Baruch Rahmilevich Mendelson (22 March 1910 – 13 April 1994), commonly known as Bert Ramelson, was an industrial organiser and

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

for the Communist Party of Great Britain. He held the post of National Industrial Organiser from 1965 to 1977, and was editor and a member of editorial board of the ''

World Marxist Review ''Problems of Peace and Socialism'' (September 1958–June 1990, Russian: ''Проблемы мира и социализма)'', also commonly known as ''World Marxist Review'' (WMR), the name of its English-language edition, was a monthly theore ...

'' from 1977 to 1990.

Early life

Ramelson was born the sixth of seven children in a Jewish family in Cherkassy,

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

(now

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

), in 1910. His father was a Talmudic scholar and his mother ran a corner shop inherited from her father, which the family lived in.Seifert, R. & Sibley, T. (2012) ''Revolutionary Communist at Work: A Political Biography of Bert Ramelson'' London: Lawrence & Wishart p. 23 In 1922 Ramelson's family emigrated to

Edmonton, Alberta Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city anch ...

, Canada, where his paternal uncle was a successful fur trader.Seifert, R. & Sibley, T. (2012) ''Revolutionary Communist at Work: A Political Biography of Bert Ramelson'' London: Lawrence & Wishart p. 27 Ramelson won a

scholarship A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need. Scholars ...

to the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a Public university, public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexande ...

, where he achieved

First Class Honours The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied (sometimes with significant variati ...

in law. While he was a student he was conscripted onto an officer training course. After completing his mandatory year in practice as an articled clerk and qualifying as a barrister, he left to join a kibbutz in Palestine. He later recalled that he became disillusioned after Histadrut called a strike on an orange grove in the kibbutz, demanding that the Arab workers be replaced by Jews.Seifert, R. & Sibley, T. (2012) ''Revolutionary Communist at Work: A Political Biography of Bert Ramelson'' London: Lawrence & Wishart pp. 28-29

Wars

After briefly returning to Canada, he left to fight with the Canadian battalion of the International Brigades in the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...

. He was wounded twice on the Aragon and

Ebro , name_etymology = , image = Zaragoza shel.JPG , image_size = , image_caption = The Ebro River in Zaragoza , map = SpainEbroBasin.png , map_size = , map_caption = The Ebro ...

fronts. In 1939 he settled in Britain and for a short time was a trainee manager at Marks and Spencer. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

he was an NCO driver in the

7th Royal Tank Regiment The 7th Royal Tank Regiment (7th RTR) was an armoured regiment of the British Army from 1917 until disbandment in 1959. History The 7th Royal Tank Regiment was part of the Royal Tank Regiment, itself part of the Royal Armoured Corps. The regi ...

. In 1942 he was imprisoned by German forces after the capture of Tobruk. He organised an escape from an Italian prisoner of war camp after the Italian armistice of September 1943 and fought with the

Italian Resistance The Italian resistance movement (the ''Resistenza italiana'' and ''la Resistenza'') is an umbrella term for the Italian resistance groups who fought the occupying forces of Nazi Germany and the fascist collaborationists of the Italian Socia ...

. He was commissioned second lieutenant in the

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

in March 1945 and later became an acting staff captain (legal) in India. In 1983 he was interviewed about his war service by the Imperial War Museum.

Post-war

After the war, he became acting full-time secretary of the

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

branch of the Communist Party. Ramelson held this post from 1946 to 1953 and encouraged political activism within the Yorkshire

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...

community, working with the National Union of Mineworkers, where he mentored the young

Arthur Scargill Arthur Scargill (born 11 January 1938) is a British trade unionist who was President of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) from 1982 to 2002. He is best known for leading the UK miners' strike (1984–85), a major event in the history of ...

. He stood as the Communist candidate at the Leeds South by-election in 1963, where he finished in fourth place; as well as at the

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarc ...

and 1966 general elections, consistently coming last with a mere 2-3% share of the vote.

National Industrial Organiser

In 1965 Ramelson was appointed National Industrial Organiser of the Communist Party and in 1966, during the seamen's strike of 1966, he was one of a number of men accused by Labour

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

Harold Wilson of being members of "a tightly knit group of politically motivated men who, as the last General Election showed, utterly failed to secure acceptance of their views by the British electorate. Some of them are now saying very blatantly that they are more concerned with harming the nation than with getting the justice we all want to see". During his time as National Organiser Ramelson encouraged the party to forge links with trade unions such as the

Transport and General Workers Union The Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU or T&G) was one of the largest general trade unions in the United Kingdom and Ireland – where it was known as the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union (ATGWU) to differentiate its ...

and, with a range of organisers such as Jack Jones and Ken Gill, coordinated union resistance to some of the policies of the Wilson government of the 1960s, above all Barbara Castle's proposals to reform trade union law in the White Paper ''

In Place of Strife ''In Place of Strife'' ( Cmnd 3888) was a UK Government white paper written in 1969. It was a proposed act to use the law to reduce the power of trade unions in the United Kingdom, but was never passed into law. The title of the paper was a rework ...

''. Later, in the 1970s, he was a prominent opponent of incomes policies of both Conservative and Labour governments, and of the Social Contract between the trade unions and the Labour government. The tactics implemented by Ramelson mobilised militant trades unionists to organise within the labour movement. He opposed the

Industrial Relations Act 1971 The Industrial Relations Act 1971 (c.72) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, since repealed. It was based on proposals outlined in the governing Conservative Party's manifesto for the 1970 general election. The goal was to stabil ...

and fought for the release of the Pentonville Five. In 1972 he organised

flying picket Picketing is a form of protest in which people (called pickets or picketers) congregate outside a place of work or location where an event is taking place. Often, this is done in an attempt to dissuade others from going in (" crossing the pick ...

s during the miners' strike. In 1973 Ramelson said: "We have more influence now on the

labour movement The labour movement or labor movement consists of two main wings: the trade union movement (British English) or labor union movement (American English) on the one hand, and the political labour movement on the other. * The trade union movement ...

than at any time in the life of our party. The Communist Party can float an idea early in the year. It goes to trade union conferences as a resolution and it can become official Labour Party policy by the autumn. A few years ago we were on our own, but not now."

Personal life

He married his first wife Marian in 1939, whom he met in the Communist Party in Leeds. Marian Ramelson wrote ''Petticoat Rebellion'', a work about

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...

, and was a leading activist in the Party. Marian died in 1967 and he married Joan Smith in 1970.

Publications

*''Incomes Policy: The Great Wage Freeze Trick'' *''Keep the Unions Free'' (1969) *''Donovan Exposed: A Critical Analysis of the Report of the Royal Commission on Trade Unions'' (1968) *''Productivity Agreements: An Exposure of the Latest and Greatest Swindle on the Wages Front'' (1970) *''Carr's Bill and How to Kill It: A Class Analysis'' (1971) *''Heath's War on Your Wage Packet: The Latest Tory Attack on Living Standards and Trade Union Rights'' (1973) *''Smash Phase III: The Tory Fraud Exposed'' (1973) *''Social Contract: Cure or Con-trick?'' (1974) *''Bury the Social Contract: The Case for an Alternative Policy'' (1977) *''Consensus for Socialism'' (1987)

References

External links

Bert Ramelson Remembered website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ramelson, Bert 1910 births 1994 deaths British Army personnel of World War II British World War II prisoners of war World War II prisoners of war held by Germany Communist Party of Great Britain members Royal Tank Regiment soldiers Royal Artillery officers Ukrainian emigrants to Canada Ukrainian-Jewish emigrants to the United Kingdom Canadian emigrants to England Canadian people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent University of Alberta alumni International Brigades personnel Jews from the Russian Empire Jewish Canadian politicians Jewish socialists Soviet emigrants to Canada Lawyers in Alberta British barristers 20th-century British lawyers