University of Huddersfield Repository

CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by University of Huddersfield Repository University of Huddersfield Repository Catterall, Stephen Book review: Class against Class: The Communist Party in Britain between the Wars, Matthew Worley, I. B. Tauris, 2002 Original Citation Catterall, Stephen (2006) Book review: Class against Class: The Communist Party in Britain between the Wars, Matthew Worley, I. B. Tauris, 2002. Manchester Region History Review, 17 (2). pp. 127-129. ISSN 0952-4320 This version is available at http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/8268/ The University Repository is a digital collection of the research output of the University, available on Open Access. Copyright and Moral Rights for the items on this site are retained by the individual author and/or other copyright owners. Users may access full items free of charge; copies of full text items generally can be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided: • The authors, title and full bibliographic details is credited in any copy; • A hyperlink and/or URL is included for the original metadata page; and • The content is not changed in any way. For more information, including our policy and submission procedure, please contact the Repository Team at: [email protected]. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/ MRHR 17ii Maidment volume.qxd 24/07/2006 10:22 Page 127 LONG REVIEWS Matthew Worley Class against Class: The Communist Party in Britain between the Wars London: I. B. Tauris, 2002, x + 352pp., h/b, ISBN 1–86064–747–2 Worley’s contribution is concerned with Worley lucidly develops this theme further the debate over the early development of in arguing that the debate within the the Communist Party of Great Britain CPGB reflected a wider debate within (CPGB) during the late 1920s and early international communism and led to a 1930s in a phase known as communism’s ‘leftward’ lurch which confirmed the split ‘Third Period’ following the Third with the Labour Party. International in 1919. It centres on the Worley’s analysis of party fortunes CPGB’s pursuance of the so-called ‘New reveals the difficulties it faced in having to Line’ introduced during 1927–28, an ambi- grapple with the application of the ‘New tious militant strategy to seize the Line’ throughout the economic and polit- leadership of the British working class ical crises of the late 1920s and early 1930s from both the Labour Party and the with a leadership frequently at logger- Trades Union Congress (TUC) and char- heads with the Communist International, acterised as an agenda of ‘class against while at the same time assuming the class’. Worley’s revisionist analysis seeks to mantle of ‘vanguard’ of the British establish a more nuanced account of the working class and attempting to voice the experience of the CPGB during this period routine concerns of workers. Worley than has hitherto been achieved. amply demonstrates the limits of the Worley presents a sound assessment ‘New Line’ through an analysis of the of the dilemmas faced by the party in links between the CPGB and trade union tackling the reverberations felt by the organisations. He indicates that through experience of the 1924 Labour government these travails the CPGB was deft enough and the aftermath of the 1926 General to learn through experience and following Strike, in positioning itself within the an introspection and re-organisation was British labour movement and in articu- able to stabilise what had become a lating a response to the hostility and parlous state for the party. From this marginalisation it faced from both the Worley offers an erudite and innovative TUC and Labour Party. By placing devel- interpretation of the shift of emphasis opments within a domestic and from attempts to win support from indus- international context Worley demonstrates trial workers to organising the an informed understanding of the uncer- unemployed, particularly in his assessment tain development of the ‘New Line’. His of the tensions which arose between the exposition of the ‘misunderstandings’ that CPGB and the National Unemployed arose over its interpretation between the Workers Movement (NUWM). Communist International and the CPGB in Worley offers a useful appraisal of how the context of the ‘British case’ is shown to CPGB fortunes improved during the early be pivotal in defining this relationship. 1930s through the increased influence it 127 MRHR 17ii Maidment volume.qxd 24/07/2006 10:22 Page 128 was able to exert on the back of economic paralleled by the emergence of a distinc- and political crises and government tive party culture which itself accentuated responses to them, and as a result of the the distance from other labour organisa- ‘realignment’ of 1930 which brought about tions. He successfully argues that this a more ‘pragmatic approach’ to CPGB process rested on the more unique intervention in the industrial sphere. On elements of adherence to communism, the other hand, as Worley observes, the which itself produced a ‘hardening’ of fact that much of this improvement was division from other labour ‘institutions’. achieved through the ability of the Worley’s account of ‘Party Life and NUWM to galvanise support amongst Education’ through its cultural and social unemployed workers once again brought activities is intriguing, particularly in the into sharp focus the realisation that the way the party attempted to adapt its CPGB had failed to make significant message to meet local conditions through inroads into the industrial working class. a variety of cultural and social activities, Through a two-chapter panorama and how these were perceived in industrial dealing with ‘The Party at Work’ Worley regions in Britain. provides a solid examination of the Worley’s analysis is underpinned by response by communists to the challenges extensive historical research from a variety and opportunities created by the economic of primary and secondary sources and political events of the period. This including much new material from constitutes a fascinating account of the Communist Party sources deposited at the interpretation of the ‘New Line’ by the Labour History Archive and Study Centre party rank and file and of activism in the of the People’s History Museum, workplace. Worley confirms that although Manchester, together with the Working the CPGB was influential in certain loca- Class Museum Library, Salford. tions and industries, the hegemony The main shortcoming of the work enjoyed by the Labour Party and its asso- lies in the content and organisation of its ciates combined with organisational subject matter. On the one hand, Worley difficulties to prevent communism produces an examination of the CPGB extending its influence. Moreover, the diffi- in terms of doctrinal and policy matters, culties involved in propagating theoretical while on the other he produces an assess- ideas to pragmatic workers engaged in ment of the sociology of the party and industrial disputes ensured that it failed to the party at work. The question must capitalise on industrial unrest and the be posed as to whether it would not despair felt by workers. This allows Worley have been more fruitful to have concen- to produce one of the most revealing trated on the latter. Worley offers some aspects of his analysis through a brief, but tantalising insights into the work of the absorbing, examination of the regions and party in specific industries and regions, industries in which the CPGB was active. but more on this under-researched area Similarly, Worley’s treatment of would have been welcome. Furthermore, Communist Party culture is another the chronological schema of much of the strong aspect of his study. He shows, in an study tends to accentuate the degree of effective way, how the party’s detachment fragmentation. A wholly thematic investi- from the rest of the labour movement was gation might have been more beneficial. 128 MRHR 17ii Maidment volume.qxd 24/07/2006 10:22 Page 129 The problem of coherence becomes there is the problematic assumption that evident in the disjuncture in handling structural industrial change in Britain was important questions the work proposes, directly influential in determining the such as understanding why the CPGB’s vagaries of Communist Party develop- ideological message proved so difficult and ment. However, to his credit, throughout in explaining the shift of emphasis from his work, Worley never assumes that the industrial workers to the unemployed. growth of the CPGB should have been Another limitation of the work inevitable. In this respect careful analysis concerns Worley’s less than emphatic of historical sources ensures that his revi- substantiation that the inability of the sionist credentials remain firmly intact in CPGB to extend its influence can be producing a worthy addition to our under- accounted for, as much by the increasing standing of the evolution of far left politics consolidation and domination of the in Britain between the wars. Labour Party and allied trade unions as Stephen Catterall the failure of doctrine and policy. Finally, Huddersfield University Stephen James Carver The Life and Works of the Lancashire Novelist William Harrison Ainsworth, 1805–1882. Studies in British Literature, volume 75 Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2003 468pp. ISBN 0–7734–6633–9 Anyone who studies Ainsworth is aware of and thought-provoking conclusions. The the long shadow cast by S. M. Ellis, whose purely historical novels (although Carver two-volume 1911 work William Harrison might argue with that definition) Ainsworth and his Friends, though some- including Windsor Castle, The Tower of thing of a hagiography, is unsurpassed as London and Old St. Paul’s are considered in the standard account of the novelist’s life.

Load more