emergence of the communist party in britain

political extremes

• in the 1930s, several european countries notaby germany witnessed violent conflict between the political extremes of communism and fascism

• in britain, although the economic hardhsips of the 1920s and 30s encouraged the emergence of radical political movements, none came close to acheiving politival power or seriously disrupting national life

the communist party of 1920

• survived until the 1990s

• although always small, it carried suuport that was disproportiante to its membership

• there was a surge of interest for it due to the philosophical view that it claimed to care for the working class and its middle class supporters with the aim of obtaining a progressive society

• the revolutionary idea of creating a better type of society seemed to appeal heavily to young people

• after the establishment of a communist regime in russia, it appeared that the communists were creating what sympathisers called a new civilisation

• the severe worldwide economic crisis of 1930 seemed to indicate a collapse of communism and parliamentary democracy seemed inadequate

rise of the CPGB

• faced with mass unemployment, the breakup of labour in 1931, membership for the communists rose

• the rise of fascism increased the appeal of communism as it appeared that the communist were carrying the fight against fascism

• the conservative party often exaggerated the threat of communism as a way of weakening support for labours

• for example by making allegations that there were communist intentions behing the 1926 general strike

trade unions and communism

• certainly communism was prminent in many aspects of british life in the 1920s + 30s

• many trade union leaders were communist party leaders or communist sympathisers

• communists played leading roles in organisations such as the national unemployed workers movement which had 30,000 members in the early 1930s

• the NUWM not only gave advise to the unemployed, they also held hunger marched to oppose the inadequate welfare for the unemployed

• they also held mass demonstrations which often ended with violence with the police

• violence was often the out come when they’d barge in the british union of fascist meetings

communist nfluence

• they often spread their influence through the printed world

• its newspaper ‘the daily worker’ had a circulation of 80,000

• a handful of communists were voted as mps, membership rose but only up to 18,000

• communist influence in the trade union was limited as it was opposed by moderate union leader ernest bevin

• the labour party constantly refused to work with the CPGB or let it affiliate to the labour movement

the national government

• the national government never had to worry about any potential threat from the communist party

• the secret service kept a close eye on its leaders ,sympathisers and activists and the police cracked down hard on communist led demonstrations

• the incitement to disaffection act passed in 1934 enabled the prosection of political extremists