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Molly Murphy
J T Murphy was one of the most important worker-intellectual figures of the early 20th century British revolutionary socialist tradition. The chief theorist of the first work war shop steward's movement, Murphy went on to make a far-reaching contribution to the early development of the British Communist Party, as well as serving on the Communist International based in Moscow, before eventually leaving the CPGB to join the Socialist League and then campaign for a Popular Front against fascism and a new world war. As well as writing hundreds of newspaper and journal articles on an immense range of industrial relations, trade union and political issues, Murphy's reflections on the crucial period in the history of the British working class movement in which he played such a prominent role were recorded in the book Preparing for Power and in his autobiography New Horizons. His distinctive contribution, hitherto somewhat neglected, should become more widely known following the publication of the full-length political biography which Ralph Darlington is currently writing.
During the last few years a range of new documentary material revealing important details on Murphy's activities and political influences has become available. Much of this new evidence is located within the Comintern archives in Moscow. But the recent acquisition of Murphy's personal papers by the National Museum of Labour History has provided another important source. One of the most notable items amongst this material is an unpublished book-length autobiography by Murphy's wife, Molly, albeit ghost-written by Murphy himself. This document, which was written in the late 1950s, makes fascinating reading, not merely for the fresh insights it sheds on Murphy's activities, but also because it reveals the full extent of the political commitment of a revolutionary female activist in her own right.
Ethel or 'Molly' Murphy was born in 1890 and brought up in Lancashire. Under her mother's influence she joined the Manchester Committee of the Workmen's Social and Political Union to campaign for votes for women. This involved her organising meetings and distributing leaflets outside factory gates across the city, and being arrested by police in the process. Molly met many of the leading women of the suffragette movement, including the Pankhursts who were also based in Manchester. In 1912, at the age of 22, she became the full-time organiser of the Sheffield branch of the WSPU and, amongst other activities, became involved in putting firecrackers into letter boxes as part of the suffrage campaign. Whilst selling copies of the newspaper 'The Suffragette' in Sheffield, she met Jack Murphy and although declining his offer of marriage, remained good friends with him for a number of years. After moving on to train in Worcester and London to become a fully qualified nurse, Molly worked in the West London Hospital in Hammersmith. When Murphy visited her in December 1920, and related his exploits travelling to Russia and meeting Lenin at the 2nd Comintern Congress, she immediately agreed to a new proposal of marriage and returned with him to Moscow early in 1921.
Molly's autobiography proceeds to document their life and activities during the 1920s and early 1930s, both in Russia whilst Murphy was an executive committee member of the Comintern (including her reflections on the economic and political turmoil within revolutionary Russia, her own meeting with Lenin in the Kremlin, the atmosphere and political figures inside the famous Lux Hotel, and Murphy's role in the expulsion of Trotsky from the Comintern) and in Britain where he was a central committee member of the Communist Party (including Murphy's involvement with the Comintern rep Michael Borodin, and with Tomsky in the formation of the Anglo-Russian Trade Union Committee, his arrest with other Communist leaders prior to the General Strike, and the internal party fight to implement the 'new line'). During most of this period Molly was a full-time housewife, bringing up their son Gordon, born December 1921, although she later became an active member of the Hackney branch of the CP, before leaving the party when Jack was expelled in 1932, the events of which are also well documented in this manuscript. After returning to full-time nursing, Molly responded to an appeal from the Spanish Medical Aid Committee for nurses to serve in Spain, and in January 1937 looked after the wounded on the battlefront around Madrid, returning home exhausted in July 1937. Some of her letters from Spain, with various momentoes and photos, are currently on display at the NMLH exhibition 'Home and Away, Spanish Civil War, 60 Years On'.
This unpublished manuscript should prove to be immensely interesting to a wide range of people concerned with the CPGB, the suffragette movement, and/or the Spanish Civil War. It is hoped that the memoir can be published. If anybody has ideas as to a publisher could they please contact Ralph Darlington on 0161 745 5456.
