J.T. Murphy
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John Thomas Murphy (9 December 1888 – 13 May 1965) was a British trade union organiser 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 ...
functionary. Murphy is best remembered as a leader of the communist labour movement in the United Kingdom from the middle 1920s until his resignation from 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 1932.


Biography


Early years

J.T. Murphy, known to his peers as "Jack," was born on 9 December 1888 in Gorton, Manchester.David Mayall, "John Thomas Murphy," in A. Thomas Lane (ed.), ''Biographical Dictionary of European Labor Leaders: M-Z.'' Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1995; pg. 683. His father, a Roman Catholic, worked as a blacksmith, while his Protestant mother worked as a baker. Murphy helped with the family finances from the age of 7, initially selling his mother's baked goods before taking a job working as an assistant on a milk round. Murphy began working at an engineering works in an entry-level capacity in 1901, soon moving into a formal engineering apprenticeship, in which he remained until 1908. Thereafter Murphy worked as an engineer in his own right, remaining as a worker at the bench until 1918. He became active in the Amalgamated Society of Engineers and was active in the Sheffield wing of the Shop Stewards Movement, which emerged in engineering factories during the First World War.


Communist functionary

Murphy joined the Socialist Labour Party (SLP) in 1916 and stood as a candidate in the 1918 General Election for the Gorton constituency in Manchester. He was elected to the governing Executive Committee of the SLP, in which capacity he participated in unity discussions between the various revolutionary socialist groups which had emerged in the country. The SLP split at this juncture, with Murphy and others first establishing the
Communist Unity Group The Communist Unity Group (CUG) was a small communist organisation in the United Kingdom. The origins of the group lay in the Socialist Labour Party (1903-1980), Socialist Labour Party (SLP). The SLP was a De Leonist group, but in support of the ...
in January 1919. He joined 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 ...
at its formation in 1920. In January 1920 Murphy travelled illegally to Soviet Russia, where he attended with John S. Clarke, Helen Crawfurd, Williie Gallacher, Wlliam McLaine, Sylvia Pankhurst,
Marjory Newbold Marjory Newbold (25 May 1883 – 15 November 1926) was a leading Scottish socialist and communist, prominent in the Independent Labour Party and in the 'Red Clydeside' movement demanding reforms for the working class. Newbold organised pacifist an ...
, Tom Quelch,
Dave Ramsay Dave Ramsay (born March 18, 1970 in Saint John, New Brunswick) is a Yellowknife businessman and politician. Political career Ramsay first ran for a seat in the Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly in the 1999 Northwest Territories general ...
and Jack Tanner at 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 ...
as delegate for the Shop Stewards Movement. Murphy also was a delegate to the First World Congress of the Red International of Labor Unions (RILU) in July 1921, which elected him a member of the organisation's executive committee. Murphy was also elected as a delegate of the CPGB to the
Third Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * Second#Sexagesimal divisions of calendar time and day, 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (d ...
and Fourth World Congresses of the Communist International, held in Moscow in 1921 and 1922, respectively. In 1925 Murphy was one of twelve CPGB officials imprisoned for seditious libel and incitement to
mutiny Mutiny is a revolt among a group of people (typically of a military, of a crew or of a crew of pirates) to oppose, change, or overthrow an organization to which they were previously loyal. The term is commonly used for a rebellion among member ...
under the
Incitement to Mutiny Act 1797 The Incitement to Mutiny Act 1797 (37 Geo 3 c 70) was an Act passed by the Parliament of Great Britain. The Act was passed in the aftermath of the Spithead and Nore mutinies and aimed to prevent the seduction of sailors and soldiers to commit mu ...
. Murphy was sentenced to six months in prison, and released in 1926. Murphy was active in 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 ...
, the British section of RILU, from the time of its formation in 1924. He was also a member of the executive committee of CPGB from its formation in 1920 until his resignation from the party in 1932.


Post-communist years

Murphy resigned from the CPGB in 1932. After leaving the communist movement, Murphy joined the Labour Party and was elected to the executive of their branch in Islington.Ralph Darlington, ''The Political Trajectory of J.T. Murphy.'' Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1998; pg. 217. Then in April 1933 he joined the Socialist League, becoming general secretary of that organisation later in the year. He would retain that position until his resignation from the Socialist League in 1936, opposing its call for the CPGB to be permitted to affiliate to the Labour Party. He became a founder of and full-time organiser for the People's Front Propaganda Committee, which aimed to unite members of all parties against fascism and the British government's indifference to or appeasement of it. He spoke in favour of this policy at Labour's 1939 conference, but was heavily defeated, and the committee soon dissolved. The Second World War broke out shortly afterwards, and Murphy returned to work as a turner, also becoming a shop steward again for the AEU. He argued in favour of the Hitler–Stalin pact on the grounds that, he believed, Stalin had no choice in order to buy time. Later in the war, he lectured to troops on political matters, and wrote three books supporting Stalin and the Soviet Union. After the war, Murphy stopped all formal political activity, spending much of his time writing company histories, including one of
Marks and Spencer Marks and Spencer Group plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks's or Marks & Sparks) is a major British multinational retailer with headquarters in Paddington, London that specialises in selling clothing, beauty, home ...
and one of Sainsbury's. Following Stalin's death, he renounced Marxism and, later, wrote an article detailing his thoughts on the subject for the ''
New Reasoner ''The New Reasoner'' was a British journal of dissident Communism published from 1957 to 1959 by John Saville and E.P. Thompson. The publication is best remembered as an antecedent of the long running journal ''New Left Review.'' ''The Reasone ...
''.Darlington, ''The Political Trajectory of J.T. Murphy,'' pp. 253-260.


Death and legacy

J. T. Murphy died on 13 May 1965 aged 76. His son,
Edward Edward is an English given name. It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon name ''Ēadweard'', composed of the elements '' ēad'' "wealth, fortune; prosperous" and '' weard'' "guardian, protector”. History The name Edward was very popular in Anglo-Sa ...
, was a first-class cricketer and doctor.


Footnotes


Works

* ''The Workers' Committee: An Outline of Its Principles and Structure.'' (1917) *
First Year of the Lenin School
' (1927) * ''The Labour Government: An Examination of Its Record.'' (1930) * ''Preparing for Power: A Critical Study of the History of the British Working Class Movement.'' (1934) * ''New Horizons.'' (1941) —Memoir * ''Stalin, 1879-1944.'' (1945) * ''Labour's Big Three: A Biographical Study of Clement Attlee, Herbert Morrison and Ernest Bevin.'' (1948)


External links



Marxists Internet Archive. {{DEFAULTSORT:Murphy, J. T. 1888 births 1965 deaths Communist Party of Great Britain members Trade unionists from Manchester British communists English people of Irish descent People from Gorton Socialist Labour Party (UK, 1903) members Politics of Sheffield Labour Party (UK) people