Lives of the First World War: the Pearce CO Register

Further to previous updates and to enquiries among interested people, this is what appears to be happening with the invaluable database of First World War Conscientious Objectors compiled and maintained by Cyril Pearce, now that the former link no longer functions (except by redirecting to the IWM's 'holding' page).

With grateful thanks to correspondents on the 'Remembering the Real WW1' mailing list (to sign up, email remembering-the-real-ww1-subscribe@lists.riseup.net)

1. From Working Class Movement Library, 51 The Crescent, Salford M5 4WX

The Imperial War Museum is transferring all its WW1 digital material generated during the commemoration period onto what it is calling its 'Permanent Digital Memory' (PDM). This will include their version of the Pearce Register.  Cyril Pearce has had an initial conversation with the people who are migrating the IWM material to the PDM and has been assured that the migrated version of the database can be developed to do all that he would like it to do.  These conversations are ongoing and it’s not yet clear how long migration is likely to take. In the meantime there is an up-to-date version of the database available for consultation in the Working Class Movement Library - contact info@wcml.org.uk.

2. From passed-on reply from CP about his register

The  answer... is that it will be back in a new format in June. The IWM has decided that it can't sustain 'Lives of the First World War' as an interactive website and has shut it down. The plan is for all the material gathered on the site, including the Pearce Register, to be 'migrated' to a new Permanent Digital Memory (PDM) which will still be searchable but no longer inter-active. In other words you won't be able to add anything to it as you could with 'Lives'.

There is a new IT company in charge of the process, Knowledge Integration which is based in Sheffield... [The Chief Programmer] now has a copy of the current version of the Pearce Register with 19,780 entries, and will incorporate it in the PDM version from June onwards... [U]nless the plan changes, the current 19,780 will become the 'permanent' version as far as the IWM's PDM is concerned.

[Discussing making the 'new' version more searchable and up-dateable] but, when it's all over, the Pearce Register is only a small part of 'Lives' and the 'architecture' of its existing software may not allow it...

The preferred long-term plan is still to create a free-standing or university-hosted version of the Pearce Register...

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Coincidentally and somewhat ironically, a good new example of the way the database has been helping researchers has just been published on the Aberdeen Protest blog (see our 'Kindred Spirit' links) under the heading World War One conscientious objectors (1914 – 1918) - March 28, 2019 by aberdeenprotest

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LATEST UPDATE FROM EMAIL CONVERSATION

As you have found the IWM have taken down their 'Lives Of The First World War' web pages where the Pearce Register was hosted. The version on line there dated from 2014 and only included 16500 COs. The current version of the Register has almost 20,000 names. Even prior to this year, the IWM weren't able to load a new version of the Register on to their web site.

Over the last couple of years Cyril Pearce has been investigating several possibilities for a long-term 'host' of the Register where it could be available to the public and regularly updated. I and others had discussions with Bristol University in this but were unsuccessful.

Discussions are ongoing. One possible answer seems to be a new, permanent, place on the IWM website. It seems this may be resolved over the next few months.

As someone in the email trail notes the Commemoration, Conflict & Conscience Festival in Bristol on 27/28 April will include a session where local researchers into COs can meet and compare notes. The future of the Register will obviously be an important part of this discussion. Hopefully you and others you know will be able to come to Bristol.

The full programme of the festival is at

https://everydaylivesinwar.herts.ac.uk/ccc/

The programme of talks etc is at

https://everydaylivesinwar.herts.ac.uk/ccc/mshed-panels/

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Two examples of transcriptions from the now closed online verson, 

showing the amount and range of information that could be discovered there.

Another hidden Mutiny? 'COs' and the RAMC in Egypt in 1918-19

For many conscientious objectors (COs) the war was not over in November 1918, any more than it was for vast numbers of men awaiting demobilisation from the armed forces. Valuable work has been done by radical historians on the mutinies and soldiers' strikes of 1919 (as well as on mutinies during the hostilities), while peace activists have not forgotten the 'two-year' men still stuck in prison months after the Armistice. One little-known story which brings the two strands together concerns what was happening in the British forces in Egypt from the summer of 1918 through into 1919, the details of which are yet to be researched.

The EEF (Egyptian Expeditionary Force)

https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/egyptian_expeditionary_force#

The Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) was a British Army formation that conducted campaigns in Sinai, Palestine and Syria during 1916-18, and its battlefield successes played a prominent role in the destruction of the Ottoman Empire in the Levant.  

# In March-April 1919, a large bulk of the EEF was committed to the suppression of the Egyptian Revolution, restoring control through the liberal use of force. The shift from wartime operations to post-war imperial policing proved unpopular with the EEF’s rank and file as it delayed their demobilisation, leading to large-scale unrest in many units in May 1919. Following the rapid demobilisation of most of its British and Anzac units the remnants of the EEF, by then largely an Indian army formation, acted as an army of occupation in the former Ottoman Levant until mid-1921, being replaced by the new civil authorities of the Syrian and Palestinian mandates.

 - James E. Kitchen, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst

The RAMC (Royal Army Medical Corps)
http://www.ramc-ww1.com/ramc_in_war.php

"At the outbreak of the Great War, just 16 years after its formation, there were 9,000 Warrant Officers and Men of the RAMC; this grew to 113,000 by 1918. The British Army had never before fielded a field ambulance in conflict... 
"It has been documented that on the Western front alone, the wounded that returned to the firing line, represented a manpower saved of 1,600,000. It has been acknowledged that this enormous amount of men conserved to fight again was almost enough to turn the scale of war in the British Armies['] favour."
# "The RAMC was not a fighting force but its members saw the full horror of the war... Warrant Officers and men performed their duties unarmed..." 

The Non-Fighting Volunteers 

The 17,426 records on the Pearce Register include the names of many men (and a few women) who were not, strictly speaking, COs in the sense of having been accorded that status, or claimed it, on the grounds, 'F', of having a conscientious objection to participation in the war, within the meaning of the Military Service Acts of 1916 and after. Some were not subject to conscription but supported the resistance of those who were; some were driven by conscience to take a principled stand, with its attendant risks, when they realised what their participation involved; some volunteered early for non-combatant service before anyone was conscripted. At least 11 men, most or all in the latter categories, found themselves court-martialled and sentenced to hard labour in Egypt in 1918.

These records came to attention as a result of a keyword search for 'Walthamstow', not the home area in these cases, as it turned out, but the place where volunteers enlisted in the 3rd East Anglian Field Ambulance (RAMC). A striking similarity of phrasing became noticeable, on the lines of "CM (Court Martial) for refusing to take up a weapon" in the RAMC, in Egypt, in June-July 1918. Further searching using 'Gabbari' (prison) and 'Kantara' (base) found those similar details in more cases. 

Names and Extracts edited from the records 

John Byrne 12406 (Soldier Number*)  RAMC 'a soldier of the Regular Forces', in Egypt, Kantara 
30.7.18 refused to take up a rifle; 
FGCM (Field General Court Martial) 5.8.18 - 2yrs. HL (with hard labour)
Gabbari MP (Military Prison)
Reference to FGCM (Court Martial) in Harold Ingram NA/WO363 - on line; 

* Also 12480, Royal Irish. Medal card (TNA - http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/)

Harold Edward Humphreys  7337876* 14 Sackville Gdns. The Drive, Ilford  
(At) Walthamstow, joined up 12.5.15 3rd East Anglian Field Ambulance
RAMC Kantara, Egypt 
CM Egypt 25.7.18 for refusing to take up a weapon 
- 5yrs.Penal Servitude, commuted.to 2yrs. 
Gabbari Military Prison, Egypt, 25.7.18 to 28.10.18 
Sentence suspended on authority of letter from GHQ dated 24.10.18
After release, compulsory transfer to 1/5 Bn. Essex Regiment. 
Demob.5.10.19 Re-enlisted in RAMC 24.6.21   
*(Also nos. 2408 in 1915; 253273 in 1919; 7337876 in 1921.) 

A panoramic view of Kantara base, Egypt

Harold Ingram 253274 (1919) Grimsby  Watchmaker  b.1895  United Methodist 
RAMC enlisted at Grimsby 23.11.14, Notts and Derby Mounted Brigade Field Ambulance (RAMC)
Posted to EEF (Egypt) Kantara 30.7.18 refused to take up a rifle 
FGCM 5.8.18 - 2yrs.HL 
Gabbari MP - unexpired portion of sentence suspended 4.9.19  
WO363 image online (on right).
Demob. 8.9.19     Also 204 in 1914 and 416099 on Smith file.
(His brother Edward William Ingram also enlisted in the RAMC. He was returned to it as a CO after an earlier 'transfer', but was only in Egypt for 5-6 weeks in early 1919).

E (B) Smith  68725  RAMC - 'a soldier in the regular forces' 
90th Battalion Field Artillery RAMC
Kantara 30.7.18 refused to take up a rifle; FGCM 5.8.18 - 2yrs.HL 
Gabbari MP (Military Prison); 
Reference to FGCM (Court Martial) in Harold Ingram NA/WO363 as above 

(Note: Ingram and Smith 'refused' on the same day and were court-martialled together. Recurring dates will be observed elsewhere in the list).

Archibald George Mori  63557/253157 49 St.Mary's Rd. Ilford  Baptist  Bookbinder

Attested* 8.5.15, Walthamstow, 3rd East Anglian Field Ambulance, RAMC, Egypt EEF 

Kantara CM for refusing to take up arms, 25.7.18 
- 5yrs.Penal Servitude com. to 2yrs

Citadel Military Prison, Egypt; transferred to Maidstone CP (Civil Prison).

Transferred to Essex Regiment 6.7.18.  Discharged and released 9.7.19 
* 'Attested' means he indicated willingness to join the forces if called up, although he may well have intended this to be conditional..The vast majority of COs were 'Not attested'.

Norman Harris Stafford  69915 NCF (No-Conscription Fellowship)  

Grocer's assistant  Hyde, Cheshire  Corporal RAMC, 1/7 R.Welsh Fusiliers
RAMC (EEF) Egypt

CM Kantara 24.7.18 for refusing to take up a rifle - 5yrs.Penal Servitude, com. to 2yrs.

Gabbari Military Prison, Cairo, serving 1st sentence 9.5.19

Died in Egypt after arrest but not in prison; buried in Port Said Memorial Cemetery
93103 in 1919. Medal.
(His brother Wilfrid Malins Stafford was a CO, acknowledged to be 'genuine', who served time in prison and work camps.)

Joseph William Tanter, 477202 West Ham  Milkman 

Volunteered 23.9.14, Walthamstow, 3(R) East Anglian Field Ambulance
RAMC Egypt (EEF) CM 25.7.18 for refusing to take up a weapon 
- 5yrs.Penal Servitude, com. to 2yrs. 
Gabbari Military Prison 26.8.18 to 8.2.19  Sentence suspended
Discharged from prison. Illness, dysentery, to Gabbari prison hospital 7.12.18 to 8.1.19
Sentence suspended, transferred to Essex Regiment. 
To guard duty at Heliopolis POW camp and waived his right to an early Demob. 
Discharged 21.4.20.  (Also nos. 2204, 253276). Medal.

  

Douglas Hasler Thorn  424621 Civil service clerk  Clapham  
Volunteered 12.5.15 Chelsea Barracks
RAMC Egypt (EEF) CM 24.7.18 for refusing to take up a weapon 
- 5yrs.Penal Servitude, com. to 2yrs
Gabbari Military Prison, discharged 18.1.19 to London Regiment.
Transfer to London Regiment, working as an Education Instructor. 
Illness, contracted malaria, May 1919; Invalided to UK from Alexandria 4.1.20
Demob.5.3.20 - Disability (aggravated) due to his army service.
 (Middle name may be transcribed as 'Haster' on some records.)  

Frederick Thomas Tiller 0394  Okehampton  RAMC Egypt (EEF) 

Transferred to 1/4 Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, 

CM 6.6.18 for refusing to take up a weapon - 1yr.HL (With hard labour)

Gabbari MP, Alexandria, died there 30.3.19

Buried at Alexandria (Hadra) War Memorial Cemetery (image below).  

Q in H  (Question in Parliament) 14.5.19   Grave & Medal. Also nos, 66665, 67189.
(The case being raised in Parlaiment may have had a bearing on his shorter sentence)

The alleged offences of the remaining two are not specified, but the date, location and outcome of their court martial strongly suggest that they fit the same pattern.

Ernest Norman Johnson  Soiuthport  RAMC with EEF, Egypt

Transferred to 1/6 R. Welsh Fusiliers, CM (Court Martial) 6.6.18 - 2yrs.HL

Gabbari MP (Military Prison), Alexandria, died there 26.10.18
Buried at Alexandria (Hadra) War Memorial Cemetery  
QinH  14-5-19 (see below)

GBM/CWGC/ROLLOFHONOUR/000502439

Charles W Kapeller  2211/6/14566 Bow  b.1896  'India rubber man'  
RAMC with EEF in Egypt, transferred to 2/19 London
CM (Court Martial) 6.6.18 - 2yrs.HL 
Gabbari MP (Military Prison), Alexandria 
Q in H 6.11.18  

Questions in the House 

Among the many questions posed by concerned MPs about the treatment of opponents of the war were the following, about three of the above.

6-11-18  Oral Answers to Questions. Food Supplies: Gabbari Military Prison, Egypt
HC Deb 06 November 1918 vol 110 cc2097-8

30. Mr. KING 

asked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether he is aware that Private C. W. Kapeller, No. 477205, Royal Army Medical Corps, now in Gabbari prison, Alexandria, Egypt, enlisted in September, 1914, as a non-combatant, went 2098through the Gallipoli campaign as a stretcher bearer, later was fourteen months a stretcher bearer in Egypt, and did duty at the 65th casualty clearing station in Palestine; is he aware that on 23rd February, 1918, this man was sent to Cairo against his will for Infantry training, and was there threatened with trial and the death penalty for mutiny; why was the man after two years and nine months in the firing line court-martialled and imprisoned; whether he is aware that a promise had been made to his parent that Private Kapeller should be sent home; and why has that promise not been carried out?

§Mr. MACPHERSON 

I am making inquiry into this case, and I will write to my hon. Friend as soon as possible.

------------------------------------

14-5-19  Oral Answers to Questions: Gabbari Prison, Alexandria. 
HC Deb 14 May 1919 vol 115 c15771577

§30. Colonel WEDGWOOD 

asked the Secretary of State for War whether he will have investigations made into the treatment in Gabbari Prison, Alexandria, of men who had volunteered for the Royal Army Medical Corps and refused transference to combatant units; whether he will give the dates of the death of Private N. Johnson and Private Tiller in this prison; what was the cause of their death; whether they were treated according to the regulations of the prison; and whether he will state the number of men who have died in this prison since January, 1917? 

Captain GUEST 

This matter is being inquired into, and I will communicate with my hon. and gallant Friend as soon as I know the result. 

Questions that Remain 

It seems likely from the recurrent dates and phrasing that some kind of collective discussion and decision-taking had taken place to coordinate refusal of forced transfers from non-combatant to fighting units, so that this episode (or series of events) forms part of the recovered history of resistance to militarism during the war. It would be interesting to know whether these men's defiance was sparked off by one or two individuals, with others joining in solidarity, or incited by the more committed and politically active, whether they were planned or ad hoc and so on - too late to  find out from the participants, unless any have left family stories or other testimony. 

It would also be interesting to know more about the motivation for the sudden overriding of the terms of their enlistment, after years of service. Perhaps it had something to do with the volatile situation in Egypt, which was to erupt in 1919? By then most of the refusers were moving on, one way or another, apart from three who would never get their lives back in any form.

Frederick Tiller remembered.- "At rest".

The inscription is headed by the name of his mother, Elizabeth Tiller, who died in 1925.

It looks as though she had asked to be buried with her son, and thus ensured that he would have a memorial.

.

Press Release: Conscientious Objectors Walk in Haringey

NEW!

A walk to remember the men who said ‘no’ to fighting in the First World War 

 A walk from Finsbury Park to the Salisbury Hotel in Green Lanes, N4, tells the hidden stories of some of Haringey’s conscientious objectors who said no to war. The walk takes a route past houses where conscientious objectors lived, marks meeting places, and points out organisations actively opposed to war between 1914 and 1918.

All this is set out in a new booklet from Heritage Lottery funded project ‘Conscientious Objection Remembered’ which includes a map of the walk 

route as well as locations in Haringey which link to other aspects of Haringey’s First World War history.

Along the way you can find the Stroud Green house where the five Walker brothers lived, all at one time or another arrested, courtmartialled or given prison sentences, visit the hall where Sylvia Pankhurst spoke against conscription in February 1916 and reach the end of the walk at the Salisbury Hotel where protest meetings were held.

The walk covers about two miles in all, and transport links are close by.

The booklet, which is free, is available from local libraries in Haringey, from Hornsey 

Historical Society and is downloadable from the project website.

Visit the website for news of guided walks led by Haringey First World War Peace Forum in the autumn.

To find out more about Haringey’s COs and the project go to the Conscientious Objection Remembered website at: www.conscientiousobjectionremembered.wordpress.com email:hfwwpf@yahoo.com

 (Lottery funded)

For more on this, see History Workshop page: 

Conscientious Objection Remembered

More about the First World War, in Haringey

The Lost Files

Al Johnson

Artist’s Talk: Monday 21 May 2018, 12.15pm

Bruce Castle Museum, Lordship Lane, N17 8NU

Al Johnson will talk about creating her new sculpture, 

‘The Lost Files’, currently exhibited at Bruce Castle Museum.

The sculpture explores the experience of the conscientious objectors: individuals who could not participate in World War One for moral, religious or political reasons. ‘The Lost Files’ focuses on the 350 conscientious objectors and their families 

who lived in Haringey, and the exhibition is part of 

Conscientious Objection Remembered, 

a series of events developed by the Haringey First World War Peace Forum.

Exhibition Opening times: 

Saturday 5 May to

Sunday 23 September 2018

Wednesday to Sunday 1 – 5pm

Al Johnson website: www.aljohnsonsculptor.com

Haringey First World War Peace Forum Email: hfwwpf@yahoo.com 

websites: www.hfwwpf.wordpress.com   www.conscientiousobjectionremembered.wordpress.com

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And in Salford:

WCML - Working Class Movement Library

51 The Crescent,

Salford, M5 4WX

Invisible Histories talks

Our next free talk is on Wednesday 6 June at 2pm when David Swift will speak on The war and the workers: the labour movement and the home front during WW1.
"The First World War brought with it many trials for the working men and women of Great Britain: from food prices to rent increases, disability and bereavement, the war exacerbated existing difficulties and created fresh challenges. Nonetheless the labour movement, under the auspices of the Workers' National Committee, came together to try and protect the position of the working class, and fought to ensure that the country which emerged in 1918 was different from that of 1914. This talk will reveal how the Left put sectionalism aside and was able, against the odds, to win important victories for the workers of Britain."

Further talks in the series are:

20 June Film - Socialists, suffragists, pacifists and cyclists!: the last Clarion House
4 July Invisible Histories digitisation project - Seeing the hidden, hearing the unheard

Full details at www.wcml.org.uk/events.

Remembering War-Resisters in Scotland

Brief Book Review

Objectors & Resisters: Opposition to Conscription and War in Scotland 1914-18, by Robert Duncan (Glasgow: Common Print/Common Weal, March 2015)

 

Dedicated "To all peace activists, whatever your political views". 

According to the London Rebel History Calendar 2016, on 24 November 1918 a mass meeting of the North London Herald League demanded the release of jailed socialist John MacLean. His name and record of resolute opposition to the First World War will be familiar, up to a point, to many radical historians, as will several other aspects of the story told in Robert Duncan’s excellent book: the Glasgow rent strike, industrial unrest, the launch of the Women’s Peace Crusade.  It breaks new ground, however, in collating and adding to the information available on these and other topics, and deserves to be widely read.

The longest chapters are 4 and 5, dealing with conscientious objectors (COs), arguably the group whose anti-war stance cost them the most. From the Acknowledgements, the author’s work on the book was completed in January 2015, so that he would probably not have had access to the Pearce Register online. Nor does he refer to many of the secondary sources published or re-issued and updated in or shortly after 2014, which in any case tend to be rather short on information about Scotland. This means that he relies extensively on his own original research in newspapers and periodicals and often on the accounts of his protagonists themselves, providing resounding statements of principle and heartening examples of resistance.

Obtainable from the publishers - advisable to allow 2-3 weeks for delivery on recent experience.

 "In the case of hunger strikers, we could always feed them artificially in the last resort, but in the case of the work striker we can do nothing..." 

 - Excerpt from confidential Scottish Police Commissioner's report on prominent CO James Maxton in Perth prison, June 1917, on p.84 of the book.

A Salford WW1 conscientious objector at WCML

From WCML ebulletin 

Working Class Movement Library

51 The Crescent,

Salford, M5 4WX

United Kingdom

Join a Salford WW1 conscientious objector as he tells his story

We are so looking forward to the 30-minute free performances of our Living History play about WW1 conscientious objector James Hudson, commissioned as part of our Heritage Lottery Fund WW1 project.

Please come and join us at one of our public performances of No Power on Earth, a monologue telling the story of an ordinary Salford school teacher at the start of the First World War who finds himself at odds with the popular mood:

Sunday 21 February at 2pm at Salford Museum and Art Gallery

Wednesday 2 March at 1pm here at the Library

Saturday 5 March at 12.30pm, again here at the Library.

The performances accompany the Library's current exhibition To End All Wars.

[And a new book from Ali Ronan]

Come along to the Library a bit earlier on Wednesday 2 March if you can and join the North West Labour History Society at 12.15pm for the launch of Alison Ronan's book Unpopular resistance: the rebel networks of men and women in opposition to the first world war in Manchester and Salford 1914-1918.  And then stay on to hear our free talk at 2pm about rapper dance! - see below.

And if you're coming on Saturday 5 March bring your butties, because once you've watched the play you can stay on for our International Women's Day talk which is at 2pm that day...  See details below.

Rapper dance - its creation and what it meant to working communities

On Wednesday 2 March at 2pm our free Invisible Histories talks series starts up again with a talk by Tom Besford.

Rapper sword dancing is a form of traditional dancing from the North East of England. The dance was most often performed around the pubs and bars of mining towns and at competitions in the towns and cities throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

This talk will be given in the context of the Dancing England Rapper Tournament (DERT) which is coming to Manchester on Saturday 12 March.

DERT is based on local competitions held in the rapper heartland of North East England in the early twentieth century. Since its modern inception in the mid-1990s, DERT has become an international stage for rapper dancing. Comprising a number of different classes - youth, open, championship, premier and traditional dance - DERT 2016 will see hundreds of rapper dancers take to the venues of Manchester to show off their skills. For more information go to www.dert2016.co.uk.

The other talks in the series are as follows (click on the links for full details):

16 March 2pm Chloe Mason Justice for Alice Wheeldon!

30 March 2pm Cyril Pearce Communities of resistance: patterns of dissent in Britain during the First World War

13 April 2pm Robin Stocks Manchester volunteers in the Easter Rising

27 April 2pm Richard Milward – Luddites’ Nightmares

  

Remembering Mary Barbour - International Women's Day event

On Saturday 5 March at 2pm the Library's IWD event welcomes Catriona Burness who will give a talk, 'Remembering Mary Barbour - social reformer, rent strike leader, women's peace crusader and pioneering woman councillor'.

Mary Barbour worked tirelessly to change laws to help families in poverty.  Her capacity to mobilise working class families, especially women, to challenge the power of landlords and the state during the 1915 Govan rent strike led to the passing of one of Europe’s first rent restriction acts.  She also fought for free school milk, children’s playgrounds, municipal wash-houses, and an end to slum housing.

The Mary Barbour statue group in Govan, Glasgow, June 2018.
(A rare example of statuary commemorating collective action as well as an individual).

We will also hear from Karen Bosson, North West Regional Women’s Secretary of the Communication Workers' Union and member of the TUC NW Women's Committee, on current women trade unionists' campaigns in our region.

Admission free; light refreshments afterwards.

This event is part of Wonder Women, Manchester’s annual feminist festival. From 3-13 March 2016, from Street Art a_ction to a symposium on women in the First World War, there is a vast range of talks, film, art, music, walking tours, gallery takeovers, comedy and debate. Visit creativetourist.com/wonderwomen - and browse the full events listings at

http://www.creativetourist.com/articles/festivals-and-events/manchester/wonder-women-2016-full-events-listings/

Jarama remembered

The International Brigade Memorial Trust is holding its annual commemoration of the Battle of Jarama which took place in February 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. The event takes place at Manchester Town Hall on Sunday 14 February from 11.30am to 1pm.  The involvement of International Brigaders from the Greater Manchester area in the battle will be commemorated through readings and song.  All welcome.

 Call for papers: British Communism and Commitment day school, 9 June

Bringing together academics from a wide range of disciplines and former party activists, this day school analyses the complexities of commitment in the British Communist Party over its 70-year history (1920-1991). Papers (20 minutes) might cover, but aren’t restricted to:

The motivations and trajectories of party ‘hardliners’ who dutifully observed party discipline and the party line, regardless of misgivings;

Communism as a way of life;

Expulsion and the fear of it;

Autobiographies written by former Communists;

Figures who struggled to reconcile vocational, professional or artistic commitments with their Communism;

‘Loyal dissidents’ who remained fundamentally committed to the party while often challenging and seeking to enlarge its assumptions, procedures and priorities;

Those who challenged what they saw as dominant party perceptions that ‘race’, gender and sexuality were secondary to class as sites of oppression;

Activists who considered their ultimate commitment as being to Communist principles from which they believed the party to have deviated, and who challenged the party on those grounds;

Those who transferred their abiding Marxist commitments to different currents or organisations - Trotskyist, New Left, Maoist - and the complex relations with the CPGB that followed.

Part of the AHRC-funded project ‘Wars of Position: Communism and Civil Society’, the day school will be held in the Labour History Archive in the People’s History Museum, Manchester, and will include a tour of the CPGB archive holdings. It will mark the opening to researchers of a new tranche of significant CP archive material relating primarily to the 1950-91 period (the papers of John Attfield, Monty Johnstone and Paul Olive). The event will conclude with a round-table discussion about Communism, commitment and the archive chaired by Professor Kevin Morgan and featuring Francis King (historian, former CP activist and archivist, editor of Socialist History), and John Attfield (historian and former secretary of the Communist Party History Group).

Abstracts of no more than 250 words should be e-mailed to Ben Harker (ben.harker@manchester.ac.uk) by 1 April 2016.

Our mailing address is:

Working Class Movement Library

51 The Crescent,

Salford, M5 4WX

United Kingdom