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Communism and the Labour Movement
The Society's Spring Conference in the West of Scotland attracted a healthy attendance of 80-plus. Proceedings opened with Willie Thompson of Glasgow Calendonian University giving an overview of "Communism in Scotland". Emphasising the strong Scottish influence within the national organisation, he outlined 6 main phases of activity: 1) the early years of growth, with industrial struggles, the Spanish Civil War and World War Two; 2) the defensiveness of the Cold War years of the 1950s; 3) the recovery of the late 50s/early 60s based round the anti-nuclear movement; 4) the most successful era of hegemony within the labour movement in the late 60s/early 70s; 5) the period of retreat from the mid 70s; 6) the final phase of defeat in the 1980s as the whole labour movement weakened. Though always a small organisation with no mass membership, the party gained a reputation for always playing a role in fighting for the peoples' causes.
Carol Thornton of Glasgow Caledonian University presented her recent researches into "Scottish Communism in the 1920s". In the early years of the decade, the party did have influence and considerable electoral support in Greenock, Dundee and Motherwell elections. The party's convoluted relationship with the Labour Party and the debates over affiliation were explored, with the conclusion that these manoeuvres, and the Stalinist theory of Socialism in one Country, gradually weakened the revolutionary potential of the early days.
Kevin Morgan of Manchester University presented new evidence from his researches in the Moscow Archives on "The Early Years of the Communist Party" (see the Manchester conference report in the April 1996 Newsletter).
Alan Campbell of Liverpool University surveyed "Communism in the Scottish Coalfields in the Inter-War Years", since these areas developed as major centres of Minority Movement activity in the 1920s, leading to the founding of the 'Red Union', the United Mineworkers of Scotland in 1929. Maps and statistical tables helped illustrate how the strength of communist support was determined by geographical, economic and social factors, flourishing in Fife and Lanarkshire, compared to Ayrshire and the Lothians.
Three perspectives were given on the breakdown of the CPGB and the re-formation of the communist movement in the 1980s: John Foster (Paisley University) on the Communist Party of Britain; Eric Canning on the Communist Party of Scotland; Doug Chalmers on the Democratic Left.
Chair Andy Clark apologised for the last-minute absence of the day's final speaker - his brother Alex, former miner, CP and Equity official, and first STUC Arts Officer. He outlined the talk Alex would have given on the experience of their family and community that had made them lifelong communists, finishing with a stirring account of the role played by so many communists in the working-class struggle over the years.
