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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 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 ...
. In 1930, the CPGB founded the ''Daily Worker'' (renamed the ''Morning Star'' in 1966). In 1936, members of the party were present at the
Battle of Cable Street The Battle of Cable Street was a series of clashes that took place at several locations in the inner East End, most notably Cable Street, on Sunday 4 October 1936. It was a clash between the Metropolitan Police, sent to protect a march by mem ...
, helping organise resistance against the British Union of Fascists. 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 ...
the CPGB worked with the USSR to create the
British Battalion The British Battalion (1936–1938; officially the Saklatvala Battalion) was the 16th battalion of the XV International Brigade, one of the mixed brigades of the International Brigades, during the Spanish Civil War. It comprised British and ...
of the International Brigades, which party activist Bill Alexander commanded. In
World War II 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 opposing ...
, the CPGB mirrored the Soviet position, opposing or supporting the war in line with the involvement of the USSR. By the end of World War II, CPGB membership had nearly tripled and the party reached the height of its popularity. Many key CPGB members became leaders of Britain's trade union movement, including most notably
Jessie Eden Jessie Eden (née Shrimpton; 24 February 1902 – 27 September 1986) was a British trade union leader and communist activist, most famous for leading between 40,000 to 50,000 households during the Birmingham rent-strike of 1939. She was also in ...
, Abraham Lazarus, Ken Gill, Clem Beckett, GCT Giles, Mike Hicks, and
Thora Silverthorne Thora Silverthorne (1910–1999), also known as "Red Silverthorne", was a British Communist, healthcare activist, and a nanny for Somerville Hastings, and former president of the Socialist Medical Association (SMA). She is most known for her s ...
. Following the mass migration of African-Caribbeans to Britain, many black activists joined the CPGB, including Trevor Carter, Charlie Hutchison,
Dorothy Kuya Dorothy Kuya (April 1932 – 23 December 2013) was a leading British communist and human rights activist from Liverpool, the co-founder of Teachers Against Racism, and the general secretary of the National Assembly of Women (NAW). She was a life ...
, Billy Strachan, Peter Blackman, Henry Gunter, Len Johnson, and Claudia Jones, who founded London's Notting Hill Carnival. In 1956, the CPGB experienced a significant loss of members due to its support of the Soviet military intervention in Hungary. In the 1960s, CPGB activists supported Vietnamese communists fighting in the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...
. In 1984, the leader of the CPGB's youth wing,
Mark Ashton Mark may refer to: Currency * Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina * East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic * Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927 * Fin ...
, founded Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners. From 1956 until the late 1970s, the party was funded by the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the party's
Eurocommunist Eurocommunism, also referred to as democratic communism or neocommunism, was a trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties which said they had developed a theory and practice of social transformation more rele ...
leadership disbanded the party, establishing the Democratic Left. The anti-Eurocommunist faction had launched the
Communist Party of Britain The Communist Party of Britain (CPB) is a communist party in Great Britain which emerged from a dispute between Eurocommunists and Marxist-Leninists in the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1988. It follows Marxist-Leninist theory and s ...
in 1988.


Organisational history


Formation

The Communist Party of Great Britain was founded in 1920 after the
Third 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 a ...
decided that greater attempts should be made to establish communist parties across the world. The CPGB was formed by the merger of several smaller Marxist parties, including the British Socialist Party, the Communist Unity Group of the Socialist Labour Party and the South Wales Socialist Society. The party also gained the support of the Guild Communists faction of the National Guilds League, assorted
shop steward A union representative, union steward, or shop steward is an employee of an organization or company who represents and defends the interests of their fellow employees as a labor union member and official. Rank-and-file members of the union hold ...
s' and workers' committees, socialist clubs and individuals and many former members of the
Hands Off Russia The Hands Off Russia campaign was an international political initiative first launched by British Socialists in 1919 to organise opposition to the British intervention on the side of the White armies against the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War ...
campaign. Several branches and many individual members 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 ...
also affiliated. As a member of the British Socialist Party, the
Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...
Cecil L'Estrange Malone joined the CPGB. A few days after the founding conference the new party published the first issue of its weekly newspaper, which was called ''the Communist'' and edited by
Raymond Postgate Raymond William Postgate (6 November 1896 – 29 March 1971) was an English socialist, writer, journalist and editor, social historian, mystery novelist, and gourmet who founded the '' Good Food Guide''. He was a member of the Postgate fa ...
. In January 1921, the CPGB was refounded after the majorities of
Sylvia Pankhurst Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst (5 May 1882 – 27 September 1960) was a campaigning English feminist and socialist. Committed to organising working-class women in London's East End, and unwilling in 1914 to enter into a wartime political truce with t ...
's group the Communist Party (British Section of the Third International), and the Scottish Communist Labour Party agreed to unity. The party benefited from a period of increased political radicalism in Britain just after the
First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
and the Russian Revolution of October 1917, and was also represented in Britain by the
Red Clydeside Red Clydeside was the era of political radicalism in Glasgow, Scotland, and areas around the city, on the banks of the River Clyde, such as Clydebank, Greenock, Dumbarton and Paisley, from the 1910s until the early 1930s. Red Clydeside is a ...
movement. During the negotiations leading to the initiation of the party, a number of issues were hotly contested. Among the most contentious were the questions of "
parliamentarism A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of the ...
" and the attitude of the Communist Party to the Labour Party. "Parliamentarism" referred to a strategy of contesting elections and working through existing parliaments. It was a strategy associated with the parties of the
Second International The Second International (1889–1916) was an organisation of socialist and labour parties, formed on 14 July 1889 at two simultaneous Paris meetings in which delegations from twenty countries participated. The Second International continued th ...
and it was partly for this reason that it was opposed by those who wanted to break with
Social Democracy Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote s ...
. Critics contended that parliamentarism had caused the old parties to become devoted to reformism because it had encouraged them to place more importance on winning votes than on working for
socialism Socialism is a left-wing Economic ideology, economic philosophy and Political movement, movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to Private prop ...
, that it encouraged opportunists and place-seekers into the ranks of the movement and that it constituted an acceptance of the legitimacy of the existing governing institutions of
capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, priva ...
. Similarly, affiliation to the Labour Party was opposed on the grounds that communists should not work with 'reformist' Social Democratic parties. These
Left Communist Left communism, or the communist left, is a position held by the left wing of communism, which criticises the political ideas and practices espoused by Marxist–Leninists and social democrats. Left communists assert positions which they rega ...
positions enjoyed considerable support, being supported by
Sylvia Pankhurst Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst (5 May 1882 – 27 September 1960) was a campaigning English feminist and socialist. Committed to organising working-class women in London's East End, and unwilling in 1914 to enter into a wartime political truce with t ...
and Willie Gallacher among others. However, the Russian Communist Party took the opposing view. In 1920,
Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...
argued in his essay '' "Left Wing" Communism: An Infantile Disorder'' that the CPs should work with reformist trade unions and social democratic parties because these were the existing organisations of the working class. Lenin argued that if such organisations gained power, they would demonstrate that they were not really on the side of the working class, thus workers would become disillusioned and come over to supporting the Communist Party. Lenin's opinion prevailed eventually. Initially, therefore, the CPGB attempted to work within the Labour Party, which at this time operated mainly as a federation of
left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...
bodies, only having allowed individual membership since 1918. However, despite the support of
James Maxton James Maxton (22 June 1885 – 23 July 1946) was a British left-wing politician, and leader of the Independent Labour Party. He was a pacifist who opposed both world wars. A prominent proponent of Home Rule for Scotland, he is remembered as on ...
, 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 ...
leader, the Labour Party decided against the affiliation of the Communist Party. Even while pursuing affiliation and seeking to influence Labour Party members, however, the CPGB promoted candidates of its own at parliamentary elections. Following the refusal of their affiliation, the CPGB encouraged its members to join the Labour Party individually and to seek Labour Party endorsement or help for any candidatures. Several Communists thus became Labour Party candidates, and in the 1922 general election,
Shapurji Saklatvala Shapurji Dorabji Saklatvala (28 March 1874 – 16 January 1936) was a communist activist and British politician of Indian Parsi heritage. Saklatvala is notable for being the first person of Indian heritage to become a British Member of Parliamen ...
and
Walton Newbold John Turner Walton Newbold (8 May 1888 – 20 February 1943), generally known as Walton Newbold, was the first of the four Communist Party of Great Britain members to be elected as MPs in the United Kingdom. Biography Early years John Turner ...
were both elected. As late as 1923 the
National Executive Committee of the Labour Party The National Executive Committee (NEC) is the governing body of the UK Labour Party, setting the overall strategic direction of the party and policy development. Its composition has changed over the years, and includes representatives of affil ...
endorsed Communist parliamentary candidates, and 38 Communists attended the 1923
Labour Party Conference The Labour Party Conference is the annual conference of the British Labour Party. It is formally the supreme decision-making body of the party and is traditionally held in the final week of September, during the party conference season when th ...
.


1920s and 1930s

In 1923, the party renamed its newspaper as the ''Workers Weekly''. In 1923, the Workers' Weekly published a letter by J. R. Campbell urging
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 ...
soldiers not to fire on striking workers. The Labour government of Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald prosecuted him under the Incitement to Disaffection Act but withdrew the charges upon review. This led to the
Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...
introducing a motion to establish an inquiry into the Labour government, which led to its resignation. The affair of the forged Zinoviev Letter occurred during the subsequent general election late October 1924. Intended to suggest that the Communist Party in Britain was engaged in subversive activities among the British Armed Forces and elsewhere, the forgery's aim was to promote the electoral chances of the Conservative Party in the general election of 29 October; it was probably the work of SIS (MI6) or White Russian counter-revolutionaries. After Labour lost to the Conservative Party in the election, it blamed the Zinoviev Letter for its defeat. In the aftermath of the Campbell Case and the Zinoviev letter, Labour expelled Communist Party members and banned them from running as its parliamentary candidates in the future. After the 1926 British general strike, it also disbanded 26 Constituency Labour Parties which resisted the ruling or were otherwise deemed too sympathetic to the Communist Party. Throughout the 1920s and most of the 1930s, the CPGB decided to maintain the doctrine that a communist party should consist of revolutionary cadres and not be open to all applicants. The CPGB as the British section 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 ...
was committed to implementing the decisions of the higher body to which it was subordinate. This proved to be a mixed blessing in the General Strike of 1926 immediately prior to which much of the central leadership of the CPGB was imprisoned. Twelve were charged with "
seditious conspiracy Seditious conspiracy is a crime in various jurisdictions of conspiring against the authority or legitimacy of the state. As a form of sedition, it has been described as a serious but lesser counterpart to treason, targeting activities that undermi ...
". Five were jailed for a year and the others for six months. Another major problem for the party was its policy of abnegating its own role and calling upon the
General Council of the Trades Union Congress The General Council of the Trades Union Congress is an elected body which is responsible for carrying out the policies agreed at the annual British Trade Union Congresses (TUC). Organisation The council has 56 members, all of whom must be proposed ...
to play a revolutionary role. Nonetheless, during the strike itself and during the long drawn-out agony of the following Miners' Strike the members of the CPGB were to the fore in defending the strike and in attempting to develop solidarity with the miners. The result was that membership of the party in mining areas increased greatly through 1926 and 1927. Much of these gains would be lost during the
Third Period The Third Period is an ideological concept adopted by the Communist International (Comintern) at its Sixth World Congress, held in Moscow in the summer of 1928. It set policy until reversed when the Nazis took over Germany in 1933. The Comint ...
but the influence was developed in certain areas that would continue until the party's demise decades later. The CPGB did succeed in creating a layer of militants very committed to the party and its policies, although this support was concentrated in particular trades, specifically in heavy engineering, textiles and mining, and in addition, tended to be concentrated regionally too in the coalfields, certain industrial cities such as
Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
and in Jewish East London. Indeed,
Maerdy Maerdy (, cy, Y Maerdy) is a village and community (and electoral ward) in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, and within the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan, Wales, lying at the head of the Rhondda Fach Valley. History "Maerdy" i ...
in the
Rhondda Rhondda , or the Rhondda Valley ( cy, Cwm Rhondda ), is a former coal mining, coalmining area in South Wales, historically in the county of Glamorgan. It takes its name from the River Rhondda, and embraces two valleys – the larger Rhondda Fa ...
Valley along with Chopwell in Tyne and Wear were two of a number of communities known as '' Little Moscow'' for their Communist tendencies. During the 1920s, the CPGB clandestinely worked to train the future leaders of India's first communist party. Some of the key activists charged with this task, Philip Spratt and Ben Bradley, were later arrested and convicted as a part of the Meerut Conspiracy Case. Their trial helped to raise British public awareness of British colonialism in India, and caused massive public outrage over their treatment. At the same time, Asian and African delegates to the Comintern such as
Ho Chi Minh (: ; born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), commonly known as (' Uncle Hồ'), also known as ('President Hồ'), (' Old father of the people') and by other aliases, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman. He served as P ...
, M. N. Roy, and
Sen Katayama Sen may refer to: Surname * Sen (surname), a Bengali surname * Şen, a Turkish surname * A variant of the Serer patronym Sène Currency subunit * Etymologically related to the English word ''cent''; a hundredth of the following currencies: * ...
criticized the GBCP for neglecting colonial issues in India and
Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
. But this support built during the party's first years was imperilled during the
Third Period The Third Period is an ideological concept adopted by the Communist International (Comintern) at its Sixth World Congress, held in Moscow in the summer of 1928. It set policy until reversed when the Nazis took over Germany in 1933. The Comint ...
from 1929 to 1932, the Third Period being the so-called period of renewed revolutionary advance as it was dubbed by the (now Stalinised) leadership of the Comintern. The result of this "class against class" policy was that the Social Democratic and Labourite parties were to be seen as equally as much a threat as the fascist parties and were therefore described as being social-fascist. Any kind of alliance with "social-fascists" was obviously to be prohibited. The Third Period also meant that the CPGB sought to develop revolutionary trade unions in rivalry to the established
Trades Union Congress The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is a national trade union centre, a federation of trade unions in England and Wales, representing the majority of trade unions. There are 48 affiliated unions, with a total of about 5.5 million members. Frances ...
affiliated unions. They met with an almost total lack of success although a tiny handful of "red" unions were formed, amongst them a miners union in Scotland and tailoring union in East London. Arthur Horner, the Communist leader of the Welsh miners, fought off attempts to found a similar union on his patch. But even if the Third Period was by all conventional standards a total political failure it was the 'heroic' period of British communism and one of its campaigns did have impact beyond its ranks. This was the
National Unemployed Workers' Movement The National Unemployed Workers' Movement was a British organisation set up in 1921 by members of the Communist Party of Great Britain. It aimed to draw attention to the plight of unemployed workers during the post First World War slump, the 1926 G ...
led by Wal Hannington. Increasing unemployment had caused a substantial increase in the number of CP members, especially those drawn from engineering, lacking work. This cadre of which Hannington and Harry MacShane in Scotland were emblematic, found a purpose in building the NUWM which resulted in a number of marches on the unemployment issue during the 1930s. Although born in the Third Period during the Great Depression, the NUWM was a major campaigning body throughout the
Popular Front A popular front is "any coalition of working-class and middle-class parties", including liberal and social democratic ones, "united for the defense of democratic forms" against "a presumed Fascist assault". More generally, it is "a coalition ...
period too, only being dissolved in 1941. After the victory of
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
in
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, the Third Period was dropped by all Communist Parties as they switched to the policy of the
Popular Front A popular front is "any coalition of working-class and middle-class parties", including liberal and social democratic ones, "united for the defense of democratic forms" against "a presumed Fascist assault". More generally, it is "a coalition ...
. This policy argued that as fascism was the main danger to the workers' movement, it needed to ally itself with all anti-fascist forces including right-wing democratic parties. In Britain, this policy expressed itself in the efforts of the CPGB to forge an alliance with the Labour Party and even with forces to the right of Labour. In the 1935 general election Willie Gallacher was elected as the Communist Party's first MP in six years, and their first MP elected against Labour opposition. Gallacher sat for West Fife in
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 ...
, a coal mining region in which it had considerable support. During the 1930s the CPGB opposed the National Government's European policy of appeasement towards
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
and Fascist Italy. On the
streets Streets is the plural of street, a type of road. Streets or The Streets may also refer to: Music * Streets (band), a rock band fronted by Kansas vocalist Steve Walsh * ''Streets'' (punk album), a 1977 compilation album of various early UK punk ba ...
the party members played a leading role in the struggle against the British Union of Fascists, led by Sir Oswald Mosley whose
Blackshirts The Voluntary Militia for National Security ( it, Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale, MVSN), commonly called the Blackshirts ( it, Camicie Nere, CCNN, singular: ) or (singular: ), was originally the paramilitary wing of the Nation ...
tried to emulate the Nazis in anti-Semitic actions in London and other major British cities. The Communist Party's Oxford branch under the leadership of Abraham Lazarus managed to successfully contain and defeat the rise of fascism in the city of Oxford, forcing the Blackshirts to retreat from the town and into the relative safety of Oxford University after the Battle of Carfax.


1939 to 1945: Second World War

With the beginning of 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 ...
in 1939, the CPGB initially continued to support the struggle on two fronts (against Chamberlain at home and Nazi fascism abroad). Following the Molotov–Ribbentrop nonaggression pact on 23 August between the Soviet Union and Germany, the Comintern immediately changed its position. The British party immediately fell in line, campaigning for peace, and describing the war as the product of imperialism on both sides, and in which the working class had no side to take. This was opposed within the CPGB by
Harry Pollitt Harry Pollitt (22 November 1890 – 27 June 1960) was a British communist who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) from 1929 to September 1939 and again from 1941 until his death in 1960. Pollitt spent ...
and J. R. Campbell, the editor of the ''Daily Worker'', and both were relieved of their duties in October 1939. Pollitt was replaced by Palme Dutt. From 1939 until 1941 the CPGB was very active in supporting strikes and in denouncing the government for its pursuit of the war. However, when in 1941 the Soviet Union was invaded by Germany, the CPGB reversed its stance immediately and came out in support of the war on the grounds that it had now become a war between fascism and the Soviet Union. Pollitt was restored to his old position as Party Secretary. In fact, the Communists' support for the war was so vociferous that they launched a campaign for a Second Front in order to support the USSR and speed the defeat of the
Axis powers The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were ...
. In industry, they now opposed strike action and supported the Joint Production Committees, which aimed to increase productivity, and supported the National Government that was led by
Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...
(Conservative) and Clement Attlee (Labour). At the same time, given the influence of
Rajani Palme Dutt Rajani may refer to: *Rajani (name), people named Rajani * Rajani (actress) (born 1965), Indian film actress * ''Rajani'' (TV series), a 1980s Indian TV series * ''Rajani'' (film), a 2009 Indian Kannada romantic comedy * ''Rajani'', an 1877 novel ...
in the Party, the issue of Indian independence and the independence of colonies was emphasised. In the
1945 general election The following elections occurred in the year 1945. Africa * 1945 South-West African legislative election Asia * 1945 Indian general election Australia * 1945 Fremantle by-election Europe * 1945 Albanian parliamentary election * 1945 Bulgarian ...
, the Communist Party received 103,000 votes, and two Communists were elected as
members of parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
: Willie Gallacher was returned, and Phil Piratin was newly electedA.J. Davies, ''To Build A New Jerusalem.'' London: Abacus, 1996, p. 179. as the MP for
Mile End Mile End is a district of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London, England, east-northeast of Charing Cross. Situated on the London-to-Colchester road, it was one of the earliest suburbs of London. It became part of the m ...
in London's East End. Harry Pollitt failed by only 972 votes to take the Rhondda East constituency. Both Communist MPs, however, lost their seats at the 1950 general election. The Party was keen to demonstrate its loyalty to Britain's industrial competitiveness as a stepping point towards socialism. At the 19th Congress, Harry Pollitt asked rhetorically, "Why do we need to increase production?" He answered: "To pay for what we are compelled to import. To retain our independence as a nation." The party's membership peaked during 1943, reaching around 60,000. Despite boasting some leading intellectuals, especially among the
Communist Party Historians Group A subdivision of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), the Communist Party Historians Group (CPHG) formed a highly influential cluster of British Marxist historians, who contributed to " history from below" from 1946 to 1956. Famous member ...
, the party was still tiny compared to its continental European counterparts. The
French Communist Party The French Communist Party (french: Parti communiste français, ''PCF'' ; ) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit in the European Un ...
for instance had 800,000 members, and the
Italian Communist Party The Italian Communist Party ( it, Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) was a communist political party in Italy. The PCI was founded as ''Communist Party of Italy'' on 21 January 1921 in Livorno by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) ...
had 1.7 million members, before Benito Mussolini outlawed it in 1926. The Party tried, unsuccessfully, to affiliate to the Labour Party in 1935, 1943 and 1946.


1946 to 1956: Start of the Cold War

In 1951 the party issued a programme, '' The British Road to Socialism'' (officially adopted at the 22nd Congress in April 1952), which explicitly advocated the possibility of a peaceful transition to socialism – but only after it had been personally approved by
Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
himself, according to some historians. The BRS would remain the programme of the CPGB until its dissolution in 1991 albeit in amended form and today is the programme of the breakaway
Communist Party of Britain The Communist Party of Britain (CPB) is a communist party in Great Britain which emerged from a dispute between Eurocommunists and Marxist-Leninists in the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1988. It follows Marxist-Leninist theory and s ...
. From the war years to 1956 the CPGB was at the height of its influence in the labour movement with many union officials who were members. Not only did it have immense influence in the National Union of Mineworkers but it was extremely influential in the Electrical Trade Union and in the
Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers The Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU) was a major British trade union. It merged with the Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union to form the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union in 1992. History The history of t ...
, a key blue-collar union. In addition, much of the Labour Party left was strongly influenced by the party. Dissidents were few, perhaps the most notable being
Eric Heffer Eric Samuel Heffer (12 January 192227 May 1991) was a British socialist politician. He was Labour Member of Parliament for Liverpool Walton from 1964 until his death. Due to his experience as a professional joiner, he made a speciality of the ...
, the future Labour MP who left the party in the late 1940s. In 1954 the party solidified its opposition to British racial segregation, with the publication of ''A Man's a Man: A Study of the Colour Bar in Birmingham''. Although the Communists had always opposed both
racial segregation Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crimes against hum ...
and British colonialism, this publication made clearer the party's position, and also had an enduring influence on British anti-racist politics outside the party. The death of Stalin in 1953, and the uprising in East Germany the same year had little direct influence on the CPGB, but they were harbingers of what was to come. Of more importance was
Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...
's "
Secret Speech "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences" (russian: «О культе личности и его последствиях», «''O kul'te lichnosti i yego posledstviyakh''»), popularly known as the "Secret Speech" (russian: секре ...
" at the
20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union The 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was held during the period 14–25 February 1956. It is known especially for First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev's "Secret Speech", which denounced the personality cult and dictatorship ...
, in which he denounced Stalin. According to George Matthews, Khrushchev made a deal with the CPGB to provide a secret annual donation to the party of more than £100,000 in used notes. The Poznań protests of 1956 disrupted not only the CPGB, but many other Communist Parties as well. The CPGB was to experience its greatest ever loss of membership as a result of the
Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist repub ...
's crushing of the
1956 Hungarian Revolution The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 10 November 1956; hu, 1956-os forradalom), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the Hung ...
. " e events of 1956... saw the loss of between one-quarter and one-third of Party members, including many leading intellectuals." This event was initially covered in the CPGB-sponsored ''Daily Worker'', by correspondent
Peter Fryer Peter Fryer (18 February 1927 – 31 October 2006)
''Spartacus Educational''.
was an English ...
, but as events unfolded the stories were spiked. On his return to Britain Fryer resigned from the ''Daily Worker'' and was expelled from the party.


1957 to 1970s: Decline of the party

After the calamitous events of 1956, the party increasingly functioned as a pressure group, seeking to use its well-organised base in the trade union movement to push the Labour Party leftwards. Trade unionists in the party in 1968 included John Tocher, George Wake, Dick Etheridge and Cyril Morton ( AEU); Mick McGahey, Arthur True and Sammy Moore ( NUM); Lou Lewis ( UCATT) and Max Morris ( NUT). Ken Gill became the party's first elected officer (Deputy General Secretary of DATA, later
TASS The Russian News Agency TASS (russian: Информацио́нное аге́нтство Росси́и ТАСС, translit=Informatsionnoye agentstvo Rossii, or Information agency of Russia), abbreviated TASS (russian: ТАСС, label=none) ...
) in 1968 and former party member
Hugh Scanlon Hugh Parr Scanlon, Baron Scanlon (26 October 1913 – 27 January 2004) was a British trade union leader. Scanlon was born in Melbourne, to parents who had emigrated from Britain. His mother brought him back from Australia to the UK when he ...
was elected president of the AEU with Broad Left support – defeating
Reg Birch Reginald Birch (7 June 1914 – 2 June 1994) was a British communist and trade unionist, aligning with Maoism later in his career. Early political activism Born in Kilburn, London, Birch became a toolmaker and joined the Amalgamated Engineering ...
, the Maoist ex-party candidate. The Broad Left went on to help elect Ray Buckton (
ASLEF The Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF) is a British trade union representing train drivers. It is part of the International Transport Workers' Federation and the European Transport Workers' Federation. At the end of ...
),
Ken Cameron Ken Cameron (born 1946) is an Australian film and television director and writer. Cameron was born in Tenterfield, New South Wales, Australia and graduated from Sydney University with BA in 1968. He has won two AFI Awards for directing. Filmo ...
( FBU), Alan Sapper ( ACTT) and Jack Jones ( TGWU) in 1969. Gerry Pocock, Assistant Industrial Organiser described the industrial department as "a party within a party", and ''Marxism Today'' editor
James Klugmann Norman John Klugmann (27 February 1912 – 14 September 1977), generally known as James Klugmann, was a leading British Communist writer and WW2 Soviet Spy, who became the official historian of the Communist Party of Great Britain. Background ...
would routinely defer to Industrial Organiser
Bert Ramelson Baruch Rahmilevich Mendelson (22 March 1910 – 13 April 1994), commonly known as Bert Ramelson, was an industrial organiser and politician for the Communist Party of Great Britain. He held the post of National Industrial Organiser from 1965 t ...
on matters of policy. The party's orientation, though, was to the left union officers, not the rank and file. Historian Geoff Andrews explains "it was the role of the shop stewards in organising the Broad Lefts and influencing trade union leaders that were the key rather than organising the rank and file in defiance of leaderships", and so the party withdrew from rank-and-file organisations like the Building Workers' Charter and attacked "
Trotskyist Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a ...
" tactics at the Pilkington Glass dispute in 1970. Still the party's efforts to establish an electoral base repeatedly failed. They retained a handful of seats in local councils scattered around Britain, but the CPGB's only representative in Parliament was in the
House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...
, gained when Wogan Philipps, the son of a ship-owner and a long-standing member of the CPGB inherited the title of Lord Milford when his father died in 1963. The ''Daily Worker'' was renamed the ''Morning Star'' in 1966. At the same time, the party became increasingly polarised between those who sought to maintain close relations with the Soviet Union and those who sought to convert the party into a force independent of Moscow. The international split between Moscow and Beijing in 1961 led to divisions within many Communist Parties but there was little pro-Beijing sympathy in the relatively small British Party. Perhaps the best known of the tiny minority of CPGB members who opposed the Moscow line was Michael McCreery, who formed the
Committee to Defeat Revisionism, for Communist Unity Committee to Defeat Revisionism, for Communist Unity was a small United Kingdom, British Marxism-Leninism, Marxist-Leninist group that left the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1963. CDRCU was led by Michael McCreery, the son of General (United K ...
. This tiny group left the CPGB by 1963. McCreery himself died in
New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
in 1965. Later a more significant group formed around
Reg Birch Reginald Birch (7 June 1914 – 2 June 1994) was a British communist and trade unionist, aligning with Maoism later in his career. Early political activism Born in Kilburn, London, Birch became a toolmaker and joined the Amalgamated Engineering ...
, an engineering union official, established the Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist). Initially, this group supported the position of the
Communist Party of China The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil ...
. Divisions in the CPGB concerning the autonomy of the party from Moscow reached a crisis in 1968 when Warsaw Pact forces invaded Czechoslovakia. The CPGB, with memories of 1956 in mind, responded with some very mild criticism of Moscow, refusing to call it an invasion, preferring "intervention". Three days after the invasion, John Gollan said "we completely understand the concern of the Soviet Union about the security of the socialist camp... we speak as true friends of the Soviet Union". Even this response provoked a small localised split by the so-called Appeal Group which was in many respects a precursor of the 1977 split which formed the New Communist Party. From this time onwards, the most traditionally-minded elements in the CPGB were referred to as '
Tankies Tankie is a pejorative label for leftists, particularly Stalinists, who support the authoritarian tendencies of Marxism–Leninism or, more generally, authoritarian states associated with Marxism–Leninism in history. The term was origin ...
' by their internal opponents, due to their support of the Warsaw Pact forces. Others within the party leaned increasingly towards the position of
Eurocommunism Eurocommunism, also referred to as democratic communism or neocommunism, was a trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties which said they had developed a theory and practice of social transformation more rel ...
, which was the leading tendency within the important Communist parties of Italy and, later, Spain. In the late-1960s, and probably much earlier,
MI5 The Security Service, also known as MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), G ...
had hidden surveillance microphones in the CPGB's headquarters, which MI5 regarded as "very productive". The last strong electoral performance of the CPGB was in the February 1974 General Election in Dunbartonshire Central, where candidate
Jimmy Reid James Reid (9 July 1932 – 10 August 2010) was a Scottish trade union activist, orator, politician and journalist born in Govan, Glasgow. His role as spokesman and one of the leaders in the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders work-in between June 1971 ...
won almost 6,000 votes. However, this strong result was primarily a personal vote for Reid, who was a prominent local
trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ...
leader and gained much support because of his prominent role in the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders work-in, which had taken place a few years earlier and was seen as having saved local jobs. Nationally the party's vote continued its decline: according to a contemporary joke, the CPGB at this time pursued ''the British Road to Lost Deposits''. According to historian Geoff Andrews, "The mid-1970s saw Gramscians" (otherwise known as Euro-Communists) "take leading positions within the party". Dave Cook became National Organiser in 1975 and
Sue Slipman Susan Slipman (born 3 August 1949) was President of the National Union of Students between 1977 and 1978. She later joined the National Union of Public Employees. Since then she has held a wide range of appointments and offices in the public sect ...
was appointed to the executive committee and to the ''
Marxism Today ''Marxism Today'', published between 1957 and 1991, was the theoretical magazine of the Communist Party of Great Britain. The magazine was headquartered in London. It was particularly important during the 1980s under the editorship of Martin Jacqu ...
'' editorial board. Jon Bloomfield, former Student Organiser became the West Midlands District Secretary. Pete Carter prominent in UCATT, had been gaining influence since the late 60s and was appointed National Industrial Organiser in 1982.
Beatrix Campbell Mary Lorimer Beatrix Campbell, OBE (''née'' Barnes; born 3 February 1947) is an English writer and activist who has written for a number of publications since the early 1970s. Her books include ''Wigan Pier Revisited'' (1984), ''Goliath: Brit ...
(a contributor, with Slipman, to '' Red Rag'') and Judith Hunt became active in the National Women's Advisory Committee. Martin Jacques, on the executive committee since 1967, replaced
James Klugmann Norman John Klugmann (27 February 1912 – 14 September 1977), generally known as James Klugmann, was a leading British Communist writer and WW2 Soviet Spy, who became the official historian of the Communist Party of Great Britain. Background ...
as editor of ''Marxism Today'' in 1977. Its turn to Eurocommunism was prefigured by what Andrews describes as Sarah Benton's "radical and heretical" stint as editor of the fortnightly review ''Comment''. Critics from the past, like Eric Hobsbawm and Monty Johnstone, also gained influence. The Euro-Communists in the party apparatus were starting to challenge the authority of the trade union organisers. At the 1975 Congress, economist Dave Purdy proposed that "the labour movement should declare its willingness to accept voluntary pay restraint as a contribution to the success of the programme and a way of easing the transition to a socialist economy" – a challenge to the Industrial Department's policy of "free collective bargaining". An argument he reiterated in print in ''
The Leveller ''The Leveller'' was a British political magazine, collectively produced in London from 1976 to 1982 by a shifting coalition of radicals, socialists, marxists, feminists, and others of the British left and progressive movements. It was published ...
'' in 1979. The growing crisis in the party also affected the credibility of its leadership, as formerly senior and influential members left its ranks. In 1976, three of its top engineering cadres resigned.
Jimmy Reid James Reid (9 July 1932 – 10 August 2010) was a Scottish trade union activist, orator, politician and journalist born in Govan, Glasgow. His role as spokesman and one of the leaders in the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders work-in between June 1971 ...
, Cyril Morton and John Tocher had all been members of the Political Committee, playing a crucial role in determining the direction of the party. Like another engineer, Bernard Panter, who left a few months before them, they jumped a sinking ship. According to the Party's official historian, this period was marked by a growing division between the practitioners of ''cultural'' politics – heavily inspired by the writings of Antonio Gramsci and party's powerful industrial department which advocated a policy of ''militant labourism''. The cultural politics wing had dominated the party's youth wing in the 1960s and was also powerful in the student section. As such many of its members were academics or professional intellectuals (or in the view of their opponents, out of touch and middle class). They were influenced by the environmental and especially the feminist movement. The other wing was powerful in senior levels of the trade union movement (though few actually reached the very top in the unions) and despite the party's decline in numbers were able to drive the TUC's policy of opposing the
Industrial Relations Act 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 stab ...
. In the view of their opponents on the cultural or Eurocommunist wing, ''they'' were out of touch with the real changes in working people's lives and attitudes. As the seventies progressed and as industrial militancy declined in the face of high unemployment, the tensions in the party rose even as its membership continued to decline.


1977–1991: Breakup of the party

By 1977, debate around the new draft of the ''British Road to Socialism'' brought the party to breaking point. Many of the anti- Eurocommunists decided that they needed to form their own anti-revisionist Communist party. Some speculated at the time that they would receive the backing of Moscow, but such support appears not to have materialised. The New Communist Party of Britain was formed under the leadership of Sid French, who was the secretary of the important Surrey District CP, which had a strong base in engineering. Another grouping, led by Fergus Nicholson, remained in the party and launched the paper '' Straight Left''. This served as an outlet for their views as well as an organising tool in their work within the Labour Party. Nicholson had earlier taken part in establishing a faction known as "Clause Four" within Labour's student movement. Nicholson wrote as "Harry Steel", a combination of the names of Stalin ("man of steel" in Russian) and Harry Pollitt. The group around ''Straight Left'' exerted considerable influence in the trade union movement, CND, the
Anti-Apartheid Movement The Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM), was a British organisation that was at the centre of the international movement opposing the South African apartheid system and supporting South Africa's non-White population who were persecuted by the policie ...
and amongst some Labour MPs. Under the influence of Eric Hobsbawm on the opposing wing of the party Martin Jacques became the editor of the party's theoretical journal ''
Marxism Today ''Marxism Today'', published between 1957 and 1991, was the theoretical magazine of the Communist Party of Great Britain. The magazine was headquartered in London. It was particularly important during the 1980s under the editorship of Martin Jacqu ...
'' and rapidly made it a significant publication for Eurocommunist opinions in the party, and eventually for revisionist tendencies in the wider liberal-left, in particular for the
soft left The soft left is a faction within the British Labour Party. The term "soft left" was coined to distinguish the mainstream left of Michael Foot from the hard left of Tony Benn. History The distinction between hard and soft left became eviden ...
around
Neil Kinnock Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock (born 28 March 1942) is a British former politician. As a member of the Labour Party, he served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995, first for Bedwellty and then for Islwyn. He was the Leader of ...
in the Labour Party. Although the circulation of the magazine rose it was still a drain on the finances of the small party. As early as 1983, Martin Jacques "thought the CP was unreformable... but stayed in because he needed its subsidy to continue publishing ''Marxism Today''." Jacques' conviction that the party was finished "came as a nasty shock to some of his comrades" like Nina Temple, who "as unhappy as Jacques himself, stayed on only out of loyalty to Jacques." In 1984, a long-simmering dispute between the majority of the leadership and an anti-Eurocommunist faction (associated with party industrial and trade union activists) flared up when the London District Congress was closed down for insisting on giving full rights to comrades who had been suspended by the executive committee. After the General Secretary closed the Congress a number of members remained in the room (in County Hall in South London) and held what was, in effect, the founding meeting of a breakaway party, although the formal split did not come until four years later. Members of the minority faction set about founding a network of ''Morning Star'' readers' groups and similar bodies, calling themselves the Communist Campaign Group. In 1988, these elements formally split from the CPGB to organise a new party known as the
Communist Party of Britain The Communist Party of Britain (CPB) is a communist party in Great Britain which emerged from a dispute between Eurocommunists and Marxist-Leninists in the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1988. It follows Marxist-Leninist theory and s ...
. This was considered by many in the anti-Eurocommunist faction, including national executive members like Barry Williams, to be the death of the 'Party'. In 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed, the Eurocommunist-dominated leadership of the CPGB, led by Nina Temple, decided to disband the party, and establish the Democratic Left, a left-leaning political
think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...
rather than a political party. The Democratic Left itself dissolved in 1999 and was replaced by the New Politics Network, which in turn merged with
Charter 88 Charter 88 was a British pressure group that advocated constitutional and electoral reform and owes its origins to the lack of a written constitution. It began as a special edition of the ''New Statesman'' magazine in 1988 and it took its name ...
in 2007. This merger formed
Unlock Democracy Unlock Democracy is a British pressure group, based in London. The organisation campaigns for a more participatory democracy in Britain, founded upon a written constitution. Unlock Democracy works to promote democratic reform across the politica ...
, which was involved in the campaign for a yes vote in the 2011 Alternative Vote referendum. Some Scottish members formed the
Communist Party of Scotland The Communist Party of Scotland (CPS; ''Pàrtaidh Co-Mhaoineach na h-Alba'') was a communist political party based in Scotland. It was established in January 1992 by former members of the Communist Party of Great Britain who disagreed with t ...
, while others formed Democratic Left Scotland and Democratic Left Wales Chwith Ddemocrataidd. Supporters of '' The Leninist'' who had rejoined the CPGB in the early 1980s declared their intention to reforge the Party and held an emergency conference at which they claimed the name of the party. They are now known as the
Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee) The Communist Party of Great Britain is a political group which publishes the '' Weekly Worker'' newspaper. The CPGB (PCC) claims to have "an internationalist duty to uphold the principle, 'One state, one party'. To the extent that the European ...
and they publish the ''
Weekly Worker The ''Weekly Worker'' is a newspaper published by the Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee) (CPGB-PCC). The paper is known on the left for its polemical articles, and for its close attention to Marxist theory and the po ...
''. But the
Communist Party of Britain The Communist Party of Britain (CPB) is a communist party in Great Britain which emerged from a dispute between Eurocommunists and Marxist-Leninists in the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1988. It follows Marxist-Leninist theory and s ...
is the designated 'Communist Party' in the UK by the
Electoral Commission An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...
. In 2008 members of the
Party of the European Left The Party of the European Left (PEL), commonly abbreviated European Left, is a European political party that operates as an association of democratic socialist and communist political parties in the European Union and other European countries. ...
, which contains several former communist parties in Europe, established a non-electoral British section.


Size and electoral information

The party began with 4000 members at its founding congress. It experienced a brief surge around 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 ...
, doubling its membership from 5,000 to over 10,000. This surge was short-lived, however, as membership eventually sank down to 2,350 by 1930. The party reached its peak in 1942 at 56,000 members. This reflected the popularity of the party in the active phase of the Second World War. In the post-war period, the membership began declining, culminating in the sudden loss of around 6,000 members in 1957, around the aftermath of the
Soviet intervention in Hungary The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 10 November 1956; hu, 1956-os forradalom), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the Hunga ...
. From that point, the party gradually recovered into the early 1960s; however, it began slowly shrinking again in 1965. The downward trend continued until the leadership pushed for the dissolution of the party in 1991. The final congress recorded an overall figure of 4,742 members.


General election results


General Secretaries


Congresses

The congresses appointed/elected the
Executive Committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...
. ::


Notable members

* Sam Aaronovitch * Vic Allen * Bill Alexander *
Kingsley Amis Sir Kingsley William Amis (16 April 1922 – 22 October 1995) was an English novelist, poet, critic, and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, short stories, radio and television scripts, and works of social a ...
* Robert Page Arnot *
Mark Ashton Mark may refer to: Currency * Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina * East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic * Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927 * Fin ...
* George Alfred Barnard * Joan Beauchamp * Kay Beauchamp * Clem Beckett * Tom Bell * Alfreda Benge * Leila Berg * J. D. Bernal * Bill Bland * Anthony Blunt * Jim Bollan *
Edith Bone Edith Bone (28 January 1889 – 14 February 1975), originally Edit Olga Hajós, was a medical professional, journalist and translator who later became a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain. Early life Bone was born in Hungary in 1889. ...
*
Bessie Braddock Elizabeth Margaret Braddock (née Bamber; 24 September 1899 – 13 November 1970) was a British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for the Liverpool Exchange division from 1945 to 1970. She was a ...
* Benjamin Francis Bradley *
Laurence Bradshaw Laurence Bradshaw (1899–1978) was an English sculptor, printmaker, and artist. Bradshaw was a life-long socialist and joined the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) in the 1930s, remaining a member for the rest of his life. He is mo ...
*
Noreen Branson Noreen Branson (16 May 1910 – 25 October 2003) was a British communist activist, historian, founder of ''Revolt'' newspaper, and a life-long member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). In 1931 she married fellow communist and Inte ...
* Peter Brearey *
Maurice Brinton Christopher Agamemnon Pallis (2 December 1923, in Bombay – 10 March 2005, in London) was an Anglo-Greek neurologist and libertarian socialist intellectual. Under the pen-names Martin Grainger and Maurice Brinton, he wrote and translated for th ...
*
Guy Burgess Guy Francis de Moncy Burgess (16 April 1911 – 30 August 1963) was a British diplomat and Soviet agent, and a member of the Cambridge Five spy ring that operated from the mid-1930s to the early years of the Cold War era. His defection in 1951 ...
*
Beatrix Campbell Mary Lorimer Beatrix Campbell, OBE (''née'' Barnes; born 3 February 1947) is an English writer and activist who has written for a number of publications since the early 1970s. Her books include ''Wigan Pier Revisited'' (1984), ''Goliath: Brit ...
* John Ross Campbell * Trevor Carter * Christopher Caudwell *
Bernard Coard Winston Bernard Coard (born 10 August 1945) is a Grenadian politician who was Deputy Prime Minister in the People's Revolutionary Government of the New Jewel Movement. Coard launched a coup within the revolutionary government and took power f ...
*
Ken Coates Kenneth Sidney Coates (16 September 1930 – 27 June 2010) was a British politician and writer. He chaired the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation and edited ''The Spokesman'', the BRPF magazine launched in March 1970. He was a Labour Party Mem ...
* Rose Cohen * Dave Cook *
Robert Conquest George Robert Acworth Conquest (15 July 1917 – 3 August 2015) was a British historian and poet. A long-time research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, Conquest was most notable for his work on the Soviet Union. His books ...
* John Cornford * Maurice Cornforth * Bob Crow * Jack Dash *
Edmund Dell Edmund Emanuel Dell (15 August 1921 – 1 November 1999) was a British politician and businessman. Early life Dell was born in London, the son of a Jewish manufacturer. In the Second World War he served in the Royal Artillery, reaching the r ...
*
George Derwent Thomson George Derwent Thomson ( ga, Seoirse Mac Tomáis; 1903 in Dulwich, London – 3 February 1987 in Birmingham) was an English classical scholar, Marxist philosopher, and scholar of the Irish language. Classical scholar Thomson studied Clas ...
* Mary Docherty *
Rajani Palme Dutt Rajani may refer to: *Rajani (name), people named Rajani * Rajani (actress) (born 1965), Indian film actress * ''Rajani'' (TV series), a 1980s Indian TV series * ''Rajani'' (film), a 2009 Indian Kannada romantic comedy * ''Rajani'', an 1877 novel ...
*
Jessie Eden Jessie Eden (née Shrimpton; 24 February 1902 – 27 September 1986) was a British trade union leader and communist activist, most famous for leading between 40,000 to 50,000 households during the Birmingham rent-strike of 1939. She was also in ...
*
Ben Fine Ben Fine (born 1948) is Professor of Economics at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies. Background Fine was born in Coventry in 1948. One of six brothers, he and all but one other followed their father and studied m ...
* Stewart Farrar * Ralph Winston Fox *
Peter Fryer Peter Fryer (18 February 1927 – 31 October 2006)
''Spartacus Educational''.
was an English ...
* Gerry Gable * Willie Gallacher * Green Gartside * David Gascoyne * GCT Giles * Percy Glading * Robert Griffiths * J. B. S. Haldane * Wal Hannington *
Jock Haston James "Jock" Ritchie Haston (1913–1986) was a Trotskyist politician and General Secretary of the Revolutionary Communist Party in Great Britain. Early years Haston was born in Edinburgh and went to sea in the merchant navy where he became a m ...
* Denis Healey * Charlie Hutchison *
Gerry Healy Thomas Gerard Healy (3 December 1913 – 14 December 1989) was a political activist, a co-founder of the International Committee of the Fourth International and the leader of the Socialist Labour League and later the Workers Revolutionary Par ...
*
Eric Heffer Eric Samuel Heffer (12 January 192227 May 1991) was a British socialist politician. He was Labour Member of Parliament for Liverpool Walton from 1964 until his death. Due to his experience as a professional joiner, he made a speciality of the ...
*
Margot Heinemann Margot Claire Heinemann (18 November 1913 – 10 June 1992) was a British Marxist writer, drama scholar, and leading member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). Early life She was born at 89 Priory Road, West Hampstead, London NW6. ...
* Mike Hicks * Jim Higgins * Christopher Hill *
Jeanne Hoban Jeanne Hoban (3 August 1924 in Gillingham, Kent – 18 April 1997 in Sri Lanka), known after her marriage as Jeanne Moonesinghe, was a British Trotskyist who became active in trade unionism and politics in Sri Lanka. She was one of the handful ...
* Eric Hobsbawm * David Holbrook *
Malcolm Hulke Malcolm Ainsworth Hulke (21 November 1924 – 6 July 1979) was a British television writer and author of the industry "bible" ''Writing for Television in the 70s''. He is remembered chiefly for his work on the science fiction series ''Doctor Wh ...
*
Douglas Hyde Douglas Ross Hyde ( ga, Dubhghlas de hÍde; 17 January 1860 – 12 July 1949), known as (), was an Irish academic, linguist, scholar of the Irish language, politician and diplomat who served as the first President of Ireland from June 1938 t ...
*
Albert Inkpin Albert Samuel Inkpin, (also written Inkpen) (16 June 1884 – 29 March 1944) was a British communist and the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). He served several terms in prison for political offences. In ...
* Thomas A. Jackson * Martin Jacques * Len Johnson * Claudia Jones * David Ivon Jones * Lewis Jones *
Pat Jordan Pat Jordan (17 July 1928 – 1 September 2001) was a British Trotskyist who was central to founding the International Marxist Group. Jordan was born in Chelsea, London,Cohen, S. 'Pat Jordan (1928-2001) in ''Revolutionary History'' Vol.8 No.3 pg ...
* Yvonne Kapp *
Luke Kelly Luke Kelly (17 November 1940 – 30 January 1984) was an Irish singer, folk musician and actor from Dublin, Ireland. Born into a working-class household in Dublin city, Kelly moved to England in his late teens and by his early 20s had become i ...
*
Helena Kennedy Helena Ann Kennedy, Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws, KC, FRSA, HonFRSE (born 12 May 1950), is a Scottish barrister, broadcaster, and Labour member of the House of Lords. She was Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford, from 2011 to 2018. Ea ...
*
Pieter Keuneman Pieter Gerald Bartholomeusz Keuneman (3 October 1917 – 3 January 1997) was a Sri Lankan politician and a Marxist. He was the Cabinet Minister of Housing and Local Government and prominent Member of Parliament and a leading figure in the Commu ...
* Victor Kiernan *
James Klugmann Norman John Klugmann (27 February 1912 – 14 September 1977), generally known as James Klugmann, was a leading British Communist writer and WW2 Soviet Spy, who became the official historian of the Communist Party of Great Britain. Background ...
*
Dorothy Kuya Dorothy Kuya (April 1932 – 23 December 2013) was a leading British communist and human rights activist from Liverpool, the co-founder of Teachers Against Racism, and the general secretary of the National Assembly of Women (NAW). She was a life ...
* Charles Lahr * John Lawrence * Norman Le Brocq * Doris Lessing *
John Lewis John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020) was an American politician and civil rights activist who served in the United States House of Representatives for from 1987 until his death in 2020. He participated in the 1960 Nashville ...
* Eddie Linden * Jack Lindsay *
James Litterick James Litterick (born 15 July 1901; date of death unknown) was a politician in Manitoba, Canada, and was the first member of the Communist Party of Canada to be elected to that province's legislature. Biography Early life Litterick was born in ...
* Ewan MacColl * Hugh MacDiarmid * Arthur MacManus * Mick McGahey * Claude McKay * Donald Maclean * Gordon McLennan * Harry McShane * Cecil L'Estrange Malone * John Manifold *
Tom Mann Thomas Mann (15 April 1856 – 13 March 1941), was an English trade unionist and is widely recognised as a leading, pioneering figure for the early labour movement in Britain. Largely self-educated, Mann became a successful organiser and a ...
*
Carl Marzani Carl Aldo Marzani (4 March 1912 – 11 December 1994) was an Italian-born American political activist with a series of careers as a volunteer soldier in the Spanish Civil War, organizer for the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), United States intellige ...
* William Mellor *
Ivor Montagu Ivor Goldsmid Samuel Montagu (23 April 1904, in Kensington, London – 5 November 1984, in Watford) was an English filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, film critic, writer, table tennis player, and Communist activist in the 1930s. He helped to de ...
* A. L. Morton *
Iris Murdoch Dame Jean Iris Murdoch ( ; 15 July 1919 – 8 February 1999) was an Irish and British novelist and philosopher. Murdoch is best known for her novels about good and evil, sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious. Her ...
*
J. T. Murphy John Thomas Murphy (9 December 1888 – 13 May 1965) was a British trade union organiser and Communist functionary. Murphy is best remembered as a leader of the communist labour movement in the United Kingdom from the middle 1920s until his resign ...
* Andrew Murray * David Nicholson *
Walton Newbold John Turner Walton Newbold (8 May 1888 – 20 February 1943), generally known as Walton Newbold, was the first of the four Communist Party of Great Britain members to be elected as MPs in the United Kingdom. Biography Early years John Turner ...
*
Melita Norwood Melita Stedman Norwood (née Sirnis; 25 March 1912 – 2 June 2005) was a British civil servant, Communist Party of Great Britain member and KGB spy. Born to a British mother and Latvian father, Norwood is most famous for supplying the Sovie ...
*
Sanzo Nosaka Tang Sanzang () is a central character in the 16th century novel ''Journey to the West'' by Wu Cheng'en. Tang Sanzang is based on the historical Buddhist monk Xuanzang. He is also widely known by his courtesy name, Tang Seng, () or Sanzang (). ...
*
Alan Nunn May Alan Nunn May (sometimes Allan) (2 May 1911 – 12 January 2003) was a British physicist and a confessed and convicted Soviet spy who supplied secrets of British and American atomic research to the Soviet Union during World War II. Early li ...
*
Sylvia Pankhurst Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst (5 May 1882 – 27 September 1960) was a campaigning English feminist and socialist. Committed to organising working-class women in London's East End, and unwilling in 1914 to enter into a wartime political truce with t ...
* William Paul *
Wogan Philipps, 2nd Baron Milford Wogan Philipps, 2nd Baron Milford (25 February 1902 – 30 November 1993) was the only member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) ever to sit in the House of Lords. Early life Philipps was the eldest son of Laurence Philipps, 1st Baro ...
* Phil Piratin *
Harry Pollitt Harry Pollitt (22 November 1890 – 27 June 1960) was a British communist who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) from 1929 to September 1939 and again from 1941 until his death in 1960. Pollitt spent ...
*
Raymond Postgate Raymond William Postgate (6 November 1896 – 29 March 1971) was an English socialist, writer, journalist and editor, social historian, mystery novelist, and gourmet who founded the '' Good Food Guide''. He was a member of the Postgate fa ...
* Annie Powell *
Tom Quelch Thomas Quelch (1886–1954) was a British journalist and the son of veteran Marxist Harry Quelch. a member of the British Socialist Party in the early part of the 20th century, becoming a communist activist in Great Britain in the 1920s. Quelch ...
*
Bert Ramelson Baruch Rahmilevich Mendelson (22 March 1910 – 13 April 1994), commonly known as Bert Ramelson, was an industrial organiser and politician for the Communist Party of Great Britain. He held the post of National Industrial Organiser from 1965 t ...
*
Jimmy Reid James Reid (9 July 1932 – 10 August 2010) was a Scottish trade union activist, orator, politician and journalist born in Govan, Glasgow. His role as spokesman and one of the leaders in the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders work-in between June 1971 ...
* John Reid * Al Richardson * Edgell Rickword * Michael Roberts * Archibald Robertson *
Andrew Rothstein Andrew Rothstein (26 September 1898 – 22 September 1994) was a British journalist. A member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), Rothstein was one of the leading public faces of the British Communist movement, serving as a member ...
* Ralph Russell * William Rust *
Shapurji Saklatvala Shapurji Dorabji Saklatvala (28 March 1874 – 16 January 1936) was a communist activist and British politician of Indian Parsi heritage. Saklatvala is notable for being the first person of Indian heritage to become a British Member of Parliamen ...
*
Raphael Samuel Raphael Elkan Samuel (26 December 19349 December 1996) was a British Marxist historian, described by Stuart Hall as "one of the most outstanding, original intellectuals of his generation". He was professor of history at the University of East L ...
*
John Saville John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...
*
Hugh Scanlon Hugh Parr Scanlon, Baron Scanlon (26 October 1913 – 27 January 2004) was a British trade union leader. Scanlon was born in Melbourne, to parents who had emigrated from Britain. His mother brought him back from Australia to the UK when he ...
* Stephen Sedley * Alfred Sherman *
Thora Silverthorne Thora Silverthorne (1910–1999), also known as "Red Silverthorne", was a British Communist, healthcare activist, and a nanny for Somerville Hastings, and former president of the Socialist Medical Association (SMA). She is most known for her s ...
*
Brian Simon Brian Simon (26 March 1915 – 17 January 2002) was an English educationist and historian. A leading member of the Communist Party of Great Britain, his histories reflected a Marxian interpretation. Background and early life The younger son of ...
*
Roger Simon, 2nd Baron Simon of Wythenshawe Roger Simon, 2nd Baron Simon of Wythenshawe (16 October 1913 – 14 October 2002) was a British solicitor and left wing journalist and political activist. He was one of the founders of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. The elder son of Er ...
* Derek Simpson *
Cliff Slaughter Cliff Slaughter (October 1928 – 3 May 2021) was a British socialist activist, sociologist and author. His best-known works are ''Coal is Our Life'' (written with Norman Dennis and Fernando Henriques) and ''Marxism, Ideology and Literature''. I ...
*
Sue Slipman Susan Slipman (born 3 August 1949) was President of the National Union of Students between 1977 and 1978. She later joined the National Union of Public Employees. Since then she has held a wide range of appointments and offices in the public sect ...
*
John Maynard Smith John Maynard Smith (6 January 1920 – 19 April 2004) was a British theoretical and mathematical evolutionary biologist and geneticist. Originally an aeronautical engineer during the Second World War, he took a second degree in genetics un ...
* Michael John Smith * John Sommerfield * Ken Sprague * Philip Spratt *
Hedi Stadlen Hedi Stadlen (6 January 1916 – 21 January 2004), better known in Sri Lanka as Hedi Keuneman, was an Austrian Jewish philosopher, political activist, and musicologist. She was one of the handful of European Radicals in Sri Lanka. Vienna She was ...
* Billy Strachan *
Randall Swingler Randall Carline Swingler MM (28 May 1909 – 19 June 1967) was an English poet, writing extensively in the 1930s in the communist interest. Early life and education His was a prosperous upper middle class Anglican family in Aldershot, with an ...
*
Tilda Swinton Katherine Matilda Swinton (born 5 November 1960) is a British actress. Known for her roles in independent films and blockbusters, she has received various accolades, including an Academy Award and a British Academy Film Award, in addition t ...
*
A. J. P. Taylor Alan John Percivale Taylor (25 March 1906 – 7 September 1990) was a British historian who specialised in 19th- and 20th-century European diplomacy. Both a journalist and a broadcaster, he became well known to millions through his televis ...
*
Michael Tippett Sir Michael Kemp Tippett (2 January 1905 – 8 January 1998) was an English composer who rose to prominence during and immediately after the Second World War. In his lifetime he was sometimes ranked with his contemporary Benjamin Britten ...
* E. P. Thompson * Alan Thornett * Dona Torr *
Philip Toynbee Theodore Philip Toynbee (25 June 1916 – 15 June 1981) was a British writer and communist. He wrote experimental novels, and distinctive verse novels, one of which was an epic called ''Pantaloon'', a work in several volumes, only some of whi ...
*
David Triesman David Maxim Triesman, Baron Triesman (born 30 October 1943) is a British politician, merchant banker and former trade union leader. Triesman is a Labour member of the House of Lords. Triesman previously sat as a Labour peer until resigning th ...
*
Edward Upward Edward Falaise Upward, FRSL (9 September 1903 – 13 February 2009) was a British novelist and short story writer who, prior to his death, was believed to be the UK's oldest living author. Initially gaining recognition amongst the Auden Group as ...
*
Freda Utley Winifred Utley (23 January 1898 – 21 January 1978), commonly known as Freda Utley, was an English scholar, political activist and best-selling author. After visiting the Soviet Union in 1927 as a trade union activist, she joined the Communist P ...
* J. O. N. Vickers *
Dorothy Wedderburn Dorothy Enid Wedderburn (née Barnard, formerly Cole; 18 September 1925 – 20 September 2012)Sarah Wesker * Harry Wicks *
Ellen Wilkinson Ellen Cicely Wilkinson (8 October 1891 – 6 February 1947) was a British Labour Party politician who served as Minister of Education from July 1945 until her death. Earlier in her career, as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Jarrow, s ...
*
Raymond Williams Raymond Henry Williams (31 August 1921 – 26 January 1988) was a Welsh socialist writer, academic, novelist and critic influential within the New Left and in wider culture. His writings on politics, culture, the media and literature contribu ...
*
Alan Winnington Alan Winnington (16 March 1910 – 26 November 1983) was a British journalist, war correspondent, and Communist activist most famous for his coverage of the Korean War and the Chinese revolution. He is most well-known as the author of ''I Saw ...
*
Tom Wintringham Thomas Henry Wintringham (15 May 1898 – 16 August 1949) was a British soldier, military historian, journalist, poet, Marxist, politician and author. He was a supporter of the Home Guard during the Second World War and was one of the founder ...
* Robert Wyatt


Origins of the term "Tankie"

" Tankie" is a
pejorative A pejorative or slur is a word or grammatical form expressing a negative or a disrespectful connotation, a low opinion, or a lack of respect toward someone or something. It is also used to express criticism, hostility, or disregard. Sometimes, a ...
term referring to those members of the Communist Party of Great Britain who followed the Kremlin line, agreeing with the crushing of the revolution in
Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...
and later the Prague Spring by Soviet
tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engi ...
s; or more broadly, those who followed a traditional pro-Soviet position.Stephen Drive ''Understanding British Party Politics'', p. 154 The term originated as a phrase for British hardline members of the Communist Party. Journalist Peter Paterson asked Amalgamated Engineering Union official
Reg Birch Reginald Birch (7 June 1914 – 2 June 1994) was a British communist and trade unionist, aligning with Maoism later in his career. Early political activism Born in Kilburn, London, Birch became a toolmaker and joined the Amalgamated Engineering ...
about his election to the CPGB Executive after the Hungarian invasion: The support of the invasion of Hungary was disastrous for the party's credibility. The CPGB opposed the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, though a hardline faction supported it. The party's newspaper, the ''Morning Star'', was banned in the Warsaw Pact countries during that time, as the paper opposed the invasion. The term is currently used in a somewhat broader sense in Internet slang to refer to any practitioner of
far-left politics Far-left politics, also known as the radical left or the extreme left, are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. The term does not have a single definition. Some scholars consider ...
, especially
Marxism–Leninism Marxism–Leninism is a communist ideology which was the main communist movement throughout the 20th century. Developed by the Bolsheviks, it was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, its satellite states in the Eastern Bloc, and various c ...
or
Maoism Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Ch ...
.


See also

*
Communist Party of Britain The Communist Party of Britain (CPB) is a communist party in Great Britain which emerged from a dispute between Eurocommunists and Marxist-Leninists in the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1988. It follows Marxist-Leninist theory and s ...
*
Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist–Leninist) The Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist–Leninist), abbreviated CPGB-ML, is an anti-revisionist, Marxist–Leninist communist party in the United Kingdom, active in England, Scotland, and Wales. The CPGB-ML was created after a split ...
*
Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee) The Communist Party of Great Britain is a political group which publishes the '' Weekly Worker'' newspaper. The CPGB (PCC) claims to have "an internationalist duty to uphold the principle, 'One state, one party'. To the extent that the European ...
* Communist Students * Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist–Leninist) *
Young Communist League The Young Communist League (YCL) is the name used by the youth wing of various Communist parties around the world. The name YCL of XXX (name of country) originates from the precedent established by the Communist Youth International. Examples of Y ...


Further reading


Secondary sources

* Geoff Andrews ''Endgames and New Times: The Final Years of British Communism, 1964–1991.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 2004. * Geoff Andrews, Nina Fishman & Kevin Morgan, ''Opening the Books: Essays on the Cultural and Social History of the British Communist Party.'' Palgrave, 1995. * John Attfield & Stephen Williams, ''1939: The Communist Party and the War.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1984. * Francis Beckett, ''Enemy Within: Rise and Fall of the British Communist Party.'' London: John Murray, 1995. * Thomas Bell, ''The British Communist Party: a Short History.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1937. * Robert Black, ''Stalinism in Britain: A Trotskyist Analysis.'' London: New Park Publications, 1970. * Sam Bornstein and Al Richardson, ''Two Steps Back: Communists and the Wider Labour Movement, 1939–1945.'' London: Socialist Platform, 1982. * Philip Bounds, ''British Communism and the Politics of Literature, 1928–1939.'' London: Merlin Press, 2012. *
Noreen Branson Noreen Branson (16 May 1910 – 25 October 2003) was a British communist activist, historian, founder of ''Revolt'' newspaper, and a life-long member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). In 1931 she married fellow communist and Inte ...
, ''History of the Communist Party of Great Britain, 1927–1941.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1985. * Noreen Branson, ''History of the Communist Party of Great Britain, 1941–1951.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1997. * Daniel F. Calhoun, ''The United Front: The TUC and the Russians, 1923–1928.'' Cambridge University Press, 1976. * John Callaghan and Ben Harker, ''British Communism: A Documentary History.'' Manchester University Press, 2011. * John Callaghan, ''Cold War, Crisis and Conflict: The CPGB 1951–68.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 2003. * John Callaghan, ''
Rajani Palme Dutt Rajani may refer to: *Rajani (name), people named Rajani * Rajani (actress) (born 1965), Indian film actress * ''Rajani'' (TV series), a 1980s Indian TV series * ''Rajani'' (film), a 2009 Indian Kannada romantic comedy * ''Rajani'', an 1877 novel ...
: A Study in British Stalinism.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1993. * Raymond Challinor, ''The Origins of British Bolshevism.'' Croom Helm, 1977. * Dave Cope, ''Bibliography of the Communist Party of Great Britain.'' London: Lawrence & Wishart, 2016. * Andy Croft (ed.) ''A Weapon in the Struggle: The Cultural History of the Communist Party in Britain.'' London: Pluto Press, 1998. * Andy Croft (ed.) ''After the Party: Reflections on Life Since the CPGB.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 2012. * Richard Croucher, ''Engineers At War.'' Merlin Press, 1982. *
Ralph Darlington Ralph Darlington is Professor of Employment Relations at Salford Business School, University of Salford. His research has been featured in national and local newspapers, radio and television. Darlington has published numerous books on his researc ...
, ''The Political Trajectory of J.T. Murphy.'' Liverpool University Press, 1998. * Bob (C. H.) Darke, ''The Communist Technique in Britain.'' London: Penguin, 1951. *
Hugo Dewar Hugo Dewar (9 August 1908 – June 1980) was an author, poet, and political activist influential in co-founding two of the earliest British Trotskyist groups. Dewar was born in Leyton in London in 1908. He joined the Independent Labour Party in 1 ...
, ''Communist Politics in Britain: The CPGB from its Origin to the Second World War.'' London: Pluto Press, 1976. * James Eadon and
Dave Renton David Renton (born 1972) is a British barrister, and has represented clients in a number of high-profile cases, especially concerning trade union rights and the protection of free speech. He was for many years a member of the Socialist Workers ...
, ''The Communist Party of Great Britain since 1920.'' Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2002. * Nina Fishman, '' Arthur Horner: A Political Biography. Volume 1 1894–1944 & Volume 2 1944–1968.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 2010. * Nina Fishman & Kevin Morgan (eds.) ''The British Communist Party and the Trade Unions 1933–1945.'' Hants: Scolar Press, 1995. * Nina Fishman, "The British Road is Resurfaced for New Times: From the British Communist Party to the Democratic Left." in Bull, Martin J. & Heywood, Paul M. (eds.), ''West European Communist Parties after the Revolutions of 1989'' Palgrave, 1994. * Paul Flewers and John McIlroy (eds.) ''1956: John Saville, E.P.Thompson & The Reasoner''. London: Merlin Press, 2016. * Hywel Francis, ''Miners Against Fascism.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1984. * Jim Fyrth (ed.), ''Britain, Fascism and the Popular Front.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1985. * John Green, ''Britain's Communists: The Untold Story.'' Artery Publications, 2014. * James Hinton, ''The First Shop Stewards' Movement.'' Allen & Unwin, 1973. * James Hinton & Richard Hyman, ''Trade Unions and Revolution: Industrial Politics of the Early British Communist Party.'' London: Pluto Press, 1975. *
James Jupp James Jupp AM (born 1932) was a British-Australian political scientist and author. He was Director of the Centre for Immigration and Multicultural Studies in the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University and an A ...
, ''The Radical Left in Britain, 1931–1941.'' London: Frank Cass, 1982. * Peter Kerrigan. ''The Communist Party.'' London, 1944. * Francis King & George Matthews (eds.), ''About Turn: The British Communist Party and the Second World War: The Verbatim Record of the Central Committee Meetings of 25 September and 2–3 October 1939.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1990. *
James Klugmann Norman John Klugmann (27 February 1912 – 14 September 1977), generally known as James Klugmann, was a leading British Communist writer and WW2 Soviet Spy, who became the official historian of the Communist Party of Great Britain. Background ...
, ''History of the Communist Party of Great Britain, Volume One: Formation and Early Years, 1919–1924.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1968. * James Klugmann, ''History of the Communist Party of Great Britain, Volume Two: The General Strike, 1925–1926.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1969. *
Keith Laybourn Keith Laybourn (born 13 March 1946) is Diamond Jubilee Professor of the University of Huddersfield and Professor of History. He is a British historian of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century specialising in labour history and the work ...
, ''Marxism in Britain: Dissent, Decline and Re-emergence 1945-c.2000.'' Oxon: Routledge, 2006. * Keith Laybourn & Dylan Murphy, ''Under the Red Flag: The History of Communism in Britain.'' Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 1999. * Thomas Linehan, ''Communism in Britain, 1920–39: From the Cradle to the Grave.'' Manchester University Press, 2007. * L.J. Macfarlane, ''The British Communist Party: Its Origin and Development until 1929.'' London: MacGibbon and Kee, 1966. *
Stuart Macintyre Stuart Forbes Macintyre (21 April 1947 – 22 November 2021) was an Australian historian, and Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Melbourne from 1999 to 2008. He was voted one of Australia's most influential historians. Early lif ...
, '' Little Moscows: Communism and Working-Class Militancy in Inter-war Britain.'' London: Croom Helm, 1980. * John Mahon, ''
Harry Pollitt Harry Pollitt (22 November 1890 – 27 June 1960) was a British communist who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) from 1929 to September 1939 and again from 1941 until his death in 1960. Pollitt spent ...
: A Biography.'' London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1976. * Kevin Marsh and Robert Griffiths, ''Granite and Honey: the Story of Phil Piratin, Communist MP.'' Manifesto Press, 2012. * Roderick Martin, ''Communism and the British Trade Unions, 1924–1933: A Study of the National Minority Movement.'' London: Clarendon Press, 1969. * John McIlroy and Alan Campbell, ‘The early British Communist leaders, 1920–1923: a prosopographical exploration’, Labor History (2020): DOI: 10.1080/0023656X.2020.1818711 * John McIlroy and Alan Campbell, 'The leadership of British Communism, 1923-1928: pages from a prosopographical project', Labor History, vol. 62, no. 3 (2021), pp. 207-253. * John McIlroy and Alan Campbell, 'The "core" leaders of the Communist Party of Great Britain, 1923-1928: their past, present and future', Labor History, vol. 62, no. 4 (2021), pp. 371-412. * John McIlroy and Alan Campbell, '"Class Against Class": The leadership of the Communist Party of Great Britain during the Comintern's Third Period', Labor History, vol. 63, no. 2 (2022), pp. 145-189. * John McIlroy and Alan Campbell, ‘Histories of the British Communist Party: a user’s guide’, Labour History Review, vol. 68, no. 1 (2003), pp. 33–60. * John McIlroy, Kevin Morgan & Alan Campbell (eds), ''Party People, Communist Lives: Explorations in Biography'', London: Lawrence and Wishart, 2001. * Kevin Morgan, ''Against Fascism and War: Ruptures and Continuities in British Communist Politics 1935–41.'' Manchester University Press, 1989. * Kevin Morgan, ''Bolshevism and the British Left, Part 1: Labour Legends and Russian Gold.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 2006. * Kevin Morgan, ''Bolshevism, Syndicalism and the General Strike: The Lost Internationalist World of A. A. Purcell.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 2013. * Kevin Morgan, Gidon Cohen & Andrew Flinn, ''Communists and British Society 1920–1991: People of a Special Mould.'' London: Rivers Oram Press, 2003. * Kevin Morgan, ''Harry Pollitt'', Manchester University Press, 1993. * Andrew Murray, ''The Communist Party of Great Britain: A Historical Analysis to 1941.'' Liverpool: Communist Liaison, 1995. * Kenneth Newton, ''The Sociology of British Communism''. Allen Lane, 1969. * F.S. Northedge & Audrey Wells, ''British and Soviet Communism: The Impact of a Revolution.'' London: Macmillan, 1982. * Lawrence Parker, ''The Kick Inside: Revolutionary Opposition in the CPGB, 1945–1991.'' November Publications, 2012. *
Brian Pearce Brian Leonard Pearce (8 May 1915 – 25 November 2008) was a British Marxist political activist, historian, and translator. Adept and prolific in Russian-to-English translation, Pearce was regarded at the time of his death as "one of the most ...
and Michael Woodhouse, ''(Essays on the) History of Communism in Britain.'' 1969; Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1975; London: Bookmarks, 1995. *
Henry Pelling Henry Mathison Pelling (27 August 1920 – 14 October 1997) was a British historian best known for his works on the history of the British Labour Party. Life Pelling was born in Prenton, Wirral, the son of a wealthy stockbroker. He was educat ...
, ''The British Communist Party: A Historical Profile.'' London: Adam and Charles Black, 1958. * Herbert Pimlott
"From_'Old_Left'_to_'New_Labour'?_Eric_Hobsbawm
_and_the_Rhetoric_of_'Realistic_Marxism',".html" ;"title="Eric Hobsbawm">"From 'Old Left' to 'New Labour'? Eric Hobsbawm
and the Rhetoric of 'Realistic Marxism',"">Eric Hobsbawm">"From 'Old Left' to 'New Labour'? Eric Hobsbawm
and the Rhetoric of 'Realistic Marxism',"Labour/Le Travail, vol. 56 (2005), pp. 175–197. * Neil C. Rafeek, ''Communist Women in Scotland: Red Clydeside from the Russian Revolution to the End of the Soviet Union.'' New York: I.B.Tauris, 2008. * Neil Redfern, ''Class or Nation: Communists, Imperialism and Two World Wars.'' London: Tauris Academic Studies, 2005. *
Raphael Samuel Raphael Elkan Samuel (26 December 19349 December 1996) was a British Marxist historian, described by Stuart Hall as "one of the most outstanding, original intellectuals of his generation". He was professor of history at the University of East L ...
, ''
The Lost World of British Communism ''The Lost World of British Communism'' is a book by Raphael Samuel first published, posthumously, in 2006 by Verso Books. Content The book is composed of a series of essays that were collected together to mark the ten year anniversary of Samuel's ...
.'' London: Verso, 2006. * Seifert, R. & Sibley, T. ''Revolutionary Communist At Work: A Political Biography of
Bert Ramelson Baruch Rahmilevich Mendelson (22 March 1910 – 13 April 1994), commonly known as Bert Ramelson, was an industrial organiser and politician for the Communist Party of Great Britain. He held the post of National Industrial Organiser from 1965 t ...
.'' London: Lawrence & Wishart, 2012. * Evan Smith, ''British Communism and the Politics of Race.'' Haymarket Books, 2018. * Evan Smith & Matthew Worley, ''Against the Grain: The British Far Left from 1956.'' Manchester University Press, 2014. * Evan Smith & Matthew Worley, ''Waiting for the Revolution: The British Far Left from 1956.'' Manchester University Press, 2017. * Mike Squires, '' Saklatvala: A Political Biography.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1990. * Willie Thompson, ''The Good Old Cause: British Communism, 1920–1991.'' London: Pluto Press, 1992. * Andrew Thorpe, "The Communist International and the British Communist Party." in Tim Rees and Andrew Thorpe (eds.), ''International Communism and the Communist International, 1919–43.'' Manchester University Press, 1998. * Andrew Thorpe, ''The British Communist Party and Moscow, 1920–1943.'' Manchester University Press, 2000. * Nigel West, ''Mask: MI5's Penetration of the Communist Party of Great Britain.'' Routledge, 2012. * Neal Wood, ''Communism and British Intellectuals.'' New York: Columbia University Press, 1959. * Matthew Worley, ''Class Against Class: The Communist Party in Britain Between the Wars.'' New York: I.B. Tauris, 2002.


Primary sources

* Brian Behan, ''With Breast Expanded.'' London: MacGibbon & Kee, 1964. * Thomas Bell, ''Pioneering Days.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1941. * Phil Cohen, ''Children of the Revolution: Communist Childhood in Cold War Britain.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1997. * Fred Copeman, ''Reason in Revolt.'' Blandford Press, 1948. * Bob Darke, ''The Communist Technique in Britain,'' London: Penguin, 1952. * William Gallacher, ''Revolt on the Clyde: an Autobiography.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1936. * William Gallacher, ''The Last Memoirs.'' London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1966. * Wal Hannington, ''Never On Our Knees.'' London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1967. * Wal Hannington, ''Unemployed Struggles 1919–1936.'' London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1936. * Arthur Horner, ''Incorrigible Rebel.'' MacGibbon & Kee, 1960. *
Douglas Hyde Douglas Ross Hyde ( ga, Dubhghlas de hÍde; 17 January 1860 – 12 July 1949), known as (), was an Irish academic, linguist, scholar of the Irish language, politician and diplomat who served as the first President of Ireland from June 1938 t ...
, ''I Believed: The Autobiography of a Former British Communist.'' London: Heinemann, 1950. * T.A. Jackson, ''Solo Trumpet.'' London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1953. * Joe Jacobs, ''Out of the Ghetto.'' London: Phoenix Books, 1991. * Alison Macleod, ''The Death of Uncle Joe.'' Merlin Press, 1997. * Margaret McCarthy, ''Generation In Revolt,'' Heinemann: 1953. * Harry McShane & Joan Smith, ''Harry McShane: No Mean Fighter.'' London: Pluto Press, 1978. *
Tom Mann Thomas Mann (15 April 1856 – 13 March 1941), was an English trade unionist and is widely recognised as a leading, pioneering figure for the early labour movement in Britain. Largely self-educated, Mann became a successful organiser and a ...
, ''Tom Mann's Memoirs.'' Spokesman, 1978 (1923) * J.T. Murphy, ''New Horizons.'' London: The Bodley Head, 1941. * J.T. Murphy, ''Preparing For Power.'' Jonathan Cape, 1934 eissued Pluto Press: 1972* Will Paynter, ''My Generation.'' Allen & Unwin, 1972. * Phil Piratin, ''Our Flag Stays Red.'' London: Thames Publications, 1948; London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1978, 2006. *
Harry Pollitt Harry Pollitt (22 November 1890 – 27 June 1960) was a British communist who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) from 1929 to September 1939 and again from 1941 until his death in 1960. Pollitt spent ...
, ''Serving My Time: An Apprenticeship to Politics.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1940. * Muriel Seltman, ''What's Left? What's Right?'' Troubadour, 2010. * Frank Watters, ''Being Frank.'' Doncaster: Frank Watters, 1992. * Fred Westacott, ''Shaking the Chains.'' Chesterfield: Joe Clark, 2002 * Harry Wicks, ''Keeping My Head: The Memoirs of a British Bolshevik.'' London: Socialist Platform, 1992.


Notes


References


External links


The 20th Congress and the British Communist Party by J.Saville. pdf file

Short History of the Communist Party
Communist Party of Britain The Communist Party of Britain (CPB) is a communist party in Great Britain which emerged from a dispute between Eurocommunists and Marxist-Leninists in the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1988. It follows Marxist-Leninist theory and s ...

''The Burial of the CPGB''
International Library of the Communist Left

Marxists Internet Archive
A-Z of Communist Biographies by Graham Stevenson
{{DEFAULTSORT:Communist Party Of Great Britain Defunct communist parties in the United Kingdom