William Peyton "Pat" Coates (1883,

Kinsale Kinsale ( ; ) is a historic port and fishing town in County Cork, Ireland. Located approximately south of Cork City on the southeast coast near the Old Head of Kinsale, it sits at the mouth of the River Bandon, and has a population of 5,281 (a ...

– 8 August 1963) was an Irish

labour activist A union organizer (or union organiser in Commonwealth spelling) is a specific type of trade union member (often elected) or an appointed union official. A majority of unions appoint rather than elect their organizers. In some unions, the orga ...

and

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

who was active in the sphere of Anglo-Soviet relations. In 1901 he took a clerical position on the railways in 1901, and by 1903 was a member of the Railway Clerks Association and subsequently its successor, the Transport Salaries Staffs Association. He joined the

Social Democratic Federation The Social Democratic Federation (SDF) was established as Britain's first organised socialist political party by H. M. Hyndman, and had its first meeting on 7 June 1881. Those joining the SDF included William Morris, George Lansbury, James Con ...

, later joining the

British Socialist Party The British Socialist Party (BSP) was a Marxist political organisation established in Great Britain in 1911. Following a protracted period of factional struggle, in 1916 the party's anti-war forces gained decisive control of the party and saw t ...

(BSP). In 1913 he married

Zelda Kahan Zelda Kahan (1886 – 1969) was a British communist. Born into a Jewish family in Russia in 1886, Kahan's family were forced to emigrate, and she moved to Britain at an early age. The Kahans lived at 6 Clapton Square in Hackney, London. She be ...

. He became the BSP's National Organiser in March 1919 and was involved in founding 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 September 1919 when the National

Hands Off Russia The Hands Off Russia campaign was an international political initiative first launched by British Socialists in 1919 to organise opposition to the British intervention on the side of the White armies against the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War ...

Committee was formed at a conference in Manchester, Coates became its secretary. He filled this post until the

Ramsay MacDonald James Ramsay MacDonald (; 12 October 18669 November 1937) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, the first who belonged to the Labour Party, leading minority Labour governments for nine months in 1924 ...

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

established diplomatic relations with the U.S.S.R. The committee was then transformed into the

Anglo-Russian Parliamentary Committee The Anglo-Russians were an English expatriate business community centred in St Petersburg, then also Moscow, from the 1730s till the 1920s. This community was established against the background of Peter I's recruitment of foreign engineers for his n ...

. Coates retained the position of secretary of this organisation until his death. In 1923 he visited Russia.

Works

* (1923) ''Present Position of Anglo-Russian Relations'' London: National "Hands off Russia" Committee * (1923) ''Export credit schemes and Anglo-Russian trade'' London: National "Hands off Russia" Committee * (1924) ''Why Russia should be recognised'' London: National "Hands off Russia" Committee * (1924) ''Russia's counter-claims'' London: National "Hands off Russia" Committee * (1928) ''Why Anglo-Russian Diplomatic Relations Should be Restored'' London: Anglo-Soviet Parliamentary Committee * (1931) ''Is Soviet Trade a Menace?'' London: Anglo-Soviet Parliamentary Committee (with

) * (1935)
Armed Intervention in Russia 1918-1922
' London: V. Gollancz * (1938)
From Tsardom to the Stalin Constitution
' London:G. Allen and Unwin * (1939)
World Affairs and the U.S.S.R.
' * (1940)
Russia, Finland and the Baltic
' London : Lawrence and Wishart * (1940)
The Soviet-Finnish Campaign: Military & Political, 1939-1940
' * (1943)
A History of Anglo-Soviet Relations
' Vol. I. (1943) * (1948)
Six Centuries of Russo-Polish Relations
' London: Lawrence and Wishart * (1951)
Soviets in Central Asia
' * (1958)
A History of Anglo-Soviet Relations
' Vol. II.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coates, William Peyton 1883 births 1963 deaths Trade unionists from County Cork Irish non-fiction writers People from Kinsale Writers from County Cork Communist Party of Great Britain members