The Communist Party of Great Britain and the National Question in Wales, 1920-1991

Douglas Jones

• Publisher: University of Wales Press
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781786831330
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Política y relaciones internacionales
• Subtopic: Comunismo, poscomunismo y socialismo

While electorally weak, the Communist Party of Great Britain and its Welsh Committee was a constant feature of twentieth century Welsh politics, in particular through its influence in the trade union movement. Based on original archival research, the present volume offers the first in-depth study of the Communist Party's attitude to devolution in Wales, to Welsh nationhood and Welsh identity, as well as examining the party's relationship with the Labour Party, Plaid Cymru and the labour and nationalist movements in relation to these issues. Placing the party's engagement of these issues within the context of the rapid changes in twentieth century Welsh society, debates on devolution and identity on the British left, the role of nationalism within the communist movement, and the interplay of international and domestic factors, the volume provides new insight into the development of ideas by the political left on devolution and identity in Wales during the twentieth century. It also offers a broad outline of the party's policy in relation to Wales during the twentieth century, and an assessment of the role played by leading figures in the Welsh party in developing its policy on Wales and devolution.

1

CONSPICUOUS BY ITS ABSENCE, 1920–1932

The first twelve years of the CPGB’s existence were characterised by crisis, struggle and disappointment. Despite the optimism expressed at its foundation, the party was soon struggling to make an impact, the adoption of the united front in 1921 and the Bolshevisation of the party organisation in 1922 failing to deliver the mass party that both the party leadership and the Communist International (Comintern) desired. While the party made some progress within the trade union movement during this period, its influence was largely restricted to a small, but significant number of industries, most notably mining and engineering. Similarly, although the party was able to find some allies on the left, attempts to affiliate with the Labour Party came to nothing, relations between the two parties becoming increasingly hostile over the decade with communists proscribed from membership of the Labour Party by 1924. It was not until the General Strike and miners’ lockout that the CPGB was to make significant gains, but the party proved unable to retain these new members as mass unemployment took its toll on the militancy of an increasingly demoralised working class and the party came under concerted attack from both the Labour Party and the Trades Union Congress (TUC). These problems were compounded by the adoption of a new, extreme left-wing line in 1928, that of ‘class against class’, characterised by bitter attacks on both social democrats and the trade unions, with the CPGB’s natural allies on the left of the labour movement particular targets. The new line’s vision of an increasingly militant working class moving towards the CPGB proved a complete misreading of British conditions at the time, its goal of bringing the British working class under the CPGB’s independent leadership only leading the party down a blind alley of self-imposed isolation.

South Wales was to provide the CPGB with one of its strongest bases of support, where the party was able to build on a tradition of militancy dating back to the pre-war Cambrian Combine strikes and the publication of the syndicalist The Miners’ Next Step, as well as on the organic links in the coalfield between the workplace, the lodge and the community which allowed for greater political penetration. The Welsh party proved relatively successful during this early period, becoming increasingly influential within the coalfield’s main political organisation, the South Wales Miners’ Federation (SWMF), through the careful cultivation of alliances with leading left-wingers within the union and the growing influence of leading communist miners such as Arthur Horner. By 1924 the CPGB was a significant force within the SWMF and party members also held important positions in local Labour parties in areas such as the Rhondda and Maesteg, while communist influence in certain mining villages such as Maerdy and Bedlinog attested to the possibilities available to the CPGB in the coalfield. As at the British level it was during the General Strike and the seven-month miners’ lockout that the CPGB, as the only consistent supporter of a militant line during the lockout, was to reach the peak of its powers. For the CPGB in Wales the adoption of class against class proved particularly damaging, pushing the Welsh party to the brink of collapse. A turn away from working within the trade unions and the sectarian nature of the new line saw support for the CPGB dwindle to almost nothing in south Wales, while attacks on the party’s leading industrial militant in the coalfield, Arthur Horner, saw the party almost lose its most valuable asset. Only the abandonment of the new line in 1932 allowed the party to begin the slow road to recovery.

The national question was conspicuous by its absence during this period; the party in south Wales focused on its industrial work. However, a tradition of local autonomy evident among the syndicalists of south Wales was also evident amongst south Wales communists at the party’s foundation, a tradition that found some room for manoeuvre during its early years due to the federal structure initially adopted by the party. From 1922, however, the party became increasingly centralised, as it went through the process of Bolshevisation, thus diminishing the Welsh party’s autonomy. By the Third Period the weakness of the CPGB in Wales was raising serious concerns at the party centre on which the Welsh party leadership was increasingly dependent, to the extent that some of the more experienced party members were accusing them of been the party centre’s ‘yes-men’.

CELTIC COMMUNISM? COMMUNISM AND THE NATIONAL QUESTION IN THE CELTIC NATIONS, 1920–1932

The available evidence shows that the CPGB showed no interest in the Welsh national question between 1920 and 1932. As a means of assessing the CPGB’s lack of interest in the national question in Wales during this period, we must therefore begin by looking at how communists in other Celtic nations viewed the national question. The cases of Ireland and Scotland provide two contrasting examples of situations where Irish communists, on the one hand, lent their active support to the national struggle for independence, and, on the other, in Scotland where the party showed a distinct lack of interest in the national question and resisted the formation of a separate Scottish communist party, despite the efforts of the country’s leading Marxist activist to put independence firmly on the political agenda of the radical left. Both cases offer some tentative answers as to why the CPGB failed to engage with the Welsh national question during this period.

From its establishment in October 1921 the national question was a central focus for the Communist Party of Ireland’s (CPI) activities and policy.1 The CPI’s ultimate aim was the establishment of a Workers’ Republic, although for much of the period in question it viewed the creation of an Irish Republic as a necessary stage in the pursual of that goal. Established just prior to its signing, the Anglo-Irish Treaty was to prove a turning point for the CPI, the party being the first organisation to declare its opposition to the treaty whilst declaring its support for an Irish Republic, arguing that the Free State was promoting the interests of British imperialism.2 Despite some involvement in organising the unemployed and in disputes involving agricultural workers, the CPI’s overriding focus, especially with the outbreak of the Civil War, was on pursuing alliances with republicans, party leader Roddy Connolly believing that the CPI was too weak and ill-equipped to make any inroads into the labour movement.3 Both the CPI and the Comintern viewed the republican movement, especially the IRA, as the group in Irish society with the most revolutionary potential and it was winning this movement for communism where the CPI’s hopes lay. As Emmett O’Connor notes, ‘Whatever influence the tiny CPI might exert on a few soviets was small beer compared with the prize of shaping the republican revolution.’4 Initially, communists had sought to curry favour with the republicans by facilitating arms deals with the Soviet Union. From July 1922 onwards the focus was placed on getting the IRA and the republican movement to adopt a social policy developed in conjunction with the Comintern representative Mikhail Borodin.5 Seeking an alliance with the republicans was to remain the main focus for the CPI until its dissolution in early 1924, indeed the CPI would pursue this policy in contradiction to the Comintern directives in December 1921 to pursue united fronts with reformist socialists. Rejecting forming alliances with the Labour Party due to its support for the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the CPI was ...