Harry Wicks (16 August 1905 – 26 March 1989) was a British socialist activist. Born in Battersea, London, he went to work on the railways and joined the

National Union of Railwaymen The National Union of Railwaymen was a trade union of railway workers in the United Kingdom. The largest railway workers' union in the country, it was influential in the national trade union movement. History The NUR was an industrial union ...

in 1919. He joined the Labour Party, but after Black Friday moved to the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). After studying with A. E. E. Reade, he came to support

Leon Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian ...

and the

International Left Opposition International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

. Elected to the executive of the

Young Communist League The Young Communist League (YCL) is the name used by the youth wing of various Communist parties around the world. The name YCL of XXX (name of country) originates from the precedent established by the Communist Youth International. Examples of Y ...

in 1926, Wicks attended the

International Lenin School The International Lenin School (ILS) was an official training school operated in Moscow, Soviet Union, by the Communist International from May 1926 to 1938. It was resumed after the Second World War and run by the Communist Party of the Soviet Uni ...

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

and the Sixth World Congress of the Comintern. He began working with the Balham Group of

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 ...

s, and was expelled from the CPGB in 1932. He became a founding member of the Communist League and met Trotsky in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

but disagreed with Trotsky's advice to join 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 ...

. The Communist League split with the tendency opposed to joining the ILP continuing as the Marxist League (not to be confused with the earlier, unconnected Marxist League aka Marxian League of FA Ridley and

Hugo Dewar Hugo Dewar (9 August 1908 – June 1980) was an author, poet, and political activist influential in co-founding two of the earliest British Trotskyist groups. Dewar was born in Leyton in London in 1908. He joined the Independent Labour Party in 1 ...

), which later worked within the Labour Party. He also chaired the British Committee for the Defence of

. In 1936, Wicks and several others signed a letter to the '' Manchester Guardian'' defending Trotsky's right to asylum and calling for an international inquiry into the Moscow Trials. Wicks was also an active anti-fascist.Keith Hodgson, ''Fighting Fascism: the British Left and the Rise of Fascism, 1919-39''. Manchester University Press, 2011; (p. 163) Wicks began working with

C. L. R. James Cyril Lionel Robert James (4 January 1901 – 31 May 1989),Fraser, C. Gerald, '' The New York Times'', 2 June 1989. who sometimes wrote under the pen-name J. R. Johnson, was a Trinidadian historian, journalist and Marxist. His works are i ...

of the Marxist Group, helping James write

World Revolution World revolution is the Marxist concept of overthrowing capitalism in all countries through the conscious revolutionary action of the organized working class. For theorists, these revolutions will not necessarily occur simultaneously, but whe ...

, his 1937 history 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 ...

, and in 1938 their tendencies merged to form the Revolutionary Socialist League. However, Wicks and the remnants of the former Marxist League soon left and formed the Socialist Anti-War Federation. In 1940, this group dissolved and he joined the Independent Labour Party. At the end of the Second World War, Wicks joined the Labour Party and became active in

NALGO The National and Local Government Officers' Association was a British trade union representing mostly local government "white collar" workers. It was formed in 1905 as the National Association of Local Government Officers, and changed its full ...

. In 1971, he became involved with the Trotskyist movement again, joining the forerunner of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), the International Socialists. He was part of the 1976 split which formed the Workers League. He would later work with the SWP in various campaigns but never rejoined it. Not long before his death he wrote an autobiography, ''Keeping My Head: The Memoirs of a British Bolshevik'', with the help of Logie Barrow.

References

Sources

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

* Sam Bornstein and Al Richardson, ''Against the Stream'', Socialist Platform, 1986 * Sam Bornstein and Al Richardson, ''War and The International'', Socialist Platform, 1986 *Harry Wicks, ''Keeping My Head: The Memoirs of a British Bolshevik'', Socialist Platform, 1992.

External links

Catalogue of Wicks' papers
held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
A veteran Trotskyist remembers: interviews with Harry Wicks
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wicks, Harry 1905 births 1989 deaths People from Battersea Socialist Workers Party (UK) members British Trotskyists British Marxists English anti-fascists Communist Party of Great Britain members Communist League (UK, 1932) members