Communist Party of Great Britain

The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was a political party in the United Kingdom, which existed from 1920 to 1991.

The 1920s and 30s

Throughout the 1920s and most of the 1930s the CPGB decided to follow the Leninist doctrine that a communist party should consist of revolutionary cadres and not be open to all comers. The CPGB as the British section of the Communist International was committed to carrying out the decisions of the higher body to which it was subordinate.

Related Topics:
1920s - 1930s - Leninist - Communist International

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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. 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 to play a revolutionary role. This policy, it was argued by Leon Trotsky, was due to the alliance between the TUC and the Russian state in the Anglo-Russian Trade Union Committee.

Related Topics:
General Strike of 1926 - Trades Union Congress - Leon Trotsky

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None the less 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 mushroomed through 1926 and 1927. Much of these gains would be lost during the Third Period but roots had been developed in certain areas that would continue until the party's demise decades later.

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The CPGB did succeed in forging a layer of militants deeply committed to the party and its aims, 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 and in Jewish East London. Indeed, Maerdy in the Rhondda Valley along with Chopwell was one of a number of communities known as Little Moscow for their Communist tendencies.

Related Topics:
Glasgow - Maerdy - Rhondda

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But this layer of support built during the party's first years was imperilled during the Third Period from 1929 to 1932, the Third Period being the so called period of renewed revolutionary advance as it was dubbed by the (now Stalinist) 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 openly fascist parties and were therefore described as being social-fascist. Any kind of alliance with social-fascists was obviously to be prohibited.

Related Topics:
Third Period - Stalinist

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The Third Period also meant that the CPGB sought to develop red or revolutionary trade unions in rivalry to the established Trades Union Congress 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.

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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 led by Wal Hannington. Rising levels of unemployment had led to 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 led a number of marches on the unemployment issue during the 1930s. Although born in the Third Period amidst the depths of the Great depression the NUWM was a major campaigning body througout the Popular Front period too, only being dissolved in 1941.

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After the victory of Hitler in Germany the Third Period was dropped by all Communist Parties as they switched to the policy of the Popular Front. 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. Having positioned itself to the left of Labour during the Third Period the CPGB had now moved to the right of that, far larger, party.

Related Topics:
Hitler - Popular Front

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In the 1935 general election William Gallacher was elected as the communist party's first MP elected as a member of the party and not under the banner of the Labour Party as with its earlier MPs. Gallagher sat for West Fife in Scotland a coal mining region in which it had considerable support. During the 1930s the CPGB opposed the Conservative government's policy of appeasement towards Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. On the streets the CPGB played a leading role in the struggle against the British Union of Fascists, led by Sir Oswald Mosley whose Blackshirts tried to emulate the Nazis in anti-semitic actions in London and other major British cities.

Related Topics:
1935 general election - William Gallacher - MP - Fife - Scotland

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