Isabel Brown (6 December 1894 – 22 October 1984) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English ...

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...

activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fr ...

. Born in

Tyneside Tyneside is a built-up area across the banks of the River Tyne in northern England. Residents of the area are commonly referred to as Geordies. The whole area is surrounded by the North East Green Belt. The population of Tyneside as publish ...

, Brown obtained a scholarship to attend the Sunderland Teacher Training College. Initially highly religious, she changed her views as a result of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, and through attending

National Council of Labour Colleges The National Council of Labour Colleges (NCLC) was an organisation set up in the United Kingdom to foster independent working class education. The organisation was founded at a convention held in the Clarion Club House, Yardley, Birmingham on 8/9 ...

lectures led by T. A. Jackson. She became active in the

National Union of Teachers The National Union of Teachers (NUT; ) was a trade union for school teachers in England, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. It was a member of the Trades Union Congress. In March 2017, NUT members endorsed a proposed merger with ...

and joined the Labour Party in 1918.Graham Stevenson,
Brown Isabel
, ''Compendium of Communist Biography'' In 1921, Isabel married Ernest Brown, a local communist, and she became a founder member of the

Communist Party of Great Britain The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPGB ...

(CPGB), one of only five women delegates to attend its founding congress. She lost her teaching post the following year, when she became pregnant, and moved with Ernest to Moscow in 1924, returning just before the

UK 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 governmen ...

. During the strike, Brown was jailed for sedition, and was again imprisoned soon after her release, while she was speaking in support of miners who were still striking. In the late 1920s, Brown organised women's sections of 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 ...

. Ernest became the CPGB's Scottish organiser, and she moved with him, becoming women's editor of ''The Mineworker''.Neil C. Rafeek, ''Communist Women in Scotland'', p.35 She stood unsuccessfully in

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lana ...

at the 1929 general election, and then in the Kilmarnock by-election, later in the year. In 1930, Brown studied at the

Lenin School The International Lenin School (ILS) was an official training school operated in Moscow, Soviet Union, by the Communist International from May 1926 to 1938. It was resumed after the Second World War and run by the Communist Party of the Soviet Uni ...

, then led the British Committee for the Relief of Victims of Fascism and was prominent in the Aid for Spain committee. She was particularly well known for her speeches, which were moving and held audiences' attention, and for her ability to answer questions from the public. Brown became extremely active in the British Aid for Spain movement, playing a central role in the cross-party National Joint Committee for Spanish Relief. This included helping out with efforts to house the Basque refugees who came to Britain in 1937. Late in 1930s, Brown became the national women's organiser for the CPGB, and she stood in the

1940 Bow and Bromley by-election The 1940 Bow and Bromley by-election, was a parliamentary by-election held on 12 June 1940 for the British House of Commons constituency of Bow and Bromley in the Metropolitan Borough of Poplar in the East End of London. The seat became vacan ...

, taking only 4.2% of the vote even though she faced only one opponent. Injured in an air raid later in the year, she never fully recovered, standing down as a women's officer in 1942, and from the Central Committee in 1947.''Labour History Review'', vols.68-69, p.118 She stood in her final election at Kilmarnock at the 1950 general election, again failing to come near winning the seat. Despite increasingly poor health, Brown continued to speak on behalf of the CPGB, teach and attend conferences until her death in 1984.

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Isabel 1894 births 1984 deaths Alumni of the University of Sunderland Communist Party of Great Britain members Schoolteachers from Tyne and Wear English trade unionists International Lenin School alumni English women trade unionists