Harry Pollitt Biography Quotes 1 Report mistakes

Early Life and Apprenticeship
Harry Pollitt was born in 1890 in Droylsden, Lancashire, into a working-class family whose circumstances were shaped by the heavy industry of the Manchester region. He left school early and entered an apprenticeship as a boilermaker, a craft that required skill as well as stamina. The shipyards and engineering shops he knew as a young man gave him his first political education: long hours, dangerous conditions, and the camaraderie of the yard fostered a sense of solidarity. As he advanced in his trade, he joined the Boilermakers Society and found mentors among older militants, including veterans of earlier labor battles such as Tom Mann, whose blend of industrial unionism and socialism left a lasting imprint on Pollitts thinking.

From Trade Unionism to Communism
During the First World War, Pollitt became associated with the shop stewards movement that arose in engineering and shipbuilding. He opposed wartime profiteering and argued for workers control on the shop floor. The Russian Revolution of 1917 electrified his generation. By 1920, when the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was formed from fragments of the socialist left, Pollitt joined and threw himself into organizational work. He stood out as a practical organizer, tireless fundraiser, and persuasive platform speaker. Around him gathered a circle that would define the CPGB for decades: the theorist and strategist R. Palme Dutt, the Scottish militant Willie Gallacher, the miners leader Arthur Horner, and the journalist-activist J. R. Campbell. Their relationships mixed comradeship with sharp argument, but they shared a commitment to binding the British labor movement to the world revolutionary tide.

Rise in the Communist Party of Great Britain
The 1920s tested the CPGB under a hostile state and skeptical Labour leadership. In 1925, Pollitt and other party leaders were imprisoned under charges related to sedition and incitement, a prosecution designed to hobble communist organizing before the General Strike of 1926. The experience hardened Pollitt without embittering him; he returned to work with renewed determination. In 1929 he became General Secretary of the CPGB, a position he would hold, with an interlude, until the mid-1950s. As general secretary he oversaw recruitment in factories, the expansion of the Daily Worker, and election campaigns in which he himself stood several times for Parliament, though he was never elected. His allies included not only Dutt and Gallacher but also a younger cadre that later rose to leadership, notably John Gollan.

Confronting Fascism and the Spanish Civil War
The 1930s brought the fight against fascism to the forefront. Pollitt helped mobilize opposition to Oswald Mosley and the British Union of Fascists, building alliances across the labor and socialist movement. He was a central voice in Aid Spain campaigns during the Spanish Civil War, raising funds and support for the Republic and for the British volunteers who joined the International Brigades. He worked closely with activists such as Arthur Horner in the miners unions and with cultural figures tied to the movement, while coordinating politically with R. Palme Dutt, whose analyses in Labour Monthly shaped party strategy. Pollitts plainspoken appeals and traveling lecture tours made him one of the most recognizable communist figures in Britain.

War, the Comintern, and Leadership Struggles
The outbreak of the Second World War produced the greatest internal crisis of Pollitts leadership. In 1939 he argued that Britain should fight fascism, a line consistent with his anti-fascist stance. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the subsequent Comintern directive redefined the conflict as an imperialist war, and Pollitts position clashed with that of party strategist R. Palme Dutt. Under pressure, he resigned as general secretary late in 1939 while J. R. Campbell and Dutt steered the CPGB through this difficult period. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, the party reoriented to a peoples war line, and Pollitt returned as general secretary. Throughout the war he pushed for a second front, urged maximum production combined with defense of workers conditions, and debated government policies under Winston Churchill while keeping channels open with trade union leaders.

Postwar Influence and Public Campaigns
The immediate postwar years were a high-water mark for the CPGB. In 1945 two communist MPs, Willie Gallacher and Phil Piratin, entered Parliament, and membership surged. Pollitt sought to place party members in factories and unions, and he criticized the emerging Cold War policies of the Labour government under Clement Attlee, opposing NATO and colonial wars. He was a prolific pamphleteer, an effective radio and platform speaker, and the author of an autobiography, Serving My Time, which presented his journey from the shipyard to the top of the party. Though loyal to the Soviet Union and respectful of figures such as Joseph Stalin and Comintern leader Georgi Dimitrov, he also remained attentive to the realities of British political life, calibrating messages to reach beyond the partys core supporters.

Crises of 1956 and Later Years
The year 1956 brought a profound test: revelations about Stalin and the uprisings in Eastern Europe caused deep disillusionment among many British communists and intellectuals. Pollitt, rooted in the traditions of party discipline and Soviet loyalty, defended the USSRs decisions in language that alienated some supporters. The CPGB lost members and influence. Later that year Pollitt stepped down as general secretary and was succeeded by John Gollan, while Pollitt became party chairman. He continued to speak at rallies, to mentor organizers, and to serve as a unifying elder in a movement entering a more difficult era. His wife, the teacher and activist Marjorie Pollitt, remained a steadfast partner in both the party and the causes they championed.

Ideas, Writings, and Reputation
Pollitt was not primarily a theorist; that role within the CPGB belonged to R. Palme Dutt. Instead, Pollitt excelled as an organizer and public advocate. He believed in disciplined party structures, in linking political agitation with trade union work, and in the moral urgency of anti-fascism and anti-colonialism. His speeches balanced warmth and humor with uncompromising rhetoric. Supporters saw him as the voice of working-class communism in Britain, while critics argued that his loyalty to the Soviet line, especially in moments of crisis, limited the CPGBs ability to develop an independent course. Even so, his influence on generations of shop stewards, miners, engineers, and activists was substantial.

Death and Legacy
Harry Pollitt died in 1960, still a commanding figure in the CPGB despite declining health. His funeral drew comrades from across Britain, including John Gollan, R. Palme Dutt, Willie Gallacher, and many veterans of the causes he had led. He left behind a party reduced in numbers but still anchored in the workplaces where he had first learned politics, and a tradition of anti-fascist, industrially rooted activism that shaped British political culture in the mid-twentieth century. For friends and critics alike, Pollitt embodied a distinctive current in British life: the combination of skilled manual labor, union collectivism, and internationalist conviction that, for a time, gave the communist movement a resonant voice in the United Kingdom.

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