Robert Page Arnot
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Robert "Robin" Page Arnot (15 December 1890 – 18 May 1986), best known as R. Page Arnot, was a British Communist journalist and politician.


Early years

Robert Page Arnot, known to his friends as "Robin", was born in 1890 at Greenock, the son of a newspaper editor. He attended
Glasgow University , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...
where he helped to form the University Socialist Federation in 1912, along with
G.D.H. Cole George Douglas Howard Cole (25 September 1889 – 14 January 1959) was an English political theorist, economist, and historian. As a believer in common ownership of the means of production, he theorised guild socialism (production organised ...
and others. He also wrote for the ''
Labour Leader The ''Labour Leader'' was a British socialist newspaper published for almost one hundred years. It was later renamed ''New Leader'' and ''Socialist Leader'', before finally taking the name ''Labour Leader'' again. 19th century The origins of the ...
'', publication of the
Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates ...
, using the
pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...
"Jack Cade." In 1912 the Fabian socialist Beatrice Webb established a Committee of Enquiry into the future control of industry. Out of this sprang the Fabian Research Department, which later evolved into the
Labour Research Department The Labour Research Department (LRD) is an independent trade union based research organisation, based in London, that provides information to support trade union activity and campaigns. About 2,000 trade union organisations, including 51 national ...
. One of the volunteers attracted by the project was Robin Page Arnot, who became its full-time head in 1914 – a position which he retained until 1926. In 1916 Arnot refused conscription to the
British army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
and was imprisoned as a conscientious objector; he accepted transfer to the Home Office Scheme, and served some two years in the
Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...
Work Centre. When he was freed in 1919, he returned to his post as the Secretary of the Labour Research Department. In 1919, in response to labour unrest in the
coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...
mines, the British government established a Committee of Inquiry. The Miners' Federation sought the aid of the Labour Research Department in marshalling evidence on behalf of the workers' demand for higher wages, shorter hours, and government ownership of the mines.


Political career

Arnot was a foundation member of the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1920. Coming as he did from a background as a
guild socialist Guild socialism is a political movement advocating workers' control of industry through the medium of trade-related guilds "in an implied contractual relationship with the public". It originated in the United Kingdom and was at its most influent ...
, Arnot favoured close integration of the Communist Party with the broader labour movement, including affiliation as a member organisation under the Labour Party's umbrella. He was a co-founder, along with R. Palme Dutt and W.N. Ewer, of the ''
Labour Monthly ''Labour Monthly'' was a magazine associated with the Communist Party of Great Britain. It was not technically published by the Party, and, particularly in its later period, it carried articles by left-wing trade unionists from outside the Party. ...
'', and a regular contributor and assistant editor for that journal throughout its long history. In 1925 Arnot was among the 12 Communists charged 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 ...
. He was found guilty and jailed for six months, to be released on the eve of the
1926 General Strike The 1926 general strike in the United Kingdom was a general strike that lasted nine days, from 4 to 12 May 1926. It was called by the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in an unsuccessful attempt to force the British governme ...
. During the General Strike he helped to form the Northumberland and Durham Joint Strike Committee. After the failure of the strike, Arnot returned to the Labour Research Department as its Director of Research and wrote a book on the general strike. R. Page Arnot was a fixture on the governing Central Committee of the CPGB. He was elected to the Central Committee by the party's 9th Congress in 1927, and returned by the 10th Congress of January 1929, the 11th Congress of December 1929, the 12th Congress of 1932, the 13th Congress of 1935, and the 14th Congress of 1937. However, he was not among the 24 members elected by the 15th Congress of 1938. Arnot was elected as a delegate to the 6th World Congress 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 ...
("Comintern"), held in
Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
in 1928. Arnot defended the Moscow Trials in ''Labour Monthly'' and chastised both the '' Manchester Guardian'' and the politician
Emrys Hughes Emrys Daniel Hughes (10 July 1894 – 18 October 1969) was a Welsh Labour Party politician, journalist and author. He was Labour MP for South Ayrshire in Scotland from 1946 to 1969. Among his many published books was a biography of his father ...
for their criticism of the Trials.


Postwar

Arnot was a prolific pamphleteer and author and wrote a six-volume history of the British mineworkers from 1949 to 1975.
He was elected to the LRD's Executive in 1938 and was re-elected every year until 1976 when he was made Honorary President. He wrote six volumes of miners' history between 1949 and 1975. Arnot died in 1986 aged 96, from 1984 publicly and openly fighting the revisionist trend that was taking control of the CPGB even to the end.
Although he now no longer held a post in either the Communist Party or the N.U.M., he continued to pour his enormous energy, breadth of interests and encyclopaedic knowledge into ''The Labour Monthly'', which continued to maintain more influence than number of members on the thinking of the British Communist. His private collection of Labour Movement documents was astounding: for example, a hand-written notebook which had once belonged to David Moffatt, grandfather of Alex and Abe Moffatt (the Scottish trades union leaders) who had been hounded from coal-mine to coal-mine down the northeastern coast of Britain by one vinctive mine-owner after another. On one side of the n the accounts of whichever branch of the N.U.M. he happened to be working at, while on the reverse side there were extensive notes not only from
Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
and
Engels Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels"
''
Ruskin, John Stuart Mill,
Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended ...
, T.H. Huxley,
Herbert Spencer Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) was an English philosopher, psychologist, biologist, anthropologist, and sociologist famous for his hypothesis of social Darwinism. Spencer originated the expression " survival of the fi ...
and H.G. Wells, to name but a few. Robin cherished the volume which he pulled out from time to time to demonstrate to his guest precisely what the self-educating, culturally aspiring working-men of the 19th century - the founders of the Labour Party - were like. Arnot was also arrested in 1986 and accused of being a spy for the Soviet Union. He was released in what seemed to many as a cover-up and a bribe. He was seen meeting with a Soviet Intelligence Officer multiple times. He denied the accusations and M15 (British Counter-Intelligence agency) conducted an Investigation the results of which are still Classified and not set to be released until 2056.Dipak Nandy, "Arnold Kettle & the Evolution of English Marxist Literary Criticism", introduction to G.M. Martin and W.R. Owens,''Literature and Liberation''. 1988


Death

Arnot died in 1986 at the age of 95, leaving behind his lifelong comrade, companion and wife, Violet.


Footnotes


Publications by R. Page Arnot

* ''Trade Unionism on the Railways: Its History and Problems.'' With
G.D.H. Cole George Douglas Howard Cole (25 September 1889 – 14 January 1959) was an English political theorist, economist, and historian. As a believer in common ownership of the means of production, he theorised guild socialism (production organised ...
. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1917. * ''Nationalisation of the Mines.'' n.c. ondon Daily Herald, n.d.
919 __NOTOC__ Year 919 ( CMXIX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By Place Byzantine Empire * March 25 – Romanos Lekapenos, admiral (''droungarios'') of the ...
* ''Facts from the Coal Commission.'' Westminster: Labour Research Department, n.d.
919 __NOTOC__ Year 919 ( CMXIX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By Place Byzantine Empire * March 25 – Romanos Lekapenos, admiral (''droungarios'') of the ...
* ''Further Facts from the Coal Commission: Being a History of the Second Stage of the Coal Industry Commission, with Excerpts from the Evidence.'' London: Allen and Unwin, n.d.
919 __NOTOC__ Year 919 ( CMXIX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By Place Byzantine Empire * March 25 – Romanos Lekapenos, admiral (''droungarios'') of the ...
* ''The Russian Revolution: A Narrative and a Guide for Reading.'' London: Labour Research Department, 1923. * ''Fight the Slave Plan: The Dawes Plan Exposed.'' London: Communist Party of Great Britain, n.d. . 1924 * ''The Politics of Oil: An Example of Imperialist Monopoly.'' London: Labour Research Department, 1924. * ''The General Strike, May 1926: Its Origin and History.'' London: Labour Research Department, 1926. * ''The General Strike and the Miners' Struggle.'' London: Labour Research Department, 1926. * ''History of the Labour Research Department.'' London: Labour Research Department, 1926. * ''Exit: The Trade Disputes Act.'' London: Labour Research Department, n.d. . 1927 * ''Soviet Russia and Her Neighbors.'' With Jerome Davis. New York: Vanguard Press, 1927. * ''How Britain Rules India.'' London: Communist Party of Great Britain, 1929. * ''Slavery or Socialism?'' London: Communist Party of Great Britain, n.d. . 1934 * ''William Morris: A Vindication.'' London: Martin Lawrence, 1934. * ''A Short History of the Russian Revolution from 1905 to the Present Day.'' In Two Volumes. London: Victor Gollancz, 1937. * ''Fascist Agents Exposed in the Moscow Trials.'' London: Communist Party of Great Britain, 1938. * ''Twenty Years: The Policy of the Communist Party of Great Britain from its Foundation, July 31st, 1920.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1940. * ''Soviet Leaders: Stalin.'' Sydney: Current Book Distributors, n.d.
942 Year 942 ( CMXLII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Summer – The Hungarians invade Al-Andalus (modern Spain) and besiege the fortress ...
* ''1917-1942: From Tsardom to Soviet Power.'' London: Russia Today Society, 1942. * ''Japan.'' London: Labour Monthly, n.d. . 1942 * ''Japan: Strength and Weaknesses.'' London: Trinity Trust, 1942. * ''What is Common Wealth?'' London: Communist Party of Great Britain, 1943. * ''There are No Aryans: A Popular Study of the Bogus Race Doctrines of the Nazis (and Others) in the LIght of Reason and Scientific Facts, with Special Reference to Anti-Semitism.'' London: Labour Monthly, n.d. 943 Australian edition: Sydney: Current Book Distributors, 1944. * ''May Day 1945.'' London: Communist Party of Great Britain, 1945. * ''The Miners: A History of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain, 1889–1910.'' London: Allen and Unwin, 1949. * ''Bernard Shaw and William Morris: A Lecture, Given on May 11, 1956.'' London: William Morris Society, 1957. * ''The Impact of the Russian Revolution in Britain.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1967. * ''South Wales Miners, Glowyr de Cymru: A History of the South Wales Miners' Federation (1914–1926).'' Cardiff : Cymric Federation Press, 1975. * ''The Miners: One Union, One Industry: A History of the National Union of Mineworkers, 1939–46.'' London: Allen and Unwin, 1979.


External links

*
R. Page Arnot Archive
Marxists Internet Archive. Retrieved 29 Aug. 2009.
Works by R. Page Arnot
The Open Library. Retrieved 29 Aug. 2009. {{DEFAULTSORT:Arnot, Robin Page 1890 births 1986 deaths British conscientious objectors Communist Party of Great Britain members Marxist writers