Richard Clyde Beech (1893–1955) was a revolutionary

industrial unionist Industrial unionism is a trade union organizing method through which all workers in the same industry are organized into the same union, regardless of skill or trade, thus giving workers in one industry, or in all industries, more leverage in ...

. He was the delegate for the

Industrial Workers of the World The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies", is an international labor union that was founded in Chicago in 1905. The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain. IWW ideology combines genera ...

(IWW) to the

2nd World Congress of the Comintern The 2nd World Congress of the Communist International was a gathering of approximately 220 voting and non-voting representatives of Communist and revolutionary socialist political parties from around the world, held in Petrograd and Moscow from J ...

Family life

Born in

Kingston upon Hull Kingston upon Hull, usually abbreviated to Hull, is a port city and unitary authority in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Estuary, inland from the North Sea and south-east ...

, Beech ran away to sea with his brother Charlie. The pair then travelled widely working as miners and seamen in Australia and North America. By the outbreak of war they were seamen sailing between Liverpool and the USA. Richard married Dr Moira Elizabeth Connolly in 1940, the daughter of James Connolly. His granddaughter, Donna Dougall, was doing family research in 2010 when she discovered that she was the great granddaughter of James Connolly.

Political activity

Beech was a supporter of the IWW, and attended the 2nd World Congress of 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 ...

as a supporter of it. This convinced him to join the

Communist Party (British Section of the Third International) The Communist Party (British Section of the Third International) was a Left Communist organisation established at an emergency conference held on 19–20 June 1920 at the International Socialist Club in London. It comprised about 600 people. Hi ...

, and he was one of its two delegates in the unity negotiations which re-established 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). He served on its executive for most of 1921, while working as a travelling salesman. During the mid-1920s, Beech devoted much of his time to the

National Minority Movement The National Minority Movement was a British organisation, established in 1924 by the Communist Party of Great Britain, which attempted to organise a radical presence within the existing trade unions. The organization was headed by longtime unio ...

. In 1927, he and Harry Pollitt were co-defendants in a case brought by the National Union of Seamen. However, he objected to

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 M ...

's expulsion from the

Communist Party of the Soviet Union "Hymn of the Bolshevik Party" , headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow , general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first) Mikhail Gorbachev (last) , founded = , banned = , founder = Vladimir Lenin , newspaper ...

. He contacted

James P. Cannon James Patrick Cannon (February 11, 1890 – August 21, 1974) was an American Trotskyist and a leader of the Socialist Workers Party. Born on February 11, 1890, in Rosedale, Kansas, the son of Irish immigrants with strong socialist convictio ...

, who was forming the Trotskyist

Communist League of America The Communist League of America (Opposition) was founded by James P. Cannon, Max Shachtman and Martin Abern late in 1928 after their expulsion from the Communist Party USA for Trotskyism. The CLA(O) was the United States section of Leon Trotsky's I ...

, and began selling its newspaper, ''

The Militant ''The Militant'' is an international socialist newsweekly connected to the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and the Pathfinder Press. It is published in the United States and distributed in other countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom, Aus ...

'', in the UK. Beech joined the Chemical Workers' Union in about 1930, later serving as its president, and becoming editor of its journal. In 1939, he joined the Independent Labour Party, having been recruited by

Bob Edwards Robert Alan "Bob" Edwards is an American broadcast journalist, a Peabody Award-winning member of the National Radio Hall of Fame. He hosted both of National Public Radio's flagship news programs, the afternoon ''All Things Considered'', and '' ...

. However, he and Edwards left the party in the late 1940s, joining the Labour Party. Beech was also active in the

Movement for Colonial Freedom Liberation (founded as the Movement for Colonial Freedom) is a political civil rights advocacy group founded in the United Kingdom in 1954. It had the support of many MPs, including Harold Wilson, Barbara Castle and Tony Benn, and celebrities such a ...

Works

*''Torpedoed, and other short stories'', (1943) Harrow: Progressive Publishers

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beech, Richard 1893 births 1955 deaths Communist Party of Great Britain members British Trotskyists Industrial Workers of the World members Presidents of British trade unions Trade unionists from Kingston upon Hull British Merchant Service personnel of World War I