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Our

History New Series:

No 8 (2008)

History Group of the Communist Party of Britain – newsletter office@communist-party.org.uk

In this issue: New historic CP texts on MIA

New Party

history 1952-1964: research call

Review: Hayes

Peoples’ History website

The Red Airmen’s Song

The WW2 Factory Wall

Newspaper

1929-31 CP pit papers

Picture of Maurice

Cornforth sought

Info on Communist councillors

needed

List of new CP biographies on Graham

Stevenson’s site

MARXIST INTERNET ARCHIVE – new

British Communist documents on the web… http://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/sections/britain/index.htm

1925 CP pamphlet…Sheffield Communists 1926…Gallacher 1926…

Brian Reid of the Marxist Internet Archive, who is handling the transposing of

historic British Communist materials, advises of the latest new additions:

http://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/sections/britain/pamphlets/1925/trotskyism/inde

x.htm ("The Errors of Trotskyism")

http://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/sections/britain/subject/general_strike/index.htm

(General Strike 1926)

http://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/sections/britain/congresses/06/index.htm (6th

Party Conference Report)

http://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/sections/britain/congresses/25/index.htm (25th

Party Conference Report)

http://www.marxists.org/archive/saklatvala/index.htm (NEW: Saklatvala Archive)

http://www.marxists.org/archive/horner/index.htm (NEW: Horner Archive)

http://www.marxists.org/archive/rust/index.htm (NEW: Rust Archive)

http://www.marxists.org/archive/burns-emile/index.htm (NEW: Burns Archive)

http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/war/index.htm

If comrades have a specific subject or writer that they'd like to see more developed, we can advise

MIA and they will attempt to assist. For instance, one web-visitor asked about getting more

material on the Minority Movement. It's available, so it will go on the MIA site.

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Help needed now on a new volume of

Party history 1952-1964….

Further to previous calls in `Our History’ for authors and material on Communist Party history, the plain truth is that

far too many of us are far too busy building the Party of today to get it together to write about the Party of the past!

So, we have decided to concentrate on getting out one volume

just on a particular slice of history, specifically the 1952 to 1964 period, finishing just before the general election of that

year. Already a large amount of material has been gathered and we are looking for any additions readers can supply. It

need not be a worked up paper, cuttings, snippets,

reminiscences, facts and figures that fit the period will all help.

If you have documents or Party pamphlets and journals,

election addresses, anything that touches on these twelve years, we want them now. E-mail or post to the Party office

anything you can get your hands on. The expectation is that this volume will be finished during the course of this year and

a great deal of compilation and editing will take place during the summer, so the sooner the better!!

Review….we are pleased to illustrate some features from the remarkable local history site by Michael Walker….

Hayes Peoples History “A site dedicated to the work of Hayes Labour Association, Hayes & Harlington Labour Party, Hayes Communist Party,

Trade Unionists, and working men and women of West Middlesex.”

http://ourhistory-hayes.blogspot.com/

Visit Michael’s site for a massive range of local resources; he has, for example, a long piece on Charles Duncan, Workers Union leader and Labour MP, which covers much of the background to the WU. This later joined with the TGWU in 1929, and is thus now part of Unite – the union. The piece contains these attractive illustrations (over):

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Michael also covers some of the history of the WU in workplaces local to

Hayes factories and there’s a study of the coming to town of a local branch

of the National Amalgamated Union of Labour (NAUL), established in

September 1911. Joseph N Bell (later Labour MP for Newcastle) spoke to

over hundred and fifty men calling upon them to “combine against

capitalism” The NAUL would later join the merger that formed what is now

known as the GMB. There’s much more material on a range of things:

(Left) The complete text of this 1942 pamphlet is available, as is the

(centre) T&G’s Latin American Workers Association bulletin, EL MOPO

(THE MOP), for Selfridges and Debenhams store cleaners, and `Sussex for

the People’ (Sussex County Committee of the Communist Party 1939)

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The Red Airmen’s Song

This song was very popular amongst Communist Party and Young Communist

League members during the Second World War, the various Choruses are to

be sung with great passion and clenched fists. The song was adapted by

Randall Swingler and arranged by “G M S and J T”. The sheet music was

published by the Workers Music Association in 1939. Choruses would be

invented for various occasions and variations of particular lines were common.

Singers, during the chorus, would standing up and wave their arms in a

synchronised way to imitate propellers turning!!! The song was re-popularised

in YCL in the 1960s, often just adding the chorus on its own to another song,

such as `Bandiera Rossa’ (to which the words `communismo’ would be

substituted for the usual `socialismo’). It has even been resurrected by

today’s YCL, especially in its social gatherings. Thus, the Red Airmen’s Song

has become a firm favourite amongst three or four generations of British

Communists. I have provided a range of alternatives and confirmed the words

with Kevin Halpin.

Michael Walker Our planes are roaring, roaring for the battle,

High in the air above the clouds we speed,

Our bombs are ready, our machine-guns rattle,

Against the world’s imperialist greed,

Chorus Flying higher, higher and higher,

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Our emblem the Soviet Star,

And ever propeller is roaring,

Defending the USSR,

(shout) Red Front! or (Shout) Y-C-L

But to the workers and the toiling masses,

A gleam of hope all our propellers whirl,

We drop them leaflets while we bomb their bosses,

The first Red Air Force of the world,

Chorus Our proud machines obey our every order

There is no flight our pilots do not dare,

We form an iron ring above our border

The workers first squadrons of the air,

Chorus And should dictators with snouts come rooting

Around the soil of our free Soviet land,

Our guns can sting the jaws that gape for looting,

Our bombs will smash the greedy hand

Note: other versions of Chorus Flying higher, higher and higher,

Our emblem the Soviet Star,

And every propeller is turning,

In defence of the USSR

or And ever propeller is roaring

Red Front! Defending the USSR

Alternative Chorus Flying higher, higher and higher,

Our emblem the Soviet Star

And every propeller is turning,

In defence of the USSR,

(Shout) Y-C-L

or

And every blade is turning

in defence of the USSR

Flying higher, higher and higher,

Our emblem the Soviet Star,

And ever propeller is roaring,

Defending the USSR,

(shout) Red Front! or (Shout) Y-C-L

Ken Keable adds a postscript, recalling how his parents, Bill & Gladys Keable,

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taught him to sing the Song of the Soviet Air Force (in Esperanto as well as

in English) and I he still sings it! “I performed it only recently at an event in

Taunton to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, and I

used to sing it in the 1970s and 80s when I was in the political song group

"The Partisans". Here are the words I was taught, which (with all respect to

Kevin Halpin) I think are rather better:

We sail the sky as steamers sail the ocean.

We boldly fly where none has flown before.

Our arms are wings of metal swift in motion,

Our beating heart - the mighty engine's roar.

Fly higher, and higher, and higher -

Our emblem, the Soviet star

And every propeller is roaring

Defending the USSR.

Our watchful gaze explores the wide horizon.

Our iron nerves the elements defy.

To every foe, to any fighting challenge

Our mighty air fleet swiftly will reply.

(Chorus)

Our proud machines obey our every order.

There is no flight our pilots do not dare.

We form an iron ring above our border -

The workers' first great squadrons of the air.

(Chorus).

____________________________________________________________________

The Factory Wall Newspaper in WW2

an original text by George Hill, entitled `Organising for Offensive Action’ - February 1943, transcribed by Michael Walker and also from his site… A problem constantly before the Communist Party group in our factory, in the fight for increased production and national unity for victory over Fascism,, is how effectively to

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reach out to the majority of the workers and make them aware of our policy for victory.

We have found that the use of a wall-newspaper on the job is an excellent method of really getting close to the people to whom we wish to speak. After the decision to produce the paper the first step to take is to approach the management .and ask for their co-operation and support in the production of the paper, explaining that its main policy will be "National Unity to Smash Fascism." The job of the editor of the paper is to get around among the workers and ask them to write articles, and take personal responsibility for various jobs connected with the paper. These could include short articles giving, suggestions on how to increase production in their own department, responsibility for collecting cartoons and illustrations and cuttings, illustrations of articles, turning out a rhyme, and so on. The aim must be to build up a staff of regular contributors, who alone can become the backbone of the paper. Prominent among these should be such leading figures as the convenor of shop stewards and the secretary of the Production Committee, who should take responsibility for writing their respective "reviews." The Production Committee should also advise the editor and his helpers of those men and women who have made outstanding efforts in production, so that perhaps a photograph and a description of their achievement can be included. Other suggestions for contents include letters from the workers dealing with issues of general interest in the factory and on political questions of the day, jokes and illustrations which prevent the newspaper from being heavy, and " flashes " which are the witticisms and gossip on the job. Competitions and puzzles and the introduction of a “quiz “all help to make a well-balanced paper. The work of the editor and his assistants is to determine the main slogan for each issue, and to go carefully through all the material handed in so that each issue is built around some main theme. The paper should be issued regularly, say fortnightly, and it is a useful idea to place boxes for contributions beneath it. Now for the technical production. This is extremely important. Remember that the paper is read standing up and the reader often has only a few moments to spend. It is necessary to get an attractive appearance, with well arranged material, and the use of colour to break up the articles and make it easier to read. The articles should be typed, and the possibility of duplicating or similar methods should be explored. For example, in many engineering firms the management has an apparatus for producing blue-prints by the Photostat method, which is ideal for the production of a wall newspaper. It is essential, following the production of the paper, that there should be a discussion with workers on the job, getting suggestions and comments from them on ways of improving the paper in the next issue. The accompanying illustration will give an indication of the appearance of our own wall-newspaper which we produce regularly on the above lines. Now for the technical production. This is extremely important. Remember that the paper is read standing up and the reader often has only a few moments to spend. It is necessary to get an attractive appearance, with well arranged material, and the use of colour to break up the articles and make it easier to read. The articles should be typed, and the possibility of duplicating or similar methods should be explored. For example, in many engineering firms the management has an apparatus for producing blue-prints by the Photostat method, which is ideal for the production of a wall newspaper. It is essential, following the production of the paper, that there should be a discussion with workers on the job, getting suggestions and comments from them on ways of improving the paper in the next issue. The accompanying illustration Chiswick Wall Newspaper News (above) for December 1942 will give an indication of the appearance of our own wall newspaper which we produce regularly on the above lines.

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_____________________________________________________________________

Note: the following is abridged from Inprecor, the bulletin of the Communist International, February 1925.

The factory newspapers of other countries including Great Britain, did not know until quite recently how to make use of this form of agitation in the

factory newspapers. The idea prevailed that ordinary Party newspapers deal with political questions, hence it is not necessary for factory newspapers to deal with them, and all our attention should be concentrated on the

economic questions-within the factory by which means the interest of the masses in the newspaper should be aroused.

In some places one went even so far as merely to register factory events (this was done for instance in the first British factory newspaper) without

showing the slightest intention to explain these events from a Communist viewpoint. This tendency exists to a certain extent. For instance in the Nine

Elms Spark. The so-called factory nucleus newspapers of Germany, as for instance the Leder-Prolet are also to a certain extent tainted with this tendency.

The Communist International Organisation Conference condemned both

tendencies and made it incumbent on factory newspapers to deal with all questions in a simple and concise manner: • to illustrate questions in a way to allow workers to draw from, them

political conclusions quite simply and naturally, • to avoid abstract subjects, to deal with everything in a concrete manner,

• to describe conflicts between workers and employers, and incidents from the life of the working class,

• to avoid a stereotyped style in the factory newspapers. Factory newspapers are to appeal to the indifferent masses who have

frequently a very perverted notion about Communists and who never or hardly ever read a Communist newspaper. The task of factory newspapers

is to win the masses for the Communist Party, for the struggle of the working class. Therefore one should not allow the small everyday questions of the factory

to be the widest perspectives of Communism. Therefore it is essential to connect the small factory questions with the big

political questions confronting the Party and to explain them to the masses For instance in Great Britain the first factory newspapers were published

without indicating that they are the organs of the nuclei, without producing the impression that they are Party newspapers. This was the case with the

Nine Elms Spark. This was a mistake especially over there in Great Britain where the Party is confronted with the great task of making organisational capital out of the sympathy of the masses, in order thereby to transform

the small Party into a mass Party.

Factory newspapers are a means to educate for us proletarian editors and real proletarian writers. We will have to return to this subject many a time. Today we should like to say in conclusion: pay more attention to the

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question of factory newspapers.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Feature on Communist pit papers 1929-1931

COMMUNIST PIT PAPERS By Graham Stevenson

The period of the 'New Line' and the policy of 'Class Against Class',

between 1926 and 1931 has been widely visited by historians. Only in

recent times have some begun to show that the falsity of a ready

assumption that the `left’ turn was entirely destructive, a notion especially

fostered by 1980s revisionism. Underlying the New Line policy was a

presumption that the reformism of the British labour movement made it

objectively a counter-revolutionary force at a time of great crisis for

capitalism. Although this supposedly underpinned the promotion of

separate 'red' trade unions, in Britain at least, any such developments

were largely more a product of accident than design.

For the new line itself was not a rigid policy imposed from without, nor (as

others have more than well-argued) was it responsible for falling

membership in the late 1920s, with a revival coming only with the fight

against fascism and the Popular Front in the 1930s. The more complex

reality is well-evidenced by the “pit papers” produced entirely locally,

often purely at pit level, and always with the heavy involvement of working

– or victimised – miners. The papers were commonly sold for a penny and

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were often named after some work tool or device used in mining.

The impact of the papers has to be seen in the context of the years

following the General Strike and Lock Out of 1926. Rising unemployment

and anti-union laws saw trade union membership fall significantly between

1927 and 1931. The numerical decline of the Communist Party from a high

sustained during earlier, heady days came before the adoption of the new

line, and was uneven across Party districts.

Communists had been to the fore in 1926 and continued to play an vital role

in mobilising employed and unemployed workers in the following few years.

During the period of operation of the new line the Party – as ever - had an

influence far greater than its numerical strength would suggest at a time

of economic decline. Coal production was badly down and other heavy

industries suffered, too.

Such experiences, amidst the mood of retreat of the General Strike also

reduced militancy. An increasingly moderate trades union leadership made

strong and sustained attacks on Communists, which seemed to confirm

jaded views that reformism held the movement with an iron grip. The

Labour Party – if not yet the ILP - had also purged its ranks of actual

Communists and mostly had sidelined communist-leaning individuals. The

Labour Party had ended dual membership between the two parties,

preventing Communists from standing as Labour candidates. The National

Minority Movement – powerful at first - was isolated and then suppressed.

The shift from united front to hostility to the leadership of the labour

movement emerged as much from local circumstances, as anything imposed

by the Comintern. The plurality with which the Party treated internal

discussion on the line is a fact that has escaped revisionist commentators.

They have not only sought to transpose the past a-historically by posing

the supposedly `sectarian’ class politics of the time against the later

`success’ of popular frontism (did it save Spain?). Yet this had been no

imposition; in the period 1929-31, some British communists held to the

Class Against Class line more diligently than either the Comintern or the

Soviet Union ever did!

Perhaps, at a time when the issue of just how much further leeway one

gives to supporting a reclaim Labour strategy, even when it no longer shows

any sign of reversing its stance, the relevance of those long ago pit papers

has some contemporary relevance for us? One thing is abundantly clear -

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the hard work and dedication of Communist miners in the pit villages

featured here resulted in the subsequent three to four decades in a

tradition of strong electoral support for the Party in most of the localities

in which the papers were a vital force.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

BELLSHILL, SCOTLAND

The Clipper was produced for the Viewpark pit in Bellshill, Scotland and

advertised itself as being printed at the Workers Bookshop, 78 Main St,

Bellshill.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

SHOTTS, LANARKSHIRE

The Sprag was described as being published by “Blackface” of 92 Main

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Street, Shotts. Since this was a post office on the road between

Edinburgh and Glasgow that ran to the north of the mining area around

Shotts, this must have been a post office box address. Victimisation of

militant miners from 1926 had been particularly intense in this area and it

may be well speculated to assume that the head of one of the well-known

families that would turn the main village itself into a `Little Moscow’ was

the point of contact. Both Mick McGahey and Frank Watters hailed from

this area and both of their fathers were activists at the time of the

production of the Sprag. Brother, John Watters, was a Communist

councillor for much of the late 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s.

The peculiar name of the paper, Sprag, would seem to refer to either a

piece of wood or metal which would be wedged beneath a wheel, or

between the spokes, to keep a vehicle from rolling. Or maybe to a pointed

stake that would be lowered at an angle into the ground from a vehicle to

prevent movement. It could even mean simply a prop to support a mine roof

and it is speculated that this may be the more likely intention, since it

easily conveys the idea of a strong support to miners that the paper aimed

to be. The term `sprag’ is seemingly ancient and is of Scandinavian origin.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

LUMPHINNANS

The `Pan bolt’ took its name from just that, a bolt with a head resembling

an upside-down pan! It was published by one “Abe Moffat, 5 Viewfield

Terrace, Lumphinnans” on behalf of the `Peeweep’ Communist Party “cell”.

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This was one of the few pit papers to declare the name of the main

producer. Moffat was of course to go on to become a giant of Communist

mining history; the area was a red belt of Communist voters for some forty

years.

'Peeweep' was the name of their pit (above), formally the Lumphinnans No

11 mine. But Peeweep was what it was known as locally; one can only guess

that this was a sardonic attempt to compare the mine to a streak of piss!

It was a new pit when the Fife Coal Company took it over in 1896. A new

shaft was sunk in the 1920s and the pit finally closed in November 1966.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

SOUTH LANARKSHIRE

`The Fan’, (the title of which presumably needs no explanation!) advertised

itself as being “From the militant miners of South Lanark” weekly by

Jimmy Hunter of 9 McAuslan Terrace, Douglas Water, even today a very

small village. The paper appears to have serviced pits in Blantyre, Bothwell,

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Larkhall, Stonehouse and Hamilton.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

SIX BELLS, SOUTH WALES

The Arrael Griffin (Six Bells) pit paper was produced in the name of the

Minority Movement, which was a communist initiative to organise a united

front of left and militants inside existing trade unions. By implication the

aim of the Movement was to convert the revolutionary minority of the

working class into a majority within reformist organisations. The MM was

divided into trade-related sections, the most important of which were the

Mining MM, the Metal Workers' MM and the Transport MM.

Arrael Griffin Lodge was a branch of the mineworkers in South Wales,

representing Six Bells Colliery. John Lancaster & Co. began sinking the two

shafts (352 yards deep) of this colliery in 1892 on the opposite side of the

Ebbw Fach river to Hafod Van, near Abertilly, Monmouthshire.

A 1923 report shows that there were then 859 men employed at No.4 pit,

and at No.5 there were 1,529 men employed. Temporary closure occurred

in 1930, because of “lack of trade”. Partridge Jones & John Paton took

over the running of it in 1936 until nationalisation in 1947, when there were

1,534 men employed. The 1960s closure programme would seem to have hit

the locality. The paper displays a high degree of illustration, exemplified

by the cartoon below:

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+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

PRESTONLINKS

The workings of Prestonlinks colliery, Prestonpans, Edinburgh (a half-mile

(1 km) northeast of Prestonpans and 8 miles (13 km) east of Edinburgh)

went beneath the Firth of Forth. Coal was mined there for a very long

time, as can be evidenced by a report to the 1842 Children's Employment

Commission. It closed in 1964 and the Cockenzie Power Station rests on its

site. Many of the men transferred to Monktonhall Colliery, which

continued a strong Communist tradition until its very end.

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The title of the Links Reflector may refer to a pocket compass used by

mining engineers, which would be equipped with sights and a reflector,

useful for sighting lines, measuring dip and carrying out preliminary

surveys, or more probably to the reflector on a miners’ own lamp. Either

way, it is clear that the image is one of showing the way.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

THORNE, DONCASTER

The opening of Thorne Colliery not far from Doncaster brought an influx

of people from several parts of Britain and Moorends village was built to

house them.

The title of the lively weekly, the Thorne Butty Squasher, needs some

explanation! Before the Truck Acts, the "butty" or "gaffer" was a

middleman who contracted with the mining company to deliver an agreed

tonnage of coal to the pithead, hiring and paying his own labour.

Sometimes, he would conduct his business as a sideline to other activities,

sometimes not so respectable.

There was widespread opposition to the "butty-system" in the second half

of the nineteenth century, the miners demanding direct employment on

piece-work by the colliery companies, and by 1912 most hewers in charge of

"stalls" were restricted to the employment on a time wage of one man and

a boy. As a simple working arrangement, the system" was virtually exclusive

to the Midlands, and will have spread a little into Yorkshire from there.

Butty continued to operate, though on a diminishing scale, until the early

1930s.

It was peculiar to the "longwall" method of working, the "butty"

contracting to work a particular longwall face and engaging and paying his

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men, at a day-rate, out of the contract terms with the company. A small

"working master", he would spend some time hewing the coal himself to set

the pace and expect his men to keep up to it. Any tonnage cut in excess of

the minimum agreed was his profit. He was an envied, but never a popular,

figure. Hence the notion of squashing what was seen as a figure that

disunified the men.

The Butty went up to at least issue 93, judging by the surviving numbers

available. As with a few of the papers, a fairly skilled level of illustration,

given the nature of production by duplicating machines required the

cutting of a wax stencil by application of a fine pointed stylus that would

permit the permeation of ink through a roller onto paper. Some of these

machines were entirely hand-held and often boxed into a kind of `suitcase’,

for ease of carrying, especially in case of a police raid!

There is clearly a great deal of workplace wit going on here about the

managerial qualities of those who control the workforce. Notwithstanding

the fact that `deputies’ would themselves later unionise and would often

be comprised of progressive, or even Communist, individuals with a strong

commitment to safety in the mines, the plain fact is that they were, by

title, deputy to the mine manager. In times when management were

untrammelled, their class consciousness would fail. That is the implication

of the cartoon, which is accompanied by a satirical `biblical’ text, which

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obviously identifies individual under-managers who were more conscious of

the need for production than anything else and who pushed deputies to

forget their roots:

“The land of muck Lo, and behold, Blackjackaphus did journey forth unto the pen known as 4 & 6 wherein was a great drought for want of empties and did find the slaves without the wherewithal to clear their gettings and he spake forth thus, "why hast thou no empties to earn thy bread and marge" and they did answer "that the time had flown unto ten and that no empties had arrived, but that all they could get was muck and more muck”. Then unto the scene came one known as Clemika the Snake. Then did the wrath of Blackjackaphus break forth and blasphemy and fury was the lot of Clemika and Blackjackaphus said unto him: " Thou wilt be getting thy marching orders the same as the one thou supplanted namely Elliot. There were other difficulties on this part which Blackjackaphus had not seen for the slaves in 60s pen for the time had to show their ability inherited from their ancestors by climbing over and under in quick formation.” +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

HURLFORD, AYRSHIRE

The Kenneth’s Hawk is presumably named from a particular kind of mining

pick and was produced for the Hurlford, Springside and Dreghorn area of

Ayrshire by Frank Moore, of Kerrsland Crescent, Hurlford.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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HARWORTH, NORTH NOTTINGHAMSHIRE

The pit paper represented here was one of the first steps in a major

development of considerable importance in mining unionism’s history. A

consequence of the long lockout of miners that followed the General Strike

was the formation of a breakaway scab county union, led by the

Nottinghamshire miners’ official George Spencer. This `Nottingham and

District Miners’ Industrial Union’ gained support from the coal owners.

The Harworth Spark represented a bold and very brave step in what was

to come next. The Spark was almost certainly the product of one Mick

Kane, a giant figure amongst a tribe of colossal men in Communist mining

activity. Rank-and-file hatred of the 'Spencer Union' was so great that

the pro-bosses’ breakaway in Nottinghamshire could only proceed by the

virtual outlawing of the official miners’ union. Even then, despite the

intense repression, some 20 per cent of Notts miners stuck loyally in

opposition to company unionism. Harworth was a staunch centre, abutting

both Derbyshire and Yorkshire in this struggle which came to a head in

1936 at the colliery.

Nottinghamshire Miners' Association members came out on strike for

recognition of the genuinely independent miners’ union. Their strike lasted

six months, during which time they and their families endured arrest,

police harassment, evictions from their homes by the pit bosses and violent

intimidation from company thugs.

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When it was over, Harworth’s branch president, Mick Kane, was charged

with leading a riot (when it had been the police that had turned on the

men) and sentenced to two years imprisonment with hard labour. Kane’s

steadfastness and dignity brought him and the Harworth men massive

support from within the British trade union movement and furthered the

growing isolation and loss of membership of the Spencer breakaway.

Talks on reconciliation between the two Notts bodies began in 1936 but

when the national miners’ federation put the question to a ballot, the

NMA’s membership overwhelmingly rejected it! Even so, a deal was

eventually done by the TUC so that Spencer to become President of the

Nottinghamshire Miners within the MFGB in May 1937.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

DENABY & CADEBY

Mining started at the Denaby Colliery, between Doncaster and Rotherham

in 1867, and across the river at Cadeby in 1893. Mining continued until

1968 with the closure of the Denaby pit and 1986 when Cadeby finally

closed. The Rebel was printed as a Minority Movement production from 481

Attercliffe Road, Sheffield.

Denaby Main Colliery

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++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

HIGH SPEN AND CHOPWELL

These villages were then in the Urban District of Blaydon-on-Tyne, Durham

County, ten miles or so from Gateshead. Chopwell has been dubbed the

most famous "Little Moscow" because of its strong support for the

Communist Party and even today it counts "Marx Terrace" and "Lenin

Terrace" among its street names. In 1971, Chopwell became part of the

county of Tyne and Wear and the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead. The

Chopwell, Blaydon and Ryton Councils of Action had been amongst the most

powerful and united in the General Strike of 1926; event the remit of the

police had to defer to the Council and its strike bulletin was more eagerly

awaited for news of what might or might not be done locally than any scab

`newspaper’. At the start of the 1926 events there was only a single

Communist Party member there but so many had joined by August (some

200) that no local hall was big enough to hold a Party meeting and these

had to be convened on a hillside!

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/roger_cornwell/827587818

The official Chopwell miners’ banner (previous page), displaying Marx and

Lenin along with Keir Hardie is justly famous, although it was not the only

one from this coalfield to feature Communist heroes. The 1954 NUM

banner (above) was unfurled by Arthur Horner, the then General

Secretary of the NUM at Chopwell Football Ground on Friday 16th July

before that year’s Gala. It replaced the 1935 Durham Miners Association

banner, which was presented in 1955 to a Soviet delegation led by

president of the central committee of Soviet mineworkers. It was

displayed in the Palace of Culture at Kotchegarka Colliery, Gorlovka in

Donbas, East Ukraine before touring other mining areas of Russia. It is

said to now be in Moscow although its actual location is unknown.

The pit consisted of several shafts and drifts; complete closure took place

in November 1966.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

GLENCRAIG

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The Buzzer must have got its name from the siren that sounded when the

shifts were changing or when there was an accident. Glencraig was yet

another militant pit in Fife that was long a stronghold of Communism. Its

own bulletin must have been a part of a wider network co-ordinated by Abe

Moffat, who is reported as being the point of contact for the Buzzer.

Glencraig Colliery was owned by Wilsons and Clyde Coal Company, and was

situated between Lochgelly and Lochore. Its role in the 1926 strike and

lockout was unchallenged until the company began to try to employ a few

scabs. Thus Glencraig saw many a clash with the police, who would go into

battle with the local men wearing steel helmets and scores of local men

were imprisoned for up to a year for their temerity!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

EDLINGTON, DONCASTER

This small village like so many saw its pit close after the resumption of

work following the 1984-5 miners’ strike. It had a long record of militancy

and provided the core of the initial breaking out of left wing activism in

the Yorkshire NUM in 1950s that led to major breakthroughs in later

years.

Beyond the extraordinary skill shown in the graphic below, its bulletin is

otherwise undistinguished from many Communist pit papers of the period.

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Edlington miners on parade in 1932:

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

ROSSINGTON, DONCASTER

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Rossington pit, sunk in 1912, was located nearly six miles from Doncaster. A

thriving mining village stood there from 1915 until partial closure in 1993,

although it partially reopened from the following year until finally being

closed in 2006. The population currently stands at 13,250 but the closure

of the pit had a negative impact on the village and this has now placed it

within the top 12% of the most deprived wards in England.

The railway line running through Rossington created a social divide with

private housing developments situated in Old Rossington while the ex-pit

houses/council houses are situated in New Rossington. New private housing

is being built on the former pit.

The Rossington Ringer was perhaps named for the `bottomer’ who would

ring out signals at the pithead a specified number of times to guide the

loaded or unloaded ascent or descent of the cage. The paper featured rent

struggles, which were a strong feature of mining community struggles in

the Yorkshire area.

Rossington remained something of a red village; even as late as the early

1960s Jock McKenna polled over 1,200 votes for the Communist Party,

nearly defeating a strong right-wing candidate for Labour who was the

NUM branch delegate.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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BENTLEY, YORKSHIRE

Bentley, near Doncaster, saw a major disaster in the form of an explosion

at the pit on the 20th November 1931 in which 45 men and youths were

killed. 20,000 people turned out for the funerals. Around half of the males

of the 16,000 populated village worked in one pit or another.

The main mass burial of the victims of the Bentley explosion

The explosion of firedamp happened at about 5.45pm near the coalface.

Fourteen men were killed outright, two more died shortly afterwards.

Twenty-four were rescued and taken to hospital, but most of them died

within 36 hours. Within two weeks all but one of those rescued had died.

Forty miners had injuries of varying severity. Five bodies were never

recovered. A coroner’s inquest took place on 14th December and simply

returned a verdict of Accidental Death.

The fire was caused by spontaneous combustion of methane gas. Crushed

coal in the mining waste combines with oxygen in the right conditions of

pressure and temperature to create an explosion. The heat emitted by the

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waste coal was a notorious characteristic on this seam. Over 150

dependents were also victims of the explosion and the colliery company

paid out £300 pounds to each widow and £100 for each child under

sixteen. Although, because the miners who survived the explosion had not

completed their shift they only got half pay that day!

The Bentley Turnplate unusually advertised a local contact, one D Hughes

of 6 Alexandra Road, Bentley.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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STAINFORTH, DONCASTER

On the verge of Thorne and Moorends, Stainforth’s Communist Local

produced the Sylvester Rebel as a “new series” (presumably reprising a

1926 bulletin) from the summer of 1929, one of the first to be found in

this batch of pit papers.

Precedent for strong Communist activity exists from when one Squeers,

who was the local organiser of ASLEF, was arrested after addressing a

mass meeting in Stainforth during the General Strike. Having urged

everyone to stop all scab vehicles (except those carrying bread or milk), he

was fined £50 and also received a three month prison sentence.

The Rebel is unique in pressing the case for Communist Party membership

particularly strongly in its pages. The paper was for a period described as

the organ of the Hatfield Communist pit group. The Rebel is particularly

rich in cartoons, with even the masthead being thus decorated, as well as

the front page being usually filled with a lively cartoon with local humour

and insights; the cartoon below celebrates the combined hostility of right-

wing Labour, the colliery management and the police to even selling the

Rebel in the villages. How did the Rebel circulate so widely, it seems to be

saying, if no-one ever admitted buying it!?

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As with many of the pit papers, Hal Wilde was the organiser to be

contacted at “Smolny" in Attercliffe Road, Sheffield, the Party’s main

premises in Yorkshire.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

BARONY & HIGHHOUSE, AUCKINLECK, NEAR CUMNOCK, EAST

AYRSHIRE, SCOTLAND

William Baird and Company were the main coal owners in this area, although

they were also very big in Lanarkshire; at one point the company was

responsible for 25 per cent of Scotland’s output making them the largest

producers of pig iron in the world. In common with all the coal companies,

they owned most of the local housing. Common Row, in the Parish of

Auchinleck, is described thus in 1913:

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“This row consists of ninety-six houses built together in a long line without an opening. They are two-apartment houses. The kitchen measured 14 feet by 12 foot, and the room 12 feet by 9 feet. The houses are built of stone, and the rent is 7s. per month. The population of the row was 506. There is not a single washing-house for all this population. The ash-pits, the closets, and coal-houses are all built together and placed only 5 yards from the doors of the houses. The closets have no doors, and two open compartments. There are seventeen of these erections for the whole row. The stench of the closet and ash-pits at the very doors of the houses is abominable. The floors of the closets are nearly all littered with human excrement, and owing to the want of privacy these closets cannot be used by females or grown-up persons. The pathways in front of the houses are unpaved, and when we visited the place on the 13th November 1913, the whole place was a perfect quagmire, and indeed it was hardly possible to step from a door without going up to the ankles in "glaur." An open sewer runs down the front of the row, and carries the filth past the doors of the houses to a settling tank, which is erected at the end of the row, from whence the sewage is discharged into the burn.”

In 1931, William Baird & Company’s Ayrshire coal interests were combined

with those of the Dalmellington Iron Co, an East Ayrshire firm, to form

Bairds & Dalmellington Ltd. The new company, 75 percent owned by William

Baird & Co Ltd, controlled 70 percent of the Ayrshire coalfields.

The meaning behind the use of the word `jigger’ as a title for a Communist

pit paper might perhaps convey the notion of `stirring things up’; it is

difficult to be sure since mining terms tended to vary in different parts of

the country. Generally, a jig was a pulley wheel in the haulage system,

usually at the top of an incline and a jigger was the person, usually a lad,

who operated the jig. Later the name stuck for a type of conveyor of pans

that rode on cradles and was rocked in a jerking movement, agitating a

mass of mixed coal and muck slide towards a dump. It could also be a

similar device in which the material was mixed with water (in a wash box)

so as to stratify it for separation. These kinds of devices were even used

underground for rooting out coal where a coal cutter could not gain access.

Although a jigger in Scottish pits was an apparatus for attaching the coal

tubs (hutches) to a rope, holding them by twisting or biting the rope (see

below), the concept of agitating seems to hold good!

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A Scottish jigger

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

BARNSLEY

The "Barnsley Main" colliery was in the town, but was fairly small

compared to the cluster of many pits in its environs in villages all

around; it closed in 1991.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

END NOTE:

The above account is based on a reading of Frank Watters’ collection of

Communist pit papers now held by the author, from which the illustrations

are taken. The National Library of Scotland has Xerox copies of various

duplicated news-sheets available for public viewing, thus:

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1. The Spark, organ of the Methil Communist Pit Group, nos. 1-23, 26, 1925-6.

2. The Spark, continued by Methil Local Community Party and Y.C.L vol.2, nos. 1-

28, 11 Feb-26 Aug, 1927; not numbered, 31 Oct, 1927-14 July, 1928; vol 3, nos.

1-3, 5-6, 19 July-27 Sept, 1930.

3. The Spark, produced by the Militant Section, Wellesley [Pit] Workers, nos. 7-

9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 20-22, 11 Oct, 1930-5 June, 1931; nos. 3A, 6A, 7A, 27 Nov-25, Dec, 1931.

4. Other news-sheets:

The Buzzer [Militant Miners of Glencraig], 1 issue, 29 Aug, 1930.

The Fan [Militant Miners of South Lanark], nos.2, 8, 26, 15 March-6 Sept, 1930.

Links Reflector [Prestonlinks Communist Cell], 1 issue, 6 Sept, 1930.

The Pan Bolt [Communist Peeweep Pit Cell], 1 issue, 29 Aug, 1930.

The Sprag [Militant Miners and Shotts C.P.], nos.2, 17, 25 April, 5 Sept, 1930.

The Torch [Militant Section, Frances (Colliery) Workers], nos. 1-3, 18 Oct-15

Nov, 1930.

The Vigilant, 2 issues, n.d. Bought, 1969 and 1971.

Information on Maurice Cornforth sought

Jyotirmoy Ghosh of International Publications, a new left-wing publishing company in West Bengal, India is in the middle of publishing, in conjunction with the Second Wave Publications of London, the first six chapters of Maurice Cornforth's “Readers' Guide to the Marxist Classics”. They would like to publish some biographical notes on Maurice Cornforth and a photograph of him in the book. Can anyone help? Do you have a picture of Maurice Cornforth?

Info on former Communist Councillors required Michael Lavalette, himself a Respect councillor in Preston, is involved

in a research project on left councillors, which includes the

Communist Party. Michael is also a senior lecturer in sociology at the

University of Liverpool. At present he is undertaking some research

on the role, activities and campaigning work of Communist Party

councillors from the 1930s onwards. He has been working in the

CPGB archives in Manchester and Glasgow. However, he would also

like to interview any former Communist councillors, or those who may

have worked and campaigned alongside such activists. Contact him on

0151 794 3008 (work), 07739729214 (mob) or 01772 462095 (home).

Alternatively e-mail at M.Lavalette@liverpool.ac.uk

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New Communist biographical sketches

A list of entirely new subjects in the compendium of biographies posted in January 2008 on Graham Stevenson’s Communist and other history weblog follows: See: http://graham.thewebtailor.co.uk/ and then use the search facility on the front page. George Alsop, Jesse Baker, Lionel Bart, Clem Beckett, Ernie Benson, Joe Bent, Claude Berridge, Dickie Bond, Lawrence Bradshaw, Bill Brooks, Marie Cairns, Leslie Cartwright, Frank Chapple, Tony Chater, W P (Pat) Coates, Claude Cockburn, Dan Cohen, Jim Conway, Arthur Croft, George Cross, Zelda Curtis, Fanny Deakin, Dorothy Diamond, Len Doherty, Jessie Eden, Ken Gill, Jack Forshaw, Percy Glading, a much extended additional note on Frank Graham, George Harvey, Jack Hendy, Geoff Hodgson, Harry Hunter, George Jelf, Monty Johnstone, Arthur Jones, Stan Kelly-Bootle, Peter Kerrigan (the docker and actor), Ted Lismer, Terry Lynskey, Gordon McLennan, David Michaelson, Jeff Mildwater, Robert Milton, John Park, Joan Powell, John Prime, Jean Ross, George Stalker, Dick Stocker. . Additionally, a large number of biographies have been updated and in some cases significant additional material included supplied by informants. As ever, updates and corrections as well as new and additional entries are always welcome. Currently, work under slow progress is the task of posting almost 100 photographs of subjects (more always welcome) and a couple of dozen new names are being researched, the longest and most intriguing of which is on Clemens Dutt. Finally, before anyone rushes to correction, despite perceptions and although historical in nature, the compendium is not a collection of obituaries as such. It is well appreciated that a few of these subjects are very much still alive!!!

As always, contributions to future editions of `Our

History’ are very welcome.

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