oxford, and for organising communists and Jews to resist the ...
,
Ken Gill,
Clem Beckett,
GCT Giles,
Mike Hicks, and
Thora Silverthorne
Thora Silverthorne (1910–1999), also known as "Red Silverthorne", was a British Communist, healthcare activist, and a nanny for Somerville Hastings, and former president of the Socialist Medical Association (SMA). She is most known for her s ...
.
Following the mass migration of
African-Caribbean
Afro-Caribbean people or African Caribbean are Caribbean people who trace their full or partial ancestry to Sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the modern African-Caribbeans descend from Africans taken as slaves to colonial Caribbean via the ...
s to Britain, many black activists joined the CPGB, including
Trevor Carter
Trevor Carter (October 1930 – March 2008) was a leading British communist activist, educator, and black civil rights activist, most famous for co-founding the Caribbean Teachers Association and serving as the Head of Equal Opportunities for t ...
,
Charlie Hutchison,
Dorothy Kuya
Dorothy Kuya (April 1932 – 23 December 2013) was a leading British communist and human rights activist from Liverpool, the co-founder of Teachers Against Racism, and the general secretary of the National Assembly of Women (NAW). She was a life ...
,
Billy Strachan
William Arthur Watkin Strachan (16 April 1921 – 26 April 1998) was a leading British communist, pioneer of black civil rights in Britain, human rights and anti-colonial activist, charity worker, newspaper editor, and British legal expert. He is ...
,
Peter Blackman,
Henry Gunter,
Len Johnson, and
Claudia Jones
Claudia Vera Jones (; 21 February 1915 – 24 December 1964) was a Trinidad and Tobago-born journalist and activist. As a child, she migrated with her family to the US, where she became a Communist political activist, feminist and black national ...
, who founded London's
Notting Hill Carnival
The Notting Hill Carnival is an annual Caribbean festival event that has taken place in London since 1966 . In 1956, the CPGB experienced a significant loss of members due to its support of the
Soviet military intervention in Hungary. In the 1960s, CPGB activists supported Vietnamese communists fighting in the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
. In 1984, the leader of the CPGB's youth wing,
Mark Ashton
Mark may refer to:
Currency
* Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina
* East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic
* Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927
* Fin ...
, founded
Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners
Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM) was an alliance of lesbians and gay men who supported the National Union of Mineworkers during the year-long strike of 1984–1985. By the end of the strike, eleven LGSM groups had emerged in the UK ...
.
From 1956 until the late 1970s, the party was funded by the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
.
After the
dissolution of the Soviet Union
The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...
in 1991, the party's
Eurocommunist
Eurocommunism, also referred to as democratic communism or neocommunism, was a trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties which said they had developed a theory and practice of social transformation more rele ...
leadership disbanded the party, establishing the
Democratic Left. The anti-Eurocommunist faction had launched the
Communist Party of Britain
The Communist Party of Britain (CPB) is a communist party in Great Britain which emerged from a dispute between Eurocommunists and Marxist-Leninists in the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1988. It follows Marxist-Leninist theory and s ...
in 1988.
Organisational history
Formation
The Communist Party of Great Britain was founded in 1920 after the
Third International
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by a ...
decided that greater attempts should be made to establish communist parties across the world. The CPGB was formed by the merger of several smaller
Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
parties, including the
British Socialist Party
The British Socialist Party (BSP) was a Marxist political organisation established in Great Britain in 1911. Following a protracted period of factional struggle, in 1916 the party's anti-war forces gained decisive control of the party and saw t ...
, the
Communist Unity Group
The Communist Unity Group (CUG) was a small communist organisation in the United Kingdom.
The origins of the group lay in the Socialist Labour Party (1903-1980), Socialist Labour Party (SLP). The SLP was a De Leonist group, but in support of the ...
of the
Socialist Labour Party and the
South Wales Socialist Society
The South Wales Socialist Society was a federation of communist groups in Wales, with many of its members being coal miners. It was a founder constituent of the Communist Party of Great Britain.
It was formed as the Rhondda Socialist Society in ...
. The party also gained the support of the Guild Communists faction of the
National Guilds League
Guild socialism is a political movement advocating workers' control of industry through the medium of trade-related guilds "in an implied contractual relationship with the public". It originated in the United Kingdom and was at its most influent ...
, assorted
shop steward
A union representative, union steward, or shop steward is an employee of an organization or company who represents and defends the interests of their fellow employees as a labor union member and official. Rank-and-file members of the union hold ...
s' and workers' committees, socialist clubs and individuals and many former members of the
Hands Off Russia
The Hands Off Russia campaign was an international political initiative first launched by British Socialists in 1919 to organise opposition to the British intervention on the side of the White armies against the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War ...
campaign. Several branches and many individual members of the
Independent Labour Party
The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates ...
also affiliated. As a member of the
British Socialist Party
The British Socialist Party (BSP) was a Marxist political organisation established in Great Britain in 1911. Following a protracted period of factional struggle, in 1916 the party's anti-war forces gained decisive control of the party and saw t ...
, the
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
Cecil L'Estrange Malone joined the CPGB. A few days after the founding conference the new party published the first issue of its weekly newspaper, which was called ''the Communist'' and edited by
Raymond Postgate
Raymond William Postgate (6 November 1896 – 29 March 1971) was an English socialist, writer, journalist and editor, social historian, mystery novelist, and gourmet who founded the '' Good Food Guide''. He was a member of the Postgate fa ...
.
In January 1921, the CPGB was refounded after the majorities of
Sylvia Pankhurst
Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst (5 May 1882 – 27 September 1960) was a campaigning English feminist and socialist. Committed to organising working-class women in London's East End, and unwilling in 1914 to enter into a wartime political truce with ...
's group the
Communist Party (British Section of the Third International)
The Communist Party (British Section of the Third International) was a Left Communist organisation established at an emergency conference held on 19–20 June 1920 at the International Socialist Club in London. It comprised about 600 people.
Hi ...
, and the Scottish
Communist Labour Party agreed to unity. The party benefited from a period of increased political radicalism in Britain just after the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
and the
Russian Revolution of October 1917, and was also represented in Britain by the
Red Clydeside
Red Clydeside was the era of political radicalism in Glasgow, Scotland, and areas around the city, on the banks of the River Clyde, such as Clydebank, Greenock, Dumbarton and Paisley, from the 1910s until the early 1930s. Red Clydeside is a sig ...
movement.
During the negotiations leading to the initiation of the party, a number of issues were hotly contested. Among the most contentious were the questions of "
parliamentarism
A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of the ...
" and the attitude of the Communist Party to the
Labour Party. "Parliamentarism" referred to a strategy of contesting elections and working through existing parliaments. It was a strategy associated with the parties of the
Second International
The Second International (1889–1916) was an organisation of socialist and labour parties, formed on 14 July 1889 at two simultaneous Paris meetings in which delegations from twenty countries participated. The Second International continued th ...
and it was partly for this reason that it was opposed by those who wanted to break with
Social Democracy
Social democracy is a Political philosophy, political, Social philosophy, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocati ...
. Critics contended that parliamentarism had caused the old parties to become devoted to reformism because it had encouraged them to place more importance on winning votes than on working for
socialism
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
, that it encouraged opportunists and place-seekers into the ranks of the movement and that it constituted an acceptance of the legitimacy of the existing governing institutions of
capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for Profit (economics), profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, pric ...
. Similarly, affiliation to the Labour Party was opposed on the grounds that communists should not work with 'reformist' Social Democratic parties. These
Left Communist
Left communism, or the communist left, is a position held by the left wing of communism, which criticises the political ideas and practices espoused by Marxist–Leninists and social democrats. Left communists assert positions which they rega ...
positions enjoyed considerable support, being supported by
Sylvia Pankhurst
Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst (5 May 1882 – 27 September 1960) was a campaigning English feminist and socialist. Committed to organising working-class women in London's East End, and unwilling in 1914 to enter into a wartime political truce with ...
and
Willie Gallacher among others. However, the
Russian Communist Party took the opposing view. In 1920,
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...
argued in his essay ''
"Left Wing" Communism: An Infantile Disorder'' that the CPs should work with reformist trade unions and social democratic parties because these were the existing organisations of the working class. Lenin argued that if such organisations gained power, they would demonstrate that they were not really on the side of the working class, thus workers would become disillusioned and come over to supporting the Communist Party. Lenin's opinion prevailed eventually.
Initially, therefore, the CPGB attempted to work within the
Labour Party, which at this time operated mainly as a federation of
left-wing
Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...
bodies, only having allowed individual membership since 1918. However, despite the support of
James Maxton
James Maxton (22 June 1885 – 23 July 1946) was a British left-wing politician, and leader of the Independent Labour Party. He was a pacifist who opposed both world wars. A prominent proponent of Home Rule for Scotland, he is remembered as on ...
, the
Independent Labour Party
The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates ...
leader, the Labour Party decided against the affiliation of the Communist Party. Even while pursuing affiliation and seeking to influence Labour Party members, however, the CPGB promoted candidates of its own at parliamentary elections.
Following the refusal of their affiliation, the CPGB encouraged its members to join the Labour Party individually and to seek Labour Party endorsement or help for any candidatures. Several Communists thus became Labour Party candidates, and in the
1922 general election,
Shapurji Saklatvala
Shapurji Dorabji Saklatvala (28 March 1874 – 16 January 1936) was a communist activist and British politician of Indian Parsi heritage. Saklatvala is notable for being the first person of Indian heritage to become a British Member of Parliamen ...
and
Walton Newbold
John Turner Walton Newbold (8 May 1888 – 20 February 1943), generally known as Walton Newbold, was the first of the four Communist Party of Great Britain members to be elected as MPs in the United Kingdom.
Biography
Early years
John Turner ...
were both elected. As late as 1923 the
National Executive Committee of the Labour Party
The National Executive Committee (NEC) is the governing body of the UK Labour Party, setting the overall strategic direction of the party and policy development. Its composition has changed over the years, and includes representatives of affilia ...
endorsed Communist parliamentary candidates, and 38 Communists attended the 1923
Labour Party Conference
The Labour Party Conference is the annual conference of the British Labour Party. It is formally the supreme decision-making body of the party and is traditionally held in the final week of September, during the party conference season when the ...
.
1920s and 1930s
In 1923, the party renamed its newspaper as the ''Workers Weekly''.
In 1923, the Workers' Weekly published a letter by
J. R. Campbell urging
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
soldiers not to fire on striking workers. The
Labour government of Prime Minister
Ramsay MacDonald
James Ramsay MacDonald (; 12 October 18669 November 1937) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, the first who belonged to the Labour Party, leading minority Labour governments for nine months in 1924 ...
prosecuted him under the Incitement to Disaffection Act but withdrew the charges upon review. This led to the
Liberal Party
The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left.
__TOC__ Active liberal parties
This is a li ...
introducing a motion to establish an inquiry into the Labour government, which led to its resignation.
The affair of the forged
Zinoviev Letter occurred during the subsequent
general election
A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...
late October 1924. Intended to suggest that the Communist Party in Britain was engaged in subversive activities among the
British Armed Forces
The British Armed Forces, also known as His Majesty's Armed Forces, are the military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests, s ...
and elsewhere, the forgery's aim was to promote the electoral chances of the
Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
in the
general election of 29 October; it was probably the work of
SIS (MI6) or
White Russian counter-revolutionaries.
After Labour lost to the
Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
in the election, it blamed the Zinoviev Letter for its defeat. In the aftermath of the Campbell Case and the Zinoviev letter, Labour expelled Communist Party members and banned them from running as its parliamentary candidates in the future. After the
1926 British general strike
The 1926 general strike in the United Kingdom was a general strike that lasted nine days, from 4 to 12 May 1926. It was called by the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in an unsuccessful attempt to force the British governmen ...
, it also disbanded 26
Constituency Labour Parties
__NOTOC__
A constituency Labour Party (CLP) is an organisation of members of the British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party who live in a particular parliamentary constituency.
In England and Wales, CLP boundaries coincide with those for UK parliam ...
which resisted the ruling or were otherwise deemed too sympathetic to the Communist Party.
Throughout the 1920s and most of the 1930s, the CPGB decided to maintain the doctrine that a communist party should consist of revolutionary cadres and not be open to all applicants. The CPGB as the British section of the
Communist International
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by a ...
was committed to implementing the decisions of the higher body to which it was subordinate.
This proved to be a mixed blessing in the
General Strike of 1926
The 1926 general strike in the United Kingdom was a general strike that lasted nine days, from 4 to 12 May 1926. It was called by the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in an unsuccessful attempt to force the British governmen ...
immediately prior to which much of the central leadership of the CPGB was imprisoned. Twelve were charged with "
seditious conspiracy
Seditious conspiracy is a crime in various jurisdictions of Conspiracy (criminal), conspiring against the authority or legitimacy of the state. As a form of sedition, it has been described as a serious but lesser counterpart to treason, targeting ...
". Five were jailed for a year and the others for six months. Another major problem for the party was its policy of abnegating its own role and calling upon the
General Council of the Trades Union Congress The General Council of the Trades Union Congress is an elected body which is responsible for carrying out the policies agreed at the annual British Trade Union Congresses (TUC).
Organisation
The council has 56 members, all of whom must be proposed ...
to play a revolutionary role.
Nonetheless, during the strike itself and during the long drawn-out agony of the following Miners' Strike the members of the CPGB were to the fore in defending the strike and in attempting to develop solidarity with the miners. The result was that membership of the party in mining areas increased greatly through 1926 and 1927. Much of these gains would be lost during the
Third Period
The Third Period is an ideological concept adopted by the Communist International (Comintern) at its Sixth World Congress, held in Moscow in the summer of 1928. It set policy until reversed when the Nazis took over Germany in 1933.
The Comint ...
but the influence was developed in certain areas that would continue until the party's demise decades later.
The CPGB did succeed in creating a layer of militants very committed to the party and its policies, although this support was concentrated in particular trades, specifically in heavy engineering, textiles and mining, and in addition, tended to be concentrated regionally too in the coalfields, certain industrial cities such as
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
and in Jewish
East London
East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth.
Etymology
As in other languages, the word is formed from the f ...
. Indeed,
Maerdy
Maerdy (, cy, Y Maerdy) is a village and community (and electoral ward) in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, and within the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan, Wales, lying at the head of the Rhondda Fach Valley.
History
"Maerdy" i ...
in the
Rhondda
Rhondda , or the Rhondda Valley ( cy, Cwm Rhondda ), is a former coalmining area in South Wales, historically in the county of Glamorgan. It takes its name from the River Rhondda, and embraces two valleys – the larger Rhondda Fawr valley ('' ...
Valley along with
Chopwell
Chopwell is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England, west of Rowlands Gill and north of Hamsterley. At the 2011 Census, it had a population of 9,395.
In 1150, Bishop Pudsey granted the Manor of Chopwell ...
in Tyne and Wear were two of a number of communities known as ''
Little Moscow
Little Moscow was a term for towns and villages in capitalist societies whose population appeared to hold extreme left-wing political values or communist views. The places so named were typically in working class areas, normally with strong trade ...
'' for their Communist tendencies.
During the 1920s, the CPGB clandestinely worked to train the future leaders of India's first communist party.
Some of the key activists charged with this task,
Philip Spratt and
Ben Bradley, were later arrested and convicted as a part of the
Meerut Conspiracy Case
The Meerut Conspiracy Case was a controversial court case that was initiated in British Raj in March 1929 and decided in 1933. Several trade unionists, including three Englishmen, were arrested for organizing an Indian railway strike. The Bri ...
.
Their trial helped to raise British public awareness of
British colonialism in India, and caused massive public outrage over their treatment. At the same time, Asian and African delegates to the Comintern such as
Ho Chi Minh
(: ; born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), commonly known as ('Uncle Hồ'), also known as ('President Hồ'), (' Old father of the people') and by other aliases, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman. He served as Prime ...
,
M. N. Roy
Manabendra Nath Roy (born Narendra Nath Bhattacharya, better known as M. N. Roy; 21 March 1887 – 25 January 1954) was an Indian revolutionary, radical activist and political theorist, as well as a noted philosopher in the 20th century. Roy ...
, and
Sen Katayama
Sen may refer to:
Surname
* Sen (surname), a Bengali surname
* Şen, a Turkish surname
* A variant of the Serer patronym Sène
Currency subunit
* Etymologically related to the English word ''cent''; a hundredth of the following currencies:
* ...
criticized the GBCP for neglecting colonial issues in India and
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
.
But this support built during the party's first years was imperilled during the
Third Period
The Third Period is an ideological concept adopted by the Communist International (Comintern) at its Sixth World Congress, held in Moscow in the summer of 1928. It set policy until reversed when the Nazis took over Germany in 1933.
The Comint ...
from 1929 to 1932, the Third Period being the so-called period of renewed revolutionary advance as it was dubbed by the (now
Stalinised) leadership of the
Comintern
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...
. The result of this "class against class" policy was that the Social Democratic and Labourite parties were to be seen as equally as much a threat as the
fascist
Fascism is a far-right, Authoritarianism, authoritarian, ultranationalism, ultra-nationalist political Political ideology, ideology and Political movement, movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and pol ...
parties and were therefore described as being
social-fascist. Any kind of alliance with "social-fascists" was obviously to be prohibited.
The Third Period also meant that the CPGB sought to develop revolutionary trade unions in rivalry to the established
Trades Union Congress
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is a national trade union centre
A national trade union center (or national center or central) is a federation or confederation of trade unions in a country. Nearly every country in the world has a national tra ...
affiliated unions. They met with an almost total lack of success although a tiny handful of "red" unions were formed, amongst them a miners union in Scotland and tailoring union in East London.
Arthur Horner, the Communist leader of the Welsh miners, fought off attempts to found a similar union on his patch.
But even if the Third Period was by all conventional standards a total political failure it was the 'heroic' period of British communism and one of its campaigns did have impact beyond its ranks. This was the
National Unemployed Workers' Movement
The National Unemployed Workers' Movement was a British organisation set up in 1921 by members of the Communist Party of Great Britain. It aimed to draw attention to the plight of unemployed workers during the post First World War slump, the 1926 G ...
led by
Wal Hannington
Walter "Wal" Hannington (1896–1966) was a founding member of the Communist Party of Great Britain and National Organiser of the National Unemployed Workers' Movement, from its formation in 1921 to its end in 1939, when he became National Organis ...
. Increasing unemployment had caused a substantial increase in the number of CP members, especially those drawn from engineering, lacking work. This cadre of which Hannington and
Harry MacShane in Scotland were emblematic, found a purpose in building the NUWM which resulted in a number of marches on the
unemployment issue during the 1930s. Although born in the Third Period during the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
, the NUWM was a major campaigning body throughout the
Popular Front
A popular front is "any coalition of working-class and middle-class parties", including liberal and social democratic ones, "united for the defense of democratic forms" against "a presumed Fascist assault".
More generally, it is "a coalition ...
period too, only being dissolved in 1941.
After the victory of
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, the Third Period was dropped by all Communist Parties as they switched to the policy of the
Popular Front
A popular front is "any coalition of working-class and middle-class parties", including liberal and social democratic ones, "united for the defense of democratic forms" against "a presumed Fascist assault".
More generally, it is "a coalition ...
. This policy argued that as fascism was the main danger to the workers' movement, it needed to ally itself with all anti-fascist forces including right-wing democratic parties. In Britain, this policy expressed itself in the efforts of the CPGB to forge an alliance with the Labour Party and even with forces to the right of Labour.
In the
1935 general election Willie Gallacher was elected as the Communist Party's first
MP in six years, and their first MP elected against Labour opposition. Gallacher sat for
West Fife in
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
, a coal mining region in which it had considerable support. During the 1930s the CPGB opposed the
National Government's
European policy of
appeasement
Appeasement in an international context is a diplomatic policy of making political, material, or territorial concessions to an aggressive power in order to avoid conflict. The term is most often applied to the foreign policy of the UK governm ...
towards
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
and
Fascist Italy. On the
streets
Streets is the plural of street, a type of road.
Streets or The Streets may also refer to: Music
* Streets (band), a rock band fronted by Kansas vocalist Steve Walsh
* ''Streets'' (punk album), a 1977 compilation album of various early UK punk ba ...
the party members played a leading role in the struggle against the
British Union of Fascists
The British Union of Fascists (BUF) was a British fascist political party formed in 1932 by Oswald Mosley. Mosley changed its name to the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists in 1936 and, in 1937, to the British Union. In 1939, fo ...
, led by
Sir Oswald Mosley
Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet (16 November 1896 – 3 December 1980) was a British politician during the 1920s and 1930s who rose to fame when, having become disillusioned with mainstream politics, he turned to fascism. He was a member ...
whose
Blackshirts
The Voluntary Militia for National Security ( it, Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale, MVSN), commonly called the Blackshirts ( it, Camicie Nere, CCNN, singular: ) or (singular: ), was originally the paramilitary wing of the Natio ...
tried to emulate the Nazis in
anti-Semitic
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
actions in London and other major British cities. The Communist Party's Oxford branch under the leadership of
Abraham Lazarus
Abraham Lazarus (1911–1967) was a leading British Communist activist, charity worker, and anti-fascist, most famous for leading numerous high profile factory strikes in London and Oxford, and for organising communists and Jews to resist the ...
managed to successfully contain and defeat the rise of fascism in the city of Oxford, forcing the Blackshirts to retreat from the town and into the relative safety of Oxford University after the
Battle of Carfax.
1939 to 1945: Second World War
![A SECOND FRONT IN EUROPE CPGB poster](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/A_SECOND_FRONT_IN_EUROPE_CPGB_poster.jpg)
With the beginning of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
in 1939, the CPGB initially continued to support the struggle on two fronts (against Chamberlain at home and Nazi fascism abroad). Following the
Molotov–Ribbentrop nonaggression pact on 23 August between the Soviet Union and Germany, the Comintern immediately changed its position. The British party immediately fell in line, campaigning for peace, and describing the war as the product of imperialism on both sides, and in which the working class had no side to take. This was opposed within the CPGB by
Harry Pollitt
Harry Pollitt (22 November 1890 – 27 June 1960) was a British communist who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) from 1929 to September 1939 and again from 1941 until his death in 1960. Pollitt spen ...
and
J. R. Campbell, the editor of the ''Daily Worker'', and both were relieved of their duties in October 1939. Pollitt was replaced by
Palme Dutt
Rajani Palme Dutt (19 June 1896 – 20 December 1974), generally known as R. Palme Dutt, was a leading journalist and theoretician in the Communist Party of Great Britain. His classic book ''India Today'' heralded the Marxist approach in I ...
. From 1939 until 1941 the CPGB was very active in supporting strikes and in denouncing the government for its pursuit of the war.
However, when in 1941 the
Soviet Union was invaded by Germany, the CPGB reversed its stance immediately and came out in support of the war on the grounds that it had now become a war between fascism and the Soviet Union. Pollitt was restored to his old position as Party Secretary. In fact, the Communists' support for the war was so vociferous that they launched a campaign for a Second Front in order to support the USSR and speed the defeat of the
Axis powers
The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were ...
. In industry, they now opposed
strike action
Strike action, also called labor strike, labour strike, or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to Labor (economics), work. A strike usually takes place in response to grievance (labour), employee grievance ...
and supported the Joint Production Committees, which aimed to increase productivity, and supported the
National Government that was led by
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...
(Conservative) and
Clement Attlee
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. He was Deputy Prime Mini ...
(Labour). At the same time, given the influence of
Rajani Palme Dutt Rajani may refer to:
*Rajani (name), people named Rajani
*Rajani (actress) (born 1965), Indian film actress
* ''Rajani'' (TV series), a 1980s Indian TV series
* ''Rajani'' (film), a 2009 Indian Kannada romantic comedy
* ''Rajani'', an 1877 novel b ...
in the Party, the issue of
Indian independence and the
independence of colonies was emphasised.
In the
1945 general election, the Communist Party received 103,000 votes, and two Communists were elected as
members of parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
: Willie Gallacher was returned, and
Phil Piratin
Philip Piratin (15 May 1907 – 10 December 1995) was a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and one of the four CPGB Members of Parliament during the first thirty years of its existence. (The others were Shapurji Saklatvala, Wa ...
was newly elected
[A.J. Davies, ''To Build A New Jerusalem.'' London: Abacus, 1996, p. 179.] as the MP for
Mile End
Mile End is a district of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London, England, east-northeast of Charing Cross. Situated on the London-to-Colchester road, it was one of the earliest suburbs of London. It became part of the m ...
in
London's East End
The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have uni ...
. Harry Pollitt failed by only 972 votes to take the
Rhondda East constituency. Both Communist MPs, however, lost their seats at the
1950 general election. The Party was keen to demonstrate its loyalty to Britain's industrial competitiveness as a stepping point towards socialism. At the 19th Congress, Harry Pollitt asked rhetorically, "Why do we need to increase production?" He answered: "To pay for what we are compelled to import. To retain our independence as a nation."
The party's membership peaked during 1943, reaching around 60,000.
Despite boasting some leading intellectuals, especially among the
Communist Party Historians Group
A subdivision of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), the Communist Party Historians Group (CPHG) formed a highly influential cluster of British Marxist historians, who contributed to "history from below" from 1946 to 1956. Famous members ...
, the party was still tiny compared to its continental European counterparts. The
French Communist Party
The French Communist Party (french: Parti communiste français, ''PCF'' ; ) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit in the European Unit ...
for instance had 800,000 members, and the
Italian Communist Party
The Italian Communist Party ( it, Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) was a communist political party in Italy.
The PCI was founded as ''Communist Party of Italy'' on 21 January 1921 in Livorno by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party (PSI). ...
had 1.7 million members, before
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...
outlawed it in 1926.
The Party tried, unsuccessfully, to affiliate to the Labour Party in 1935, 1943 and 1946.
1946 to 1956: Start of the Cold War
In 1951 the party issued a programme, ''
The British Road to Socialism'' (officially adopted at the 22nd Congress in April 1952), which explicitly advocated the possibility of a peaceful transition to socialism – but only after it had been personally approved by
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
himself, according to some historians. The BRS would remain the programme of the CPGB until its dissolution in 1991 albeit in amended form and today is the programme of the breakaway
Communist Party of Britain
The Communist Party of Britain (CPB) is a communist party in Great Britain which emerged from a dispute between Eurocommunists and Marxist-Leninists in the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1988. It follows Marxist-Leninist theory and s ...
.
From the war years to 1956 the CPGB was at the height of its influence in the labour movement with many union officials who were members. Not only did it have immense influence in the
National Union of Mineworkers but it was extremely influential in the
Electrical Trade Union and in the
Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers
The Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU) was a major British trade union. It merged with the Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union to form the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union in 1992.
History
The history of t ...
, a key blue-collar union. In addition, much of the Labour Party left was strongly influenced by the party. Dissidents were few, perhaps the most notable being
Eric Heffer
Eric Samuel Heffer (12 January 192227 May 1991) was a British socialist politician. He was Labour Member of Parliament for Liverpool Walton from 1964 until his death. Due to his experience as a professional joiner, he made a speciality of the ...
, the future Labour MP who left the party in the late 1940s.
In 1954 the party solidified its opposition to
British racial segregation, with the publication of ''A Man's a Man: A Study of the Colour Bar in Birmingham''.
Although the Communists had always opposed both
racial segregation
Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crimes against hum ...
and British colonialism, this publication made clearer the party's position, and also had an enduring influence on British anti-racist politics outside the party.
The
death of Stalin in 1953, and the
uprising in East Germany the same year had little direct influence on the CPGB, but they were harbingers of what was to come. Of more importance was
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...
's "
Secret Speech
"On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences" (russian: «О культе личности и его последствиях», «''O kul'te lichnosti i yego posledstviyakh''»), popularly known as the "Secret Speech" (russian: секре ...
" at the
20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was held during the period 14–25 February 1956. It is known especially for First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev's "Secret Speech", which denounced the personality cult and dictatorship ...
, in which he denounced Stalin. According to
George Matthews, Khrushchev made a deal with the CPGB to provide a secret annual donation to the party of more than £100,000 in used notes. The
Poznań protests of 1956 disrupted not only the CPGB, but many other Communist Parties as well. The CPGB was to experience its greatest ever loss of membership as a result of the
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republic ...
's crushing of the
1956 Hungarian Revolution
The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 10 November 1956; hu, 1956-os forradalom), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the Hunga ...
. "
e events of 1956... saw the loss of between one-quarter and one-third of Party members, including many leading intellectuals."
This event was initially covered in the CPGB-sponsored ''Daily Worker'', by correspondent
Peter Fryer
Peter Fryer (18 February 1927 – 31 October 2006)
''Spartacus Educational''. was an English ...
, but as events unfolded the stories were spiked. On his return to Britain Fryer resigned from the ''Daily Worker'' and was expelled from the party.
1957 to 1970s: Decline of the party
![Bundesarchiv Bild 183-57000-0436, Berlin, V](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-57000-0436%2C_Berlin%2C_V._SED-Parteitag%2C_4.Tag.jpg)
After the calamitous events of 1956, the party increasingly functioned as a pressure group, seeking to use its well-organised base in the trade union movement to push the Labour Party leftwards. Trade unionists in the party in 1968 included
John Tocher, George Wake, Dick Etheridge and Cyril Morton (
AEU);
Mick McGahey, Arthur True and Sammy Moore (
NUM);
Lou Lewis (
UCATT) and Max Morris (
NUT
Nut often refers to:
* Nut (fruit), fruit composed of a hard shell and a seed, or a collective noun for dry and edible fruits or seeds
* Nut (hardware), fastener used with a bolt
Nut or Nuts may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Co ...
).
Ken Gill became the party's first elected officer (Deputy General Secretary of DATA, later
TASS
The Russian News Agency TASS (russian: Информацио́нное аге́нтство Росси́и ТАСС, translit=Informatsionnoye agentstvo Rossii, or Information agency of Russia), abbreviated TASS (russian: ТАСС, label=none) ...
) in 1968 and former party member
Hugh Scanlon
Hugh Parr Scanlon, Baron Scanlon (26 October 1913 – 27 January 2004) was a British trade union leader.
Scanlon was born in Melbourne, to parents who had emigrated from Britain. His mother brought him back from Australia to the UK when he ...
was elected president of the AEU with Broad Left support – defeating
Reg Birch Reginald Birch (7 June 1914 – 2 June 1994) was a British communist and trade unionist, aligning with Maoism later in his career.
Early political activism
Born in Kilburn, London, Birch became a toolmaker and joined the Amalgamated Engineering ...
, the Maoist ex-party candidate. The Broad Left went on to help elect
Ray Buckton
Raymond William Buckton (20 October 1922 – 7 May 1995) was general secretary of ASLEF, the rail drivers' trade union in Great Britain.
Early life
He was born in Rillington, then in the East Riding of Yorkshire, now in North Yorkshire. His f ...
(
ASLEF
The Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF) is a British trade union representing train drivers. It is part of the International Transport Workers' Federation and the European Transport Workers' Federation. At the end of ...
),
Ken Cameron
Ken Cameron (born 1946) is an Australian film and television director and writer. Cameron was born in Tenterfield, New South Wales, Australia and graduated from Sydney University with BA in 1968. He has won two AFI Awards for directing.
Filmo ...
(
FBU),
Alan Sapper (
ACTT) and
Jack Jones (
TGWU
The Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU or T&G) was one of the largest general trade unions in the United Kingdom and Ireland – where it was known as the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union (ATGWU) to differentiate its ...
) in 1969. Gerry Pocock, Assistant Industrial Organiser described the industrial department as "a party within a party", and ''Marxism Today'' editor
James Klugmann
Norman John Klugmann (27 February 1912 – 14 September 1977), generally known as James Klugmann, was a leading British Communist writer and WW2 Soviet Spy, who became the official historian of the Communist Party of Great Britain.
Backgroun ...
would routinely defer to Industrial Organiser
Bert Ramelson
Baruch Rahmilevich Mendelson (22 March 1910 – 13 April 1994), commonly known as Bert Ramelson, was an industrial organiser and politician for the Communist Party of Great Britain. He held the post of National Industrial Organiser from 1965 to ...
on matters of policy.
The party's orientation, though, was to the left union officers, not the rank and file. Historian Geoff Andrews explains "it was the role of the shop stewards in organising the Broad Lefts and influencing trade union leaders that were the key rather than organising the rank and file in defiance of leaderships", and so the party withdrew from rank-and-file organisations like the
Building Workers' Charter and attacked "
Trotskyist
Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a rev ...
" tactics at the
Pilkington Glass
Pilkington is a Japanese-owned glass-manufacturing company which is based in Lathom, Lancashire, United Kingdom. In the UK it includes several legal entities and is a subsidiary of Japanese company NSG Group.
Prior to its acquisition by NSG ...
dispute in 1970.
Still the party's efforts to establish an electoral base repeatedly failed. They retained a handful of seats in local councils scattered around Britain, but the CPGB's only representative in Parliament was in the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
, gained when
Wogan Philipps, the son of a ship-owner and a long-standing member of the CPGB inherited the title of
Lord Milford when
his father died in 1963.
The ''Daily Worker'' was renamed the ''Morning Star'' in 1966. At the same time, the party became increasingly polarised between those who sought to maintain close relations with the Soviet Union and those who sought to convert the party into a force independent of Moscow.
The
international split between Moscow and Beijing in 1961 led to divisions within many Communist Parties but there was little pro-Beijing sympathy in the relatively small British Party. Perhaps the best known of the tiny minority of CPGB members who opposed the Moscow line was Michael McCreery, who formed the
Committee to Defeat Revisionism, for Communist Unity Committee to Defeat Revisionism, for Communist Unity was a small United Kingdom, British Marxism-Leninism, Marxist-Leninist group that left the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1963. CDRCU was led by Michael McCreery, the son of General (United K ...
. This tiny group left the CPGB by 1963. McCreery himself died in
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
in 1965. Later a more significant group formed around
Reg Birch Reginald Birch (7 June 1914 – 2 June 1994) was a British communist and trade unionist, aligning with Maoism later in his career.
Early political activism
Born in Kilburn, London, Birch became a toolmaker and joined the Amalgamated Engineering ...
, an engineering union official, established the
Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist). Initially, this group supported the position of the
Communist Party of China
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil ...
.
Divisions in the CPGB concerning the autonomy of the party from Moscow reached a crisis in 1968 when Warsaw Pact forces
invaded Czechoslovakia. The CPGB, with memories of 1956 in mind, responded with some very mild criticism of Moscow, refusing to call it an invasion, preferring "intervention". Three days after the invasion,
John Gollan said "we completely understand the concern of the Soviet Union about the security of the socialist camp... we speak as true friends of the Soviet Union".
Even this response provoked a small localised split by the so-called
Appeal Group which was in many respects a precursor of the 1977 split which formed the
New Communist Party. From this time onwards, the most traditionally-minded elements in the CPGB were referred to as '
Tankies
Tankie is a pejorative label for leftists, particularly Stalinists, who support the authoritarian tendencies of Marxism–Leninism or, more generally, authoritarian states associated with Marxism–Leninism in history. The term was origin ...
' by their internal opponents, due to their support of the Warsaw Pact forces. Others within the party leaned increasingly towards the position of
Eurocommunism
Eurocommunism, also referred to as democratic communism or neocommunism, was a trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties which said they had developed a theory and practice of social transformation more rele ...
, which was the leading tendency within the important Communist parties of Italy and, later, Spain.
In the late-1960s, and probably much earlier,
MI5
The Security Service, also known as MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), G ...
had hidden surveillance microphones in the CPGB's headquarters, which MI5 regarded as "very productive".
The last strong electoral performance of the CPGB was in the
February 1974 General Election in
Dunbartonshire Central, where candidate
Jimmy Reid
James Reid (9 July 1932 – 10 August 2010) was a Scottish trade union activist, orator, politician and journalist born in Govan, Glasgow. His role as spokesman and one of the leaders in the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders work-in between June 1971 ...
won almost 6,000 votes. However, this strong result was primarily a personal vote for Reid, who was a prominent local
trade union
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...
leader and gained much support because of his prominent role in the
Upper Clyde Shipbuilders work-in, which had taken place a few years earlier and was seen as having saved local jobs. Nationally the party's vote continued its decline: according to a contemporary joke, the CPGB at this time pursued ''the British Road to Lost Deposits''.
According to historian Geoff Andrews, "The mid-1970s saw
Gramscians" (otherwise known as
Euro-Communists) "take leading positions within the party".
Dave Cook became National Organiser in 1975 and
Sue Slipman
Susan Slipman (born 3 August 1949) was President of the National Union of Students between 1977 and 1978. She later joined the National Union of Public Employees. Since then she has held a wide range of appointments and offices in the public sect ...
was appointed to the executive committee and to the ''
Marxism Today
''Marxism Today'', published between 1957 and 1991, was the theoretical magazine of the Communist Party of Great Britain. The magazine was headquartered in London. It was particularly important during the 1980s under the editorship of Martin Jacque ...
'' editorial board. Jon Bloomfield, former Student Organiser became the West Midlands District Secretary.
Pete Carter
Peter Edward Carter (8 July 1938 – 11 October 2011) was a British trade unionist.
History
Born in Tipton, Carter left school at fifteen and worked as a bricklayer while still illiterate. Graham Stevenson claims that Carter was briefly invol ...
prominent in
UCATT, had been gaining influence since the late 60s and was appointed National Industrial Organiser in 1982.
Beatrix Campbell
Mary Lorimer Beatrix Campbell, OBE (''née'' Barnes; born 3 February 1947) is an English writer and activist who has written for a number of publications since the early 1970s. Her books include ''Wigan Pier Revisited'' (1984), ''Goliath: Brit ...
(a contributor, with Slipman, to ''
Red Rag'') and Judith Hunt became active in the National Women's Advisory Committee. Martin Jacques, on the executive committee since 1967, replaced
James Klugmann
Norman John Klugmann (27 February 1912 – 14 September 1977), generally known as James Klugmann, was a leading British Communist writer and WW2 Soviet Spy, who became the official historian of the Communist Party of Great Britain.
Backgroun ...
as editor of ''Marxism Today'' in 1977. Its turn to Eurocommunism was prefigured by what Andrews describes as Sarah Benton's "radical and heretical" stint as editor of the fortnightly review ''Comment''. Critics from the past, like Eric Hobsbawm and Monty Johnstone, also gained influence.
The Euro-Communists in the party apparatus were starting to challenge the authority of the trade union organisers. At the 1975 Congress, economist Dave Purdy proposed that "the labour movement should declare its willingness to accept voluntary pay restraint as a contribution to the success of the programme and a way of easing the transition to a socialist economy" – a challenge to the Industrial Department's policy of "free collective bargaining". An argument he reiterated in print in ''The Leveller'' in 1979.
The growing crisis in the party also affected the credibility of its leadership, as formerly senior and influential members left its ranks. In 1976, three of its top engineering cadres resigned.
Jimmy Reid
James Reid (9 July 1932 – 10 August 2010) was a Scottish trade union activist, orator, politician and journalist born in Govan, Glasgow. His role as spokesman and one of the leaders in the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders work-in between June 1971 ...
, Cyril Morton and
John Tocher had all been members of the Political Committee, playing a crucial role in determining the direction of the party. Like another engineer, Bernard Panter, who left a few months before them, they jumped a sinking ship.
According to James Klugmann, the Party's official historian, this period was marked by a growing division between the practitioners of ''cultural'' politics – heavily inspired by the writings of Antonio Gramsci and party's powerful industrial department which advocated a policy of ''militant labourism''.
The cultural politics wing had dominated the party's youth wing in the 1960s and was also powerful in the student section. As such many of its members were academics or professional intellectuals (or in the view of their opponents, out of touch and middle class). They were influenced by the environmental and especially the feminist movement.
The other wing was powerful in senior levels of the trade union movement (though few actually reached the very top in the unions) and despite the party's decline in numbers were able to drive the Trades Union Congress, TUC's policy of opposing the Industrial Relations Act. In the view of their opponents on the cultural or Eurocommunist wing, ''they'' were out of touch with the real changes in working people's lives and attitudes.
As the seventies progressed and as industrial militancy declined in the face of high unemployment, the tensions in the party rose even as its membership continued to decline.
1977–1991: Breakup of the party
By 1977, debate around the new draft of the ''British Road to Socialism'' brought the party to breaking point. Many of the anti-Eurocommunism, Eurocommunists decided that they needed to form their own anti-revisionist Communist party. Some speculated at the time that they would receive the backing of Moscow, but such support appears not to have materialised. The New Communist Party of Britain was formed under the leadership of Sid French, who was the secretary of the important Surrey District CP, which had a strong base in engineering.
Another grouping, led by Fergus Nicholson, remained in the party and launched the paper ''Straight Left''. This served as an outlet for their views as well as an organising tool in their work within the Labour Party. Nicholson had earlier taken part in establishing a faction known as "Clause Four" within Labour Students, Labour's student movement. Nicholson wrote as "Harry Steel", a combination of the names of Stalin ("man of steel" in Russian) and Harry Pollitt. The group around ''Straight Left'' exerted considerable influence in the trade union movement, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, CND, the Anti-Apartheid Movement and amongst some Labour MPs.
Under the influence of Eric Hobsbawm on the opposing wing of the party Martin Jacques became the editor of the party's theoretical journal ''
Marxism Today
''Marxism Today'', published between 1957 and 1991, was the theoretical magazine of the Communist Party of Great Britain. The magazine was headquartered in London. It was particularly important during the 1980s under the editorship of Martin Jacque ...
'' and rapidly made it a significant publication for Eurocommunist opinions in the party, and eventually for revisionist tendencies in the wider Social liberalism, liberal-left, in particular for the soft left around Neil Kinnock in the
Labour Party. Although the circulation of the magazine rose it was still a drain on the finances of the small party.
As early as 1983, Martin Jacques "thought the CP was unreformable... but stayed in because he needed its subsidy to continue publishing ''Marxism Today''." Jacques' conviction that the party was finished "came as a nasty shock to some of his comrades" like Nina Temple, who "as unhappy as Jacques himself, stayed on only out of loyalty to Jacques."
In 1984, a long-simmering dispute between the majority of the leadership and an anti-Eurocommunist faction (associated with party industrial and trade union activists) flared up when the London District Congress was closed down for insisting on giving full rights to comrades who had been suspended by the executive committee. After the General Secretary closed the Congress a number of members remained in the room (in County Hall, London, County Hall in South London) and held what was, in effect, the founding meeting of a breakaway party, although the formal split did not come until four years later. Members of the minority faction set about founding a network of ''Morning Star'' readers' groups and similar bodies, calling themselves the Communist Campaign Group. In 1988, these elements formally split from the CPGB to organise a new party known as the
Communist Party of Britain
The Communist Party of Britain (CPB) is a communist party in Great Britain which emerged from a dispute between Eurocommunists and Marxist-Leninists in the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1988. It follows Marxist-Leninist theory and s ...
. This was considered by many in the anti-Eurocommunist faction, including national executive members like Barry Williams (politician), Barry Williams, to be the death of the 'Party'.
In 1991, when the Dissolution of the Soviet Union, Soviet Union collapsed, the Eurocommunist-dominated leadership of the CPGB, led by Nina Temple, decided to disband the party, and establish the
Democratic Left, a left-leaning political think tank rather than a political party.
The Democratic Left itself dissolved in 1999 and was replaced by the New Politics Network, which in turn merged with Charter 88 in 2007.
This merger formed Unlock Democracy, which was involved in the YES! To Fairer Votes, campaign for a yes vote in the 2011 United Kingdom Alternative Vote referendum, 2011 Alternative Vote referendum.
Some Scottish members formed the Communist Party of Scotland, while others formed Democratic Left Scotland and Democratic Left Wales Chwith Ddemocrataidd. Supporters of ''The Leninist'' who had rejoined the CPGB in the early 1980s declared their intention to reforge the Party and held an emergency conference at which they claimed the name of the party. They are now known as the Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee) and they publish the ''Weekly Worker''. But the
Communist Party of Britain
The Communist Party of Britain (CPB) is a communist party in Great Britain which emerged from a dispute between Eurocommunists and Marxist-Leninists in the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1988. It follows Marxist-Leninist theory and s ...
is the designated 'Communist Party' in the UK by the Electoral Commission (United Kingdom), Electoral Commission. In 2008 members of the Party of the European Left, which contains several former communist parties in Europe, established a non-electoral British section.
Size and electoral information
The party began with 4000 members at its founding congress. It experienced a brief surge around the
1926 general strike, doubling its membership from 5,000 to over 10,000. This surge was short-lived, however, as membership eventually sank down to 2,350 by 1930. The party reached its peak in 1942 at 56,000 members. This reflected the popularity of the party in the active phase of the Second World War. In the post-war period, the membership began declining, culminating in the sudden loss of around 6,000 members in 1957, around the aftermath of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Soviet intervention in Hungary. From that point, the party gradually recovered into the early 1960s; however, it began slowly shrinking again in 1965. The downward trend continued until the leadership pushed for the dissolution of the party in 1991. The final congress recorded an overall figure of 4,742 members.
General election results
General Secretaries
Congresses
The congresses appointed/elected the Executive Committee of the Communist Party of Great Britain, Executive Committee.
::
Notable members
* Sam Aaronovitch
* Vic Allen
*
Bill Alexander
* Kingsley Amis
* Robert Page Arnot
*
Mark Ashton
Mark may refer to:
Currency
* Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina
* East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic
* Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927
* Fin ...
* George Alfred Barnard
* Joan Beauchamp
* Kay Beauchamp
*
Clem Beckett
* Tom Bell (politician), Tom Bell
* Alfreda Benge
* Leila Berg
* J. D. Bernal
* Bill Bland
* Anthony Blunt
* Jim Bollan
* Edith Bone
* Bessie Braddock
* Benjamin Francis Bradley
* Laurence Bradshaw
* Noreen Branson
* Peter Brearey
* Maurice Brinton
* Guy Burgess
*
Beatrix Campbell
Mary Lorimer Beatrix Campbell, OBE (''née'' Barnes; born 3 February 1947) is an English writer and activist who has written for a number of publications since the early 1970s. Her books include ''Wigan Pier Revisited'' (1984), ''Goliath: Brit ...
* John Ross Campbell
*
Trevor Carter
Trevor Carter (October 1930 – March 2008) was a leading British communist activist, educator, and black civil rights activist, most famous for co-founding the Caribbean Teachers Association and serving as the Head of Equal Opportunities for t ...
* Christopher Caudwell
* Bernard Coard
* Ken Coates
* Rose Cohen (feminist), Rose Cohen
*
Dave Cook
* Robert Conquest
* John Cornford
* Maurice Cornforth
* Bob Crow
* Jack Dash
* Edmund Dell
* George Derwent Thomson
* Mary Docherty
*
Rajani Palme Dutt Rajani may refer to:
*Rajani (name), people named Rajani
*Rajani (actress) (born 1965), Indian film actress
* ''Rajani'' (TV series), a 1980s Indian TV series
* ''Rajani'' (film), a 2009 Indian Kannada romantic comedy
* ''Rajani'', an 1877 novel b ...
*
Jessie Eden
Jessie Eden (née Shrimpton; 24 February 1902 – 27 September 1986) was a British trade union leader and communist activist, most famous for leading between 40,000 to 50,000 households during the Birmingham rent-strike of 1939. She was also in ...
* Ben Fine
* Stewart Farrar
* Ralph Winston Fox
*
Peter Fryer
Peter Fryer (18 February 1927 – 31 October 2006)
''Spartacus Educational''. was an English ...
* Gerry Gable
*
Willie Gallacher
* Green Gartside
* David Gascoyne
*
GCT Giles
* Percy Glading
* Robert Griffiths (politician), Robert Griffiths
* J. B. S. Haldane
*
Wal Hannington
Walter "Wal" Hannington (1896–1966) was a founding member of the Communist Party of Great Britain and National Organiser of the National Unemployed Workers' Movement, from its formation in 1921 to its end in 1939, when he became National Organis ...
* Jock Haston
* Denis Healey
*
Charlie Hutchison
* Gerry Healy
*
Eric Heffer
Eric Samuel Heffer (12 January 192227 May 1991) was a British socialist politician. He was Labour Member of Parliament for Liverpool Walton from 1964 until his death. Due to his experience as a professional joiner, he made a speciality of the ...
* Margot Heinemann
*
Mike Hicks
* Jim Higgins (British politician), Jim Higgins
* Christopher Hill (historian), Christopher Hill
* Jeanne Hoban
* Eric Hobsbawm
* David Holbrook
* Malcolm Hulke
* Douglas Hyde (author), Douglas Hyde
* Albert Inkpin
* Thomas A. Jackson
* Martin Jacques
*
Len Johnson
*
Claudia Jones
Claudia Vera Jones (; 21 February 1915 – 24 December 1964) was a Trinidad and Tobago-born journalist and activist. As a child, she migrated with her family to the US, where she became a Communist political activist, feminist and black national ...
* David Ivon Jones
* Lewis Jones (writer), Lewis Jones
* Pat Jordan
* Yvonne Kapp
* Luke Kelly
* Helena Kennedy
* Pieter Keuneman
* Victor Kiernan
*
James Klugmann
Norman John Klugmann (27 February 1912 – 14 September 1977), generally known as James Klugmann, was a leading British Communist writer and WW2 Soviet Spy, who became the official historian of the Communist Party of Great Britain.
Backgroun ...
*
Dorothy Kuya
Dorothy Kuya (April 1932 – 23 December 2013) was a leading British communist and human rights activist from Liverpool, the co-founder of Teachers Against Racism, and the general secretary of the National Assembly of Women (NAW). She was a life ...
* Charles Lahr
* John Lawrence (political activist), John Lawrence
* Norman Le Brocq
* Doris Lessing
* John Lewis (philosopher), John Lewis
* Eddie Linden
* Jack Lindsay (writer), Jack Lindsay
* James Litterick
* Ewan MacColl
* Hugh MacDiarmid
* Arthur MacManus
*
Mick McGahey
* Claude McKay
* Donald Maclean (spy), Donald Maclean
* Gordon McLennan (politician), Gordon McLennan
* Harry McShane
*
Cecil L'Estrange Malone
* John Manifold
* Tom Mann
* Carl Marzani
* William Mellor (journalist), William Mellor
* Ivor Montagu
* A. L. Morton
* Iris Murdoch
* J. T. Murphy
* Andrew Murray (trade unionist), Andrew Murray
* David Nicholson (civil servant), David Nicholson
*
Walton Newbold
John Turner Walton Newbold (8 May 1888 – 20 February 1943), generally known as Walton Newbold, was the first of the four Communist Party of Great Britain members to be elected as MPs in the United Kingdom.
Biography
Early years
John Turner ...
* Melita Norwood
* Sanzo Nosaka
* Alan Nunn May
*
Sylvia Pankhurst
Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst (5 May 1882 – 27 September 1960) was a campaigning English feminist and socialist. Committed to organising working-class women in London's East End, and unwilling in 1914 to enter into a wartime political truce with ...
* William Paul (British politician), William Paul
* Wogan Philipps, 2nd Baron Milford
*
Phil Piratin
Philip Piratin (15 May 1907 – 10 December 1995) was a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and one of the four CPGB Members of Parliament during the first thirty years of its existence. (The others were Shapurji Saklatvala, Wa ...
*
Harry Pollitt
Harry Pollitt (22 November 1890 – 27 June 1960) was a British communist who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) from 1929 to September 1939 and again from 1941 until his death in 1960. Pollitt spen ...
*
Raymond Postgate
Raymond William Postgate (6 November 1896 – 29 March 1971) was an English socialist, writer, journalist and editor, social historian, mystery novelist, and gourmet who founded the '' Good Food Guide''. He was a member of the Postgate fa ...
* Annie Powell
* Tom Quelch
*
Bert Ramelson
Baruch Rahmilevich Mendelson (22 March 1910 – 13 April 1994), commonly known as Bert Ramelson, was an industrial organiser and politician for the Communist Party of Great Britain. He held the post of National Industrial Organiser from 1965 to ...
*
Jimmy Reid
James Reid (9 July 1932 – 10 August 2010) was a Scottish trade union activist, orator, politician and journalist born in Govan, Glasgow. His role as spokesman and one of the leaders in the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders work-in between June 1971 ...
* John Reid, Baron Reid of Cardowan, John Reid
* Al Richardson (historian), Al Richardson
* Edgell Rickword
* Michael Roberts (writer), Michael Roberts
* Archibald Robertson (atheist), Archibald Robertson
* Andrew Rothstein
* Ralph Russell
* William Rust (journalist), William Rust
*
Shapurji Saklatvala
Shapurji Dorabji Saklatvala (28 March 1874 – 16 January 1936) was a communist activist and British politician of Indian Parsi heritage. Saklatvala is notable for being the first person of Indian heritage to become a British Member of Parliamen ...
* Raphael Samuel
* John Saville
*
Hugh Scanlon
Hugh Parr Scanlon, Baron Scanlon (26 October 1913 – 27 January 2004) was a British trade union leader.
Scanlon was born in Melbourne, to parents who had emigrated from Britain. His mother brought him back from Australia to the UK when he ...
* Stephen Sedley
* Alfred Sherman
*
Thora Silverthorne
Thora Silverthorne (1910–1999), also known as "Red Silverthorne", was a British Communist, healthcare activist, and a nanny for Somerville Hastings, and former president of the Socialist Medical Association (SMA). She is most known for her s ...
* Brian Simon
* Roger Simon, 2nd Baron Simon of Wythenshawe
* Derek Simpson (trade unionist), Derek Simpson
* Cliff Slaughter
*
Sue Slipman
Susan Slipman (born 3 August 1949) was President of the National Union of Students between 1977 and 1978. She later joined the National Union of Public Employees. Since then she has held a wide range of appointments and offices in the public sect ...
* John Maynard Smith
* Michael John Smith (Espionage), Michael John Smith
* John Sommerfield
* Ken Sprague (cartoonist), Ken Sprague
*
Philip Spratt
* Hedi Stadlen
*
Billy Strachan
William Arthur Watkin Strachan (16 April 1921 – 26 April 1998) was a leading British communist, pioneer of black civil rights in Britain, human rights and anti-colonial activist, charity worker, newspaper editor, and British legal expert. He is ...
* Randall Swingler
* Tilda Swinton
* A. J. P. Taylor
* Michael Tippett
* E. P. Thompson
* Alan Thornett
* Dona Torr
* Philip Toynbee
* David Triesman
* Edward Upward
* Freda Utley
* Jon Vickers (trade unionist), J. O. N. Vickers
* Dorothy Wedderburn
* Sarah Wesker
* Harry Wicks
* Ellen Wilkinson
* Raymond Williams
* Alan Winnington
* Tom Wintringham
* Robert Wyatt
Origins of the term "Tankie"
"Tankie" is a pejorative term referring to those members of the Communist Party of Great Britain who followed the Kremlin Party line (politics), line, agreeing with the crushing of the revolution in Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Hungary and later the Prague Spring by Soviet tanks; or more broadly, those who followed a traditional pro-Soviet position.
[Stephen Drive ''Understanding British Party Politics'', p. 154]
The term originated as a phrase for British hardline members of the Communist Party. Journalist Peter Paterson asked Amalgamated Engineering Union official
Reg Birch Reginald Birch (7 June 1914 – 2 June 1994) was a British communist and trade unionist, aligning with Maoism later in his career.
Early political activism
Born in Kilburn, London, Birch became a toolmaker and joined the Amalgamated Engineering ...
about his election to the CPGB Executive after the Hungarian invasion:
The support of the invasion of Hungary was disastrous for the party's credibility.
The CPGB opposed the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, though a hardline faction supported it. The party's newspaper, the ''Morning Star'', was banned in the Warsaw Pact countries during that time, as the paper opposed the invasion.
The term is currently used in a somewhat broader sense in Internet slang to refer to any practitioner of far-left politics, especially Marxism–Leninism or Maoism.
See also
*
Communist Party of Britain
The Communist Party of Britain (CPB) is a communist party in Great Britain which emerged from a dispute between Eurocommunists and Marxist-Leninists in the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1988. It follows Marxist-Leninist theory and s ...
* Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist–Leninist)
* Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee)
* Communist Students (disambiguation), Communist Students
* Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist–Leninist)
* Young Communist League (Britain), Young Communist League
Further reading
Secondary sources
* Geoff Andrews ''Endgames and New Times: The Final Years of British Communism, 1964–1991.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 2004.
* Geoff Andrews, Nina Fishman & Kevin Morgan, ''Opening the Books: Essays on the Cultural and Social History of the British Communist Party.'' Palgrave Macmillan, Palgrave, 1995.
* John Attfield & Stephen Williams, ''1939: The Communist Party and the War.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1984.
* Francis Beckett, ''Enemy Within: Rise and Fall of the British Communist Party.'' London: John Murray, 1995.
* Tom Bell (politician), Thomas Bell, ''The British Communist Party: a Short History.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1937.
* Robert Black, ''Stalinism in Britain: A Trotskyist Analysis.'' London: New Park Publications, 1970.
* Sam Bornstein and Al Richardson (historian), Al Richardson, ''Two Steps Back: Communists and the Wider Labour Movement, 1939–1945.'' London: Socialist Platform, 1982.
* Philip Bounds, ''British Communism and the Politics of Literature, 1928–1939.'' London: Merlin Press, 2012.
* Noreen Branson, ''History of the Communist Party of Great Britain, 1927–1941.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1985.
* Noreen Branson, ''History of the Communist Party of Great Britain, 1941–1951.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1997.
* Daniel F. Calhoun, ''The United Front: The TUC and the Russians, 1923–1928.'' Cambridge University Press, 1976.
* John Callaghan and Ben Harker, ''British Communism: A Documentary History.'' Manchester University Press, 2011.
* John Callaghan, ''Cold War, Crisis and Conflict: The CPGB 1951–68.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 2003.
* John Callaghan, ''
Rajani Palme Dutt Rajani may refer to:
*Rajani (name), people named Rajani
*Rajani (actress) (born 1965), Indian film actress
* ''Rajani'' (TV series), a 1980s Indian TV series
* ''Rajani'' (film), a 2009 Indian Kannada romantic comedy
* ''Rajani'', an 1877 novel b ...
: A Study in British Stalinism.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1993.
* Raymond Challinor, ''The Origins of British Bolshevism.'' Croom Helm, 1977.
* Dave Cope, ''Bibliography of the Communist Party of Great Britain.'' London: Lawrence & Wishart, 2016.
* Andy Croft (ed.) ''A Weapon in the Struggle: The Cultural History of the Communist Party in Britain.'' London: Pluto Press, 1998.
* Andy Croft (ed.) ''After the Party: Reflections on Life Since the CPGB.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 2012.
* Richard Croucher, ''Engineers At War.'' Merlin Press, 1982.
* Ralph Darlington, ''The Political Trajectory of J.T. Murphy.'' Liverpool University Press, 1998.
* Bob (C. H.) Darke, ''The Communist Technique in Britain.'' London: Penguin, 1951.
* Hugo Dewar, ''Communist Politics in Britain: The CPGB from its Origin to the Second World War.'' London: Pluto Press, 1976.
* James Eadon and Dave Renton, ''The Communist Party of Great Britain since 1920.'' Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2002.
* Nina Fishman, ''Arthur Horner (trade unionist), Arthur Horner: A Political Biography. Volume 1 1894–1944 & Volume 2 1944–1968.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 2010.
* Nina Fishman & Kevin Morgan (eds.) ''The British Communist Party and the Trade Unions 1933–1945.'' Hants: Scolar Press, 1995.
* Nina Fishman, "The British Road is Resurfaced for New Times: From the British Communist Party to the Democratic Left." in Bull, Martin J. & Heywood, Paul M. (eds.), ''West European Communist Parties after the Revolutions of 1989'' Palgrave, 1994.
* Paul Flewers and John McIlroy (eds.) ''1956: John Saville, E.P.Thompson & The Reasoner''. London: Merlin Press, 2016.
* Hywel Francis, ''Miners Against Fascism.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1984.
* Jim Fyrth (ed.), ''Britain, Fascism and the Popular Front.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1985.
* John Green, ''Britain's Communists: The Untold Story.'' Artery Publications, 2014.
* James Hinton, ''The First Shop Stewards' Movement.'' Allen & Unwin, 1973.
* James Hinton & Richard Hyman, ''Trade Unions and Revolution: Industrial Politics of the Early British Communist Party.'' London: Pluto Press, 1975.
* James Jupp, ''The Radical Left in Britain, 1931–1941.'' London: Frank Cass, 1982.
* Peter Kerrigan. ''The Communist Party.'' London, 1944.
* Francis King & George Matthews (eds.), ''About Turn: The British Communist Party and the Second World War: The Verbatim Record of the Central Committee Meetings of 25 September and 2–3 October 1939.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1990.
*
James Klugmann
Norman John Klugmann (27 February 1912 – 14 September 1977), generally known as James Klugmann, was a leading British Communist writer and WW2 Soviet Spy, who became the official historian of the Communist Party of Great Britain.
Backgroun ...
, ''History of the Communist Party of Great Britain, Volume One: Formation and Early Years, 1919–1924.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1968.
* James Klugmann, ''History of the Communist Party of Great Britain, Volume Two: The General Strike, 1925–1926.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1969.
* Keith Laybourn, ''Marxism in Britain: Dissent, Decline and Re-emergence 1945-c.2000.'' Oxon: Routledge, 2006.
* Keith Laybourn & Dylan Murphy, ''Under the Red Flag: The History of Communism in Britain.'' Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 1999.
* Thomas Linehan, ''Communism in Britain, 1920–39: From the Cradle to the Grave.'' Manchester University Press, 2007.
* L.J. Macfarlane, ''The British Communist Party: Its Origin and Development until 1929.'' London: MacGibbon and Kee, 1966.
* Stuart Macintyre, ''
Little Moscow
Little Moscow was a term for towns and villages in capitalist societies whose population appeared to hold extreme left-wing political values or communist views. The places so named were typically in working class areas, normally with strong trade ...
s: Communism and Working-Class Militancy in Inter-war Britain.'' London: Croom Helm, 1980.
* John Mahon, ''
Harry Pollitt
Harry Pollitt (22 November 1890 – 27 June 1960) was a British communist who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) from 1929 to September 1939 and again from 1941 until his death in 1960. Pollitt spen ...
: A Biography.'' London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1976.
* Kevin Marsh and Robert Griffiths, ''Granite and Honey: the Story of
Phil Piratin
Philip Piratin (15 May 1907 – 10 December 1995) was a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and one of the four CPGB Members of Parliament during the first thirty years of its existence. (The others were Shapurji Saklatvala, Wa ...
, Communist MP.'' Manifesto Press, 2012.
* Roderick Martin, ''Communism and the British Trade Unions, 1924–1933: A Study of the National Minority Movement.'' London: Clarendon Press, 1969.
* John McIlroy and Alan Campbell, ‘The early British Communist leaders, 1920–1923: a prosopographical exploration’, Labor History (2020): DOI: 10.1080/0023656X.2020.1818711
* John McIlroy and Alan Campbell, 'The leadership of British Communism, 1923-1928: pages from a prosopographical project', Labor History, vol. 62, no. 3 (2021), pp. 207-253.
* John McIlroy and Alan Campbell, 'The "core" leaders of the Communist Party of Great Britain, 1923-1928: their past, present and future', Labor History, vol. 62, no. 4 (2021), pp. 371-412.
* John McIlroy and Alan Campbell, '"Class Against Class": The leadership of the Communist Party of Great Britain during the Comintern's Third Period', Labor History, vol. 63, no. 2 (2022), pp. 145-189.
* John McIlroy and Alan Campbell, ‘Histories of the British Communist Party: a user’s guide’, Labour History Review, vol. 68, no. 1 (2003), pp. 33–60.
* John McIlroy, Kevin Morgan & Alan Campbell (eds), ''Party People, Communist Lives: Explorations in Biography'', London: Lawrence and Wishart, 2001.
* Kevin Morgan, ''Against Fascism and War: Ruptures and Continuities in British Communist Politics 1935–41.'' Manchester University Press, 1989.
* Kevin Morgan, ''Bolshevism and the British Left, Part 1: Labour Legends and Russian Gold.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 2006.
* Kevin Morgan, ''Bolshevism, Syndicalism and the General Strike: The Lost Internationalist World of A. A. Purcell.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 2013.
* Kevin Morgan, Gidon Cohen & Andrew Flinn, ''Communists and British Society 1920–1991: People of a Special Mould.'' London: Rivers Oram Press, 2003.
* Kevin Morgan, ''Harry Pollitt'', Manchester University Press, 1993.
* Andrew Murray (trade unionist), Andrew Murray, ''The Communist Party of Great Britain: A Historical Analysis to 1941.'' Liverpool: Communist Liaison, 1995.
* Kenneth Newton, ''The Sociology of British Communism''. Allen Lane, 1969.
* F.S. Northedge & Audrey Wells, ''British and Soviet Communism: The Impact of a Revolution.'' London: Macmillan, 1982.
* Lawrence Parker, ''The Kick Inside: Revolutionary Opposition in the CPGB, 1945–1991.'' November Publications, 2012.
* Brian Pearce and Michael Woodhouse, ''(Essays on the) History of Communism in Britain.'' 1969; Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1975; London: Bookmarks, 1995.
* Henry Pelling, ''The British Communist Party: A Historical Profile.'' London: Adam and Charles Black, 1958.
* Herbert Pimlott
"From 'Old Left' to 'New Labour'? Eric Hobsbawm and the Rhetoric of 'Realistic Marxism',"] Labour/Le Travail, vol. 56 (2005), pp. 175–197.
* Neil C. Rafeek, ''Communist Women in Scotland: Red Clydeside from the Russian Revolution to the End of the Soviet Union.'' New York: I.B.Tauris, 2008.
* Neil Redfern, ''Class or Nation: Communists, Imperialism and Two World Wars.'' London: Tauris Academic Studies, 2005.
* Raphael Samuel, ''The Lost World of British Communism.'' London: Verso, 2006.
* Seifert, R. & Sibley, T. ''Revolutionary Communist At Work: A Political Biography of
Bert Ramelson
Baruch Rahmilevich Mendelson (22 March 1910 – 13 April 1994), commonly known as Bert Ramelson, was an industrial organiser and politician for the Communist Party of Great Britain. He held the post of National Industrial Organiser from 1965 to ...
.'' London: Lawrence & Wishart, 2012.
* Evan Smith, ''British Communism and the Politics of Race.'' Haymarket Books, 2018.
* Evan Smith & Matthew Worley, ''Against the Grain: The British Far Left from 1956.'' Manchester University Press, 2014.
* Evan Smith & Matthew Worley, ''Waiting for the Revolution: The British Far Left from 1956.'' Manchester University Press, 2017.
* Mike Squires, ''Saklatvala: A Political Biography.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1990.
* Willie Thompson, ''The Good Old Cause: British Communism, 1920–1991.'' London: Pluto Press, 1992.
* Andrew Thorpe, "The Communist International and the British Communist Party." in Tim Rees and Andrew Thorpe (eds.), ''International Communism and the Communist International, 1919–43.'' Manchester University Press, 1998.
* Andrew Thorpe, ''The British Communist Party and Moscow, 1920–1943.'' Manchester University Press, 2000.
* Nigel West, ''Mask: MI5's Penetration of the Communist Party of Great Britain.'' Routledge, 2012.
* Neal Wood, ''Communism and British Intellectuals.'' New York: Columbia University Press, 1959.
* Matthew Worley, ''Class Against Class: The Communist Party in Britain Between the Wars.'' New York: I.B. Tauris, 2002.
Primary sources
* Brian Behan, ''With Breast Expanded.'' London: MacGibbon & Kee, 1964.
* Thomas Bell, ''Pioneering Days.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1941.
* Phil Cohen, ''Children of the Revolution: Communist Childhood in Cold War Britain.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1997.
* Fred Copeman, ''Reason in Revolt.'' Blandford Press, 1948.
* Bob Darke, ''The Communist Technique in Britain,'' London: Penguin, 1952.
* Willie Gallacher (politician), William Gallacher, ''Revolt on the Clyde: an Autobiography.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1936.
* William Gallacher, ''The Last Memoirs.'' London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1966.
*
Wal Hannington
Walter "Wal" Hannington (1896–1966) was a founding member of the Communist Party of Great Britain and National Organiser of the National Unemployed Workers' Movement, from its formation in 1921 to its end in 1939, when he became National Organis ...
, ''Never On Our Knees.'' London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1967.
* Wal Hannington, ''Unemployed Struggles 1919–1936.'' London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1936.
* Arthur Horner (trade unionist), Arthur Horner, ''Incorrigible Rebel.'' MacGibbon & Kee, 1960.
* Douglas Hyde (author), Douglas Hyde, ''I Believed: The Autobiography of a Former British Communist.'' London: Heinemann, 1950.
* Thomas A. Jackson, T.A. Jackson, ''Solo Trumpet.'' London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1953.
* Joe Jacobs, ''Out of the Ghetto.'' London: Phoenix Books, 1991.
* Alison Macleod, ''The Death of Uncle Joe.'' Merlin Press, 1997.
* Margaret McKay, Margaret McCarthy, ''Generation In Revolt,'' Heinemann: 1953.
* Harry McShane & Joan Smith, ''Harry McShane: No Mean Fighter.'' London: Pluto Press, 1978.
* Tom Mann, ''Tom Mann's Memoirs.'' Spokesman, 1978 (1923)
* J.T. Murphy, ''New Horizons.'' London: The Bodley Head, 1941.
* J.T. Murphy, ''Preparing For Power.'' Jonathan Cape, 1934 [Reissued Pluto Press: 1972]
* Will Paynter, ''My Generation.'' Allen & Unwin, 1972.
*
Phil Piratin
Philip Piratin (15 May 1907 – 10 December 1995) was a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and one of the four CPGB Members of Parliament during the first thirty years of its existence. (The others were Shapurji Saklatvala, Wa ...
, ''Our Flag Stays Red.'' London: Thames Publications, 1948; London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1978, 2006.
*
Harry Pollitt
Harry Pollitt (22 November 1890 – 27 June 1960) was a British communist who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) from 1929 to September 1939 and again from 1941 until his death in 1960. Pollitt spen ...
, ''Serving My Time: An Apprenticeship to Politics.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1940.
* Muriel Seltman, ''What's Left? What's Right?'' Troubadour, 2010.
* Frank Watters, ''Being Frank.'' Doncaster: Frank Watters, 1992.
* Fred Westacott, ''Shaking the Chains.'' Chesterfield: Joe Clark, 2002
* Harry Wicks, ''Keeping My Head: The Memoirs of a British Bolshevik.'' London: Socialist Platform, 1992.
Notes
References
External links
The 20th Congress and the British Communist Party by J.Saville. pdf fileShort History of the Communist Party Communist Party of Britain
The Communist Party of Britain (CPB) is a communist party in Great Britain which emerged from a dispute between Eurocommunists and Marxist-Leninists in the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1988. It follows Marxist-Leninist theory and s ...
''The Burial of the CPGB'' International Library of the Communist Left
Marxists Internet Archive
A-Z of Communist Biographies by Graham Stevenson
{{DEFAULTSORT:Communist Party Of Great Britain
Communist Party of Great Britain,
Defunct communist parties in the United Kingdom