Gordon McLennan (12 May 1924 – 21 May 2011) was a Scottish political activist and draughtsperson who was General Secretary of the

Communist Party of Great Britain 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 groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPG ...

(CPGB) from 1975 to 1990.

Background

Born in

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 ...

, McLennan worked as an engineering draughtsperson before taking on various full-time posts within the CPGB. He contested the Glasgow Govan constituency at the 1959 general election, then the 1962 West Lothian by-election and Glasgow Govan again at the 1966 general election. He became the National Organiser of the CPGB in 1966, and while holding this post, contested elections in St Pancras North at the

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

and February 1974 general elections.

General Secretary

In 1975, McLennan was elected as General Secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain. He held the post while the party was in terminal decline, with factional infighting within the CPGB, finally stepping down in 1989. One of his acts as General Secretary was to appoint

Martin Jacques Martin Jacques (born 1945) is a British journalist, editor, academic, political commentator and author. Early life Jacques was born in October 1945 in the city of Coventry (then in Warwickshire, now in the West Midlands), the son of Denni ...

, then an academic at the

University of Bristol , mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'') , established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter , type ...

, as editor of ''

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 ...

'' in 1977. After the dissolution of the party, in 1991, he joined the

Communist Party of Scotland The Communist Party of Scotland (CPS; ''Pàrtaidh Co-Mhaoineach na h-Alba'') was a communist political party based in Scotland. It was established in January 1992 by former members of the Communist Party of Great Britain who disagreed with the ...

. He remained active in the pensioners' movement and supported the Respect – The Unity Coalition candidate

George Galloway George Galloway (born 16 August 1954) is a British politician, broadcaster, and writer who is currently leader of the Workers Party of Britain, serving since 2019. Between 1987 and 2010, and then between 2012 and 2015, Galloway was a Member o ...

at the 2005 general election. He also maintained contact with the Alliance for Green Socialism, one of the successor bodies to the CPGB (via the Green Socialist Network), but although he addressed AGS meetings and wrote for the AGS journal (Green Socialist), he never joined this organisation. Gordon McLennan - Golders Green Crematorium

Gordon McLennan - Golders Green Crematorium

Personal life and death

McLennan married his wife, Mary, in 1950, and they had four children. He died from cancer in London on 21 May 2011 at the age of 87. He was cremated at

Golders Green Crematorium Golders Green Crematorium and Mausoleum was the first crematorium to be opened in London, and one of the oldest crematoria in Britain. The land for the crematorium was purchased in 1900, costing £6,000 (the equivalent of £135,987 in 2021), ...

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mclennan, Gordon 1924 births 2011 deaths 20th-century Scottish politicians Communist Party of Great Britain members Deaths from cancer in England Leaders of political parties in the United Kingdom Politicians from Glasgow Scottish communists