Red Strongholds Between the Wars

MARXISM TODAY, MARCH, 1979 85 Red Strongholds Between the Wars Stuart MacIntyre (The author is currently engaged in writing a hook on Little Moscows1 and is also jointly editing a volume of essays on the history of the Communist Party. Later this year, his book entitled A Proletarian Science: Marxism in Britain, 1917-33 will be published.) Our party has never been a mass movement. The bit higher in intelligence and in outlook than most constitutional link between the unions and the Labour of the other towns." Party has meant that in the last analysis Labour has served as the political expression of the organized Holding up a red flag, Bolton declared that it was working class, albeit with tensions and strains that are "symbolical of a movement" that would destroy disguised by this bald formula. The advantages of capitalism and build in its place a New Jerusalem: this enduring relationship have been bought at a it would "banish poverty, destitution, crime and all price: the pace of advance of the massed ranks have those things that were only by-products of capitalism. generally been dictated by the marching-speed of the They were going to share in that great co-operative slower contingents; and among more independent commonwealth; and he was pleased to be associated bands the casualties have been heavy. with the men and women of Chopwell in that great Indeed the Communist Party is the only alternative work." working-class organisation to have operated con The purpose of this article is to examine three tinuously for the past sixty years. And despite its such Communist strongholds, and suggest why it major role in organising the unemployed, in prepar was that they gained such a reputation. It is not ing and stiffening the General Strike of 1926, and in intended that their historical experience be taken as leading the fight against fascism, it was not until a universal model, for they were dependent on highly 1938 that Party membership reached 15,000. specific conditions. But their story can tell us some Yet between the wars there were also certain thing of value about Communist politics in the localities in which the Communist Party was recog British labour movement. nised as the leading political force. These localities were christened "Little Moscows" by outraged Lenin Terrace and Gagarin Way newspaper editors and the like, and the description Let us start with the most immediate and obvious passed into general usage. "Lawless Mardy. Red features of these Little Moscows. We are struck first Reign of Terror. Thousands of Communists who of all by their declaration of a political identity. Christen their Town 'Little Moscow'," announced Chopwell has its Marx Terrace and Lenin Terrace, the banner headlines of the South Wales News a the Vale of Leven in Scotland has its Engels Street, fortnight after the end of the General Strike. In the and Lumphinnans in Fife its Gagarin Way. These, same week the Newcastle Chronicle drew attention along with the painting of Marx or Lenin onto the to the Durham village of Chopwell: "Under the union banner, the use of the red flag and many Red Banner. Clutching Hand of Communism. other devices draw our attention at once to the Spectre of a Miniature Russia." declaratory significance of a rich symbolism and The description was taken up by the residents of iconography. They certainly do not indicate the these localities. We may take the following speech by absence of political conflict within the locality, for Harry Bolton, a leading Chopwell militant and chair fierce struggles between militants and conservative man of the local district council, which was given residents continued throughout the inter-war years. upon his release from imprisonment in 1926: In Mardy there was a Conservative Club which organised such activities as Empire Day tea parties, "All the warders and many of the inmates in that a League of Young Britons, a Women's Unionist hotel knew that we came from Chopwell, and the Society and so on. Even within the miners' lodge chaplain, yesterday morning when we had to go there was perennial argument between the militants before him, said, 'Well, Bolton, where are you and Labour moderates who sought an accommoda- going?' I said, 'Straight to Chopwell.' He said, 'I understand Chopwell is rather a riotous place.' I said, 'No, Chopwell is a city set on a hill that 1 The author would welcome any assistance readers can cannot be hid—(laughter)—and the only thing that offer in the preparation of this book. Please write care of differentiates it from other towns is that it is a little Marxism Today. 86 MARXISM TODAY, MARCH, 1979 tion with the state, the coal company and the union. The background in the Vale of Leven the influence of the left pre What were the preconditions of such a trans vailed in the early 1920s and again in the 1930s, but formation? Each of the Little Moscows began as a there was an interim period of isolation and defeat working-class locality with a fairly clear geographical, during which the self-styled "moderates" won back industrial and social identity. Some were set apart control of local government. In Chopwell the physically, like Mardy which is situated at the very strength of the militants ebbed so markedly after the top of the little Rhondda valley, separated from the defeats of the 1920s that by 1933 there were but main Rondda and Aberdare valleys by steep moun four members of the Communist Party. tain slopes; or like the Vale of Leven which lies So the language and symbols of the Little Moscow between Loch Lomond and the Clyde estuary, cannot be taken as registering any final and complete detached from the Glasgow conurbation by the great triumph of proletarian objectives, and we must be lava mass of the Kilpatrick hills. Others, like careful not to exaggerate or idealise them as immacu Lumphinnans, are actually contiguous with larger late working-class communities. They operated settlements but still possess an independent identity. primarily as aspirations, serving notice that the An inhabitant of Lumphinnans was more closely terms of political struggle had shifted onto a higher bound into this tight collection of miners' rows plane. The Little Moscows were not just concerned than were the inhabitants of the larger and more with contesting local government and trade union diverse neighbouring burghs of Cowdenbeath and struggles, nor with engaging in national political Lochgelly. The local economy of each of the Little life—though all these activities were conspicuous. Moscows was dominated by one of the old staple Nor is their particular status solely due to the fact industries—usually coal but not always, as in the that their obduracy brought them into unusually case of the Vale of Leven which was a centre of sharp conflict with capital and the state, making textile dyeing. The overwhelming majority of their them into beleaguered centres of resistance—though inhabitants worked locally for the same employer; they were so beleaguered and in every Little Moscow and the fortunes of the shopkeepers, professionals, the police station was enlarged during the inter-war local businesses and tradespeople were closely linked. period; Chopwell was even created a new police The ties of kinship, work, friendship and recreation division. overlayed each other, providing a strong sense of internal cohesion. The closeness of such localities was A Political Culture symbolised by the office of the bellman who was They were Little Moscows because all these aspects employed to walk the streets and summon inhabi of militant working-class politics were linked up in a tants to meetings. rich political culture. Socialist Sunday schools, The First World War marked a turning point in workers' sport, unemployed bands, concerts, outings, the fortunes of many such industrial localities. Prior labour college classes, old folks' evenings, Com to 1914 they were still expanding and their inhibi- munist Burns suppers and even "red funerals" were tants enjoyed fairly full employment and relative all part of an affirmative endeavour to create their prosperity. A brief inflationary boom at the end of own style of living. The absence of such a political the war preceded a sharp contraction of their culture from modern working-class localities has industries in 1921; and the partial recovery later in often been noticed, and diagnosed as a weakness in the 1920s was swept away in the intensified depres the present-day movement. All too often we call on sion of the 1930s. Coal, iron and steel, engineering, the recruit to engage in the more difficult and shipbuilding and the textile industries all experienced tedious tasks without offering them the support and structural crises, all the more profound in export comradeship that comes from a sense of belonging to sectors. The timing and severity of these crises varied a broad movement. But of course this fabric is from industry to industry and from region to region, extremely difficult to create. In the Little Moscows but each of the Little Moscows was hard hit. In the it came into existence both as a continuation and a Vale of Leven unemployment rose rapidly until by transformation of existing social forms, and made use 1922 half the workforce was affected; the proportion of institutions that were already present. Thus the declined to a fifth in 1928, then rose rapidly to a Mardy Institute Hall served as a meeting-place, a highpoint of more than two-thirds in 1930, and centre of recreation and education, and a com more than a quarter were still out of work at the munal kitchen during protracted strikes.

Load more