Monday 12 October 2020

The early British Communist leaders

The foundation of the British Communist Party as a section of the Comintern in 1920 promised progress for international socialism. If that promise went unfulfilled, its centenary merits critical commemoration. In that context, the article below may be of interest. It analyses the foundation cadre; discusses some of the party’s leading architects, frequently forgotten or briefly referred to in existing accounts; and explores in human terms the difficulties of creating a revolutionary leadership in Britain in the early 1920s.

John McIlroy and Alan Campbell, ‘The early British Communist leaders: a prosopographical exploration’, Labor History at: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/DAMMVDTIMTIICD4XW7I6/full?target=10.1080/0023656X.2020.1818711