Communist Party of South Wales and the West of England

Last updated

The Communist Party of South Wales and the West of England was a political party in Britain, formed in September 1920. The group was formed by a minority within the South Wales Socialist Society, that did not support merging into the Communist Party of Great Britain.

The group was sympathetic to the Communist Party (British Section of the Third International) of Sylvia Pankhurst, and adopted the programme of its previous group, the Workers Socialist Federation.

The group held a conference in Cardiff in November 1920, during which it declared that communist unity could be achieved only on the basis of "local autonomy in a given local area". [1]

A.J. Cook was a leading member of the group.

Related Research Articles

Communist International Political organization (1919–1943)

The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was an international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism, headed by the Soviet Union. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by all available means, including armed force, for the overthrow of the international bourgeoisie and the creation of an international Soviet republic as a transition stage to the complete abolition of the state". The Comintern was preceded by the 1916 dissolution of the Second International.

Communist Party of Australia Political party in Australia

The Communist Party of Australia (CPA) was an Australian political party founded in 1920. The CPA achieved its greatest political strength in the 1940s. It was banned temporarily in 1940 and faced an attempted ban in 1951 before dissolving in 1991.

Revolutionary Communist Group (UK) Political party in Great Britain

The Revolutionary Communist Group (RCG) is a communist, Marxist and Leninist political organisation in the United Kingdom.

Workers Socialist Federation Political party in the United Kingdom

The Workers' Socialist Federation was a socialist political party in the United Kingdom, led by Sylvia Pankhurst. Under many different names, it gradually broadened its politics from a focus on women's suffrage to eventually become a left communist grouping.

A. J. Cook (trade unionist)

Arthur James Cook, was a British trade union leader who was General Secretary of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain from 1924 until 1931, a period that included the 1926 General Strike.

Robert Griffiths (politician) Leader of the British Communist Party

Robert Griffiths is a Welsh communist activist and the current General Secretary of the Communist Party of Britain. He was elected by the party's Executive Committee in January 1998, in place of Mike Hicks.

Communist League (UK, 1919) Political party in United Kingdom

The Communist League was a small far-left organisation in the United Kingdom which existed during the year of 1919. Its stated goal was to establish a network of workers' councils that would "resist all legislation and industrial action directed against the working class, and ultimately assuming all power, establish a working class dictatorship".

The South Wales Socialist Society was a federation of communist groups in Wales, with many of its members being coal miners. It was a founder constituent of the Communist Party of Great Britain.

British Left

The British Left is a range of political parties and movements in the United Kingdom. These can take the position of either centre-left, left-wing or far-left.

Little Moscow was a term for towns and villages in capitalist societies whose population appeared to hold extreme left-wing political values or communist views. The places so named were typically in working class areas, normally with strong trade union links to a heavy industry.

Socialism in Australia Role and influence of socialism in Australia

Socialism in Australia dates back at least as far as the late-19th century. Notions of socialism in Australia have taken many different forms including utopian nationalism à la Edward Bellamy, the Marxism of parties such as the Communist Party of Australia, and the democratic socialist reformist electoral project of the early Australian Labor Party.

The Communist Labour Party was a Communist Party in Scotland. It was formed in September 1920 by the Scottish Workers' Committee and the Scottish section of the Communist Party, some members of the Socialist Labour Party (SLP) and various local communist groups. In the same month, the Communist Party of South Wales and the West of England was founded, with a very similar programme.

British Socialist Party Political party in the United Kingdom

The British Socialist Party (BSP) was a Marxist political organisation established in Great Britain in 1911. Following a protracted period of factional struggle, in 1916 the party's anti-war forces gained decisive control of the party and saw the defection of its pro-war right wing. After the victory of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia at the end of 1917 and the termination of the First World War the following year, the BSP emerged as an explicitly revolutionary socialist organisation. It negotiated with other radical groups in an effort to establish a unified communist organisation, an effort which culminated in August 1920 with the establishment of the Communist Party of Great Britain. The youth organisation the Young Socialist League was affiliated with the party.

Communist Party of Great Britain Communist party in the United Kingdom that existed from 1920 to 1991

The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist party in Great Britain from 1920 to 1991. Founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist parties, the CPGB gained the support of many socialist organisations and trade unions following the political fallout of the First World War and the Russian October Revolution. Ideologically the CPGB was a socialist party organised upon Marxism–Leninist ideology, strongly opposed to British colonialism, sexual discrimination, and racial segregation. These beliefs led many leading anti-colonial revolutionaries, feminists, and anti-fascist figures, to become closely associated with the party. Many prominent CPGB members became leaders of Britain's trade union movements, including Jessie Eden, Abraham Lazarus, Ken Gill, Clem Beckett, GCT Giles, Mike Hicks, and Thora Silverthorne.

Far-left politics in the United Kingdom

Far-left politics in the United Kingdom have existed since at least the 1840s, with the formation of various organisations following ideologies such as Marxism, revolutionary socialism, communism, anarchism and syndicalism.

The Socialist Labor Party was a socialist political party of Australia that existed from 1901 to the 1970s. Originally formed as the Australian Socialist League in 1887, it had members such as George Black, New South Wales Premier William Holman and Prime Minister Billy Hughes.

William James Hewlett was a British trade unionist and socialist activist.

The Executive Committee of the Communist Party of Great Britain was the governing body of the Communist Party of Great Britain between 1920 and 1991. It governed the party between congresses, at which successive ECs were appointed/elected. The EC played an important leadership role, according to the principles of democratic centralism to which the CPGB adhered.

References

  1. Pitt, Robert. "John Maclean and the CPGB". What Next?. What Next?. Retrieved 14 January 2017.