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'RED CLYDESIDE': The Glasgow Digital Library has begun work on a new long-term internet project which will result in 'an all encompassing web-based educational resource on the early twentieth century labour movement in Scotland with the focus on the key events and individuals who contributed to legend of "Red Clydeside"'. Central to the project is the inclusion of digitised images of many important primary source materials from this period. Materials have so far been assembled with the co-operation of Glasgow University Library Special Collections, Caledonian University Library Special Collections and The Mitchell Library's Glasgow Collection. Yet, as project worker Michael Byers explains: 'We are aware that many primary materials and ephemera relating to Red Clydeside are not held in library and archive collections, but have been handed down within families or in some cases held in private collections. What we ask therefore is for individuals or groups who are in possession of relevant material — including booklets, posters, photographs, or election manifestos — to contact the project so that we might obtain digital copies for the web archive.' Visit the site at http://gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/prototype/redclyde/index.html. Contact Michael Byers at: michael.p.byers@strath.ac.uk; telephone [UK] 0141-548-2379.
AMERICAN COMMUNIST HISTORY: Edited by Dan Leab, this new twice-yearly journal from Carfax Publishing declares its aim to become 'the impartial, leading journal for scholarship about the history of the Communist Party in the United States', studying the CPUSA's 'social, political and cultural impact on its members, on its opponents and the public at large.' Additionally, American Communist History will include contributions 'which are transnational or international in scope.' Areas of interest include: 'communist infiltration of the mass media in the 1930s; the education of "Red Diaper babies"; anti-Semitism in the American Communist Party; and the role of splinter groups in the CPUSA's history.' Full details can be found at the Carfax Publishing website at http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/14743892.html. The first issue is due for publication later this year, and sample copies may be requested from the website.
COMMUNIST CHRONICLES: 'The first issue of this new e-journal has appeared presenting unpublished documents from the Comintern archives concerning relations between the Soviet Union and the Norwegian Communist Party (NKP) in the early post-war years and particularly the case of Peder Furubotn. Among the documents presented is one that occupied Stalin on his last working day and bears his pencilled annotations. The same web-site also carries a number of scholarly articles, mostly relating to Peder Furubotn and the crisis in the NKP. This is the first opportunity to read and consult such fully researched writing on Norwegian communism in English. In future the journal will make available further Soviet documents relating to the NKP and also welcomes contributions of serious scholarly work on the history of communism, not necessarily relating to Norway or the other Scandinavian countries.' The website for Communist Chronicles: Studies in the History of Communism can be accessed at: http://communist-chronicles.com.
FINLAND AND THE COMINTERN: Under the title 'Kallis toveri Stalin!': Komintern ja Suomi ('Dear comrade Stalin!': Comintern and Finland) a collection of around 150 documents relating to Finland and the Comintern has been published by Edita Publishers, Helsinki. The book is edited by Natalia Lebedeva, Kimmo Rentola and Tauno Saarela and includes introductory articles by the editors. Further details from: tksaarel@mappi.helsinki.fi.
HEINRICH MATTHÄUS FISCHER: David Saunders from the University of Newcastle 'would be glad to hear from anyone who knows anything about Heinrich Matthäus Fischer, a German-Russian who was expelled from the Russian Empire in 1901 and spent the next twenty years in Newcastle upon Tyne and Whitley Bay. After returning to Russia in 1921, Fischer worked in the Comintern and as a provincial factory manager before dying in Moscow in 1935. In Britain he belonged to the SDF, SDP, BSP, and CPGB, and to the Amalgamated Society of Engineers in his capacity as an engine-fitter at Armstrong's of Elswick and Swan Hunter's of Wallsend. The memoirs he published in Moscow in 1922 and 1935 say a good deal about his years in England but need to be checked against independent sources. In particular, it would be good to know what has happened to the papers of the 'Newcastle Socialist Society', a club that certainly existed from 1895 to the mid-1930s. Fischer seems to have made good use of it, but it is rarely refered to in other sources.' Contact: David Saunders, Department of History, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, d.b.saunders@ncl.ac.uk.
GEORGE RUDE: Wilfrid Prest would like to hear from anybody who can provide any information on branch positions held by George Rude in the CPGB, in particular whether Rude was ever secretary of an East Midlands branch of the party. Please contact: wilfrid.prest@adelaide.edu.au or Wilfrid Prest, Department of History, University of Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia.
DOUGLAS GARMAN: Anybody with information or memories regarding Douglas Garman, Education Organiser of the CPGB 1934-47, is requested to contact Garman's biographer — who is especially interested in any details (however small) of the summer camps at Swanage run by Garman, and also his involvement in one of the Rhondda miners' marches. Please contact: C Connolly, Flat 1, Wick Manor, Wick, Pershore WR10 3NZ; tel [UK] 01386 552308; charles.hudson@ukonline.co.uk.
