November 04, 2005
Archives from our history
A selection of archival articles on the Communist Party and YCL, and other related movements, transcribed from the originals by Michael Walker
1 A report from the Daily Worker of the 1946 YCL Congress.
2 `The Communist Party and Young People', a report to the 1961 YCL Congress by Frank Stanley, then Chair of the Communist Party.
3 `The YCL in the 1950 General Election’. This is a report by Ron Leven, then the National Organiser of the Young Communist League, printed in `World News & Views’ in 1950 and describes the enormous enthusiasm and activity of the YCL throughout the country in the election campaign.
4 An article by J W Eastwood from the May 1937 edition of the Bolton Clarion Cycling Club journal, recalling a visit to the Communist dominated working class suburb of Paris, St Denis, and also to Brussels, in June 1922. The national CCC was affiliated to the International Workers Sports Federation.
5 A report, from a critical stage of the second world war, of a major conference that took place in the Stoll Theatre, London, on March 12th 1944. Responding to the call of the Engineering and Allied Trades Shop Stewards National Council, 2,000 delegates from factories and shipyards employing almost one million workers gathered to discuss the new problems in Britain's war industry and the developments flowing from the Teheran Conference.
6 `Building the Student Branches' (1944), in which some of the problems encountered and overcome in building the Communist Party amongst students are elaborated.
7 An article, `Communist Party Student Work 1963-64' from `Party Life’, October/November 1963, by Fergus Nicolson.
8 A 1985 piece recalling the wartime links between Coventry and Stalingrad, by John Moore. Note the splendid reproduction of logo of the hammer and sickle amidst Coventry's spires!
9 Two pieces from the Jubilee year of 1935, concerning an open letter to Herbert Morrison protesting at the celebration with the National Government and the King at a time of fear of war and poverty.
(Sectional entry updated 25th May 2006. )
DAILY WORKER
MONDAY, OCTOBER 21st 1946
YCL Congress 1946
YOUNG PEOPLE ASK FOR WORK-TIME TRAINING
TWO HUNDRED young people—average age 19—made strong demands for a better deal for youth when they met at the 14th National Congress of the Young Communist League in London this weekend. They considered that all young workers should be trained in their employers' time so that the gap in manpower should be filled.
"The 'best brains' of Britain's young workers should be used, instead of the ' best brains' of the capitalist class," said a resolution. "The rich man's son gets into engineering through a fine school and two years at a technical college," said Ron Bosley, from Manchester. "But the apprentice has to go to night school. For him it means four years of hurried meals, little leisure, busy weekends, late bedtime and boredom.
The need for adequate facilities for education and continuation of trade training while serving with the Armed Forces was stressed in debate on a resolution calling for, an end to conscription. Opposing the motion, Mr.Murdoch Taylor, former secretary of the Y.C.L., said that Congress should "bear in mind that the spirit in a conscripted army is far more progressive and politically conscious than a Regular Army. 'The resolution was defeated.
Sweated Labour
Profits from industry, made from using boys and girls as cheap labour, could have been used to provide fine playing fields and community centres, said one delegate. Problems of different industries, including textiles and distribution were discussed. Danny Lewis from South Wales spoke for the young miners. "They have seen death in the pits and they hate the industry," he said, "Give us the Miner's Charter, and we'll get youth back into the Industry."
One delegate was a candidate for the forthcoming municipal elections. He was John Goss, of Wolverhampton. He explained that his campaign would, expose the rotten heritage of 20 years Tory rule.
World Friendship
Conference demanded continued education in the employers’ time and at his expense; higher wages for youth and the 40 hour week; freedom for the colonial peoples and Indian, and a truly Labour foreign policy with friend-ship for the youth of Russia and other countries.
This enthusiastic conference applauded Harry Pollitt, general secretary of the Communist Party, when he declared; "This concept that there is no future must be stigmatised as defeatism of the worst kind. The Y.C.L. must become champions in the struggle to revive the confidence of our men, women, boys and girls in Britain's future."
Against Franco
Speaking on a resolution urging the speediest possible implementation of the Education Act one delegate said: "Although this Act is so slow in being brought into effect, Eton, Harrow and Rugby go on as usual." Another reminded conference that British lads lost their lives fighting Fascism in Spain. "We have a personal grudge against Franco," he said. A resolution calling for the immediate severing of all diplomatic and trading relations with Franco Spain was carried.
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THE COMMUNIST PARTY AND YOUNG PEOPLE
27th Communist Party Congress Report
St Pancras Town Hall, London
30th March to 3rd April 1961
Report by Frank Stanley, Chair of the Communist Party
It is quite correct for Congress, after discussing the political and economic problems facing the British people and the vital electoral work, to turn to the position of young people. We cannot be satisfied that we have found the way forward unless this is done.
Consider the position in which we find ourselves. We live in a world that
is rapidly changing, and changing in a way which holds out tremendous hope and promise, especially to the youth—promise that the major part of their lives can be freed from the frightening problems which have beset the lives of their parents, and adversely affect so many of their own hopes and desires.
Great social changes are taking place in which socialism is beating capitalism and leaving it far behind; the colonial system is being destroyed and millions of people are fighting to live in entirely new ways; great advances are being recorded in science and technique that make ever more urgent the need for profound social change—and, above all, here in Britain.
What contribution will our country make to the changing world? Will it be nuclear war or peaceful construction ? Will Britain take the socialist road ? We have our policies and our convictions about the struggle and the outcome. But let us never forget—indeed let us recognise—that there never was a political party which advanced without the youth.
Our resolution declares that "the challenge of our times . . . can only be successfully met if we bring into action millions of young people in Britain"; and demands that the Party regards its duty in this connection as a major responsibility because "the interests of Britain as a nation, of the Labour
movement, and the cause of socialism are clearly bound up with the struggle to solve the problems of this important section of the population". The
battle for socialism in Britain depends on the Party’s winning the youth and building a mass Young Communist League. That is the issue before the Party at this Congress.
THE POSITION OF YOUTH IN BRITAIN
You know something of the facts of life of young people in Britain today,
for if any section of the population is written about, discussed, analysed and
criticised, it is the youth. Reference is made in the resolution to the social
and economic conditions of our young people. We have heard a great deal
in recent years about the « affluent society ».
Affluence there certainly is for the rich. They have never been richer. It is a
different story, however, when you come to the sons and daughters of the working class. Of course, they are better off in many ways than their fathers and mothers and grandparents, and we read a great deal about the « teenage market ».
The Second Survey of Teenage Consumer Spending for 1959, published in January, indicated clearly that the popular adults’ picture of teenagers—the fifteen to twenty-five (unmarried) age groups—as an extremely prosperous section of the population, is far from true. Last year the returns showed that the average wage for boys under twenty-one is £5 4s., and for girls £4 13s. per week. They work an average of more than forty hours a week and in many cases at an intensity of labour that is injurious to health. Eighty-five in every hundred are finished with full-time education at the age of fifteen.
The working class comprises four-fifths of the population of Britain, yet
only a quarter of those entering university are of working-class origin.
In the years of the great depression, capitalism was unable to provide
training and skill for working-class youngsters. Today, in the middle of the
twentieth century, it is still unable to do so. Next year there will be 929,000
school-leavers, and only one in five will get a job that requires training or
involves a skill.
The young people of Britain are certainly marrying at an earlier age,
and they cannot set up home and rear a family without a place of their own.
And that is the most difficult thing to obtain. In Britain, just as the young
workers are profit-fodder for the bosses, so they are nice pickings for the
landlords and housing speculators.
This is the reality behind all the talk about the «affluent » youth. The fact
that these conditions are better than those prevailing in the past only
emphasises how bad the « good old days » really were.
Of course, the cold war propaganda has taken its toll. But young people
want life to be a lot better. And they can be depended upon, given progressive
leadership and inspiration, to do battle for a better life.
POSITIVE DEVELOPMENTS ARE TAKING PLACE
We can say this with even greater confidence today because of the fact
that in the last two years, young people have engaged in struggle on a greater
scale than at any time since the war. Indeed, one of the most significant
features of the period since our last Congress has been the way in which
young people have moved into political action for peace and against
colonialism and in addition have done battle with the bosses.
The great peace movements have been tremendously invigorated by the
participation of young people. The marches, lobbying of Parliament, the
‘sit-downs’ and the campaign against Polaris have rallied and won the
ever-increasing support of young people; and we can be sure that the young
people will be out in greater strength this week-end when the Aldermaston
and Wethersfield demonstrations get under way.
In the battle against apartheid and colonial repression and murder in the
Congo and South Africa, the youth, students and workers, have played an
outstanding part. In the great strike of the engineering apprentices a year ago, and in numerous local and factory struggles the youngsters fought with
courage and tenacity. They did more. They set an inspiring example to the entire trade union movement.
Youth has always been a turbulent fighting force. It is more and more ready to fight for peace and a good life; given progressive leadership it will, in return,
give all it possesses in the struggle. It is the duty of the Communist Party, above all, to provide this leadership and inspiration. There has not been a single issue before the British people these last few years on which our Party has failed to play a leading part. From this Congress we must go out and
campaign as only our Party can, to win the fight for a worthy life for our youth; « to work in such a way that we stand out as youth’s champion, fighting for its rights and heritage.
There are two sides to the effort that we must make.We need to campaign in support of youth’s needs and demands, and to take steps to win the Labour movement for the fight for adequate education for all; proper facilities for training and acquiring skill in industry; for shorter hours of work and higher wages; adequate grants without means test for students; more houses at cheaper rents for young married couples; millions more for sport and leisure facilities, and the vote at eighteen—in fact a Charter for Modern Youth.
In addition we have to present our socialist ideas on the wide range of questions which interest young people, to help them to understand the nature of
capitalist society and inspire them with the vision of socialism, the ending of capitalist exploitation and the building of a society based on the brotherhood of
man. Winning the young people for communism must be a consistent feature of our work.
THE SITUATION IN THE LABOUR MOVEMENT
The last three years has been a period of progressive development and advance in the Labour movement, with a new stage of the struggle for peace opened following the decisions at Scarborough. Assurance, however, of
the successful realisation of the decisions depends on the extent to which the Labour movement cares for, and provides leadership to youth.
The result of the 1959 General Election revealed a smaller proportion of young people voting Labour. This fact, and the tremendous efforts of the Tones to
influence and organise young people compelled the Labour Party to recognise the political role of young people, and the need for a national youth organisation.
Establishment of the Young Socialists organisation has been followed by a fairly rapid growth in both members and branches throughout the country. We welcome this development, and we hope the Young Socialists will fight for a socialist policy and future, and for participation without regard to bans
and proscriptions in all the movements and activities of young people for peace, against colonialism, for better conditions and against Toryism. On all the
issues there is a splendid basis for united action of Labour and Communist young people. All of this is part of the fight in the Labour movement against the right wing and for socialist principles. We hold out the hand of friendship to the Young Socialists in their struggle for peace and socialism, and we are convinced
that this development will add positively to the current progressive trend in the Labour movement.
In the trade unions the adoption of the Youth Resolution by the 1960 T.U.C. must be made to result in the whole Trade Union movement giving immediate
attention to the problems of young workers. It would be criminal for us not to recognise that the present position in the Trade Union movement with regard to organisational requirements and facilities for its young members is totally inadequate. It is not good enough for older trade unionists to bemoan the
questionable fact, « Young workers take everything for granted », « do not know what trade unionism is », without constant and consistent steps being taken to secure the participation of young workers in the unions, in forms which correspond to the desires and tastes of the young lads and lasses themselves.
Or course, sterling work is done every day by many trade unionists directly
on behalf of apprentices and other young workers—safeguarding their
interests, conditions of work, training and wages. The splendid response
from the youngsters indicates the possibility of securing a massive participa-
tion of our industrial youth in the work of the trade unions, if this became
the general rule not only at the factory level, but throughout the whole
movement.
Traditional forms of organisation must be adapted, the character of trade union branch and other meetings must be changed, in order that young people may more easily find their place and make their contribution. Is it not possible for the primary organisations of the trade unions, the branches and shop stewards’ committees, pit and site organisations, regularly to devote one of their meetings to these problems; to take special steps to secure the attendance of the young members; to endeavour to secure their views’? Would not such consistent attention to the problem start to compel those changes necessary in the structure to solve the problem entirely?
Would not this sort of attention with the consequent proposals and activity
find their reflection in the top sections and leadership of the trade union
movement?
We appeal particularly to the thousands of Communist trade unionists to
give meaning to these aims at all levels of the trade union movement.
The Co-operative movement is doing good work in many areas through
the Co-operative Youth movement; but here, too, there is a tremendous
need for assistance to build up and develop a lively national organisation of
young people ‘.
THE COMMUNIST PARTY AND THE Y.C.L.
In general our Party’s work is clear in all this. It is to make our campaign-
ing on youth demands a major feature of our work. This means a great, new
effort to take our policy to young people and to win them to support it. It
eansm raising the issues in all sections of the Labour movement, in order to
assist youth activity for peace and a better life.
Above all, it means building and developing, on a greatly increased scale, our
youth movement—the Young Communist League—and its paper Challenge. The Young Communist League is the youth organisation of the Communist
Party. And if ever a Party can be proud of its youth movement, it is the
Communist Party.
During these last few years, the comrades in the League have battled to
give leadership to young people, to rally them for the cause of peace and
against colonialism, for better conditions here at home. They have laid the
foundations for a development of unity in the struggle for peace; and the
contribution of the Y.C.L. to the peace movement of young people is
increasingly and more favourably understood. They have battled for, and
achieved, some progress in building up the membership of the League, and,
in addition, they have developed and sustained the new Challenge.
I think it is right and proper to pay tribute on your behalf to the Young
Communist League, its leadership, and its work. However, I don’t think we always appreciate our League. Otherwise we would not have a position in which there are only 2,500 members of the Y.C.L. compared with the present membership of the Party. This must be ended once and for all and the Y.C.L. transformed into a mass youth organisation.
Can this be done? The experience of the past year indicates that it can be
done, because 1,000 members were won in that period. While the proportion of Y.C.L. members to Party membership nationally is less than one in ten, in some places it is much higher—showing the possibilities; while in others it is much lower—emphasising the neglect. There are less than 200 branches of the Y.C.L. compared with approximately 1,200 branches of the Communist Party. A change in this serious position depends above all on getting an under-standing throughout the Party that help to the Y.C.L. is absolutely essential, if we are
to solve the problems that face the young people and win them for the ideas of communism.
Building the Y.C.L. is also vital for the building of the Communist Party and its emergence as a mass political force in Britain. The Party must be constantly and on an ever-increasing scale replenishing its forces from the Y.C.L. To make this possible there must be a vastly increased number of young people with the understanding and outlook of communism, and that can only be brought about by a mass development of the Young Communist League.
Already the Y.C.L. has given us many of our best comrades, and we want this to be a systematic function of our relationship. But we will only get what we want
and need on the basis of rapid expansion and development of the Y.C.L. into a mass youth movement.
Crucial for the advance of the League is the role of Challenge and its emergence as a popular, youthful, socialist paper fighting for the needs of youth, and inspiring them with the ideas of communism. We welcome the improvements that have taken place in Challenge and are mindful of the need for constant attention to ensure further improvements. The great need now is, as stated in the Resolution, for a substantial advance in circulation.
Less than 10,000 copies are being sold each month. The assistance of the Communist Party is urgently needed to bring about a radical change in the sales, and to begin the process of reaching out to thousands more youngsters as called for in fulfilment of theResolution.
The number of Party branches taking and selling any number of copies of Challenge is so small that it is necessary to ask every District Committee to
take this up with all branches without exception. In the factories our comrades
could do a first-class job by taking and selling Challenge to the many young
workers with whom they come into contact. It should be regular reading in
every communist family, and would help tremendously to win the younger
38 members for an easy, straightforward and natural entry into the Y.C.L.
In the Resolution we are also calling for the development of a much closer relationship between the Party and the Y.C.L. at all levels, and have asked
for: ‘Every District of the Communist Party to appoint one of its best
comrades as its youth representative, who will ensure that the District
Committee gives proper attention to the Y.C.L. and young people.
‘Arrangements should be made with the Y.C.L. in each District for
the Communist Party to be represented at League District Committee
meetings and for the Y.C.L. to have similar representation at the Party
District Committee.'
Of special importance is the proposal to win a substantial number of comrades to work in and with the Y.C.L. There is a lesson to be learned from the way in
which the capitalist class deals with the youth movements. Adult help is a « must », and we must ensure the same approach to the Y.C.L. We want the help and assistance of the many comrades who have special qualifications and training to help the League. But, above all, we want Party comrades to help in organisational matters, so that the members of the Y.C.L. are freer to get out and about amongst the other youngsters who have to be seen, and who are increasingly participating in political movements and actions.
The help and assistance of Party comrades will prove invaluable in the
development of the League as a fighting, campaigning organisation on youth
demands, and the general struggle for socialism. Related to this question of adult help for the Y.C.L. is the need for more Party parents to concern themselves with helping their sons and daughters to join the League. The political education of their children and their participation in Y.C.L. activities should not be a matter of indifference, and we ask Party parents in all seriousness for a more conscious effort to encourage their children to join the Y.C.L.
One other point we would like to direct your attention to is the need to
examine the position in each District with a view to helping provide or rent
suitable premises. The provision of premises is now an important element
of all youth organisations and activity; and the Y.C.L. is not and cannot be
an exception.
The value of premises has been demonstrated by the developments in
Birmingham, Bristol and Sheffield, where, with the help of the Party, accom-
modation has been provided for the League. In each case the youngsters have
set to work to turn the places into the kind of rooms they wanted—and a
very good job has been done. The result is social and educational centres,
bases from which the activity of the League is organised, and where there
has been growth and advance in membership.
It may not be possible for every District Committee or for the Party branches in the cities and towns to do exactly as has been done in the places I have entioned, but they ought to look at the position, discuss it with the League, and render the utmost help to provide premises for the Y.C.L.
CONCLUSION
Today new and wonderful possibilities for human advance are being realised throughout the world. Especially is this the situation in the socialist 39 countries. And these new developments and experiences are increasingly affecting and influencing young people here in Britain. They want to know how these great achievements are possible. Only the Communist Party, the Party of socialism, can provide the answers and show that we here in Britain can do as much—and more—to transform society, and to open wide the doors of opportunity that are bolted and barred to millions under capitalism.
It is this knowledge that should inspire each and every one of us to intensify our every effort to win the youth for our policies and principles, and for the
building up of the Young Communist League and a great entry of new, vigorous, bold and adventurous young people into the Communist movement. If every Party organisation fights fully and consistently for the implementation of this
resolution, we could bring about a rapid change in the membership and activity of the Young Communist League, bringing nearer and making more certain the victory and the future we all so ardently desire.
Congress Report Note: During the past three years. Party membership has
increased. At the beginning of 1958 our re-registered membership was
24,900. At the beginning of 1959 it was 25,313, an increase of 413. At the beginning of 1960 it was 26,052, a net increase of 739, and at the beginning of 1961, 27,541, a net increase of 1,489. Today it is 28,770. In the past year,
Y.C.L. membership has gone up from 1,734 to 2,702. There has been
a small but significant increase in membership and activity in the univers-
ities.
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`The YCL in the 1950 General Election’
by Ron Leven, National Organiser, Young Communist League
From a contemporary issue of `World News & Views’
The Young Communist League went into the General Election campaign in support of the Communist candidates with a fighting spirit which has won the appreciation of Candidates, agents and all sections of the Party, which witnessed the work of the Youth Brigades. This form of activity was a new, fresh style of youth campaigning, from which valuable lessons can be learned. It will contribute to the vital task of building the Y.C.L. and uniting wide sections of young workers and students in the fight for peace, improved living standards and-Socialism.
In sixty of our 100 constituencies there were Y.C.L Youth Brigades. The reports that have come in from the Party and Y.C.L. show that the work was not only colourful and sustained, but also that peace and other main issues were taken up. For example, in Stepney, at the height of the election, sixty young people attended a meeting in support of the National Youth Parliament, to which eight delegates were elected. In Harrow, when the Truman H-bomb announcement was made, the Youth Brigade "led a street demonstration with a pram carrying an eight-foot high replica of the bomb and collected over three thousand signatures of protest, which were forwarded to the American Embassy".
In London, forty factories were covered by thirteen branches with Challenge; 68,000 youth leaflets were distributed, and sixteen factory-gate and an equal number of technical school meetings held.
Brigades at Work
In the campaign, 296 new Y.C.L. members were recruited, over 1,000 Socialist Road for Britain and 29,000 Challenge election specials sold. Y.C.L. speakers supported the candidates at school and factory-gate meetings. In the Gorbals the Youth Brigade of twenty also helped in Greenock, Bridgeton, and West Fife, and the League comrades, who also took the chair at meetings, have been described by Peter Kerrigan as the "best in Britain”.
Outstanding work was done by the Battersea Branch, which recruited twenty-six new members. Their report says "The branch provided Y.C.L. speakers at ten indoor meetings, five had not spoken before (we held a speaker's class in the middle of the election). We publicised Party policy on youth by Brigade activity. This took the for of using the loudspeaker trolley, decorated with posters for five-minute speeches, accompanied by Challenge and The Socialist Road for Britain sales. We stewarded and decorated the eve-of-poll meeting and the collection of £6. "We also concentrated on a rails depot, the Battersea Polytechnic, and a candle factory where many young people are employed. In the campaign we distributed 100,000 leaflets, whitewashed and chalked seventy slogans."
Perhaps the best comment on this fine achievement is the remark of a group of new members who, when told after the count that the next branch meeting was in a week's time, said: "What are we going to do on all the days between!" This is no exception. In Lancashire, for example, where sixty-three recruits joined the League, three branches combined to form the Birkenhead Youth Brigade, making a drive with Challenge at high schools, factory-gate and Labour Party meetings; l, 714 were sold. The Brigade set a target of £50 for the Election Fund and raised £51 5s. A night-school petition against the education cuts was presented to George Tomlinson (the local Labour MP) at a Labour Party rally. The social activity, which is an essential part of the Brigade work, particularly where the comrades come in from outlying branches and non- members take part, resulted in socials, Sunday hikes and, visits to the cinemas and theatres being organised sucessfully.
Douglas Whitfield, the Brigade leader, in concluding his report, expresses the deep political convictions of the young comrades when he writes: "Never before has the Y.C.L. branch been on the streets on such a scale. We made mistakes, but we shall learn a `hell' of a lot from our experience. It was an inspiration and an honour to work in the Birkenhead Youth Brigade."
This pride in fight for the policy of our Communist Party is repeated again and again. In a number of instances members of the Labour League of Youth, dissatisfied with the right-wing leaders' policy, joined the Y.C.Lers in the chalking and whitewashing of slogans and in the social activity. In Bristol, where, the Y.C.L. undertook responsibility for a polling district, "in addition to the Brigade work, Communist and progressive students worked with them. A feature of the campaign was the large number of mock elections held in schools, the young people insisting that a Communist candidate should stand. The East Anglia District reports a constant stream into the committee rooms of school boys and girls asking for material. Thirty-three letters were received by the Party and Y.C.L. from scholars saying they were standing as Communist candidates. A girl of fifteen wrote that she was "proud to stand for the party that fought for peace", and was determined "to show up the Tory warmongers".
Tasks Ahead
In the struggles that lie ahead to develop the mass movement for peace, the youth are a source of great strength. In the factories the fight for wages and against redundancy can be strengthened by bringing young people into active struggle. Above all, we must combat the Tory demagogy and the illusions peddled by Social Democracy. The Political Letter is correct when it states:
"The experience of this election has shown that we have not yet paid nearly enough attention to convincing young people of the need to fight for our policy. Many of them know little of the great struggles of the working class and have greatly been influenced by the propaganda, of Labour and Tory leaders. The whole Party must now pay special attention to this aspect of our work and to the strengthening of the Young Communist League.” The immediate tasks are to follow up the young contacts made in the general election, recruit them to the Y.C.L., and win regular Challenge readers; to carry forward the Youth Brigade activity into the municipal elections and prepare for big, colourful youth
contingents on May Day; to complete registration and achieve a target of 300 recruits by the YC.L. National Congress on May 20/-21, for which we must secure biggest possible number of delegates.
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`WITH THE CLARION CYCLING CLUB IN PARIS & BRUSSELS - JUNE 1922.'
In 1922 the Clarion C.C. were invited, to send athletes to compete in various events in Paris and Brussels, against teams selected from members of the “International Workers Sports Federation”. The Clarion C.C. at that time, was the only organisation, affiliated to the I.W.S.F., in this country, so the members of the various branches of the Clarion Fellowship subscribed to a Sports Fund and it became possible to send Cyclists, Footballers and Swimmers in June 1922. A tour had been arranged so that anyone who wished could travel with the Teams, and as about fifty people had arranged their holidays to come with us, we were promised some vocal support.
We duly arrived in Paris, and were met by an enthusiastic crowd. Some of them were old friends, who had competed against us previously and it was all very nice to see them again. Greetings over, we were taken to the Co-op Hall where a Banquet awaited us.
It would be impossible for me to pronounce the various courses, there would be about twelve of them, also several sorts of wines, but after about two hours of feasting and being toasted and generally having a good time, we were taken to our hotel where we were glad to get to bed.
The following day, Sunday, June 5th 1922, was the Sports Day, so we were taken to St. Denis on the outskirts of Paris, to the football field. A gymnastic display was being given when we arrived, by a team of girls from Czechoslovakia and what a fine team they were. The Football Match was the next event, and so we had to get stripped as soon as possible. The footballers were given a great ovation, the band played us on to the field to the tune of the “Internationale”, the Clarion Captain was presented with a bouquet of flowers and then we kicked off before a crowd of about 10,000 people who had come to watch 22 “working lads” battle with a football instead of cannon balls!
The Clarion team were soon in trouble, “Bob” Boddy, our goalie was injured, when he collided with an opponent, and although we covered him as well as we could, the French team beat him three times with high shots, which he was unable to reach, owing to his injuries.
I felt sorry for ‘Bob’ for he was a real good goalie, and he was beat with shots which he could have stopped without much trouble normally. However it was the luck of the game. At half time we were all being treated for various aches and pains, due mostly to the hard sun-baked ground, which was like rough concrete, and very different from the soft muddy grounds we were used to playing on. In the second half we put all we knew into the game, but although we had more of the play and did more attacking, we could not get past the French goalie who was like ‘a cat on hot bricks’ for agility and so we were beaten, but not disgraced.
After the football match we all went off to see the swimming events, which were being held in a branch of a canal close by the cyclists had already gone off on their 50 Kilometre road race, which was run in the Continental style, with a massed start. We had four riders in the event, but we had to wait until the riders came back before we knew the story of the race.
Our swimmers soon gave us something to shout about with the Scott family from Atherton very prominent. The three Clarion ladies won the team event for us. Then, Pa Scott and his son Tommy, along with George Harrison from Oldham, (the last named had played football previously) won the gents team race. Then Tommy Scott won the 500 meters free style event in as glorious a race anyone could wish to see. Did we shout? Most of the people were past it by now, they had used their lungs to such purpose that they could only whisper to each other. Tommy Scott was the hero, a lad of about 16 years, who walked about dry land like a sailor would, who had not stepped ashore for about 12 months, but in the water, fishes crawled under stones, when they saw him, and ‘tucked their heads underneath their fins’, ashamed of themselves.
It was a good job for Tommy that his sister was there to look after his bouquets. At the conclusion of the swimming events, we got word that Harry Williamson had won the cycle race for us, and another Clarion rider came in third, after being off the course. The other two riders had trouble, so we did very well in this event, although it had not been possible for us to give our riders our vocal support during the race, After the Sports we were entertained to another banquet, Speeches were made, various people got up and said something, we did not know what, we only knew it was something about Peace through Sport, and we all agreed with that, We were toasted, and the International Workers Sports Federation was toasted. Tom Groom, our National President should have replied, but thanks to Tommy Scott and our swimmers, his voice had gone, and so he just could not do it,
The following day we all went to Versailles and roamed about the Palace Grounds. We saw the Hall of Mirrors, where the Peace Treaty was signed in 1919, and other places of French historical interest. On our way back from Versailles, a halt was called at a wayside Beer Garden, where welcome drinks were served to us in large glasses, and then back to Paris.
On Tuesday we were left to do as we liked, it being our last day in Paris, so we split up into small groups and roamed about the city, visiting the various noted show places and boulevards which make Paris so famous, The Clarion football team and supporters left Paris, for Brussels,
On the Wednesday morning, and we were given a good send off by our French comrades, The journey to Brussels was very tiring, the sun was hot, the train was very slow, and to make matters worse, there was not a dining car on the train. We had taken a wrong train. However we had to make the best of it. After several hours of crawling along with numerous short stops, we eventually reached the Frontier. It seemed to take us hours to get through, first the French customs, and then the Belgian customs, then we got going at last, but there were no prospects of food or drink until we got to Brussels.
We did have a little interlude to break the monotony of the journey. At one of the small stations where we stopped for a few minutes, there was a hawker selling fruit. Joe Atherton, ‘one of the Bolton boys’ jumped down to purchase enough for our carriage, and gave the man a coin about the value of two shillings. ‘Joe’ expected some change, the train began to move. Joe had been in the Army, so he knew a few words, and he used them grabbed some more fruit and jumped into the train as it was gathering speed ”Leave it to Joe”.
We got to Brussels at last, in time for Supper, having been without food since breakfast time. The Belgian people took us to a hotel close to the station, and we were soon enjoying our supper. Then off to bed, for we were all very weary. The next day we were conducted round Brussels. First we went on to the roof of the Co-operative Hall to see the Panorama of Brussels. The most prominent building was the Cathedral, S.S. Michel et Gudule, which towered over the city like a sentinel. I am afraid most of us were not in the right mood for sight seeing, being stiff and sore after the long train journey of the day before, but I was certainly impressed by the beautiful carving and statues on the Cathedral, when I got a closer view of it. It surely must rank as one of the finest buildings of its kind in the world.
As we had to play football the following day it was thought advisable for the team to rest as much as possible and concentrate on getting as fit as we could. We wanted to win this match, and we had been told that the Belgians were a better team than the French. We got another great reception from a crowd of about 6,000. The Continental people do like to see an English football team. We marched on to the field arm in arm with the Belgians, whilst the band played the “Internationale”. The game started, and the Clarion team were soon in trouble, Joe Atherton with a thigh injury and I with a sprained ankle - ‘Souvenirs from, Paris is’. The hard ground which we had again to play on-had soon found our weak spots, and two of us were virtually passengers for the rest of the game.
Under the circumstances it was no surprise, when we were again beaten, but only by the odd goal, after one of the sternest battles of football I have ever experienced. The Belgians were very fast and vigorous, and although our defence stood up to them very well, our forwards, with two cripples, could not work up any successful attack. However, although the Clarion had lost both football matches, we had given a good account of ourselves in other events, and after all what does it matter who wins, the game was played in a sporting manner.
“Peace through Sport “ is our Motto, and if we have through our visit, sown a few seeds, which will produce in the future International Peace, and Co-operation throughout the world, it will have been well worth our efforts.
W.E.H.
May 1937 Bolton CCC Journal
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"National Demonstration of Unity
March 12th 1944
By Peter Zinkin
A POWERFUL DEMONSTRATION of unity and another great contribution at a,
critical stage of the war took place in the Stoll Theatre, London, on March 12th 1944. Responding to the call of the Engineering and Allied Trades Shop Stewards National Council, 2,000 delegates and visitors working in factories and shipyards employing almost one million workers gathered to discuss the new problems in Britain's war industry, the developments. flowing from the Teheran Conference, and the coming offensive.
A quiet confident determination to get down to the job of smashing Hitlerism was the keynote of the conference. A unanimity of purpose was evident,
transcending the difficulties of the varied trades and the twenty-two trade unions of which they were members. The Scottish shipbuilder, the Midland
aircraft worker, the Lancashire engineer, the London instrument maker, the delegates from every part of this island all declared that everything necessary would be done to ensure the success of the Second Front.
The Spirit to Bear Arms
The spirit to bear the arms that had been produced would be developed.
So successful had been the drive for production that there was a surplus of arms in some sections and it would be possible for tens of thousands of arms workers to enter the Armed Forces, The energetic training of women had ensured that all the weapons needed could now be turned out with a smaller labour force.
It was realised that there would be some redundancy; that would be accepted where it was necessary. What would be' fought was the manner in which some
reactionary employers were trying to take advantage of these developments to victimise active Trade Unionists and shop stewards.
One delegate demanded that in discussing redundancy the Manpower Boards should take into consideration not only the three present factors of age, skill and
length of service, but also a fourth, viz., trade union responsibilities. There must be full consultation between the unions stewards, employers and Ministry representatives.
Much disquiet that exists over redundancy arises because the Government does not take the workers into its confidence. This distrust would be largely overcome if the position was explained by the Government.
Equal Pay for Equal Work
Distrust of the employers also exists not only on redundancy, but also because of the bad treatment meted out to women, the long drawn
out negotiations to secure wage increases, equally lengthy negotiations
on almost every issue.
Dorothy Coulthard and Valerie Gorringe, two of the women who spoke, showed how women's low earnings damped enthusiasm in the anti-fascist fight and roused their concern as to whether they were being exploited as cheap labour, perhaps to be thrown out of the industry after the war. The principle of equal pay for equal work should be established as quickly as
possible. There was urgent need to speed up all negotiations and the negotiating machinery.
But the delegates had not come there to quibble, to bewail their fate, sitting down letting other classes do the deciding. They had proposals to make,
solutions to offer. They responded with an approving ovation at the conclusion of the main speech on behalf of the Stewards' Acting Committee, made by
Finlay Hart, a shipyard Shop Steward. from Clydeside.
Legal Rights for Stewards
Finlay Hart pulled no punches in his statement. The position was laid clearly before the conference. Drawing attention to the changed war situation, the possibilities of victory and of a permanent peace, the need to enter the Armed Forces, to go from safe parts of the country to repair ships and equipment on the beaches of Southern England, he also had plain words to say to the Government and employers. " The Shop Stewards,'' he declared, " are the leaders of the workers in the factories. They are the custodians of the Trade
Unions. They have a right to be protected from victimisation, because the object of the employers who do this is to try and weaken workshop and Trade
Union organisation, so that they may be in a better position after the war to reduce the standards of the workers as a whole."
He called on the Government to ensure that they are protected, that legal recognrtion is given of their status. Firms like Fords, must be compelled by the Government and by law to recognise shop stewards and trade unionism.
Condemning the one sided operation of the E.W.O. [Essential Wortks Order, ED.] take over firms that break its provisions.
Assists the Trade Unions
Speaking of the technicians, he stressed the need for both technical and manual workers to stand together. Technical workers require our help to organise into trade unions and to operate production policy points in the broad interest of the people.
A stirring moment came when, to a vigorous burst of applause. Hart declared that the conference " was not a challenge to the trade union It would not be
necessary to hold such conferences as this if the Trade Unions themselves provided opportunities for shop stewards of all sections of the engineering and
ship building industry" being able to meet in common, exchange their experiences and make their suggestions".
The need to strengthen attendance and the functioning of the trade union branch was emphasised, so that both now and in the post-war period we would be able fight successfully against monopoly capitalists and establish a better Britain.
Eager to Speak
The response to this call was electrifying and showed itself in an amazing eagerness to speak in discussion. About 150 names were submitted to the Standing Orders Committee, which also dealt with a number of resolutions and amendments to the main resolution. None of these put any policy contrary to that submitted to the delegates but were largely an elaboration of the points already made. Every hand went up in favour of adopting the resolutions, which
also included, at the insistence of the delegates, a declaration on the mining strikes, In the Credentials Committee Report, particular reference was made to the widespread and widely representative character of the delegates, especially that from Scotland. Indeed, the whole representation and character of the meeting has made evident, the fact that the shop stewards movement has
consolidated and extended, has solid, firm roots among all the trade unionists, is a potential factor in the Labour Movement. It is time that the Trade Union
Executives drew the necessary conclusions.
It is now necessary to ensure that the enthusiasm of this historic conference is harnessed, the mass of workers acquainted with the proceedings. Every delegate now should be drawn in to report to the enterprise from which he or she was sent, as well as to those that did not send representatives.
Preparations for the sale of the printed report should now be made. The opportunity should be seized to strengthen the shop steward and workshop organization, to improve the branch life, generally to strengthen the unity and purpose of the Labour Movement now, and for the fight for a Better Britain when victory is ours.
transcribed by Michael Walker; Source: "Party Organisation and the Offensive"
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Building the Student Branches (1944)
We present some of the problems encountered in building the Party amongst students because the experiences we have gained may prove of interest and assistance to comrades working in other, less specialised, spheres. The following are the main difficulties governing our work to-day.
1. Students come predominantly from middle-class families which are usually out of contact with the Labour Movement, and in which many of the influences are of a reactionary character. Of the minority of working-class students, many are encouraged by their families to avoid political activity while at university, since this might result in victimisation and failure to raise their social status.
2.The universities are still, despite many progressive changes forced by the needs of the war, largely isolated from ordinary life. Large sections of the students are encouraged to cultivate detachment from day-to-day affairs and pre-occupation with academic matters.
3. The war has meant the drastic cutting of courses. Most students are at university for only a year, some for two years, and only a small minority for the pre-war average of three years. Courses have also been condensed and speeded up, extra terms organised, more frequent examinations instituted. These innovations result in students being forced to study very intensively, cutting down on their political and other non-academic activities.
4. Students now enter the universities and colleges at 17 years, or, at the latest, 18 years. They come direct from school, and in most oases have had no opportunity to gain experience of the lives of ordinary people, and, in particular, of the working class.
Recruiting Method
It will be clear that recruiting to the Party from amongst students so young and inexperienced as these presents serious difficulties, and demands a special approach. For instance, large mass meetings have been found to be quite unsuitable.
Below are some of the measures which we have found to be essential:
(a) Recruitment by example. For example, Communist students are only a small minority of the members of the University Labour Federation, the united socialist organisation of the students. Yet the influence and prestige of the Party stands high in the U.L.F. This is because our comrades’ have adopted a realistic attitude to the day-to-day activity and formulation of policy of the organisation, and have shown themselves willing to make the sacrifices and concessions which unity demands. By refraining from sectionalism, and proving themselves to be sincere and loyal fighters for the advancement of the organisation, they have illustrated the relation of our Party to other progressive groupings as well as the importance of unity in action. They have thus been able to appeal to other student socialists, and to recruit many of the finest elements in the U.L.F.
(b) The personal approach in recruitment. Students are not easily convinced of the need to join the Party, even though the socialist movement in the universities is strong. All the problems which loom large to the professional or middle-class sympathiser stand in the way of his joining. Such questions, for instance, as whether he can retain his individuality inside the Party; whether Communism is compatible with freedom of thought; whether, if he joins the Party he will be forced to agree with the “Party line”, are the ones which, far more frequently than matters concerned with the Party’s political policy, are raised by students. Such questions, which are deeply felt, cannot be swept away by even the finest agitational speech. They must be carefully discussed and the real attitude of the Party explained.
(c) Question-and-answer selective meetings. These usually yield a high percentage of recruits, for they enable the sympathiser to bring out the often unsuspected and deep-seated objections, which have in the past prevented his deciding to join the Party.
(d) A human approach to what is meant by Party membership. Students often resist joining the Party because they believe this would entail a great deal of dull organisational work and would force them to cut down the time they now spend on following their own interests and developing their talents. When recruiting we try, therefore, to show the opportunities for the development of the individual which follow from embracing the world outlook of Marxism, i.e., the use of the scientific method as a means of understanding and realising one’s own potentialities.
We- try to show the student in an inspiring way the part which he can play in the creation of a new society in which man will be for the first time free to develop fully. In addition we make clear that the Party encourages its members to widen and develop their own interests, whether academic, cultural, or athletic.
Consolidating the Branches
However, recruitment is only half the story. The special characteristics of the universities in wartime place great obstacles in the way of building and effectively organising the student branches. Each June, large numbers Building the Student Branches of students leave the universities, creating a situation of enormous difficulty in all the student organisations. For the Party this means‘ the loss of approximately two-thirds of our student membership, with many small branches losing their entire personnel. Thus, at the beginning of each new session we are faced with the task of rebuilding, or recreating, the branches. This process is severely hindered by the vacations, which occur every 10 weeks, and in all take up five months of the year.
Owing to the rapid turnover in membership due to graduation and call-up, it is rare to find a student branch which contains any members of longer than a few months’ standing, while most will have joined only in the last few weeks. Thus the leading forces in the branches have to be redrawn almost entirely from amongst the new members. Pressure of academic work and the frequency of exams, make it impossible for most comrades in leading positions to function for longer than one term, (i.e.) 10 weeks. There is an almost complete change of personnel on the branch committees for each new term with obvious difficulties in regard to continuity. Clearly the comrades seldom have time to learn by experience the elements of branch leadership before they are forced to relinquish their positions.
Development of Cadres
It will be obvious that the main problem in the student branches is to develop all the comrades as rapidly as possible in order to ensure a constant supply of leading cadres. In this connection, and bearing in mind the youth of the comrades, the utmost importance attaches to attention to each individual.
The comrade must be drawn quickly into the life of the branch and involved in some aspect of branch teamwork. As soon as he is recruited each comrade is encouraged to discuss why he joined the Party and what he expects to gain from membership. He is urged to compare the branch as he finds it with what he anticipated, and to make criticisms and suggestions.
As we learn more about his academic work and the non-political activities in which he is interested, we try wherever possible to help him to develop his individual talents, such as writing, carrying out research, preparing for his professional life, etc.
In this way the comrade feels as soon as he joins the Party that it belongs to him and that the other members feel a real interest in him. This helps him to feel a sense of responsibility to the branch and to be eager to take on leading work. This intimate approach to new members is of course rather simpler in a university, where there is always some degree of community life, than in a large factory or ward.
Speeding up the political development of young comrades demands that education shall be constantly available. While the organising of classes is affected by all the problems outlined above, we have managed to ensure that almost every student member receives regular political education throughout this period at college.
Large branches are encouraged to organise weekend schools at the end of the terms in addition to the weekly or fortnightly classes. There were 17 such weekend schools last session. During the vacations, when the branches usually disband, comrades are advised on reading, which they can carry out while they are at home.
Importance of Week’s Schools
However, the most successful single method we have used to overcome the problem of rapidly developing new comrades for leadership is the national school. Each vacation a school of one week’s duration is held and a place is offered to each student branch. Generally, the comrade who is to be branch secretary for the ensuing term attends the school, `Building the Student Branches’, where he takes part in discussions along the same lines as at the District industrial schools. Each session approximately 75 student members pass through these schools, though this number will he increased as regional schools for Scottish and Welsh students develop.
In addition to helping inexperienced comrades to tackle responsible Party jobs, these schools provide each branch with a growing core of comrades who have been able to participate in a more advanced type of education. While many of these will not, because of impending examinations, be able to take a very active part in branch life, they are able to assist in the formulation of branch policy and in the developing of newer members.
Growth in Membership
After the above recital of difficulties, comrades will be wondering what success we do in fact have in building the Party amongst students. Here are a few facts. During the session October 1942, to June 1943 (an effective working period of only seven months), student membership increased by 95 per cent. During the ensuing summer vacation 72 per cent of these members left the universities to take up their professional employment or to join the Forces. All the branches were decimated, while many went out of existence completely.
None the less, during the two terms of the present session, i.e., from October 1943, to March 1944 (a working period of five months), the Party has recruited to such an extent amongst the students that the membership figure has leapt by 59.5 per cent. It is clear that by the end of the session in June we shall have rebuilt the membership to the total of June 1943.
Despite the fact that each new session and new stage in the intensification of the war increases our problems, it will be seen that by carefully analysing and under-standing the special outlook and difficulties of students, and by giving careful individual attention to our student members, we can be confident of maintaining and further developing our Party organisation in the universities and colleges.
Transcribed by Michael Walker
Source: `Party Organisation and the offensive' (1944)
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Communist Party Student Work 1963-64
From `Party Life’ October/November 1963 -
transcribed by Michael Walker
By FERGUS NICHOLSON
OUR perspective in the BRITISH ROAD TO SOCIALISM depends on the rallying round a united working class of the various middle strata, of whom a large and
vocal section are what are called professional people, that is the graduates of our colleges and universities. Winning the students to struggle against monopoly capitalism and in some cases for Marxism and Communism is no small part of translating our programme into practice.
OUR MEMBERSHIP HAS GROWN
Last session brought some advances in this field. Party membership among students topped 500 for the first time, almost doubling in the course of the year.
The willingness of students to be interested was shown during a series of five public lectures. All overflowed. Six hundred people wanted the 400 seats
available to hear Professor Thomson and 150 had to be turned away. There are now branches in almost every university and a number of other colleges. But tracing and organising our members and supporters in the smaller colleges is an unsolved problem.
STUDENTS HAVE JOINED IN STRUGGLE
Given the occasion and the lead, students can be militant. During the Cuban crisis, about half the demonstrations were student based, especially the
early ones. Both training college and, more recently, art college students have lobbied Parliament on their particular problems.
A NEW STUDENT PUBLICATION
We produced a duplicated magazine four times last session in editions of 2,000 which were sold out. Now we are producing a printed magazine, MAINSTREAM, which will come out once a term for the first year, with an initial print of 5,000 plus. While this is aimed primarily at the colleges and universities, it will
also be useful for party and Y.C.L. branches to put it in the hands of sixth-formers.
MARXIST SCHOOLS
Naturally students are in particular need of education, especially those whose studies are directly ideological. We have just completed a successful fortnight's school in Wales and at Christmas will have a one-week school in Hastings, as well as weekend schools during the year in many universities. In various universities this year we will have Communist weeks or Marxist weeks, most ambitiously in Manchester and in Imperial College.
BETTER CONDITIONS OF STUDY
All the evidence suggests that this year we will be reaching with our meetings and publications, more students than ever before. But speaking to students is
only half the battle; speaking for them is the other half. This we have still to achieve, and in this our student branches can learn from the experience of
factory branches. It is good that students are interested to learn about Marxism and Communism; but it will only affect the political situation in Britain
when they are led by, and using, these ideas into struggle for better conditions of study and therefore for a better society in which to study and apply their
studies.
WE HAVE AN ALTERNATIVE POLICY
The Tories base themselves largely on the "middle classes" and make a special appeal to students with their meritocracy argument. But the majority of
students have few illusions about the Tories. The problem is to offer them an alternative. In the absence of public communist work, they fall into cynicism; neither the Labour Party nor the C.N.D. is proving an adequate alternative.
A political breakthrough among students can be made if we can contact and organise the many communists who have this month become students, and draw them into inspiring their fellow students with the materials now available.
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Coventry Remembers the Epic Battle of Stalingrad
By John Moore
The early ties between Coventry and Volgograd were formed at a time when a powerful sentiment of unity with the Soviet people existed in Coventry, as in Britain as a whole.
The story starts after Nazi Germany's attack on the USSR, when Coventry Labour Party passed a resolution that an official body should be set up to strengthen Anglo-Soviet friendship. Much of the driving force came from a group of dedicated socialists in the leadership of the Labour council, such as Sidney Stringer, who was chairman of the new Anglo-Soviet Unity Committee for seven years, and George Hodgkinson.
An individual member's card showed the hammer and sickle against Coventry's famous Three Spires but the authority of the committee rested mainly on the affiliation of numerous influential organisations. Delegates were appointed by all the local political parties and by the Chamber of Commerce, the Engineering Employers' Federation, the Trades Council and eight trade unions, the Co-op board of management, the Co-op Women's Guilds, the Business and Professional Women's Club, the NUT, the WEA and the BMA. The Mayor was president; nine councillors and the town clerk were members. The Director of Education, the Provost of the Cathedral and the manager of Barclays Bank completed the remarkably broad alliance.
Much of the committee's work was focused on appeals for medical aid for the Red Army. Exhibitions were organised depicting life in the USSR.
Concerts,dances, flag-days and street parades were held and the London Philharmonic Orchestra played, under Dr. Malcolm Sargent. Soviet films were shown in schools and at the Opera House.
The crates of parcels for the Soviet troops were a record for any town in Britain: the Town Hall overflowed with them. Apart from toys, books and much else, the schools collected in two months enough to provide a mobile X-ray unit of their own. A single flag-day, organised by the WVS, raised £750. The Standard Aero No. 2 factory collected over £3,000 in a few weeks. The minutes kept assiduously by Enid Mayell (later Mrs. Trent) are sprinkled with details of the generous response from the blitzed city.
Packed meetings greeted a series of celebrated speakers, including Ludmilla Pavlichenko, Soviet riflewoman and holder of the Order of Lenin, and Madame Maisky (the wife of the Soviet Ambassador) , who brought a message signed by 36,000 women of Stalingrad. This gift was an expression of the special relationship between the two cities. It had started as early as the Autumn of 1941, when 7,000 signatures were collected from Coventry women and sent with good wishes to the women of Stalingrad, a Soviet city chosen because of its similarity to Coventry in size and industrial character.
In return, a letter came from 14 women councillors of Stalingrad, six months before the historic battle began. We have asked Volgograd's newspaper for help in tracing them, just as the Coventry Evening Telegraph recently found some of the 830 Coventry people whose names were embroidered on a tablecloth which is today on show in Volgograd's Battle of Stalingrad museum.
One of the signatories now hopes that she will hear from others whose names appear on the cloth and that they will be able to organise a trip to Volgograd, so that they can see it for themselves. She is well in tune with the old Anglo-Soviet Unity Committee, which hoped, long before the war was over, that there would be a permanent link between the two cities. Symbolically, the Stalingrad Sword was displayed in the ruins of the Cathedral, on the initiative of the committee, before it was sent to Stalingrad, as a gift from King George VI.
That was in 1946 but two years earlier Coventry Council had adopted a resolution, at the suggestion of the Unity Committee, that "steps be taken officially to establish under the aegis of the governing bodies of the two towns a Bond of Friendship . . . which will find its manifestation in such matters as the mutual exchanges of visits by public representatives, teachers, students and others; the establishment of pen-friendships; the exchange of literature and information and generally in the promotion of a mutual friendship and helpfulness."
That was the start of post-war town- twinning, an example since followed by cities all over the world. The friendship was cultivated by correspondence between Coventry and Volgograd until they made a formal agreement after the war. Today, in both cities, there is great interest in the exchange of visits. When, last August, a large group of young people from Volgograd stayed for a week in the Cathedral's Kennedy House, their host was, appropriately, Sidney Stringer School, which sent a drama group to Volgograd the year before. The public enthusiasm for the young Russians and their Cossack dances echoed the heyday of the Anglo-Soviet Unity Committee.
The intense wartime spirit could not last, but the committee evolved into the Coventry branch of the British Soviet Friendship Society and the City Council has kept faith with the Bond of Friendship. Under the nuclear shadow, there is, in the city, a new stirring of interest in British-Soviet relations. The Lord Mayor's invitation to Soviet representatives to join the city's VE parade along with other wartime allies, is a sign that the spirit of British-Soviet friendship, born in the anti-fascist war, is growing again.
John Moore, secretary of Coventry British Soviet Friendship Society June 1985 Journal. (Found and Scanned by Michael Walker)
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THE LONDON DISTRICT COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY
133, EAST ROAD, LONDON, N11 - May, 1935
LONDON UNDER “SOCIALIST” RULE – AN OPEN LETTER TO HERBERT MORRISON
An open letter to Rt Hon Herbert Morrison P.C, LCC (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 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!
from: THE LONDON DISTRICT COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY
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LONDON TRADES COUNCIL CONDEMNS THE JUBILEE.
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, Warehousemen 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. Brother Allott said: "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.