The People's Convention was a conference that was proposed by 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 ...

in 1940–1941. Its advocates attempted to persuade Labour Party and

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 ( ...

members that the current government was solely for the rich and was dominated by those who through

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 ...

had "caused" 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 ...

, who opposed 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 ...

, and who were profiteering from the war. Its literature did not, however, explicitly state that it was communist-backed. The Convention was the initiative of the

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. ...

Trades Council and Labour Party, and

Denis Nowell Pritt Denis Nowell Pritt, QC (22 September 1887 – 23 May 1972) was a British barrister and left-wing Labour Party politician. Born in Harlesden, Middlesex, he was educated at Winchester College and the University of London. A member of the Labou ...

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 ...

for

Hammersmith North Hammersmith North could refer to: *Hammersmith North (UK Parliament constituency) * Hammersmith North (electoral division), Greater London Council *Hammersmith North (London County Council constituency) Hammersmith North was a constituency used ...

, who had both been expelled from the Labour Party in 1940. It was backed 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 ...

Robin Page Arnot Robert "Robin" Page Arnot (15 December 1890 – 18 May 1986), best known as R. Page Arnot, was a British Communist journalist and politician. Early years Robert Page Arnot, known to his friends as "Robin", was born in 1890 at Greenock, the s ...

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 Willie Gallacher, all well-known communists. Many of the founder members were members of the People's Vigilance Committee, which had been formed by communists expelled from the Labour Party. A few supporters, such as Richard Squance, still held membership of the Labour Party, but were expelled for participating. A convention did take place in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

in February 1941 to find a people's government and peace.{{Cite ODNB, url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-68985, title=Davies, Ann Lorraine nown as Ann Lindsay(1914–1954), actress and translator, year=2004 , language=en, doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/68985, isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 , access-date=2019-04-15, last1=Borg , first1=James M. The Convention was vigorously opposed by the Labour Party and the

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 ...

, and failed to take off; eventually it was disowned by the

itself in January 1942. There were also proposals for regional People's Conventions, including a

Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the Ind ...

Convention and a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

Convention.

References

Political history of the United Kingdom Communism in the United Kingdom 1941 conferences