Joe Thomas (1912–1990) was a communist activist in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

during the middle of the twentieth century. Joe was born to Welsh parents in Cricklewood,

on 27 February 1912. His father was a shop-keeper in the leather trade and an active freemason. Joe attended Haberdashers' Aske's Hampstead School, a local minor public school, to which his father was a supplier. His interest in

socialism Socialism is a left-wing Economic ideology, economic philosophy and Political movement, movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to Private prop ...

may have arisen in reaction to this establishment. He was active in 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 ...

, coming into contact with

Tom Mann Thomas Mann (15 April 1856 – 13 March 1941), was an English trade unionist and is widely recognised as a leading, pioneering figure for the early labour movement in Britain. Largely self-educated, Mann became a successful organiser and a ...

, John Gollan and John Ross Campbell. By 1933 he was a junior clerical worker for

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 ...

in Hampstead. He visited Campbell in Paris in 1936 and met senior Russian members of the Comintern. He was involved in the Workers' Olympic Committee which planned to organise an alternative to the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

Berlin Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (German: ''Olympische Sommerspiele 1936''), officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad (German: ''Spiele der XI. Olympiade'') and commonly known as Berlin 1936 or the Nazi Olympics, were an international multi-s ...

. The proposal was shelved because of 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, link ...

. In 1945 Joe joined the Oehlerite Leninist League set up by his old comrade Dennis Levin, the group changing its name in the process to the Revolutionary Workers Association, the fused group then reforming in 1947 as the short-lived Socialist Workers League. In the following decade Thomas and Levin formed the Workers League.Barberis, Peter; McHugh, John; Tyldesley, Mike (2000) Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations: Parties, Groups and Movements of the 20th Century. A&C Black, p165-9

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