Philip Piratin (15 May 1907 – 10 December 1995) was a member 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) and one of the four CPGB

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 ofte ...

during the first thirty years of its existence. (The others were

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 ...

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 ...

and Willie Gallacher.)

Political career

Piratin was the son of a small local tradesman and attended

Davenant Foundation School Davenant Foundation School is a Christian Ecumenical secondary school, founded in 1680, currently in Loughton, Essex, England. History Foundation in Whitechapel In February 1680 the Reverend Ralph Davenant, rector of St Mary's Whitechap ...

. He became a Communist activist,

anti-fascist Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were ...

and defender of tenants' rights, a leading member of the Stepney Tenants Defence League. Of

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

origin, he was the leader of the opposition to

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 ...

anti-semitism 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 ...

and his

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 ...

' marches through

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 fa ...

. Piratin was elected to Stepney Borough Council in 1937 and was Chairman of the borough's

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of '' The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...

. During World War II, he gained further notice by leading 100 people to shelter from the

Blitz Blitz, German for "lightning", may refer to: Military uses *Blitzkrieg, blitz campaign, or blitz, a type of military campaign *The Blitz, the German aerial campaign against Britain in the Second World War *, an Imperial German Navy light cruiser b ...

in the basement of the

Savoy Hotel The Savoy Hotel is a luxury hotel located in the Strand in the City of Westminster in central London, England. Built by the impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte with profits from his Gilbert and Sullivan opera productions, it opened on 6 August 188 ...

, to persuade the Government to open the

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The Un ...

stations to anyone sheltering from the bombing, a practice which the Government had previously ruled out, but which then became widespread. Piratin was elected at the 1945 General Election as

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 ofte ...

(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 ...

Stepney Stepney is a district in the East End of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The district is no longer officially defined, and is usually used to refer to a relatively small area. However, for much of its history the place name appli ...

, becoming one of the last two CPGB MPs. In Parliament, he worked with several left-wing Labour MPs, some of whom would be expelled by their party as crypto-communists and form the

Labour Independent Group The Labour Independent Group was an organisation of five former Labour Party Members of Parliament (MPs) in the United Kingdom. In April 1948, the MP John Platts-Mills organised a petition in support of Pietro Nenni and the Italian Socialist Pa ...

. He was defeated when he stood for re-election in 1950 in the new constituency of

; his old seat of Mile End having been abolished due to boundary changes. Until 1957, Piratin was the circulation manager of the communist newspaper ''

The Daily Worker The ''Daily Worker'' was a newspaper published in New York City by the Communist Party USA, a formerly Comintern-affiliated organization. Publication began in 1924. While it generally reflected the prevailing views of the party, attempts were m ...

'', but he left early that year, ostensibly over a matter of process. However, in 1991 he told Alison Macleod about his doubts at the time: "In 1956, Phil said, he drove to Oxford, to defend the Party line on Hungary at a meeting of undergraduates. He got as far as outside the hall, stopped – and drove home again. Phil remained in the Party, but he never again worked for it full time. Piratin later became a businessman."Alison Macleod, ''The Death of Uncle Joe'', Merlin Press (1997)

Publications

*Phil Piratin; ''Our Flag Stays Red'', Thames, London (1948).

External links

*
Three interviews with Phil Piratin about Communism in the East End

References

1907 births 1995 deaths Councillors in Greater London English communists English Jews Jewish socialists Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies UK MPs 1945–1950 Communist Party of Great Britain MPs Communist Party of Great Britain councillors Communist Party of Great Britain members Jewish British politicians {{England-UK-MP-stub

Political career

Publications

See also

External links

References