The Party at War: its Finest Hour?

Abstract

By the time Neville Chamberlain spoke to the nation over the BBC on the morning of 3 September 1939, announcing the official declaration of war between Britain and Germany, the Central Committee of the Communist Party had already publicly declared their position in support of the war, but against the Chamberlain government. In a two page, tabloid newsprint ‘special’, entitled ‘War Communist Policy: to the Men and Women of Great Britain’, 250 000 of which were printed overnight on 2 September, the party explained their view: You are now being called upon to take part in the most cruel war in the history of the world. One that need never have taken place. One that could have been avoided even in the very last days of the crisis, had we had a People’s Government in Britain. Now that the war has come, we have no hesitation in stating the policy of the Communist Party.We are in support of all necessary measures to secure the victory of democracy over fascism. But fascism will not be defeated by the Chamberlain Government.1 Thus was born the short lived War on Two Fronts policy, pronounced by the Communist Party’s General Secretary Harry Pollitt, which had been gestating within the Communist Party leadership through 1938 and 1939.KeywordsCommunist PartyCentral CommitteeParty LeadershipParty MemberLabour PartyThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.