Communist Party Of Great Britain Research Articles

British Students at the International Lenin School 1926-37: A Reaffirmation of Methods, Results, and Conclusions

Alan Campbell, John McIlroy, Barry McLoughlin, and John Halstead have offered a sweeping, if incoherent, criticism of the research presented in ‘Stalin's Sausage Machine’, our recent article on British students at the International Lenin School. By expanding upon and reaffirming the methods, results, and conclusion of our original article, we address each of the main criticisms made and show that none can be substantiated. Using statistical analysis based on matched samples, we demonstrate that we did not underestimate the school's impact on the apparatus of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). We also show that none of the supposed ‘significant deficiencies’ in our handling of qualitative analysis has any foundation. We deal briefly with the sole alternative explanation our critics offer for the CPGB's internal leadership changes, namely ‘life itself’ and natural causes. We suggest that such a de-politicized interpretation not only lacks any evidential basis but reveals a profound ignorance as to the internal workings of communist parties and flies in the face of all available literatures on the subject. We also document the contrast between our critics' methodological pretensions and the ways in which their case depends for its plausibility on methods of an extremely dubious nature. Every possible academic rationale for the attack upon us is disposed of. We therefore end with a plea for a less personalized approach to the writing of Communist Party history.

Interesting Times: A Twentieth-Century Life

Born in 1917, the year of the Russian Revolution, the eighty-five years of Eric Hobsbawm's life are backdropped by an endless litany of wars, revolutions and counter-revolutions. He has led a remarkably fulfilling and long life; historian and intellectual, fluent in five languages, a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain, until it dissolved itself, and writer of countless volumes of history. He has personally witnessed some of the critical events of our century from Hitler's rise to power in Berlin to the fall of the Berlin wall. Hobsbawm has kept his eyes and ears open for eighty-five years, and has been constantly committed to understanding the 'interesting times' (as the Chinese curse puts it) through which he has lived. His autobiography is one passionate cosmopolitan Jew's account of his travels through that past which is another country, where they do things differently, and how it became the world we now live in.

A Rebel, not a Rabbi: Jewish Membership of the Communist Party of Great Britain

A Rebel, not a Rabbi: Jewish Membership of the Communist Party of Great Britain

Class against class: the Communist Party in Britain between the wars

A major study of the Communist party of Great Britain between the wars, when it adopted the military strategy of class against class, in its struggle to be the effective alternative to both the Labour Party and the TUC. This revisionary study, based on newly-discovered material in the Manchester archive of the Communist Party, shows that far from losing influence and being driven to the brink of collapse, the CPGB then consolidated its position, led national hunger marches and organized social and cultural events, while membership grew and the party developed as an effective and valued body in the pantheon of leftwing British politics.

Winning the Peace: British Communists, the Soviet Union and the General Election of 1945

During the last two years of the Second World War the Communist Party of Great Britain developed a new reformist and nationalistic strategy. The twists and turns of its development and its content show that even after the dissolution of the Comintern British Communists still looked to the Soviet party for inspiration and guidance. The Labour Party played a key role in the CP's new strategy. Though Communists argued that national unity was necessary for post-war reconstruction, they were adamant that only a Labour-led government could prevent a return to pre-war conditions and commence the transition to socialism. The widely-held belief that the party entered the general election campaign of 1945 calling for a continued coalition government is false.

"Nina Ponomareva's Hats": The New Revisionism, the Communist International, and the Communist Party of Great Britain, 1920-1930

"Nina Ponomareva's Hats": The New Revisionism, the Communist International, and the Communist Party of Great Britain, 1920-1930

Missing, Biased, and Unrepresentative: The Quantitative Analysis of Multisource Biographical Data

With the growth in interest in collective biography as a historical technique, many predominantly qualitative historians find themselves faced with large amounts of information. These data, collected from a variety of sources, are often highly irregular, making statistical analysis extremely problematic. Current practice is to ignore these problems and proceed with quantitative analysis suitable only for much more regular data. It is argued that a more satisfactory approach is to ascertain and directly confront the difficulties of analyzing such information. The three central problems are identified as missing data, systematic bias, and the lack of a representative sample. Using a practical example, the author explores the relationship between gender, the family, and political socialization within the Communist Party of Great Britain and shows how each of the issues can be dealt with in turn. The author first distinguishes truly missing data from “negative information,” which commonly appears to be missing in historical sources. He then stratifies the data to remove systematic biases relating to the issue at hand. Finally, he divides the sample into different populations, on the basis of the sources from which individuals are known, and compares the results obtained to examine whether his conclusions appear to depend on quirks of populations contained in the sources. These ideas open a new range of sources to quantitative analysis and raise the possibility of allowing new types of evidence to count in historical inquiry.

The struggle for civil liberties: political freedom and the rule of law in Britain, 1914-1945

It is widely believed that there was a golden age in which political freedom in Britain was protected by the rule of law, and by judges developing the common law in favour of individual liberty. In an uncompromising and withering account based on a wide range of official and unofficial sources, this path-breaking study by two of the country's leading civil liberties lawyers exposes the mythical nature of much of this traditional learning. The Struggle for Civil Liberties: Political Freedom and the Rule of Law in Britain, 1914-1945 traces the hostile response of the executive and judicial branches of government to the various groups and individuals who confronted the power of the State in the first half of the twentieth century: the wartime peace movements, the Communist Party of Great Britain, the striking trade unionists in 1926, the hunger marches, and the Irish Nationalists. In addressing these issues, the study has a loud contemporary resonance, by placing in a new and alarming historical context the struggles for civil liberties that have been and are being fought by radical groups in contemporary British Society, and during the Thatcher decade in particular. This book will change forever the way in which open-minded public lawyers think about their subject, and will require a fundamental re-examination of the foundations of the discipline.

THE MEMBERSHIP OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF GREAT BRITAIN, 1920–1945

The opening of archives in recent years makes it possible to reassess the membership of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) before 1945. The revised aggregate figures, while not startling, suggest that revisions to established views of the effects of the General Strike, the shift to the ‘new line’ and the popular front, are in order. The party's membership was very predominantly male, tended to be young, often included a high proportion of unemployed people, and was heavily working class, with miners especially significant. Geographically, its membership was dominated for most of the period by London, Scotland, Lancashire, and South Wales. There was also a very high turnover of membership for much of the period. The reasons for this turnover, and explanations for the circumstances in which the party was best able to recruit, are discussed. Over time the party's membership did become less unrepresentative of Britain as a whole, enabling it to become an organic, if minor, part of British political life. CPGB membership patterns have similarities with those of other Western Communist parties and its predecessor organizations in Britain, showing how the CPGB reflected features of both international Communism and the British left.

The Communist International, The Communist Party of Great Britain,and the ‘Third Period’, 1928–1932

The Communist International, The Communist Party of Great Britain,and the ‘Third Period’, 1928–1932

Left Turn: A Reassessment of the Communist Party of Great Britain in the Third Period, 1928-33

Left Turn: A Reassessment of the Communist Party of Great Britain in the Third Period, 1928-33

Review: Popular Education and Social Movements

May I start with a personal reminiscence. In 1972-73 I was invited by Mick McGahey, President of the Scottish Miners and then a fellow member of the Executive Committee of the Communist Party of Great Britain, to act as tutor to two succeeding Scottish Miners Schools, then held annually at a hotel in Perth. The participants were some 60 young members from various branches. Each school lasted over a full weekend and involved a good deal of hard work for all concerned. Mick and other executive members attended some of the sessions, one being responsible for ensuring a disciplined approach (by tutor and students). Sessions started punctually and finished on time. The whole approach was deeply serious while the dominant note was one of comradeship and solidarity.

The Evolution of the Mythical British Fifth Column, 1939-46

The recent declassification of sanitized files relating to national security during the Second World War has provided important material relating to the influence of the security service (MI5), its relationship to other departments of state, and on political surveillance in Britain. The Second World War and the ‘fifth column’ scare of spring 1940 led to the enhancement of its role after internal reorganization, following the near collapse of MI5 during the crisis; the supposed existence of the fifth column became a means by which MI5 came to justify its existence, growth, and importance. However, internment of aliens and fascists, and the proscription of the British Union of Fascists in July 1940 destroyed the non-existent threat of a Nazi-manipulated British fifth column. Political surveillance of other groups who opposed the war, most notably Jehovah's Witnesses and the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), provided the new justification for vigilance. Even after the CPGB adopted super-patriotism after the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, MI5's simplistic interpretation of its ‘revolutionary defeatism’ remained unaltered. The deterioration in relations between the victorious allies and the coming of the Cold War enabled MI5 to justify its importance and to avoid the severity of the cuts that had threatened its existence after the First World War. The myth of the fifth column was an important factor which raised the profile of the Security Service in peace, as well as in war.

Noreen Branson. History of the Communist Party of Great Britain, 1941-1951. London: Lawrence and Wishart; dist. by New York University Press. 1998. Pp. vi, 262. $22.50 paper. ISBN 0-85315-862-2. - Phil Cohen, ed., Children of the Revolution: Communist Childhood in Cold War Britain. London: Lawrence and Wishart; dist. by New York University Press. 1998. Pp. 189. $ 19.50 paper. ISBN

Noreen Branson. History of the Communist Party of Great Britain, 1941-1951. London: Lawrence and Wishart; dist. by New York University Press. 1998. Pp. vi, 262. $22.50 paper. ISBN 0-85315-862-2. - Phil Cohen, ed., Children of the Revolution: Communist Childhood in Cold War Britain. London: Lawrence and Wishart; dist. by New York University Press. 1998. Pp. 189. $ 19.50 paper. ISBN 0-85315-841-X. - Volume 31 Issue 2

History of the Communist Party of Great Britain, 1941–1951

History of the Communist Party of Great Britain, 1941–1951

Comintern 'Control' of the Communist Party of Great Britain, 1920-43

Comintern 'Control' of the Communist Party of Great Britain, 1920-43

"A Very Present Menace"? Attlee, Communism and the Cold War!

With the end of the Cold War and the further opening of archives, the role of Western communist parties and their relationship with the former Soviet Union has been the subject of fresh scrutiny. This article examines the conviction of the British Labour Government and its security services that the Communist Party of Great Britain represented, at least in the early Cold War period, a "very present menace". The article discusses the policies of the Soviet Union in Europe and the Communist Party in Britain and explores how these shaped the perspectives of the Attlee Government, especially during the London dock strike of 1949. When placed against this background, Attlee’s anti‐communism can no longer be accepted, as most commentators do, as simply a product of Cold War paranoia.

The rise of socialism in Britain, c. 1881-1951

The book covers the years 1881 to 1951 and looks at the Social Democratic Federation, the Independent Labour Party, the Labour Party and the Communist Party of Great Britain.

The Good Old Cause: British Communism, 1920-1991.

Willie Thompson, a longstanding Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) member and activist, has written this book to show the history of the Communist Party, from its formation to its present crisis of identity. The character and methods of the Party are explored in detail, from the Russian Revolution through the popular front of the 1930s, the heyday of the war period to Socialism to the crisis of 1956, disintegration, loss of industrial base and near collapse in the 1970s and 1980s. The dual nature of the infant CPGB - as an expression both of the international revolutionary wave and the specific crisis of British state and society - is interpreted as the central contradiction at the heart of the Party's subsequent career.

Western European communists and the collapse of communism

The Italian Communist Party - Gorbachev and the end of really existing socialism, Stephen Gundle post-Communist parties in Finland and Scandinavia - a red-green road to the 21st century, David Arter French Communism's final struggle', D.S.Bell the Portuguese party - loyalty in the Communist ideal, Maria Teresa Particio and Alan D.Stoleroff the Greek Communist party in the post Gorbachev era, Ole L.Smith requiem for the Spanish Communist party, Jose Amodia endgame - the Communist party of Great Britain, John Callaghan the German Communists', Heinrich Bortfeldt and Wayne C.Thompson the Communist party of the Netherlands - premature perestroika, Gerrit Voerman conclusion - the Communist international and the future of Communism.