Growing up in a communist family: A comparative research of the British and Dutch communist movement 1940-1979.

In April 2001 the 'People of a Special Mould' conference on communist biography and prosopography was held in Manchester. Historians of the communist movement from nearly 20 different countries were brought together and almost 60 academic papers were presented. Even though the conference consisted of drawing parallels and suggesting differences, only a few of the papers took an explicitly comparative perspective. According to Stefan Berger, one of the biggest obstacles to be overcome in the writing of comparative history is acquiring the necessary language skills to keep in touch with work being produced by historians in other countries. [ 1 ] Because of this language obstacle British historians have stronger academic links with parts of the former British empire (Anglo-Saxon countries) than with Europe. [ 2 ] This research, however, is based on the study of two of the smaller west European communist parties.

Its origins line in a ground-breaking project about the communist movement in the Netherlands on which I worked in 2002 with Margreet Schrevel of the International Institute of Social History (IISH) in Amsterdam. Margreet's main research interests are the non-political aspects of communism, and the extreme left in the Dutch labour movement. Together we interviewed 21 people who grew up in communist families in cold war Holland. I also studied the Dutch communist party archives held at the IISH to complement the interviews in building up a picture of what it was like to grow up in a communist family. On the basis of our research, Margreet published an article in the journal Holland; Historisch Tijdschrift, [ 3 ] and I used the interviews for my MA dissertation. [ 4 ]

Since no comparative studies of the Dutch and British communist movement have yet been written, I want to carry out the same project in Britain in order to compare the results. By comparing the communist movement and the problem of social isolation in these countries my aim is to gain a better understanding of how different societies dealt with broadly the same problem. Centrally, the project will be a comparison between the post-war communist movement in a country that was not occupied by the Nazis, and the post-war communist movement of a country that was. My intention is to provide a case study that will illuminate the impact of nazi occupation on the history of the communist movement. Kevin Morgan has recently argued that 'it is… the development of more comparative approaches to the CPGB that the most promising lines of future development seem to lie'. [ 5 ] The same might also be said of the Dutch communist party, and this research will offer the opportunity to contribute to the development of such a comparative research agenda.

I should be grateful for any contacts or suggestions in connection with this research. In particular I am looking for people who meet the final criteria:

• Born between 1935-1955. ('Silent Generation' and the 'Protest Generation') My intention is to bring out changes over time (between the two generations).
• Raised in a 'strict' communist family, i.e. excluding families where only one parent was a communist but not excluding families where the parents joined or lapsed while the children were growing up.
• Who grew up in greater London, Liverpool or Manchester.

But of course I should be glad to hear from anyone who has any further suggestions for my project.

Elke Side-Weesjes, University of Sussex

emweesjes@hotmail.com

Notes

1. Editorial,'Red Lives', Socialist History 21, 2002.
2. Stefan Berger & Greg Patmore,'Comparative Labour History in Britain and Australia', Labour History, Vol 88, May, 2005, p9.
3. Margreet Schrevel and Rode Luiers, 'Hollands fabrikaat Communistische gezinnen in de jaren vijftig', Holland; Historisch Tijdschrift, Vol 36, No 4, 2004, pp327-352.
4. Elke Weesjes, 'De communistische beweging in Nederland. Isolement en Samenwerking 1945-1975.' ['The communist movement in Holland. Isolation and cooperation. 1945-1975'], unpublished MA thesis, 2004.
5. Kevin Morgan, 'Labour with Knobs on? The Recent Historiography of the British Communist Party', Mitteilungsblatt des Instituts für soziale Bewegungen, No 27, 2002, p82.