{{Use dmy dates, date=April 2022 The Revolutionary Policy Committee (RPC) was a faction within the former British

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

, 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 ...

(ILP). The RPC was formed in 1931 by members of the ILP who were especially unhappy with the gradualist policies of the

Second Labour Government The second (symbol: s) is the unit of Time in physics, time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally t ...

(1929-1931). The RPC was founded by

Jack Gaster Jacob Gaster (6 October 1907–12 March 2007), known as Jack Gaster, was a British communist solicitor and politician. Biography Born in Maida Vale, Jack was the son of Moses Gaster, the leader of the Sephardic Jewish Congregation in Londo ...

, a lawyer and son of

Moses Gaster Moses Gaster (17 September 1856 – 5 March 1939) was a Romanian, later British scholar, the ''Hakham'' of the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish congregation, London, and a Hebrew and Romanian linguist. Moses Gaster was an active Zionist in Romania ...

, the

Sephardic Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), ...

Chief Rabbi of England, and Dr C.K. Cullen, a medical inspector from Poplar. The RPC was particularly active in

London London is the capital and 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 down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and its initial focus was on advocating the disaffiliation of the ILP from the Labour Party. After it achieved this aim, in 1932, the RPC sought to bring about closer cooperation between the ILP and 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 ...

, and advocated affiliation to the

Comintern The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...

. In 1933 the RPC successfully persuaded the ILP to adopt the policy of merging with the Communist Party, although this was never followed through. Within the ILP the RPC increasingly came to be seen as a vehicle for Communist entryists and aroused strong feelings of hostility. In 1934 there was a split in the ILP as some opponents of the RPC, led by

John Middleton Murry John Middleton Murry (6 August 1889 – 12 March 1957) was an English writer. He was a prolific author, producing more than 60 books and thousands of essays and reviews on literature, social issues, politics, and religion during his lifetime. ...

and

Elijah Sandham Elijah Sandham (1875 – 7 May 1944) was an English Independent Labour Party (ILP) politician from Lancashire. He sat in the House of Commons from 1929 to 1931 as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kirkdale division of Liverpool, and in 1934 he le ...

, left to form the Independent Socialist Party. By 1935 the RPC's influence was waning and, following internal divisions about the appropriate response to the

Abyssinian Crisis The Abyssinia Crisis (; ) was an international crisis in 1935 that originated in what was called the Walwal incident during the ongoing conflict between the Kingdom of Italy and the Empire of Ethiopia (then commonly known as "Abyssinia"). The Lea ...

in 1935, the leading members of the RPC decided to wind it up, leave the ILP and join the Communist Party.

References

:Gidon Cohen (2000). "The Independent Labour Party, Disaffiliation, Revolution and Standing Orders". History, 86:282. :Gidon Cohen (2001). "From Insufferable Petty Bourgeois to Trusted Communist: Jack Gaster, the RPC and the Communist Party". McIlroy et al. (eds) Party People, Communist Lives. :David Howell (2002). "MacDonald's Party: Labour Identities and Crisis". 1922-31, Oxford. Defunct communist parties in the United Kingdom Independent Labour Party Political party factions in the United Kingdom