William "Bill" Moriarty (1890,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, 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 dow ...

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– April 14, 1936) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

Communist and

Right Opposition The Right Opposition (, ''Pravaya oppozitsiya'') or Right Tendency (, ''Praviy uklon'') in the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) was a conditional label formulated by Joseph Stalin in fall of 1928 in regards the opposition against certain me ...

ist. He was general secretary of the Communist Party of Canada from 1921 to 1923. Moriarty was born in England and became a trade unionist working as a tin miner in

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

, a railway worker and then a miner in

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

. He moved to Canada in 1912 and worked first as a harvest worker. He joined the

Socialist Party of Canada The Socialist Party of Canada (SPC) was a political party that existed from 1904 to 1925, led by E. T. Kingsley. It published the socialist newspaper ''Western Clarion''. History Establishment The founding of the Socialist Party of Canada bega ...

becoming involved in its left wing and was one of the founding members of the Communist Party of Canada and was elected to the Central Executive Committee at its founding convention May 1921 and was the first general secretary of the Workers' Party of Canada which was the legal wing of the

underground Underground most commonly refers to: * Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth Underground may also refer to: Places * The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston * The Underground ...

Communist Party. He remained one of the leading members of the Communist Party throughout the 1920s and was elected to the executive of the

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

in 1925. He was expelled from the party in 1930 as a supporter of the "

", pro- Bukharin,

Jay Lovestone Jay Lovestone (15 December 1897 – 7 March 1990) was an American activist. He was at various times a member of the Socialist Party of America, a leader of the Communist Party USA, leader of a small oppositionist party, an anti-Communist and Centr ...

current in the Comintern. He founded the Toronto-based Marxian Educational League which was a branch of Lovestone's Communist Party (Opposition) and the

International Communist Opposition The Right Opposition (, ''Pravaya oppozitsiya'') or Right Tendency (, ''Praviy uklon'') in the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) was a conditional label formulated by Joseph Stalin in fall of 1928 in regards the opposition against certain me ...

. The M.E.L. affiliated with the

Ontario CCF The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (Ontario Section) – The Farmer-Labor Party of Ontario, or more commonly known as the Ontario CCF, was a democratic socialist provincial political party in Ontario that existed from 1932 to 1961. It was the ...

in 1933. He was the M.E.L.'s delegate at the national

Cooperative Commonwealth Federation The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF; french: Fédération du Commonwealth Coopératif, FCC); from 1955 the Social Democratic Party of Canada (''french: Parti social démocratique du Canada''), was a federal democratic socialistThe follo ...

convention that drafted the

Regina Manifesto The Regina Manifesto was the programme of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and was adopted at the first national convention of the CCF held in Regina, Saskatchewan, in 1933. The goal of the Regina Manifesto was to eradicate the sy ...

in 1933. Moriarty remained a member of Lovestone's international tendency until his death in 1936.

References

External links

The Regina Convention of the C.C.F.
Moriarty's account of debates at the 1933 CCF convention on adopting the Regina Manifesto. 1936 deaths Leaders of the Communist Party of Canada 1890 births Right Opposition {{Ontario-politician-stub