:''See

Communist party (disambiguation) A communist party is a party that advocates the application of the social principles of communism. Communist Party may also refer to: Africa Benin * Communist Party of Benin * Marxist–Leninist Communist Party of Benin Côte d'Ivoire * Revo ...

for other similarly named groups.'' The Communist Labour Party was a

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. It was formed in September 1920 by the Scottish Workers' Committee and the Scottish section of 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 ...

(CP (BSTI)), some members of the Socialist Labour Party (SLP) and various local communist groups. In the same month, the

Communist Party of South Wales and the West of England The Communist Party of South Wales and the West of England was a political party in Britain, formed in September 1920. The group was formed by a minority within the South Wales Socialist Society, that did not support merging into the Communist Par ...

was founded, with a very similar programme. Under the influence of John Maclean MA, the group was provisionally named the ''Scottish Communist Party''. However, its founding conference, which Maclean did not attend, renamed it the Communist Labour Party. It also decided that it should remain a provisional body with the aim of joining the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), a position championed by Willie Gallacher. His positions defeated, Maclean left the group and instead joined the SLP. The Communist Labour Party then joined the CPGB, along with the remainder of the CP (BSTI) in January 1921.

References

Reclaiming Maclean
*''The British Communist Left 1914-45'', Mark Hayes ( International Communist Current) Communist Labour Party (Scotland) Defunct communist parties in the United Kingdom Defunct political parties in Scotland Labour parties in Scotland Political parties established in 1920 Communist Labour Party Political parties disestablished in 1921 1920 establishments in Scotland 1921 disestablishments in Scotland {{Scotland-party-stub