Our History Bulletin 2

New Series No. 2 - 2006

Our History

History Group of the Communist Party of Britain – newsletter

Membership lists from the past?

In this issue: •

Queries about past members

•

1939 members for BBC?

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From the archives: the 1935 Jubillee

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The strange Colonel: first Communist MP?

The Communist Party office gets continual queries from relatives of deceased members, fired by the experience of family history in general, who are anxious to trace details about some past family member who is known to have been an active Communist. The latest such case was the grand-niece of Wal Hannington.

Indeed, this sort of question is a very frequent one for us. We explain firstly that in any case we do not maintain deposits of archives at the Party’s headquarters, rather these are normally placed with a publicly accessible archive. Also, unfortunately for researchers, the Communist Party did not, as a matter of policy, in any case maintain a national `database’ of membership for security reasons, certainly from 1948, when it is now apparent that it was MI5 that stole a significant number of centrally held records in a what is now clear to have been a pretend burglary!

Unfortunately, there's no official historical list of members outside of whatever the MI5 destroyed of the records they kept in their clear out in 1992! It is apparent that MI5 obtained membership lists bit by bit through planted agents throughout the Party’s history. Being aware of these dangers, each district or area kept their own records and these were commonly not maintained beyond each year of new card renewal. No documents detailing such information have yet been released to the Public Record Office, or even admitted to having been in existence. The likelihood is that these were destroyed in a clearing out admitted to by MI5 in 1992. (They held detail on a million names) So, probably, no-one will ever know!

The only thing we have to go on is the recollection of individuals or published statements and many leavers did not make a great deal of their departure from the Party, since they did not want reactionary forces to make something of the event. It was quite common simply to fail to renew cards, simply to `drop out’ rather than to make a big thing of it.

We do explain that there's masses of archives to go on, though it will take years to explore them! Inquirers are directed to the main archive of the Communist Party in Manchester (People's History Museum) and the Working Class Movement Library.

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Call from BBC for 1939 Communists……

“I would be most grateful if your History Group could help to put me in touch with older Comrades who were already members of the British Communist Party in 1939, and who would be willing to talk about their experience of the outbreak of World War Two. The types of issues which we are interested in are: life in the UK prior to the outbreak of World War Two, what it was like to be be a member of the Communist Party at that time, attitudes to Europe, reactions to the pact between Hitler and Stalin, but especially the thoughts and feelings of young British Communists at that difficult period in history.

Should any of your members agree to help me with my research by talking to me about their personal experiences, I could phone them at a time that would be convenient to them.

Many thanks for your help. Should you have any questions about the planned TV series or anything else, please don’t hesitate to contact me. The producer of the series is Laurence Rees, who most recently made the TV series: 'Auschwitz: The Nazis ans the Final Solution'.

The best way to contact me is by email or on my mobile phone: 07771 621 104. My direct line at the BBC is (020) 8752 7063 Warmest regards, Anna E-mail to: Anna.Taborska@bbc.co.uk

OUR ARCHIVE PIECE FOR THIS EDITION COMES FROM 1935….COMMUNISTS OPPOSE THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT’S PROMOTION OF KING GEORGE V’S JUBILEE TO DIVERT ATTENTION AWAY FROM ECONOMIC CRISIS AND WAR. LABOUR POLITICIANS PLAY THE GAME………..

OVERLEAF, MICHAEL WALKER SUPPLIES A TRANSCRIPT OF THIS RARE OPEN LETTER TO PETER MANDELSON’S GRANDFATHER…..

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“THE LONDON DISTRICT COMMITTEE, THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 133, EAST ROAD, N11.

May, 1935 LONDON UNDER “SOCIALIST” RULE An open letter to Rt Hon Herbert Morrison P.C, Leader of the London County Council on the occasion of the reception at County Hall of their Majesties King George V and Queen Mary.

“DEAR HERBERT MORRISON, The London Trades Council, the courageous Mayor of Bermondsey, the Battersea Borough Council and scores of other Labour bodies and good Labour men and women have condemned the Jubilee celebrations.

But on May 31st you, as Leader of the Labour Party on the London County Council, will shake the King by the hand and welcome him to the reception which the Labour Council has organised as part of London's Jubilee programme. Is your action likely to help or weaken the cause of the millions of London's workers whom you claim to represent?

How can this action help to strengthen the fight of the London workers against capitalism and the National Government? How can it strengthen the socialist faith of London's workers? If the Monarchy for them represented hope of a new life, the end of unemployment, poverty, slums, oppression and tyranny in the factory, the hope of a world without war and militarism, no one would question your action.

But, in fact, the Monarchy is the symbol of the capitalist state which stands for all these things. George V and his reign stand for the pre-war armaments race against Germany, which ended in the massacres of the Somme and at Paschendaele. George V was the man who knighted General Denikin, murderer of the Russian workers, at the time when London workers were striking against the shipping of munitions to the White Armies.

The name of George V appeared on the proclamations which put the working class outside the law during the General Strike of 1926. The same name appeared on the Orders in Council, which robbed the unemployed, the teachers, and State employees in 1931 in the name of "economy."

The present Jubilee celebrations are being used to whip up Jingo feeling to allow a new armaments race, leading straight to a new 1914, all in "the King's name." The King is only a costly symbol, but this royal

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personage and his family, sustained by the millions wrung from the workers, is the screen which our capitalist masters use to cover up their own government of plunder and oppression. The real meaning of your action is to strengthen the National Government and all the forces making for war and reaction.

On May 21st " Daily Herald " headlines announced that Mr. Ernest Bevin was demanding " No Exploitation of the Jubilee," and their editorial stated: " It is suggested that the Jubilee could be used as an electoral asset for the Government."

This fear is well-founded; the forces behind the National Government will use any misrepresentation of the real issues, any false bogy to stampede the electorate. If they now decide to exploit the Jubilee in this way, those Labour leaders who have helped to boost it up will bear a great responsibility.

Instructions to local Labour Parties to participate in the celebrations—the L.C.C. vote of £33,000 for this purpose—your County Hall reception— these will have played a big part in arousing just that wave of nationalistic feeling which the Government now hopes to use against us.

Under cover of the Jubilee, the National Government announced its proposals for compulsory air defence and gas-mask drill, and decided to treble the Air Force. The Jubilee from start to finish must therefore be regarded by all workers and socialists as an actual part of the war preparations.

In such a menacing situation, instead of spending time in receptions to royalty, it would better behove a leader of London's working class to throw himself into the task of awakening the workers to the imminence of the war danger and rouse them in time to take action to defeat the Government's war plans.

This is a matter of life and death importance for the workers. The capitalists cannot, dare not, make war unless they have the support of the workers. That is why we protest at your action in supporting the Jubilee— because it aids the Government to win the workers for support of its war policy.

The Communist Party will continue its fight to expose all the war. measures of the Government and to organise resistance. But it needs the united action of the whole working class to prevent war.

We appeal, therefore, to all who are against war— Let us get together before it is too late! Let us act together now to defeat the war plans of the capitalists and sweep away the hated National Government!” a contemporary report follows

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“THE

LONDON TRADES CONDEMNS THE JUBILEE

COUNCIL

The full delegate meeting of the London Trades Council on Thursday, April 11th, carried, amidst scenes of great enthusiasm, the following resolution, moved by Mr. Percy Allott, on behalf of the Central London Branch of the National Union of Shop Assistants, Wareho usemen and Clerks: — "The Council declares that it sees no reason why the organised workers should participate in celebrations organised by the National Government in connection with the Jubilee of a reign which has been marked by the Great War, in which millions of workers were killed and maimed, and which has seen an increasing attack on the standards of living of the working class, in addition to serious inroads on our democratic rights by the imposition of the restrictions provided in the Trades Disputes and Trade Union Act, and the Incitement to Disaffection Act." In moving this resolution, Brother Allott declared that he was a Labour man, but he could not understand how a Socialist L.C.C. can celebrate the Jubilee, which was a tribute to 25 years of reaction. It will go down with lasting shame that any section of the Labour Movement should endorse celebrations when millions are on the verge of starvation and when we arc on the verge of a new holocaust.

"The monarchy is the monarchy of the capitalist class. The National Government is the Government of the capitalist class. The hope of the working class is in the overthrow of both. But first we must expose the cant and hypocrisy of events such as these."

The Hammersmith Labour Councillors, in reply to a letter from the Shepherd's Bush Branch of the Transport and General Workers' Union.

Further copies of this " Open Letter " can be obtained from 133 East Road, N.1, 1d each or pd. per dozen, post free.”

+++++++++++++++ Material supplied by Michael Walker See > http://ourhistory-hayes.blogspot.com/

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THE STRANGE COMMUNIST COLONEL? Lieutenant-Colonel Cecil J L’Estrange Malone MP was elected for East Leyton in 1918 as a Coalition Liberal candidate. As a Coalition Liberal, he found himself a member of the virulently anti-communist “Reconstruction Society” prior to a visit to Russia in September 1919. Its 1918 pamphlet, `Bolshevist Plot to Seize Power in Britain’, listed Malone as a member of the society’s executive.

In September 1919, Malone visited Russia, where he had talks with leading Bolsheviks and even joined Trotsky in a review of Red Army troops. The experience shifted him radically to the left and he wrote a sympathetic account, `Bolshevism at Work’, joined the British Socialist Party and subsequently, when the BSP fused with others into the Communist Party, became a founding member of the Party – and, hence, its very first MP. He was also a member of the first Central Committee of the Party.

But even before the Communist Party’s foundation, Malone endured the experience of being falsely denounced as a government agent by John Maclean, an outstanding opponent of World War I and supporter of the 1917 Bolshevik revolution. His health, however, had deteriorated badly after a period of incarceration and conspiracy theories had started to plague Maclean’s mind. When his marriage broke down in 1919, he even claimed that the government was somehow directly responsible.

Despite his past adherence, Maclean began a dispute with the BSP over the Hands off Russia campaign, which between 1919 and 1920 saw major agitation to defend the revolution from outside intervention. Malone’s presence alongside Maclean and George Lansbury on the platform of the November 1919 Hands Off Russia meeting in Glasgow, focused Maclean’s paranoia on the MP and unleashed a sequence of events that led to the split between Maclean and the BSP. After the rally, Maclean denounced Malone as a government agent, largely basing this on his past. The Reconstrction Society had attacked Maclean in its pamphlet, describing him as ‘a wildlooking schoolmaster’. But there was not a single shred of evidence to prove Maclean’s allegations. The idea that Malone was an active counter-revolutionary, who had been sent into the workers’ movement to destroy it, found no support with either the Communist Party or the Comintern.

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This did not deter Maclean from also then denouncing Theodore Rothstein, a prominent figure in the BSP, who was held in the highest esteem by the Bolsheviks and was in receipt of funds from Russia, which helped to launch the Communist Party. Undaunted, Maclean said the money was coming from the British government.

Maclean’s relations with other leading figures came under serious strain due to his constant references to "spies" being present at public and private meetings.

When Maclean was billed along with Malone to address a big Hands Off Russia rally at London’s Albert Hall in February 1920, he refused to share a platform with an “agent”. After Rothstein revealed truthfully to Maclean that he was the Bolsheviks’ official representative in Britain, Maclean began to openly tell of how the cunning agent Rothstein had tried to fool him, when he knew full well that he was working for the British government!! The outcome was that Maclean was discretely dropped from speakers’ platforms of the Hands off Russia campaign.

Malone’s personal commitment to the movement during this period seems, in retrospect, entirely genuine. A secret report – only released decades later - to the Cabinet on the November 1919 meeting, where Maclean `found’ his suspicions of Malone, condemned the latter as a man ‘who is apparently so enamoured of Bolshevism that he is not ashamed as an ex-officer and a Member of Parliament to share a platform with a declared revolutionary’.

In November 1920 he received, a six-month sentence after making a speech in which he argued that during a revolution, in order to defend the workers against counter-revolutionary violence by the ruling class, it was legitimate to execute leading members of the bourgeoisie. ‘What, my friends’, he asked his audience, ‘are a few Churchills or a few Curzons on lampposts compared to the massacre of thousands of human beings?’

Given the suddenness of his conversion, though, the depth of Malone’s intellectual understanding of Communism was certainly questionable. James Klugmann, in his history of the Communist Party, states that Malone had joined the party “on an emotional rather than a reasoning basis; he was never a Marxist, and had little or no contact with the working class movement”.

Imprisonment seemingly caused Malone a rethink over involvement in revolutionary politics. After his release he left the Communist Party and joined the ILP, subsequently moved over to the right of the Labour Party and eventually drifted out of the labour movement altogether. Maclean died young and entered mythology, Malone is almost unheard of!

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