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HISTORY
Pamphlet No. 11
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Communists in the Channel Islands: From occupation to mass struggle
Britain’s Road to Socialism The new edition of Britain’s Road to Socialism, the Communist Party’s programme, adopted in July 2011; presents and analysis of capitalism and imperialism in its current form; answers the questions of how a revolutionary transformation might be bought about in 21st Century Britain; and what a socialist and communist society in Britain might look like. The BRS was first published in 1951 after nearly six years of discussion and debate across the CP, labour movement and working class. Over its 8 editions it has sold more than a million copies in Britain and helped to shape and develop the struggle of the working class for more than half a century. Other previous editions of the BRS have been published in 1952, 1958, 1968, 1977, 1989 and 2000 as well as multiple substantially revised versions.
Contributors: Rajani Palme Dutt, Norman Le Brocq, Sam Russell, Communist Party History Group Series editor: Graham Stevenson Published by the Communist Party May 2013. Copyright © Communist Party 2013. ISBN 978-1-908315-23-6 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of the publisher. Communist Party Ruskin House 23 Coombe Rd Croydon London CR0 1BD 020 8686 1659 office@communist-party.org.uk www.communist-party.org.uk Wales PO Box 69 Pontypridd CF37 9AB www.welshcommunists.org Scotland 72 Waterloo St Glasgow G2 7DA 0141 204 1611 www.scottishcommunists.org.uk South West & Cornwall www.southwestcommunists.org.uk
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Cover image: Members of the German navy stationed in Jersey during the Nazi Occupation of the Channel Islands
HISTORY 1
Our History No. 11
R U O
Pamphlet No. 11
New Series
£1.50
The CP in the Channel Islands
From Nazi Occupation to mass work in the modern era CONTENTS page Introduction The Channel Islands Under Nazi Occupation Introduction by Rajani Palme Dutt Labour Monthly article by Norman Le Brocq 1945 Daily Worker report by Sam Russell in St Helier The Communist Party in the Channel Islands Giving up the Jews The Occupation comes to an end The post-war period Ron Robinson’s 1961 CP Congress speech The Guernsey Communist Party The Jersey Communist Party Sources
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Introduction The Channel Islands were the only part of the British Isles to come under Nazi occupation during World War II, being occupied from July 1940 until being liberated in May 1945. This pamphlet comprises an account of that Occupation written by Norman le Brocq, the long-time leader of Communists in the islands. [Published in Labour Monthly in October 1965, pages pp470-474]. The text has been edited and updated to take account of contemporary circumstances and is accompanied by a Preface from that edition by the editor of Labour Monthly, Raji Palme Dutt.
Norman Le Brocq in 1967
There’s an additional report contemporary to the days in which the war was ending from the Daily Worker by Sam Russell in St Helier, Jersey, on 8th April 1945.
Finally, we also include a detailed report on the subsequent post-war development of the Communist Party in the Channel Islands collated by the Communist Party History Group. The occupation of the Channel Islands has been of historic importance since it reveals how the dominant part of the ruling class in Britain would easily have accommodated themselves to a Nazi occupation of mainland Britain. But the Channel Islands have been mostly known in the post-war era, successively, for potatoes and tomatoes, holidays, and now the finance sector - most controversially in its current use as an off-shore tax haven. The Channel Islands are uniquely British set of dependencies off the coast of Normandy. Who, today, can doubt the importance of recalling these historic events? The Channel Islands Communist Party
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Not in an era when we see a chief minister of Jersey threaten to make a unilateral declaration of independence if the UK government were to inhibit the islands’ right to act as a tax-evasion haven. Not when the spectacle of the Barclay brothers, owners of the daily Telegraph, withdraw investment from Sark after not a single one of their favoured candidates was elected to the new parliament of that island in 2008. Prior to this, the island was still run without any democratic mandate by a Seigneur, the head of the feudal government running under Norman law or, at the latest, laws last enacted in 1565, under the Bailliwick of Guernsey. In a perverse parallel to Britain, a free sheet loyal to the tycoons uses a violently intemperate tone to savage all critics. Even a UK coalition government minister has expressed concern over the danger of Sark becoming a “company town” in the context of “good governance”; two companies or more presumably being acceptable, presumably?! Not in an era when a massive internet trade in pharmaceuticals sees medically unprescribed drugs sold direct to the UK from the Channel Islands; a trade that would probably be illegal if plied on the mainland. While concerns about health, welfare, and – especially – the safety of children in care on these islands abound. A culture of secrecy and vindictiveness nurtured by the elite on the islands is well-matched by a dictatorial style in treating dissent. Technically, the Channel Islands are two ‘bailiwicks', an otherwise archaic term meaning the area of jurisdiction of an appointed Bailiff under a royal writ. The Bailiwick of Jersey comprises the island of Jersey, as well as uninhabited tiny islands such as the Minquiers and Écréhous, whilst the Bailiwick of Guernsey comprises the islands of Guernsey, Sark, Alderney, Brecqhou, Herm, Jethou, and Lihou. The Channel Islands Communist Party
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The remnants of the Duchy of Normandy, the islands are not politically part of the United Kingdom but a Crown possession. The two Bailiwicks have no common legal or democratic institutions. The current total population of the islands is around 170,000 and their main towns St. Peter Port (Guernsey) and St. Helier (Jersey) have populations of some 17,000 and 28,000 residents. The parliament of Guernsey is the States of Guernsey, the parliament of Sark is called the Chief Pleas, and the parliament of Alderney is called the States of Alderney. Coins and banknotes issued by both bailiwicks circulate freely in alongside UK coinage and English and Scottish banknotes but Channel Islands currency is not strictly legal tender within the UK although the odd coin does slip through. The most distinctive political feature about the islands is that there are no political parties at all, with candidates for office standing for election as independents. Whilst establishment politics has always embraced this as a means for better maintaining control by the elite, and the Labour Party never sought to challenge the status quo, clearly, this presented a significant test for Communists over the years. This pamphlet tells a story of courage and dedication in that process, tested in the most extreme of circumstances, and second to none within our history.
Coat of arms of Jersey
Flag of the Channel Islands
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The Channel Islands Under Nazi Occupation: Introduction by Rajani Palme Dutt The truth about the Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands, the collaboration of the official British authorities with the Nazis on the instructions of the British Government, even to the extent of enforcing anti-Semitic laws, and the heroic popular resistance movement which developed with the active role of the Communist Party within it, and in association with antifascist prisoners of war, needs to be placed on record. This is the more important since Rajani Palme Dutt the shameful pictorial account of the Sunday Times supplement of August 22nd 1965 (on the 20th anniversary of the liberation of the islands from Nazi occupation) shocked readers by its complacent attitude to the official collaboration with Nazism; maintained complete silence on the popular resistance, movement. Immediately after describing 'a slave camp for 18,000 foreign workers, many of whom were to die of starvation and brutality, the Sunday Times described in the next sentence how 'in the early days of the occupation the behaviour of the soldiers was impeccable'; and presented the decision to leave the collaborators scot-free after the war with the cool statement that 'the British Government decided that there would be no trials for the collaborators, possibly to avoid the shock which would undoubtedly have been given to national pride to have admitted their existence'. Accordingly, we are proud to print this truthful record by Norman Le The Channel Islands Communist Party
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Brocq, Secretary of the Jersey Branch of the Communist Party, who played an honourable part in the resistance. Readers of Soviet Weekly will recall the article in its issue of May 15 'Saved by the People of Jersey' by Oleg Orestov, in which he described how 'dozens of ordinary unassuming people in those dark years bravely befriended and helped the prisoners in the German slave camps' and pays tribute specifically to Dr Robert McKinstry, Leslie Huelin, Edmund Blampied, Augusta Metcalfe, Norman Le Brocq, Leonard Perkins and many others as 'people who in time of danger thought of others not of themselves—people of noble character and courage'’.
Collaboration in practice—a Channel Islands British civilian policeman gives directions to a sailor from the occupying Nazi German navy.
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The Channel Islands Under Nazi Occupation by Norman Le Brocq The British Press—particularly the Sundays—have celebrated the twentieth anniversary of victory over the Nazis with distorted stories of the occupation of the Channel Islands by Hitler's troops. Distorted because the British capitalist establishment can get no joy from the reality of this occupation of British territory. However the working class movement is in a different position. The Channel Islands are a small group of islands with a population of about 120,000. They are in theory self-governing; but in practice a Privy Council right of veto is translated into a great deal of 'advice' from the Home Office. Until the Second World War the islands had remained semifeudal though with growing links with British business concerns. The island governments (States Assemblies) were a hotchpotch of nominated members, court officials, Church of England rectors and elected Deputies. There was little real political activity with no political parties, although unsuccessful attempts had been made to establish a Labour Party both in the nineteen twenties and thirties. Even trade unions had only existed since the end of the First World War and were in fact illegal under anti-combination acts up to 1938. Industry was almost non-existent apart from small workshops. However, the heavy exploitation of the working people was acting as a leaven. A Jerseyman returning from Australia, Leslie Huelin, formed a branch of the Communist Party in 1939 which began to conduct some activity. The months of the 'phoney war' made little impact on the islands; things appeared to be following the course of the previous war as far as the islands were concerned. Then, the only real impact had been the casualty lists—the war itself had seemed a long way away. Then came Dunkirk and the collapse of France. At first this brought a flurry of military activity in the islands, which only later was seen to be a cover for the evacuation via the The Channel Islands Communist Party
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islands of British stragglers and Free French groups. Then came the clear sound of gunfire from the French coast and our first taste of bombing. The islands were evacuated by the troops and declared undefended. Followed a week of chaos with some thousands of Channel Islanders leaving their homes for Britain in whatever ships were made available. A letter was sent to the Bailiffs of the Islands from the Home Office telling them 'it is desired by His Majesty's Government that the Bailiff ‌ should stay at his post and administer the government of the island to the best of his ability in the interest of the inhabitants. The Crown Officers also should remain at their posts'. This letter was used later by the island authorities to justify all their subsequent actions which even included rewards advertised for information about anti-German activities, enforcement of the Nazi anti-Semitic laws, co-operation in the deportation of British residents and so on. This letter may have been one of the factors inhibiting Herbert Morrison, then Home Secretary, when he visited the islands soon after liberation and declared in a speech in Jersey's Royal Square that while there may have been irregularities in the actions of the island governments during the occupation he did not propose to go further into the matter. Alexander Coutanche
The Luftwaffe occupied Guernsey on June 30th, 1940, and Jersey on July 1st. The smaller islands were subsequently taken over, and a military The Channel Islands Communist Party
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commandatura set up. The The Nazi invasion of the islands underway in 1940 attitude of the local authorities was to show cooperation. In Jersey, Coutanche, the Bailiff (OH Editor’s note: Alexander Moncrieff Coutanche, Baron Coutanche (9 May 1892 – 18 December 1973, later a member of the House of Lords in the United Kingdom, pictured opposite) and (Charles) Duret -Aubin, Attorney General, met Luftwaffe officers at the airport with handshakes and smiles. This meeting was photographed by German officers and used amongst other material as propaganda to show how well they had been received. In September 1940 a regular occupation regime was set up. Feld Kommandatur 515 was set up with offices in each island. FK 515 was responsible to the German Military Administration in North-West France, but given special powers to deal with the differences between France and these British islands. The civilian government departments were left in being, but parallel German military departments were set up to supervise them. The States Assemblies were 'frozen', i.e., no new elections for the duration. All democratic organisations—the trade unions, etc.—were banned. Military matters were in the hands of the commanding officer of the 319th Division—the garrison force. Policing of the islands was carried out jointly by the States police and German Feld Gendarmerie. A unit of the military Gestapo and a military court were also set up alongside the local Courts. The two local newspapers continued under their existing management but with German censors, and published Nazi propaganda and proclamations throughout the occupation. The Channel Islands Communist Party
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In what follows, I must deal mainly with Jersey, the island where I spent the occupation, though events in the other islands followed a similar pattern. At first the population were stunned by events. Wars and military occupation were things that happened to other people—not on our own doorstep. Although the islands The Nazi flag flies over Jersey airport have a stirring history, there was no recent tradition of political activity or understanding. The major trade union body, a district committee of the Transport and General Workers' Union, (Ed: then known as the T&GWU, later T&G, now part of Unite the union) met just before the arrival of the Nazis and dissolved itself with one honourable vote against, that of Cliff Tucker. The small Communist Party ceased to exist. Soon there were savage cuts in wages. The economy of the island started to disintegrate. The States were soon to be seen as mere rubber-stamps for German decrees. An anecdote was told to me later by a German soldier. He had been an orderly in a building party used by the local administration and partly by German officials. The German officers, he said, developed a pastime of summoning a local official by buzzer and timing him to see how often he could break his record in rushing to their office. During the winter of 1940-41 came the beginnings of anger against this spineless attitude of the local officials. A few illegal discussion groups started to meet to discuss the situation, and anger was focused against the States. In 1941 two organisations, the Jersey People's Progressive Party and the Jersey Democratic Party were issuing typed discussion statements calling for a completely new constitution after the war. Communists in these organisations helped in the forming of a united group during 1942—the The Channel Islands Communist Party
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Reproduced from the 1965 edition of ‘Labour Monthly’ Jersey Democratic Movement. Somewhat later, the Jersey Communist Party was reconstituted with three aims: to swing the JDM on to more militant lines, to resurrect the T&GWU on an illegal basis, and to find ways of organising resistance to the Nazis. This Communist Party had but five members then, but grew to seventeen by the end of the occupation. It managed to obtain a duplicating machine and supplies of paper, stencils and ink—replenished from time to time from local and German offices—and started to produce leaflets for the JDM and the illegal trade union committee. The Channel Islands Communist Party
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Ed: Largely phased out in the early 1980s, duplicating machines were the mechanical and later electrical predecessors of modern electronic document reproduction technology before then. The Jersey Communists’ duplicator described was almost certainly a mimeo machine (sometimes referred to by the proprietary name of ‘Gestetner’, although this was not the only manufacturer. This system used delicate waxed-paper "stencils" cut by the keys on a ribbon-less typewriter, or a sharp point when drawing crude images or large letters. The stencil was wrapped around a drum and, on turning a handle attached to the drum, ink was forced out of the cut marks by centrifugal force just as paper was guided through under the drum, thus printing multiple copies with relative ease. There would have been dangers; the technology was invariably messy and inky fingers and clothes would have been an easy giveaway! In many ways 1942 was a turning point. German fears of invasion started the construction of the 'Atlantic Wall' defences around the Any act of opposition was seriously coast of Brittany of which our dealt with. Anyone caught printing islands were a part. People began to JDM and union leaflets would cerbe arrested for the possession of radio tainly have met with the same fate. sets and for passing on typed BBC news bulletins. Ed: Jersey Communists produced mimeographed bulletins for Soviet slave workers, repeating BBC radio news broadcasts, translated into Russian by an escaped slave who operated underground. He was shown how to laboriously transcribe the Cyrillic alphabet on to a wax stencil, the only way in the absence of a Soviet typewriter to produce the bulletins. Former slave workers have described how receiving such information, which gleefully celebrated victories such as the Battle of Stalingrad and the largest The Channel Islands Communist Party
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tank battle in history, held outside Kursk, actually kept them alive with the hope conveyed. By 1943 the garrison had been strengthened and something like 15,000 foreign slave workers—Spanish republicans, Soviet prisoners and civilians, French, Algerians, Poles, and many others, had been brought to Jersey to work on the concrete defences. A number of islanders were imprisoned locally or sent away to France for various offences—or merely for being Jews. Some ended in concentration camps in Germany. Alderney itself had been turned into a concentration camp. The treatment of the Soviet prisoners in particular was horrifying. Several escaped from the camps and were hidden by local people at the risk of their lives. Heroic people like Mrs Louise Gould and her brother Harold Le Druillenec, farmer Rene Le Mottee, the Garrett family, two women of Russian origin, Mrs Augusta Metcalfe and her sister Claudia, Mr and Mrs Forster and many others had Soviet escapees in their homes for months. Mrs Louise Gould was caught and died in Ravensbruck as a result and Harold Le Druillenec was a survivor of Belsen. During 1944 some organised help was created by the Jersey Communists for Soviet escapees. Les Huelin—the Party's secretary —and Dr McKinstry, Jersey's Medical Officer of Health, worked together to arrange collections of food and clothing and to ensure medical attention, and in some cases identity cards. Ed: McKinstry provided identity and ration cards to Russian escapees and ran a safe house where slave workers learned English to avoid being caught. In 1961, the government of the Soviet Union gave a dress watch with a solid gold casing to his family on his death at the age of 69. The Channel Islands Communist Party
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The invasion of Europe brought fresh hope and activity amongst the several groups of people working against the Nazis and the local administration. However, as France was liberated and our islands were left in a state of siege, disappointment took over and the year between D-day and our liberation was the most bitter as well as the most hungry of the occupation. The J.D.M. won wide support through its campaign of leaflets exposing injustice and preaching democracy. The illegal T&GWU committee won the allegiance of hundreds of workers and had good organisation on many jobs. The Communist Party, though still very small, was a big influence in both these bodies and remained the provider of duplicating facilities. But it was now also involved in other work that brought hopes of decisive results. In the summer of 1944 Les Huelin and myself had made contact with Paul Muelbach, a German soldier who was acting on behalf of a group of German anti-fascists. This meeting was the start of a joint campaign involving German soldiers, the local Communist Party and its supporters, and a number of foreign workers, to break down the morale of the garrison and organise a mutiny. While a mutiny was overtaken by events, the former was certainly achieved. Leaflets—with the slogan 'Death to the Nazis—long live a free Germany' made their impact. Ed: Muelbach was a convinced Marxist and as a graduate of Hanover University was a trained industrial chemist. He spoke no less than five languages, including Russian. His father had been Social Democratic mayor of Koblenz until 1933, when he was placed in Dachau concentration camp, where he died. Paul Muelbach fought with the International Brigade in Spain, where he had been captured by fascist forces and sent to Germany. There the option of dying in Dachau or joining the army was given to him. Posted to Jersey he eventually deserted in April 1945. In the weeks leading up to liberation, Muelbach managed to evade capture as he sought to generate a mutiny with the aid of the Jersey Democratic Movement (JDM) and the Jersey Communist Party. Leaflets were produced by the JCP duplicator in German over the imprint of Es Leben des Freies Deutschland, or Friends of Free Germany. The plan was to launch the uprising on May 1st. Muelbach was no idle dreamer. Baron von Aufsess, a German officer stationed in the Channel Islands for most The Channel Islands Communist Party
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of the war, confided to himself in a private diary, later published, that with the morale of the occupying force at an all-time low, a mutiny was highly likely. Given that the aim was simply to replace the commanding officer with one prepared to surrender to Britain in advance of what was now an inevitable end game, the mutiny could well have won support. Having Jersey citizens on side enabled the German opposition elements to convey to waverers that a peaceful surrender was possible and that they could be guaranteed to live beyond the war. But time was running out not only for the entire Nazi regime but for the planned uprising. On 30th April, Admiral Huffmeier, the German commander in Jersey declared total allegiance to the Fuhrer; the very day that Hitler committed suicide. Berlin had fallen to the Russians and it was clear now that final Allied victory could only be days away. With Huffmeier capable of leading some naval troops loyal to him into action against the uprising, the chance of too many civilian deaths caused the 1st May uprising to be cancelled. On 3rd May, the Jersey Evening Post breathlessly reported that: “Adolf Hitler falls at his post, fighting to the last breath. He has met a hero's death in the capital of the German Reich.� Whilst it is clear that the Post was under German censorship control, it is instructive to note that the newspaper has never apologised for its supine role during the Occupation. On the 5th May, Huffmeier received a radio message commanding that all offensive actions against the British and Americans cease forthwith. So although the attitude of the island authorities during this period may cause a mealy-mouthed approach to the history of the occupation years in official circles, the British working class movement can proclaim the truth of its role in the European struggle against Nazi occupation with pride, even if, of necessity, its part was but a minor episode in the general story of resistance. Ed: Paul Muelbach was employed as an interpreter in the Channel Islands after liberation to aid the many slave workers from far and wide now being returned to their homelands. He was then sent to Britain as a POW to help with the repatriation of German prisoners there. Having returned to Koblenz in 1946, Paul Muelbach moved to the German Democratic Republic in 1950. The Channel Islands Communist Party
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The Angry Island - Out with the States A Daily Worker Report by Sam Russell I have arrived here two months after the liberation on the only parts of the British Isles ever occupied by Germans, to find the Island seething with discontent. For five years the people of Jersey looked forward to the day when they would be rid of the Germans. They hoped that with the British troops would come men from Britain who would inquire closely into the actions of those who were in charge of the Government of the Island during the occupation, and particularly into the action of the States—the Government of the Island . Two months has gone by and nothing has happened. The men whose slogan during the occupation was "don't do anything to annoy the Germans" are still holding the same positions and high office. They are the same men who discouraged even such minor manifestations of resistance as the showing of the V sign, the cutting of telephone wires and the keeping of radio sets. They are the same men who assisted the Germans in their mobilisation of the Island's manpower and who used all their police forces to round up the English inhabitants of the Island for deportation to Germany. Recruitment for the Germans was encouraged, I was told, by the States by methods such as these: A man applying for employment was told, for example, that the only work available was "gardening." When he went to the job he discovered that this "gardening" consisted of cutting and relaying turf to camouflage German strong points and gun positions. When in early 1942 the Germans ordered the Island to surrender their radio The Channel Islands Communist Party
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sets, one man with a few courageous companions issued a leaflet calling upon the people of Jersey to resist the order and hold on to their sets by any means. The Germans retaliated by taking a dozen hostages. Instead of helping the men who had shown such courage or at least shielding them, the Island officials conducted a whispering campaign which finally forced the leader of the group to give himself up to Germans. He was immediately sent to the concentration camp in Germany, where he is still recovering from the terrible effect of his imprisonment. But this man, together with many others, will be coming back to the island. Many have already returned, although there is great indignation at the slowness of the repatriation. The boat bringing people from the mainland regularly comes to the Island more than half empty. Jersey men who have been prisoners of war in Germany have had to wait as much as six weeks before getting a permit from the Home Office to go home. Wherever I have gone I have found the people here determined to deal with the injustices of all sorts that abound in this Island with its out of date constitution. That is why the Jersey Democratic Movement, an organisation formed illegally during the occupation, is getting widespread support. Headed by a baker, a doctor and a teacher, this organisation is strongly supported by the working people of the Island. In the two months since liberation it has reached a membership of nearly 2,000. Its meetings are always packed no matter in "which part of the Island they are held. And this has been achieved in spite of the most blatant and vicious intimidation� by the powers that be. There is only one newspaper on this Island (The Jersey Evening Post) and it has refused to give any publicity at all to the movement. Not that it needs The Channel Islands Communist Party
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any, for wherever I go I see chalked on the walls the slogan, "Out with the States." Before I came to Jersey the Daily Worker received a letter from a woman whose father is a member of the Jersey Democratic Movement and enclosing a letter from him. "Should his name or mine be printed," she wrote, "he would be liable to be beaten up and my sister would lose her job in the Education Office." "I am asking for this letter to be posted in England ," wrote the father. "I should not like a letter addressed to the Daily Worker to be posted here." From what I have seen since my arrival I have no doubt that the States are using their position here to intimidate supporters of the Jersey Democratic Movement. A young woman teacher of the Jersey Democratic Movement Committee was told that if she continues her activity she would be deprived of her post, so she resigned. The Secretary, Mr A. L. Robson, also a teacher, resigned before he was threatened, to devote himself entirely to the growing needs of the organisation. The British soldiers on the Island are amongst the most indignant at what is going on. "The great majority of us Tommies of the Liberation Army," wrote one soldier to me, "are wondering when justice is going to assert her rights, and bring to these despicable informers, collaborationists and 'Jerrybags' their just deserts. These traitors," he continued, "knew the type of bestial race they were helping. They also knew to what horrors they were sending patriotic Jersey people when their informing caused these citizens to be deported to Germany . "There is no reason whatever why these traitors should not be brought to trial and punished now. The Channel Islands Communist Party
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"After meeting the people who have done so much during the occupation to help escaped Russian prisoners and who had their own little resistance movement, it makes me wild to see the traitors enjoying the fruits of liberation and living easily on the money of their German masters. "Can't these traitors," he asked," be dealt with now, in the same way as in Holland , Denmark and other countries?" And this is the question that is being asked by the overwhelming majority of the people of Jersey.
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The Communist Party in the Channel Islands Born in Jersey in 1922, Norman le Brocq was a skilled stone mason who later worked as a plasterer. He had joined the Transport and General Workers Union before the war. Despite his relative youth at the time he was one of the key figures of the wartime resistance and he would go on to become the outstanding leading figure of the Communist Party in the Channel Islands for the rest of his long life. Jersey surrendered to German occupying troops from France on 1st July 1940 and the smaller islands rapidly followed. The resultant conditions of extreme danger that applied to organised opposition to Nazism during the occupation necessarily limited the numbers involved in resistance. Also, some 30,000 Channel Islanders, a third of the population were evacuated, so there were fewer left on the island including most young people. Of course, the Nazis declared unions illegal and the T&G went underground. The Communist Party, it goes with saying was banned, although there were only six members left on the island, three having left for the mainland. Party secretary at the time, Les Huelin, and le Brocq hid the Party’s duplicating machine in an attic belonging to the latter’s great-aunt. From the earliest days to the last, the German Field Commandant, Major Demmler, demanded that the Bailiff of Jersey take severe measures against communism and co-operation was not lacking. The first leaflets made by the underground were for the illegal T&GWU. By the end of 1941, the Jersey Democratic Movement (JDM) had been set up by Communists with some left Socialists in support. By 1942, the Jersey Communist Party was formally reformed and leaflets for the CP, JDM, and T&GWU were produced in runs of three to four hundred at a time throughout the rest of the war. Norman le Brocq’s public persona during the war was the mild-mannered polite young man who worked for the lending libraries service collecting unreturned books. Later he worked at George Hutt's bookshop in Broad Street for the rest of the war. Outside of this work, his wartime life was dominated by secret meetings and stomachThe Channel Islands Communist Party
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churning acts of defiance against fascism. Despite the heroism of his actions as a young man, le Brocq was later extremely modest about his exploits, of which he said little. The civilian police were obliged to observe and report Communist activities in Jersey. But Norman Le Brocq never thought the Nazis very efficient and that they caught more people through informers than detective work. The Resistance was small and tightly structured; the anti-fascist organisation, the JDM began with a group of only 7 people but by 1945 this had grown to 18, most of whom were either members or supporters of the Communist Party. In time, the JDM would much broaden but it was mainly Communists who made contact with Soviet and other prisoners of war, involved in forced labour projects on the islands and provided support, information and sustenance to them. The Todt organisation had some 6,000 slave workers, POWs from the Eastern front and also some Spanish Republicans to build defences. Around 40% of these died after coping with malnutrition and over-work. Four concentration camps for slave labour that were set to fortify the islands were even built on one of the smaller islands of Alderney - the only camps ever to be on British territory. Ernest PerrĂŠe, a hospital porter became the contact with the Spanish slave workers who were mostly Communists or left Socialists. A liaison committee of three Spanish workers and three from the Jersey Communist Party began planning operations, which focused on the passing of illegal leaflets in the camps by the Spanish, the duplicator being hidden in a cottage in Sand The Channel Islands Communist Party
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Street. When, during a typhoid outbreak, the Germans sent the Spanish left -wingers as delousing parties into the labour camps, this enabled the Resistance to smuggle mass copies of anti-Nazi propaganda into the camp leaflets written by Le Brocq, which massively enthused the captives. Small acts of sabotage also reminded the Germans that not everyone was apathetic. The Resistance on Jersey tarred the houses of collaborators with swastikas but this was countered by German troops, who painted hundreds of houses with the swastika. V for Victory signs were painted around the islands and guns and ammunition stolen from German stores. The Germans did not know it at the time but letters sent to the Commandant by informants were intercepted and destroyed by post office workers. The names of informers would not be forgotten. Telephone lines were cut near the airport on at least one occasion and, not infrequently, some citizens would escape from the islands by small boats to join the armed forces in England. But it was the destruction of the island’s German officers’ school, with the loss of nine lives, which was a key feature in convincing the occupiers to be wary of the local resistance. Mainly, the Jersey Communist Party gave shelter, food, clothes, false papers and English lessons to escaped prisoners. Anti-fascist bulletins were printed and distributed in all sorts of languages, even in Russian, which kept up the spirits of the Soviet prisoners in the slave camps on the island. No less than thirteen Soviet nationals evaded recapture in Jersey by living among the sympathetic civilian population. Bulletins were also produced in German as it became clear that sympathisers could be found even in the enemy camp. Le Brocq now made contact with one Paul Mühlbach, a German soldier. Paul Mühlbach had been an industrial chemist pre-war and was the son of a trade union official who had died at the hands of the Nazis. Now, he was part of a soldier's committee working toward a mutiny against the garrison. He was part of, or inspired by, the Communist “Free Germany Movement”. Norman agreed to help him produce leaflets and the two met once a week at The Channel Islands Communist Party
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Burger's bookshop at the Parade. In early 1945 Mühlbach decided to desert and a cottage was set up at Longueville for him to live in with a cover story and false identity, helped by Basil Huelin, Lesley's brother. A mutiny against the garrison was planned for May Day but time did not allow for it to happen. Norman was now being helped by Rosalie Le Riche, his soon-to-be wife and the propaganda offensive rose in quantity as well as quality. One result was the outpouring of underground newspapers, which in the absence of good quality uncensored information, were eagerly sought. The ‘Jersey Democrat’ was the organ of the Jersey Democratic Movement, whilst ‘Workers Review’ was the trade union bulletin. Workers Review No 5, dated 1st February 1945, spotlighted the bread shortage and reviewed the conditions in the milk industry before the war. It also provided some ideas on how it saw the union developing after peace. Another later but undated article was entitled 'An Equal Share for All' and covered the food shortage problem in Jersey during the occupation. Amongst the closest of Le Brocq’s Stella Perkins, from a family of dedicated comrades in the Resistance were Communist resistance fighters, she went on to the Perkins family. Stella Perkins, become one of the longest serving leaders of one of the daughters, became one of the Party in the islands Jersey Communist Party’s leading activists in the post-war era, As a girl, she was exposed to the resistance activism of her whole family and in later years justly looked back with pride on the incredible danger the The Channel Islands Communist Party
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whole family put themselves in. The Perkins’ family home in Hill Street, St Helier was one of the vital hubs of an escape network for escaping Soviet prisoners-of-war; sometimes escapes stayed weeks, others days. Stella remembered one tall Eastern Slav had a most peculiar idea of what it was to look like an Englishman. He took an old mouldy bowler hat from a scarecrow and dressed in its clothes, with short sleeves. Some 22 people were involved in the Perkins escape circle. When their house was searched one day this was done in such a haphazard way that a Soviet fugitive named ‘Michael’, who was present in one of the rooms at the time, sneaked past the German search party and escaped onto the street. Stella’s mother, Augusta Metcalfe, and her aunt, Claudia Dimitrieva, were both Russian. They had met Stella’s father, Les Perkins, when he was a member of the British invasion Hitler’s occupiers march in Jersey force in Archangel, sent in 1919 to defeat the Russian Revolution. Perkins was a Co-op delivery man and a Communist. He was part of the group that formed an aid organisation to collect food and clothing for escaped Ukrainian slave workers, aided by Mikhail Krohin, an escapee taught English by one of the underground group’s messengers. Augusta and Claudia were amongst 20 islanders awarded engraved gold watches in 1965. Norman le Brocq was amongst them. . [http://.www. jerseyheritagetrust.jeron.je/; The Guardian Weekend January 14th 1995]
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Giving up the Jews The extent of British collaboration during the German occupation was finally revealed by documents stored under a staircase at the Attorney General's office in Jersey and forgotten for half a century. Alexander Coutanche, the Bailiff of Jersey, and Charles Duret Aubin, his Attorney General, decided to accept the German authority’s requirement that they provide a list of any local citizen who had three or four Jewish grandparents and to stamp their identity papers with a "J" in red ink. Several British citizens were sent to concentration camps as a result. Senior British police officers also tipped off the Nazi forces that Frederick Page, a farm labourer, had concealed a radio receiver at his home. He was arrested and sent to a German prison in France where he starved to death. Both acts would have resulted after the war in serious criminal charges being presented against Coutanche and Aubin in many European states. Yet the former was knighted by George VI and the latter awarded the CBE.
British authorities in the Channel Islands co-operated fully with Nazi racism
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It is difficult not to reach the conclusion that British authorities could have done more to protect islanders, especially those who were Jewish or of Jewish origin. It seems that they accepted the need of the Germans to act in the way they did. For one reason or another, more
Relations between the police, shop and cinema owners were excellent but the 1942— deportation of British subjects from the mainland to Germany did not go down well. The Channel Islands Communist Party
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than 1,000 British-born islanders were deported to Germany and many hundreds of others were sent to camps across Europe. But islands’ officials were capable of successfully arguing against German orders on some issues and opposed measures against Freemasonry, for example. They even did a deal with the Germans to halt the deportation of retired British servicemen to European prison camps. When it came to Jews, island officials seemed to be at their most craven. Most of the Jews on the islands had actually fled before the Germans invaded but the British authorities registered 12 citizens as Jewish - nine of whom were not Jewish under the Nazis' own definition. One, Victor Emanuel, killed himself before he could be deported to mainland Europe while another, Hyam Goldman, committed suicide soon after the liberation. Nathan Davidson, who had one Jewish grandparent, died in a psychiatric hospital. Others died of illness and two went into hiding and survived. One Jerseyman, John Finkelstein, told the authorities that he was Anglican but was arrested and survived two and a half years in Buchenwald and Theresienstadt camps. Ruby Still also claimed not to be Jewish but was deported to the Biberach camp in Germany and actually survived. Another survivor was Esther Lloyd, registered as "originally Jewish, now Christian" but deported to Biberach anyway,. Four Jews were deported from Guernsey, only one, Elisabet Duquemin, survived. Therese Steiner, Auguste Spitz and Marianne Grunfeld, deported in 1943, died in Auschwitz.
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The Occupation Comes to an End The D-Day landings in June 1944 damaged the supply lines of the German occupiers but this also meant that food lines for civilians were cut. By August 1944, St Malo surrendered and the islands' supply routes were cut off. For the next eight months, the local population and the 28,000-strong German garrison went close to starvation. If this was the state the occupying troops were in, the condition of malnutrition that the local population suffered was unimaginable – especially the active resisters. Typical of the toughness of war-time Channel Islands Communists was Cissie Cave, a cleaner in the offices of the Guernsey State electricity department. A stalwart collector for the Daily Worker, she was sending a shilling (12 old pence) every week to the Fighting Fund before the Germans invaded the Channel Islands. During the long night of fascism, undaunted, Cissie decided to put aside her weekly 1/-, even when she heard the German propaganda crowing about the banning of the Daily Worker in Britain during 1940-1. After five years - or 260 weeks – collecting, fascism was finally beaten and Cissie was able to send the paper an astonishing £13 on the very day of liberation of the islands – May 8th 1945. [‘Spotlight on the Channel Islands’ by Sam Russell, Daily Worker League (1945)] Liberation finally came when an Allied task force headed by the destroyer, HMS Bulldog, arrived off St Peter Port, Guernsey on 8th May, 1945. So arrogant were the Nazi forces that a young naval officer, Captain Lieutenant Zimmerman, who was sent to represent the German commander of the Islands, actually refused to surrender unconditionally. He was ordered to return to his superior with a copy of the surrender document. Six hours later, at 7.14am on the following day, Major General Heine came aboard the Bulldog, four miles off the coast of Guernsey, and signed the instrument of surrender. Food parcels had to be supplied to the islands even after liberation, so desperately malnourished were the islanders. But life returned to some normality. Yet, compared to the position before the Germans had come, The Channel Islands Communist Party
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Former occupation slave workers', local Communists, and Soviet diplomats pictured at an anniversary of Liberation Day event in Jersey on May 9th 1966.
The local newspaper, the Jersey Post, never apologised for its role during the occupation when it pontificated that it had “no complaint against the military Back row, right to left: John Bassett, Soviet diplomat, Reginald Young, Len Perkins, Francis Le Sueur, Norpower that controls us; or the man Le Brocq, various unknown. behaviour of the troops of the Front row, right to left, Lorna Perkins, Sandra Perkins, Freda Perkins, Claudia Metcalfe (grandmother of previThird Reich”. Nor did it ever ous three), Vicente Gasulla Solé, unknown child, Soviet revoke the words it uttered diplomat (extreme left of picture). when it, famously, condemned Le Brocq and his resistance movement in an editorial shortly after liberation. Even today, the Post could revoke the last paragraph of its editorial of 19th May 1945 which not only condemned informers and collaborators during the occupation, but bracketed these with “better known residents, whose subversive activities against our own authorities is another shameful story and deserving of the strongest condemnation”. Perhaps the fact that the Jersey Democratic Movement, still led by Communists, reached some two thousand members within a mere eight weeks after Liberation was what really worried the reactionary newspaper. Despairing of official sanction, many of the worst and best known collaborators were attacked, one way or another, by ordinary citizens in the period after liberation. But those of power and wealth who ruled before the occupation, and had not once sought to really challenge it, now simply continued to rule. Thus, the role of the Channel Islands Resistance Movement and its core, the Jersey Communist Party, is a reminder of what The Channel Islands Communist Party
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The ferocity of cold war anticommunism did not in the end prevent those most associated with the Resistance from receiving mass support in the long term during the decades of peace that followed. In common with the rest of Britain, working class strength and standards of living have not been maintained but the Channel Collaborators began having the swastika Islands holds a heritage of sacrifice painted on their homes as citizens of the and struggle second to none in our islands began to hope for release from country. Islanders today owe it to occupation themselves and their forebears to begin to recover the history of that today in the interests of a better tomorrow for all.
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The Post-War period Norman le Brocq was secretary of the Channel Islands branch of the British Communist Party for much of the post-war period and a noted campaigner for working class rights in the field of housing and social policy in what continued to be semi-independent islands, strongly characterised by reactionary politics. As with the experience in France and Italy and elsewhere, the association of the Communist Party with the anti-Nazi resistance led to a long-term post-war popularity or, at the very least, widespread respect for Communists. As the Communist Party’s leading figure, this remarkable man was held in extraordinary high regard in his community. So much so that – after years of effort - he was able to win election to the Jersey ‘States’, or parliament. This body has never known party politics and was always dominated by the successful elite, so the establishment and local media violently opposed Norman’s several unsuccessful but impressive and ultimate highly successful attempts to gain election to the States Work began on rebuilding the progressive movement as soon as war was over but the alliance with broader forces did not hold up well in the short term. Looking back in 1949, Le Brocq wrote in the British Communist Party’s journal a brief report: “…such a lot has happened in those 4 years. The Party played a leading role in the Founding of the Jersey Democratic movement, I held the position of first General Secretary and later organising secretly. The Party was pushed aside through the adherence to the JDM of various bourgeois elements who aimed at capturing the movement. We discovered that while our energies had been devoted to building the Jersey Democratic movement we had neglected to build the Party. We had not carried out any independent actions as a Party since liberation. The Party has carried out important campaigns in defence of free speech and democratic rights. They have stood up to very considerable physical opposition, worked up by reactionary groups, including elements from outside the island”. [World News 21st May 1949] Thus, Communists on the islands saw the need to rebuild and regroup. The Channel Islands Communist Party
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Neglecting the building of the Party itself was not now an option. Interestingly, in view of the strength of the Channel Islands Communist Party in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Young Communist League membership on Jersey alone was 40 members in 1949. [World News 29th January 1949] To be clear, whilst a good deal of autonomy necessarily arose in the Channel Islands Communist Party, it was always definitely a loyal branch of the British Communist Party. Indeed, throughout its history, Channel Islands Communists functioned as part of the Hampshire (Hants) and Dorset District of the British Communist Party. For example, Norman Le Brocq was a delegate to the 1957 Party congress representing the branches of Jersey and Guernsey and was one of the many mobilised as staunch supporters of the Party’s fight in this period to retain Marxism-Leninism against an internal assault in favour of a revisionist direction towards left social democracy. But this did not make Norman an unthinking sectarian by any means. He and his fellow members on the islands well understood the terms of the British Party’s programme (then termed the “British Road to Socialism”, today “Britain’s Road to Socialism”). Uniquely, with no Labour Party as the mass voice of workers contesting elections, Channel Islands Communists always worked in a broad way and this won them much support. By May Day 1958, no less than 183 Daily Workers were being sold in Jersey. Party membership on the island was then standing at 31, “the highest for several years”. [World News December 13th 1958] This had been the case for some years. Indeed, from 1948 onwards, Le Brocq and his comrades consistently contested each election held for the seat for Deputy (or MP) for the No. 3 District of St. Helier in the Jersey States Assembly, the island’s Parliament. The vote was gradually built up from 46 votes to 438 in December 1961, roughly 28% of those who voted. Norman first became a Deputy in 1966, after which the JDM was formed to assist the election of working-class representatives. From then on Norman had a fellow JDM Deputy only once, and for a very The Channel Islands Communist Party
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brief nine months, when Mrs Joan du Feu succeeded in a by-election. Unfortunately, she lost her seat in the following general election. Until Le Brocq, there had never been any working class representation in the States Assembly. It was difficult to persuade many voters of the possibility and value of such representation. States members were not even paid and electors realised the difficulties that facing any worker elected to what is almost a full-time but unpaid job. There was no limit to election expenses and Le Brocq had to face spending by other candidates of large sums of money on the various legitimate methods of campaigning, and even, on some occasions, “the less legitimate ones�! Other problems include intimidation of the sponsors whose names have to be published in the local press. This is not as bad as it used to be. But we have had at least one case of a sponsor being sacked, and others reporting hints of a similar fate. Nevertheless, particularly last December, the spirit of our members and supporters has been excellent. The response in discussion and sheer political education on the doorstep canvass has been tremendous. Ours is the only organised party in the Island, all other candidates contest in a purely personal way, so our campaign always arouses as much discussion of the Party's general policy as of the actual election. The Communist candidate, Norman le Brocq, is well known throughout the Island as a workers' champion. Chairman of the Joint Union Negotiating Committee in the building industry, and a member of the Management Committee of the Co-operative Society, he has been able to rally many people outside the Party into open support of the campaign which has grown with each election. One line of argument some people advance shows how the cold-war fears have poisoned many minds. They tell us our candidate is a fine man and should have been in the States long ago: that our policy is absolutely what is needed; but "why does he have to call himself a Communist?" In essence, approval of the personality of a well-known Communist, approval of the The Channel Islands Communist Party
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policy of the Communist Party, but fear of the "bogey" atmosphere that has been created. This shows how hard we have to work to counter this bogey-man propaganda, but also how ready people are for the policy we are putting forward. While in St. Helier, the actual arrangements at the polling stations are rather similar to those in Britain, some queer things can happen in the country districts. For instance, last December in the parish of St. Peter the election was declared void. Various parish officials are sworn in to visit sick and disabled electors, record their votes and bring them back to the returning officer, in the St. Peter election, one such official, managed to lose several ballot slips collected in this way and which were found later strewn along a lane. [World News January 28, 1961] Channel Islands Communists were practically the flounders and mainstay of the islands’ main trade union for many years – i.e. the Transport & General Workers Union (later known as T&G and today a major component of Unite - the union). Ron Robinson, born in 1932, was one of the main activists in the TGWU of the Jersey Party members. A plasterer, Robinson was especially noted for his organisation of sales of the Daily Worker on a Saturday night pitch at Snow Hill, which was for a very long time the central meeting point for all transport in the island, mainly by then being a bus station but cable cars, taxis and private cars also made this an important junction. There, the Daily Worker poster board drew attention to a team of sellers. Ron Robinson was the Channel Islands’ delegate to the Communist Party’s 27th National Congress in London in 1961, where he made a key note speech that triggered the Party’s campaign spearheaded full-time by the formidable former bodyguard to Harry Pollitt and now leader of London’s taxi drivers, Sid Easton to open up full-time and lay roles for Communists in the TGWU. [WN&V 1st April 1961; Daily Worker 3rd April 1961]
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Ron Robinson’s 1961 Communist Party Congress Speech “In recent years the leadership of the T&GWU has been taking a more militant line on matters, not only industrial, but political as well. Deakinism is on the way out (Ed: Arthur Deakin had been the viciously right-wing general secretary of the union up to 1955), but his spirit marches on in the shape of the ban on Communists holding official positions within the Union. In Jersey, Communist overcame the ban on a number of occasions. As when a chairman's ruling permitted Communists to represent their union on outside bodies. A body which is not very "outside" is the Joint Building Trades Committee, composed of delegates from the T&GWU and the ASW (Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers – today part of UCATT). I am a delegate to this Committee and the Chairman is Norman Le Brocq, Secretary of the Jersey Communist Party. It is by far the most successful negotiating body in the Island and provides a powerful lever for other sections which follow. Let me give you a few figures: In 1953 we had no guaranteed week, nor annual holiday and no paid Bank Holiday. The hourly rate for craftsmen was 2/10d and for labourers 2/3 1/2. The Channel Islands is the Tories’ paradise! By 1957 we had won a guaranteed week of 34 hours, two weeks' annual holiday with pay and all Bank Holidays paid. By the end of last year the hourly rate for craftsmen had been pushed up to 4/10s and for labourers 4/11/2. On the political front I was elected to a committee handling a petition for a free hospital service on which the Party was also officially represented. The petition was a success. Norman Le Brocq was elected to the Management Committee of the Channel Island Cooperative Society last year. He is by far the finest and most class-conscious workers' champion Jersey ever had, but he is prevented from being elected to a position of authority in his own union, a branch secretary, regional secretary or anything else. And also the people who appreciate Norman's qualities are not allowed the elementary The Channel Islands Communist Party
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democratic right of putting him in a position where he can do ever more good for the working people. We in the Channel Isles have a peculiar industrial and political setup, but we are well aware of the need for an end to all bans and proscriptions and in particular the bans in the T&GWU. Our Party has taken on some big jobs in its history and done them well. The job of ending this ridiculous and harmful ban in the T&GWU is of prime importance. I appeal to all comrades - put your backs into it. Let the smashing of this ban be one of the Party's big gains to be celebrated at the next Congress.”
Stella Perkins at the 1982 Communist Party congress, where she was the delegate for the Channel Islands CP
Ed: In fact, the TGWU’s 1962 Rules Conference which followed narrowly failed to support the lifting of the ban. But the next constitutional review of the union in 1968 saw the sweeping away of a ban that had been widely ignored for many years. For an account of the campaign against the bans see the final section of “The Life and Times of Sid Easton” (1992)” at: http://www.grahamstevenson.me.uk/index.php? option=com_content&view=article&id=693&Itemid=62)
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The Guernsey Communist Party Although the Guernsey Communist Party was only been established in 1945, it was, for many years, the only functioning political party on the island. Gradually, it successfully established a decent foothold, which began to grow significantly during the 1960s and 1970s. The main voice for the Party on Guernsey was Bill Balshaw, a building worker, who was the Guernsey Party secretary in the period. Electoral opposition to the ruling clique came from the “Labour Group” a body uniting Communists, trade unions and socialists on the island. An election in 1970 saw the level of support for the Labour Group rise significantly, when two of its candidates polled very respectable 573 and 522 votes in St Peter’s Port for seats in the ‘States of Deliberation’ council or parliament. The Group even won some seats but it was not an easy road to tread. As Bill Balshaw explained in Comment 23 May 1970: “The whole electoral system on Guernsey is heavily weighted against the working class candidates and the great majority of workers are not even on the electoral roll. For our candidates to have obtained 500 votes from such an electorate was little short of marvellous, I expected about 100. The governments of the Channel Islands for some years now have adopted a policy of encouraging financial interests and speculators to use the islands as a base for operations; it has been said that over £100m have been invested through Guernsey alone. The result has been that many buildings have been taken over by merchant banks and investment brokers use for office premises. The price of building land has soared beyond reach. The get rich quick brigade have had a field day.” The Guernsey electoral campaign in 1970 was helped by an unofficial strike in the island’s biggest garage, the men claiming a 2s 3d per hour rise. Building workers had lodged a claim for 2s 6d per hour, 3 weeks holiday and other benefits but the struggle was hampered by the curse of nonunion labour and local version of the Lump. The Channel Islands Communist Party
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In May 1970, a demonstration of fifty young people demanded a youth centre on the island, with sports facilities, a dance hall and an indoor swimming pool. After the "Labour group" election successes the ruling clique moved swiftly. The Labour Group received a letter from the editor of the Guernsey Evening Press withdrawing the earlier concession of a monthly “Labour Point of View” column. This was supposedly on the grounds that the Labour Group did not have enough support to justify the column, even though it had just secured a significant vote at St Peter’s Port. [Comment 23 May 1970] Sadly, the Group began to lose steam and eventually became defunct; whilst the increasing age of Party activists took its toll.
Norman Le Brocq –1922-1996
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The Jersey Communist Party In Jersey, Norman’s personal role as a States’ Deputy eventually not only earned him universal plaudits for his fair-mindedness and ability, it kept the local Communist Party in the headlines. For nine years he topped the poll whenever he was re-elected. Many Communists played an outstanding role in the Co-operative Movement, not the least in stiffening resolve to maintain the essential principles. Norman le Brocq was amongst the foremost of these, being an elected director of the highly successful Channel Islands Co-operative Society for 35 years. He was its highly respected President for 27 of those years. Membership of the retail co-op grew from just over 17,000 to almost 76,000, bucking the trend of mainland co-operative development. Turnover grew by some fifty times to nearly £52 million a year. Le Brocq’s often recalled his insistence on the retention of the traditional ‘divi’ as the main factor in this success but undoubtedly his own leadership was highly significant. Especially as an almost unique example of being a wartime resister to the Nazi occupation of the islands, was also highly significant. Norman Le Brocq was heavily involved in a phenomenal number of local charities and was even appointed president of the Islands Planning Committee and chair of the Sea Fisheries Advisory Committee. In the early 1960s when a Russian timber ship came into St Helier harbour one day, Norman Le Brocq went down to practice his Russian. He explained to the crew that Russian labourers were buried in Jersey and took them to the Strangers' Cemetery at Westmount. The Russians in due course sent money for a plaque to be laid there. And as time passed other communities - the Spanish first - started to ask for their own plaques In 1981, now Jersey Communist Party Chair, Norman Le Brocq, stood once again as a Jersey Democratic Movement candidate. Again, he topped the poll in his 4-seat district in St Helier, Jersey, at the December general elections. The weather was appalling, and the poll lower than usual, The Channel Islands Communist Party
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affecting his vote in common with the others, so that he polled 1,309 votes compared with 1,580 three years previously. But his share of the vote increased from 64% to 72%. At the subsequent first sitting of the new States Assembly, Deputy Le Brocq was elected President of the Island Development Committee, responsible for developmental planning and conservation, having been its Vice-President during the previous three years. Non-Communist Jimmy Johns, Secretary of the Jersey Democratic Movement polled 278 votes, standing for the first time in another St Helier district, the poll-topper there taking 1,239 votes. [May 8/9 1982 Comment] Norman, having long retired as an active member of the States, retired to his home, Rosnor, at Grands Vaux, St Saviour, in Jersey. He, nonetheless, maintained his personal allegiance to Communism until the end of his life which came on the 26th November 1996, aged 74. After the Nazis perpetually thwarted hope of capturing and executing the mastermind behind the Resistance, Norman Le Brocq had found himself systematically harassed, denied work for daring to stand up to injustice and, when years of grindingly harsh struggle paid off at the ballot box, he was finally patronised by the establishment of the Channel Islands. He and his comrades would want this pamphlet to close by wishing all power to those few who fight today against a powerful elite maintained on the islands in luxury by injustice. To quote Norman Le Brocq: “Let the spotlight shine on Jersey” and Minquiers, Écréhous, Guernsey, Sark, Alderney, Brecqhou, Herm, Jethou, and Lihou, as well.
Sources
Co-operative News 21st January 1997; Comment (CP weekly) May 8th 1982; Guardian Weekend January 14th 1995; Morning Star May 9th 2005; Peter Tabb ‘A Peculiar Occupation’ (2005); World News January 28, 1961 Daily Worker 1945 (thanks to Mike Walker for his sterling work on transcription). The Channel Islands Communist Party
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