| Description | Correspondence; circular briefings; election material and policy flyers; and draft articles mainly issued by the Midlands District Committee and Birmingham City Committee of the Communist Party of Great Britain [CPGB] relating to activities and political campaigns in 1960 and 1961. There is also material relating to the formation of the Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) which split from the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1968, and an item dating from 1979 that probably relates to a Communist Party congress that year. Many members of the Indian Workers Association with communist sympathies joined the Communist Party of Great Britain when they arrived in the country, partly because it was seen as easier to join than the Communist Party of India. Many were active in CPGB campaigns during the early 1960s, but later formed the Association of Indian Communists following ideological disagreements.
Papers consist of:
/1 letter to Avtar Jouhl from Harry Bourne, Midlands District Committee, asking him to attend a meeting in Manchester and to contact the office or Maurice Ludmer to confirm attendance, 26 April 1960
/2 press statement issued by the Birmingham City Committee of the CPGB giving information about the Small Heath Bye-Election, 9 March 1961
/3 Agenda for a meeting of the Birmingham City Committee of the CPGB 23 March 1961, together with minutes of the Birmingham City Committee meeting 16 March 1961, signed by Bill Dunn, City Secretary
/4 circular letter from Bill Dunn to members with an interest in the housing situation in Birmingham, inviting them to attend a discussion with Councillor Jack Webster on the issue at the Midland Institute, 9 April 1961
/5 Circular letter and flyer for the May Day demonstration 1961, giving information about events on the day and setting out the demands of the CPGB
/6 election campaign material setting out the reasons why people should vote Communist in municipal elections in Birmingham 1961
/7 CPGB Midlands District Committee bulletin 16 May 1961 giving election results for Birmingham, Coventry, South Staffordshire and North Staffordshire
/8 Birmingham City Committee Campaign Letter No.1, 12 June 1961 discussing the local activities of the party. This letter was issued for discussion at branch committees and includes information about forthcoming demonstrations and social events
/9 circular letter to members of the Birmingham City Committee of the CPGB giving information about a Speakers Training Class to demonstrate the method of compiling a speech, to be held 25 June 1961
/10 Agenda for a meeting of the Birmingham City Committee of the CPGB 24 August 1961, with minutes of a City Committee meeting that took place on 13 July 1961 and Executive Committee meetings 27 July and 17 August 1961
/11 Midlands District Congress district resolution on the Political Report of the CPGB and its effects on the policy and programme in the Midlands, November 1964
/12 undated flyer issued by Birmingham Young Communist League giving information about a talk given by Dick Etheridge on the need for young workers to join trade unions
/13 annotated typescript of a speech given at the first public meeting called by the Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist). The typescript is anonymous and undated, but the speech contains a reference to the recent arrest of Jagmohan Joshi and other members of the Indian Workers Association during Harold Wilson's visit to Birmingham in May 1968.
/14 Bulletin of the Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) No. 4
/15 annotated typescript article on the need for a new Communist Party in Britain, other than the CPGB and the Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist)
/16 Resolutions of 36th National Congress 1979 on Tory plans to intensify racism in immigration procedures and tighten 1971 Immigration Act. This
/17 letter to Avtar Jouhl from Dave Cook, Communist Party of Great Britain, inviting Indian Workers Association members to attend a conference on 'Racism and the Police' to be held in January 1981, and asking Jouhl to make a contribution to the discussion, 28 October 1980
/18-/20 flyer and programme for the 'Racism and the Police' conference organised by the Communist Party National Race Relations Committee 31 January 1981, together with a covering letter from the conference organiser Vishnu Sharma
/21 letter to Avtar Jouhl from Vishnu Sharma, thanking him for his contribution to the 'Racism and the Police' conference, 6 February 1981 |
| AdminHistory | The Communist Party of Great Britain [CPGB] was formed in 1920 after the Third International decided that greater attempts should be made to establish communist parties across the world. The Communist Party supported the Russian Revolution and for many years accepted Russian funds in order to spread its ideas. Initially it attempted to work within the Labour Party but was never affiliated. Even during this period, the Communist Party of Great Britain fielded its own candidates at parliamentary elections.
Support for the CPGB was concentrated in particular trades, specifically in heavy engineering, textiles and mining, and in addition tended to be concentrated regionally in the coalfields, certain industrial cities such as Glasgow and in Jewish East London. There was an increase in membership during the period of high unemployment in the late 1920s and 1930s, but instead of building a party based on mass membership, the CPGB decided to follow the Leninist doctrine that communist parties should be run by a small revolutionary elite, excluding all but the ultra-committed. The CPGB also decided that it would follow directives issued from Moscow whether or not they applied to British circumstances. This succeeded in isolating the CPGB from the working classes, who they were supposedly there to represent, and drove away potential recruits, most of whom joined the mainstream Labour Party.
Following Hitler's rise to power in Germany, all Communist Parties realised the need to ally with anti-fascist forces, and in Britain, the CPGB forged an alliance with the Labour Party and even with parties to the right of Labour. The CPGB played a leading role in the struggle against Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists in London and other British towns and cities, and organised volunteers to fight for the Spanish government against fascism.
Following the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, the CPGB campaigned for peace, seeing it as an imperialist war in which the working classes had no side to take. Between 1939 and 1941 it was active in supporting strikes and denouncing the government for its involvement in the conflict. However, following the invasion of the Soviet Union by the Nazis, the CPGB changed its stance and supported the war as a struggle between fascism and the Soviet Union.
The CPGB experienced its greatest ever loss of membership as a result of the intervention of the Warsaw Pact armies and their crushing of the workers uprising in Hungary in 1956.After 1956, the party increasingly functioned as a pressure group, seeking to use its well-organised base in the trade union movement to push the Labour Party leftwards. The international split between Moscow and Beijing in 1961 led to divisions within many Communist Parties but there was no split in the British party until later, when a group formed around Reg Birch, an engineering union official, to establish the Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist). Initially, this group supported the position of the Communist Party of China.
During the 1970s and 1980s, the CPGB was increasingly affected by factional struggles and splinter groups, and in 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed, the party was disbanded, and renamed as Democratic Left, a left-leaning political think tank rather than a political party.
Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_Great_Britain Accessed August 2006 |