John Callaghan and Ben Harker,British Communism: A Documentary History

Reviewed by: Irina Suslina, Voronezh State University, Russia

British historiography has the great merit of producing numerous sourcebooks, which can be essential tools for other researchers in the field. John Callaghan and Ben Harker's collection is the first such book specifically on the history of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB).

Its intended use as a textbook, the authors’ own ideas about CPGB history, the party's own ideology and practice, and its place within British political life and the international communist movement have all helped shape the book's content, structure and selection of documents. These various aspects are considered in an introductory essay, survey pieces in each of its 12 chapters, and more than 150 diverse source documents, mainly from party publications and the archives. They reflect key problems of CPGB history over its 71-year existence, as it responded to socio-economic, political and ideological factors both within Britain and internationally.

The collection is structured both chronologically and thematically. Chapters 1 and 5–8 are devoted to the party's domestic politics. Its basic ideology was derived from Bolshevism, and Chapter 1 contains excerpts from various leading party figures outlining the Leninist conception of imperialism, the nature of a soviet state, and the principles of democratic centralism on which the party was based. Chapter 5 deals mainly with the Communist International's (CI) so-called ‘Third Period’ (1928–1935), with excerpts from party documents and those of the 6th CI congress (1928) which show that first the CI, then the CPGB began to advocate a policy of ‘class against class’, which led the party into ‘ultra-left isolationism’ (107). The Popular Front period (1935–1939) is the subject of Chapter 6, in which, following Hitler's rise to power, an anti-fascist front was created. It embraced the Independent Labour Party (ILP), the Socialist League and left-wing groups within the Labour Party, but the leading role was played by the CPGB, which strengthened its position within the labour movement. This chapter contains excerpts from CI secretary Georgi Dimitrov’s report to the 7th CI congress (1935), as well as articles by R. Palme Dutt and John Strachey. Chapter 7 looks at the CPGB's political line between 1939 and 1947. Up to the German-Soviet Pact of 23 August 1939, the CPGB had supported an anti-Hitler coalition of Britain, France and the USSR, and a struggle on two fronts against the Men of Munich and fascism. After war had broken out and the CI declared it to be imperialist, there were disagreements in the party CC, with the new line being opposed by the General Secretary Harry Pollitt and the Daily Worker editor J. R. Campbell. Once Germany had attacked the USSR, the CI and CPGB considered the war to be a people's war. These changes of line are illustrated with excerpts from party manifestos, Central Committee (CC) declarations, and Pollitt's pamphlets. The discussion and adoption in 1951of the party programme The British Road to Socialism, which argued that socialism could be achieved without ‘revolution’ or ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ (171) is the subject of Chapter 8, while Chapter 9 looks at the crisis of 1956 following Khrushchev's secret speech to the Communist Party of Soviet Union (CPSU) 20th congress and the events in Hungary. This led to a massive loss of members and the emergence of the first ‘new left’ journals like The Reasoner. Chapters 11 and 12 look at the final decades, when divisions within the party deepened. A key moment was the adoption of a new version of the party programme in 1977, which the orthodox Leninist opposition regarded as ‘left social-democratic’ (247). Growing disagreements between the modernizers and their opponents ended in the party's dissolution at the end of 1991.

The authors argue that the CPGB was of interest to the CI because of ‘Britain's imperial position and the strength of its Labour movement’ (4). These questions are examined in Chapters 3 and 10. Indeed, the party retained significant influence in the trade unions, and, through them, the Labour Party, right up to the 1980s. Within the CI, it had responsibility for ‘promoting communist influence throughout the Empire’ (3), in the belief that anti-colonial movements ought to be pro-Soviet.

Despite its small size, Callaghan and Harker argue that the party's influence was enhanced by the role it played in the intellectual life of the British left, and by the appeal of a socialist ideology which looked to a Soviet-style model of state economy. The party attracted writers, artists and academics, particularly during the Popular Front period. Some of the historians who came together in the CP Historians’ Group were influential in British historiography in the 1960s and 1970s (Chapters 5, 6 and 8).

Relations between the CPGB and the USSR are considered in Chapter 2. Support for the USSR was obligatory for all the CI’s affiliates, and the authors point out that the ‘Russian’ line was supported even where it was of ‘dubious value to the national “sections” of the Comintern’ or was ‘actually destructive of local political opportunities’ (4).

It would have been good if the authors had included, for example, some sources on the Maoist groups within the party, or on the reactions of rank-and-file members to the 1956 events, or on the ‘Moscow gold’. There are also a few typos. Overall, though, these do not detract from the high scholarly level of this work. Every historian understands the problems in selecting sources, and can appreciate the great amount of work the compilers have done. This publication will not only serve as a sourcebook for students, but also for professional historians working on the party's history – not least in Russia, where many of the sources in this book are not readily available.